<\/p>\n

\n
• After a lifetime of physical and sexual abuse, 16 year old Amelia Bird<\/strong> was charged with crimes for which she had little to no responsibility; she had complained to her then ex-boyfriend about the abuse she suffered, and he then broke into her house and shot both of her parents to try to win her affection. The prosecution in this case was overzealous, as she was overcharged for her limited role in complaining about ongoing abuse in her household. Charged alongside the ex-boyfriend, and threatened with the death penalty, Amelia was pressured to take a plea to second-degree murder and first-degree assault, receiving two consecutive life sentences.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

   <\/p>\n

  \n
  • A victim of physical and sexual violence throughout her life<\/strong> at the hands of her father and \u201chusband\u201d to whom her father sold her, Amanda Busse was wrongfully implicated and convicted of a crime she did not commit. Since her arrest in 2003, she has maintained her innocence and continuously denies being at the scene of the crime. Amanda Busse is factually innocent; she did not commit the crime for which she is charged, was not present when it was committed, and was never implicated except in a retaliatory move almost seven <\/em>year later by her brother who also was not present during the commission of the crime and who has since recanted several times. Furthermore, her defense at trial was a mere three minutes, insufficient time to mount a meaningful defense when a woman\u2019s life hung in the balance.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Anne Geraghty-Rathert, the Executive Director of The WILLOW Project, explains:<\/p>\n

    People fall through the cracks. And not only in going to prison, but in the larger sense; society fails people. Our clients have fallen through the cracks every step of the way. The education system has failed them, their families have failed them, neighbors have failed them– it\u2019s incredible the things that our clients have suffered. And so, of course, they ended up incarcerated. It almost seems like prison is the inevitability in a system that doesn\u2019t look out for people…<\/p>\n

    [And] the ways in which violence permeated and destroyed their [our clients\u2019] lives are unfortunately far more broad and universal than we like to think. WILLOW could easily have a thousand clients. We only have three, but you need to know that The WILLOW Project is standing for even more than just Amanda, Amelia, and Angel and their cases. It stands for all the people– and particularly women– who suffer incredible amounts of violence throughout their lives and are disregarded by everyone– ignored, disbelieved, chastened, treated badly, embarrassed, humiliated, victimized. And they deserve justice.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Why talk about clemency now<\/em>?<\/h3>\n

    Because with gubernatorial elections coming up, now is a critical time for WILLOW and others seeking clemency. Nixon has significantly fewer political pressures on him now that he\u2019s leaving office, and it gives him the opportunity for more free reign on his decisions without fear of the publicity consequences. And that means that now is a critical time to apply pressure in an appeal to Nixon\u2019s morality and humanity to respond to– and ideally grant– Angel\u2019s, Amelia\u2019s, and Amanda\u2019s clemency petitions, among the thousands of other petitions currently unanswered. So, if these women\u2019s stories moved you to action, please write a letter to Governor Nixon imploring him to review their cases.<\/p>\n

    The proximity of gubernatorial elections is also critical in that if Nixon does not exercise his clemency power before leaving office, I would hope that those petitions wouldn\u2019t fall on deaf ears with the next governor. In fact, a lot of my voting decisions August 2 were colored by questions about whether, as an elected official, the candidate would contribute to or further hinder clemency petitioners\u2019 quests for justice. And I encourage you, when election time comes, to also consider the importance of clemency power when you cast your ballot in November.<\/p>\n

    So please, the next time you\u2019re watching a campaign ad or considering your ballot, think about this. Remember that \u201ctough on crime\u201d rhetoric is dangerous because it frequently undercuts presumptions of innocence in court by pushing prosecutors and state officials to try for convictions rather than justice. Remember that when a campaign ad brags that a candidate has \u201cput away X number of criminals\u201d that that candidate is the one who defined them as criminals and if convictions, not justice, was their goal, then the truth may not coincide with such an assessment. Remember that not every person in prison received justice because too many people are innocent, too many people did not have fair trials, and too many people received overly harsh sentences. Remember that people who are incarcerated are still people and every bit as worthy of compassion, empathy, and dignity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The criminal justice system is, by the admission of many liberal politicians, in desperate need of change. Prisons are overcrowded as a result of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":644,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[767,294,119,2054],"tags":[2713,2714,120,2715],"yoast_head":"\n