Thread by @ScottHech

READ: "While I was not kidnapped by white men in hoods, 70 years later, I was caged because of their law." Courageous oped by Terrence. A man caged nearly 13 years. By the KKK. His judge then is now Oregon Attorney General. She could end this racist stain. usatoday.com/story/opinion/…

"Every juror’s voice is supposed to matter — the right to a “jury trial” means a unanimous verdict, but up until 2020, not in Oregon. And all because white supremacists wanted to stop minorities & marginalized groups from having a voice on juries. So they could convict anyone."

"While we usually think of the Ku Klux Klan in terms of lynchings, bombings, and intimidation, we often overlook the influence that the KKK had in government, especially in Oregon. The KKK took advantage of a rise in racial, xenophobic, & anti-Semetic hatred."

"I was at home in Oregon in April 2020, 4 years after being released from a 12 year and 8 month prison sentence, when I learned that the United Supreme Court had decided that the method of my conviction was unconstitutional. Not only that, it was based on a law rooted in racism."

"When I heard the Supreme Court ruled the law that convicted me was “rooted in racism," & even Justice Kavanaugh recognized "in a desire to diminish the voices of Black jurors in the late 1890s,” I should have been filled with a sense of happiness or vindication. I felt neither."

Here's the important catch: "While it was a blessing to learn that no one would ever be convicted with a non-unanimous jury again, this alone did not free me or those in similar positions. Why? Because of a legal term called 'retroactivity.'"

"When new rules are announced by the Supreme Court, they don’t automatically get applied “retroactively.” That means for all of us unlucky enough to have been victims of laws the Court deems brutal & racist before they ultimately say so we are condemned to continue to suffer."

I am free now. However, still bound by the chains of an unconstitutional conviction. I’m also bound by trauma & guilt. I went to jail at 20 & my 2 baby daughters were stripped from me. I wasn’t able to be there to support them as they grew up. I also was unable to grow up."

"I lost family while I was in, I missed graduations and weddings, I lost what should have been a normal life for more than a decade. Then within months of release, my 17-year-old cousin, Quanice Hayes, was killed by Portland police in February 2017." opb.org/article/2021/0…

"Fortunately, there is some hope. States have the power to provide retroactive justice. Right now in Oregon, AG Ellen Rosenblum could stop fighting us in our quest to vacate racist convictions based on our unconstitutional non-unanimous jury law even if the Supreme Court won’t."

"Rosenblum has even acknowledged the law they struck down was “linked to racism & anti-Semitism” & “an embarrassment to our otherwise progressive state.” But so far she has resisted calls to topple this monument. She even filed a brief w/ the Supreme Court against retroactivity."

"Ellen Rosenblum was a judge back in 2004. And Ellen Rosenblum was the very judge that presided over my case, rejected my attorney’s arguments that my jury conviction was unconstitutional, and sentenced me to prison time."

"While I can imagine it would be hard to acknowledge her (@EllenRosenblum) own role in perpetuating systemic racism, that she was part of allowing so many people of color to be mishandled in the jury process, I still believe Rosenblum has the moral courage to do what’s right."

"It seems everyone, including conservative Supreme Court justices & Oregon’s AG herself, admits that my conviction is the result of racism. But not racist enough to rectify? I hope that as stories like mine emerge, she chooses to do the right thing & allow fair trials."

"The attorney general can and must right these wrongs. As our country and our state examines our laws, policies, and practices and the disproportionate impact they have had on communities of color, we must look backwards to repair the damage we have previously done."

For more information on what actions you can take to support Terrence & hundreds of others in Oregon fight for justice, please watch & share this powerful film, follow @stillinprison, & visit StillinPrison.org.