Boy Found in Chicago

The body of a boy was found in an SUV on Chicago's west side. There has been no confirmation at this time that it is Jennifer Hudson's nephew, but it is highly likely that it is Julian King. How does someone take the life of a child, any child, and be able to live with themselves afterward? Whoever this child is, he had nothing to do with what was happening in the lives of the adults around him, however he has paid the ultimate price. I am not a death penalty proponent, but sometimes I think I might have it all wrong, especially when it comes to the death of children at the hands of adults.

A co-worker and I were discussing the missing boy at work over the weekend. He stated that the FBI was called in because of Jennifer Hudson's celebrity status. I am under the assumption that anytime their is a missing child the FBI are obligated to join the search. Whose right me or my co-worker? To read more details click here

Jennifer Hudson's Mother and Brother Found Murdered

Academy Award winning actress Jennifer Hudson (Dreamgirls and The Secret Lives of Bees) mother and brother, Darnell Donerson, 57, and Jason Hudson, 29, whose bodies were found Friday afternoon in their home on the south side of Chicago. The actress's 7 year old nephew, Julian King is missing. According to news reports the incident is a result of domestic abuse and the police are questioning several people in connection with crime. I feel badly for Jennifer and the rest of her family in this difficult time. Let's keep her in our thoughts and pray for the safe return of her nephew. For more on the story click here.

O. J. Convicted

The jury reached a decision after deliberating for more than 13 hours. O. J. Simpson has been found guilty on all charges in the gunpoint robbery of two sports memorabilia dealers in a Las Vegas casino hotel room more than a year ago. Simpson faces up to life in prison. Simpson, 61, and a golfing buddy, Clarence "C.J." Stewart, 54, each face five years to life in prison if convicted of kidnapping, or mandatory prison time if convicted of armed robbery. They pleaded not guilty to 12 charges, including conspiracy, coercion and assault with a deadly weapon. Deliberations began 13 years to the day after Simpson was acquitted of killing his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman, in Los Angeles.

Prosecutors alleged Simpson planned — and Stewart helped carry out — a plot to retrieve personal items that Simpson lost after squirreling them away to avoid turning them over to Goldman's family to satisfy part of a $33.5 million civil wrongful death judgment levied in 1997 by a California court. Four men who accompanied Simpson, Stewart and a middle man to the Palace Station casino hotel for the Sept. 13, 2007, confrontation later pleaded guilty and testified for the prosecution. Thomas Riccio, the man who arranged and secretly recorded the meeting, testified under immunity from prosecution.

I had no doubt that O. J. would be convicted. I feel he was tried for the 1994 murders of his Brown and Goldman. I’ll bet you that plenty of people are feeling vindicated tonight. It took 13 years to the day to finally convict him of the murders. Your thoughts people.

R Kelly Boycott

Spellman history professor, William Jelani Cobb has thrown down the gauntlet, challenging Black men to become protectors of their prospective communities (read story here). He is circulating a petition entitled “Statement of Black Men Against The Exploitation of Black Women. Do you agree it is about time that Black men speak out against exploitation of women and children or should we just leave R. Kelly alone? I for one think that it's about time that someone stood up! Please take the poll on the left.

Kelly Acquitted!

R. Kelly was acquitted of all charges Friday after less than a day of deliberations in his child pornography trial, ending a six-year ordeal for the R&B superstar. Kelly dabbed his face with a handkerchief and hugged each of his four attorneys after the verdict — not guilty on all 14 counts — was read. The Grammy award-winning singer had faced 15 years in prison if convicted. Minutes later, surrounded by bodyguards, he left the courthouse without comment. Dozens of fans screamed and cheered as he climbed into a waiting SUV. It reminds me of the Boondocks episode “The Trial of R Kelly”, which took place over two years ago. The outcome was exactly the same, with Kelly getting off without a hitch.

I have to say I am not surprised. I made a 1.00 bet with my cousin in Milwaukee that Kelly would be acquitted, and so I called to collect. After she asked me not to rub it in, she stated that she realized he wouldn't be convicted when the young lady, who was thirteen at the time of the alleged incident, was denying that it was her on the video. I believe she was probably paid (handsomely) not to divulge any information about her encounter with R.

Now you might say that I am talking like he is guilty. Well, duh! Of course he is! I don't care what the jury found, R Kelly is guilty as charged. As we have all learned over the years, prosecuting a celebrity in the country is damn near impossible. Offhand I cannot remember a celebrity being sent to jail since Mike Tyson in the early 1990’s. With all the adult women in the world, I hope R Kelly comes out of the closet (pun intended) and stop fooling around with underaged girls.

The month long trial centered on whether Kelly was the man who appears on a sexually graphic, 27-minute videotape at the heart of the case, and whether a female who also appears on it was underage. Over seven days presenting their case, prosecutors called 22 witnesses, including several childhood friends of the alleged victim and four of her relatives who identified her as the female on the video.

In just two days, Kelly’s lawyers called 12 witnesses. They included three relatives of the alleged victim who testified they did not recognize her as the female on the tape. Assistant Cook County State’s Attorney Shauna Boliker said she believed the female on the tape was a victim, not a prostitute as the defense had contended.

