Sustained!: A Jury of Your Peers

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

A Jury of Your Peers

Ricky Whitfield's murder case served as the inspiration for me starting this blog. In March of this year, Co-counsel, Jackie Carpenter and myself set out to try the Whitfield murder case. The prosecutors in the case at that time, exercised peremptory challenges to strike all of the eligible black jurors from the panel. The Judge SUSTAINED! our Batson challenge and the prosecutors involved were disciplined by our current District Attorney for the move. The whole incident made the front page of the Houston Chronicle. Unfortunately, Whitfield's case was moved five months into the future. That incident served as the subject of my first post on this blog.

Well, Ms. Carpenter and I spent all of last week and yesterday again trying Mr. Whitfield's case. Surprisingly, we ended up with a Jury that did not have any African-American members (the jury appeared to consist of eleven Caucasians and one Hispanic). Again the State Struck nearly all of the eligible African American panel members. This time our objection was overruled. And the jury still found Whitfield "Not Guilty."

So after all of that time in Jail, Whitfield will be a free man. This was my one hundredth trial and a victory for which I am truly grateful. I was humbled by the care and concern our jurors showed. One of the jurors commented that he thought the experience of an African American was missing during their deliberations. He thought they would have benefited from added perspective. Their comments and evaluation of the evidence showed that they took their jobs seriously and had great respect for justice. If only prosecutors would value the perspective of African-Americans. Prosecutors routinely seek jurors that they stereotypically think will be prejudiced against defendants. But this jury looked to the lack of evidence in this case and returned a verdict that paid no attention to our client's race. In this case, justice was color-blind.

8 comments:

