1996-2000

 Day 76
1996: A Story of Racial Bias, The Absence of Mercy, and a Death In Prison

From the wonderful Equal Justice Initiative:

Forty-five years after Phillip Chance traveled from his home in Detroit, Michigan, to visit family in rural Choctaw, Alabama.

During that visit in 1971, 15-year-old Phillip Chance and his older brother went with their cousin to a local convenience store, where their cousin robbed and killed the store clerk. Phillip cooperated with the police and told them where his cousin hid the stolen money, but the Alabama prosecutors claimed Phillip and his brother helped plan the robbery and charged all three Black teenagers with the murder of the white clerk. Phillip’s lawyer advised him to plead guilty and assured Phillip he would get out of prison in a year based on good behavior. Phillip pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life imprisonment with parole.

Phillip was sent to an adult prison, where he was such an exemplary inmate that he earned his way from a maximum-security prison to a work-release program, where he was assigned to drive a Department of Corrections van. In 1981, despite his excellent behavior and trustworthiness, the Alabama parole board denied Mr. Chance parole, asserting that he was a threat to the community. A few days later, Mr. Chance walked away from the work-release program and escaped to his family’s home in Michigan.

The State of Alabama pressured Michigan to return Mr. Chance for prosecution, but Michigan’s Republican governor granted Mr. Chance asylum and subsequent governors refused to extradite him because they recognized he was a victim of racial injustice and had been railroaded. As Alabama officials fought to have him extradited over the next 15 years, Mr. Chance got a job, married, had two daughters, and was admired by many.

In 1996, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ordered Michigan to extradite Mr. Chance to Alabama. In a separate opinion, Judge Nathaniel Jones expressed distress about returning Mr. Chance “to a jurisdiction and prison system with a wretched history and, even more distressing, a present demeanor violative of international standards on the treatment of all prisoners.” Alabama had recently brought back the chain gang and was punishing prisoners by shackling them for as long as seven hours to the chest-high horizontal bars called the “hitching post.”

Judge Jones compared Mr. Chance’s case with that of Haywood Patterson, one of the “Scottsboro Boys” who was wrongfully charged, convicted, and sentenced because he was Black. Like Mr. Chance, Mr. Patterson escaped from an Alabama prison and was granted asylum by the governor of Michigan. Judge Jones wrote, “I shudder to think what would have happened to Patterson had he been returned to Alabama.” Judge Jones concluded:

"If South Africa can sign a new democratic Constitution and Pakistan can take steps toward a ban on flogging, surely, the state of Alabama, in the United States of America, can learn from its lamentable past and embrace modest principles of human rights. I hope so, for the sake of Philip Chance."

Three years after he was extradited back to Alabama, Mr. Chance went up for parole. At the hearing, the parole board considered that Mr. Chance was 15 years old at the time of the offense and that he was not the person who killed the victim. With the support of Chairwoman Gladys Riddle and parole board member Johnny Johnson, the board granted parole. Alabama Attorney General Bill Pryor immediately condemned the parole board’s decision, and Governor Don Siegelman, who had the power to appoint parole board members and designate the board chair, called on the board to reverse its decision, writing:

"It is without reservation that I object to the parole of a convicted killer who was extradited from Michigan to Alabama at a cost to taxpayers of more than $200,000. Why did we go to the trouble of seeing that justice was served only to let this man go free just three years after his return to this state?"

The parole board promptly rescinded Mr. Chance’s parole. Governor Siegelman replaced Gladys Riddle as chair of the parole board. Mr. Siegelman is currently serving a seven-year sentence for felony corruption charges.

Mr. Chance came up for parole multiple times over the next two decades and each time his parole was denied despite his immaculate record. During his 30 years in prison, Mr. Chance earned his GED and a degree in theology and he never received a disciplinary or even a citation. Earlier this year, his supporters told the parole board that Mr. Chance was suffering from life-threatening health problems that made it difficult for him to walk. His family appealed for compassionate release, writing that he had suffered several heart attacks, a quadruple bypass heart surgery, diabetes, high blood pressure, a stroke, as well as kidney failure. The parole board denied his request for parole and delayed his next parole hearing for five years.

