This story illustrates the corrupt environment created by the use of snitches.
By Christopher Moraff - In These Times
Levon Jones is supposed to be dead.
If the state of North Carolina had its way, Jones, 49, would have been strapped to a gurney years ago, hooked to an IV and pumped full of a lethal, three-drug cocktail until he asphyxiated.
Instead, on May 2, he walked out of prison a free man after spending 13 years on death row, and another 24 months locked up awaiting retrial — all for a murder he almost certainly did not commit.
Jones — known to friends and family as “Bo” — was released with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union’s (ACLU) Capital Punishment Project after the prosecution’s star witness recanted her testimony against him. (Lovely Lorden, a former girlfriend, admitted she’d collected $4,000 in reward money in exchange for testifying against Jones.)
He was an easy target: an African-American ex-con with a history of mental illness and violent behavior. When Lorden came forward with her story — a full three years after the 1987 shooting of a local bootlegger named Leamon Grady — Jones was doing time on an unrelated assault charge.
The prosecution felt little obligation to question the veracity of Lorden’s claim. And if the witness is to be believed today, investigators actually helped her keep her story straight.
As a result of Lorden’s testimony — and despite the lack of physical evidence tying him to the crime — a jury convicted Jones in 1993 and he was sentenced to die for Grady’s killing.
What Jones’ attorneys didn’t know at the time — and, as it turns out, didn’t really bother trying to uncover — is that Lovely Lorden had made something of a career out of testifying against people close to her. By her own admission, she has aided law enforcement in dozens of investigations and says she helped police make cases against several other boyfriends, as well as her own brother and sons.
What’s more, her work as a confidential informant didn’t stop after Jones was sent to death row. Jones’ attorneys sent In These Times copies of receipts that show Lorden was paid money at least seven times for her work as a confidential informant from December 2003 to April 2004, while Jones sat in jail.
Today, Lorden contends she testified against Jones under pressure from the police, in particular Dalton Jones (no relation), the lead officer in the case. Read the full story at In These Times
When healthy Baron "Scooter" Pikes suddenly died soon after he was arrested and tasered, there is a sense of something terribly wrong in the little backwoods town of Winnfield, Louisiana. Corruption and cover-ups are just the beginning of this story.
Winnfield, LA - The official website for this little backwoods town boasts,
In some ways, visiting the city of Winnfield, Louisiana is like taking a step back in time.
This couldn't be more true. On the 17th of January this past year, Barron Pikes was walking along a street, when Officer Scott Nugent stopped him, and tried taking him into custody because of an arrest warrant citing him for possession of drugs. Pikes took off running but was cornered by another police officer who subdued him in front of a grocery store. Pikes resisted arrest and Nugent subdued him with a shock from a Taser. Read the full story a Digitaljournal.com .
Just Environment radio show launched Friday July 11. The urban talk radio program will integrate diverse perspectives on environmental issues. Broadcasting weekly at noon on WCLK 91.9, "The Jazz of the City," and live online at www.wclk.com , the the radio show will feature informative discussions of problems and solutions for healthy, sustainable lifestyles. The jazz stylings of Jarez, from his CD release "To the Top" will provide the musical signature for the show.
Click on "Just Enviornment" below to hear the show.
Although I have to say Senator Clinton looked and acted quite plesant during Unity, I hope she is not Senator Obama's choice for Vice President.
Here's a cute column on the disUnity at Unity.
Unity was spared the banality of unanimity.
Carmella Lewis, with her Hillary T-shirt and Hillary placard, came all the way from Denver to make sure there would be plenty of ambiguity, duality and ferocity in Unity.
Just as Hillary was testing out the unfamiliar familiarity “Barack and me” Friday and talking about “his grace and his grit,” Carmella began loudly booing and waving her sign.
“We want Hillary!” screamed the 57-year-old retired ad saleswoman and Clinton delegate.
I was wondering when someone was going to talk about the attack on Michelle Obama and the lack of response from so-called feminists. Thanks to Gary Flowers, executive director of the Black Leadership Forum for exposing the card carrying feminists for what they really are. There were a handful that did speak out on Mrs. Obama's behalf but for the most part, the pro-women don't care if Mrs. Obama is attacked. Do you think it's because she doesn't wear pant suits?
Michelle Obama: Ain't She A Woman?by Gary L. Flowers, NNPA
Sororal treatment has linked Sojourner Truth and Michelle Obama in history.
In 1843, a domestic servant in up-state New York whose given name was Isabella Van Wagenen changed her birth name to one that would reflect her mission in life - Sojourner Truth.
In 1843, a domestic servant in up-state New York whose given name was Isabella Van Wagenen changed her birth name to one that would reflect her mission in life -Sojourner Truth.
Her life's journey would lead her to be revered for her stature, intellect, and fearlessness. Like Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth was one of the first Black feminists to publicly assert that Black women should be viewed as total human beings. Read the full story here
WASHINGTON (AFP) — Michelle Obama, the wife of the presumptive Democratic contender for the White House, has come under fire for being allegedly unpatriotic, pushy, even racist.
She has been called her husband's "bitter half" and "Mrs Grievance" by conservative media, who claim she harbors a grudge against whites and is forever moaning.
....The hour-long appearance on ABC Television's "The View" won the towering mother of two (Obama is five feet, 11 inches -- around one meter 82 centimeters) heaps of praise for everything from her dress sense to her intelligence.
"She comes across as incredibly bright," Frank Settipani, a cancer doctor and haematologist from Colorado told AFP of the Princeton and Harvard educated Obama.
Thyra Lees-Smith of Los Angeles said in an entry on Obama's Facebook page that she was "the picture of graciousness, style and extraordinary intelligence" on The View. Full story here
The Huffington Post has a video of Sen. John McCain saying "I didn't really love America until I was deprived of her company." McCain made the stateent in an interview on Fox News on March 13, 2008. Watch the video at The Huffington Post.
So much for the smear campaign against Michelle Obama.
After Senator Obama won the Democratic nomination, he and his wife gave each other a "pound" in front of the cameras—a Fox anchor called it a "terrorist fist jab." Then last week, a Fox News on-screen graphic referred to Michelle Obama as "Obama's baby mama"—an attempt to associate the Obamas with racist stereotypes.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sen. Barack Obama is leading Sen. John McCain in the crucial swing states of Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida, according to a new survey.
Obama lost the Democratic primary in Pennsylvania by 9 percentage points. But a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday shows him leading McCain by 12 points, 52 to 40 percent.
In Ohio, a state Obama lost to Sen. Hillary Clinton by 10 points in March, he's leading McCain 48 to 42 percent.
And in Florida, where he did not campaign this primary season and lost an unsanctioned Democratic contest, he leads McCain 47 to 43 percent.
The Ohio and Florida results are reversals from Quinnipiac polls published a month ago, when Clinton was still in the race and McCain led Obama in hypothetical match-ups.Read it here
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