Louisiana Voice

Jessie Hoffman is dead. Baton Rouge Advocate reporter John Simerman assured us of that with his account of the death row inmate’s final moments. Thankfully, Simerman’s account wasn’t as macabre as it could have been.

I’m not going to defend Hoffman. By all accounts, he was guilty of the robbery, rape and execution-style murder of 28-year-old Mary “Molly” Elliott in 1996. But there are 55 other prisoners on Louisiana’s death row and we’ve seen too many times how an innocent person can find himself on death row – some for decades before they’re exonerated.

JOHN THOMPSON comes immediately to mind. Wrongly convicted for murder because District Attorney Harry Connick withheld exculpatory evidence, Thompson spent 14 years on death row before his exoneration. He sued Connick and was awarded $14 million – a million for every year he spent waiting to die for a crime he did not commit. Volumes have been written about the gross miscarriage of justice by the Supreme Court in this matter.

The $14 million award was appealed all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, first by Connick and then by his successor, Leon Cannizaro. Clarence Thomas wrote the decision for the 5-4 decision to overturn the award. For 14 years on death row, Thomas received zero. Zilch. Nothing.

Then there’s GLENN FORD who spent an incredible 30 years on death row after being wrongfully convicted of a murder he never committed.

That’s why I wrote my latest book, 101 Wrongful Convictions in Louisiana. National estimates have put the percentage of innocent persons being held in prisons at between 2 and 10 percent. With 64,000 prisoners in Louisiana jails and prisons, that could mean as many as 6,400 prisoners being wrongfully incarcerated – as many as five on death row.

My book (you can order it HERE for $25) cites at least four who were sentenced to die but were later exonerated when withheld evidence or new evidence proved their innocence.

Louisiana isn’t unique. Texas loves to kill people – even innocent ones. They even made a movie about one innocent individual who died at the hands of authorities who couldn’t wait to kill a convict as an example of some misplaced law and order obsession that overpowered common sense and a sense of genuine justice.

I’m no bleeding heart. I’m not. Those guilty of crimes should be punished. I don’t and have never questioned that. But before we take another’s life, we have to be absolutely certain that the person we’re killing is guilty BEYOND THE SHADOW OF A DOUBT.

Read Full Post »

His silence about Pentagon erasure of Ira Hayes and Navajo Code Talkers, attack on Social Security, Education is deafening

You can bet he won’t be at the “Empty Chair Town Hall meetings”

That lost look means he wonders where he is – a hint: it’s not at a town hall meeting

Read Full Post »

John Kennedy, Bill Cassidy, Julia Letlow, Mike Johnson, Steve Scalise and Clay Higgins may take a powder but that’s not stopping an organization of angry women from holding town hall meetings next Tuesday and Thursday in Ruston and Monroe.

It’s ample proof that when a group of women decide that enough is enough, you’d better not try to stand in their path or you’ll get run over.

The group is called 10,000 WOMEN LOUISIANA and they are launching their “Empty Chair Town Hall meetings” in the two north Louisiana cities.

The Ruston event will be next Tuesday from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Lincoln Parish Library at 910 North Trenton Street – in case any of our congressional delegation screws up enough courage to attend, which they won’t because the last thing they want now is to face constituents who are angry over what the Trump administration is doing to democracy and education while Republicans remain mute.

The Monroe “Empty Chair Town Hall meeting,” in case any congressional member misses the Ruston meeting, will be held Thursday at the Harvey H. Benoit Community Center beginning at 5 p.m.

LOUISIANA VOICE has been chronicling the number of days that Sen. John Kennedy has gone without holding a town hall meeting. As of today (March 19) he has gone 2,979 days without meeting with his constituents. In case you’re wondering, that’s his entire term of office since taking the oath in January 2017. Eight + years, folks. That’s a long time to hide.

Oh, he’ll come out of hibernation come election time to spew a few bromides like, “I’d rather drink weed killer…” etc., in order to appeal to the hard-line Repugnantcans who lap up those homey expressions like honey dew vine water.

