by DeAndre Williams
Old friends passing
I shed a tear
Remembering
Their smiling and laughing
Educating me
And making me feel loved
I shed a tear
‘Cause now
I feel as if I’m all alone
I shed a tear
As Yuri whispers in my ear
And Chinosole scolds me
As I
Listen closely to the wisdom
The Freeman brothers
Share.
Yeah, I shed a tear
Sista Goldii
Though
I never met you
Your words
Brought sweet music to my ears
I shed a tear
Send our brother some love and light: DeAndre Williams, 99A0052, Five Points Correctional Facility 11-A1-12B, State Route 96, P.O. Box 119, Romulus NY 14541.
Injustice
by Prisons Foundation
DeAndre Williams went to trial in 1997 as a result of a six-count indictment. He was acquitted on all six counts. Normally, any defendant acquitted on every count of an indictment would walk out of the courtroom a free man. Not Williams.
He was sentenced to 25 to life and remains in prison in New York. How this could happen in a functioning democracy governed by the rule of law is the subject of “Looking Back,” a documented account of Williams’s trial and subsequent imprisonment.
According to his account, the trouble began in 1993 when Williams filed a complaint against a police officer who was subsequently arrested and convicted. Two years later, he refused a demand by authorities to perjure himself in a murder case, and two years after that he was arrested.
The grandson of scholar and author Dr. Chancellor Williams, DeAndre has endured eight years of solitary confinement, constant assaults on his body and dignity, and serial denials of his legal and human rights. What makes this book so arresting is the quantity and quality of the documented evidence Williams offers in support of his claims, including the jury’s ballot that clearly indicates “Not Guilty” on all six counts.
Those unfamiliar with the criminal justice system will shake their heads in wonder, mystified by how such an obvious miscarriage of justice could occur in the US of A. Those of us with more experience inside the system will nod slowly as Michel Foucault’s dictum echoes: “Freedom of conscience entails more dangers than authority and despotism.”
The Prisons Foundation, http://www.prisonsfoundation.org/, which publishes at no charge on their website manuscripts from prisoners, scanning them and posting the pages just as they are received, can be reached at P.O. Box 58043, Washington DC 20037. Submissions they consider outstanding are briefly reviewed, as DeAndre’s book was.