Brian Nichols, Atlanta Courthouse Shooter Sentenced to Life

LET HIM OUT!!!! 26-Year-Old Secret Creates More Than Reasonable Doubt For Black Man On Lockdown!

Convicted Police Murderer Alton Logan Didn't Do It!

We post a number of stories here on 3BAAS about Black folks to keep you informed. This one is designed to make you angry, piss you off, and move you to action:

The affidavit was sealed in an envelope and stored in a locked box in Chicago, tucked away with the lawyer's passport and will. Sometimes he stashed the box in his bedroom closet, other times under his bed.

It stayed there - year after year, decade after decade.

Then, about two years ago, Dale Coventry, the box's owner, got a call from his former colleague, W. Jamie Kunz. Both were once public defenders. They hadn't talked in a decade.

"We're both getting on in years," Kunz said. "We ought to do something with that affidavit to make sure it's not wasted in case we both leave this good Earth."

Coventry assured him it was in a safe place. He found it in the fireproof metal box, but didn't read it. He didn't need to. He was reminded of the case every time he heard that a wronged prisoner had been freed.

In January, Kunz called again. This time, he had news: A man both lawyers had represented long ago in the murder of two police officers, Andrew Wilson, had died in prison.

Kunz asked Coventry to get the affidavit. "It's in a sealed envelope," Coventry said. "Open it," Kunz said, impatiently.

And so, Coventry began reading aloud the five-line declaration the lawyers had written more than a quarter-century before:

An innocent man is behind bars. His name was Alton Logan. He did not kill a security guard in a McDonald's restaurant in January 1982. "In fact "another person was responsible."

They knew, because Andrew Wilson told them: He did it.

But that was the catch.

Lawyer-client privilege is not complete; most states allow attorneys to reveal confidences to prevent a death, serious bodily harm or criminal fraud. But this case didn't offer that kind of exception.

So when Andrew Wilson told his lawyers that he, and not Alton Logan, had killed the guard, they felt powerless - aware of information that could free a man they believed to be innocent, but unable to do anything with that knowledge. And for decades, they said nothing.

As they recall, Wilson - who was facing charges in the February 1982 murders of police officers William Fahey and Richard O'Brien - was even a bit gleeful about the McDonald's shooting. To Kunz, he seemed like a child who had been caught doing something naughty.

"I was surprised at how unabashed he was in telling us," he says. "There was no sense of unease or embarrassment. ... He smiled and kind of giggled. He hugged himself, and said, 'Yeah, it was me.'"

Alton Logan already had been charged with the McDonald's shooting that left one guard dead and another injured. Another man, Edgar Hope, also was arrested, and assigned a public defender, Marc Miller.

Miller says he was stunned when his client announced he didn't know Alton Logan and had never seen him before their arrests. According to Miller, Hope was persistent: "You need to tell his attorney he represents an innocent man."

Hope went a step further, Miller says: He told him Andrew Wilson was his right-hand man - "the guy who guards my back" - and urged the lawyer to confirm that with his street friends. He did.

Miller says he eventually did tell Logan's lawyer his client was innocent, but offered no details.

First, though, he approached Kunz, his fellow public defender and former partner.

"You think your life's difficult now?" Miller recalls telling Kunz. "My understanding is that your client Andrew Wilson is the shooter in the McDonald's murder."

Coventry and Kunz brought Wilson to the jail law library and this, they say, was when they confronted him and he made his unapologetic confession. They didn't press for details. "None of us had any doubt," Coventry says.

And, he adds, it wasn't just Wilson's word. Firearms tests, according to court records, linked a shotgun shell found at McDonald's with a weapon that police found at the beauty parlor where Andrew Wilson lived. The slain police officers' guns also were discovered there.

Now the lawyers had two big worries: Another killing might be tied to their client, and "an innocent man had been charged with his murder and was very likely ... to get the death penalty," Kunz says.

But bound by legal ethics, they kept quiet.

Instead, they wrote down what they'd been told. If the situation ever arose where they could help Logan, there would be a record - no one could say they had just made it up. They say they didn't name Wilson, fearing someone would hear about the document and subpoena it. They didn't even make a copy.

But on March 17, 1982, Kunz, Coventry and Miller signed the notarized affidavit: "I have obtained information through privileged sources that a man named Alton Logan ... who was charged with the fatal shooting of Lloyd Wickliffe ... is in fact not responsible for that shooting ... "

Knowing the affidavit had to be secret, Wilson's lawyers looked for ways to help Logan without hurting their client. They consulted with legal scholars, ethics commissions, the bar association.

