A fair trial?
By Brandon Astor Jones
"Trial by jury, instead of being a security to persons who are accused, [is] a mockery and a snare." — Lord Denman (1779-1854)
Jones: I want to thank you for sharing these few precious minutes with me. I know you are busy getting your more personal business in order. You know, Mr Cargill, despite the usual noises of our confinement, there is the unmistakable, ineffable presence of impending state-sanctioned death silently making its rounds throughout G-Cell House and impressing itself upon our senses. That presence causes some of us to think — especially about the law. Tell me, what does it make you think about the law?
Mr Cargill: I think that the integrity of law enforcement should have a standard of truthfulness. I am about to face execution in five days, for a crime I have been wrongly convicted of, because of lying police officers and prosecutors.
Jones: We all know that when prosecutors question police officers on the witness stand, often their answers are lies and half truths, in response to questions that were designed to thoroughly mislead a jury. Truth has little if anything to do with a trial by jury in Georgia. Is that what you are saying?
Mr Cargill: Yes. They know for a fact that I am not guilty of the crime I was convicted of.
Jones: I suppose there is no point in asking you why your lawyer has not attacked the corruption that you are suggesting exists in your case. I know that it takes money to uncover state officials' corruption. The bottom line is that poor people do not have the kind of money that is required to do that.
Mr Cargill: Yeah. How do you fight a system of corrupt police and prosecutors, with a few thousand dollars, who have the entire state's billion-dollar judicial machine at their disposal?
Jones: I know what you mean. The system and its corrupt officials, actually feed — I should say feast! — on poverty and bigotry. I do not think that it can be fixed. Do you?
Mr Cargill: How and where do you even start to fix such a system?
Jones: I wonder. The prison administrators will soon be wanting to know if you have any last words. Would you mind if we close this interview with you saying what you really feel right here and now?
Mr Cargill: It is puzzling to me how the United States willingly condemns its citizens to death while hypocritically professing to cherish every citizen's life. The laws of the land are supposed to protect the rights of every citizen. What a lie that is! I honestly feel those laws have failed me. What happened to my right to a fair trial?
[The writer is a prisoner on death row. He welcomes letters commenting on his columns. He can be written to at: Brandon Astor Jones, EF-122216, G3-77, Georgia Diagnostic & Classification Prison, PO Box 3877, Jackson, GA 30233, USA.] Brandon and his friends are trying to raise funds to pay for a lawyer for his appeal. If you can help, please make cheques payable to the Brandon Astor Jones Defence Account and post to 41 Neutral St, North Sydney NSW 2060, or any Commonwealth Bank, account No. 2127 1003 7638.