NOVEMBER - Key Persons
Prosecutor Antonio Piña said his records show that he lacked evidence to convict Mr. Wood. He said he let Mr. Canuteson go because he pleaded guilty to an unrelated charge.
Barbara Fair has seen the injustice of the drug war touch her children's lives, her community and the state of Connecticut. Today she is a volunteer organizer in New Haven, within her state and sometimes afar. Babara's efforts to organize the citizens of New Haven against drug war injustice are carried in the local headlines in her community, and some her organizing work is featured in the documentary, Up the Ridge, a US Prison Story.
November Coalition members got to know her on the Journey for Justice in autumn of 2002, she was one of the organizers who promised to put together an event for the Journey, if Nora and Chuck could include their community of New Haven, Connecticut. She hosted, hands down the best event of the months long, 30,000 mile Journey for Justice. Since that time we are the ones having a hard time keeping up with her but we give it our best shot. Barbara is one of the leaders of People Against Injustice.
The Drug War has hit Rachel's family hard. She desperately wrote to her legislators and other drug law reform groups seeking guidance and assistance for her loved ones. No one responded to her pleas for help. She became discouraged and lost hope.
While visiting a family member in federal prison, Rachel heard about The November Coalition. Through TNC, she found the support and hope that she was seeking to help her understand and unite efforts to one day change the drug laws. Through this work, Rachel has a positive outlet for her frustrations and is setting an example for her children to not lie down for injustice but become active and fight for a better and safer future for all of us.
Job Titles:
- Dallas County District Attorney
Dallas County District Attorney Bill Hill has asked Gov. Rick Perry to free a man who tested positive for marijuana once while on probation for robbery and was sentenced to life in prison.
Job Titles:
- State NAACP First Vice President
Job Titles:
- Senior Editor of the Razor Wire
Chuck Armsbury, Senior Editor of The Razor Wire, earned a bachelor's degree in 1965 and as a graduate student at the University of Oregon in the late 1960s, taught sociology, joined the civil rights movement, and served time in federal and state prisons.
Clarence Aaron is 41 years old now and pictured here with his sister.
Job Titles:
- Columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle Who Has Lobbied for Aaron
- Writer for the San Francisco Chronicle Features Clarence Aaron for Another Holiday Message.
Debra Saunders, a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle who has lobbied for Aaron's release and written about in him several columns, said she thinks Aaron stands a chance with Obama in the White House.
Eric Sterling, former counsel for the House Committee on Judicial Affairs and president of the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation, attended the April hearing and recently told FOXNews.com: "They are thinking very differently about this offense and how it should be punished.
Tyrone Brown was a victim of a malicious form of racial double standard and should be released from prison, claim The Texas State Conference of NAACP Branches. They are reaching out to the public for assistance in seeking that release.
Under the command of state president Gary Bledsoe, Bob Lydia, State NAACP First Vice President and former Dallas branch president is coordinating the effort to persuade the State Board of Pardons and Paroles to recognize Brown's case and order his release.
"I thank God for those people," said Nora Brown, Brown's mother. "Bob Lydia told me, 'I will work with you until your son is free.' He has been there to lift me up."
Brown, an African American, is serving life in prison, while John Wood, a White male is free, on yearly report, although he committed a more serious crime. The grave disparity was reported in an April 2006 edition of The Dallas Morning News. (Ed. See below)
Brown was involved in a $2 robbery when he was 17, and was given a 10-year probationary sentence. However, Brown violated probation by testing positive for marijuana and received life in prison. He has served over 16 years of his life sentence and remains in the Allred Unit, four miles west of Wichita Falls.
Wood murdered an unarmed male prostitute and received 10 years probation. He violated the terms of his probation by testing positive for cocaine, but his term probation was not revoked. Additionally he repeatedly violated other terms of his probation, yet an early release was sought and he is now on yearly report by mail.
"This man killed someone but my son is down there because he was smoking a joint?" Ms. Brown said in amazement.
Glenn has been an active member of the November Coalition since it's founding in Oxford Federal Correctional Facility back in 1997. Weekly, he writes legislators either to urge them to support a particular congressional bill, or to inform them of good criminal justice bills that deserve their support. He's convinced of what is true, without public pressure, the laws won't change.
Texas Governor Rick Perry signed an executive proclamation today that conditionally pardoned Tyrone's life sentence. After receiving a life sentence for smoking marijuana and enduring 16 years confined behind the walls of a Texas prison, Tyrone will walk as a free man.
Instead, he granted a conditional pardon after determining that Mr. Brown "would require supervision after he was released from prison to assist in his reintegration," Perry spokesman Ted Royer said.
John Alexander Wood's journey toward Judge Dean's courtroom began on a March evening in 1995. He picked up a 22-year-old hustler named Larry Clark on an Oak Lawn street, and they went to Mr. Wood's nearby home.
Police reports, citing Mr. Wood's statements and physical evidence, say the two men had sex, for which Mr. Wood paid $30. Afterward, Mr. Clark asked for a ride home, but Mr. Wood balked and demanded his money back. A fight ensued.
Mr. Clark ran into the back yard, which was enclosed by a high fence. Mr. Wood, using a small semiautomatic pistol, fatally shot him from behind and took the money from Mr. Clark's pocket.
Mr. Wood, who had no criminal history, initially pleaded not guilty to murder and went to trial in 1996. As jurors were about to conclude deliberations, the prosecution and defense cut a deal that Judge Dean approved: The defendant pleaded guilty to murder in exchange for 10 years of deferred-adjudication probation.
Jury forewoman Dana Toney said the plea bargain didn't change much. Jurors, she said, believed the killing was an accident, were close to convicting Mr. Wood of negligent homicide and would have been happy to put him on probation.
