Equal Justice Matters Wall (B)
Bates, Noble
Booker, Robert
Bourda, Travis
Bryant, Thomas
Byers, James
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KEITH BARNES
In May 1999, a security officer detained Barnes in the store parking lot after he was observed placing several items of merchandise in a checkout bag used for customers’ purchases. A self-described crack addict, Barnes later told the appellate court that he was on crack at the time he committed the crime. He was convicted of theft of goods valued over $100 in March 2000. Barnes was initially sentenced to two years in prison, the maximum sentence for the crime for which he was convicted, but he was resentenced to LWOP as a third-strike felony offender under Louisiana’s habitual offender law at age 39. Barnes had been convicted of armed robbery as a teenager in 1980, for which he served 16 years in prison, and theft in 1998. He never hurt anyone in the commission of his crimes. Now 51 years old, Barnes, who is Black, has been incarcerated for more than 13 years.
Click here to view original ACLU article (Page 147).
NOBLE BATES
In July 2000, after he was observed shoplifting soap and Alka-Seltzer at a Kroger grocery store in Bossier City, Louisiana, Bates fled police and damaged a Shreveport police patrol car in the process. The police patrol car struck a steel light pole, injuring two police officers, allegedly after Bates’s vehicle struck theirs. A Shreveport officer fired three shots at Bates’s car to stop him, hitting Bates once in the left leg. Bates, then 51, got out of his car and ran a short distance before officers caught him.
Bates, a Vietnam War veteran, suffered from mental illness and had previously been diagnosed with auditory hallucinations, post-traumatic stress disorder, and paranoid schizophrenia. He reported he was not taking his prescribed medication for mental illness at the time of the shoplifting. He argued that during the commission of his crime he was “in a state of paranoia due to his psychological illness” and pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. Bates testified at his trial that he had sustained several head injuries while growing up and was exposed to Agent Orange as an infantry soldier in Vietnam. He testified that on the day of the shoplifting, he thought someone was trying to kill him, he was “running for [his] life,” and he was experiencing flashbacks to combat. A psychiatrist who evaluated him concluded that at the time of the crime, “he was psychotic, overly suspicious, paranoid, and misperceiving his environment. ”
Bates was convicted of aggravated criminal damage to property and sentenced to mandatory LWOP on that count as a third-time felony offender; the maximum sentence for his offense was 15 years without the habitual offender enhancement. He was also convicted of aggravated flight from an officer, for which he was sentenced to two years in prison. The mandatory LWOP sentence did not take into account mitigating factors such as his mental illness. Previously, Bates had been arrested 63 times and had 23 prior convictions for minor nonviolent offenses dating back to 1974, including misdemeanor and felony theft, and drug and traffic violations. Bates, who is Black, is 62 years old. During his more than a decade in prison, Bates has earned an associate’s degree in Christian Ministry from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.
Click here to view original ACLU article (Page 148).
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Robert Booker holding a copy of “Push,” the novel he wrote and published while in prison.
ROBERT BOOKER
Booker was sentenced to LWOP for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute crack cocaine; operating a crack distribution house in South Bend, Indiana; and possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine when he was 27 years old. The trial judge initially sentenced him to 20 years, declining to enhance his sentence on an allegation that he used a gun during the commission of these crimes—a charge of which he was acquitted at trial. The prosecutor appealed, and on remand, Booker’s sentence was increased to 30 years. When the prosecutor appealed yet again, the case went before a different judge for resentencing and, due to the judge’s decision to add points to Booker’s offense level for sentencing purposes (for using a gun despite the acquittal on the weapons charge), Booker’s sentence was enhanced to life without parole. His co-defendant, who unlike Booker had a criminal record, was ultimately sentenced to only 10 years in prison.
