The recent report from U.S. Department of Justice concluded that Ferguson’s municipal police and court systems are rife with racism and operated in an illegal and unconstitutional way. And while the report appropriately fingered Ferguson officials for their roles, it appeared to let the kingpins of law enforcement – St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch and Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster – off the hook.
When the system operates in such a racist and arbitrary way, people are bound to get a raw deal.
Consider the case of Johnny Briscoe, who was convicted of rape by an all-white jury. St. Louis prosecutors used junk science to get a conviction, and Briscoe served 23 years in prison before the Innocence Project got him released in 2006. Briscoe is black; the victim was white.
Prosecutors are able to get these convictions and harsh sentences because of systematic exclusion of African Americans from juries and other prosecutorial misconduct that rarely gets checked. Blacks make up about 25 per cent of the St. Louis County population, yet many black defendants face an all-white jury. The County Prosecutor’s Office includes and excludes black folks when it suits their interests. But when the accused’s life is at stake, this unjust system takes on a more serious gravity.
Currently on Missouri’s death row are 11 men from St. Louis County; seven of them are African-American. Most victims’ families who are grieving the loss of loved ones truly want justice; they don’t want to be pawns of the prosecution. The families’ wishes seem to only count when their desire for a death sentence syncs with the state’s efforts to kill.
Andre Cole, one of those seven men on death row, faces execution on April 14. Sixty justice-seeking leaders from the St. Louis area (including this writer) have signed onto a letter to Nixon asking for a board of inquiry that would explore the issue of race bias in jury selection. Executions would be halted until the conclusion of the inquiry.
Last week Kimber Edwards received his execution date for May 12. You guessed it: another black man sentenced by an all-white jury in St. Louis County.
The DOJ’s report on Ferguson showed that African American citizens do not experience equal protection under the law and due process. The racist scourge of injustice is not just relegated to Ferguson, however. It spreads across St. Louis County, the state of Missouri and the country. It must be stopped.
It is imperative that biased juries be included as part of our judicial scrutiny. This critical piece of the criminal justice process is kindling that can ignite a Ferguson-type uprising.
It is our duty to hold these gatekeepers accountable since they are paid with our tax dollars. Because of the spotlight put on our region due to the Ferguson uprising, we have the opportunity to address systemic failures across the board and put the “justice” in our criminal justice system for all citizens.
(Contact Governor Nixon and ask him to seriously consider an investigation into the use of all-white jurors in our state. His number is 573-751-3222.)