Posts Tagged ‘Politics’
Pardon for Boxing’s First Black Champ?
ABC News has a story about Jack Johnson, America’s fist African-American heavyweight champion, who was sentenced to prison nearly 100 years ago for having a relationship with a white woman. New York Representative Peter King and Arizona Senator John McCain are leading the campaign for a presidential posthumous pardon for Johnson. The two Republican politicians have yet to receive a response from President Obama, acknowledging, “I don’t want to sound critical because he (Obama) does have Afghanistan.”
Johnson was extremely controversial in his time for his dominance in the boxing ring paired with his public pursuance of white women. His dominance provoked the search for “The Great White Hope,” a white boxer that could defeat Johnson. In 1910, after seeking a fight for years, Johnson fought and won against James Jeffries, the white heavyweight champion sparking riots and violence throughout the country. After testimony from a former white lover, Johnson was sentenced to prison of the newly passed Mann Act, which made it unlawful to transport women across state lines.
The US Justice Department has refused to grant a posthumous pardon claiming that the already strained resources of the department would be better spent on people who could benefit from a pardon now. McCain believes that though the pardon may not be granted to Johnson soon, it will be granted eventually saying, “Even though it takes us way, way, way too long, are willing to do what we can to correct injustices that were committed on any of our citizens.”
Read the full article HERE.
Posted by hcdmedia
Guantánamo to Illinois
Illinois is in the midst of a heated debate as it seems that an almost empty super-maximum prison in northwest Illinois, The Thomson Correctional Center, is the Obama administration’s top pick to transfer the almost 100 detainees to out of Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The US government has not officially bought the prison, however officially proceedings have begun in Illinois. The state and the nation are clearly divided on this issue as demonstrated in an article posted today on the Chicago Tribune, in which both the republican and democratic candidates running for Obama’s former seat in the US Senate were asked about the transfer. All six democratic candidates agreed that there was little risk bringing the detainees to the super-maximum prison, as no one has ever escaped at this security level and the detainees from Guatánamo would have even an extra layer of security beyond that. The democrats further argue that the transfer could create hundreds of jobs in a struggling area of the country. Republicans argue that the transfer is a security threat and disagree with the closing of Guantánamo altogether. Their opponents believe that any opposition to the transfer is merely fear mongering in the hopes of political gain. A bipartisan legislative commission in Illinois is scheduled to hold a public hearing on the matter on December 22.
Read more about the possible transfer here, here and here.
Posted by hcdmedia
Voices of Guantanamo gathered in poetry book
Marc Falkoff, an assistant law professor at Northern Illinois University, collected series of poems from the prisoners of Guantanamo after their release, and has created a book composed of their voices.
Some of the poems were scratched onto walls of the prison, but many remembered their own work by heart in the fear that they would be wrongfully regarded as terrorist codes.
Read more of the story here.
Posted by hcdmedia
Death Row Inmates Get Reprieve with Racial Justice Act
Behind the Obama controversy over his nationality, North Carolina is also getting attention for a law trying to “combat racial disparity in sentencing.” The racial judicial act will allow many minorities to try for an appeal on a base of bias. Several other states have policies to prevent racial bias in the trial process, such as in jury selection.
Though many feel that this law would further increase equality in the courtroom, some worry that the law would make prosecuting offenders much more difficult.
Read more here.
Posted by hcdmedia