Kunz says he mentioned the case dozens of times over the years to lawyers, never divulging names but explaining that he knew a guy serving a life sentence for a crime committed by one of his clients.

There's nothing you can do, he was told.

Coventry had another idea. He figured Wilson probably would be executed for the police killings, so he visited him in prison and posed a question: Can I reveal what you told me, the lawyer asked, after your death?

"I managed to say it without being obnoxious," Coventry says. "He wasn't stupid. He understood exactly what I was asking. He knew he was going to get the death penalty and he agreed."

Coventry says he asked Wilson the same question years later - and got the same answer.

But ultimately, Wilson was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

His death penalty was reversed after he claimed Chicago police had electrically shocked, beaten and burned him with a radiator to secure his confession. (Decades later, a special prosecutor's report concluded police had tortured dozens of suspects over two decades.)

Logan's case was working its way through the courts, too. During the first of two trials in which he was convicted, Coventry walked in to hear part of the death penalty phase. "It's pretty creepy watching people deciding if they're going to kill an innocent man," he says.

The lawyers had a plan if it came to that: They would appeal to the governor to stop the execution. But with a life sentence, they remained silent.

Still, there were whispers. When Logan changed lawyers before his second trial, Miller says the new lawyer approached him. He had heard that Miller knew something more.

Please, he asked, can you help?

Miller says he told him he could do nothing for him. But he says he repeated the words he had uttered to Logan's first lawyer, more than a decade earlier:

"You represent an innocent man."

---

In prison, Alton Logan heard the news: First, Andrew Wilson had died. Second, there was an affidavit in his case.

"I said finally, somebody has come (forward) and told the truth," Logan says. "I've been saying this for the past 26 years: It WASN'T me."

In January, the two lawyers, with a judge's permission, revealed their secret in court.

Two months later, Marc Miller testified about his client's declaration of Logan's innocence.

But an affidavit and sworn testimony do not guarantee freedom - or prove innocence.

And Alton Logan knows that. After spending almost half his 54 years as an inmate, this slight man with a fringe of gray beard, stooped shoulders and weary eyes seems resigned to the reality that his fate is beyond his control.

"I have to accept whatever comes down," he says, sitting in a visitor's room at the Stateville Correctional Center in Joliet.

He insists he's not angry with Edgar Hope - the man who first said he was innocent - or even Andrew Wilson. He says he once approached Wilson in prison and asked him to "come clean. Tell the truth." Wilson just smiled and kept walking.

Nor is Logan angry with the lawyers who kept the secret. But he wonders if there wasn't some way they could have done more.

"What I can't understand is you know the truth, you held the truth and you know the consequences of that not coming forward?" he says of the lawyers. "Is (a) job more important than an individual's life?"

The lawyers say it was about their client - Wilson - not about their jobs, and they maintain that the prosecutors and police are at fault.

Kunz says he knows some people might find his actions outrageous. His obligation, though, was to Andrew Wilson.

"If I had ratted him out ... then I could feel guilty, then I could not live with myself," he says. "I'm anguished and always have been over the sad injustice of Alton Logan's conviction. Should I do the right thing by Alton Logan and put my client's neck in the noose or not? It's clear where my responsibility lies and my responsibility lies with my client."

On April 18, Logan will be in court as his lawyer, Harold Winston, pushes for a new trial. Along with the affidavit, Winston has accumulated new evidence, including an eyewitness who says Logan wasn't at McDonald's and a letter from an inmate who claims Wilson signed a statement while in prison implicating himself in the murder - and clearing Logan.

But obstacles remain.

Logan can't depend on Edgar Hope. According to his attorney, Hope probably will exercise his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination.

And he'll have to deal with eyewitnesses. His lawyer says one person changed her story in the two trials, but a second, the security guard injured in the shooting, did not. (A third, who has since died, had acknowledged that Wilson and Logan looked alike.)

Logan prefers not to look too far ahead or think too far back. He refuses to dwell on missed opportunities - marriage, children, job. "You cannot live with the situation I'm in and say, 'What if?'"

He says if he is released, he'll move to Oregon to be with his brother. "After spending 26 years in this hellhole, I want to get as far away from here as I possibly can," he says.

Last month, the Chicago Sun-Times, in an editorial, urged the attorney general or governor to release Logan, noting his claims of innocence "ring achingly true." (The state has declined comment on the case.)

Logan keeps a copy of the 26-year-old affidavit in his cell. Every now and then, he reads the single paragraph, trying to divine what the lawyers were thinking and if this piece of paper will help unlock the prison doors.

He's not banking on it.

"I'm not sold on it," he says. "The only time I'll be sold is when they tell me I can go."

