Apr 8, 2008
American InJustice - Dallas man seeks justice in county courts, maintains his innocence in YouTube video
Categories: African-American, Dallas, Justice/Law Enforcement
Written By: Shawn Williams
I met Lakeith Amir-Sharif a couple of years ago at the Friendship-West Faith Summit on Poverty. We’ve kept in contact over the years and months and recently Sharif made me aware of a case he is involved in with Dallas County. He is awaiting two felony trials, the first of which is set for April 21, 2008. Mr. Amir-Sharif maintains his innocence, and if he his found guilty, he could be sent to prison for 20-30 years. He is hoping that District Attorney Craig Watkins will take a closer look at his case.
The above You Tube has been created in support of Sharif and his efforts. This is part one, we’ll see where this takes us.
April 8th, 2008 at 8:30 pm
It takes very brave people to stand up against those in power but somebody has to do it. In this case, tThe Dallas County Justice website at http://www.angelfire.com/crazy4/texas.html, manned by Sharif and friends has naturally drawn the wrath of people who are not doing their jobs properly, which puts them all in danger of retaliation.
This Dallas situation is repeated all over the country and we all need to do what Sharif is attempting to do.
So many people are being dragged through the justice system until there’s just no justice left. Prisoners with DNA evidence are not the only innocent people suffering. How are we going to ever make this right?
“Much law, but little justice.” ~ Proverb
April 8th, 2008 at 8:54 pm
Kay Lee has summed it up quite well, but having worked closely with Sharif and others on the MTWT I would like to elaborate on a problem I feel deserves urgent attention and that is the that legal defense of the poor. Texas’ reputation as a state without tender mercies for the accused is nowhere more apparent than in Dallas County and how it treats defendants like Sharif who can’t afford to hire the lawyer of their choice. Defendants like Sharif are provided with appointed-counsel, but the competency of many of these lawyers and the pittance they are being paid by Dallas County is shocking to say the least and partly explains some of the reasons why the Texas prison system is bursting at the seams.
I realize that the system of providing lawyers for the poor is shameful throughout the nation, but from the calls and emails we received it is fair to say as bad as things are elsewhere, Texas is at the bottom of the pile. I’m sure this has forced many defendants to plea in cases they would of fought had they better counsel representing them.
Sharif may of angered many but thats no reason for DA Watkins to ignore many things that say this should not be going on.
April 8th, 2008 at 10:32 pm
This case is a real eye-opener about the progress made since Craig Watkins arrived. In one hour I had read enough to know this is a bad rap. I also can’t believe the amount of money the county has poured into prosecuting this guy.
April 9th, 2008 at 8:25 am
Many of the issues that still trouble our criminal court system here in dallas have roots in the bitter experience of other times and administrations. This is not limitied to the district attorney’s office but includes the police, judges, county commissioners, and sheriff. The formula for decades around here was to acknowledge that problems existed, while actively undermining any effort to deal with those problems. This is why I voted was elated when Lupe Valdez , Craig Watkins and Jim Foster won their elections. But after reading the story about this man and others stories posted on their web site I must admit I am having serious doubts. Not just about our newly elected officials, but about this man’s guilt. Our Constitution makes it clear that people of all races must be treated equally under the law. Yet we know that our society has not fully achieved that ideal. Inequity and racial prejudice is a reality in America, and especially here in Texas. It is a part of the fabric. It hurts many of our citizens in many ways; housing, education, employment and our judicial system. As a nation and as individuals, we must be vigilant in responding to this wherever we find it. With over two million of our population behind bars the judicial is the first place we should start. Since his election to the district attorney’s office much progress has been made still much more is needed because if we are committed to racial equality and justice, we must make sure that America’s judicial system affords every defendant the rights and privileges guaranteed by our laws and Constitution. Texas’ has a long experience with slavery, segregation and a two tiered justice system. We have to put those days behind us and work together, (instead of bickering like District Attorney Watkins and Commissioner Mayfield often do). What is called for by our Constitution and the laws of this state requires a special effort on the part of “everyone” to make real the promises of equality and justice for all.
