PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "
For much of her life, Ida avoided the South because in 1892, after she wrote about three Black men who were lynched for opening a grocery store that competed with a white-owned grocery store in Memphis, her newspaper was destroyed by a white mob. She was threatened with lynching if she ever came back to Memphis. But about 20 years later, she returned to the South, determined to continue her investigative reporting. In 1919, white mobs murdered an estimated 50 to 200 Black people in Elaine, Arkansas, over a two-day period of widespread violence — the event is now known as the Elaine Massacre. But local officials did the unthinkable. They lied and spread the false narrative that members of the Black community had planned an insurrection and incited violence. Dozens of Black people were arrested and twelve Black men — all of whom were innocent — were sentenced to death by all-white juries with almost no deliberation. Ida risked her life to interview the men on death row to expose the injustice and reveal the truth. Thankfully, in part because of her reporting, all 12 men were acquitted with the help of the NAACP, which Ida also co-founded. She spent her life advocating for equal justice and because of all her work, Memphis is putting up a statue in her honor today. But the fight for freedom and equality is not over."
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POST: Innocence Project: "Ida B. Wells' commitment to justice still inspires us," published by Black Star News on July 26, 2021.
GIST: "Today would be Ida B. Wells’ 159th birthday, so we want to take some time to talk about the civil rights icon and share the story of how she risked her life to help save 12 innocent people, and how her fierce commitment to justice inspires us still today.
Born into slavery in Holly Springs, Mississippi, Ida B. Wells was freed by the Emancipation Proclamation as a baby. She lost her parents at just 16 years old and moved her family to Memphis, Tennessee for work, where she eventually became the co-owner of and journalist at the Memphis Free Speech and Headlight newspaper, covering racial segregation and inequality.
For much of her life, Ida avoided the South because in 1892, after she wrote about three Black men who were lynched for opening a grocery store that competed with a white-owned grocery store in Memphis, her newspaper was destroyed by a white mob. She was threatened with lynching if she ever came back to Memphis. But about 20 years later, she returned to the South, determined to continue her investigative reporting.
In 1919, white mobs murdered an estimated 50 to 200 Black people in Elaine, Arkansas, over a two-day period of widespread violence — the event is now known as the Elaine Massacre. But local officials did the unthinkable. They lied and spread the false narrative that members of the Black community had planned an insurrection and incited violence. Dozens of Black people were arrested and twelve Black men — all of whom were innocent — were sentenced to death by all-white juries with almost no deliberation.
Ida risked her life to interview the men on death row to expose the injustice and reveal the truth. Thankfully, in part because of her reporting, all 12 men were acquitted with the help of the NAACP, which Ida also co-founded.
She spent her life advocating for equal justice and because of all her work, Memphis is putting up a statue in her honor today. But the fight for freedom and equality is not over.
Today, in Tennessee, a Black man named Pervis Payne is still facing many of the same injustices that Ida fought against. Pervis has been on death row for 33 years for a crime he’s always said he didn’t commit. And he’s facing execution even though he has an intellectual disability, which makes it unconstitutional to execute him. He was accused of attacking a white woman, and at his trial in Shelby County, which includes Memphis, the prosecutor played up racial stereotypes to paint Pervis as a violent drug user even though there was absolutely no evidence to support this.
So today, in honor of Ida B. Wells’ birthday, please help continue her work of fighting for the truth by speaking up for Pervis right now.
Sign this petition to support Pervis and help spread the word about his case.
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The entire story can be read at:
https://www.blackstarnews.com/us-politics/justice/innocence-project-ida-b-wells%E2%80%99-commitment-to-justice-still
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PUBLISHER'S NOTE"
As Reporter Katherine Burgess reports in 'The Memphis Commercial Appeal, at the link blow, Pervis Payne appears at a hearing on a motion regarding his intellectual disability claim..."Pervis Payne appears at hearing for first time since 2007: "Death row inmate Pervis Payne was present in court Friday for the first time since 2007. He attended a hearing in Memphis on a motion by the state to allow inmate evaluation and records review in the case of whether Payne is intellectually disabled, which would make him constitutionally ineligible for the death penalty. He was allowed to dress in normal clothes, a suit purchased for him by his sister Rolanda Holman. “It felt amazing for me to be able to see him in this day and time and outside of those prison whites. I looked at him and said, ‘Boy, you look dapper,'" Holman said. Payne’s legal team opposed a portion of the state’s motion that had requested to interview corrections officers at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, where Payne is incarcerated. They also opposed the state’s request to view records maintained by the Department of Corrections, saying the records were “confidential and protected from disclosure by a host of federal and state laws.” I will be keeping an eye in developments. Stay Tuned!
Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.
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PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog; -----------------------------------------------------------------
FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they’ve exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