For now, though, Alton Logan waits. The heavy prison doors clank behind him as he walks down the corridor to his cell. He does not look back.

Story by SHARON COHEN [AP]

Folks Who Get It: Black Atlanta Judge Takes African American Inmates To The Woodshed With Whites Left On The Outside Looking In!

We Agree, Judge Marvin Arrington Is No Racist!

As a former Los Angeles Superior Court Judge, I completely get it. Despite ordering white lawyers out of his courtroom, Fulton County Superior Court judge Marvin Arrington said what needed to be said.

The parade of young black defendants in courtrooms across this country has got to stop!

"I came out and saw the defendants, about 99.9 percent Afro-Americans, and some point time I excused some of the lawyers, most of them white, and said to the young people in here 'What in the world are you doing with your lives.'"

Arrington said he thought his message might have more power if it was delivered to a blacks-only audience. "I didn't think about racism or reverse racism, I practiced law for 30 years and 75 percent of my partners were white," he explained.

The judge said the majority of people who appear before him accused of crimes such as murder, rape and robbery are black and he wanted to do something about it, one on one.

"I didn't want them to think I was talking down to them; trying to embarrass them or insult them; be derogatory towards them and I was just saying 'Please get yourself together,'" he said.

Arrington added that he may make a similar speech next week, but this time he'll allow everyone to hear it.

And they should. Because the message also should be to Whites, Latinos, Asians that when Black folks need to be checked, we as a people are completely okay with that. Do you thing judge, we get it!

Chuck Rosenthal, A "Christian" Texas District Attorney, Sends Sexually Charged Emails And Racist Rants About Blacks Online

Harris County DA Is Obviously Down With OPP

The man considered Texas' most powerful district attorney faced intense pressure to resign Wednesday following the release of sexually laced and racially charged messages he sent and received using his county e- mail account.

Christain Conservative Chuck Rosenthal, a Harris County district attorney who has put more people to death (yes Black people - some deserving if we're gonna keep it real) than any other prosecutor's office in the nation, was running for re-election. The unopposed Republican was sailing, that is until the release over the holidays of some, let's just say, amorous e-mails between him and his jump-off secretary.

Now if homeboy wants to get his pimp-on, so be it. Our problem with this idiot is the "Oh Hell To The Naw" comments about African-Americans. Time to go Chucky baby. C'ya, wouldn't want to be ya! Apparently we're not alone in our thinking, as a judge is now calling for his ass, er... investigation into whether sending emails on a government owned computer violated the law.

He'll be gone by February 1st. We got five on it!

JENA 6 MYCHAL BELL PUT BACK IN JAIL! DID HE DESERVE IT???

A teenager at the center of a civil rights controversy was back in jail Thursday after a judge decided the fight that put him in the national spotlight violated terms of his probation for a previous conviction, his attorney said.

Mychal Bell, who along with five other black teenagers is accused of beating a white classmate, had gone to juvenile court Thursday expecting another routine hearing, said Carol Powell Lexing, one of Bell's attorneys. Instead, after a six-hour hearing, state District Judge J.P. Mauffrey Jr. sentenced him to 18 months in jail on two counts of simple battery and two counts of criminal destruction of property, Lexing said.

He had been hit with those charges before the Dec. 4 attack on classmate Justin Barker. Details on the previous charges, which were handled in juvenile court, were unclear. "He's locked up again," Marcus Jones said of his 17-year-old son. "No bail has been set or nothing. He's a young man who's been thrown in jail again and again, and he just has to take it."

After the attack on Barker, Bell was originally charged with attempted murder, but the charges were reduced and he was convicted of battery. An appeals court threw that conviction out, saying Bell should not have been tried as an adult on that charge.

Racial tensions began rising in August 2006 in Jena after a black student sat under a tree known as a gathering spot for white students. Three white students later hung nooses from the tree. They were suspended but not prosecuted.



More than 20,000 demonstrators gathered recently in Jena to protest what they perceive as differences in how black and white suspects are treated. The case has drawn the attention of civil rights activists including the Revs. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. Sharpton reacted swiftly upon learning Bell was back in jail Thursday.

"We feel this was a cruel and unusual punishment and is a revenge by this judge for the Jena Six movement," said Sharpton, who was instrumental in organizing the protest held Sept. 20, the day Bell was originally supposed to be sentenced in the case. Mauffrey, reached at his home Thursday night, had no comment.

Bell's parents were also ordered to pay all court costs and witness costs, Sharpton said. "I don't know what we're going to do," Jones said. "I don't know how we're going to pay for any of this. I don't know how we're going to get through this."

