There was a statement by Edward R. Morrow who mentioned, “We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason if we remember that we are not descended from fearful men, not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate, and to defend causes which were for the most part unpopular.” Did the third circuit court of appeals create a legal Gordian knot? Subsequently, in a nine to zip ruling, the Supreme Court reversed the Third Circuit Court’s decision, which granted Lorenzo “Cat” Johnson his freedom, and ordered Johnson back to prison, summarily denying Johnson’s attorney’s request for a rehearing en banc. On review, the same Third Circuit Court which freed Johnson, in a vote of two to one [decided] to reverse their previous ruling and agreeing with the Supreme Court that Johnson should return to prison. Clearly, this was a political decision and it begs the question, What would the consequences have been had the Third Circuit Court of Appeals defied the Supreme Court’s ruling and stuck to their original ruling. It further brings to question the integrity of the court for not standing by their ruling. Clearly, they believed that the evidence did not support the conviction initially.
This case brings to mind the case of Lisa Michelle Lambert. In the Lambert case. She was freed to her lawyers, Tina E. Rainville and Peter S. Greenberg, after the evidentiary hearing in federal court revealed 90 some instances of prosecutorial misconduct. Similarly, after sparring with the federal courts, both defendants gained their freedom. Lambert enjoyed nine months of freedom. She had a job and had begun a new life. Johnson had just begun his life of freedom when it was all taken from him on a whim by the U.S. Supreme Court, which was clearly pro-prosecution. It is very troubling to see with what ease the court can take a man or a woman’s life and return it to a nightmare.
The Johnson and Lambert cases are two clear-cut examples of a court system that’s broken. It is perverse to hold defendants accountable for failures by their lawyers, as it is the case with our system, as it was the case in both Johnson and Lambert. They later enjoyed the benefit of having outstanding counsel, but it is usually the failures of the original counsel that gives the system the out they need to deny relief under ineffective assistance of counsel. It is difficult, if not impossible, to know what it feels like to fight for freedom, to gain it, and after that person starts a new life, to have the system on a whim take it all away.
Some may wonder, how can that fight happen? First of all, our country leads the world in incarceration, and it has become a sport to lock up poor defendants. To prosecutors, the people they put away are trophies, and when they have a court tell them they must let go of one of those trophies, they take it personal. For example, in the previously mentioned Lambert case, the prosecutor from the Attorney General’s office spent over $2.5 million to get her back to prison, after being released by a federal judge. Once the system gets their claws into you, they are like a lion and prey. We do not have the financial resources to wage a sustained battle with the government, and they know that eventually they will be able to file one more brief, one more motion.
I am not suggesting that people can’t beat the system, but I do know that the majority of the time people do not understand the magnitude of their undertaking. I encourage everyone to fight for justice, especially when the stakes are so high it is impossible to fathom the thought of spending one’s life in prison for a crime one didn’t commit, but unfortunately this happens quite often, and the majority of the time it goes unchallenged. First, because most defendants are uneducated, from poor backgrounds with no resources. It is sad to say, but justice isn’t cheap, and the system knows they have the upper hand. Personally, I am very hopeful about the Johnson case. I would like to rely on the romantic notion that the truth always prevails, but this is the stuff of movies where the bad guy always gets caught or killed, and the guy always gets the girl. Lorenzo Johnson is in the fight of his life.
The system will do all they can to keep him in the belly of the beast, and the prosecutors from the Attorney General’s office will do all they can to keep their trophy in their trophy case. I know that the prevailing thought here is that justice always wins, but justice wins when just men judge, and in our system there are very few of those. I have only one thought when it comes to fighting for justice. Don’t flinch, keep the fight going, because the last one standing wins. This is Bryant Arroyo from SCI Mahanoy for Prison Radio.
These commentaries are recorded by Noelle Hanrahan of Prison Radio,