There is no court transcript of the case because there were no appeals, but Ms. Toney said the defense argument went like this: Mr. Wood feared Mr. Clark, who was high on drugs, and fired a warning shot that he hoped would scare the man off. He stumbled when pulling the trigger, making the gun point toward Mr. Clark.
Mr. Wood largely agreed with this summary, although he told The News that he shot Mr. Clark in the side as the man turned toward him.
"It was sort of a self-defense type of situation," Mr. Wood said. "Judge Dean understood this."
The prosecutor, Mr. Jordan, said he made his peace with the plea bargain because he expected Mr. Wood to break the rules of probation. That's because witnesses such as John Orr, the killer's landlord and employer, told authorities he had an explosive temper and once threatened to kill a co-worker.
Mr. Jordan was right about the rule breaking. But "it looks like somebody turned a blind eye," he said.
Mr. Wood successfully completed nearly three years of probation before testing positive, in March 1999, for cocaine use. It was the first in a long series of troubles, probation records show.
Two months later, at 5 o'clock in the morning, Waco police stopped Mr. Wood for a minor traffic violation and found crack cocaine on the floor of the old Ford Crown Victoria he was driving. The license plate was HOUSE 11A -- one of the numbers assigned to U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards.
All the while Mr. Wood has been free, Tyrone Brown has been behind bars. He hasn't been a model prisoner.
He started taking classes to finish his high school education, but quit. He joined a gang -- "the closest thing to my family," he said. He fought with guards, which led to solitary confinement. He flirted with suicide.
And he found out he has a daughter -- his girlfriend in Dallas, it turned out, had been pregnant when his probation was revoked. His little girl is now a teenager, almost as old as he was back when Judge Dean wished him luck in prison.
"She got past the stage where she'd cry every time she'd think about him," said her mother, Omika Saulters. Still, "she talks about her daddy all the time. She asks, 'Is he ever coming home?' "
Judge Keith Dean "contacted my office about this case several months ago, shortly after The Dallas Morning News ran a story about it," Mr. Hill wrote. "Dean told me that he wanted Brown to receive a time cut, but that he did not want to be the one to initiate it.
"I told Dean that I would join with him in requesting a time cut, but that he should be the one to initiate it because he was responsible for the sentence. Several months have passed, and Dean has not initiated the request."
Judge Dean did not respond to repeated requests for comment this week. He has previously declined to discuss the Brown case, which was featured last month on ABC-TV's 20/20 news show.
Kwame Binta is President of the Prosser-Truth Division #456 of the UNIA-ACL and
Job Titles:
- Co - Founder
- Executive Director
Nora Callahan, co-founder and Executive Director of The November Coalition, was raising two children and co-owner of an electrical contracting firm when her brother G. Patrick Callahan was indicted for a drug conspiracy in 1989. His resulting 27-year prison sentence prompted her in 1997 to heed the request of prisoners at Oxford Federal Correctional Facility in Wisconsin, Help us organize drug war prisoners and their loved ones to oppose this war. People don't know what is happening.
Nora Callahan has been noted for her grassroots leadership, sharing the 1998 Thomas Paine Award with Ralph Nader. The Society recognizes those men and women who, through their activities, promote and defend the kind of democracy envisioned by Thomas Paine and the other founders of our nation.
At the 14th annual international conference of the Drug Policy Alliance in 2001, Nora was presented the Robert C. Randall Award for Achievement in the Field of Citizen Action, honoring those citizens making democracy work in the difficult area of drug law and policy reform.
Oxford Assistant Chief Ron Herbowy, who investigated the killing, said: "You couldn't help but like the boy. You almost felt sorry for him."
Teresa Aviles may never learn what finally killed her son while in custody of the Bureau of Prisons. Why was medical treatment denied for months until her first-born child was unable to walk, speak or eat? Moreover, as a black man, why was he identified as 'white' on his death certificate? Was it Isidro's body the coroner examined or that of another? Teresa was even forbidden to speak with the Mayo Clinic physician who knew why her son was dying. Errant laws and rogue conduct resulted in the shameful conviction, the negligent incarceration and the untimely death of this mother's son.
I am writing you this letter on behalf of my good friend Tony Cartwright. I met Tony at General Electric about 8 years ago. He was my superintendent at nights, and not only that, he was like a father figure. He kept me straight, helped me out with money, and kept me in a job. Because while I worked nights I went to school during the day. So I had a difficult time working, but Tony helped me right along.
Tyrone Brown is serving a life term at the maximum-security James Allred Unit near Wichita Falls. His case has drawn national attention. Judge Dean changed that to a life sentence after the one marijuana violation. The district attorney's office made no sentencing recommendation regarding the violation, court records show.
The contrasting case was that of John Alexander "Alex" Wood, a well-connected man who shot an unarmed prostitute in the back in 1995 and pleaded guilty to murder. Like Mr. Brown, he had no adult criminal record and got 10 years of deferred-adjudication probation.
Tyrone Brown's story began on a February night in 1990. A child-abuse victim and high school dropout from Oak Cliff, he was roaming the upper Greenville Avenue area with another 17-year-old.
They spied Bill Hathaway walking home from his restaurant job. According to police and court records, Mr. Brown's friend pointed a pistol at Mr. Hathaway and demanded money. (In an interview with The Dallas Morning News, Mr. Brown said he was the one who held the gun.
The records say Mr. Hathaway handed his wallet to Mr. Brown, who removed the cash -- two $1 bills. The victim asked for his wallet back and got it.
The men parted ways. Mr. Hathaway called police, who quickly caught the two robbers nearby and returned his money.