Every once in a while I get a comment from a reader that really makes me sit back and scratch my head. This week I got a comment from a reader known as Rowland who took exception to my characterization of Mississippi in my post Mississippi's Still Burning.
Here is the text of Rowland's comment:
When you find something to satisfy your personal bias, it becomes your reality. I moved to Mississippi from North Carolina within my company more than 10 years ago and find your opinion to be the exception in Mississippi. To stereotype Mississippians based on your cited examples makes you no better than the racists you denounce. Should we now assume all Texans are bigots because of your opinions of Mississippians?
I guess he took exception to my posting of the voter wearing the shirt adorned with the Confederate flag and a noose and the state's senator who said she wouldn't mind attending a lynching if a certain big money donor invited her.
I didn't even bring up the fact that the state uses the Confederate battle flag in its state flag. Now just what is that all about?
I would assume he thinks these are anomalies.
I think he assumes wrong. Just chew on this for a minute or two. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith was first in the election earlier this month with 42% of the vote. A white nationalist (otherwise known as a racist) received 17% of the vote. A run-off will be held next week to decide the race. Mike Espy, an African-American who served in Washington as a representative and Secretary of Agriculture, will seek to become the first Democratic Senator from Mississippi since the 1980's.
So nearly 60% of the votes cast went to a fringe racist candidate or to a senator who's just fine with lynching and voter suppression. That's not just a couple of people as our writer would like for you to think. That, instead, is three out of every five voters in the state.
And then we have these stats from US News and World Report (hardly a bastion of liberal journalism). Mississippi ranks dead last in the US for health care, which includes access to health care, infant mortality rates and health care enrollment. The state ranks 46th in education, 48th in economic development, 49th in opportunity for citizens to improve themselves, and 49th in infrastructure.
The state's incarceration rate is the 4th highest in the nation. There are three times as many blacks in prison in Mississippi as whites, even though blacks make up just a little more than one-third of the state's population.
I will say, I find his use of the word bigot to be quite funny. It's the kind of thing you would expect to hear out of the mouth of a child of white privilege who's upset that the system he grew up under is fading away.
Showing posts with label Mississippi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mississippi. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 20, 2018
Monday, September 17, 2018
Hardly Solomonic
In 2002, Jeffrey Havard was charged with the killing of a 6-month-old baby. The state alleged it was a clear case of shaken baby syndrome. Mr. Havard insisted he had accidentally dropped the infant.
At trial, Dr. Stephen Hayne testified that Chloe Madison Britt had clearly been shaken to death. He compared the injuries to those one would receive in a car crash or from a fall from a significant height.
If that name sounds familiar it's because he was the subject of Radley Balko's excellent book The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist (click here for my review). Dr. Hayne made his bones in Mississippi by claiming to have performed an obscene number of autopsies and giving police and prosecutors what they needed in order to obtain convictions.
This case was no exception.
Mr. Havard was found guilty and was sentenced to death. However, on Friday, Mr. Havard's motion for new trial was partially granted by Adams County Circuit Judge Forrest Johnson (a former prosecutor also mentioned in Mr. Balko's book). Judge Johnson stated that the evidence presented at the hearing wasn't sufficient for him to question the validity of the jury's verdict but, it caused him to question whether the death sentence was appropriate. As a result, Mr. Havard was removed from death row and a new punishment trial was ordered.
Last year Dr. Hayne had a change of heart. He testified at a hearing on Mr. Havard's motion for new trial and changed his opinion. He now says that the injuries to Chloe that he observed could have been generated from a short fall if the baby fell on its head.
In 2009 the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended that the use of the term shaken baby syndrome be stopped and replaced with the term abusive head trauma. This was in response to a series of studies that discredited the diagnosis.
Renowned pathologist Michael Baden reviewed the evidence and came to the conclusion that the baby's injuries were the result of a fall on her head and not from being shaken to death.
This case raises some important questions, however. While it is good that Mr. Havard's death sentence was vacated because of the testimony at the hearing on the motion for new trial, it is confounding that the original conviction wasn't vacated as well.
