Pennsylvania has an abominable record in relation to the police and black
people. This is one case I haven't heard of, but it's like one in hundreds and
we have heard of many of them. And in case we forget, there's always the police
fire bombing of the Move community which was national news. And at the time,
without the ability to read background articles about that case, like most
people, I heard it on the news and it just went right by me.
miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Roger Loran Bailey ;
(Redacted sender "rogerbailey81" for DMARC)
Sent: Sunday, May 21, 2017 10:25 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Jimmy Dennis: Free at last!
https://socialistaction.org/2017/05/20/jimmy-dennis-free-at-last/
Jimmy Dennis: Free at last!
/ 15 hours ago
June 2017 Jimmy DennisBy JOHN LESLIE
On May 13, Jimmy Dennis was released after more than 25 years in prison for a
crime he didn’t commit.
The crime and the frame-up
On Oct. 22, 1991, Chedell Williams and her friend, Zahra Howard, went to the
Fern Rock Transportation Center in Philadelphia to buy a transpass.
Outside of the station, they were accosted by two men who demanded Williams’
gold earrings. As the two young women tried to flee, one of the men shot
Williams, killing her, and took her earrings. The men fled in a car driven by a
third person.
Police soon focused their investigation on a young aspiring gospel and R&B
singer, James “Jimmy” Dennis. After hearing that he was a suspect, Jimmy went
to the police station, and was turned away. On Nov. 23, Jimmy was arrested. No
witnesses could identify Jimmy from photo arrays, but he was charged, tried,
and convicted, and sent to Pennsylvania’s death row.
Jimmy’s’ conviction was won by the prosecution on the basis of five witnesses.
There was no physical evidence tying him to the crime. No gun was ever
recovered and Jimmy was never found to be in possession of a firearm. There
were no forensic tests for gunshot residue on Jimmy’s clothing. No fingerprint
evidence was found linking him to the crime, and the earrings were never
recovered. The car used in the crime was never found; in spite of the fact that
several witnesses gave descriptions of the vehicle and at least one provided a
partial license plate number. Jimmy Dennis never owned a car and had no
driver’s license.
The appeal and Judge Brody
In 2013, Federal Appeals Court Judge Anita Brody heard Jimmy’s case. In her
decision, the judge gave the District Attorney’s office 180 days to either set
Jimmy free or retry him. The resulting appeal delayed justice for Jimmy for
years.
Brody ruled that “James Dennis was wrongly convicted and sentenced to die…there
can be no question that the Commonwealth violated his right to due process…”
The judge upheld Jimmy’s petition “on the basis of exculpatory and impeachment
evidence that the Commonwealth improperly withheld from the defense at the time
of the trial, in violation of Brady v Maryland.”
Brody wrote: “Dennis’ conviction was based solely on shaky eyewitness
identifications, the testimony of a man (Thompson) who said he saw Dennis with
a gun the night of the murder, and a description of clothing seized from the
house of Dennis’ father that the police subsequently lost before police
photographed or catalogued it. In short, Dennis’
prosecution was based on scant evidence at best. In the process, the
Commonwealth covered up evidence that pointed away from Dennis.”
This withheld evidence was a failure to reveal the existence of a witness who
identified others as the real killers (Frazier), the failure to reveal to the
defense a receipt in the possession of cops that would have confirmed Jimmy’s
alibi (Cason), and the failure of police to follow up on the allegation that a
witness, Zahra Howard, had said she knew the shooter from high school.
Prosecutors also concealed credible evidence of the identities of the real
killers.
“Police and prosecutors also failed to turn over a series of documents relating
to the statement of William Frazier with detailed, credible information about
the murder—even though police turned over numerous tips and statements relaying
neighborhood rumors. Frazier, an inmate in the Montgomery County Jail, gave a
statement … relaying a phone call he had had with two friends who told him that
they and a third friend had committed the Williams murder. … Police failed to
investigate fully Frazier’s claims and the defense never learned of Frazier’s
statement until a decade after trial.”
Further, “shortly after the murder, that she recognized the shooter from her
high school, and that two people she knew, ‘Kim’ and ‘Quinton,’ were there.” A
“police activity sheet” relating to these statements “was never turned over to
the defense. There is no question that this statement was helpful to the
defense and that it was suppressed by the Commonwealth” (all quotes in the
above are from the Judge’s decision, unless otherwise noted).
It is unconscionable that District Attorney Seth Williams chose to appeal
rather than admit that the DA’s office had perpetrated a miscarriage of
justice. Williams, once touted as a “progressive,”
delayed justice for Jimmy for years. Now, Williams himself faces numerous
charges of corruption and malfeasance.
Jimmy is not the only one. The criminal justice system is rife with corruption
and prosecutorial misconduct. The Philadelphia DA’s office is famous for the
exclusion of people of color from juries and sending a disproportionate number
of people to Pennsylvania’s death row. The city of Philadelphia has sent 11
times more people to death row than Pittsburgh and has sentenced more people to
die than 28 out of 38 states with the death penalty.*
Police and prosecutors are key to the maintenance of the regime of mass
incarceration that targets and imprisons Black and Brown people at a
disproportional rate. More than six million people, more than were enslaved in
the pre-Civil War South, are either in prison or under the supervision of the
criminal “justice” system. One in 10 Black men in their 30s are in prison or
jail every day.
It’s time to abolish the current prison system. All non-violent offenders
should be released immediately, their records expunged, and alternatives to
incarceration put in place—alternatives that emphasize treatment, education,
and rehabilitation. Crime under capitalism is primarily the result of a system
that distributes wealth to the richest and leaves the poor and oppressed to
scramble to survive. Under capitalism, the state serves to keep the oppressed
and exploited in check by any necessary. This includes police violence and the
threat of prison and jail.
*“Executing Justice: An Inside Account of the Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal,”
by Daniel R Williams, p 202.
This article is reprinted with permission from resistancemarxistjournal.com.
Photo: Jimmy Dennis (ctr.), soon after his release, stands with his core legal
defense team.
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May 20, 2017 in Black Liberation, Prisons, Police & FBI.
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