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September 20, 2012

  • Obama Camp Fires Back After Romney’s “47%” Diatribe

    Obama Camp Fires Back After Romney’s “47%” Diatribe by Barry Cooper The Obama campaign wasted little time striking back at Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Tuesday. Within hours after a secret videotape emerged of Romney making seemingly disparaging remarks about nearly half the U.S.

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  • Jackson Gets Two Men Freed from a Gambia Prison

    Jackson Gets Two Men Freed from a Gambia Prison by Frederick H. Lowe Two men who were serving long prison sentences in Gambia have left the West African Country after the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr. negotiated their release with the country’s President, Dr.

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  • The Real Count of Monte Cristo Was a Black Man

    The Real Count of Monte Cristo Was a Black Man Alexandre Dumas wrote the story based in part on his father’s life The Count of Monte Cristo, one of literature’s most-enduring novels, is based on the real life of a black man, who rose from private to general in the French Army, became a valued aide to Napoleon Bonaparte and later, an object of Napoleon's envy, according to the book, The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo, which hit bookstores on Tuesday.

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  • Feds Hammer Tool Company Because of Its Racist Hiring Practices

    Meyer Tool Inc., a federal contractor that displays on its website photographs of a smiling President George W.

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  • Homes Headed by Single Black Men See Drop in Poverty

    Homes Headed by Single Black Men See Drop in Poverty by Frederick H. Lowe The poverty rate for families headed by single-black men has declined since 2010, while poverty rates for households headed by single white and Asian men have increased.

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  • Transportation Can Help Black Men Find Better-Paying Jobs

    Transportation Can Help Black Men Find Better-Paying Jobs by Frederick H. Lowe The Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, will host a special forum on Wednesday, September 26, in Washington, D.C., focused on black men.

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  • Supreme Court Will Hear Arguments on Affirmative Action

    Supreme Court Will Hear Arguments on Affirmative Action New America Media Q & A  by Khalil Abdullah Editor’s Note: On October 10 the U.S. Supreme Court will hear Fisher v. University of Texas, a case that could upend affirmative action policies nationwide.

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  • FAMU: Drum Major Actively Participated in Hazing

    FAMU: Drum Major Actively Participated in  Hazing Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Capital Outlook by Kanya Stewart (TriceEdneyWire.com) - Robert Champion, Jr.

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  • Statue of Frederick Douglass to Be Placed in Capitol

    Statue of Frederick Douglass to Be Placed in Capitol President Obama must sign the legislation Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Afro American Newspaper (TriceEdneyWire.

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  • Worldwide Employment Outlook Still Bleak for Youth

    Worldwide Employment Outlook Still Bleak for Youth (TriceEdneyWire.com) - The employment outlook for young people worldwide is grim, according to an analysis released September 4 by the International Labor Organization.

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  • Michigan Business Associations Merge

    The Michigan Black Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Black Suppliers on Thursday announced they have merged to increase member access to capital and to help them compete worldwide.

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  • 100 Black Men to Get a New Man

    100 Black Men to Get a New Man Curley M. Dossman, Jr., vice president of community affairs at Georgia Pacific Co., later this month will be installed as chairman of 100 Black Men of America Inc.

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  • IRS Asked to Investigate Texas Church That Called for Obama’s Defeat

    Americans United for Separation of Church and State has asked the IRS to investigate an El Paso, Texas, Roman Catholic church after an item in the church bulletin called for the defeat of President Barack Obama in November’s presidential election. St.

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  • Michelle Obama Will Address the CBC

    Michelle Obama Will Address the CBC WASHINGTON (TriceEdneyWire.com) – For the first time during his administration, President Barack Obama will not be the keynote speaker at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Annual Phoenix Awards Dinner this Saturday, an event that brings to a close the Congressional Black Caucus Annual Legislative Conference (CBC-ALC).

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  • President Obama Fails to Score a Touchdown With Convention Speech

    President Obama Fails to Score a Touchdown With Convention Speech by A. Peter Bailey (TriceEdneyWire.com) - To use a football analogy, during the Democratic National Convention, San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, First Lady Michelle Obama, former President Bill Clinton and Vice President Joe Biden advanced the ball for President Obama to the ten yard-line.

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  • Double Whammy for African Americans

    Double Whammy for African Americans by Julianne Malveaux (TriceEdneyWire.com) - We have learned that African-American unemployment rates stayed level last month with an absurdly high official unemployment rate of 14.1 percent.