Bell and the other five defendants have been charged in the attack on Barker, which left him unconscious and bleeding with facial injuries. According to court testimony, he was repeatedly kicked by a group of students at the high school. Barker was treated for three hours at an emergency room but was able to attend a school function that evening, authorities have said.

Bell, Robert Bailey Jr., Carwin Jones, Bryant Purvis and Theo Shaw were all initially charged — as adults — with attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit the same. A sixth defendant was charged in the case as a juvenile.

Bell, who was 16 at the time, was convicted in June of aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy to commit that crime. LaSalle Parish prosecutor Reed Walters reduced the charges just before the trial. Since then, both of those convictions were dismissed and tossed back to juvenile court, where they now are being tried.

Charges against Bailey, 18, Jones, 19, and Shaw, 18, have been reduced to aggravated second-degree battery. Purvis, 18, has not yet been arraigned

The Jena 6 Controversy Goes Global: All Over The Internet Folks Are Talking About This Case, Including Activist Najee Ali

Three Brothers And A Sister Tv Welcomes Digital Civil Rights Activist Najee Ali

Wear black tomorrow as a show of solidarity for the Jena 6. If you want to sign the petition, Color of Change has all the information. And please, check out our other video clips here.

Web Update: Bail Set At $125,000 In The OJ Simpson Case!

A judge has just granted the defense request to have OJ Simpson released on bail in the alleged armed robbery, kidnapping case that has everyone strolling down memory lane. Doesn't everything about this feel like de ja vu?

Is it us or does OJ still look great, even in jail blues? This Black man does not age! Standing before the judge, OJ opted to not enter into a plea and reportedly spoke in a soft, low tone. Get more details here about the $125,000 Orenthal must now cough up to get sprung!

The Noose Around OJ's Neck Tightens As Phil Spector Prepares To Exit The Courtroom A Free Man

While a jury in downtown Los Angeles remain hung-up over whether famed record producer Phil Spector actually killed actress Lana Clarkson in his Southern California mansion four years ago, apparently what happens in Vegas leaves you facing life on lockdown if you're former football star O.J. Simpson.

Simpson's Former Criminal Defense Attorney Shawn Chapman Holley Explains Why The Spector Jurors are Hung

Orenthal James will make a court appearance Wednesday, a day after prosecutors lengthened the list of charges against him for being the foul-mouthed ringleader in an alleged robbery of sports memorabilia at a Nevada hotel last week. A day which could also see Spector become a free man now that we know several jurors have doubt as to whether he committed murder by putting a gun in the mouth of a 40-year-old woman and pulling the trigger.

The eleven criminal counts against Simpson, which started at nine before increasing to ten, now include two counts of first-degree kidnapping with use of a deadly weapon; two counts of robbery with a gun; and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon. All but one of the listed offenses levied against the 60-year-old athlete, actor and certified knucklehead are felonies.

BREAKING NEWS: BAIL SET AT $125, 000. SIMPSON TO BE RELEASED IN A FEW HOURS

As Judge Larry Fidler reconsiders adding a lesser included charge of manslaughter against the eccentric old guy with the crazy hair, prosecutors are clearly throwing everything but the kitchen sink at "The Juice".

They're contending that this once celebrated Black man and his "friends" -- co-defendants Walter Alexander, Clarence Stewart and Michael McClinton -- committed kidnapping because they intended to hold or detain the two alleged victims using a weapon to regain possession of OJ's stuff. The stuff that could send permanently send Simpson away include various baseballs, plaques, a historical photo featuring J. Edgar Hoover and a mobile phone, a police report said. Arrested at the Palm Casino & Hotel Sunday morning, he has remained in custody on a no-bail hold ever since over this crap.

Meanwhile, hopelessly deadlocked with a 7-5 split, the Spector jurors will go at it again today in what would be a major coup for the defense and another crushing defeat for the LA District Attorney's Office. Let's face it, Christopher Darden and Marcia Clark haven't been right since.

Now if you're like my wife, who could care less about Phil Spector and is no fan of OJ's by any stretch of the imagination, you've already concluded that the White boy is guilty and the brotha was set-up. This despite reports that the victims' statements in the Simpson matter are compelling and at least two guns were recovered during searches.

The only question remaining is which conspiracy theory are you going with. Is this straight payback to avenge the heinous murders of ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman? Was Fred Goldman actually working with Thomas Riccio -- a dealer and auctioneer of sports memorabilia who taped Simpson-- all along? Are "victims" Alfred Beardsley and Bruce Fromong, the men in possession of the items, actually the real criminals?

Goldmans Want OJ Merchandise, Including His Jewelry And The Clothes Off His Back, If Possible

Claiming that this was not a robbery and no guns were used, Simpson attorney Yale Galanter said his client has "a very substantial chance of being acquitted of those charges" and that "under the circumstances (Simpson) is doing well."

