Convicted With No Evidence by an All-White Jury, Black Community Leader Faces Life in Prison

[marmar]

(Truthout) As reports escalate of police assaults and murder of unarmed black men for "suspected" crimes, a jury trial certainly sounds like welcome justice.

Not so for many in Michigan, where a 66-year-old black activist, Rev. Edward Pinkney, convicted of felony election fraud by an all-white jury, faces a life sentence, amid accusations of trumped-up charges and no direct evidence of wrongdoing.

When an all-white jury is chosen to try a prominent black community leader of an embattled, impoverished city with a 90 percent black population, when the powers that be have numerous reasons to want him discredited, and when the evidence is entirely lacking and the punishment is draconian, there is ample cause to suspect another egregious breach of justice, as blatant as refusing to indict the police who killed an unarmed teenager in Ferguson, and choked a father of six to death in Staten Island.

To be clear, there is nothing illegal about trying a black man with an all-white jury in the United States. In the 1986 Supreme Court ruling, Batson v. Kentucky, the court held that a defendant is not entitled to a jury containing or lacking members of any particular race. But in this case of activist, Reverend Edward Pinkney, his supporters believe it is equivalent to a white mob lynching an "upstart negro." .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/27974-all-white-jury-convicts-black-community-leader-with-no-evidence-reverend-edward-pinkney-faces-life-in-prison

[daleanime]

1. Kick....

[Mnemosyne]

2. K&R for more visibility. nt

[Trillo]

4. Seems like the juries should be of approximately the same racial

makeup as the community. This is highly reminiscent of Ferguson, where a mostly white-run and white-policed town is composed of a majority of black citizens. There should have been at least a few black folks on the jury, 2 or three minimum. Their views would be highly important to the jury discussion process, as it appears their life experience is so different.

Perhaps that 1986 Supreme Court decision should be revisited, perhaps Rev Pinkney will be the particular case.

[Demeter]

5. This is going to have to go to the dancing Supremes, unfortunately

I have my doubts as to whether they will be any more "judicial" than the whackos we have in Michigan.

[LovingA2andMI]

6. K & R!

Kicking because we KNOW Rev. Pinkney and he is a GOOD MAN. This is a unjust and questionable verdict at best. Rev. Pinkney was FIRST to stand against Michigan's Emergency Management Law and Michiganders believing in Democracy need to stand with him.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

7. Obama should issue a pardon.

[ColesCountyDem]

8. Unfortunately, he can't, since the convictions are for state, rather than federal crimes. n/t

[Spitfire of ATJ]

11. Then there needs to be a civil rights case.

[ColesCountyDem]

18. The DOJ should definitely look into the matter, if they haven't already done so.

The legal hurdle the DOJ has to overcome is, in essence, that there be no evidence whatsoever that would support a state criminal conviction. Additionally, the evidence must be viewed in the light most favorable to the state, which is why there are few cases filed in circumstances like this present one.

[PoliticAverse]

9. That's a distortion of Batson v Kentucky which found in favor of the defendent...

and prevents prosecutors from excluding jurors based on race.

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batson_v._Kentucky

[JackHughes]

10. In Michigan, the Republicans...

In Michigan, the Republicans treated the 2010 mid-terms not as an election but as a coup. They are using anti-democratic means -- including the literal destruction of a great American city simply because it was a Democratic stronghold -- to retain power. They will be hard to dislodge from power even after a wide majority of the state's voters reject them.

[Shrike47]

12. Interesting that in a city that's 90 percent black they managed to empanal an all-white jury.

Seems suspicious, doesn't it?

[world wide wally]

13. Michigan is becoming Mississippi North

[Enthusiast]

16. That is the plan. Then Ohio.

[hfojvt]

14. interesting how he is a "black community leader"

From his past, it sort of DOES look like he is a con man. Suddenly became a mail order reverend too. That adds to his aura of respectability.

http://www.wsbt.com/news/local/benton-harbor-social-activist-has-long-criminal-past/25782128

Considering that the mayor he is trying to recall is also black, why shouldn't a black mayor be considered a "black community leader"?

This is a tiny little suburb of 10,038 people. I find it hard to believe that the mayor of a small town like that is really one of the "powers that be". I live in a much larger city myself, of about 30,000 people and our mayor makes a salary of about $600 a month. The city manager, on the other hand, makes about $150,000 a year. And he has one year left on his term before he will be facing re-election anyway.

But that's also background on the "draconian" punishment. Pinkney has many previous felony convictions.

It's gotta be racism though when the powerful black mayor of a metropolis of 10,000 crushes a black community leader.

[C Moon]

17. He certainly has a bad past, and I wouldn't want to know the guy, but a life term seems extreme.

[noiretextatique]

19. any comments on the current case?

The one with no evidence and a life sentence?

[hfojvt]

20. I am commenting on the JOURNALISM

Of telling a one sided-story about RACE. Like it's a "black community leader" against "white power".

Except the "power" in this case seems to be a "black communtiy leader". A black man who was elected mayor. And how much power does a small town mayor have?

Something I found out with about five minutes worth of searching on the internet, but background that the authors of this piece chose not to discover or to present.

Is there really no evidence in this case? Or is that just what the con man and the con man's lawyers are saying?

There certainly IS not yet a life sentence. He has yet to receice a sentence, but he, and his lawyer, are already trying to work the media, work the public opinion (the refs) to reduce any possible sentence. If he does get a life sentence it will not be for THIS crime, it will be because of his OTHER felony convictions.

In the end though, he's likely to get a $500 fine, 100 hours of community service and two years of probation.

[Enthusiast]

15. Kicked and recommended a whole bunch!

"First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me--and there was no one left to speak for me."

—Martin Niemöller (1892-1984), a prominent Protestant pastor who emerged as an outspoken public foe of Adolf Hitler and spent the last seven years of Nazi rule in concentration camps.