Month: July 2013

As stated on Sunday, the President’s comments on race in part helped to push us away from one discussion on the Trayvon Martin killing and toward another.  The President said, “When Trayvon Martin was first shot I said that this could have been my son.  Another way of saying that is Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago.”

This is the reality that all African-Americans have to deal with in our society – the prospect of being treated not because of their actions, but being regarded with suspicion because of the color of their skin and the location of their whereabouts.

In the early morning hours of June 19, an individual was approached outside of the Cottonwood 7-Eleven in Woodland.  They asked him if he had money, when he said no, he was asked if he “bangs” if he was a “scrap” or a “DO.”  When he failed to respond, he was hit and attacked.

They allegedly yelled gang slurs and one of them lifted up his shirt and said, “Should I shoot this Nigga?”  They then took some of his property including his bike.

Yolo County Sheriff Ed Prieto will speak with members of the public at the Vanguard Court Watch Council of Yolo County meeting on Sunday, July 28.

The meeting begins at 5 p.m. at the Holy Rosary Pastoral Center, 503 California St. in Woodland. Community members are invited to come and learn more and ask questions or share concerns.

In early May, Mississippi officials were a mere four hours from executing a potentially innocent man, Willie Manning when the state’s Supreme Court stepped in with an 8-1 ruling that halted the execution.

A key part of the prosecutor’s original case was forensic evidence that would tie Mr. Manning to the murder.  However, on May 2, 2013, “, the Justice Department has sent three letters to the attorneys in the case announcing that the feds now are backing away from the “ballistics” and “hair fiber” testimony their so-called “expert” testified about at Manning’s trial. State prosecutors heavily relied on that now-discredited evidence at trial — as have state court judges ever since — as proof that Manning’s conviction was secure enough to warrant his execution.”

This week we saw the controversy nationally of the Rolling Stone cover portraying the Boston Marathon bomber as though he were a rock star.  That spawns local columnist Debra DeAngelo to opine about “When monsters have the face of angels, and the uncomfortable nature of journalism.”

She writes, “So, this week, when the angelic face of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, a morph of Jim Morrison and Eros, peers out at us from under the iconic RS logo, it’s not out of character. The Tsarnaev feature is just another step on Rolling Stone’s investigative journalism path.

A diverse group of criminal justice experts including prosecutors, judges, defense attorneys, scholars, community leaders, and formerly incarcerated advocates gathered last October for a three day conference.  On Wednesday, Consultant Tanya E. Coke released the report based on those discussion – Criminal Justice in the 21^st Century: Eliminating Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the Criminal Justice System.

“The conference was designed not only to acknowledge that racial and ethnic disparities exist in the system, but to examine best practices around the country that address and seek to remedy those disparities,” a release states.  “This report summarizes the candid, sometimes painful panel discussions, and identifies the panoply of remedies that may advance the goal of eliminating the disparate racial and ethnic impact from America’s criminal justice system.”