AUGUST 19 - 25, 1985 THE CITIZEN
v
5
Continued from p e 3
- life impri onment for
400 robbery in which no one
wa injured. I know what it
feel like, Black man to
be judged harshly by an all
white jury, what it' like to be
convicted n th testimony of a
codefendant who get off ith a
upended sentence nd ho it is
running into ro dblock after
ro dblock in trying to appeal
ithout legal coun 1. All f
the thin h ppen to most of
the men' on de th row but
uch is not the ca with a on.
awn' c em moch
impl r but in many w y it
i more complicated due to the
political climate now existing in
th tate and the nation. The
he rtle n of criminal ju lice
in Virginia i no mu h ent
wined ith the political re-
percu ion from the rna
e t year of . de th
from ecklen-
ere m one of awn
mental cap a ity might nee h ve
been pared the chair by the
o ernor - the I posit that
an in ane man should not be
e ecuted for he cannot com-
prehend th inality of hi
judgment - a on didn't stand
chance with Robb till suffer
ing from the ecklenburg black
eye. And while ason might
� won a reprieve from the
Suprem Court under a recent
deci ion th t y that a defen
dant with psychological dis
order has the right to the
i tance of an independent
psychiatri t in preparing his
defen ,unfortunately he plead
ed guilty thereby foregoing
hi right to ppe 1.
I have learned great deal
ab ut death ca s and the hort
coming of the Virginia criminal
justice ystem from arie a
South Carolina native nd a
former board member of
Amne ty International who has
counseled more than 200 death
ro prisoner.
She claims that the lack of
due proce rights ccorded
indigent defendants in Virginia
is worse than any other state
in the nation, and she has a
recent study by the Southern
Po rty La Center to back
her up. 'Virginia does not
even recognize the right to
ppeal," she ha told me, "and
I UNIZATION CLINICS
ARE OFFERED t.Y THE
HEALTH DEPARTMENT
HERE IS THE
SCHEDULE
B nton Harbor Office
761 Pip stone
Every Friday 9:00 11 :30 a.m.
NILES OFFICE
1205 orth Front Str et
Ev ry Thursday 9-11 :30 a.m.
Buffalo City Hall
224 West Buffalo
3rd Wedn sday of month
9:00-11 :30 a.m.
•
1"9
"-8 year old
I Diana Ross sells tab home
I
is the only state other than
i issippi th t will not even
appoint coun el f r indigent
men condemned to die to
pur ue their appeal .
I am writing of arie no
I uppo out of me en e
of ympathy, for he is valiant
ly fighting a 10 ing battle to
save the live of the remaining
28 men on Virginia death
row and I know this late t
10 ha surely wonded her
deeply. She will hold the
only memori rvice for a n
after hi family 'ju t stick
him in the ground." She has
lost funding for her coalition
and may soon have to leave
Virginia unable to upport her
l l-year-old son here.
arie became involved with
pri oners' rights after her
mother-inlaw was murdered by
an e aped convict, and he
founded the n tionwide Victims'
F rnilies for Reconciliation.
Kno ing her and of her work
has helped me to foster a new
attitude of forgivenes where
once there was but a ubdued
anger. Unfortunately however,
I know just how badly the
le al card are stacked gain t
u , and the future does not look
bright at all.
arie feels that the u of the
death penalty, and the judicial
system in general, is heavily
prejudiced against Black and
indigent defendents. She and
attorney Snook have attacked .
the i ue of racial bias head-on
in the case of Willie Turner, who
came within five hours of
electrocution here on May 2.
In a petition now before the
Suprem Court they give
evidence of racism in Virginia,
and rt that juror should
be questioned about racial pre
judice whenever the victim is
white and the defendant is
Black. The decision may be
one of the most important to
come out of the court s next
session.
The perception of the entire
criminal justice system as being
racially unjust has a great deal
to do with ho the majority
Black population here feels
about the death penalty, as
well as our own incarceration.
Fifty-nine percent of us are
Black in a state where Black
people constitute but 20 percent
of the population. And, since
most of the state's longterm
offenders are imprisoned here..
most of us have life sentences
or more than 40 years. The
hopelessne engendered by such
ntencing makes the proces
of resocialization very difficult,
and the anger and resentment
shown by such system is
even more difficult to deal with.