To District Attorney Watkins, I believe in my heart that your office is wrong on this one, so let me be the first to ask you to take all the time necesary and review his files so you will know the truth before he is taken to trial.
Brandy Jones
April 9th, 2008 at 10:42 am
It’s time for Craig Watkins to step up and stop this. How can Dallas County and Carig Watkins justify spending all this damn money. I did read several of the pages on his web site and it is pretty convincing. His accuser has surely left out a few truths here and there to get back at the brother for cheating on her. Hopefully he has learned a valuable lesson from all of this, but I don’t think this is something he should be sent to prison for. That would be totally outrageous and add to the burden we have already paid.
What Craig Watkins needs to do is drop the charges and tell that woman not to come back in his office unless she has been a real victim of a crime.
April 9th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
As a citizen of the United States I am outraged to learn the basis of the indictments against Lakeith Amir-Sharif. How does the courts justify these actions. Ther is plenty “reason-to-doubt” his accuser.
This is a terrible injustice, to go along with countless others so I suppose thats why the DA hasn’t felt the need to investigate.
If the DA won’t do it then I urge you judges and county commissioners to bring this train to a halt immediately. it is up to you to use your considerable authority and power to right this obvious wrong!
April 9th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
As a citizen of the United States I am outraged to learn the basis of the indictments against Lakeith Amir-Sharif. How does the courts justify these actions. Ther is plenty “reason-to-doubt” his accuser.
This is a terrible injustice, to go along with countless others so I suppose thats why the DA hasn’t felt the need to investigate.
If the DA won’t do it then I urge the judges and county commissioners to bring this train to a halt immediately. It is up to you to use your considerable authority and power to right this obvious wrong! Texas already has a terrible reputation when it comes to your courts , jails and prisons. This will only add more fuel to the fire thats burning.
April 10th, 2008 at 5:12 am
Word is slowly leaking out about this curious brand of justice being dispensed by some officials in Dallas who apparently believe the law should be harsher on blacks who attempt to stand up or speak out about the injustices there in your courts.
What you should be doing is questioning that ex-girlfriend. Her story just doesn’t hold water.
April 10th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
It is very evident in Sharif’s case, as in many on our website, that people are promoted to the level of incompetence. It is much easier to prosecute someone in the court system today, with no evidence, than it is to take the time to dig in and get the real facts. There are people throughout our criminal justice system that are either lazy, incompetent or just don’t care. None of these qualities should be accepted when dealing with people’s lives.
What happened to Sharif is dispicable. If the D.A. office there would have done their homework, they would have realized that they are prosecuting an innocent man due to a scornful woman seeking revenge.
God bless you Sharif, and your family.
April 10th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
The Southern past and its injustices remain an active part of the landscape in and outside America’s courtrooms. Dallas, Texas just happens to be one of the worst examples.
Justice for Lakeith Sharif
April 10th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
Unlawful acts of violence and oppression against blacks such as this were once perpetrated by the Ku Klux Klan. Much of Southern society ignored it while African Americans victimized by these acts of terrorism could expect little to no help from the American judicial system. In fact, instances of police intimidation and brutality were all too common during that period of history as well.
Fast forward to the 21st Century and we find that the police intimidation and brutality is still there. The Klan are now donning black robes and business suits while carrying out their violence and oppression of African Americans. Moreover, African Americans victimized by these modern day legal lynching can still expect little to no help from the American judicial system. I join the call by others that the charges against Mr. Sharif be dismissed and an investigation conducted into why such gross perversions of justice continue in Dallas, Texas?
This is really a discredit to everyone associated with the Texas judiciary including Dallas County Texas district attorney Craig Watkins.
April 10th, 2008 at 3:49 pm
My name is Raygina D. Calhoun, and I am a witness for the defense in these charges against Sharif. I want to make this brief comment and come back later with a more detailed explanation of how I personally know that Cathy Hawkins is a liar and not a victim and that Lakeith Amir-Sharif is INNOCENT of the charges Dallas County has been holding over his head for 4 years now.