Judge Terence T. Evans of the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals strongly dissented from the decision to send the case for re-sentencing—the decision that ultimately led to Booker’s LWOP sentence, which was mandatory under the federal sentencing guidelines. Judge Evans wrote:
The unfairness of a life sentence without parole for Mr. Booker…is the more important issue; it will be a grossly unjust result compared to the term imposed on his co-entrepreneur, Mr. Pollard…. First, there’s the initial decision to charge Booker in federal court, where the penalties are steep, instead of the courts of Indiana. Second, Booker is [B]lack and deals in crack, which carries penalties 100 times greater under the guidelines than would be the case if he sold powder cocaine, the choice of folks who live in tony suburbs. The law, of course, says this is perfectly cricket, but that doesn’t make it fair. Lastly, Pollard, who as we noted in our prior opinion is almost a career offender, was every bit the drug dealer Booker (who has no criminal record) was; yet, comparatively, he was handled with kid gloves. The prosecutor, who has enormous (critics suggest too much) power under the guidelines, gave Pollard all sorts of consideration which resulted, upon remand, in a sentence of 10 years and 1 month. On the other hand, the prosecutor wants to lock up Booker and throw the key away forever. Even bad apples should be treated with some semblance of fairness.
Now 47, Booker has been incarcerated for 19 years. “I was sentenced to death, not life, if you ask me,” he says. “You’re just waiting until that day you die.” Since he has been imprisoned, he has lost his mother and father, whom he described to the ACLU as “the center of my world.” His four children have grown up while he has been behind bars; two are now in college and a third is headed to college, while his eldest has become a father himself. Booker has never met his grandchildren.
While in prison, Booker has taken more than 50 courses, earned his GED, and written 52 books, including a published novel. He is currently a facilitator for the Alternative Violence Preparation program, through which he teaches inmates “how to transform their negative energy into a positive change.” His petition for commutation of his sentence was denied on February 28, 2013.
Click here to view original ACLU article (Page 50).
*Robert’s sentence was ultimately commuted by President Obama.
TRAVIS BOURDA
Although no marijuana was found in his possession, the 29-year-old oil rigger was convicted at trial in October 2009. Bourda says he was represented by court-appointed counsel who filed no motions, failed to investigate, and made no objections at trial. The trial judge initially sentenced Bourda to eight years as a habitual offender because of his prior convictions for carnal knowledge of a juvenile a decade earlier when he was 19, and distribution of marijuana. After the prosecutor charged him as a third-strike habitual offender, the judge resentenced Bourda to 14 years and stated on the record that the life sentence sought by the prosecutor would be unconstitutionally excessive:
I believe a life sentence under the circumstances in these cases, a drug case, a carnal knowledge case, and another drug case would be an unconstitutional sentence…. I believe that fourteen years is more than enough considering the underlying charge was possession with intent to distribute marijuana, and that the amount of marijuana involved was not significant.
The prosecutor appealed the 14-year-sentence as illegally lenient, and the appellate court agreed and sentenced Bourda to life without parole.
Bourda, who calls himself “the most miserable person there is,” is a diagnosed schizophrenic who says he has received intermittent mental health care since he was 12. He talks with his mother and sister twice a week and has taken educational, religious, substance abuse, welding, and anger management classes in prison. Of his sentence, Bourda says, “Life without parole means you never going home, you never have a chance to show society you have truly change[d] and can be a productive member of society.” He adds, “It is a sense of hopelessness. Every day you wonder if you are ever going to make it home to your family and children.”
Click here to view original ACLU article (Page 158).
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Thomas Bryant
THOMAS BRYANT
The oldest of eight siblings raised in a devoutly Christian family, Bryant served seven years in the Army before he was honorably discharged and joined the police force in Savannah, Georgia. A married father of five, he says he struggled to support his children on his policeman’s salary. In order to support his family and pay child support for three children from previous relationships, he took on additional jobs as a security guard at grocery stores, dollar stores, and nightclubs. He recalls working so many hours a week that he would fall asleep on the graveyard shift.
In November 1995, when Bryant had been with the police force for five years, he was approached by an old acquaintance from elementary school whom he had not seen in 20 years. Bryant says that the acquaintance, a former felon who had become a confidential informant, offered him a job working security at a new nightclub and told Bryant he would pay him well to provide security while he transported powder cocaine from one location to another. According to Bryant, other officers on the force were already being paid to provide such security. He says he agreed to escort couriers transporting cocaine into and out of Savannah, and provide security for the cocaine while it remained in Savannah, on the condition that he never had to see or touch the drugs or transport or store them himself.