Mr. Chance attempted to obtain a medical furlough through a state program that was designed to save money by releasing sick inmates who pose no risk to public safety. The Alabama Department of Corrections refused to allow Mr. Chance to be furloughed to Michigan, where his daughters could provide care for him. Instead, amidst complaints about inadequate medical care, Mr. Chance recently was taken to an outside hospital for treatment, but he was not allowed to stay despite medical records indicating he required hospitalization.

Mr. Chance died in prison in 2016. He was 59.

Phillip Chance was given a life sentence as a teenager and was repeatedly denied parole despite his exemplary record and poor health.

Sources/Comments:

Click HERE

Day 77
1997: NYPD Cops Brutally Beat and Sodomize Abner Louima

I don’t know how to put this into words- it is so disturbing. I’m posting what BlackPastorg posted about it, but it doesn’t convey the horror of what happened. Abner was trying to break up a fight, and somehow ended up being so severely beaten and sodomized with a plunger that his colon was punctured (WHAT?!?!?!?!) and his bladder torn. The same plunger was shoved down his throat and several of his teeth were broken.

This happened while he was at the police station and while he was handcuffed. It is simply unbelievable.

He was sent to the hospital the next day and handcuffed to his bed. The ER nurse was told by the cops to put in the report that what happened to him was a result of homosexual activity. She refused to take part in a cover up and put what actually happened in the medical report.

In a huge credit to good cops, not a single cop showed up at the arrested cops’ trial to show support. Two did go to jail, all four were fired. They were shunned by the cops in their precinct, as they were absolutely horrified that these four men did this.

From BlackPastorg:

On the night of August 9, 1997, Louima was at Club Rendez-Vous in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn when a fight broke out between two female club goers. He and other men attempted to stop the fight just before police officers from the NYPD’s 70th precinct responded to a call reporting the disturbance. Once officers arrived on the scene, a fight between them and club goers commenced. Justin Volpe, a NYPD 70th precinct officer, was punched and believed—incorrectly, as it turned out—that Louima had done it. He arrested Louima on charges of disorderly conduct, obstructing police, and resisting arrest.

On the way to the police station Louima was subjected to beatings by the police officers who used their fists, hand-held radios, and nightsticks. Once they arrived at the station Volpe took Louima to the bathroom, kicked and squeezed his testicles, and then sodomized him with the handle of a plunger. Volpe then pushed the handle of the plunger into Louima’s mouth. All these events occurred while Louima’s hands were handcuffed behind his back.

The following day Louima was brought to the Coney Island Hospital emergency room with multiple injuries including broken teeth and severe damage to his colon and bladder. The officers said his injuries were the result of “abnormal homosexual activities” but an ER nurse doubted these claims and called Louima’s family as well as NYPD’s Internal Affairs bureau. Her call initiated local and eventually national press coverage of the police officers’ brutal assault on Louima.

Officer Volpe was found guilty in December of 1999 of assaulting Louima and threatening his life. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison without the possibility of parole. Charles Schwartz, another NYPD 70th precinct officer, was convicted of assault on Louima in June of 2000 and sentenced to 15 years behind bars for assisting Volpe in the bathroom. Three other officers, Thomas Bruder, Michael Bellomo, and Thomas Wiese, were indicted in 2000 for trying to cover up the assault but their convictions were later overturned in 2002 due to a lack of evidence. Abner Louima was paid $8.7 million dollars as a result of a civil suit against the city, the largest police brutality settlement in New York City’s history. With the $5.8 million he kept after legal fees were assessed, he and his family established a charity in Haiti.

Louima now lives in Miami Lakes, Florida, with his wife Micheline, and their three children. He is a frequent speaker on police brutality and police-community relations.

Sources/Comments:

Click HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE

Day 78
1998: James Byrd Hog-Tied and Dragged Behind Car For Three Miles By White Supremacists

I believe that most of you reading these posts would never, ever say that white supremacists are “good guys.” Thank you for that- we couldn’t be friends if you did.

