Month: February 2021

Let’s Talk About Clemency…

What exactly is clemency? It was term I used to not hear quite often and when I did I never bothered to ask what it meant or what it was even associated with. Again I am not an expert on legal matters or the criminal justice system but I want to learn more about it so I can find ways to change criminal justice issues from the outside; since the inside isn’t really doing the best. In today’s post I am going be introducing to what clemency is, how it plays out in our criminal justice system and an unfair case or two that are using clemency petitions and how you all can help. As we know, many offenders get sentenced away for an excessive amount of years based on a non-violent crime they have committed and most of the sentences are very problematic.

By these offenders being put away for an unnecessary amount of time, especially for a first time offense, it really is damaging to the prisoner and their families. Being locked up for a nonviolent crime you committed for more than 25 years seems a but extreme and the prisoner going through this can really have a tough time, mentally in there. Those who are hit hardest are offenders who are single parents with young kids, they have now lost their only guardian, have little to no money and just no one to rely on for the next 25 plus years of their lives.According to American Progress organization website, “Clemency is a mechanism for granting a person convicted of a criminal offense relief from a court-ordered sentence or punitive measure.” There are two types of methods for clemency that includes pardon or commutation of sentence. A pardon exempts a convicted individual from any remaining punishment or future consequences stemming from a conviction. Commutations reduce an individuals sentence either partially or fully. The clemency process is usually requested through a petition or an application process and can be granted for a multitude of reasons. States constitute the power to grant clemency but the who can do it varies; some states it is the governor in others it is an independent board. But for convictions under federal law, the U.S. constitution gives the president virtually ultimate and unlimited power to grant clemency. During President Trump’s administration he received 8,000 petitions for clemency yet he has only granted 35. To receive clemency seems like a long, hard process that can be time consuming and attorney fees really stack up.

An issue that arises with the use of clemency is that the president or state constitutions could be misusing it, either too much or not enough. Again here we can see politicians using clemency for their personal agenda; for example if they pardon a person of color they are trying to show society they care or side with minorities or will make them a priority. Or they might excuse someone that had a hefty sentence for drug offense to show they are anti drug. But according to the American Progress Organization, “most modern presidents and governors have shied away from using their powers of clemency, in part to protect against attacks from political opponents.” With politicians shying away from this jurisdiction it is more important now more than ever to grant more justified clemencies and raise awareness about cases that are petitioning for it.

Again, the first time I heard of the term clemency was from Kim Kardashian on instagram, she has a lot of people reach out to her for legal help and a case she took on was by the name of Alice Marie Johnson. Johnson is a sixty-three year old great-grandmother who was sentenced for life without parole for a nonviolent drug related crime; she “was convicted in 1996 on eight criminal counts stemming from a Memphis-based cocaine trafficking operation involving more than a dozen people” according to Harper’s Bazaar. This was Alice Johnson’s only wrongdoing to society and she was led to committing these crimes out of desperation in a hard time of her life, she had lost her job at Fedex, had gotten divorced, lost her son in a motorcycling accident and had a gambling addiction; she was only trying to make ends meet. Johnson had only a small part in this drug trafficking by relaying coded messages over the phone, she never was the leader of the operation or brokered or handled drugs, so why did she receive life in prison for such a low ranking in this operation. Johnson’s children have long petitioned for her release stating she was a model inmate and even worked in the prison hospice. Kim Kardashian received pleas from the family and hired a new team of lawyers on Johnson’s behalf. Kim ended up meeting with Trump to discuss prison reforming and sentencing and brought up Johnson’s case. Johnson was pardoned and later went on to write a memoir and speak out against prison reform.

Most recent clemency cases in the recent past year have been for less harsher sentences than Alice Johnson had and it seems like the president is just getting out of the way the minor offenses before handling the bigger ones. An example of a case that was granted clemency in late 2020 was for Gary E. Hendler. Gary was imprisoned for three years with probation for conspiracy to distribute and dispense methaqualone. Even though he was given a way lighter sentence than Alice Johnson he still received clemency, but there are many cases similar to him. What confuses me is Alice Johnson had a small, minor role in her drug offense, not even selling or distributing the cocaine, and others get off much quicker and easier. It makes me wonder again if race, gender and class play a key role into the deciding factor of who gets granted clemency. It seems the president and state governors are choosing who is granted clemency either based on how quick they can sift through the case or to fit their own political agendas.

Thanks to again more social media outrage and activism clemency petitions are surfacing more and more bringing more awareness to this aspect of the criminal justice system. Change begins from the inside and we need to make sure our current presidential and state constitutions are not abusing the power of clemency and are really taking the petitions into consideration. Maybe we need to have more comittees in each state to grant more deserving clemencies, but there needs to be significant change.

