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National News Record Level of Criminal Exonerations Civil Rights Leaders Upset Over Non-Voting Rights Act Hearing By Freddie Allen NNPA Senior Washington Correspondent PHOTO YOICHI R. OKAMOTO R ep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), chairman of the House Judici- ary Committee, sparked controversy on Jan. 14 saying that, “The Voting Rights Amendment Act” – which would restore the pre-clear- ance requirement by the Justice Department for states mainly in the South – “is not necessary.” He has decided not to hold a hearing on the bill that would restore key elements of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and this has outraged African-American and civil rights leaders. Goodlatte said the watered down Voting Rights Act (VRA) that is presently in effect protects voters from discrimination but Rep. George Butterfield (D-N.C.), chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, dis- agrees. “I am deeply troubled that Goodlatte doesn’t think it is neces- sary to restore the Voting Rights Act,” Butterfield said. “We began this Con- gress very hopeful to build upon the bipartisan work of Reps. Jim Sensen- brenner (R-Wis.) and Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.). If this is indeed the position Lyndon Johnson and Martin Luther King, Jr. - Voting Rights Act on Aug. 6, 1965. VRA and we have bipartisan sup- port on this,” Shelton said. Shelton said that representatives of the Vir- ginia NAACP, including those who live in Roanoke, a major city in Goodlatte’s district, met with him, too. One of the arguments anti-VRA advocates make is the election and re- election of President Obama in 2008 and 2012, respectively. They say that minorities cannot be considered dis- ‘If this is indeed the position of the entire Republican Conference, then they have clearly drawn a line in the sand’ of the entire Republican Conference, then they have clearly drawn a line in the sand – one in which they are on the wrong side of.” The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, a Democrat. It has been renewed with amendments by Presi- dents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush – all Republi- cans. However, the Supreme Court gutted Section 4B and 5 of the VRA that required states and local jurisdictions with a history of racial discrimination in voting to approve election law and practices with the Justice Department. The court’s conservative majority said the VRA was outdated and that Congress should update it to reflect the changes that have taken place. Wade Henderson, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, also dis- agrees with Goodlatte’s decision. “Chairman Goodlatte has paid no attention to the rampant voting dis- crimination still happening throughout the country, most recently in the 2014 midterm elections,” Hen- derson said. “The now-weakened [VRA] lacks the abil- ity to protect voters from discrimination before they are denied the right to vote. The remedies that the chairman says still exist are cost- ly and time consuming to pursue through the courts and decisions in these cases often come long after vot- ers have been excluded from elections that they have every right to participate in.” Hilary Shelton, Washington NAACP bureau chief, said his group met with Goodlatte last year to dis- cuss legislation to restore the VRA to its original form. “We made it clear that we supported hearings on the enfranchised when the country, still majority White, elected an African- American to its top political position. However, Kathleen Collier-Gonza- lez, senior attorney and director of the voter protection for the Advancement Project, counters that view. “The measure of success is not the re- election of an African-American president,” she said. “You still have very serious problems in terms of people who don’t having ‘acceptable’ voting identification, and states reducing the early voting period and eliminating Sunday voting. As a mat- ter of fact, I think there is a backlash because of our first African-American president.” Shelton said it was because of the VRA that Obama became president and it should be preserved as a tool to help people become more involved in politics. Collier-Gonzalez said government identification as the only acceptable form for citizens to be able to vote is similar to the poll taxes that some Southern states in the pre-Civil Rights era levied against its citizens with the subtle purpose of disenfran- chising Blacks. She notes that many young people, seniors, and low- income citizens don’t have government identifications that are acceptable to voter registrars. Butterfield is urging the House Republican leadership to override Goodlatte’s decision. “I call on Speaker [John] Boehner, Majority Leader [Kevin] McCarthy and Majority Whip Steve Scalise to reverse this decision and make restor- ing the VRA a priority,” the representative said. “The weakening of the VRA left millions of Ameri- cans vulnerable to discriminatory state laws. To do nothing sends a ter- rible message, not only to minorities, but to anyone who believes the right to vote is essential to our democracy and way of life.” WASHINGTON (NNPA) – Black criminal defendants accounted for roughly 46 percent of the 125 known exoner- ations in 2014, the highest annual number of exonerations recorded since 1989, according to a national registry that tracks wrongful convictions. According to a recent report by The National Registry of Exonerations, the next highest total for exonerations was 88 recorded in 2012 and 87 in 2013. Researchers said that prosecutors have increasingly taken a harder look at flawed cases, which contributed to jump in exonerations. The powerful role that pros- ecutors play in the criminal justice system has increasing- ly drawn sharp public criticism following grand jury proceedings involving the highly publicized deaths of unarmed Black men at the hands of White police officers. Attorney General Eric In the chokehold death of Holder Eric Garner in Staten Island, N.Y. and shooting deaths of John Crawford in Beavercreek, Ohio and the teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., grand juries chose not to indict police officers. Attorney General Eric Holder has called for reform in sentencing practices and urged federal prosecutors to exer- cise greater discretion in non-violent drug cases. Researchers with the exonerations registry reported 716 exonerations of Black criminal defendants, compared to 624 Whites through February 6, 2015. That includes 330 J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE/AP By James Wright Special to the NNPA from the Afro-American Newspaper Attorney General Eric Holder has called for reform in sentencing practices and urged federal prosecutors to exercise greater discretion in non-violent drug cases exonerations for homicides, 167 for sexual assaults and another 179 for other crimes including drug crimes. Blacks accounted for roughly 46 percent of the known exonerations in 2014. The number of Black criminal defen- dants exonerated in 2013 accounted for 47 percent of known cases, compared to 40 percent for Whites. Read the rest of this story online at www.theskanner.com February 11, 2015 The Portland and Seattle Skanner Page 7
