Saturday, September 28, 2019
Silvon SImmons
One of the podcasts I listened to this past week was Criminal's "Silvon Simmons". Basically, this man gets framed by the police of shooting at an officer to save the officer's reputation after the officer shot him three times in the back. He was pressured to do a plea deal which would have given him 15 years in prison. As we discussed, there is a risk of going to trial. If he was found guilty, Silvon could have gotten up to life in prison. However, he very confidently denied the plea deal, knowing he was innocent. He went to trial and was found not guilty. I just really thought this story was crazy because I've heard stories of corruption in law enforcement, but the whole police force was behind this. It seems like some fictional story to me. Did anyone else listen to this or hear about any similar stories of corruption?
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I didn’t listen to this podcast but I have heard of this criminal justice case in the past. This is a prime example of what the documentary “13th” highlights the reality of black defendants. Usually, defendants would be given the option to accept a plea deal, and serve a mandatory minimum, or choose to continue the trial and have the chance of staying prison for life. Unfortunately, black defends put on trial, regardless of whether they actually are guilty or not, don't have much of a choice when it comes to choosing how to go about their trial. Most are encouraged to just take the plea deal because when it comes to allies, those who were black didn't have many in the courtroom. Juries would find black defendants guilty, regardless of the evidence, so plea deals were “the best option”. But it was incredibly courageous of Silvon Simmons and the other black defendants who didn't take plea deals because they refused to accept that life in prison was the only option. They wanted to show this damaged justice system that they had the power to fight against the years of unfair trials against black defendants. Courage like this is what will slowly help our criminal justice system conform and reach equality.
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