The star prosecution witness, Lisa Van Allen, became teary eyed as she told jurors she engaged in several three-way sexual encounters with Kelly and the alleged victim, including once on a basketball court. Kelly videotaped the trysts, she said. Van Allen also claimed Kelly used to carry a duffel bag stuffed full of his homemade sex tapes. The defense called several witnesses in a bid to discredit Van Allen, accusing her of trying to extort money from Kelly. Under cross-examination, Van Allen admitted she once stole Kelly’s $20,000 diamond-studded watch from a hotel.

Old and Ailing Man Extradited

I am very interested in criminal justice or lack of criminal justice in the judicial system. Sometimes our moral and ethical judgment is tested in the interest of so called justice. In Raleigh, North Carolina an ailing 81-year-old man who escaped from a Maryland prison 43 years ago was taken into custody Friday to face extradition, a move his attorneys decried as a waste of time because he is ill and aging. Willie Parker, who suffers from several health problems, only served about a quarter of his sentence for robbery with a deadly weapon before escaping in 1965. He was tracked down in February as part of a Maryland effort to clear outstanding warrants.

Parker, who has been living in North Carolina, was unexpectedly arrested during a court hearing Friday and was held for about an hour before extradition documents arrived from the governor’s office. The question becomes why are they wasting our time with this old man? Parker is now a sick old man, requiring hospitalization at times, which the state of Maryland would have to pay the cost for if he is detained.

The Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, said Maryland officials will decide how much time he owes once he is returned. It is reported that he would essentially pick up where he left off; however it appears that he would be eligible for parole since he served a quarter of his sentence. He was arrested after Maryland authorities reviewing old case files discovered he had a North Carolina driver's license. U.S. Marshals found Parker in bed at a home in rural Clinton, a town south of Raleigh, where he was being cared for by a nurse. He suffers from diabetes, heart trouble, hepatitis and stroke complications.

I get the fact that this guy is a fugitive from justice albeit almost a half century has passed since his escape. I frankly cannot fathom what can be gained by arresting this man. He is no longer a threat or danger to anyone and would more than likely be a burden on the taxpayers of the state of Maryland. Have I got it wrong? Should he pay for his crime regardless of his health and age? Let me know your thoughts.

Supreme Court Ruling Aimed At Reducing Racial Disparity

The Associated Press reports that on Monday the Supreme Court ruled that judges may impose shorter prison sentences for crack cocaine crimes, enhancing judicial discretion to reduce the disparity between sentences for crack and cocaine powder. By a 7-2 vote, the court said that a 15-year sentence given to Derrick Kimbrough, a black veteran of the 1991 war with Iraq, was acceptable, even though federal sentencing guidelines called for Kimbrough to receive 19 to 22 years.

In a separate sentencing case that did not involve crack cocaine, the court also ruled in favor of judicial discretion to impose more lenient sentences than federal guidelines recommend.The challenges to criminal sentences center on a judge's discretion to impose a shorter sentence than is called for in guidelines established by the U.S. Sentencing Commission, at Congress' direction. The guidelines were adopted in the mid-1980s to help produce uniform punishments for similar crimes.

The cases are the result of a decision three years ago in which the justices ruled that judges need not strictly follow the sentencing guidelines. Instead, appellate courts would review sentences for reasonableness, although the court has since struggled to define what it meant by that term. Seventy percent of crack defendants are given the mandatory prison terms. Those convicted of crimes involving crack are overwhelmingly people of color.

Kimbrough's case did not present the justices with the ultimate question of the fairness of the disparity in crack and powder cocaine sentences. Congress wrote the harsher treatment for crack into a law that sets a mandatory minimum five-year prison sentence for trafficking in 5 grams of crack cocaine or 100 times as much cocaine powder. The law also sets maximum terms.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, writing for the majority, said, "A reviewing court could not rationally conclude that it was an abuse of discretion" to cut four years off the guidelines-recommended sentence for Kimbrough. Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas (surprise, surprise) dissented. It seems that Thomas has no ambition to help people of color, especially black people, but I digress (check out his book in the library).

The Sentencing Commission recently changed the guidelines to reduce the disparity in prison time for the two crimes. New guidelines took effect Nov. 1 after Congress took no action to overturn the change. The commission is scheduled to vote Tuesday afternoon on the retroactive application of the crack cocaine guideline amendment that went into effect on Nov. 1. The commission has estimated 19,500 inmates could apply for sentence reductions under the proposal.

The Lena Baker Story

Tichina Arnold ("Everybody Hates Chris", "Martin") will be starring in an independent film entitled "The Lena Baker Story" about the first and only Georgia woman to be sent to the electric chair. First of all I am totally against the death penalty under any circumstances. The main reason is that it is a barbaric and outdated way to deal with crime. Secondly, it does not deter crime because those who commit crime do not think they will get caught and many people actually do not get caught.

Another problem with the death penalty is that some people on death row are not guilty, which brings me back to Ms. Baker. It seems that this woman was used for sex (raped) by her employer regularly and when she finally got the nerve to fight back she ended up killing him which led to her being convicted (by an all white, male jury) and sentenced to death. Although she proclaimed her innocence, stating that she acted in self-defense, she was executed. Sixty years after her execution she was pardoned by the Governor of Georgia.

Although justice came far too late for this mother of three, her story can help to illustrate what is wrong with the United States justice system. The same problems that existed sixty years ago still persist today. People of color continue to bear the brunt of an justice system that often times simply does not work . Some people say that the time has come to move on and not focus on the past. I beg to differ, “Those who are unaware of history are destined to repeat it" - George Santayana. I welcome any comments you might have.