The Coalition Against Police Crimes and Repression (CAPCR) obtained the list of applicants for the Civilian Oversight Board, along with the aldermen’s written recommendations of their favorites. As of July 17, 43 people turned in applications to Mayor Francis G. Slay’s office. One other applicant filed the wrong application.
The list features a wide range of folks, including lawyers (quite a few of those), language interpreters, medical personnel, small business owners, former corporate executives, counselors and professors. Even Rex Sinquefield’s Show-Me Institute has a dog in the race. Lots of Washington University and Saint Louis University graduates in the mix. Only one candidate stated that he had formerly worked as a police officer.
As far as racial breakdown, there are 17 white men, eight black women, seven black men, six white women, one Asian man, one Latino, one Latina and two self-described “humans.”
Some of the more recognizable names include Ferguson activist Jonathan Pulphus; DeBorah Ahmed, one of the founders of the community development nonprofit Better Family Inc.; civil rights activist and lawyer J. Justin Meehan; and entrepreneur Steve C. Roberts.
On their website, CAPCR posted all the applications, with personal information redacted. The application form for board appointees – which is almost identical to the one Governor Jay Nixon uses for appointees on the state level – is nine pages long and asks applicants to disclose a variety of personal information, including if they have ever filed for bankruptcy or if they are behind on child support payments. Deadline for applications is July 24, and the mayor must nominate seven candidates corresponding to seven districts by August 6, as per the new civilian oversight ordinance.
On paper, it looks like only a few aldermen took their homework seriously. The law allows for the aldermen to recommend candidates to the mayor. According to the information CAPCR obtained through a Freedom of Information request, Aldermen Megan Ellyia Green, Cara Spencer, Shane Cohn and Terry Kennedy were the only ones who handed the mayor’s office recommendations in writing.
Maggie Crane, the mayor’s spokeswoman, said Alderwoman Donna Barringer and Alderwoman Lyda Krewson also made recommendations, but those letters were not included in the information that the mayor’s office gave CAPCR .
Alderman Kennedy recommended Barbara Cole, an African American from the 18th Ward who works for the Social Security Administration. In the application, she stated, “I lost a child in 2000 to a Ferguson police officer shooting.” She didn’t expand.
In a statement, CAPCR’s co-chair John Chasnoff said it’s unclear whether other aldermen made verbal or written recommendations directly to the mayor. Crane said that Patrick Brown, the mayor’s deputy chief of staff, is asking each alderman to clarify whether he/she is endorsing anyone, and they are awaiting those answers.
“It is disheartening to see that so few alders took the opportunity to formally endorse candidates,” said CAPCR Co-Chair Jamala Rogers. “We consider this a dereliction of duty. Alders had the opportunity to stand up for community members willing to serve in this important capacity, and they have for the most part stood on the sidelines. Either they are bypassing transparency and public accountability by engaging in vague or informal conversations with the mayor, or they are doing nothing.”
To read applications, visit http://capcr-stl.org/mayoral-cob-applicants-7-17-15/
Execution pusher?
Judge Mary R. Russell, who became chief justice of the Missouri Supreme Court two years ago, has led a string of executions unprecedented in modern Missouri, according to a June 29 article by Scott Lauck in Missouri Lawyers Weekly.
“Since late 2013, the Supreme Court under Russell has issued execution warrants for 20 men, including one scheduled for next month. Sixteen inmates have been put to death so far — almost as many executions as took place under Russell’s six immediate predecessors combined.”
Missouri’s lethal injection methods have been the subject of litigation in federal court for years, which had prevented previous chief justices from setting executions, Lauck wrote.
At a press conference on June 30 to mark the end of her two-year term, Russell said the recent executions were “the result of a large backlog of death-sentenced inmates whose appeals had been exhausted,” Lauck wrote. She claimed that the court is required by law to set executions when the attorney general requests them.
“It’s nothing I’ve done individually,” she said. “It’s the court as a whole that operates on this.”
However, Lauck writes that the chief justice appears to have some discretion in the pace and timing of executions.
“Backlog or no, some say the court’s nearly-one-per-month pace can be attributed to a combination of Russell’s administrative powers and persuasive authority,” Lauck wrote.
He quoted Sean O’Brien, a law professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and a veteran death penalty litigator, in the article.
“The 30-day pace of executions, one execution per month — that’s her,” O’Brien said. “The Missouri Supreme Court isn’t obligated to jump when the attorney general says ‘boo!’” he said. “The Missouri Supreme Court absolutely sets the pace.”
Dead silence from officials
Russell’s legacy is particularly troubling given the recent study that shows grave racial disparities in death penalty sentences.
Homicides involving white victims are seven times more likely to result in an execution than those involving black victims, according to the study titled “The impact of race, gender and geography on Missouri execution” by
Frank R. Baumgartner, a political science professor at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
And the study confirms yet another area where St. Louis County courts need to reform. It shows that a person convicted of homicide in St. Louis County is three times more likely to be executed than if they were convicted of the same crime in the vast majority of other counties in the state, and 13 times more likely to be executed than if they are convicted of the same crime in the city of St. Louis.
In April, a group of elected officials, attorneys, and others sent a letter to Governor Jay Nixon asking for a Board of Inquiry to examine the exclusions of African Americans from juries in St. Louis County death penalty cases.
Missouri courts found that county prosecutors excluded black jurors because of race five times since 2002. The group suspects that it happens more often, but it’s hard to prove. When black men go up against an all-white jury, they said they are more likely to get a death sentence.
Nixon has not yet responded to the letter.
Nixon also declined an interview with the St. Louis American regarding Baumgartner’s study.
In fact, the American sent questions to several state and city officials, asking for a response to the study.
Our questions were, first, how do you defend the continued use of capital punishment given the data from the study?
Next, what are you able to do to address this issue, and what are you going to do to address it?
The questions went out to Nixon, Attorney General Chris Koster, Speaker of the Missouri House of Representatives Todd Richardson, Senate President Pro Tem Tom Dempsey, St. Louis City Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce and St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch.
Joyce responded that she was too busy to respond via email or phone. And Nixon’s spokesman Scott Holste said, “We will have to decline this request.” None of the others bothered to respond at all.
‘The Injustice System’ screening
Better Together St. Louis will screen Craig Cheatham’s documentary on St. Louis municipal courts for KMOV, “The Injustice System,” at 7 p.m. Wednesday, July 29 at Vue 17, 1034 South Brentwood Blvd. in Clayton. Beverages and light appetizers will be served at 6:30 p.m., with a panel discussion following.