I am affected by a deep
sorrow hen I think of just
ho little is being said abou t the
issue of racial injustice in Ameri
ca's judicial system, how no one
ems to que tion just why
half of the record half-million
pri on and jail population i
Black and how no one seems to
care about the deplorable con
ditions that exist in the e
institutions. I am further
addened when lee· Blac
leaders such Je Jack n
flying around trying to free
• ho t ges and pri oner in the
iddle East nd uba when
we have m ny brothers
locked up right here hundreds
who will dead - zapped ga ed
or lethally injected - bef re
the nati n realizes that thi
vorte of evil i pining
ur collective oul, dehumaniz-
ing keeper and ept, the
executed nd executioner alike.
It i nearly dawn now, and
I wonder if there are any other
men still up unable to Jeep.
One man a Vietnam combat
veteran told me that he can
mell the death after each
electrocution, and that he be
lieve the pirits of lain m n
inhabit the dwelling wherein
they meet their death. I
upp e he may be up thin -
ing of the 240 ouls loc ed
forever in this 80-year-old build
ing.
As the surt begins to ri
a olitary bird begin chirping
outside its lonely slow one
note complaint coming in clear
through the open windows with
the cool morning air. I cut out
the light in my cell and watch
the natural light grow, an
oran e glow eeping through the
bars and grimy plexiglas play
ing upon the riveted boiler
plate steel wall of my bode,
mixing with and then over
coming and extinguishing the
harsh glare of the street lamp
Virginia Power erected for Lin-
ood Briley' execution last
fall.
Life imprisonment, it seems
to me, is a sort of death en
tence where one is simply
buried alive in place like the
hope in resurrection through
the distant dream of parole.
But living above the electric
chair has a way of giving new
meaning to cliches about the
joy of beholding the natural
beauty of a un rising.
If I am able to draw any
meaning from the seemingly
inconsequential death of that
childman last night, it would
have to be that until we stop
determining that some human
beings are not worthy of life
itself, we will continue to
warehouse those we think un
worthy of really living.
Evans Hopkins is serving a
life term for armed robbery
in the Virginia State Peniten
tiary in Richmond.
dire
hit
'. heers.'
Ro hadli ted her 6 33-
quare-foot hou for 2.5
USA for Africa wi
LOS
GELES
With a Security Pacific Ban
b lance t or near the 30
million mark, the USA for
frica Foundation will di bur
17 million to eight drought-
t publi
1.75 mil
fiv bed-
known in the
as the 'h u
dow."
sbursa $17 mil
n. Th
nation thi pia,
Sudan auritania, li, had,
i er, oz mbique and Bur ina
Fa 0 formerly Upper V It
Herbie Ha�ock si er in f
DALLAS S) - The Dallas
County edical xaminer has
identified the sister f jazz
musician Herbie Han ock a a
victim of the fatal Delta Air
lines Flight 191 that cr hed
and exploded into flame ju t
LA. d· · nvests
LOS GELES S) - By
a 14-0 vote, the Los An eles
City Council this week ordered
the withdrawal of city de
posits from local banks doing
busines in South Africa and
recommended that the city'
aash
runway 17. Je n
arole Hanc . 4 I, 0 Half
n Bay, wa c nfirmed by a
croner s offi p ke per n
a one f the pe pie killed
when the L-I011 went d n
Augu t 2nd.
4 billion in pen i n fund
be purged ver a five-year
term f sto s in mpanie
doing bu ine s or having n-
nections to the ra i t re im
in S uth Africa.
Forbes B
ham dead at 62
GEORGETOW GUYA A
- (KNS) - Forbes Burnham,
62-year-old President of this
South American nation of 00,
000 died August 6 of report
ed heart failure during throat
surgery. Pre ident Burnham
had headed Guyana ince it
gained full independence in
1966.
President Burnham, who
sharply criticized the invasion
of Grenada by U.S. - led forces
in October 1983, and suggest
ed that Guyana might be the
next country to be invaded
by the Reagan Administration,
was first elected prime mini ter
of British Guiana in 1964.
He won re-election in 1 6 ,
1973 and 1978. orld atten
ti n wa drawn to the tiny
nation when m re than 00
members f Rev. Jim J ne '
P ple Temple cult died f
Cyanide poi ning there in
]978.
After having the con tituti n
chan ed to make Guyana a
• cooperativ republic,' he wa
elected executive pre ident.
Shortly after Pre ident 8urn
h m '5 death, his Cabin t
lected Prime Minister De
mond H yte, 56, as his sue-
ce
r.
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d Bealt
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cOonald, N-O • .o.C. e, Dr. John C.B. cDona1cl.B.A.,D.C.
Dr •• Paula Schl.nz�a8.S.,D .: C.
Phone 925-32·32' .
Serving South West Michigan for 64 Years Across from !OSCO
Blocks west of The Orchards Mall
Dr. John H.
763 Ea