Justice Denied

In my never ending quest to waste my talents, I present another easy target for the snipers.

Based loosely on real district attorney, sadly.

The Literotica 750 Word Project 2021; between the ==== there are 750 words, the minimum allowed for a story, and the maximum for this challenge.

Just troping along, as is my norm, as if I had a norm. Please read my profile for my stance on comments. Feel free to email suggestions or to start a conversation. Private messages work too

Dennis Earle Lambert; Brian Potter: "Go ahead and hate your neighbor. Go ahead and cheat a friend. Do it in the name of heaven. You can justify it in the end."

====

"Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury, we have provided you with ample evidence to convict Mr. Sawyer. Do not fall prey to the unproven claims from the defense. Follow your conscience. Mr. Sawyer set out to seek revenge. It is up to you to prevent that revenge from succeeding."

My name is Seth Thompson, district attorney for Chase County. I'm trying Charles Sawyer for the killing of three people in a hair salon. I've actually learned plenty from this scum bag.

I had no DNA evidence connecting Sawyer to the scene. I had no physical evidence to prove his guilt. What I did have were eyewitnesses claiming to have seen Sawyer before and after the assassination of those innocent people. Probably the most damning testimony was the jailhouse confession Sawyer supposedly made to another inmate.

The demographics of Chase County are very similar to our adjacent counties. Racially diverse with blacks and whites at about forty seven percent each. The other people came from all parts of the globe. Sawyer lives in Chase County but works in Sexton County, which makes up our southern border. I'm white as is Sawyer.

Gloria Adams had testified in a case in Sexton County. People immediately suspected revenge when she, her husband, and teenage son were slain. They were black.

The police had no suspects for the first few days, but then the witnesses started coming forward. Sawyer was arrested leaving for work. Someone had tipped off the local television stations so his perp walk was played ad nauseam.

The make-up of my jury was twelve black people. The witnesses were black. The jailhouse informant was black. Sawyer was convicted and sentenced to death.

Was he railroaded? Remember I did tell you I learned a lot from Charles Sawyer, district attorney for Sexton County.

Good old Charlie, over the last decade, had convicted over one hundred black defendants without a shred of evidence. How did he do that? He prevented blacks from serving on the jury. His star eyewitnesses were white. Some had even testified at multiple trials. His jailhouse informants were white and almost all were facing additional time for incarceration crimes. As you guessed, those crimes were allowed to go unprosecuted in return for testimony.

Once his arrest made headlines, rumors of his backhanded legal dealings became public. Overnight I had more eyewitnesses than I needed. Sawyer was squealing like a stuck pig about being framed.

I wasn't about to brush aside an easy conviction. Like I said, I learned a lot from Charles Sawyer.

Two years ago Steven Burns, Gloria Adam's brother, was arrested for the assault of four people outside of a nightclub in Sexton County. Two white people died. Steven is black. He was asleep in Gloria's basement at the time of the crime. Gloria had testified to that point.

When Steven's defense presented cell phone and automobile GPS records showing him at Gloria's house, the judge prevented it from being introduced as evidence. That would turn out to be what was needed to overturn the conviction. Sawyer tried Steven again. One of his star eyewitnesses had died of a heart attack, but just like that another eyewitness came forward. Steven was convicted in spite of the GPS records. That conviction is currently under appeal for jury tampering.

An Innocence Project has found nightclub surveillance footage showing the shooter to be white and about six inches shorter than Steven. The video that wasn't introduced as evidence to exonerate Steven. They also had emails from the district attorney's office acknowledging the existence of that video. Those emails were prior to the first trial. The nightclub owner testified that the video had been lost.

Back to Sawyer. He sits in prison, with an inflamed asshole and throat, awaiting his appeal to be heard. He claims that he wasn't tried by a jury of his peers.

My closing speech to the jury, which you read at the top of this story, are Charles Sawyer's own words, almost verbatim. He'd used that short speech in dozens of his trials. I figured it was Karma for me to use it at his trial.

In a perfect world, some court somewhere would toss out all of the convictions Sawyer had obtained in his tenure as district attorney. So far it hasn't happened, but I've derailed that railroad for the time being.

Sawyer claims he was "Just doing my job."

Well Charlie, I was just doing my job. That hasn't stopped the onslaught of death threats.

====

====

For those of you interested in learning more, might I suggest watching the movie 'Just Mercy' or reading the book by the same name. The EJI has freed over 140 wrongly convicted from death row.