Page 19 - Florida Sentinel 3-10-20

National
3 Wrongly Convicted Black Men From Baltimore Set To Receive $2.9 Million Each
Federal Jury Awards $5.2 Million To Man Who Said He Was Beaten, Forced To Confess To Gang Rape
STANLEY WRICE
When I was 16, my mother and my next-door neighbor, who we called “Crow,” dropped me off for my first year of college.
I thought my mother would be happy that she would no longer have to scream “Did you put the seat down?” when she heard me in our only bath- room, but I was wrong. Before she exited the tiny dorm room, just as the first tear slid down her face, Crow reminded her that I would be back at home for Thanksgiving and asked what it would take for her not to cry for the entire ride home.
“Not even a million dollars,” she replied.
In 1983, When Alfred Chestnut, Ransom Watkins and Andrew Stew- art were 16 years old, Balti- more police officers arrested them for murder. Police offi- cers ignored evidence that the actual killer was probably someone else. A Baltimore prosecutor lied about the evi-
ATTY. MARILYN MOSBY FLANKED BY ALFRED CHESTNUT, RANSOM WATKINS AND ANDREW STEWART
dence. A Baltimore jury con- victed them. A Baltimore judge sentenced them to life in prison.
That was 36 years ago.
On Wednesday, Maryland’s Board of public works will al- most certainly vote to compen- sate the three wrongfully convicted men $81,868 for each year of their incarcera- tion, totaling $2,918,441 mil- lion each. The sum is to be paid out over seven years, ac- cording to the agenda for Wednesday’s meeting.
In November 1983, the
three teenagers skipped school and visited their former junior high school on the same day 14-year-old DeWitt Duckett was shot and killed for a Georgetown University Starter jacket in the school hallway. Witnesses told the cops that they saw 18-year-old Michael Willis run away from the scene. They saw him discard a gun. They saw him wearing a Georgetown Starter jacket later that night.
The cops focused on Chest- nut, Watkins and Stewart instead.
A federal jury awarded $5.2 million Tuesday to a man who claims he spent 31 years in prison after two Chicago police officers beat him into falsely confessing his role in a brutal September 1982 gang rape and assault of a woman on the South Side.
The verdict favoring Stan- ley Wrice ended a con- tentious civil trial that lasted roughly a week and a half at the Dirksen Federal Court- house, taking jurors through a legal saga that has spanned nearly four decades.
Wrice said Sgt. John Byrne and Detective Peter Dignan — both since retired
— tortured him into giving an incriminating statement tying him to the assault that took place in Wrice’s second-floor attic. But lawyers representing the two officers told jurors that Wrice “sadistically tortured” the victim like “something you see in horror movies.”
When all was said and done, jurors awarded $4 mil- lion in compensatory damages to Wrice and then added a $600,000 judgment against each officer.
“It sends a message to Peter Dignan and John Byrne,” Wrice said after the verdict. He added, “I am so vindicated. I got closure.”
National Museum Of African American Music In Nashville Announces Opening Date
Nashvilleisn’tjustforcoun- try music anymore.
After more than 20 years in development, the National Museum of African American Music (NMAAM) in downtown Nashville announced this week that it will officially open to guests on Thursday, Septem- ber 3, 2020 kicking off a Labor Day weekend packed with grand opening events.
NMAAM features seven content galleries—six perma-
National Museum Of African American Music.
nent and one rotating—that chronicle black musical tradi- tions from the 1600s up to the present day. More than 50 genres and sub-genres of American music are explored from spirituals and gospel, to jazz, blues, hip-hop, R&B and more.
Advance tickets can now be purchased from the NMAAM website with general admis- sion ticket prices ranging from $13 to $24.
These Cleaners Kill Coronavirus: Lysol, Clorox, Purell Products Make EPA's Disinfectants List
The U. S. Environmental Protection Agency has released a list of disinfectants to protect against the spread of the coro- navirus.
According to the EPA, prod- ucts on the list have "qualified for use against COVID-19" through the agency's Emerging Viral Pathogen program where manufacturers provide the EPA with data that "shows their products are effective against harder-to-kill viruses." Coronaviruses are what are
CORONAVIRUS
with the appropriate disinfec- tant product," the EPA says.
“Using the correct disinfec- tant is an important part of preventing and reducing the spread of illnesses along with other critical aspects such as hand washing,” EPA adminis- trator Andrew Wheeler said in a news release. “EPA is pro- viding this important informa- tion in a public and transparent manner on disin- fectant products to help reduce the spread of COVID-19.”
called
"meaning they are one of the easiest types of viruses to kill
enveloped viruses,
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