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  • The Poor Could Be Strong Swing Vote

    The Poor Could Be Strong Swing Vote by Rev. Jesse L. Jackson (TriceEdneyWire.com) - Nearly 50 million Americans now are in poverty. One in four children will grow up in an impoverished household. Redressing poverty is a national emergency and a moral imperative.

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  • Netanyahu’s “Red Line” Is Just a Red Herring

    Netanyahu’s “Red Line” Is Just a Red Herring by Wilmer J. Leon, III (TriceEdneyWire.com) - News sources have reported that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu requested a meeting with President Obama to discuss tightening restrictions on Iran and that President Obama has rejected his request.

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  • The NorthStar’s Week in Black History

    The NorthStar’s Week in Black History September 20 through September 26 September 20 1943 ----- A German submarine, U-238, torpedoed the Frederick Douglass, a U. S. cargo ship, on this day.

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  • Pennsylvania Voter-ID Law Remanded to a Lower Court

    Pennsylvania Voter-ID Law Remanded to a Lower Court by Frederick H. Lowe The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Tuesday vacated a lower-court decision, upholding the commonwealth’s restrictive voter Photo-ID law, in a case that easily could be called "The Pennsylvania bureaucracy strikes back." Because the law does not meet PennDOT (Pennsylvania Department of Transportation) issuing guidelines, the law faces significant challenges from the bureaucracy, which could block its implementation.

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Three of the Englewood Four
Three of the Englewood Four show their
certificates of innocence. They are from left to
right: Harold Richardson, Michael Saunders and
Terrill Swift. Vincent Thames is not in the
photograph.

Judge Issues Certificates of Innocence to Four Men

The men are entitled to nearly $200,000 each under Illinois law
by Frederick H. Lowe
A Cook County, Ill., judge has issued certificates of innocence to four black men who served long prison terms for a crime that DNA evidence proved they did not commit.

On Friday, Judge Paul P. Biebel, the presiding criminal court judge, declared Terrill Swift, Michael Saunders, Harold Richardson and Vincent Thames innocent of the 1994 rape and murder of Nina Glover, a sex worker, in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood. The four teenagers, now grown men, were called the Englewood Four by the police and news media.

Judge Biebel issued the certificates over the objections of Anita Alvarez, the Cook County state’s attorney. In January, Alvarez dismissed indictments against all four men because of a lack of evidence.

She dropped the indictments after Biedel overturned the Englewood Four’s convictions and ordered new trials for the men in November 2011.

Judge Biebel ordered new trials because the only DNA evidence found on Glover’s body linked the crime to Johnny Douglas, a career criminal with history of sexual assaults. In 2008, an unknown gunman shot Douglas to death.

Despite evidence pointing to Douglas, Chicago police arrested and coerced the four into confessing to Glover’s murder. Chicago police questioned Douglas but did not charge him after he denied knowing Glover.

Swift said he confessed to the crime, although he had a lawyer. Chicago police warned him he would get 100 years in prison if he did not cooperate The men’s convictions were based on false confessions obtained through police coercion, said Maddy deLone, executive director of the Innocence Project, which is based in New York. “They were between 15 and 18 when they were arrested, and without a shred of evidence, they were wrongfully convicted and sentenced to 30-40 years in prison,” deLone said. The Innocence Project represented some of the men.

Swift said he confessed to the crime, although he had a lawyer. Chicago police warned him he would get 100 years in prison if he did not cooperate.

Alvarez argued that the confessions were valid, but Biebel said the DNA proved to be stronger evidence than the four men’s confessions to police.

All four of the Englewood Four
Englewood Four from left to right, Richardson,
Thames, Saunders and Swift.
After the Biebel’s decision, Swift told reporters that everyone knew he was innocent. In 2011, Swift told The NorthStar News & Analysis, during a demonstration outside of Alvarez’s office, that he confessed to the crime although he had a lawyer.

“I was intimidated by the police who took advantage of my age,” said Swift, who served 15 years and two months in prison before being released on parole in May 2011. ”I was just a kid. I didn’t know my rights. The police warned me that if I didn’t cooperate I would get 100 years in prison.”

Swift was 17 when he went to prison.

Under Illinois Compensation Laws, Swift and the others are entitled to $199,150 each for having served more than 14 years in prison for crimes they did not commit.

The certificates also could support any lawsuits the four may bring the future. In addition, the compensation law reimburses attorney’s fees up to 25 percent of the compensation award. The law also provides job search, job placement and re-entry services.

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