Also missing is a fellow named Mike Johnson. He’s the man who presides over the House of Representatives as Speaker, but who is too frightened of the folks back in his district to make an appearance. In fact, he even went so far as to advise his Repug colleagues to stay the hell away from any town hall meetings in their districts because of what he feared as “professional protesters.” What a dork.

Anyone happen to know the pay scale for a “professional protester”? Do they require a college degree for admission? Is there a union for them? How much experience is required before attaining “professional” status? Are there uniforms? T-shirts?

It’s almost funny how these people seem to disappear from public view when the going gets a little rough. Oh, I know they’re busy taking care of biz up in the Beltway, but where are they during recesses that they seem to take with some regularity? They apparently aren’t in their home districts. Oh, I know. They’re taking those fact-finding trips to exotic places around the globe or to war zones where they’re treated like royalty and kept safe distances from any fighting.

Enough of all that. Just mark your calendar to attend one of those “Empty Town Hall meetings” Tuesday in Ruston or Thursday in Monroe.

Read Full Post »

Who’s got more clout with Kennedy: you or them?

His leadership advice: “Don’t go home, they’ll rip you to shreds.”

(Wonder why?)

“WHATEVER. YOU. SAY. MASTER.”

(When will I be released from this hypnotic state?)

Read Full Post »

Jasmine Mooney received no special treatment when she was DETAINED IN SAN DIEGO in “inhumane conditions,” which should raise serious questions about the treatment of Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil in a Louisiana detention center.

If a high-profile individual like Canadian actress Mooney can be subjected to a revocation of her work visa and the ensuing barbaric conditions of a federal detention center, how do you think an Algerian citizen with a funny name like Mahmoud Khalil is being treated in a Louisiana detention center?

And which detention center is it? A New Orleans TV station posted a photo of the sign of the Lasalle Detention Facility in JENA in LaSalle Parish but there also facilities in Pollock and Oakdale  – in GRANT and ALLEN parishes, respectively.

The LaSalle facility operated as Jena Juvenile Correction Facility form 1998 to 2001, when a federal investigation found it unfit for use and ordered it closed. Mostly white guards, the investigation report said, used “cruel and humiliating punishments” and “excessive force” on the mostly black juveniles incarcerated there.

It reopened in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 when 450 inmates from the Jefferson Parish Prison were transferred there. There, Inmates claimed that officers beat, kicked, and hit them while they were shackled. Officers ordered inmates to kneel for hours at a time and hit them if they fell. Inmates were forced to hold their faces against walls which had been covered in chemical spray. When they became ill and vomited, inmates claimed officers wiped their faces and hair in the vomit.

Now known officially as Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center, known as CLIPC, it has served as a detention center for those accused of breaking immigration laws.

In 2016, the Southern Poverty Law Center found that Detention Center, detainees at CLIPC had some of the lowest rates of representation in the country. In 2015, only six percent of detainees at CLIPC were represented by counsel, compared to 37 percent nationally, and only five percent of all asylum applications were approved, compared to the national rate of 48 percent. CLIPC, according to a 2017 report, also was among the tip five facilities in the number of complaints of sexual assault.

On March 25, 2020, 79 female detainees who had been attending a presentation by the GEO prison group on COVID-19 protocols were pepper sprayed and in the first half of 2016, three detainees died in custody at the facility. One died from heart ailments, one of liver failure after admission for possible sepsis and a third who was denied medical care died from cancer only months after being released.

All of which give Mooney’s claims of “inhumane conditions” claim a ring of validity and raise serious questions about the treatment of Khalil, detained on questionable charges that more closely resemble a violation of his First Amendment rights than terrorist activity for his participation in pro-Palestinian protest at Columbia University. Whether or not you agree with Khalil is beside the point. If you are a true American who adheres to the principals of the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights, you must agree with Voltaire who uttered, “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it,” the quote that is the very basis of the First Amendment.

There should be no room for the Trump administration’s Justice Department to argue that point.

Read Full Post »