Everyday Injustice

It started with the murder of Fred Hampton in 1969 but tracks the Chicago Police torture cases which started with Andrew Wilson, a death row prisoner who was tortured by officers including the infamous Area 2 Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge.

Attorney Flint Taylor who was in his early 20s in 1969 was there for it all and captures it beautifully in the book, "The Torture Machine," which he notes has a double-meaning, first the literal machine used by Burge and his men at Area 2 and second, as a metaphor for the notorious Chicago Political Machine headed by Daleys.

The account is extraordinary and the scope is mindboggling. The Wilson case occurred in 1982 after he was forced to confess to the 1982 murder of two Chicago police officers, and the account ends (but not court matters) in 2015.

In an age of phony conspiracies like QAnon, the notion that Fred Hampton was assassinated by the FBI and Chicago police is amply backed with documents, many of them uncovered during the 1971 burglary of the FBI Field Office in Media Pennsylvania and others turned over by the Church Committee's 1976 report on the illegal activities of the FBI.

Taylor remains an excellent chronicler of these unthinkable events that he personally helped to bring to the surface. The torture scenes are reminiscent of something out of Abu Ghraib. The uncovering of the torture and subsequent false confessions was a key reason that former Governor George Ryan put a moratorium and ultimately commutted all the Illinois death sentences, ending the death penalty.

Cristine Soto Deberry is former Chief of Staff under both SF District Attorney George Gascon and Chesa Boudin as well as Deputy Chief of Staff to Gavin Newsom when he was Sacramento Mayor.

In the fall, she became executive director of the Prosecutor's Alliance, a non-profit seeking to bring reform the criminal justice system as an alternative to the California District Attorney's Association.

Four California DA's are members - representing nearly one-third of the California population - Chesa Boudin (San Francisco), George Gascon (LA), Diana Becton (Contra Costa), and Tori Verber-Salazer (San Joaquin).

Deberry on Everyday Injustice discussed the reform movement as well as recent pushback against both Boudin and Gascon.

Taking on the policies of the incumbent DA and Sheriff, JoAnn Walker, a SF Police Officer, and Pamela Price, a Civil Rights Attorney are running for Alemeda County Sheriff and DA as a team.

Walker has been a police officer in San Francisco for over 25 years and is looking to bring change to the Alameda County Sheriff, taking on issues like police reform and the Santa Rita Sheriff.

Pamela Price is running a second time, after losing to Nancy O'Malley in 2018, she is looking to bring things like bail reform, police accountability and criminal justice reform to the DA's office.

Listen as they passionately discuss their candidacies on Everyday Injustice.

This week's guest on Everyday Injustice, Adnan Khan, is the Executive Director of ReStore Justice which he co-founded while incarcerated. While in prison, he inspired and helped to launch legislation that dealt with the Felony Murder Rule - SB 1437 - which we have been tracking for the last year and a half.

Khan discusses COVID and the devastation it has wrought to incarcerated populations and its intersection with mass incarceration.

Everyday Injustice features Jessica Pishko, a writer, lawyer, and consultant who focuses on sheriff accountability and jail decarceration. She is currently advising nonprofit organizations on sheriff accountability campaigns. She has a JD from Harvard Law School and an MFA from Columbia University.

In a NY Times article in 2019, she noted that sheriffs "lack even the most basic independent oversight and supervision. In most states, there are few or no ways to hold them accountable, even when they steal, lie or harm others. There are almost no civilian oversight commissions, no uniform disciplinary procedures, no reporting requirements in most states. In fact, sheriffs are generally afforded special protections like complete autonomy, a lack of term limits and the power to hire and fire at will, making it difficult to remove them from office.”

Among the Sheriffs discussed - LA County Sheriff Alex Villanueva, Sacramento Sheriff Scott Jones, Orange County and Kern County.

Baltimore City State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby joined the Everyday Injustice podcast to discuss her office's new sentencing review unit. The unit will review cases of certain incarcerated people to determine whether the office supports their release.

“Our state has a mass incarceration problem caused by lengthy and excessive sentences, which are disproportionately imposed on people of color. My office’s duty to fairness and justice does not end at sentencing. Evidence shows that people age-out of crime, and revisiting harsh sentences demonstrates our belief in rehabilitation and redemption,” said State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby. “At the same time, amid a second wave of COVID-19, I have a responsibility to protect public health by reducing the incarcerated population to prevent the further spread of this disease.”

She discussed the strong racial inequalities and also the limits of the current Maryland law to look back and release people sentenced to lengthy sentences who have aged out of the point where they represent a danger to society.

While the advent of DNA testing and the Innocence Project pushed wrongful convictions into the mainstream consciousness. There was important work done on wrongful convictions dating back well into the last century and through the work of trail blazers like Jim McCloskey with Centurion Ministries. Martin Yant's book from nearly 30 years ago marked the first comprehensive account of wrongful convictions in several decades, but predated the rise of DNA testing - and yet it in many ways it reads like it would if it were written today.

In February of 2019, longtime legendary public defender Jeff Adachi died. Taking over the position as the only elected public defender in California was Mano Raju. His first 18 months has seen not only the sudden ascent to head the office, but the COVID epidemic, a series of protests for racial reform, and a tumultuous election. Everyday Injustice discusses these and the role of being of public dfender with Mano Raju.

This week on Everyday Injustice we speak with Michael Bobelian, author of the Marel Palace who chronicles the 1968 Court battle over Abe Fortas’s nomination to elevate him from associate to Chief Justice by LBJ. The discussion has interesting parallels to this current debate over Amy Barrett's nomination that went through last week.

Bobelian argues that the Fortas battle marked the turning point in the way and manner in which these were conducted. He agrees that the media got their history wrong here - that Barrett's confirmation being confirmed was not the exception - that of Abe Fortas and Merrick Garland who were denied were.

Among the other topics of discussion: the forgotten legacy of Abe Fortas who played a pivotal role at three moments in American history, why Democrats have ended up on the short-end of the stick in their court battles and the prospect for Democrats - should Biden win the presidency - reform the court. As Bobelian points out in his book, most efforts have been disastrous and it would be a tall order to do anything that calls for a constitutional amendment.

For more information go to: davisvanguard.org

Andrew Warren was a federal prosecutor who ran for Florida State Attorney in Hillsborough County (Tampa) in 2016 and is now running for reelection. He ran as a reformer. Listen as he discusses issues of protests, police accountability and criminal justice reform.