Source: Creative Service / Reach Media
Black people being convicted of crimes they never committed is a tragedy shown time and time again. From stories like the Central Park Five to the Scottsboro Boys, headlines are full of individuals finally being released after many years behind bars.
A 2017 study by the National Registry of Exonerations confirmed that blacks are more likely to be wrongfully convicted of murder than any other group.
At just 14 years of age (in Gary, Illinois), guest Johnnie Lee Savory was sentenced and spent 30 years in prison. These years behind bars serves as more than two thirds of his entire life.
Savory explains, “You take 30 seconds to take a person’s life, [then] you take 30 years to give it back to them, then you want them to wait another 5-10 to actually receive compensation–what you consider is compensation–for what you took from them”.
He is joined by a civil rights attorney Rev. Dr. S. Todd Yeary, ESQ. who explains the importance of dismantling this system of injustice. Yeary guides us through how we can hold the states accountable and support this cause.
A bombshell study in 2017 confirmed what Black people had long known to be true: that Black people are more likely to be wrongly convicted of murder than people from any other group. To add insult to the injury of wrongful convictions, innocent Black people waited years longer than the average time it took a white prisoner accused of the same crime to be exonerated.
“It’s no surprise that in this area, as in almost any other that has to do with criminal justice in the United States, race is the big factor,” Samuel R. Gross, a University of Michigan law professor, told the New York Times.
Of course, the so-called Central Park 5-turned Exonerated 5 are perhaps the most widely recognized instances of Black people being cleared following wrongful convictions. They were the group of Black and brown teens who were falsely accused and imprisoned between five and 12 years stemming from false allegations of raping a white woman in the 1980s.
For more information about the Savory Innocence Tour and supporting victims of false imprisonment visit www.savoryinnocencetour.com.
HEAD BACK TO THE RICKEYSMILEYMORNINGSHOW.COM HOMEPAGE
SEE ALSO:
Exonerated! Wrongly Convicted Black Folks Whose Names Have Been Cleared
144 Black Men And Boys Killed By Police
Wrongfully Convicted Black Man Seeks To Raise Awareness For Victims Of False Imprisonment was originally published on rickeysmileymorningshow.com
