Thread by @ScottHech

THREAD: Meet Cash Spencer. Oregon juror. Only Black person other than defendant. Thought he was innocent. White jurors didn’t need her. Convicted him anyway. Oregon juries didn’t have to be unanimous. “It breaks my heart. The system is not built for me.”

Most think of the KKK in terms of physical violence. Lynchings. Intimidation. But they also used legal & legislative process to pass laws exacting legal violence. In Louisiana & Oregon they pushed laws to silence Black jurors. To convict who they wanted. "Non-unanimous juries."

Impact: Black people are already less likely to be selected to be on a jury. More likely to be accused of crime. Non-unanimous juries led to disproportionate convictions. *They would have never been convicted & sent to prison anywhere else in the country.* The KKK got their way.

The impact of non-unanimous Jim Crow juries wasn't only felt by those locked up bc of them. Non-white jurors were demoralized. Shut down. Attacked by their "peers." Shut up.

Cash Spencer: "With my voice being silenced by the system, I decided to use my voice in another way."

"I think people have this false sense that Oregon is pretty liberal, pretty diverse, pretty tolerant of diversity. The reality is I have family members that were not allowed to even live in the state. I'm a black woman who has to work just a little bit harder in order to fit in."

Cash Spencer (former juror): "If this whole non-unanimous jury thing was put on the books to silence the minority, then it worked exactly the way it was supposed to." Another non-white juror in another case:

"The prosecutor: he made his case. I think it was more circumstantial than anything else. As we continued to have these deliberations, everybody focused their attention on me as far as I was the bad person. 'Something must have happened!'"

It didnt matter. All it took in Oregon was 10 jurors voting to convict. "Myself & the lady who were still the 2. We just stared at each other. I put my head down. The foreman called the clerk back to let them know we had arrived at the guilty verdict. And that is how that ended."

In April 2020, the Supreme Court finally acknowledged what was long obvious: This racist law in Oregon allowing Black & Brown jurors to be silenced was unconstitutional. Even *Justice Kavanaugh* acknowledged how racist it was. The problem: The decision only applies going forward.

Ramos v. Louisiana was a great win. But it only applies to future cases. But what about all those convicted in the past?

Right now, they're out of luck. Hundreds still in prison in Oregon. Thousands since released are burdened by their unconstitutional conviction. Why on earth?

Oregon can fix this. Theres no reason why people should still be oppressed by a racist law the Supreme Court called unconstitutional. Oregon's AG Ellen Rosenblum called the law "an embarrassment to our progressive state." Shes the one who can do something. Instead she's fighting.

Ellen Rosenblum, Oregon's AG, could end the persisting injustice, she has acknowledged is racist, if she simply stopped blocking people from seeking a fair trial. That's all people want. If DAs have evidence to convict with a constitutional jury, they're free to retry the case.

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.

TAKE ACTION: Join Cash Spencer and thousands around the country calling on Ellen Rosenblum to end this racist injustice. Please sign this petition. act.colorofchange.org/sign/People_st…