Insurmountable evidence of Legal Injustice..

In March 2006, Thomas “Nat” Allen, of Morristown, TN, was convicted of murder and sentenced to Life in prison, despite there being no physical evidence linking Thomas to the crime, only 2nd party hearsay testimony from admitted drug addicts, all of whom were incarcerated or facing jail time, at the time.

Along with there being no physical evidence against Thomas, there was also an insurmountable amount of errors in the trial, including several jury members being allowed to participate despite having personal history with Thomas. Another major issue is that the presiding Judge, had extremely personal history with Nat’s deceased grandmother, and mentioned it several times throughout the trial.

There are too many technical errors to list here, but the bottom line is that Nat Allen deserves and is legally entitled to a new trial, a proper trial he should have been given in the first place. Thomas continues to profess his innocence. He has continually been denied a new trial, despite all these errors. Please grant Thomas “Nat” Allen a new trial.

Thomas Nathaniel “Nat” Allen, a 34 year old proud father of 3; two girls and finally a boy. He was born and raised in Morristown Tennessee and everyone that knows him, knows he is a good, kind-hearted person who would give you his last dime if you needed it.

Before this invasive interruption in his life, Thomas worked for a living managing his own concrete company, inherited from his father, Tom’s Concrete.

He loved spending time with his 3 children, and his family & friends. He is an avid golfer and has won many golf tournaments.

On Nov 3rd, I wrote a post about Hank Skinner, who was about to be executed on Nov 9, even though all evidence in his case was not DNA tested.

-Similar case of Injustice, read more & please sign petition-

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted a stay of execution to death row inmate Hank Skinner Monday.

Multiple items from the crime scene have not been tested for DNA. The stay will determine whether the law allows the DNA to be tested.

Skinner, 49, was convicted of the 1993 deaths of his girlfriend and her two sons in Pampa, Texas. A group of current and former lawmakers, judges and lawyers called on Texas Gov. Rick Perry to order the testing of DNA to “ensure certainty.” Skinner came within one hour of execution in March 2010 before the U.S. Supreme Court issued a stay.

Perry, who is running for the Republican presidential nomination, has declined to express an opinion about the upcoming execution, saying only that it’s a matter for the courts.

The Huffington Post’s Radley Balko reported on the Skinner case last week:

There is DNA from the crime scene that could exonerate Skinner — or could affirm his guilt — that has never been tested. That includes blood from the murder weapon, blood from a jacket left in Busby’s home, a rape kit taken from Busby, scrapings from under Busby’s fingernails and hairs she was clutching at the time of her death — hairs that likely came from her killer. For more than a decade, Hank Skinner’s legal team has tried to get that evidence tested, at no cost to the state of Texas. And for more than a decade, the Texas 31st District Attorney’s Office has refused.

Skinner isn’t exactly a poster boy for wrongful conviction. He had previously been convicted of assault, and by his own admission he was at the scene of the crime the night of the murders. Skinner’s neighbor and ex-girlfriend told police that Skinner came to her home after the crime and implicated himself, then rattled off a number of contradictory stories.

But Skinner has maintained from the night he was arrested that he was passed out from a mixture of alcohol and codeine when the murders were committed. His defense team has produced testimony from toxicology experts who say Skinner had far too high a concentration of the drugs in his system for him — a slight man at the time — to have killed an adult woman and her two adult sons. At best he was groggy. He was likely unconscious. The state did conduct DNA testing on blood smears on Skinner’s shirt, which matched two of the victims. But that could be consistent with Skinner’s story, which is that he woke to find the bodies and tried to jostle the victims to see if they were still alive.

Skinner’s lawyer, Rob Owen, issued a statement on the stay Monday:

The Court of Criminal Appeals with its decision today, has ensured that Mr. Skinner’s request for DNA testing will receive the thorough and serious consideration it deserves. We are grateful for the Court’s action and look forward to the opportunity to make Mr. Skinner’s case for DNA testing in that forum.

Darryl Hunt was convicted twice of a 1984 North Carolina murder he didn’t commit. After DNA results proved his innocence in 1994, it still took 10 years of legal appeals to exonerate him.
See similar case of Nat Allen. We’re fighting to get him a new trial.
The Crime
In the early morning hours of August 10, 1984, Deborah Sykes, a 25-year-old copy editor at a local newspaper, was raped and murdered on the outskirts of Winston-Salem, NC. Sykes had been on her way to work; she was stabbed 16 times. She was found naked from the waist down and tests revealed that there was semen on her body, indicating that she had been raped.

The Investigation and Identification
A man called 911 that morning to report an attack and identified himself as Sammy Mitchell. When police talked to Sammy Mitchell the next day, they also spoke with Hunt, who was Mitchell’s friend. Mitchell told police he hadn’t called 911 that night. Another man, Johnny Gray, eventually told police he had made the call.

