NEWS & LETTERS, Janurary-February 2010
Youth life sentences
Los Angeles--On Jan. 6, the Youth Justice Coalition (YJC) held a press conference at criminal court to protest the inhumanly long sentence of Steven Martinez and other youths. Now 17, he was 14 with no prior record at the time of a killing in South Central L.A. Steven was convicted and sentenced to 50 years to life: 25 to life for first-degree murder, and an additional 25 years to life for gang enhancement. More and more youths are being tried as adults and given life sentences in today's climate of expanding repression.
Steven was visiting his grandmother in South Central L.A. and was invited to go for a car ride with two youths aged 16 and 26 years, both casual acquaintances. A YJC member stated that the 26-year-old was sitting in the back and at some point pulled out a gun and randomly shot and killed someone. The shooter, who was never arrested, was killed in the streets a year ago. The driver was also sentenced to 50 years to life.
Many people made statements to the press. One told of how testimonies of witnesses at the trial raised many doubts of Steven's guilt. The trial was constantly postponed and the prosecutor's charge of gang affiliation was very weak.
A Black woman who had lost a son said, "Every time something happens, it is 'gang involvement.'" A white mother pointed out the weak evidence while a Latina said the justice system needs reform. A Latino youth said there are more facilities to lock up youths than there are community colleges. Many other youths, Black, Brown and white, made statements to the press of the unjust conviction and sentence.
An ACLU attorney said excessively long sentences and Life Without Parole (LWOP) destroys hope, pointing out that Latinos are sentenced four times as much as whites to LWOP and Blacks 22 times as much.
On Jan. 6, Governor Schwarzenegger proposed that privatizing California's prison system as a partial answer to the looming $20 billion deficit. But privatizing prisons would be an incentive to criminalize more people to increase profit.
State Assembly Speaker Karen Bass said privatizing prisons is not the answer. "We need to look at why California incarcerates more people than any other state," she said.
--Basho
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