You know, I once had faith in our justice system but Sharif’s indictment on these malicious charges and many other incidents like the Jena 6 and news of the 15 wrongful convictions in Dallas, has shaken my confidence in the system’s ability to distinguish right from wrong.
Regardless of the outcome on April 21st, everyone needs to know that because I lack the money to pay my own way from Flordia to Texas I will not be allowed to testify. But had I been a witness for the prosecution I wouldn’t have this problem, because the State of Texas pays the expenses to get the prosecution witnesses there to testify. This seems to be very unfair. If the truth and justice is what is really desired by district attorney Craig Watkins and the State of Texas do for Sharif’s defense what you do for prosecution witnesses in order to gain convictions. If I am not allowed to testify on behalf of Sharif then his trial will be unfair and nothing more then a sham.
God bless and keep your head up Sharif, we all know you are INNOCENT!!!
April 10th, 2008 at 9:07 pm
The stories about Mr. Sharif’s attorneys is a shameful example of our judicial system. When a life is in the balance no matter what the alleged crime justice demands that the most vigorous and effective legal defense be mounted. That didn’t happen for Mr. Sharif. Attorneys Thomas Grett and John Read are a disgrace to their profession and should be barred from the representing indigent defendants. Our current indigent defense system cannot guarantee the rights defendants are entitled and it must be changed. If not, there will be more wrongful convicitons to correct.
April 11th, 2008 at 8:16 am
I have heard plenty about the Texas justice system. Is there no shame. Texas is a bad place when it involves asserting your rights in court.The system is designed to convict. Most poor defendants who need money for qualified legal counsel have to rely on the state, the same state prosecuting the case, to provide legal counsel. Surely the state isn’t going to provide legal counselm or other resources equal to what they are working with. This would be too much like doing what is right. The state must get a return on it’s investments (i.e. convictions, which allow free prison labor & probation fees, ect.,) There is a lesson that has yet to be learned or is being intentionally ignore by the powers to be. I will be praying for you and your family.
April 11th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
If the IRS ever revealed how much money they take from the hardworking citizens of this country, our mouths would fall open but we’d also know why politicals waste so much. The money being used to prosecute Sharif et al may be a pittance in government talk, but it’s food off our children’s dinner plates. Damn injustice!
April 12th, 2008 at 7:21 am
I agree with you Mrs. Calhoun. The government has all the resources at their disposal to present their case and if a defendant isn’t wealthy then they are at a real disadvantage. The defendant is appointed legal representation that is paid a flat fee far less then had they been hired by the defendant. This takes the incentive away from legal counsel to work hard to build the best defense possible for their client. The courts also limit or place prior approval restricitons on the resources that can be utilized in preparing the defense. Having no policy in place to pay for out-of-state defense witnesses to appear at a defendant’s trial is contrary to the principles of democracy.
I feel that nothing is more important then liberty and when the government takes this away arbritrairly then everyone in society loses. There are many facts that point to Sharif’s innocence, and I hope district attorney Craig Watkins will have the decency to look into those facts before allowing this case to be taken to trail where another wrongful conviction is likely to occur.
To advance a vision of the law which champions fairness, justice and equality for all, Dallas County and Mr. Watkins in particular can’t afford more of the same.
Justice Watch Inc.
April 12th, 2008 at 11:20 am
All the self-serving, racist noise purporting to justify ridiculously high bail bonds primarily for black people and other minorities together with all the surreal political nonsense about “locking people up and throwing away the key” gave me reason to take another look at Texas’ criminal justice system. Here is just some of the sickening, unethical, corrupt and racist crap I fully expected and quickly found. Lord, please help us!
Now listen to this.
Approximately 80% of all the people sentenced to death in Texas were convicted of killing a white person, although 63% of the murder victims in Texas are black. How unjust can one state get? Well, maybe the answer can be found in the fact that as of April 1st, 2008, “15″ men have been exonerated through DNA testing of evidence available years ago. There are more then 400 other cases awaiting DNA testing to prove or disprove the innocence of prisoners from Dallas County, Texas. The majority of those exonerated and awaiting DNA testing are blacks and other poor people. That is about as low as a state can sink.
