Dear Black Law Students Association
I bring forth this singular address, not only in a singular outcry but moreover, for the distinct and potpourri class of faceless and voiceless “Unjustly Sentenced” federal prisoners.
Today, you are all promising and aspiring students; whereby tomorrow, a lion’s share of you all will stand as an avant-garde of educators, elected officials, judges, and attorneys that will be sworn to an oath to uphold, serve, enforce, and defend the “United States Constitution.” And, for this predominate body of principles and laws to have equal worth that consummate African-Americans, we need ideal and stoic vanguards who won’t kowtow and conform to the left or right of the arms of politics, or sell out for a post or purse; but steadfastly remain at the heart of the U.S. Constitution’s virtue. And, importantly, be diligent in the current liberty’s restructure, so we African-Americans can accurately resonate and raise a banner of “Freedom, Justice, and Equality”.
I have authored 3 articles: “Secret Courts in America Fuels Mass Incarceration-Not Actual convictions of Criminals”, “Federal Sentencing Guidelines Demoralizes the U.S. Constitution,” and “A Letter to Citizens of America: From Federal Prisoner #16047-016 Damned to a Life Sentence for Uncharged and Non-Convicted Crimes”. Therein, I have volumed an unconstitutional practice by Federal Courts that utterly infringes on every spectrum of criminal defendant’s constitutional rights to “due process” and “trial by jury”.
The foundational role of “due process” requires the court to comply to criminal defendant’s rights accorded with the “U.S Constitution,” whereby, its grounded tenet is that every American is presumed innocent until a court proves its case “Beyond a Reasonable Doubt” that results in either a plea of guilty by the defendant or by a jury of its peers. Whereas, the purpose of a “trial by jury” serves as a safeguard against any attempt to employ the courts as an instrument of persecution.
Notwithstanding, since the mid-1980s, Federal Courts have structured under the guise of “Judicial Discretion” an instrument of persecution rather than the purpose of justice that assize courts to veto the jury’s determination of facts. And, hence, if the America System has devolved into an adversarial jury system in theory, it is in fact a mere administrative process that operates within the shell of due process. Which, mirrors semblance to King Charles I of England’s 1600’s vile, absolute, and secret court, The “Star Chamber,” which stirred the morale of the founding-father of the United States to structure a liberty’s thesis to protect citizens from an absolute government and court. Today, we need our leaders of tomorrow to operates as a check and balance to an unconstitutional practice that has continued under the discretion and has morally unchecked the founding fathers’ thesis to protection.
The unfairness perpetuated by the use of uncharged dismissed, and acquitted offenses in federal courts to increase a sentenced above the maximum statutory range of defendant’s conviction are uniquely “cruel and unusual.” Which, blatantly violates the “5th Amendment” that decrees, “No person shall be held to answer for an infamous crime unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury…nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process”. And, as a consequence of this Spartan and draconian practice, the United States prison population has swelled to a gigantic proportion of 500% since the mid-’80s, with the prime victims of this growth being African-Americans.
Every criminal defendant in American is due a right to their day in court; it is a defendant’s constitutional right to face a jury of their peers that will act as fact-finders in their case. The constitution was written to protect, and it is important that our leaders of tomorrow impartially uphold the constitutional rights they are sworn to protect. It is a continued misuse of justice when a criminal defendant faces their right to a jury and the jury determines the factual nature of their accusations; only later to have those facts ignored during sentencing. Even worse, it is an extreme misuse of justice when a judge during sentencing accounts for charges that the jury found not to be fact, to actually be factual; creating a direct disregard for the purpose of the jury to act as fact finder.
To not protect our constitutional rights is to put every American at risk because any American can be accused; putting all of America at a disadvantage. The constitution is America’s safeguard to this potential risk with protections of innocence until proven guilty. Criminal Defendants subsequently are already positioned at a disadvantage to standing trial for an indictment; then additionally, to have to face a policy at sentencing that permits the courts to impute theoretical claims on what they deemed is the defendant’s profile on top of the established conviction’s sentencing guidelines is an anathema to the liberty’s thesis and protection of the U.S. Constitution. Again, we the distinct and potpourri class of faceless and voiceless “Unjustly Sentenced” federal prisoners cry out for our stoic vanguards of tomorrow to steadfastly remain at the heart of the U.S. Constitution’s virtue and stand as an avant-garde of educators, elected officials, judges, and attorneys that will be sworn to an oath to uphold, serve, enforce, and defend the “United States Constitution”.
Unjustly Sentenced
Antone White