"All of our efforts up to this point has been to secure his release and that's what we'll try to do in the morning," Galanter told reporters late Tuesday. He will also ask the judge to release Simpson on "a reasonable bond," he said.

Given the circus that has already formed around this case, don't hold your breath. Want more? Check out CNN

Orenthal James Simpson Puts Race Back In The Ring: White Folks In That Corner, Blacks To The Left -- To The Left

Looks Like The Simpson Racial Spectacle Is Coming Live Via The Web, Who Needs HBO?

Arrested on robbery, assault, burglary and conspiracy charges, according to police, O.J. Simpson allegedly led a group of armed men in to a hotel room full of sports memorabilia collectors that knew OJ. One of the alleged victims even recorded the exchange with an audio recorder, which captured the ex-NFL star yelling profanities while continuously asking the men if they thought they could steal his “stuff” and sell it.

Ok, time for the Black Americans to get in their corner and the White Americans to get in theirs, and have another 13-year battle over whether or not OJ is the anti-Christ. Whenever the name OJ Simpson is mentioned, it becomes almost mandatory for White folks to start talking about decapitation, while Black folks to refer to Mark Fuhrman and a tainted crime scene.

Saying OJ’s name three times while staring at a mirror will instantly make all of the suppressed racial tension that still exists in this country to resurface. It will work on you, try it tonight! If you’re White, all of a sudden, you’ll think that your Black co-worker must have gotten the job because of affirmative action since he came from a bad neighborhood, and then you’ll remember your favorite pen has been missing for a couple of days. Check your pockets and count your money. If you’re Black, you’ll…well, you’ll be just fine, you will see things just as crystal clear as you always have about the rampant racism instituted, facilitated, and condoned by the government in America. (Sorry, I’ve already said his name 3 times, I’m powerless.)

Its ok to admit it, we’ve come a long way in this country from the days of segregated water fountains and unfavorable seating arrangements on buses, but when a murder occurs involving a Black and White person, each race tends to blindly take the side of Team Black and Team White for an argument that convinces no one of anything.

The truth is that the friends and family of Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown can dislike Simpson and never think of anything else except for finding a way to get payback. For everyone else in the country to associate their deaths as something that personally made their lives worse is bordering on insanity.

These people have no emotional ties to these families or victims; it’s based in subliminal thinking that Team Black got an unfair victory over Team White while the justice system let it happen. Adding insult to injury and pushing the racial divide even wider was the sight of almost every Black person celebrating the verdict. Black people won the biggest upset of the century on the road among a hostile crowd and danced in their faces.

All of a sudden, it was thought that Black folks loved to see a White woman get her head damn near chopped off. In reality, there was no reveling in the Black community that the murders took place and that there were two less White people in the world.

Black people wanted the other side to finally feel what it was like to see your country’s justice system blatantly screw your entire race over with a murder acquittal that seemed so open and shut. They’ve felt this pain for most of the century, headlined by the murder of Emmitt Till in Mississippi in 1955.

These acquitted murderers that arguably committed a more heinous killing than OJ Simpson was accused of, even openly admitted to the crime 1 year later, much like Simpson did in his book this year, outlining how he did it if he had done it.

Now that OJ has had his 236th lapse of memory that he is the poster child for racial tension and payback for a majority of the country and he rushes a hotel room with accomplices, the discussion goes far away from this arrest and alleged crime, and on to beheadings and an arranged crime scene.

Look forward to seeing Fred Goldman on TV and in interviews about this crime that has absolutely nothing to do with him or his tragically murdered son.

It’s because we really don’t care about the victims of this hotel robbery, and we don’t care that they had guns pointed at their faces and were shoved around the room. Hell, we don’t even care about the group of men that accompanied OJ into the room who were holding the guns that aided the crime. Justice for this crime is not what’s on the minds of opponents to OJ Simpson. The sooner everyone admits that the obsession over this is based upon race and revenge for the system working their way or not working their way, the sooner we’ll be able to honestly hear what’s being said. This issue isn't very complicated, it's black and white, literally.

Keep talking, it’s the only way they’ll ever hear you.--JJJ

Former OJ Simpson Criminal Defense Attorney Gives Her Take On The Phil Spector Case

Attorney Shawn Chapman Holley, who represented OJ while working with the late Johnnie Cochran, talks with Kevin Ross about the latest celebrity murder trial. Check it out:

Will Phil Spector get a not guilty verdict like The Juice?
See you next time on Objection!

OJ Simpson May Be An Idiot Who Killed Two People And Then Wrote About It, But A Flight Risk? C'Mon!

