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August 16, 2012

  • NASA Plans Second Mars Mission

    NASA Plans Second Mars Mission Human mission set for the 2030s Charles F. Bolden, Jr.

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  • Jackson is Being Treated for a Bipolar Disorder

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  • Mississippi Has the Most Obese Residents

    Mississippi Has the Most Obese Residents Here are the states of fatness The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced on Monday that 12 states have very high obesity rates and that African Americans really need to step away from the table. The 12 states, where at least 30 percent of the adult population is obese, are: Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas and West Virginia. Mississippi, which is home to the nation’s largest black population, has the highest adult obesity rate.

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  • Fisk to Share Stieglitz Art

    Fisk to Share Stieglitz Art Fisk University has received a payment of $30 million as part of an agreement to share the Stieglitz Art Collection with the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Ark.

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  • FAMU to Provide Alternative to Band Performance During Halftime

    With its famous Marching “100” band prohibited from participating in this season’s football halftime shows, officials of Florida A&M University said they will provide alternative entertainment.

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  • Report: Schools Suspend Black Students at a High Rate

    Report: Schools Suspend Black Students at a High Rate by Frederick H. Lowe As students prepare to return to class for a new school year, a major university has released a blistering report that paints African Americans as poster children for out-of-school suspensions.

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  • Miss. District Runs School-to-Prison Pipeline

    Miss. District Runs School-to-Prison Pipeline The U.S. Justice Department on Friday reported that Meridian, Miss., operates a school-to-prison pipeline in which police arrested black students and jailed them for minor infractions such as dress-code violations.

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  • Drug Trafficking Explodes in 'Coup-Prone' Guinea-Bissau

    Drug Trafficking Explodes in 'Coup-Prone' Guinea-Bissau Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from GIN (TriceEdneyWire.com) – A massive drug trade in the West African coastal nation of Guinea-Bissau is worrying world leaders at the United Nations.

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  • Report: Sikh Temple Shooter Was a Skinhead

    Report: Sikh Temple Shooter Was a Skinhead Wade Michael Page, who shot and killed six members of the Sikh Temple in Wisconsin before turning the gun on himself, was a member of the Northern Hammerskin, one of the oldest, most-violent and most-dominant skinhead organizations in the United States, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups.

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  • Albert C. Freeman, Jr., 78

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  • Roy Simon Bryce-Laporte, 78

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  • NYC Police Kill Man in Times Square

    New York City Police shot and killed on Saturday a knife-wielding man with a history of mental problems in Times Square. Police fired 15 shots at Darrius Kennedy, 51, hitting him at least seven times before he died.

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  • Defensive Player of the Year Kicked Off LSU Football Team

    Defensive Player of the Year Kicked Off LSU Football Team Last year’s Heismann Trophy finalist Tyrann “Honey Badger” Mathieu has been dismissed from the Louisiana State University football team for violating school and team rules.

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  • SuperPAC Calls President Obama a Bigot

    by Zenitha Prince (TriceEdneyWire.com) - A new SuperPAC has launched an ad campaign that accuses President Barack Obama of supporting racist behavior against whites.

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  • The NorthStar’s Week in Black History

    The NorthStar’s Week in Black History August 16 through August 22 August 16 1963 ----- The U. S. Postal Service offered for sale on this date a postage stamp, featuring the image of a broken chain, issued to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation.

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  • Romney Picks Ryan, Creating an All-White Male Team

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  • NAACP Gives Ryan All 'Fs'

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  • Advocates Will Appeal Photo-ID Ruling

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  • Police Release “Re-enactment” Video

    Police Release “Re-enactment” Video The video is designed to back their claim that handcuffed man shot himself in the head Jonesboro, Ark.

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Sedrick Courtney
Sedrick Courtney after being exonerated  (Innocence Project photo)

An Innocent Man Tries to Rebuild His Life

Sedrick Courtney, who spent 16 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, has been exonerated as a result of DNA evidence. But beginning a new life after spending years behind bars presents challenges that are shadowed by regrets.

