Local NAACP hears from death penalty experts

Local NAACP hears from death penalty experts

Brasfield, Saafir address MLK rally

news@theeveningtimes.com

The Crittenden County NAACP heard from a pair of death penalty abolition advocates at its special Martin Luther King Jr. National Holiday meeting. Three dozen turned out to hear Furonda Brasfield, Executive Director of the Arkansas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and Malik Saafir, President of the Janus Institute for Justice. The pair made a case for racial disparities criminal justice in Arkansas.

This wasn’t the first time Saafir had presented the topic. He brought results of racial impact statement to a gathering of Arkansas prosecutors and was surprised at the reaction.

“We met with all the state prosecutors in September,” said Saafir. “There were just two absent. They were very sensitive in some ways and very few in a positive way to be questioned about their role in creating racial disparity. The room was 95 percent White. They felt they were being attacked. We are not sharing research to attack or accuse but to ask for their help in collecting data.”

The study reviewed records form the Arkansas Department of Corrections and found Blacks were more likely to receive capital murder charges. The study also demonstrated Blacks are charged more severely initially and were more likely to receive more severe punishments than Whites.

Brasfield produced statistics pointing to and implicit bias correlating with race in the severity of charges, sentences, and capital punishment cases. She laid similar crime cases out side by side and noted the severity of sentences varied by race and reported it was statistically beyond coincidence.

“It is 99 percent certain that racial differences in type of charge and length of sentence did not happen by chance and rather are influenced by the race of the offender,” said Brasfield. “Prosecutors decisions were influenced by the race of the person charged. There is an implicit bias.”

The duo want to collect antidotes as evidence to augment the statistical findings on racial disparities in the courts. They want real life stories about experiences in with the Arkansas criminal justice system to substantiate the research conclusions. “We are working to reform the system so that it is fairer and treats African Americans and other people of color the same way it treats Whites,” said Saafir. “We encourage you to join us if you want to share your story about being arrested, charged or convicted in Arkansas,” said Saafir.

Saafir offered training to collect stories, advocate for changes and hoped that legislation addressing the disparities would result.

Turrell Mayor Dorothy Cooper responded by telling stories of paroled felons in her town that ask her for help finding work to pay court fees and fines. She said it is too hard for felons to find work and to ‘decarcerate’.

“If they don’t pay the fines they go back to jail,” said Cooper. “That’s part of the problem not being addressed.”

“Those are the kind of narratives we need to collect,” said Saafir.

By John Rech