Bryant’s role was to drive behind a car containing one to two kilos of cocaine and, if police stopped the car containing the drugs, to jump out of his vehicle and wave them off with his badge. Over a one-year period, FBI officers had Bryant provide protection services for 13 shipments of cocaine, paying him a total of $19,900 for his escort services. Bryant never saw the cocaine he was paid to protect and assumes the sting operation either used fake cocaine or empty vehicles. Regarding his involvement in the crime, Bryant told the ACLU:
In my mind, I saw an easy opportunity to charge the informant one, two, four thousand dollars for escort and all along I’m thinking—if this guy is gonna pay me good money to follow behind him in a separate vehicle for his protection, and I don’t have to ever see the drugs nor put it in my car, then I’m gonna take this easy money and if another police pulls him over, I will keep going like I don’t know him! But all along the joke was on me!
The confidential informant also asked Bryant to recruit additional officers. Bryant says that when he named several white officers he knew from the police academy as prospective recruits, the informant told him they wanted only Black cops for the operation. Bryant eventually recruited four other Black officers, including his brother, to engage in these activities. Also at the confidential informant’s request, Bryant procured and sold eight firearms to him in return for $1,700, as well as eight grams of cocaine he obtained on the job. At times, Bryant and the other officers were in possession of firearms while providing security for the cocaine.
Bryant was arrested with 11 other police officers, all of whom were Black. He was convicted of conspiracy to aid and abet the distribution of cocaine, attempting to aid and abet the distribution of cocaine, distribution of cocaine, selling a stolen firearm, providing a firearm to a convicted felon, and carrying a firearm during a drug trafficking crime. In a federal presentence report, a probation officer calculated the amount of drugs for which Bryant was responsible based on the money received for each escort, determining he was responsible for 24.35 kilograms of cocaine hydrochloride. During trial, an FBI agent testified that the confidential informant was paid nearly $63,000 for his role in the operation and may also have received a bonus.
Although Bryant had no criminal record, he was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. He says of his sentence, “It feels like you’re like a walking dead. They try to give you the impression that you’re just going to die and never see society again. In fact, if I wasn’t spiritually strong, it’s enough to cause you to consider suicide.” He admits that the hopelessness of his sentence has led him to contemplate suicide. “It is too demoralizing; it seems like something meant to kill you mentally,” he says.
When he first arrived in prison, and whenever he was transferred to a new prison, Bryant says he was placed in solitary confinement for his protection because of his past work in law enforcement. The guards’ fears were well-founded: Bryant reports that once, while being transferred to a new facility, he was assaulted by an inmate who learned he was a former police officer.
Bryant is now 48 and says he has served 16 years in prison without being reported for a single disciplinary infraction. His five children, who were between the ages of two and 13 when he was incarcerated, are now 18 to 29. In prison, he says he has become “a Christian leader, mentor, counselor, minister of music, musician, psalmist, and songwriter,” and has obtained an associate’s degree in theology. He spends his time writing books, one of which he has published, titled “A Thug Cop’s Redemption.” He works 20 to 30 hours a week sweeping the prison grounds, for which he is paid $10 a month. If he were to be released from prison, he would work with at-risk youth and continue publishing books.
Bryant says he fully accepts responsibility for his actions and believes he has long been rehabilitated. He told the ACLU, “I’ve gotten older and I was the type of person that if I was sentenced to five years, I would have learned my lesson and wasn’t planning on ever coming back to prison! For me, it didn’t have to take a life sentence…I just need one last chance to get out and make right by my family and community for the wrong choices I made.”
Click here to view original ACLU article (Page 54).
JAMES BYERS
Cherokee County sheriff ’s deputies videotaped the controlled drug buy, and Byers was convicted at trial of distribution of crack cocaine and distribution of crack cocaine within a half-mile of a school or park. Byers, who is Black, objected to the prosecutor’s striking of potential Black jurors from the jury pool. In April 2011, Byers was sentenced at age 28 to mandatory LWOP under South Carolina’s three strikes law. According to prosecutors, Byers had five prior drug convictions.
Click here to view original ACLU article (Page 126).
James Byers with (from left) his sister, Elnita Garner; his mother, Rubie Davis; and his sister, Regina Ellis.