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. BACK ACHE NECK PAIN HEAD ACHE WHIPLASH .',Cr