And as the poor people might expect, with the exception of Alabama, Texas has a larger number of people sentenced to death than any other state in America . Texas all-white prosecutors achieved this result by systematically striking black and other minority jurors off the jury list. The prosecutors are helped by conflicting court ruling about the jury selection process.
Race bias pervades jury selection
Prosecutors routinely bar blacks, study finds
August 21, 2005
By STEVE MCGONIGLE and ED TIMMS / The Dallas Morning News
Editor’s Note: This story first appeared in The Dallas Morning News on March 9, 1986.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/longterm/stories/030986.829cdf8f.html
http://info.interactivist.net/node/4257
Unequal and discriminatory policies and practices cover all kinds of injustices in our suspect judicial system. Third-rate professional plea bargainers masquerade as lawyers, along with imposing ridiculously high bail bonds on poor black people are just a few examples. That is why I left the mess almost 25 years ago. It is also the reason I may be forced to return to the fight. Justice demands better.
April 13th, 2008 at 9:12 pm
From the Editor
Our Personal Responsibility: Anger and Righting Wrongs
International and national tensions are high as one event after another hits the news. Kosovo is bombed just as Iraq was bombed months earlier. Nervousness about the impending Y2K crises escalates. Closer to home, Amadou Diallo is wrongly shot down in a rain of police bullets. Our prisons bulge with over 1.9 million people, most of them non-violent. We live in the times we have created. Injustice is rampant and mercy is scarce, yet only our efforts to keep virtue alive holds hope for any of us. In the Diallo tragedy, citizens took a stand against injustice in one of the largest civil disobedience campaigns of recent years, with arrests topping the thousand mark. People are seeing for themselves that neither police brutality nor imprisonment of the innocent are rare events, but are almost a common part of being an American. Our anger grows. As has been said of another era, we live in “the best of times and the worst of times.”
Our troubles were not born ex-nihilio (out of nothing), but are part of the whole fabric which is us, whether we caused it, perpetrate or tolerate it. The single realization that we are a part of any wrong we may suffer could do much to dispel our sense of self-pity when we face injustice in our own lives. Once we do that, we can begin to understand that we must be part of the solution in bringing justice to every part of our lives and that of others.
Among the many national and international tensions and fears, the concern of Justice Denied zeroes in on injustice, for just as the homeless, the poor or victims of racism symbolize what is wrong for some Americans, for us, the innocent imprisoned are a distressing indicator of all that is wrong with our “justice” system.
The “worst” of our era is that we see injustice done by Americans to Americans (and others) in unprecedented numbers. We have seemingly become callous people, but fortunately that is only part of the picture. The “best” of our times is that an authentic movement is emerging from the shapeless suffering of thousands no longer willing to share in the debasement of their fellow humans. As in all movements, leaders are emerging to guide the angers of the restless to positive ends.
Defending the Indefensible
When the system’s elite close ranks and protect their own in response to outrage over injustices, anger grows. Where can we find justice if our own systems and people deny it? We don’t trust our criminal justice system with great reason. Among many other wrongs, it has killed innocent people, imprisons the non-violent and has mocked the very concept of justice. We want our criminal justice system to serve us with honor and honesty. We want to see chiefs of police, prosecutors and others who have participated in or allowed wrongs to be called to account. Most of all, we want them to honor justice over the hollow victories of convictions gotten at all costs. (One DA is reputed to have worn a T-Shirt saying, “Convicting the guilty is not the challenge, convicting the innocent is.”) We must oppose these evils with everything we have, for each person reading this could very well be the next target.
Do any of us believe that just because we ask the system to act with honor that it will? Unlikely. Fortunately, we still are not completely dependent on the good will of a system unwilling to reform itself. We can litigate. Whether or not an innocent person wins redress from the courts, it is crucial that lawsuits be pressed. The message will survive intact: we are battering down the gates of the elites’ immunity.
