Hotep,
In this modern era, where the media plays a critical role in
the public perception of a capital murder defendant, and jurors are rarely
sequestered, the race of a victim, will either inspire racist tactics by cops
and prosecutors – to win a conviction.
Or, stage a fraudulent gesture of leniency toward a defendant whose life
hangs in the balance of Criminal (In) Justice.
Jury discrimination; abuse of discretion; prosecutorial
misconduct; just a few examples of legal terminology that define the scales of
justice a weapon of mass destruction. If
the victim is of Caucasian descent, an African-American defendant will more
than likely be portrayed as some type of menacing gorilla; a hulking monster
that lives to kill.
In one particular North Carolina case, these words were
printed in a go-to media publication, during the trial of an African-American
male: “WTF U NEED A TRIAL FOR? HANG THAT MONKEY.” “I say kill him right
now. I will do it myself.” “Why even
have a trial and waste my hard earned tax dollars on this scumbag? He should
have been hung before sundown on the day of his arrest.”
This brand of furor should never reach the eyes and ears of
jurors as they exercise their civic duties.
However, most trial judges in North Carolina choose to trust that a
human being can shut down the senses of sight and sound at the mere mention or
visualization of the media’s interpretation of the current capital murder trial
he/she may be attending as a juror.
Darryl Hunt was released from prison on December 24,
2003. From December 2007 – May 2008, the
releases of Jonathan Hoffman, Glen Chapman, and Levon “Bo” Jones followed. Three of the four served time on North
Carolina’s death row. Combined, the four
African-American males served 60 years for crimes they did not commit. Each of them had faced all – or nearly all –
white juries. This is far from criminal
justice reform.
W2TM is a platform that enhances the compassion and
rationale of human species left to believe justice is blind, and evenly served
from the proverbial balanced scales dangling from the fingers of “Lady Justice.”
In the span of six years and four months, W2TM has been the manifestation of
the counter-culture behavior that sweeps away the judicial trickery-providing
an unencumbered view of the ever-growing rates off mass incarceration, as well
as the unsettling numbers of lives being eradicated by the state’s practices of
death-dealing.
This W2TM movement will continue to bring clarity when
racial injustice is accepted as the norm, and cops are supported by the law
when they choose to upgrade their responsibility to “protect and serve”
civilians, to that of judge, jury, and executioner, for those they deem
unworthy of their protection.
It seems to me, viewing life through a civilized eye entails
seeing the humanity in the people we trust to be impartial. A traffic stop or capital murder trial can
become uncivilized in the blink of an eye.
We can only begin to see the real when the dust clears. W2TM remains dust free.
Holla if ya hear me,
MannofStat
Copyright © 2017 by Leroy Elwood Mann