This story is disgusting on every level- not the least of which because it happened in 1998, my freshman year of college, by kids roughly my age, and crimes like this are still happening today. How do we stop white supremacy? I’m not sure. It is currently, horrifically, on the rise right now. Perhaps by learning from the past we can stop pretending it isn’t a problem and stand up to hate, call out white supremacy when it happens, and speak against racial discrimination when we see it.

From Wikipedia:

On June 7, 1998, James Byrd, age 49, accepted a ride from Shawn Berry (age 23), Lawrence Brewer (age 31), and John King (age 23). Berry, who was driving, was acquainted with Byrd from around town. Instead of taking Byrd home, the three men took Byrd to a remote county road out of town, beat him severely, spray-painted his face, urinated and defecated on him, and chained him by his ankles to their pickup truck before dragging him for about 3 miles (4.8 km). Brewer later claimed that Byrd's throat had been slashed by Berry before he was dragged. However, forensic evidence suggests that Byrd had been attempting to keep his head up while being dragged, and an autopsy suggested that Byrd was alive during much of the dragging. Byrd died about halfway along the route of his dragging, when his right arm and head were severed as his body hit a culvert. While almost all of Byrd's ribs were fractured, his brain and skull were found intact, further suggesting that he maintained consciousness while he was being dragged.

Berry, Brewer, and King dumped the mutilated remains of Byrd's body in front of an African-American church on Huff Creek Road, then drove off to a barbecue. A motorist found Byrd's decapitated remains the following morning. Along the area where Byrd was dragged, police found a wrench with "Berry" written on it. They also found a lighter that was inscribed with "Possum", which was King's prison nickname. The police found 81 places that included portions of Byrd's remains. Since Brewer and King were well-known white supremacists, it was determined by state law enforcement officials that the murder was a hate crime. They called upon the Federal Bureau of Investigation less than 24 hours after the discovery of Byrd's remains. The special agent in charge of the FBI's Houston office said that they were assisting because of the case's "extreme circumstances".

King had several racist tattoos: a black man hanging from a tree, Nazi symbols, the words "Aryan Pride", and the patch for a gang of white supremacist inmates known as the Confederate Knights of America. In a jailhouse letter to Brewer that was intercepted by jail officials, King expressed pride in the crime and said that he realized while committing the murder that he might have to die.

"Regardless of the outcome of this, we have made history. Death before dishonor. Sieg Heil!" King wrote. An officer investigating the case also testified that witnesses said that King had referenced The Turner Diaries after beating Byrd.

Berry, Brewer, and King were tried and convicted for Byrd's murder. Brewer and King received the death penalty, while Berry was sentenced to life in prison. Brewer was executed by lethal injection on September 21, 2011, and King was executed on April 24, 2019.

Notes: This happened in June. In October of 1998, Matthew Shepherd was dragged from a pick-up truck and killed. I have no idea if Matthew Shepherd’s killers got the idea from this crime, but they are eerily similar. I have heard a lot about Matthew Shepherd- he was all over the news, and there was a TV movie made after him. Whenever whites talk about hate crimes, Matthew Shepherd is discussed. Until now, I have never heard of James Byrd. Ever. Why is that? I have to ask myself: Is this part of what the protests and Black Lives Matter is about? That when a black man is hog tied and dragged behind a truck, no white people care- yet when the same thing happens to a white man, the whole world mourns? Regardless, the two of these crimes together did lead to the passage of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act in 2009 (notice whose name is used first).

Also, I am not in favor of the death penalty, but this case could persuade me.

Sources/Comments:

Click HERE

Day 79
1999: Superpredator Myth Targets Black Youth To Put Them In Jail For Life Because Of Fear Of What They Will Become

Even though my age range was that of the “Superpredators” I had never heard of this myth until recently.

The “superpredator myth” was conceived by John J. Dilulio Jr. in the mid-1990s. ''A new generation of street criminals is upon us — the youngest, biggest and baddest generation any society has ever known," he said, and the term ushered in a methodology of putting violent teenagers in adult prisons with no thought given to intervention or rehabilitation. Dilulio's description of "brutally remorseless youngsters" won out against children's inexperience and suggestibility. The juvenile justice population surged- mostly with black tweens and teenagers.

Hillary Clinton famously declared in 1996 that certain cohorts of young people in urban settings (and almost always black or Latino) are violent, terrifying and with "no conscience, no empathy."

