Will There Ever Be Justice For Sandra Bland?

Dear Sandra Bland, I’m so sorry the justice system failed you.

Between last week’s mistrial in the Freddie Gray case and this week’s lack of indictment in Sandra Bland’s death, 2015 has been filled with one travesty after another for criminal justice reform in the Black community. While the grand jury will reconvene in January to consider other charges, many cannot help but wonder what this means for police brutality cases in the future, as well as what this means for the trust (or lackthereof) amongst the public and the police.

28 year-old Bland’s arrest came at a time where police were under national scrutiny for the way they target black suspects; her death amid a sea of black lives taken by police under suspicious conditions. To add more fuel to the fire, her death was ruled a suicide, a decision Bland’s family and activists strongly disagree with, which may reflect sentiments stemming from an excerpt from Assata Shakur’s autobiography:

“In prisons, it is not at all uncommon to find a prisoner hanged or burned to death in his cell. No matter how suspicious the circumstances, these deaths are always ruled “suicides.” They are usually Black inmates, considered to be a “threat to the orderly running of prison.””

Bland’s mother, Geneva Reed-Veal, stated, “I wasn’t there. But as a mother, my inner voice is telling me that she did not do that.” Reed-Veal later went onto say, “It’s the secrecy of it all… I simply can’t have faith in a system that’s not inclusive of my family.”

Police claim Bland hanged herself in her Waller County jail cell, meanwhile Bland’s family argue that the jail was “reckless” in neglecting her safety.

The case has commanded the attention of the nation, even for those busy on the campaign trail. Democratic Presidential Candidate, Senator Bernie Sandersissued subtle criticisms following the grand jury decision Monday, December 21 saying, “There’s no doubt in my mind that she, like too many African Americans who die in police custody, would be alive today if she were a white woman.”

The Sandra Bland case is a product of the devastating culmination of social inequalities that has been perpetuated by hate and bigotry for centuries and requires more than just a few news sound bites to fully comprehend unless further evaluated. This is more than just a civil rights issue—this is a human rights issue that deserves to be properly addressed by our justice system starting with a revision in the grand jury selection and indictment process.

Through the 1986 Batson v. Kentucky case, both the defense and prosecution are given a certain amount of peremptory challenges that it can use to excuse a juror for any given reason, even if it is as trivial as being “too cocky.” The prosecution, unfortunately, manipulates this strategy to exclude as many minorities from jury service as possible in hopes of fulfilling what appear to be racially charged agendas.

While Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall agreed that the Batson ruling was indeed historic, he also acknowledged that the decision “will not end racial discrimination that peremptories inject into the jury-selection process. That goal can be accomplished only by eliminating peremptory challenges entirely.”

Lawyers, on the other hand, are not too keen on the practice dissolving because they “need to be confident that a particular juror is someone they can talk to, someone they can persuade,” according to Washington lawyer Jeffrey T. Green, who often represents the interests of defense lawyers before the Supreme Court.

It is time to acknowledge the deep and dark secret of criminal justice: the entire system is guilty until proven innocent.

Original article can be found here.