AnonymousAug 20, 2009 02:52 PM
I also think that it would have been nice to have a African-Americans point of view as a juror. Thankfully Whitfield was found not guilty but their are other commentaries that could have been marked if someone with experience from his disposition in life had of been present. Marcus Mosiah Garvey died on the 10th of June in 1940 leaving behind two wives Amy Ashwood and Amy Jacques. Both the Mrs. Garvey's contended for his corpse both laying claim to be his true widow. Amy Ashwood helped set up the fifth Pan-African congress in Manchester in Northern England in 1945 and she found it galling to note Amy Jacques stiffled her objections at that meeting. Especailly when Du Bouis 'the father of Pan-Africanism was there being revered for his steadfast championing of Pan-African ideals. Amy Ashwood believed that surely such a honor should have been shared with her deceased husband rather than a belated wife. She believed in this instance that it would have been better for a man to stand in honor of his place. Consequently the night before the death of Marcus Garvey Ashwood had a dream so she did not believe he was deceased. In her dream he asked her to come in the back of the house into the yard. She saw him on the scaffolding of a big ship driving rivets in it's side. Once he was finished he turned to her and cried out with a load voice "Build for Africa, work for Africa." She did not believe he was dead even though his secretary said she seen him collapse in his chair. Marcus Garvey was buried in a vault in the catacombs of St Mary's Catholic Church in Kensal Green west London. It wasn't until the 1960's with the rise of the militant Black Power Movement that his last wishes for his remains to be buried in Jamaica were honored. Garvey's body lay in state at the Roman Catholic cathedral where thousands of Kingstonians paid their respect, before the casket was taken by motorcade to King George VI Memorial Park and his body reinterred. The sad fact was that the great leader of back to Africa had always been denied access to the continent of Africa by the European Colonial powers, he had never actually set foot on his beloved soil. I think there should have been at least one perspective from a African Americans veiw.
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AnonymousAug 24, 2009 04:31 PM
There's a book called "The Pillar of the New Testament commentary of the Gospel of John" by: D.A. Carson. Through out his commentary Carson attempts to make clear the flow of text, focusing on the movement of thought rather than on word studies and Greek syntax. Also to engage a small but represenative part of the massive secondary literature on John and to draw a few lines towards establishing how Johns gospel contributes to bibical and systematic theology. In conclution he adds a consistant exposition of John as a evangelistic gospel. Evangelistic meaning a Christian who tries to persuade other people to become Christian especially at public gatherings or in broadcast and a writer of any of the four books of the Christian bible known as Gospel. I heard Pastor Bryon Wyatt from Galiliee in 5TH Ward Texas say that there is no such letter as J in the english text because the letter J came from the Hebrew text and I happen to agree with the great man I consider a minister annoited with the power to not only preach but speak with the mobility of reason to some who may not other wise understand. He is a great speaker and he would have been a great juror because he can also understand the feelings coming from the witness stand. I listened to Mark Bennetts breifing not to long ago and he also had a theory based on the same analogy as D.A. Carson who is the author of the New Testament "The Pillar of John." I heard Mark Bennett say that most of the time jurors make decisions based on feelings and base their opinions on how they are imparted to believe as well as the facts that are presented to them by the court. Focusing on the movement of thought rather than words and body language in which sometimes can set off motions that figure into reason for delay to discern in part and capture in part the disposition in the role the defendant plays. "A jury of his peers" but how can his peers understand him unless they sit where he sits and how could they feel what he feels except they felt his pain in some way or form. I wonder what altered their decision and set him five months back. I wonder if they were afraid of a civil suit after the trial and picked another jury of the same stature but different symbolical message of freedom for the acclaimed murderer to Sustain their own intergrity. More over to protect their own indiffence to a positive or negative balance on a scale of, Where I do my banking. I cannot say for sure but I see a man standing before the pillars of his University looking through the windows of pain advocating for his people grieving for him and understanding that his client is a victim rather than a acclaimed murderer. I see a man that worked hard to establish a disposition in life to gain a credible forum of success for all of his people and some would even say there is something missing in s-ccess with out him because it's the U. I say I see a great man of acheivement standing before the pillars of his own University perhaps Howard, maybe Tulane with a amazing altitude for the life of his clients and all of his people. Still I see him looking through the windows of pain because he never feels like he can do enough in achieving a higher priveledge for the lives he struggles to ascertain with a fuller enrichment of quality coming from his services. I think he is doing a great job and even though the court room battles are far from over he has reached a higher mark of victory for a client who may have other wise fell through the system. I can't imagine how hard it must be to be a man of ethnical understanding striving to set another man of his potential free but remember you are in Houston and it is a reason that they painted their pillars at the U.H. pink.
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AnonymousAug 25, 2009 03:09 PM
It's a thesis concentrated by the effects of deja-vu also known as paramnesia. A disorder of memory as a condition in the proper meaning of the words cannot be remembered (word play). Also a illusion of remembering scenes and events experienced for the first time. You call recall being there before but you don't have a vivid reculation of the original prognosis. It semanticizes the first encounter by subject to a semantic analysis, for instance < the difference between knowledge by poetry and knowledge by abstraction out of existance> It is the management of exploitation of connotation and ambiguity as in < the dubious~of the racist fanatics> see semantics. It was a reversal to do the same thing over again but this time with a different language in the art of the formality of the play. Basically to try and save their disposition in the appearance of their intergrity in the court room. As in to try to say that blacks are judgemental by the assumption that white jurors will find a black man guilty just because they are bias to their own race rather than having compassion for justice over nationality. This making Whitfeilds Attorney look compromised by ailing a defense against a jury and composing a diffuclt stance that prolonged a decision that could have been long underway. This impart leaving the Defending attorney allured to believe that his frail assumption for a juror in a justice system has been long over played in a different cycle of time. We live in a Era where politics have changed and people have changed so systematically that card that we play should be put back in the deck. It was a reversal not only to distinguish the facts from the first jury selection but to try and save themselves from any future damages to their Benjamin Frankin. That is something that they will never willingly admit but it seems to me that they dug another ditch. Instead of just one hole in the cracks of the canal of the jutice system they have two holes to patch up, cover and bury.
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EsqVozAug 27, 2009 07:27 PM
???? Huh? Is it just me or is not a word of that cognizable?
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AnonymousAug 29, 2009 11:52 AM
It's just you because you would have to have a ounce of integrity to get any of that EsqVoz!
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ReneeAug 29, 2009 12:17 PM
You know it amazing me that someone that came from a back ground like yourself could be so judgemental. I didn't ask to know anything about you and didn't want to know anything about you to tell you the truth but immediately after your first response in this blog the Lord sent me to the center you came from and they gave me a 15 minute speach about your accomplishments from their center. Have you gotten so far ahead of yourself that you forgot where you came from? I can tell you one thing you need to hurry up and try to cognize. If you cannot remember where your bread and butter came from then you'll never get your milk and honey EsqVoz!
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AnonymousAug 29, 2009 01:50 PM
Forgive me, even a fool is counted wise when kept silent therefore I have no reason to behave foolishly on someone else's blog archive. I am simply amazed that someone with a higher acheivement in life can critize anyone else's short comings. After the first response I read from you I seen you as a critic that despised someone else's ambitions. However, after I went to the center and they used your background as a form of encouragement for me as to say it does not matter how far I may fall short from a economic disadvantage I can still overcome. Then I decided that I prejudged your post and perhaps you were just having a hard day. Then here it is your second post in the blog and I find that there is nothing good coming from the contents of the words that you say and that discourages me because I seen you as someone I could look up to as a role model in life. How can I look up to some one who can acheive a higher privledge in life but has no heart for the empowerment in those who may not neccassarily be less fortunate but have not arrived to the same level of accomplishments in life? I remember how proud they were of you when they spoke your name and that evaporated the first impression I recieved when I heard the way you viewed the blog of a mothers love. They not only held you in high regard but they allowed you to be a example to encourage life and to me that was a noble and valuable place to be arrayed. The people that backed you appreciate your disposition in life and use your strengths to encourage the weaker lives that are trying desperately to succeed. Are they wrong to allow you to be utilized as a positive role model for struggling mothers as myself or did you forget that you didn't arrive in a place of success all by yourself. One can't fall without the other and surely I would love to see you in the same light as those who are so proud of you. Your bread and butter is not the people who feed you but it is what you had to eat when you were bound to diverse circumtances that prevented you from having something better. Your milk and honey is not what you eat now because of your higher acheivement in life. It is the earnestness from your soul from pressing forward into a higher disposition in life. You can have success and leave your soul behind and that is called steak and eggs but you can also have success and take the source of your soul with you and that is called milk and honey. I don't want success unless I can have it and maintain the true value of a womans worth in soul. One that belittles anothers ambitions in life is a very little person themselves and the heart of the woman should be great in value because they are the source of love and encouragement in the life of the family. Have we came so far in are drive to succeed in life that we forgot how to nuture and love those who are beneath us and need our example of love to bring prosperity into the homes that we live? I don't want success without love because I don't want to leave my soul in the desert.
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KeshivaJan 27, 2012 09:22 PM
Well, for myself. I get a headache trying to read the white on black for this forum & I think that's what EsqVoz is referring to. Maybe not, but it's the problem I'm having with reading your extensively long paragraphs.
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