Derrick Wheatt, Laurese Glover, and Eugene Johnson moments before being freed by the judge
Blacks 2X As Likely To Be Arrested For Contraband Though Much Less Likely To Carry Contraband
Alan: It is time to recognize -- and to teach in our public schools -- that people of color are disproportionately stopped, searched, arrested and sentenced (especially for minor-but-felonious drug offenses) far more often than their white peers even though white peers are far more likely to be in possession of drugs and other contraband.
This stop-search-imprison sequence is largely responsible for high rates of black incarceration which brings-in-tow a life-long "criminal record," making it nearly impossible to become "established in life," which, as night follow day, evokes a life of crime.
If whites were "slammed" as often as blacks -- even though whites carry contraband more often than blacks -- what would relative incarceration rates look like?
Black incarceration rates might still be higher but quite likely less than a single order of magnitude.
If whites were "slammed" as often as blacks -- even though whites carry contraband more often than blacks -- what would relative incarceration rates look like?
Black incarceration rates might still be higher but quite likely less than a single order of magnitude.
In 1995, three young men, just high school students at the time—Laurese Glover, then 17, Eugene Johnson, then 18, and Derrick Wheatt, then 17—were railroaded by the Cleveland police and prosecutors office for a murder they didn't commit. Maintaining their innocence, they served the next 20 long years in prison, but were just released after years of legal support from the Ohio Innocence Project.
On multiple occasions both Glover and Wheatt were offered a deal to serve no jail time whatsoever if they testified against Eugene Johnson, but for 20 years they refused to do so, maintaining that all three of them were completely innocent.
On Feb. 10, 1995, in East Cleveland, Ohio, 19-year-old Clifton Hudson Jr. was found murdered, shot multiple times. At the time, witnesses reported seeing a person wearing dark clothing and a dark hat at the scene. Three juveniles — Wheatt, Glover and Johnson — happened to be near the scene. But, they emphasized, when the shooting started, they sped off. All three later provided the police with descriptions of the shooter that matched the basic descriptions given by other witnesses. But in a twist of events, they were charged with the crime.
The other witnesses who reported seeing a shooter come from a different parking lot and dressed differently than any of the men convicted, were never called to testify.
Late in 2013 a break in the case came when the OIP received the police reports. The reports included information that was not raised at the original trial, including the existence of two witnesses who confirmed that the shooter came from a nearby post office lot, not the defendants’ truck. One of those witnesses even claimed he recognized the shooter as a sibling of one of his classmates. The reports also showed that unknown people in a different car had shot at the victim's brother just days before the crime, and that someone had threatened the victim himself the day before the murder. There was no known connection between any of those threats and the defendants.
While it's a beautiful that the these three brothers have been released, they've had 20 of their most important years on earth stolen from them. Will any police or prosecutors be held liable for this travesty? Will anything change that will prevent something like this from happening so easily again?
See the powerful moments when they are set free below the fold.
Here is the powerful moment where the judge sets them free and offers her blistering critique of the outrageous decision to prosecute them in the first place.
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