The American INjustice System, Part Two: National Criminal Cases

*Disclaimer: This post is incredibly long as I am passionate and longwinded. I hope you’ll stick around for the whole thing. Thanks for visiting.*

In the first part I covered my depressing and degrading experience with the American INjustice System, specifically the NYS Supreme Family Court. In this second part I’d like to cover some criminal cases from around the country that have been brought to my attention. There are three cases that I’d like to touch on.

One is, of course, the Casey Anthony murder trial. However, I am not out to beat a dead horse or remind anyone of such a horrible tragedy and outrageous injustice on the part of little Caylee.

The second case is of one Marco Sauceda. He is a 30 year old man with the mind of a child who was mistaken for a burglar in his own house and subsequently convicted of evading arrest, found guilty by a jury.

The third case is of an Atlanta, GA woman, Raquel Nelson. She is a single mother of 3. Her son was hit by a drunk driver (who was also on pain meds and partially blind in his left eye), she was charged with vehicular manslaughter and found guilty by a jury. 

Let’s begin with the hugely infamous murder trial of Caylee Anthony. Personally, I believe she is 100% guilty of not reporting her daughter’s “disappearance,” wrongful disposal of a body and murder. All this time I’ve been raging against the jury for the “not guilty” verdict. How could 12 adults really and truly feel this woman was not guilty of all charges?! It’s like saying the sky isn’t blue, it’s neon pink. My sister then raised this very valid point: “The prosecutor and DA pushed to try her before they truly had enough evidence to convict her. They should have charged her with unlawful disposal of a body because then they could have held her while they gathered evidence to charge her with murder.” My sister is absolutely right. Because of double jeopardy Casey Anthony cannot be charged again for the same murder. We the public knew more about the case than the jury as they are not allowed access to media during the trial. As more evidence came to light before our eyes, they remained ignorant. So when their verdict came back we were outraged and rightly so. I challenge you to find ten people who think Casey Anthony is innocent of the worst crime against another human, much less your own flesh and blood. Forget ten, find three and get back to me. The jury, however, had no idea. Until they left the courtroom. I’d hate to be one of those jurors, wouldn’t you? As you get angrier while you’re reading this, I am not justifying any actions of anyone involved in this ludicrous show of justice. That is all this was: a show put on for the public and no real attempt at getting justice for those responsible for the murder and disgusting “burial” of a truly innocent life. Now Casey has attained celebrity status and will gain monetary rewards for her crimes. A coworker of mine said, “She’ll get hers, don’t worry. She’ll blow through her money and be out on the street and not a single person will help her. She’ll get hers.” It’s up to you, karma. It’s up to You, God.

Let’s drop that (phew!) and move on to Mr. Sauceda. A neighbor called the police reporting they had seen a black man kick in the front door of Marco’s house. Police arrived on the scene and entered the house while Marco ran into the bathroom and locked himself in. He does not speak English and like I said before, has the mind of a child. He refused to come out of hiding because he was scared. When police finally broke down the bathroom door, they used pepper spray, a pepper ball gun and wrestled him to the ground in his own living room. The prosecutor said with “police” and the Spanish “policia” being so similar the language barrier is no excuse. He could have said, “Me llamo Marco. Es me casa.” (“My name is Marco. This is my house.”) However, if strangers barged into your house screaming and yelling, where is your child going to go? He is going to run and hide! Prosecutors said his actions were consistent with a criminal and that is why they were charging him; it’s their job. Because Mr. Sauceda did not take the stand in his own defense, the sentencing judge said he found it difficult to sympathize with him. He said, “I don’t agree with the notion you are a victim in this case.” However, before issuing their verdict the jury sent the following note to Judge Flournoy:

 

“We’ve all reached a verdict. To us we feel he has been wronged. Please consider that in his sentencing.”

