The Daily Tar Heel

Issue date: 2/29/08 Section: State & National

Media Credit: DTH/Erin Debnam Black Student Movement's Political Action Committee members advocate for criminal justice awareness in Polk Place Thursday afternoon.

Students gathered in Polk Place on Wednesday for a four-hour informational rally meant to raise awareness about criminal injustice in North Carolina.

The rally was organized by the Campus Y's Criminal Justice Action and Awareness Committee and was co-sponsored by the Black Student Movement and Students for a Democratic Society.

The rally focused on six criminal cases with racial overtones. Amelia Black, co-chairwoman of the committee, called the controversies the "North Carolina Jena 6" for their similarities to the case in Louisiana where six black students were prosecuted on accusations of assaulting a white student.

"We think it's really important to recognize all the injustices in our society that get recreated in the justice system," said senior Emily McFarlane, a member of SDS. "These are six cases that were either due to incompetence or injustice."

Students held up posters with pictures and facts about the accused and passed out fliers containing more information about the cases.

"I feel it's important to give people names, identities and stories so they aren't just statistics," said senior Charlene Mangi, who stopped by the rally.

Three current cases were featured alongside three cases that have been reconsidered in light of new evidence.

"We're showing that our justice system does have room to change. There is a way to fix errors," Black said.

The rally was part of a week-long effort to raise awareness of inequities and racism in the criminal justice system.

"It's the elephant in the courtroom," said Al McShirley, the legal redress chair for the N.C. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

"What's often the case is that there's a real breakdown in what's called investigatory skepticism when it comes to a black person.

"An objective observer sees all the opportunities they had to investigate further, but they didn't."

McShirley referenced the case of James Johnson, a black man accused of murdering Brittany Willis, a 17-year-old white girl.

A special prosecutor could find no convincing physical evidence linking him to the crime, and the man who confessed to the crime said repeatedly that Johnson played no part in it, McShirley said.

After three years in jail on a $1 million bond, Johnson was released on a lowered bond, in part because of legal help from the NAACP.

He will still face trial as an accessory to murder when Wilson County is able to find another prosecutor.

The elements of Johnson's case are not aberrations.

"Just being able to show that someone's innocent isn't enough to get them off," UNC law professor Richard Rosen said. "There's a history of people in this state of people resisting admitting errors."



Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools