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National
Mother Of Eight Found Dead In Jail Cell
Woman, 74, To Be Released After Serving 32 Years For A Crime She Did Not Commit
Mary Virginia Jones, right, with her daughter.
LOS ANGELES, CA -- A L.A. county judge has ruled that 74-year-old Mary Vir- ginia Jones, who served 32 years for a murder committed by her abusive boyfriend, will be released from prison. In 1981, she was sentenced to life in prison without the possibil- ity of parole for murder, kid- napping and robbery in a fatal shooting.
But apparently it was Mose Willis, her boyfriend, who kid- napped two men and ordered Jones at gunpoint to drive a car to a back alley in Los Ange- les, where Willis shot the men. Before the incident, Jones was a churchgoing woman who worked as a teacher’s aide and had never been arrested before. When she met Willis, he was homeless, and she took him in because he told her that he wanted to clean up his life.
So how did she overturn her conviction? Reportedly, some law students at the University of Southern California’s Post- Conviction Justice Project chal- lenged her case, claiming she would not have been convicted if the jury had heard expert tes- timony about the impact of in- timate partner battering, (formerly known as battered women’s syndrome).
After reviewing the case, the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office agreed to set aside her convictions if she agreed to plead no contest to voluntary manslaughter. And so she did just that.
She told the judge, “I did not willingly participate in this crime, but I believe entering a no contest plea is in my best in- terest.”
And so with credit for the time that she already served, Jones was ordered released from prison and her family and supporters joyfully celebrated when the announcement was made. Her children say they’re just looking forward to sitting down at the dinner table with their mother for the first time in more than three decades.
Book By Dynamic Duo Gives Checklist To Saving Our Black Boys And Men
Book by Jeremiah Hope and Zack Reynolds, Jr.
MT. VERNON ---And the absolute frightening thing about the fact that this is yet one more black woman found dead in her jail cell within only a few days of each other, is that this appears to be a trend. And as with any trend, after a while, it loses its significance. And that’s pretty f*cked up.
Raynetta Turner was a mother of eight. She was found dead in a Mount Vernon jail cell on last Monday afternoon, two days after she was taken into custody on charges of shoplifting. She is
RAYNETTA TURNER
NAACP ‘Journey For Justice’ 860 Mile March Began Saturday
Journey for Justice.
the fifth Black woman this month to die while in police custody.
A licensed professional coun- selor and a veteran educator and life coach have come to- gether to provide a solutions- focused book aimed at improving life outcomes for young black men.
Facing Our Future: Building Strong Black Men In The Twenty-First Century is a call- to-action and no-nonsense ap- proach to the personal growth and development of Black men and boys.
Co-authors Jeremiah Hopes and Zack Reynolds, Jr. say there is no middle ground or straddling of the fence: one is either part of the problem or part of the solution. Within the pages of this book readers will discover The Es- sentials of Manhood, Strategies of Engagement for The Visible and Invisible Father, and The Importance Of Black Men Mentoring Black Boys.
Answers to questions such as “Are Black Boys Brilliant Or
Broken?” and “What If I Can’t Dribble, Dunk, Run, Or Rap?” are among the many engaging topics addressed. The infec- tious passion and candor of Hopes and Reynolds is on full display as they share strate- gies for implementing rights of passage activities, the need for culturally relevant educators, how to overcome barriers to college and career success, and how to build and nurture rela- tionships. Each chapter con- cludes with thought-provoking questions propelling the reader to action.
Real Models Publishing, a joint venture between Hopes and Reynolds, released Fac- ing Our Future on May 21, 2015. It is available on Amazon and can also be purchased at www.facingourfuture.com.
For more information about Facing Our Future or to sched- ule an interview with the au- thors, please call or email: info@facingourfuture.com.
SELMA, Ala. – The NAACP, “America’s Journey for Jus- tice” is scheduled to extend through Eastern Seaboard states before ending in Wash- ington, D.C., on Sept. 15. The march is an 860-mile trek.
Saturday’s event in Selma drew political and religious leaders from around the coun- try and, while the turnout did- n’t come close to some predictions, organizers were still optimistic.
More than 200 supporters took part in the program and subsequent first leg of a march that will be about 16 times the
54-mile distance covered by voting rights activists in 1965.
NAACP President Cornell William Brooks led the first leg of the march and indicated it will be covered “step by step” throughout the days ahead.
He said volunteers in states included in the march have taken up the challenge and will keep it going by covering the entire distance. Brooks’ booming speech had those in the audience applauding and cheering, and he set the exam- ple by moving to the front of the line that crossed the bridge under hot, humid tempera- tures.
According To Report: 40 New Laws Passed Since Michael Brown Verdict
Black Lives Matter Revolution Poses Problems For 2016 Candidates
U.S. ---
never been more confident that their chances of hanging onto the White House hinge on black voters, who helped tip key states toward President Obama — but they have never been less confident, it seems, about how to talk to them..
The Black Lives Matter cam- paign is seeing to it that the rules they relied on for courting the vote no longer apply.
The potent social media-dri- ven movement, sparked in the aftermath of Florida teen Trayvon Martin’s 2012 shooting death and reignited in the racial unrest in response to the deaths of other unarmed
African Americans at the hands of police over the last year, has 2016 contenders scrambling to adjust their strategies. The pro- testers involved are proving masterful at refocusing the spotlight.
Candidates who might oth- erwise have been complacent, given their high marks on leg- islative report cards from the National Assn. for the Ad- vancement of Colored People and endorsements from an older generation of Black lead- ers, have had to more directly confront uncomfortable ques- tions of racial inequality and the mistreatment of blacks by the criminal justice system.
Democrats have
FERGUSON, MO ---Who said protesting is ineffective? Since Michael Brown, an unarmed black teen in Fergu- son, Mo., was shot and killed on Aug. 9. by white ex-officer Darren Wilson, lawmakers in nearly every state have pro- posed changes to the way po- lice deal with the public, according to The Associated Press.
An analysis by The Associ- ated Press shows that 24 states have put at least 40 new laws on the books to tackle police violence, including officer body-cameras, racial bias training, independent investi-
gations,
plus military equipment for departments.
Still, little has been done to change laws on when police are justified to use deadly force, even as more incidents continue to occur, the report says. While praising the changes, civil rights leaders said more work needs to be done to solve racial tensions and economic disparities that have driven protests in Fergu- son, Baltimore, New York and elsewhere after episodes in which people died in police custody or shootings.
and limits on sur-
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