The state's chief witness has recanted his original testimony. He changed his theory from the baby being shaken to death to the baby dying of injuries suffered in a fall. Shaking a baby to death is clearly an intentional or knowing act -- that is murder. However, dropping a baby isn't evidence of a deliberate act. If Judge Johnson believes a death sentence is inappropriate, how does he square that with leaving the conviction in place?
It's almost as if the judge is somehow considering the change in Dr. Haynes' testimony as more of a mitigating factor. And that's just plain wrong. When the state's chief medical witness changes his opinion of the cause of death, that casts doubt upon the jury's verdict regarding Mr. Havard's guilt. Take away that medical opinion and you are left without a single witness who can testify that Mr. Havard shook the baby to death.
The only reason I can surmise for Judge Johnson's actions is that he's afraid that other convictions based on the theory of shaken baby syndrome could be placed in jeopardy if Dr. Hayne testified on behalf of the state. Maybe he's right.
But it doesn't fucking matter. Judge Johnson's job was to make a decision in this specific case based upon the evidence presented at a hearing on a motion for new trial. It was not his concern whether any other convictions could be challenged on the same grounds.
Judge Johnson's half-assed ruling just goes to show that he's more interested in politics than he is in justice.
At trial, Dr. Stephen Hayne testified that Chloe Madison Britt had clearly been shaken to death. He compared the injuries to those one would receive in a car crash or from a fall from a significant height.
If that name sounds familiar it's because he was the subject of Radley Balko's excellent book The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist (click here for my review). Dr. Hayne made his bones in Mississippi by claiming to have performed an obscene number of autopsies and giving police and prosecutors what they needed in order to obtain convictions.
This case was no exception.
Mr. Havard was found guilty and was sentenced to death. However, on Friday, Mr. Havard's motion for new trial was partially granted by Adams County Circuit Judge Forrest Johnson (a former prosecutor also mentioned in Mr. Balko's book). Judge Johnson stated that the evidence presented at the hearing wasn't sufficient for him to question the validity of the jury's verdict but, it caused him to question whether the death sentence was appropriate. As a result, Mr. Havard was removed from death row and a new punishment trial was ordered.
Last year Dr. Hayne had a change of heart. He testified at a hearing on Mr. Havard's motion for new trial and changed his opinion. He now says that the injuries to Chloe that he observed could have been generated from a short fall if the baby fell on its head.
In 2009 the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended that the use of the term shaken baby syndrome be stopped and replaced with the term abusive head trauma. This was in response to a series of studies that discredited the diagnosis.
Renowned pathologist Michael Baden reviewed the evidence and came to the conclusion that the baby's injuries were the result of a fall on her head and not from being shaken to death.
This case raises some important questions, however. While it is good that Mr. Havard's death sentence was vacated because of the testimony at the hearing on the motion for new trial, it is confounding that the original conviction wasn't vacated as well.
The state's chief witness has recanted his original testimony. He changed his theory from the baby being shaken to death to the baby dying of injuries suffered in a fall. Shaking a baby to death is clearly an intentional or knowing act -- that is murder. However, dropping a baby isn't evidence of a deliberate act. If Judge Johnson believes a death sentence is inappropriate, how does he square that with leaving the conviction in place?
It's almost as if the judge is somehow considering the change in Dr. Haynes' testimony as more of a mitigating factor. And that's just plain wrong. When the state's chief medical witness changes his opinion of the cause of death, that casts doubt upon the jury's verdict regarding Mr. Havard's guilt. Take away that medical opinion and you are left without a single witness who can testify that Mr. Havard shook the baby to death.
The only reason I can surmise for Judge Johnson's actions is that he's afraid that other convictions based on the theory of shaken baby syndrome could be placed in jeopardy if Dr. Hayne testified on behalf of the state. Maybe he's right.
But it doesn't fucking matter. Judge Johnson's job was to make a decision in this specific case based upon the evidence presented at a hearing on a motion for new trial. It was not his concern whether any other convictions could be challenged on the same grounds.
Judge Johnson's half-assed ruling just goes to show that he's more interested in politics than he is in justice.
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