A local man came forward and told police he had seen Sykes with an African-American man on the morning of the crime. When that man described a person who matched Darryl Hunt’s description, police arranged a photo lineup. The witness tentatively identified Hunt as the man he had seen with Sykes.

Johnny Gray had identified a different man (who was in jail on the day of the crime) in a first photo lineup, but after Hunt had been identified as a suspect, Gray identified him as well.

After this, Hunt’s girlfriend was arrested on outstanding larceny charges. She initially told police that she was with Hunt on the night of the crime and that he couldn’t have done it. Now, under arrest, she told police that Hunt had admitted to her that he committed the crime. She recanted before trial, but prosecutors presented her statements to the jury nonetheless.

The Trials
Hunt was tried for first-degree murder in the Sykes case. Eyewitnesses brought forth by the prosecution testified that they had seen Hunt with the victim before the crime or that they had seen Hunt enter a local hotel and leave bloody towels behind in the restroom. Hunt testified on his own behalf that he didn’t know the victim and had nothing to do with the crime. The jury deliberated for three days. They convicted Hunt and he was sentenced to life in prison.

On appeal, the North Carolina Supreme Court overturned the conviction because prosecutors had introduced Hunt’s girlfriend’s statements after she had recanted them. Hunt was released on bond in 1989. With the trial pending, Prosecutors offered Hunt a plea bargain – he could be freed and sentenced to time already served (five years) in exchange for a guilty plea. Hunt rejected the offer and faced a second trial.

He was retried in rural Catawba County before an all-white jury. The main eyewitnesses from the first trial testified again, and two jailhouses snitches testified that Hunt had admitted guilt to them while in prison. The jury deliberated for less than two hours and convicted Hunt of first-degree murder. Again, he was sentenced to life in prison. He had been free for 11 months.

Post-Conviction
Hunt’s original trial attorney, Mark Rabil, worked on the case for nearly 20 years. After the second conviction, in which Rabil was part of a larger defense team, Rabil and another attorney, Ben Dowling-Sendor, filed for DNA testing in the case. In October 1994, DNA results came back. Hunt’s DNA did not match the semen found on the victim’s body at the crime scene. Despite the results, however, Hunt’s appeals were rejected. Judges found that the new evidence did not prove innocence. Repeated appeals met the same fate.

Exoneration
Finally, in 2004, 19 years after Hunt was convicted and 10 years after he was first excluded by DNA, the DNA profile from the crime scene was run in the state database, at the request of Hunt’s attorneys. The results matched a man incarcerated for another murder. Hunt was exonerated and freed in 2005.

Willard E. Brown, the man whose DNA matched the profile at the crime scene, has since pleaded guilty to the murder of Deborah Sykes.

I received an email today from Change.org , and it dumbfounded me, shocked me, angered me, and hurt me all in one.

Here’s the email:

Hank Skinner is scheduled to die on November 9. But the state of Texas may execute him without even conducting DNA tests on all of the evidence from his trial, despite a decade of requests from Hank and his lawyers.

Hank has been on death row since 1995 for the murders of his girlfriend and her two adult sons, and has steadfastly professed his innocence. Since his conviction, the star witness against Hank has recanted her testimony, and others have implicated another man as the killer.

Hank has just 8 days to live. His family created an organization called “Justice 4 Hank,” and they’re fighting for a DNA test for Hank. They started a petition on Change.org asking the Gray County District Attorney and the courts to order full DNA tests to determine if Hank is actually guilty — and to prevent Texas from possibly executing an innocent man. Click here to add your name to the petition.

At the time of his trial, the prosecution conducted DNA tests on the clothes Hank was wearing — but declined to test the rest of the physical evidence, including a rape kit, the murder weapons, several hairs clutched in the victim’s hand, and a bloody windbreaker that strongly resembles that of the man accused by others of being the true murderer.

Since the year 2000, Hank has been requesting that the office of the District Attorney that prosecuted him order DNA tests on the remaining evidence. But the DA’s office has continuously denied those requests, saying Hank should have requested the tests before his trial.

The Gray County District Attorney’s office has neglected to order these tests for more than a decade without consequences. By signing this petition, you can let members of that office know that their actions are being watched, and that it is unacceptable to send a potentially innocent man to his death without collecting all the relevant evidence.

Hank could die as soon as next week. Please sign the Change.org petition created by “Justice 4 Hank” and demand the Gray County District Attorney order a DNA test on the rest of the evidence before the execution. Click below to add your name:

http://www.change.org/petitions/in-the-interest-of-justice-grant-dna-testing-to-hank-skinner

The main reason I started Just American is because I feel that “black” people should not be labeled African American, when we have never been to Africa. We were born in America, and therefore should be called Americans.  Just American! period.

I think I can speak for many “African Americans” when I say My parents were born in America, my grandparents were born in America, and so on. My descendents may have came from Africa, Europe, and many other places. Some of my descendents came from right here in America (Native Americans). So, to label me as an African is not only judgemental but is downright racist.

