Page 7 - ARUBA TODAY

A7
U.S. NEWS Thursday 6 February 2020
California pardons

gay civil rights leader

in new initiative

By DON THOMPSON fender before returning to
Associated Press his home state of New York.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) He died in 1987.
— A civil rights leader who Newsom noted that po-
was gay and a confidant lice and prosecutors na-
of Dr. Martin Luther King tionwide at the time used
Jr. was posthumously par- charges like vagrancy, loi- This Dec. 14, 1970, file photo shows civil rights leader Bayard
doned by California Gov. tering and sodomy to pun- Rustin at the New York Hilton.
Gavin Newsom, who also ish lesbian, gay, bisexual, Associated Press
announced Wednesday transgender and queer
what may be the nation's (LGBTQ) people. associations and relation- Legislature's LGBTQ and
first process for forgiving He issued an executive or- ships." black caucuses asked the
those convicted under out- der creating a new initia- Equality Federation ex- Democratic governor to
dated laws punishing ho- tive to identify those who ecutive director Rebecca pardon Rustin.
mosexual activity. might be eligible for par- Isaacs and Movement Rustin's close friends knew
Bayard Rustin was a key dons and swiftly consider Advancement Project re- he was gay, but his religious
organizer of the March on those applications. search director Naomi and political associates dis-
Washington in 1963 where Rustin "is far from alone," Goldberg said it appears tanced themselves after his
King gave his seminal "I Newsom said in the order. Newsom's is the first such arrest, Sen. Scott Wiener of
Have a Dream" speech. He encouraged others in clemency effort in any San Francisco and Assem-
He also helped plan other similar circumstances "to state. blywoman Shirley Weber
nonviolent protests and seek a pardon to right this "California's new initiative told Newsom on behalf of
boycotts to end racial dis- egregious wrong." gives them a path to clear the caucuses.
crimination. "Countless others in Califor- their names," Isaacs said in "Generations of LGBT peo-
Newsom pardoned Rustin nia, as well as around the a statement. ple — including countless
for his arrest in 1953 when country, have experienced Newsom first gained na- gay men — were branded
he was found having sex similar unequal application tional prominence in 2004 criminals and sex offenders
with two men in a parked of the law because of stig- when, as San Francisco's simply because they had
car in Pasadena, where he ma, bias and ignorance," mayor, he ordered officials consensual sex," Wiener
was appearing as part of Newsom said. "His convic- to issue marriage licenses said in a statement prais-
a lecture tour on anti-colo- tion is part of a long and to same-sex couples. The ing Newsom's actions. "This
nial struggles in West Africa. reprehensible history of a practice was overturned was often life-ruining, and
Rustin served 50 days in Los criminal prohibitions on the then but eventually be- many languished on the
Angeles County jail and very existence of LGBTQ came the law nationwide. sex offender registry for de-
had to register as a sex of- people and their intimate Last month, the California cades." q

Prosecutor seeks end to lawsuit over fake subpoenas

By KEVIN McGILL suits over practices under- filed in 2017 by the Civil nas, challenges aspects
Associated Press taken as part of their "pros- Rights Corps and the Amer- of the district attorney's of-
New Orleans (AP) — New ecutorial function." ican Civil Liberties Union. fice's use of "material wit-
Orleans prosecutors used It was unclear when the Last year, a federal judge ness" warrants that can
to issue fake subpoenas three-judge panel of the agreed that prosecutors lead to the jailing of unco-
to threaten uncoopera- 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Ap- had immunity from some operative witnesses.
tive witnesses with jail time, peals would rule, but panel of its claims. But U.S. District The lead plaintiff said she
and the district attorney members sounded clearly Judge Jane Triche Milazzo was jailed after declining
there says they can't be skeptical as W. Raley Alford allowed much of the suit to to pursue charges against
sued for the deception III, attorney for the prosecu- continue, saying some of a man who shattered her
— but a panel of appeals tors, made his case. the claims "shock the con- cellphone during a fight.
judges appeared skeptical "Threat of incarceration science." Cannizzaro's office re-
Wednesday. with no valid premise?" Katherine Chamblee- sponded to that part of
Civil liberties advocates Judge Jennifer Elrod said Ryan, an attorney for the the complaint by saying
have sued District Attor- at one point during ar- Civil Rights Corps, told the the woman was legally in-
ney Leon Cannizzaro and guments. She later drew panel that by using docu- carcerated after avoiding
members of his staff over laughter from some in the ments falsely labeled as legitimate court-issued sub-
a practice that ended in audience when she said, subpoenas, Cannizzaro's poenas. Cannizzaro also
2017. The so-called sub- "This argument is fascinat- staffers stepped into a role has said the warrants are
poenas had not been ap- ing." reserved for judges. rarely used to arrest victims
proved by a judge, as re- "These are pretty serious The lawsuit was filed amid of domestic violence or
quired, and thus carried no assertions of authority they public complaints that sexual crimes.
actual threat of jail time. did not have," said Judge Cannizzaro's office some- Cannizzaro is nearing the
Lawyers for the prosecutors Leslie Southwick, who times sought to jail crime end of his second six-year
asked a federal appeals heard arguments with El- victims who would not co- term as district attorney.
court Wednesday to throw rod and Judge Catharina operate with prosecutions. He has not said whether he
out the lawsuit, arguing Haynes. The lawsuit, in addition to will run for re-election this
that they are immune from The lawsuit at issue was targeting phony subpoe- year.q