 

https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/criminal-justice/reports/2020/05/01/484300/clemency-101/

https://www.harpersbazaar.com/celebrity/latest/a20968667/who-is-alice-marie-johnson-kim-kardashian-prison-reform/#:~:text=Johnson%20was%20convicted%20in%201996,than%20two%20decades%20behind%20bars.

https://www.justice.gov/pardon/pardons-granted-president-donald-trump

Death Penalty being used unjustly…

The death penalty is a very hot and cold topic, some people are totally for it while others completely oppose it no matter what; but then you have those in-between people who say it depends on the situation. I really do not know a whole lot on the death penalty and what jurisdictions call for it, except homicide cases, but I feel the sentencing it whirling around social media a whole lot now and I want to be more aware about the issue. I know social media isn’t the best way to get information or learn, but it does get the job done of being an amazing platform to spread awareness about injustices, especially Instagram. What caught my eye was a post from the Kim Kardashian; she is currently studying for the Bar exam to become a lawyer and she uses her huge platform on Instagram to describe unfair cases that get sent to her that include hefty sentences or sometimes even the death penalty for non-violent crimes. Her and many other smaller accounts post links for petitions for pardoning a death penalty. I would read some of the cases that involved inmates receiving these sentences for minor crimes in the long run and was just very confused by the whole process. I also learn from many of these cases death sentences are being used so freely because of the gender, race or class bias from the people deciding on them. From my point of view, like myself and others respectively around the same age, I think this a topic we should all be well accounted for and be informed more about.

I am here to evaluate what crimes are receiving the death penalty and what outside factors are contributing to those decisions. The death penalty, also known as capital punishment is a state regulated homicide of a person as punishment for a crime. Not all states have capital punishment as a sentencing instead they reside to life in prison. For the states that do use capital punishment, it is used for the following non-violent offenses: treason, aggravated kidnapping, drug trafficking, Aircraft hijacking, placing a bomb near a bus terminal, espionage, aggravated assault by incarcerated, persistent felons or murders and criminal enterprise. Looking at statistics found on the Death Penalty Information Center you can evidently see the significant decrease in state and federal sanctioned capital punishment executions and sentences from the last 40 years; but this still doesn’t excuse the unfair cases that are suffering from it.

With the introduction of COVID19 to the United States, it forced the closing of courts all over the nation for a while, which delayed many cases. The United States was on track “for a sixth consecutive year of 50 or fewer new death sentences and 30 or fewer executions.” according to “The Death Penalty in 2020: Year End Report”. The United States ended up with only 18 executions for the 2020 year, due to COVID19 and the current presidential administration coming to an end, many of the death sentence cases were resolved rashly with a political agenda behind it. Under previous presidential administrations, the federal death penalty has either be used to lightly or too harshly, always with a political motive behind it which is one of the reasons why it is used with misconduct. For example, Trump’s administration was all for punishing high crime and anyone who didn’t obey the law and he utilized that to his fullest extent, considering, “the Trump administration had carried out more federal executions in a calendar year than any presidency in the 20^th or 21^st centuries and had scheduled more executions for the transition period between presidencies than had ever been carried out in the history of the United States.” It is evident to see that it is wrong to bring in your personal political agenda when it comes to dealing with federal court cases with capital punishment; you are dealing with other’s lives here someone should rightfully be getting what they deserve but the decision should’t be overlooked so quickly. It is not a task to check off your list, it is a serious matter that needs to be looked at from all directions with a generous amount of time. The criminal justice system is very tricky to work around but with strong public voice I think great changes can be made.

Another way executions and death sentences are being used harshly correlate with a race bias. A case that really caught my eye in the latter part of 2020 that I have some say on was the case of Julius Jones, which also happens to be the one I mentioned earlier about Kim Kardashian posting a petition for clemency. Jones was sentenced “for the 1999 murder of a prominent white Oklahoma City businessman during a carjacking. The case presents significant questions of innocence, official misconduct, and racial bias.” according to another article on Death Penalty Information Center. In Jones case there was a heavy control of racial bias used against him, having a stereotypical ideology that African American men are involved in violent street crime, with no evidence to support it. There was though evident use of racial bias tendencies by his lawyer who did not properly defend him and the jury on the case where they would call Jones racial slurs and dehumanize him, again they chose a death sentence for him based on their personal agenda. Julius is still on death row in solitary confinement awaiting his execution day but there is still time to stop it. The petition that has been circulating on Change.Org is demanding clemency for his sentence.I think clemency is a great solution for getting rid of the death penalty in unfair cases and is usually brought about by family members trying to save their convicted family members life and is amplified with the power of the public. Clemency is a term for reducing the penalties for a particular crime without actually clearing your criminal record. Not every clemency petition is granted but they do occur often.

I want to discuss more cases in the future but next post I will be looking to talk more about clemency petition capital punishment cases for non-violent crimes. For now I think an important take away would be that people in power are imposing to use executions and death sentence to fit their own personal agendas and morals and it needs to be stopped. Hopefully with a new presidential administration in power we see a better control on how cases are handled and better unbiased choices of who are handling them. It all stems from the top of the food chain and that’s where progress needs to be made.

 

https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/facts-and-research/crimes-punishable-by-death/death-penalty-for-offenses-other-than-murder

http://www.clearupmyrecord.com/pardon-vs-celemency.php#:~:text=Clemency%20is%20a%20general%20term,actually%20clearing%20your%20criminal%20record.&text=A%20pardon%20is%20meant%20to,appropriate%20for%20the%20crime%20committed.

https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/news/nfl-season-begins-with-players-outspoken-about-death-penalty-racial-justice