NY Times Bob Herbert: "Gary Tyler's Lost Decade."

[muntrv]

The term “time warp” could have been coined for this rural town of 11,000 residents that sits beside, and just a little below, the Mississippi River. A remnant of the sugar-plantation era, the region’s racially troubled past is always here, seldom spoken about but inescapable, like the murk in the air of a perpetually stalled weather front.

The Harry Hurst Middle School is on the site of the old Destrehan High School, which was the scene of violent protests during the integration period of the 1970s. Local residents have tried to blot out the murder case that made Destrehan High notorious three decades ago, but there’s a big problem with that collective effort to forget. The black teenager who was railroaded into prison (and almost into the electric chair) for the murder of a white student in 1974 is still in prison all these many years later. He’s middle-aged now, still suffering through a life sentence without any chance for parole in the notorious state penitentiary at Angola.

SEE MORE AT LINK BELOW.

http://select.nytimes.com/2007/02/05/opinion/05herbert.html?th&emc=th

Old story of an African American man being railroaded by the criminal justice system.

[pnorman]

1. I can't access that website, but here's what I just Googled:

http://www.amnestyusa.org/regions/americas/document.do?id=BF3F0CFC6121613E802569A60060591E

Just reading it,takes the joy out of this day. As a member of Amnesty International (USA), I get frequent bulletins from them, but I can't recall that case.

pnorman