Without that note, Judge Flournoy says he would have sentenced Marco to six months in jail. Instead he sentenced him to 30 days in jail and a $500 fine. Mr. Sauceda’s lawyer, Mr. Ryan Deaton, intends to pursue a federal civil lawsuit against the city on Sauceda’s behalf which should take place January or February of next year. I am angry with this judge and with Marco’s lawyer. The judge had no way to know firsthand if Marco had the mind of a child without him speaking for himself. On the other hand, after such brutal force, was it really necessary to give him jail time and a fine? Why not just a fine and be done with it? And once again, I’m angry with the jury! I don’t believe for one second he was purposely evading arrest. He clearly had no real idea what was going on and felt very unsafe. If the neighbor reported a black man, why were they beating on an obviously Mexican one? Eye witnesses are often unreliable, but who confuses black with Mexican or Spanish? Ridiculous all around!

Finally, and most dear to me, is Raquel Nelson. Raquel is a black, 30 year old single mother of three: two girls and a boy. After grocery shopping at Wal-Mart with all three, she missed a public bus transfer forcing them all to wait an hour and a half for the next bus. Have you ever had to do that? I have, but not with three kids. Three tired and hungry kids. Whiney kids. So they finally get to their stop on the side of a five-lane speedway, their apartment in sight straight across said speedway. Her four year old son squirmed away from her while they were on the median waiting for cars to pass. Wouldn’t you know it, here comes a drunk driver who’d had “three or four” beers, two pain killers and was partially blind in his left eye, barreling down the road towards this little boy and his family. Ms. Nelson and her younger daughter had minor injuries and her older daughter was physically unhurt.

Recap over, the drunk driver plead guilty to a hit and run (!!!) and served six months of his two year sentence. He is currently serving five-year probation. After he’d been convicted of two hit and runs in the same day (February 17^th, 1997). He was originally charged with hit and run, first degree homicide by vehicle and cruelty to children but the last two were dropped and I haven’t been able to find out why. Raquel has been charged and convicted of homicide by vehicle in the second degree, crossing roadway elsewhere than at crosswalk and reckless conduct. (I’d like to add my sister is partially blind in her left eye due to a childhood injury, but she never drives drunk or while taking pain meds. The “partially blind” part just seems like the icing on a drunken, drugged cake.)

Never mind that the bus stop was a third of a mile from the nearest crosswalk. Never mind every single other passenger who got off at the same stop did the same thing she did and crossed in the middle of the street. Never mind all that. As David Goldberg said, “What about the highway designers, traffic engineers, transit planners and land use regulators who allowed a bus stop to be placed so far from a signal and made no other provision for a safe crossing; who allowed – even encouraged, with wide, straight lanes – prevailing speeds of 50-plus on a road flanked by houses and apartments; who carved a fifth lane out of a wider median that could have provided more of a safe refuge for pedestrians; who designed the entire landscape to be hostile to people trying to get to work and groceries despite having no access to a car? They are as innocent as the day is long, according to the solicitor general’s office.”

I signed a petition at Change.org for Ms. Nelson. It asked for her release as she was facing three years in prison and for a crosswalk at that location. At her sentencing this past Tuesday, July 26^th, Cobb County Judge Katherine Tanksle was handed this petition signed by over 140,000 people nationwide. This compassionate judge gave Raquel a choice: 12 months’ probation and community service or a new trial. This keeps this woman out of jail for now and hopefully for good and gives her the chance to clear her name before a new jury. Hopefully this jury will be made out of her actual peers. The first jury was all middle-class whites who had never taken a bus in metro Atlanta. I have and it’s a huge pain! And it was just me then!

I would like to ask you to visit Change.org and sign this petition. I have a small child and if, God forbid, anything like this ever happened, I’m not sure I’d be functional, let alone sane enough to sit through a trial basically saying I’m the one responsible for the demise of my little boy.

Out of the three stories I picked only one has a happy ending, and it’s really only a hiatus. How is it that we have come so far from compassion and common sense? What world is this that we allow a child killer to walk free while another mother who watched her son get hit by a drunk driver is convicted of vehicular manslaughter? There are so many injustices in this world that get me going. The more passionate I get, the louder I get and people laugh at my vehemence.

But how is anything ever going to change if we don’t show the passion it takes to really make a difference?