Thread by @ScottHech

THREAD: Imagine having power to end the impact of a KKK-passed law that still imprisons hundreds. Oregon AG Ellen Rosenblum has power, but won't use it.

Human Rights Watch (@hrw) just called her failure to act “inconsistent w/ international human rights standards." Just wow.

In May 2020, US Supreme Court held that non-unanimous juries were motivated by racial & ethnic bias. Yet Oregon’s AG is *refusing* to allow this new Supreme Court rule to apply to those whose appeals happened to be final before the decision. They're still in prison. "Too bad."

Human Rights Watch (@hrw):

Ellen Rosenblum’s failure to end the racist stain of #JimCrowJuries is “arbitrary” and “inconsistent with international human rights standards requiring states to eliminate racial discrimination, including structural discrimination.”

Human Rights Watch to Oregon AG Ellen Rosenblum: “By refusing to give those convicted under the non-unanimous jury rule who have completed their appeal an opportunity to reverse their conviction, you are arbitrarily deciding that some people’s rights are too burdensome to honor.”

Human Rights Watch: "When a legal system has obtained convictions through a discriminatory mechanism for decades, it should take on the task of fixing its mistake. Reversing convictions from non-unanimous juries is consistent w/ your duty to treat all who come before you fairly."

Every juror’s voice is supposed to matter. Yet Oregon & Louisiana allowed up to 2 jurors to be silenced. KKK pushed these laws to establish white supremacy. To convict whoever they wanted. Legal lynchings. Louisiana already acting to fix. Oregon wont.

The Supreme Court decision from 2020 only applies to future cases. But what about all those convicted in the past? People like Terrence Hayes: "We are all condemned by a marker in time that allows injustice &, in my case, institutional racism to persist."usatoday.com/story/opinion/…

"Though Ellen Rosenblum has spoken in support of getting rid of nonunanimous convictions in Oregon, she filed a brief opposing the Supreme Court’s decision, citing the “practical consequences” of retrying hundreds & potentially thousands of past cases." oregonlive.com/pacific-northw…

What you can do: Visit StillinPrison.org to learn more and take action. Follow @stillinprison on Twitter. Share this thread and the video above.

Call on @EllenRosenblum to stop violating international human rights standards and just do simple justice.

And here is the full text of the powerful, unyielding @hrw letter: hrw.org/news/2021/03/3…

Important note: This position by one of the most prominent human rights groups on the planet requires all state actors--governors, attorneys general, lawmakers, prosecutors--to act affirmatively to right injustice retroactively even when the Supreme Court refuses to.