Black & White of Justice
When the system designed to enforce law and justice—and prevent injustice—is itself corrupted by prejudice, the outcome can be ruined lives.
Starting in the early 1980s, Freedom investigated claims of injustice in the renowned case of Elmer “Geronimo” Pratt, the Vietnam war hero and Los Angeles Black Panther leader who was imprisoned for a murder he steadfastly maintained he did not commit. The investigation led Freedom researchers from San Quentin, where Pratt was incarcerated, to a prison in the hills of Kentucky where a former FBI informant who turned state’s evidence against the Panthers professed to know the truth about Pratt’s conviction. Documents were also obtained under the Freedom of Information Act which showed Pratt was long a target of the infamous “counter-intelligence program” of J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI because of his outspoken leadership within the black community. Evidence mounted that the prosecution had suppressed vital evidence and that Pratt had never received a fair trial.
In 1997, at the end of a long journey through the labyrinth of the criminal justice system, and 27 years in prison, Pratt was freed. A former FBI agent of 25 years who provided important testimony absolving Pratt of murder credited Freedom for helping keep Pratt’s case before the public eye.
Freedom also probed reports in the late 1970s of U.S. Department of Justice Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA) discrimination against minority youth. According to a study done at the time, LEAA’s juvenile delinquency prevention program had the effect of creating two separate juvenile justice systems: one for white middle income youth and another for minority and lower income youth.
Impelled by an alarming trend of inequitable treatment of minorities by the courts, in 1996 Freedom published a searching and comprehensive investigative feature on discrimination in the American judicial system. Entitled “The Black and White of Justice,” coverage of multiple facets of the issue delved into the loss of public confidence in the justice system, and how racism and bigotry influence perception and treatment of guilt or innocence.
Freedom published compelling evidence of the effects of such discrimination in the legal/judicial system, and the unconscionable levels it has reached at various points in American history. Statistics and corroborating evidence also documented how the nation’s drug enforcement efforts are overwhelmingly concentrated on blacks and Hispanics, including the concerted law enforcement effort to apprehend and incarcerate minority violators in disproportionate numbers.
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