{"id":36501,"date":"2024-09-27T13:20:55","date_gmt":"2024-09-27T20:20:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=36501"},"modified":"2024-09-27T13:20:55","modified_gmt":"2024-09-27T20:20:55","slug":"after-marcellus-williams-execution-california-reparations-leader-floats-a-long-shot-new-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/09\/27\/after-marcellus-williams-execution-california-reparations-leader-floats-a-long-shot-new-system\/","title":{"rendered":"After Marcellus Williams execution, California reparations leader floats a \u2018long shot\u2019 new system"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By\u00a0Bob Egelko<\/a>, Courts Reporter Sep 25, 2024 (SFChronicle.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Marcellus Williams was executed by the state of Missouri on Tuesday despite objections from prosecutors and the family of the woman he was found guilty of killing.The Innocence Project<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the wake of Missouri\u2019s execution of a Black man over the objections of both the current prosecutor\u2019s office and the victim\u2019s family, a California civil rights lawyer who led the state\u2019s reparations task force says it\u2019s time to resurrect a federal court system that was briefly installed after the Civil War to hear the cases of the formerly enslaved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMarcellus Williams\u2019 case reveals how the criminal legal system continues to fail descendants of American slaves,\u201d attorney Kamilah Moore wrote Tuesday in a now-deleted post on X, formerly Twitter. By using its constitutional authority to establish \u201cspecialized courts,\u201d she said, \u201cCongress could guarantee fair trials, unbiased juries, and proper evidence handling for Black Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Politically, it\u2019s \u201cprobably a long shot,\u201d Moore acknowledged Wednesday. But she said historical precedent, and Williams\u2019 execution Tuesday, drove her to advocate a dramatic remedy to racism in the legal system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moore was the chair of the California Reparations Task Force<\/a>, which worked from 2020 to 2023 on proposals to atone for California\u2019s treatment of slaves \u2014 the state\u2019s first governor, Peter Hardeman Burnett, was a slaveholder, and its laws required runaway slaves to be returned to their owners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The task force\u2019s report<\/a>, released last year, included extensive proposals to make the legal system more fair to African Americans and other vulnerable populations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The recommendations included repealing California\u2019s death penalty and three-strikes law that greatly extended prison sentences for repeat offenders; eliminating cash bail; removing legal barriers to lawsuits against police for violating civil rights; closing 10 state prisons within five years; and ending what the report described as racially biased treatment of Black adults and juveniles in state custody. The state\u2019s voters have approved three strikes, rejected legislation to abolish bail and defeated two initiatives to abolish the death penalty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Williams was convicted of the 1998 murder of Felicia Gayle, a former St. Louis newspaper reporter who was white. There was no physical evidence against Williams, but two witnesses said he had admitted the fatal stabbing. The jury was made up of 11 white members and one Black member.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Williams\u2019 claim of innocence drew support in January from the current St. Louis County prosecutor, Wesley Bell, who said in court papers that the two prosecution witnesses\u2019 credibility was questionable and that Williams was not the source of footprints or hairs found at the crime scene, or of DNA on the knife. Members of Gayle\u2019s family also opposed the execution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Williams eventually agreed with Bell\u2019s office to plead no contest to the murder, without admitting guilt, in exchange for a life sentence. But Missouri\u2019s attorney general, Andrew Bailey, vetoed the agreement, Gov. Mike Parsons denied clemency, and the U.S. Supreme Court voted 6-3 Tuesday to allow the execution to proceed. Williams, 55, was put to death by lethal injection 90 minutes later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among other things, Moore said Wednesday, the case reflects the inadequacy of the current judicial system to address racial issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s among many \u201ccases we\u2019re seeing in southern states where legislators and Republican governors are allowing Black people, brown people, to be executed\u201d despite serious questions about their guilt or their prosecution, she asserted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Legislature, two bills that would have taken significant steps toward implementing cash payments to descendents of slaves failed last month<\/a>. But Moore said eight other bills supported by the Reparations Task Force are awaiting Gov. Gavin Newsom\u2019s signature, including one that would express the state\u2019s formal apology for its conduct during and after the Civil War.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another task force measure will be on California\u2019s November ballot as Proposition 6, which would repeal a provision in the state Constitution that allows \u201cinvoluntary servitude\u201d \u2014 forced labor without pay \u2014 in state prisons and jails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moore said the new court she\u2019s now proposing would be modeled on the judicial system created by the Freedmen\u2019s Bureau, established by the federal government as part of the War Department in 1865 to assist formerly enslaved Blacks and impoverished whites after the Civil War. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the former Confederate states, she said, any legal cases involving a formerly enslaved person were tried in the Freedmen\u2019s Courts, with judges from the War Department. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The courts drew little support from President Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Abraham Lincoln after his assassination, and were shut down in 1868. But Moore said they provided a \u201cbrief moment in the sun\u201d and, according to a legal study she has reviewed, could be revived today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Constitution\u2019s 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery, also authorized Congress to \u201ceradicate any lingering badges or incidents of slavery,\u201d Moore said. She also noted that cases arising in U.S. areas populated by recognized Native American tribes are now heard in tribal courts, separate from state courts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A modern-day Freedmen\u2019s Court \u2014 more inclusively titled the \u201cFree People\u2019s Court,\u201d Moore said \u2014 could review civil and criminal cases that have been brought by or against a descendant of the formerly enslaved. The presiding officer, she said, \u201cwould have to be a federal judge who doesn\u2019t have any clear bias,\u201d regardless of the judge\u2019s race or ethnicity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And long shot or not, she said, changes are needed in the legal system in light of strong evidence that Black people are disproportionately affected<\/a> by arrests, convictions and severe sentences, including the death penalty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s needed is \u201ca coalition of attorneys to put pressure on Congress to create these courts,\u201d Moore said. \u201cIt\u2019s not pie in the sky.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reach Bob Egelko: begelko@sfchronicle.com; Twitter: @BobEgelko<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sep 25, 2024<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Bob Egelko<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

COURTS REPORTER<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bob Egelko has been a reporter since June 1970. He spent 30 years with the Associated Press, covering news, politics and occasionally sports in Los Angeles, San Diego and Sacramento, and legal affairs in San Francisco from 1984 onward. He worked for the San Francisco Examiner for five months in 2000, then joined The Chronicle in November 2000.His beat includes state and federal courts in California, the Supreme Court and the State Bar. He has a law degree from McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento and is a member of the bar. Coverage has included the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978, the appointment of Rose Bird to the state Supreme Court and her removal by the voters, the death penalty in California and the battles over gay rights and same-sex marriage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Bob Egelko, Courts Reporter Sep 25, 2024 (SFChronicle.com) Marcellus Williams was executed by the state of Missouri on Tuesday despite objections from prosecutors and the family of the woman he was found guilty of killing.The Innocence Project In the wake of Missouri\u2019s execution of a Black man over the objections… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36501"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36501"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36503,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36501\/revisions\/36503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}