DNA proves black males are innocent

Time for US to find another scapegoat

Jill Russell - russeljv@plu.edu Mast Op-ED Columnist

And it happened again.

DNA testing has freed another black man from a life trapped in the federal justice system. Imprisoned for 27 years, James Lee Woodard was released from his sentence, with an apology from the state of Texas.

An apology.

Woodard refused to take parole some years earlier because he would have to admit that he was in fact guilty. The judge told Woodard that his choice “spoke volumes about his character.”

What does a false conviction and botched trial say about the character of the state of Texas? What does it say about the character of the Federal Justice system? What does it say about the character of the United States?

Since DNA testing became available in 1989, 216 men have been exonerated from prison. Sixteen of those men were exonerated from death row. Most of these men are taken out of society in the prime of their lives. The average age of conviction was 26. Most of these innocent men sat in their cells for decades before they were given the opportunity to have a DNA test preformed.

One hundred and thirty-two of these 216 men were black men.

Is it any wonder why the larger majority of the U.S. black community has a legacy of mistrust and skepticism for the justice system in our country?

What about the story of another innocent black man? Billy James Smith. He was accused of raping a woman at knife point. He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. There were no eyewitnesses or physical evidence linking him to the crime. And Smith had a valid alibi—someone who testified on his behalf at his trial. His fate was sealed when the victim’s boyfriend “positively identified” him, although the boyfriend was not actually present at the attack. It took 4 years after his initial request to obtain a DNA test. In 2006, after 19 years in prison, he was released.

Oops. Our bad. We apologize.

There has been a legacy of institutional racism that has built up this pattern of easy blame. Past generations have dubbed these black men as dangerous, raping criminals. They have been branded with a scarlet “S” for “scapegoat” and became easy targets for these types of crimes. Unfortunately, the past afforded them no justice or chance at innocence through DNA testing.

But now, things are slowly changing.

I have said it once. I will say it again.

We need a change.

We need a change in the U.S. justice system.

Although we have the technological advancement of DNA testing, black men are still overrepresented in the system.

In 2002, the United States Bureau of Justice Statistics and the Department of Justice reported that 6 in 10 inmates are a racial minority.

The report also concluded that 40 percent of these inmates are black.

Black people make up only 13 percent of the population of the United States, but 32 percent of that population will enter the prison system in their lifetimes.

I am not ravenously against the justice system. My brother is a police officer. I would still call the police if my home was burglarized or I was injured in some way.

What bothers me the most is that we seem so complacent and comfortable with this racial pattern. We don’t seem phased when yet another black man is pulled over in a traffic stop and has his car searched.

Situations like the Jena Six trials painfully make us aware of our system’s flaws—but only for a brief moment. After about a week, it’s forgotten, like a faded memory of a college acquaintance.

Waves of progression and advancement will continue to ebb and flow. Ideas will change, people will grow, technology will advance and systems will reform. But for men like Woodard and Smith, this change couldn’t come quickly enough.