Suddenly, the whole country was afraid of every black teenager they encountered- after all, they were all seen as serial killers, with no conscience, able to commit mass murders without thinking. Of course, by the mid-2000s this theory was debunked, and even Dilulio and Cliton were apologizing for creating and spreading this myth and admitted it was flat out wrong. But, sadly, the damage was done.

Nearly every state passed legislation between 1992 and 1999 that dramatically increased the treatment of juveniles as adults for purposes of sentencing and punishment. Children as young as 10 were tried as adults, given life sentences, and sent to adult prisons- where they endured sexual and physical assaults regularly from the adults around them.

In the 2012 SCOTUS trial of Miller vs. Alabama, criminologists said: “The superpredator myth contributed to the dismantling of transfer restrictions, the lowering of the minimum age for adult prosecution of children, and it threw thousands of children into an ill-suited and excessive punishment regime.” The research shows that these new laws “had no material effect on the subsequent decrease in crime rates,” and yet almost all of these laws remain on the books. And while the Supreme Court in Miller struck down mandatory life-without-parole sentences for children, thousands of kids remain sentenced to die in prison as states fight retroactive application of the decision to sentences imposed during the height of the superpredator panic.”

Note: For profit prisons require, BY LAW, to have a certain number of inmates. Superpredators were/are a great way to fill them up, even if they are just children.

Sources/Comments:

Click HERE and HERE

Day 80
2000: Roger Owensby, 29-year-old Army Sergeant, Murdered By Cops

From Blackpast:

Roger Owensby Jr. was a twenty-nine-year-old African-American who died at the hands of Cincinnati Police officers during a scuffle in the Roselawn neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio in November 2000. Owens’ death at the hands of police—as well as the death the following year of Timothy Thomas under similar circumstances—helped spark the Cincinnati Riot in April 2001 and eventually helped inspire the Black Lives Matter Movement thirteen years later.

Roger Owensby Jr. was born on March 27, 1971 in Cincinnati, Ohio to Roger Owensby Sr. and Brenda Owensby. Owensby joined the U.S. Army in 1990 and served for eight years, rising to the rank of sergeant. He saw combat in the Persian Gulf War (1990-1991) and afterwards served in Bosnia in 1996 where he was an Army cook. At the time of his death, Owensby had a nine-year-old daughter, Mylesha Owensby, and he had no previous police record.

On November 7, 2000, after leaving the Sunoco Mini-Mart in the Bond Hill neighborhood of Cincinnati, Owensby was approach by two Cincinnati police officers, Robert Blaine Jorg and Patrick Caton. They stopped and searched him for a few minutes (Note: They searched him for 15 minutes, finding nothing). Then, for reasons that are not clear, Owensby began to run from the officers. They pursued him and tackled him to the ground where they handcuffed him. He was put in their police car and died there. The Cincinnati Police initially investigated the incident but the Hamilton County Coroner’s office concluded that Owens either died as the result of a chokehold or by officers piling their weight on his chest as he lay on the ground.

The Hamilton County District Attorney filed charges of manslaughter and misdemeanor assault against Jorg and Caton on January 3, 2001. In the subsequent trials, Robert Blaine Jorg was found not guilty and Patrick Caton was freed because of a mistrial. Prosecutors did not attempt to try him again.

Sources/Comments:

We are now entering an era of police brutality...but are we really? From the beginning, I have shared stories of black men being lynched while under police guard, or cops murdering black men on the side of the road, of police beating up and killing Freedom Riders...are the stories of police brutality I am currently sharing for the year 2000 really any different? Cops kill a black man, prosecutors don’t really make an attempt to actually prosecute- “losing” evidence, not having witnesses testify, having all white juries. Is it any wonder that the Black community doesn’t trust police or the justice system? Where in the history of our country have they had reason to trust them? Are we really surprised to see protests in the streets and desperate cries for help when this happens again and again and again? When will we wake up and listen????

I’m not saying all cops are bad! But I am saying that if I was black, I would also have a really hard time trusting cops when I hear stories like this one of Roger Owensby on an almost daily basis.

Click HERE