Orenthal James On Lockdown

From The Collier Corner

His face is still recognized around the world, yet criminal justice officials in Las Vegas won't release O.J. Simpson on bail out of fear that he's a flight risk.

Well, where could/would he go? Where on planet Earth could O.J. Simpson hide?

He's a man who soared to stratospheric levels with his gridiron skills, sexy looks as a legendary NFL running back with the Buffalo Bills and later as a performer on the big screen. Of course, all that ended 13 years ago when he was found not guilty of the murders of his ex-wife Nicole and her friend, Ron Goldman.

Police: No Bail for O.J. Simpson in Las Vegas Robbery Arrest

He still gets jeered along with a few cheers here and there. And he's all over the news now that the book he wrote, 'If I Did It,' has hit bookstores. And it's the top-seller at Amazon.com.

He was arrested in Las Vegas after he and several accomplices allegedly burst into a hotel room and threatened men who he claimed illegally held his memorabilia. Reportedly, guns were wielded by Simpson's accomplices.

Is the denial of bail some bizarre way of getting back at Simpson for upsetting so many people 13 years ago?

The Web Is Responding To The Jena 6 Controversy: Time To Break Out The History Books So Folks Can Get Schooled!

Last week, someone made the following comment about Jena 6:

I'm confused. Why, after 6 black youths beat a single white student senseless, can anyone claim it was "just a fistfight between students" and further claim that the black youths are being treated unfairly?THEY COMMITTED A CRIME!!!!Were the situation reversed, would you all be marching in protest that the white students were being treated unfairly?

Immediately after I saw this comment, that is when I knew I had matured. The old me would have wanted to immediately respond and engage in some sort of debate with this commenter, James, who clearly had not read up on the facts concerning this story. Then, my next thought was, someone else will respond (I was in the middle of meeting writing deadlines).

And I was right. Another one of my readers did respond and pretty much said, "Get informed."I have come to value not trying to rationalize with irrational people. Anyone with any critical thinking skills, upon receiving the facts in this case, would recognize that this case involving six young Black men beating a white boy who taunted them in light of a noose being hung from a tree just another excessive charges against another Black man.

Just before the incident that resulted in stiff charges for the Jena Six, white youngsters had attacked one of the six black boys, Robert Bailey, 17, striking him with beer bottles as he tried to enter a party. Only one of the attackers was charged -- with simple battery. This is nothing but a case about racism and lack of fairness in the justice system for Blacks in this country. It's not complicated. Let's just call it what it is.

Historically, African Americans have always been treated unfairly in the judicial system as compared to whites. After years of lynching - the hanging of Blacks that was rarely punished in this country - the U.S. Senate refused to enact anti-lynch legislation and refused to apologize for its silence and failure to protect Black people in these cases until 2005. Here is an excerpt from coverage in the...

Continue reading JENA 6 UPDATE: COUNTDOWN TO MARCH AGAINST UNJUST JUSTICE

Everybody's Trying To Get A Piece Of Wesley Snipes

Talented Brother Is Strapping Up To Do Battle In Court

United Talent Agency (UTA) expects a L.A. Superior Court judge to grant a default judgment in their favor and against actor Wesley Snipes within 5 days.

According to a lawsuit filed in L.A. in 2006, UTA charged breach of an oral contract made with Snipes in November 2002 in which the agency was to be paid 10% of monies earned by the actor for roles procured by them.

UTA's attorney announced that Snipes could end up with a $2 million judgment. He will also face the Florida courts in October for alleged tax fraud.

ORAL CONTRACT? C'mon UTA, Business 101 - Get it in writing! Also, their lawsuit was filed 4 years later. It doesn't pass the sniff test.

LA Stylin

Analysis Of The Spector Murder Case, From A Former OJ Simpson Defense Attorney's Perspective

On February 3, 2003, faded legendary record producer Phil Spector was arrested on suspicion of murder after the body of Lana Clarkson was found at his Los Angeles area mansion. The 40-year-old nightclub hostess and B movie-actress was pronounced dead at the scene.

Later in November 2003, Spector would be indicted for Clarkson's murder.

Almost 4 years later, looks like the jury in the murder trial will finally begin deliberations today.

After using the entire Thursday session, Spector lawyer Linda Kenney-Baden needed another three hours Friday to try to convince the jurors that their client is not guilty. At one point the foreman cut her off mid-sentence to tell the judge they needed their mid-morning break.

Relentless, Baden-Kenney continued to focus on Spector chauffeur Adriano de Souza’s butchering of the English language. Pat Dixon of the DA’s office, however, attempted to completely refute that claim.

