Thread by @ScottHech

🚨SIGNIFICANT MOMENT. Human Rights Watch (@hrw) has issued a warning to all state leaders with the power to act to correct past wrongs--U.S. governors, mayors, attorneys general, prosecutors. Your failure to do so violates international human rights standards. First stop: Oregon.

"When a legal system has obtained convictions through a discriminatory mechanism for decades, it should take on the task of fixing its mistake. Denial of equal rights for decades outweighs concerns about court efficiency."

In May 2020, US Supreme Court held that convictions by non-unanimous juries are unconstitutional, motivated by racial and ethnic bias. Yet Oregon’s AG @EllenRosenblum refuses to allow those whose appeals happened to be final before the decision a new trial.

"By refusing to give those convicted under the non-unanimous jury rule who have completed their appeal an opportunity to reverse their conviction, Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum is arbitrarily deciding that some people’s rights are too burdensome to honor.”

Reversing convictions from non-unanimous juries "is consistent with the Attorney General’s duty to treat all who come before you fairly and to do justice."

Discriminatory non-unanimous juries violate international human rights law and undermine the integrity of Oregon Courts.

Oregon’s Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum must ACT NOW to #EndJimCrowJuries. International human rights standards require it."

Then onto other issues. More:

Retroactive justice in Oregon is just a start. Terrence Hayes, victim of a non-unanimous jury: "For all of us unlucky enough to have been victims of laws the Supreme Court deems unconstitutional before they say so, we are condemned to continue to suffer." usatoday.com/story/opinion/…

When the Supreme Court ruled that immigrants are denied assistance of counsel when not informed of immigration consequences of guilty pleas, countless people already deported, torn from their families, convicted or otherwise locked up before the decision, were denied any relief.

When the Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that juries — not judges —were the only ones who could ultimately decide to condemn someone to death, those already on death row, facing down the end of their lives because of the whim of a single judge, received no mercy.

And when the Supreme Court ruled in 2011 that juveniles must be specially protected against police interrogation, all those convicted as juveniles then serving time, or burdened forever by the scarlet letter of a conviction, had no second chance.

State leaders, however, don't just have to throw their hands up. Say they're beholden to the Supreme Court. They can act to provide retroactive justice. "We must look backward to repair the damage we have done." They'd prefer you didn't know that. Then they'd have to act.

For the full letter from Human Rights Watch calling on Oregon's Attorney General, Ellen Rosenblum, to act consistent with international human rights law & do simple justice, read here: hrw.org/news/2021/03/3…

For more on how a law passed by the KKK 80+ years ago to maintain white supremacy keeps disproportionately Black people locked up in Oregon. How a jailhouse lawyer got the case to the Supreme Court. And how to topple this monument to racism. Share & watch:

And for more on the injustice of non-unanimous juries, follow @stillinprison, and for resources and media check out this site: StillinPrison.org.