California court overturns Black mens’ conviction over racist prosecution

The justice system? Racist? Draaaaake?!?

Source: boonchai wedmakawand / Getty

No one with a gram of melanin in their skin will be shocked at the revelation that there racists and people who will utilize racism within the Amerikkkan justice system. That said, as infuriating as that fact is, it is good to see proof that there at least a few folks with righteous intentions when it comes to fair trials for Black people.

According to Yahoo! News, a California court of appeals has overturned the convictions of three Black men who were sent to prison after a double murder. The court specifically cited the prosecutor, Melissa Smith, asking a racially pointed question to a potential juror and dismissing her because of her answer.

The First Appellate District of California ruled unanimously that the Contra Costa County prosecutor asked racially discriminating questions when she grilled a 25-year-old Black woman about her support of the Black Lives Matter movement then dismissing her from the jury pool. They described the bigoted dismissal as a violation that  “(was) plainly tied to race”.

In addition, “there was evidence that the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office in general, and this prosecutor in particular, had in the past exercised peremptory challenges on the basis of race,” Presiding Justice Jim Humes wrote in the decision.

33-year-old Sheldon Silas, 40-year-old Reginald Whitley, and 34-year-old Lamar Michaels were all sentenced to life in prison back in 2016 for the murders of 24-year-old Christopher Zinn and his 21-year-old. girlfriend Brieanna Dow. Allegedly, Zinn and Dow were murdered because they were thought to have stolen guns from the three men who were in a gang.

Soup cookies gon’ soup cookie.