Don’t be so quick to label me, I am many races, and for me to have to check that one box “African American” each time I fill out a form or application, is putting me into one category, a category I shouldn’t be in anyway.

Although I would love to visit Africa, I am not an African. I am proud of my African heritage, but I am also proud of my European heritage, and my Native American heritage.

There are many fights in our quest for racial equality… we can not possibly fight them all, but we can start with 1 racial inequality and go from there.

Join me in the fight to remove “African” from “African American”. Comment, and Share this if you believe we are all 1 race, Human Race.

JA

I recently stumbled on a site called BlackCareers.com, and was completely dumbfounded at the atrocity they had to create such a site. Upon further exploration, I discovered that the site is owned be a very reputable company, CareerBuilder.com

This is completely racist and stereotypical to imply that all “Black” people should use this site, instead of the main site. I went through the site and found that the career/job opportunities are exactly the same as CareerBuilder’s  opportunities. So why the need for a sub-site such as this? Is it simply companies that are forced to oblige by Affirmative Action, and they’re in desperate need of black people?

Why would CareerBuilder.com create such an overtly racist sub company? Well I wrote them, and asked!

Here’s the response I received:

Hello,

Thank you for contacting CareerBuilder.com. My name is Edna, and I appreciate the opportunity to assist you. I sincerely apologize for any confusion or inconvenience that you may have experienced while utilizing the CareerBuilder site. Please allow me to assure you that the Diversity section of our website contains jobs for all cultures and ethnicities.

Due to the nature of our business and the reliance on partnerships, there may be times that the site may have more listings geared towards one group than another, we try to have a well-rounded group and/or selection.

CareerBuilder, as well as our partners and affiliates are equal opportunity websites and corporations and do not promote or tolerate discrimination in any form. Below you will find links to a few of our partners in Diversity.

Univision -http://www.univision.com
Univision is the leading Spanish-language media company in the United States. Their powerhouse portfolio includes Television, Radio, Music and Internet offerings that educate, entertain and inform more Hispanics each day than any other media company in the United States. Univision operations include the Univision Network, TeleFutura Network, Galavisión, Univision Radio, Univision Music Group and Univision Online. CareerBuilder will power a co-branded career site for Univision Online which receives 8 million unique visitors per month. In addition, we will power career sites on their 10 local station websites, which include Chicago, Dallas, Fresno, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Sacramento, San Antonio and San Francisco. Univision will promote their new online career site through extensive television promotional spots on their local stations and national broadcast as well through permanent links and quick search boxes throughout the UOL website.

123india.com -http://www.123india.com/
123india.com is an all-access website to Indian culture, news, and lifestyle. CareerBuilder.com powers their career channel.

AmericanIndianJobs.org -http://www.americanindianjobs.org/
AmericanIndianJobs.com is part of the US Diversity site network. US Diversity is the first service to completely automate the entire process of searching and locating diversity candidates in the United States. CareerBuilder.com powers their career channel.

AsianLife.com -http://www.asianlife.com/main/
The first and largest network of its kind, AsianLife.com is a truly worldwide, Pan-Asian online community with Asian America at its core. At AsianLife.com, Asian professionals can cultivate their careers, connect with people, and be a part of the exploding global Asian community. Free membership includes powerful networking, a global job board, relevant news and information, access to Asian Life Magazine and a calendar of professional conferences and events.

Thank you for choosing CareerBuilder.com!

There you have it! They had the nerve to send me more links to more racist sub-sites. AsianLife.com , AmericanIndianJobs.org, etc..  Wow! What a company. CareerBuilder.com is a mega company with ALOT to lose. Why would they delve into such sensitive waters?

If you want to express your unhappiness with BlackCareers.com you can leave them feed back here.

JA

You’ve noticed the little check boxes on nearly every form or application, that asks for your race. The two that bother me the most are “African American” and “Caucasian”. I’m sure you know how I feel about the “African American” term, when we were born right here in America.

But another flaw in this categorization is that Caucasian does NOT mean White, yet all white people check it. I looked up the term Caucasian, you can read the full description here, here’s what I found:

The term Caucasian race (also Caucasoid, Europid, or Europoid) has been used to denote the general physical type of some or all of the populations of Europe, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, Western Asia (Middle East), Central Asia and South Asia. Historically, the term has been used to describe the entire population of these regions, without regard necessarily to skin tone.

There you have it! Most of us with Northern Africa roots, like me, should be able to check “Caucasian”. For that matter, I think I’ll start checking all the boxes of races that my parents & ancestors are.

Why are we categorized in the first place? There are tons of people who look another race, so what good is categorizing?

This is all peculiar to me, and if you think about it, and research it long enough you’ll begin to find more disturbing theories behind why we are clumped into one racial category or another. There’s just no GOOD reason to do it!

JA