Several audiotapes of telephone calls from the night of Clarkson’s death are played, and de Souza repeats over and over again “My boss said he thinks he killed somebody," and that Spector held the gun in his right hand, something the defense denies happening.

Spector, Wife Spar With Judge Larry Fidler As Jurors Deliberate

We here at 3 Brothers And A Sister have been closely following this case. We actually have uber-lawyer Shawn Chapman Holley, who's represented everyone from Tupac, Snoop, Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie, to Geronimo Pratt and Sara Jane Olsen, giving her take in our new legal show. Check it out:

Keep checking in with 3BAAS.TV as we await the verdict!

You Naughty Boy! Black Southern Judge Accused Of Spanking Brothers In Jail!

Alabama Jurist Accused Of Paddling Inmates

When you first hear that Circuit Judge Herman Thomas is accused of paddling folks in his office, you know there's got to more to this story. It has to be, unless he's having flashbacks of pledging!

The Mobile Press-Register is reporting that Thomas was periodically removing prisoners from Mobile County Metro Jail and spanking them in a room at the courthouse. According to the Press-Register, once inside the room, the judge allegedly would ask the men to drop their pants and prepare to be spanked with what was described as a wooden paddle.

Thank you big brother sir, may I have another!

At a morning news conference, the Mobile, Alabama chapter of the NAACP called for a Department of Justice investigation and alleges District Attorney John Tyson of coercing information from inmates.

NAACP President Jimmie Gardner says inmates who thought they were attending a court hearing for their own case, were instead interrogated by D.A. John Tyson without an attorney present and promised lighter sentences in return for information. Gardner calls the interrogations a "violation of civil rights", and claims one inmate who was questioned has signed an affidavit that he knows nothing about paddling incidents.

Judge Thomas told the Press Register that he did not have any comment on the allegations. Sources also say that between six to 12 men have shared their accounts with investigators. Thomas is preparing for an October 29th judicial ethics trial in Montgomery that could remove him from the bench permanently.

Those ethics charges allege that he helped his cousin, former Mobile County School Board Commissioner David Thomas, Jr. Investigators say Judge Thomas removed David Thomas from the crowded Mobile Metro Jail to the Prichard City Jail when Thomas was ordered to serve a week long sentence for leaving the scene of an accident that injured a little girl.

Source

New Baby Pacifies R Kelly, Trial From Hell Gets Continue... Again!

This Time It's The People Who Aren't Ready To Go Foward

R Kelly's trial will remain trapped in the closet... for now! After being charged with child pornography against a 14-year-old some five years ago, a Cook County judge has postponed his trial one mo'gain because the lead prosecutor recently had a baby.

The Black R&B star's trial had been scheduled to commence September 17. Kelly's attorneys haven't conceded that he is on the tape, saying his likeness may have been computer generated. They have also tried to raise doubts about the identity and age of the girl.

The case has been hit with delay after delay. Since being charged, Kelly has had six best-selling albums and three nationwide tours.

Kelly was charged in 2002 and is accused of engaging in videotaped sex acts. A new date hasn't been set.

SOHH

MICHAEL VICK OFFICIALLY PLEADS GUILTY, LETS JESUS TAKE THE WHEEL

Black Falcon's Quaterback Claws His Way Toward Redemption

"Guilty," Michael Vick responded to U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson in a low, almost inaudible voice, his hands clasped behind his back. His only sign of emotion came afterward, when he hugged a woman in the front row, later identified by his attorneys as his fiancee. Vick quietly wiped away a tear.

Yes, Michael Vick is a convicted felon now folks, formally pleading to heinous federal dogfighting charges Monday morning. Clocking in at exactly 18 minutes, the pro-baller admitted that he supplied most of the gambling money for fights on his southeastern Virginia property and endorsed the killing of poorly performing dogs.

Not that PETA won't still go for the jugular, but Vick must live out this dramatic fall for one of the NFL's marquee players.

And it sounds like he's found religion in the process. "Dog fighting is a terrible thing, but I found Jesus and have asked for forgiveness. I am turning my life over to God," the athlete stated at a news conference that was chalked full of contrition and humility. "I will redeem myself, I have to."

Judge Hudson set Vick's sentencing for Dec. 10 on the single federal conspiracy charge but repeatedly reminded him that he is not bound by the prison sentence of 12 to 18 months that prosecutors and Vick's attorneys are recommending. "The bottom line is that if I decide you deserve five years and give you five years, you can't appeal it," the judge said. "Do you understand? You're taking your chances here. . . . You have to live with whatever decision I make."

