More than two dozen speakers over 70 minutes addressed a hundred people gathered in lower Manhattan this Monday to demand with fiery speeches that the State Governor, Kathy Hochul, sign the Wrongful Convictions Act after Many of these activists will denounce that thousands of citizens who did not commit any crime are currently still serving sentences.
Since October 2 is the International Day of Wrongful Convictions, this demonstration took place, which took place under the shadow of another trial: the one involving former President Donald Trump, in a civil trial for fraud that is being carried out in the Supreme Court of the State of New York.
And very early this rally that seeks to bring relief to those unjustly imprisoned had to move to the Living Memorial Groove on the side of City Hall since Foley Plaza, the original site of the meeting, was covered by police fences in the search. to protect order due to the presence of the former president, who usually attracts dozens of followers and detractors.
The Unjust Convictions Law, which has already been approved by both chambers and awaits only the governor’s signature, is the reason why Roger “N” attended this rally, after having been imprisoned for three years accused of a murder that he never committed: “The system works with a lot of corruption and forces convicts, and they (the prosecutors) don’t care if you are innocent or guilty,” he murmurs while the midday weather causes his face to shine with sweat.
“For some reason a large number of people who are imprisoned in the state of New York did not commit any crime,” he says when confessing why if this law is approved it will not only benefit him but will be a relief for all citizens: “The system usually condemns a majority of people who look like me” (i.e. African American and poor). “People should know that the system is corrupt because it has good prosecutors and other horrible ones, who simply judge citizens by the color of their skin, there is a lot of racism in the administration of the law,” he articulates. Roger accepts that with difficulties he has managed to get a job but that “the stigma” on his person is still present despite being exonerated because he still has a criminal record, something that would disappear with the new law. As he comments, a speaker shouts “no more stigma” in a chorus echoed by those present.
Stan German, Executive Director of New York County Defenders Services, supports Roger by considering that “the fact that we do not have this law approved is the route for citizens to plead guilty without being so.” He says it is common practice for prosecutors to tell a defendant “if you plead guilty you will go free and you will be having dinner at night with your family,” a promise that is often a deception. For the same reason, he states that in the state of New York “pleading guilty is not a path to exoneration” and rules that “there are no acceptable reasons for the governor not to sign the law this afternoon.”
Ombudsman Jumaane Williams began his speech by expressing his amazement at the 303 New Yorkers who have been exonerated after it was discovered that they were unjustly imprisoned. “Imagine the impact of those hundreds of people, on their families and communities, on their friends and neighborhood,” he asks himself before clarifying that this number of innocent exonerated people is very low since the innocent prisoners are still thousands.
He details that the criminal system is not based on justice “because rich, white Americans choose the route of the worst crimes, and remain free,” and as an example “not far from here is Donald Trump in court,” he says, pointing with his hand towards where the Supreme Court is located. He anticipates that on the other side of the spectrum, “blacks, Latinos and poor people have been put in prison for years for crimes they did not commit,” the defender claims. He reminds Governor Hochul that she was elected to govern for everyone and that a good way to show it is by signing this law that would give innocent people a way to prove that they were wrongly imprisoned.
What the law seeks
On Monday afternoon, speakers demanding that the governor sign the Wrongful Convictions Challenge Act believe that when passed, it would definitively eliminate the prohibition on pleading guilty to actual claims of innocence when there is new and credible evidence, not based on DNA, of a unjust conviction. Provide the right to discovery of post-conviction evidence and would establish a framework for the assignment of attorneys for those with wrongful conviction claims.
And New York is one of the five states in the American Union that does not grant the right to a lawyer in post-conviction cases, with two other states in the same circumstance being Texas and Alabama.
Franklyn, from the Valley House organization “accepts that despite not having a family member in prison, she says that many things have to change because it is clear that the rules are for few and not for all.” He also took up the example of Donald Trump by saying that “he is still on the street despite his crimes,” which is proof that “people with money and power are hardly imprisoned.”
Mia Pearlman Co-Leader of the organization True Blue, a sculptor and activist of many years in the state of New York, is involved in a struggle and an artistic project that seeks the exoneration of a dear friend of hers “unjustly imprisoned and for 13 years, on death row and in solitary confinement in Ohio for a crime he did not commit.” She says that her friend, who is a writer, poet and activist, is named Keith Lamar (whose execution was postponed for three years by Ohio Governor Mike DeWine). Last year this inmate released an album made from prison with the Spaniard Alberto Marques who is Pearlman’s husband, and who also on September 13 also just published “El Jazz Suena en el row de la Muerte” book by Planeta que publishing house. tells about his efforts to save this defendant. Most of the royalties from the album and the book go to the organization Justice for Keith Lamar, which seeks first to obtain a pardon and then the release and complete exoneration of Keith.
“The system needs to change radically because it has a racist and classist construction,” says Peralman, who clarifies that it is almost impossible for people of color to have access to the same tools for their defense. He says that there are also usually many foreigners imprisoned and offers horrifying data on what is happening in Ohio where there is the highest number of imprisoned people from El Salvador. And he also clarifies with surprise that “if Ohio were a country it would have the highest number of incarcerated people in the world.”
It is the same thing insisted on by Roger, a native of Brooklyn, imprisoned undeservedly and who says that “by spending years in Rikers Island prison” (one of the worst in the entire United States), his family had to invest money caring for him. their basic needs in prison, taking care of their mental health and incurring onerous and unfair legal expenses. He says with some sarcasm that, when his innocence was discovered, “I was simply released without even an apology,” which is why he asks people to understand that “prisons are full of innocent people who did not necessarily commit the crime.” What are they accused of”.
Assemblyman Harvey Epstein was another of those who showed up on International Wrongful Convictions Day to pressure Governor Kathy Hochul. “This story is repeated over and over again, so we are facing a great opportunity for tens of thousands of New Yorkers not to have to plead guilty, all in order to support their families, see their children, keep a job and not lose their homes,” says the assembly member, one of the fiercest defenders of this law.
“We are faced with a great opportunity to reverse many of those ruinous incarcerations,” Epstein finally said.
Also present were members of the Innocence Project, VOCAL-NY (Voices Of Community Activist & Leaders) and the Perlmutter Center for Legal Justice at Cardozo Law.
All in the same spirit of demanding the governor’s signature to end the torment that overwhelms thousands of families in the state.