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Editorial
Editorial Archives
Friday, October 8, 2004; Page 20
Another Red Flag Goes Up at D.C. Superior Court
The report last week about the death of Jonathan Magbie, the 27-year-old quadriplegic who was sentenced to spend 10 days in jail for marijuana possession should sound an alarm. The view that some D.C. Superior Court judges are notorious for rendering stiff sentences to African American defendants and charges of a growing racially discriminatory climate have been raised by employees to court officials who have largely ignored them.
According to reports, Magbie was a first-time offender who pleaded guilty to the marijuana charge. His defense attorney, a pre-sentence report and the U.S. attorneys agreed that probation was an appropriate punishment for Magbie who was paralyzed from the neck down since age 4, and who required up to 20 hours of nursing care a day. Magbie, who used a motorized wheelchair for transportation that he operated with his chin, needed help for most everything he did. However, Judge Judith E. Retchin opted to sentence Magbie to 10 days in jail because he also possessed a loaded gun.
For Magbie’s death, D.C. Superior Court and the D.C. Department of Corrections are under investigation to determine whether adequate care was given to Magbie who died on his way to Greater SE Community Hospital and has since been laid to rest. But there is a bigger problem brewing in Superior Court which has come to be known by the diminishing African American employees there as “the last plantation.”
All White juries, excessive sentences meted out to African American defendants, and better plea bargains for White defendants are among the issues confounding African American Superior Court workers who say they are overlooked when it comes to hiring and promotions, and who bear the brunt of the Court’s disciplinary actions, including terminations and suspensions.
According to some workers, these issues have been brought to the attention of the Court Judicial Committee which has done little more than listen. The next step will be to appeal to Congress to take a look at D.C. Superior Court to determine whether it is becoming the hall of injustice for many D.C. residents. |
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