Home
Refresh   Tag(s): ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; (more...) ; ; ; ; ; ; ;  (less...)
Add to My Group
May 9, 2009 at 12:59:50

View Ratings | Rate It

Promoted to Headline (H3) on 5/9/09:

Criminal Injustice System In Action / American Violet

submit to twitter
submit to reddit
submit to digg

Tell A Friend

By Allen L Roland (about the author)     Page 1 of 1 page(s)

opednews.com     Permalink

For OpEdNews: Allen L Roland - Writer

American Violet tells the tragic story of the American Criminal Injustice System where people who are poor are swept into the criminal justice system on low-level crimes and offered plea bargains when they should not have been arrested in the first place: Allen L Roland

Nearly 95% of all cases resulting in felony convictions never reach a jury. They are instead settled through plea bargains in which a defendant agrees to plead guilty in exchange for a reduced sentence ~ even though they may be innocent.  

PBS's FRONTLINE June 2004 did an expose ( THE PLEA ) on the implications for a justice system that relies on pleas to expedite justice and found the system deeply flawed and unjust. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/plea/etc/synopsis.html

Mary Stone was one of thousands who wrote letters to Frontline on their 90 minute film ~ " I work as a court clerk in a rural northern California county, in the family law branch of the court. Even in that court, I see what appear to be grievous miscarriages of justice. I believe that if you look squarely at the cumulative injustice - in family court, traffic court, child support, civil and criminal courts - you cannot avoid confronting the basic dysfunction of our justice system. Its bad enough that it exists to the degree it does, but the web of woes that arises from it is exponentially worse. There IS an elephant in our living room."

And that elephant is that we live in a society where Black men have a one in three chance of being imprisoned at some point in their lives and we imprison 756 people per 100,000 residents, a rate nearly five times the world average.

The recently released movie AMERICAN VIOLET graphically tells the story of the Criminal Injustice System in action.

Based on true events during the 2000 election, AMERICAN VIOLET tells the astonishing story of Dee Roberts (critically hailed newcomer Nicole Beharie), a 24 year-old African American single mother of four young girls living in a small Texas town who is barely able to make ends meet.

While police drag Dee from work in handcuffs, dumping her in the squalor of the women’s county prison, the powerful local district attorney (Academy Award nominee Michael O’Keefe) leads an extensive drug bust, sweeping her housing project with military precision. Dee soon discovers she has been charged as a drug dealer.

Even though Dee has no prior drug record and no drugs were found on her in the raid, she is offered a hellish choice: plead guilty and go home as a convicted felon or remain in prison, jeopardizing her custody and risking a long prison sentence.

Despite the urgings of her mother (Alfre Woodard), and with her freedom and the custody of her children at stake, she chooses to fight the district attorney. Joined in an unlikely alliance with an ACLU attorney (Tim Blake Nelson) and a former local narcotics officer (Will Patton), Dee risks everything in a battle that forever changes her life and the Texas justice system.

A must see expose on the American Criminal Injustice system and its implications for all Americans.                                              

American Violet - Official Trailer / Three minutes http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qv8Jq09qU1Q

Allen L Roland
http://blogs.salon.com/0002255/2009/05/09.html

 

Take action -- click here to contact your local newspaper or congress people:
REFORM AMERICAN JUSTICE SYSTEM

Click here to see the most recent messages sent to congressional reps and local newspapers

http://www.allenroland.com

Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website more...)
 

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author
and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.

Contact Author Contact Editor View Authors' Articles

 

Book Recommendations for "ACLU American"
In Defense of American Liberties, Second Edition: A History of the ACLU
by Professor Samuel Walker

$27.50
Lowest New Price $17.93

Number of pages: 536
Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press

A Nation Under God?: The ACLU and Religion in American Politics
by Thomas L. Krannawitter

$27.95
Lowest New Price $6.97

Number of pages: 264
Publisher: Rowman

Americans United, ACLU oppose council prayers in Virginia Country. (People

$5.95

Number of pages: 2
Publisher: Americans United for Separation of Church and State

View All Book Recommendations

Share this page: (what's this?)                   Tell a Friend: Tell A Friend

FACEBOOK      DIGG THIS      Add This Page to Mr Wong!           NEWSVINE      DEl.ICIO.US      Looksmart Furl      NETSCAPE      My Web      Tag!RawSugar      Blink List     (More...)

Comments: Expand   Shrink   Hide  
2 comments
To view all comments:
Expand Comments
 

The America None Want To See by arlen custer on Monday, May 11, 2009 at 12:19:29 PM
The Grand Jury process is the remedy by Patrick on Monday, May 11, 2009 at 1:46:09 PM

 
Want to post your own comment on this Article? Post Comment


 

 

 

Tell a Friend: Tell A Friend

Copyright © 2002-2009, OpEdNews

Powered by Populum