UPDATES AND VIDEO

U.S. Attorney Chuck Rosenberg said in a statement this morning that federal sentencing guidelines had appeared to call for a prison term of up to six months and that a first-time offender like Vick normally might not have received any jail time. Prosecutors insisted that the sentencing range be adjusted upward to 12-18 months, and Vick's attorneys agreed. "It is highly unusual for a defendant to agree to recommend a sentence above the advisory guideline range,'' Rosenberg said.

An attorney for Vick, William R. (Billy) Martin, said afterward the hearing that "we hope Judge Hudson will see the real Mike Vick. What you've seen is something . . . an aberration. We think Judge Hudson will get [the sentence] right.''

Vick said he blamed no one else for his situation and apologized to the public, his football teammates and to "all the kids out there for my immature acts." "I made a mistake in using bad judgment and making bad decisions," he said.

His court appearance was again greeted by deranged animal rights protesters, but the atmosphere outside the courthouse was nothing like the circus it was at his first court appearance. One sign read "Prosecute all dog fighters, justice for all victims." Another represented a different take: "Hang in there Mike," it read.

On Friday, Vick was suspended indefinitely by the league, he has lost endorsement deals from athletic equipment companies, and he will face efforts by the Falcons to recoup upwards of 40 million dollars in signing bonuses. Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank accepted Vick's apology and indicated that it was "sincere and heartfelt."

BREAKING NEWS: FACING A RUFF SITUATION, MICHAEL VICK WILL PLEAD TO DOGFIGHTING CHARGES

Atlanta Falcons NFL Quarterback Michael Vick will admit to the charges filed in the controversial Virginia dogfighting case that has captured the nation's attention and infuriated pet activists all over the world.

Lawyers for the $100 million dollar Black superstar just released a statement saying that Vick is accepting full responsibility for his horrific criminal conduct and will do everything in his power to make the situation right!

The deal struck will include at least one year on lockdown, and triumphs logic that he actually had any other options after his co-defendants pled last week.

The inordinately talented player has obviously been leading a double life in his down time, and that may spark closer scrutiny by the NFL. The gambling allegations alone could trigger a lifetime ban under the league's personal conduct policy.

The offense is punishable by up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The sentencings for the other defendants are set for November and December.

ESPN has more.

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LINDSAY LOHAN: IS GOING GANGSTA THE NEW BLACK?

Lindsay Lohan’s Bubble

Lindsay Lohan has done it again, just a lot more extreme this time. After recklessly chasing two different vehicles in a car that didn’t belong to her while drunk and high on drugs, the actress apparently told police that she wasn’t driving, it was the Black guy.

Since the troubled actress has been in the news recently for her wild partying ways and excessive drug and alcohol abuse, many people have taken sides in this knockout battle she's having with herself. While everyone agrees that her latest decisions are dangerous, fans seated in the adoring home section naturally come up with reasons for her inevitable downfall.

A discussion on the talk radio show I produce involved one such supporter that pointed out this child actress has grown up in the spotlight, causing her to be in a bubble. She sees the world so differently that she thinks stealing a car, running over a lucky escapee’s foot, and taking the remaining hostages in the vehicle while chasing another car is just fine.

In fact, while terrifying the hostages in the SUV she boasted, "I can't get in trouble. I'm a celebrity. I can do whatever the f*** I want." If we continue to allow celebrities to live in this vodka and cocaine-laced bubble, we should simply begin to acknowledge the “bubbles” that many young offenders grow up in.

A young 18 year-old man might be arrested for selling drugs in every city in this country. Should the police take him in, rid his pockets of the narcotics, and then send him back home. His father is nowhere to be found, and his mother works two jobs in hopes to support her children. The young drug offender is the oldest and sees his little sisters can’t buy new clothes or multiple meals each day.

This is one hell of a bubble that covers a 'hood he didn’t choose to live in. What he sees is money can satisfy the needs and wants of his family. Does he have the right to say, “I’m from a bad neighborhood, I’ve never seen my father, and my sister is hungry. I can do whatever the f*** I want to help my family.”

People in this kind of bubble aren’t envied and praised like gods. They are labeled criminals from birth. If someone wants to give this young man an opportunity to attend a school where the teachers have the chance to actually teach, and where he is surrounded by peers that are planning careers that place them into a "prestigious" society, its called reverse discrimination.

Lock him up, throw away the key, and pat yourself on the back for getting another menace to society off the streets.

When Lindsay Lohan breaks the law, all that’s seen is a troubled starlet we’re all rooting for who has stumbled due to her life in the spotlight and irresponsible parents. Slap her with a chump-change fine, another rehab vacation, and hope she doesn’t kill someone in August.

Keep talking, it’s the only way they’ll ever hear you.--JJJ