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Benton, U.S.—— Mollie Peoples learned early on to lower her expectations when approaching the Bossier Parish Court in Benton, Louisiana, where her son Brandon Jackson was convicted of armed robbery 24 years ago.
On Thursday afternoon, Molly said on her way to another hearing: “I have the best hope and the worst.” Over the years, she has participated in too many hearings about her son’s case. As for her, she hasn’t counted.
On October 21, the judge will consider Jackson’s application for a new trial based on the non-unanimous verdict of the jury.
Jackson was accused of participating in an armed robbery of a nearby Applebee restaurant in 1996. The case against him was mainly based on the testimony of a suspected accomplice, who provided conflicting statements to the police and Jackson’s defense lawyers before the trial. There is no physical evidence.
Jackson has always insisted that he is innocent, and the two jurors in his case also agreed.A survey Lens, Cooperate with Al Jazeera Fault line, The case of entering Jackson confirmed that the two jurors were black. At the time, Louisiana prosecutors only needed 10 of the 12 votes to convict; Oregon was the only other state that allowed split sentences. Due to a previous non-violent drug conviction, he was sentenced to life imprisonment under the state’s habitual offender laws. Later, the sentence was reduced to 40 years.
The state’s split judgment law was repealed three years ago, and the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year that the non-unanimous judgment was unconstitutional. But Jackson’s guilty verdict is still considered valid, as are hundreds of other people from across the state.
Delayed decision
Molly is 74 years old and recently had a heart attack. She hopes to live long enough to welcome Jackson home from prison, where he has been imprisoned for more than 24 years-almost half of his life.
Jackson appeared in court through a video from the David Wade Correctional Center in Homer, Louisiana, where he is currently being held. Molly watched the hearing in a wheelchair in the courtroom. Since the COVID pandemic interrupted prison visits in March 2020, this is the only way she can meet Jackson.
By the end of the hearing, Jackson had neither the best nor the worst.
Judge Mike Nerren did not reject or approve his application. Instead, he decided to postpone a decision on Jackson’s new trial request, stating that he wanted to wait until the Louisiana Supreme Court weighed the issue before making a decision.
“So, in other words, nothing was done today,” Molly said outside the court after the hearing, and Jackson’s lawyer explained the current state of his case. “God knows best, we just keep praying, and then keep going.”
1,500 people still in jail for split sentences
The lack of a solution in the Jackson case reflects the current reality of the vast majority of more than 1,500 people who are still in prison for non-unanimous convictions because they requested relief after the Supreme Court decision last year.
In Ramos v. Louisiana, the court ruled that the law allowing them to participate was part of a broader effort to limit the rights of blacks in the state during the Jim Crow era.Inconsistent guilty verdicts, and the proposition for retrial is called Jim Crow convicted by jury, Is a way to silence the voice of black jurors in order to make more black defendants guilty. More than 80% of those in prison for non-unanimous sentences, including Jackson, are black.
The state’s successful 2018 voting initiative has repealed the state’s jury division law, but this only applies to cases initiated in 2019 or later. On the other hand, the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Ramos case applies to some cases that have already been decided, but not to those who have exhausted the criminal appeal process, such as Jackson.
In a follow-up decision in Edwards v. Vannoy earlier this year, the Supreme Court refused to mandate that the Ramos decision be fully retrospective, which means that states will not be forced to retry those old cases.
Prosecutors who opposed Jackson’s application after conviction on Thursday argued that Edwards’ ruling meant that Jackson was not entitled to a new trial. However, Nerren pointed out that Edwards does not rule out that states provide relief to prisoners convicted because of a split jury sentence, but there is no requirement.
“They didn’t say it was not retroactive,” Nerren said. “They said at the federal level that this is not retrospective, and it is up to each state to decide whether to provide more relief to the defendant. Isn’t that true?”
Jackson’s lawyer Claude-Michael Comeau and the Promise of Justice Initiative said this is actually correct.
Need a Louisiana court decision
However, Nerren said that given that the Supreme Court of the State of Louisiana has not yet ruled on retrospectiveness, he believes that Jackson’s application is “too early.”
“I tend not to do anything until the state court decides on our development direction as the entire state,” Nerren said. “Mr. Jackson, I’m not sure what it is.”
According to Lawyer Jamila Johnson of the Judicial Commitment Initiative (PJI), the Louisiana Supreme Court has approximately 150 pending cases involving non-unanimous convictions by juries. But so far, the court has not agreed to actually hear any of them.
“The problem is there, it just needs to be decided,” Nerren said.
He issued a suspension order, which means that Jackson’s application will remain open, and the tentative hearing date is set to February 3, 2022. He said that by then, he hopes the Louisiana Supreme Court will make a ruling.
“Hope Mr. Jackson—myself, all the other judges I know, your lawyer, yourself…everyone wants an answer to this question,” Nellen said. “So I hope we can get that when you come back on February 3.”
Nerren said that at that time, another judge will preside over Jackson’s case, and he will decide whether to approve his new trial application.
‘One step forward, one step back’
For Molly, the failure to make a decision is another example of the failure of the person entitled to provide relief to Jackson to take action after the Supreme Court’s ruling on Ramos.
She said: “We take one step forward and one step back.” “It wears on me. If it wears on me, I can imagine it will be worse for him.”
In June 2020, after the Ramos ruling but before the Edwards ruling, former State Supreme Court Chief Justice Burnett Johnson believed that the Louisiana Supreme Court should be ahead of the U.S. Supreme Court and for people like Jackson Provide a new trial.
“The original purpose of the non-uniform jury law, its continued use, and its 120 years of disproportionate and harmful effects on African American citizens are Louisiana State History,” she wrote. “It is time for our state courts-not the US Supreme Court-to decide whether we should resolve the damage caused by the prolonged use of objectionable laws. “
But other judges disagreed, and the court refused to deal with this issue.
Earlier this year, in the Louisiana legislature, advocates pushed for the passage of legislation to provide relief to those who are still in prison because of non-unanimous judgments. But the legislation was voted down by the party in the committee.
Schuyler Marvin, the district attorney of Bossier Parish, has stated that he opposes a new trial of Jackson and will not review non-unanimous convictions.
District Attorney examines conviction for split jury
However, some other local attorneys across the state are more willing to study cases where the jury is split.
If Jackson is found guilty in nearby Shreveport (where he grew up), his case may be more likely to be scrutinized.The District Attorney for Cardo Diocese, James Stewart, said he will Review some old non-unanimous jury cases And provide some prisoners with commutation plea agreements.
On Thursday morning, the same day as the Jackson hearing, PJI’s lawyers announced that Stewart had agreed Darek Hayes’ plea agreement, A person who was convicted by a non-unanimous jury as a felon with a gun. According to a PJI press release, Hayes was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2008 for a previous nonviolent conviction.
However, Thursday’s plea agreement will allow Hayes to leave prison as a free man. He is the fifth person in the diocese of Cardo to receive relief because his convictions are inconsistent.
Jackson’s lawyers argued that even if Bossier’s district attorney agreed to revoke the habitual offender bill that increased penalties for drug charges, it would be enough to get Jackson out of jail. But so far, nothing has been done.
After the hearing on Thursday, Molly said that, like her, Jackson may accept the news with frustration and despair.
“He might be a little upset, just like me,” Molly said. “Because it has been many times, but it hasn’t really been achieved… But I always tell him,’Hope for the best and accept the worst.’ He knows the game. But this is a game of people’s lives. …This is his mother’s life.”
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