Reginald Clemons
Amnesty for Reggie
Reggie Clemons and Missouri's Tragically Flawed Death Penalty
This is the bridge where it all happened at a very late hour in April, 1991 in St. Louis, Missouri. Two young white women plunged into the Mississippi River to their deaths. It was a horrible, senseless tragedy. Three African American youths paid for the crime – all sentenced to death. One has been executed, one had his sentence reduced to life imprisonment and the third, Reggie Clemons, is at risk of being executed.
Jamala Rogers, Coordinator of the Justice for Reggie Campaign, Ernest Coverson, Amnesty Midwest Regional Field Organizer, and Laura Moye at the "Chain of Rocks" bridge.
No physical evidence. Just two (white) witnesses, one who initially confessed to the crime, the other implicated the three (black) youths in exchange for a lesser sentence.
The tragedy of Julie and Robin Kerry's deaths was compounded by a legal process so alarmingly unfair that justice was never really served. And even worse, Reggie Clemons could lose his life with these issues unaddressed. You can take action to prevent this injustice right now.
Yesterday, I visited the old "Chain of Rocks" bridge on my visit to St. Louis along with my colleagues from our Midwest Regional Office. Jamala Rogers, a community activist and Coordinator of the Justice for Reggie campaign, filled in pieces of the story and the history of the campaign she started more than a decade ago.
We met with Reggie's mother Vera and step-father Bishop Thomas for dinner and learned more about the story and how Reggie has been doing in prison. Vera has been visiting her son on death row almost every week these past 17 years. She joked about how she'd worn through cars making the drive so frequently. Despite all that she has been through, a calm resolve shines through Vera's gentle and gracious spirit.
Reggie Clemons
Today, we will be in front of the old courthouse where Reggie was sentenced to death in 1993. We will join with Amnesty International members in Missouri and our coalition partners to release our new report, "USA: Model Criminal Justice? Death by Prosecutorial Misconduct and a 'Stacked' Jury," about the Clemons case. It speaks volumes about a flawed death penalty system that ought to be abolished.
At the top of the list of issues stacked against Mr. Clemons was the brazen conduct of an overzealous prosecutor, all too common in death penalty cases which are highly politicized. The report also discusses the "stacked" jury, which both did not represent the racial composition of St. Louis and was biased toward the prosecution. Clemons alleged police brutality during his interrogation by police, and his defense attorneys clearly did not prepare adequately for his trial. There was no physical evidence linking Clemons to the crime, only the two witnesses, both of whom were initially charged in the crime, and at the end of the day Clemons was only convicted as an accomplice. Yet he sits on death row.
While the number of problems in Clemons' case may seem exceptional, these are issues that plague the entire U.S. death penalty. It is all too clear how bias, misconduct and error riddle so many cases. Over 70% of all cases across the country are reversed due to serious error and 138 people have been released from death rows since 1973 after having been wrongfully convicted. Further, a handful of individuals may have been wrongfully executed, such as Cameron Willingham in Texas and Larry Griffin in Missouri.
Fortunately, the Missouri Supreme Court appointed a Special Master to investigate the case last fall. We hope that process will bring more light to the problems we have documented and provide an avenue to correct the injustices in this case and prevent Clemons from being executed.We will remain vigilant as that process unfolds. We also will remain on the alert as the examination of new DNA evidence (discovered just two months ago) proceeds. At this point, however, we believe that the state of Missouri already has ample evidence of the serious flaws in this case to, at a minimum, commute the death sentence of Mr. Clemons.
We will continue to stand with other groups, including Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, a coalition to which we belong, in the on-going call for a study of the state's death penalty and a halt to executions. We know that the death penalty wastes huge financial resources, being more expensive than permanent imprisonment. These funds could better serve communities if channeled into proven crime control measures and services for victims' families. We urge Missouri lawmakers to take a closer look at the problems with the death penalty, consider more constructive solutions to violent crime and recognize that the time has come for its abolition.
Reggie's mother thanked us for working on her son's case and engaging our supporters to take action on his behalf. We hope that channeling the energies of our global membership base will help brighten the spotlight on this case so that Vera will never have to say a final goodbye to her son and justice may prevail.
Source : http://www.opposingviews.com/i/reggie-clemons-and-missouri%E2%80%99s-tragically-flawed-death-penalty
Justice for Reggie
Site de soutien à Reggie :
http://www.justiceforreggie.com/
Vous trouverez ici les dernières informations :
La meilleur pour Reggie son exécution a été suspendue le 12 juin 2009 (rappel : il devait être exécuté le 17 juin 2009)
Vous pouvez signer la pétition en faveur de Reggie sur ce même site.
Reginald Clemons : présentation
Pays : Etats-Unis
Lieu d'emprisonnement : Missouri
Date d'emprisonnement : 15 ans
PRÉNOM : Reggie
NATIONALITÉ : Américaine
DATE D'ARRESTATION : 1991
L'AFFAIRE : les faits, l'accusation, le déroulement du procès
Reggie (Reginald) Clemons est un homme afro-américain âgé de 33 ans condamné à mort au Missouri après un procès injuste expédié par un jury favorable à la peine capitale.
En 1991, deux jeunes femmes se noient après avoir plongé du pont de Chain of Rocks dans la rivière Mississippi, alors qu'elles étaient en compagnie de leur cousin, Thomas Cummins.
Lorsque la police arrête d'abord Thomas Cummins pour le crime, celui-ci déclare à la police que les jeunes femmes ont été jetées dans le fleuve et qu'il a alors sauté du pont pour leur venir en aide. Pourtant le saut depuis ce pont représente plusieurs dizaines de mètres de haut, et il aurait atterri dans une eau gelée. Or il n'était pas blessé et ses cheveux étaient secs. Le test qu'il a passé au détecteur de mensonge s'est révélé peu concluant ; il semble qu'il ait avoué sa culpabilité au bout de plusieurs heures d'interrogatoire et pourtant il a été relâché.
Peu après, la police arrête quatre jeunes qui se trouvaient également sur le pont cette nuit-là. Trois d'entre eux, tous afro-américains, ont été condamnés à mort. Reggie Clemons en fait partie. Le 4ème homme, qui est blanc, a été condamné à 30 ans de prison.
Bien que le procureur ait concédé que Reggie n'avait pas poussé les femmes ou même planifié le crime, il a été condamné à mort en tant que complice. Aucune preuve physique ne le reliait pourtant à ce crime: ni empreintes, ni ADN ; pas même un cheveu ou des fibres vestimentaires.
Reggie, qui n'avait pas de casier judiciaire, avait 19 ans au moment de son arrestation.
Frappé par la police, forcé à faire de fausses déclarations, il n'a pas eu droit à un avocat. Lors d'une entrevue avec lui, le juge Michael David a remarqué qu'il avait été blessé lors de sa garde à vue. Le comportement du procureur dans le cas de Reggie s'est révélé si grave qu'il a été condamné à payer une amende.
Un juge fédéral a remis en cause la condamnation à mort de Reggie en 2002 et remarqué que le procureur avait agi brutalement. Cependant, le circuit de la 8ème Cour a rejeté ce jugement ; Reggie a été renvoyé dans le couloir de la mort et va bientôt prendre connaissance de sa date d'exécution.
Marlin Gray, l'un des co-accusés de l'affaire du pont de Chain of Rocks, a été exécuté le 27 octobre 2005 par l'Etat du Missouri.
DATE D'EXECUTION PREVUE:
La Cour suprême du Missouri a annoncé que Reginald Clemons devrait être exécuté le 17 juin 2009.