When Tulsa, Okla., Judge William Kellough exonerated Courtney on July 19, 2012, he talked about how much of his life and  productive years had been lost while he was in prison. He said he had no work experience so initially it was difficult to fill out job applications.

His children also grew up without him.

“When I left, I had babies,” he told Tulsa reporters. “And when I got home, my babies had babies. So I missed a lot.”

Tulsa police arrested Courtney on June 12, 1995, and prosecutors charged him with an April 6, 1995, robbery and home invasion. The case involved two armed gunmen wearing ski masks who kicked in the home’s door and stole nearly $400 in cash, four tires and four tire rims. They also severely beat the victim, Shemita Greer, who was hospitalized for three days for treatment of a brain injury.

After recovering, Greer told detectives that Courtney was one of the men, who robbed and beat her. Greer, who socialized with Courtney on several occasions, said she recognized his voice, although the gunman was wearing a black ski mask. A shorter gunman hid his face behind a green ski mask.

Police found the black ski mask on the sidewalk near Greer’s apartment and the green ski mask on top of tires stolen from Greer.

State forensic lab officials performed available DNA testing on the hair that had been recovered from the ski masks, but the results proved inconclusive, said Innocence Project lawyers who later represented Courtney. The Innocence Project, a national litigation and public policy organization dedicated to exonerating wrongfully convicted people through DNA testing, is based at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York.

At the trial, prosecutors, however, used the hair evidence to support Greer’s identification of Courtney based on faulty testimony provided by Carol Cox, a Tulsa Police Department Forensic Lab Analyst, said Innocence Project attorneys.

The Innocence Project noted quite forcefully that Cox has conducted faulty hair microscopy that has led to the wrongful conviction of Timothy Durham, who was exonerated for a 1997 rape. Durham appeared in court on the day Courtney was exonerated to show his support.

Although Courtney testified to his innocence and presented three alibi witnesses, he was convicted in February 1996 of robbery with a firearm and first-degree burglary. A judge sentenced him to 30 years in prison.

Four years later, Courtney’s previous attorneys with the Oklahoma Indigent Defense System sought DNA testing on the hair recovered from the ski masks. Tulsa police, however, told them they had destroyed the evidence.

In 2007, the Innocence Project began representing Courtney. Attorneys again asked the Tulsa police department for the DNA evidence. Police again said they destroyed the evidence, although they could not produce official documentation identifying when it had been destroyed.

In September 2011, Eric Wilson, a law student at Cardozo School of Law, who was participating in an Innocence Project Legal Clinic, asked the Tulsa police department for the DNA, and this time the police department found it.

Police sent the hairs found to a lab for testing. Improved DNA-testing methods confirmed that none of the 10 hairs recovered from the black ski cap matched Courtney. Lab officials also tested the five or six recovered from the green ski cap. They did not match Courtney.

Based on the results of the DNA testing and the consent of Tulsa District Attorney Tim Harris, Judge Kellough overturned Courtney’s conviction.

Prison officials had released Courtney on parole in 2011. His exoneration means he no longer has to live the restrictive life of a parolee.

Courtney found a full-time job in a commercial warehouse, and he married in March. The Innocence Project is trying to get compensation for Courtney for the time he spent in prison. That may occur in a few months. Judge Kellough adjourned the exoneration hearing until September, when he will finalize his decision.

Courtney is the 295th person exonerated by DNA testing, said Barry Scheck, co-director of the Innocence Project.

Scheck called on Oklahoma to provide post-conviction DNA testing.

“Undoubtedly there are many others who have not been so fortunate because Oklahoma has the unfortunate distinction of being the only state in the nation that doesn’t have a DNA testing law,” Scheck said. “Hopefully, this horrible miscarriage of justice will spur state lawmakers to do the right thing and make it easier for those who have been wrongly convicted to get access to DNA testing to clear their names.”

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