What positive ends could there be to restless anger? If not channeled, anger will increase grief, but if it is righteous and enlightened by constructive plans to create more justice for everyone, it can fuel social changes. Those who avert their eyes from wrongs to others partake in those wrongs. If, however, we have “enlightened selfishness,” we will understand that to free others from wrongs is to guarantee mercy and justice for ourselves. Any injustice diminishes us all. We call to you to change your corner of the world by speaking out, by taking a stand, or by supporting those who are making a difference. You and I have a personal, individual obligation to do what is right. We cannot wash our hands of injustice to others and count ourselves moral or just. Vote your conscience with your time and money. This very day an innocent person needs you to help him or her to freedom. There is a Movement against injustice. Be counted. Stand with us against ALL injustice.
Clara A. Thomas Boggs
Chief Editor and Producer of Justice Denied
http://www.justicedenied.org/index.htm
April 13th, 2008 at 11:14 pm
This is disgusting, shameful and a slap in the face to all us real victims of domestic violence and our loved ones, plus the many scapegoats like Mr. Sharif who it’s obvious is being persecuted for things that are unrelated to Ms. Hawkins’ sketchy and unrealistic accussations about this man physically abusing her. I’ll be sure to come to the courthouse and see how this trial turns out next week.
Damn, she has no records of any injuries; oh my gosh, doesn’t that smell foul and to think, I don’t even have a law degree nor any training as a police officer. My brother had the same thing happen to him right here in Dallas and he got 10 years but his conviction was overturned and he is now free.
April 14th, 2008 at 11:52 am
Aside from Dallas DA Craig Watkins, this guys case will surely come back and put several people involved on the hot-seat. This is outrageous and I agree with others that this has taken on a life that has lasted far longer then it should have.
April 19th, 2008 at 9:44 am
Dallas County’s systemic problems with the administartion of justice is despicable. I pray that the case of Lakeith Amir-Sharif and others helps to bring the glass of injustice known as the Texas Judiciary to it’s knees. Every legislator, police officer, prosecutor and judge should hold their heads down in shame for what is going on there in dallas County.
The conviction of innocent persons for crimes they did not commit calls into question the integrity and legitimacy of our criminal justice system. Unfortunately, the conviction of the innocent occurs far more often then many are willing to admit. Many police officers, prosecutors, judges, government officials, and even average citizens believe that these cases coming out of Texas are anomalies. In fact, I recently read somewhere a comment by a blogger from another state that said “there were undoubtedly some who still believe, despite several exoneration through DNA testing, that some of those recent exonerees from Dallas County were nonetheless guilty”. Obviously, the bloggers’ common sense has taken an extended leave of absence.
Moreover, some government and criminal justice officials argue that the exposure of cases of wrongful conviction demonstrate that the system functions well. Not so, and I’ll point to 50 years of evidence and two men who were stripped of their freedom at the prime of their lives, labled a criminal for a crime they did not commit, forced to serve most their lives in prison for which no monetary compensation, no perfuncutory apology, no hand shakes and no apperances on the t.v. show circuits can ever reverse the pain, emotional turmoil caused by being wrongfully convicted.
Something must be done and done soon. Dallas County is just a reflection of the national crisis affecting the integrity and fairness of our justice system.
Not!!!! 23 years after the fact (Thomas McGowan) and 27 years after the fact (Charles Chatman) If this were in fact the case, many innocent people would not be spending years in prison for crimes they did not commit. This faulty logic serves as a major impediment to the recognition, exposure and prevention of wrongful convictions.
http://www.voiceofwitness.com/sjmain.html
http://youtube.com/watch?v=dWrRap7FAZw
http://youtube.com/watch?v=nrFifvU9WjQ
April 28th, 2008 at 10:16 pm
I really don’t understand why you don’t have a specifice place for all your abused to post..it really couldn’t help anyone without that opportunity…my problem is is that I want to advertise to as many people in the world that I can possibly find that Dallas bites…you’re troopers harrassed me and you need to be your own state…can you help me with that?