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Onward,
Alexander, Jeffrey, Becky and Deva
November
7, 2006
The Ordeal of Larry Peterson
Lives
(and Votes) Lost
By ELIZABETH WEILL-GREENBERG
Nothing ties Larry Peterson to the rape
and murder of Jacqueline Harrison but the stubborn say-so of
the Burlington County prosecutor's office. Their obstinance makes
sense when you consider that Peterson is planning a civil suit
and demanding an investigation into those responsible for his
wrongful conviction and 17 years in prison.
"They took one lie after
another and just built a case on that," said Peterson. "Being
a poor black man, or anyone that's poor, and can't defend himself
because you don't have money to obtain a good attorney -- you
up the creek. So I got jacked up."
On Aug. 24, 1987 Harrison was
found strangled on a dirt road in Burlington County. Harrison's
best friend and ex-boyfriend told prosecutors Peterson had scratches
on his arms.
After learning he was a suspect,
Peterson went to police to declare his innocence. He was charged
with capital murder and sexual assault -- in March 1989 he was
convicted.
In July 2005 his conviction
was vacated based on DNA evidence that proved his innocence.
The semen found on Harrison, as well as the blood underneath
her fingernails, did not belong to Peterson that person's
identity is still unknown.
Even so, the Burlington County
prosecutor Robert D. Bernardi announced he would re-try Peterson.
In August 2005, Peterson was finally released after borrowing
thousands of dollars for his $200,000 bail.
In May of this year the prosecution
finally agreed to drop all charges.
The Burlington County prosecutor's
office has yet to admit Peterson's innocence. The prosecutor
actually opposed testing the DNA that ultimately exonerated him.
The New Jersey Attorney General's
Office did not respond to requests for comment about if they
planned to investigate the Burlington County prosecutor's office
and the detectives on Peterson's case.
The prosecutor's office still
refuses to even apologize to Peterson. In an e-mail to City Belt
Ray Milavsky, First Assistant in the Burlington office, wrote:
"You have asked: Do we
plan to issue an apology to Larry Peterson. My question to you
is why would we? It is apparent from your questions that you
are of the impression that the DNA evidence in this case completely
exonerates Mr. Peterson. This just simply is not the case when
one studies the entire proofs of the trial and the investigation."
Milavsky said they are looking
for the person whose DNA was found on Harrison, but do not necessarily
believe this person is the killer.
"The defense would argue
that this mystery donor is in fact the killer. Certainly it is
a theory that could be advanced to a jury and create the reasonable
doubt that would result in a finding of not guilty," he
wrote to City Belt. "It is for this reason that we have
dismissed the prosecution, as we have an ethical responsibility
not to prosecute cases where there is a reasonable doubt. Reasonable
doubt does not mean that Mr. Peterson is innocent."
Milavsky then went on to offer
the "evidence" of witnesses who revealed non-public
details of the crime -- allegedly learned from Peterson's confession
to them.
Vanessa Potkin, an attorney
for the Innocence Project who worked on Peterson's case, pointed
out that the three witnesses only told police about the confession
after they were interrogated.
The two men who included key
details of the crime, allegedly learned from Peterson's confession,
were interrogated by the same investigators, she added.
One of the witnesses, Robert
Elder, has since admitted he lied and incorporated information
he heard from investigators about the murder into his statement,
according to the New York Times.
"The state hasn't offered
me anything," said Peterson. "Nothing. Nothing but
suck the life out of me and they're still doing it everyday."
Tried for capital murder but
sentenced to life, he now volunteers with New Jerseyans for Alternatives
to the Death Penalty. Lorry Post, a member of the group's executive
committee whose daughter was murdered, greeted Peterson outside
the jail when he was released.
But proof of his innocence
wasn't the panacea Peterson hoped it would be or that it
should be.
"I had to search and make
my way," he said. "If I hadn't had anyone I don't think
I would have made it."
Peterson, 55, now works for
$8 per hour as a carpenter's assistant.
"I can't get a decent
job for the mere fact that I got this on my record," he
said. "I'm out there busting my butt everyday for nothing.
What is $8 an hour if you have to take care of yourself?"
He continues: "I go out
on speaking engagements but now I have become a very angry person
because after I finish speaking to these people, these people
-- they can drive, they can go home, they can lay comfortably
in their homes, but I don't have a home. I don't have a car.
I don't even have a driving license. I don't have a decent job."
Upon his release from prison,
all he was given was information on where to find clothes and
a halfway house.
"I live with my mom,"
said Peterson. "It's not a bad place to be but I want my
own."
He continues: "I used
to be independent. I was trying to build my life and everything
was going well until this happened. Life was just taken from
me."
Voting Takes
a Back Seat
One of the many rights taken
from Peterson those 17 years was his right to vote. While he
could register after he was released (although he was never told),
sheer survival took priority.
"I never even tried to
register to vote," said Peterson. "I've just been trying
to put my life in order. It's a struggle every day."
This week many of those like
Peterson, who have been released from prison, won't be voting.
New Jersey disenfranchises people on parole or probation who
were convicted of an indictable offense, as well as those who
are in prison.
In 1799 the state banned anyone
"convicted of blasphemy, treason, murder, piracy, arson,
rape, sodomy, or any infamous crime against nature," among
other offenses, from voting. The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled
in 1948 that "this particular category of crimes and its
intent was to maintain the purity of our elections by excluding
those would be voters whose status was deemed to be inimical
thereto," according to a 2000 New Jersey Policy Perspective
report.
Legislative and courtroom efforts
to restore the vote have, so far, been unsuccessful.
The governor's office did not
return calls for comment.
"At least two democratic
legislators have introduced enfranchisement bills for people
on parole and probation with little success and with little support
from either party," explained Deborah Jacobs, executive
director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey.
"Most likely, rather than a question of fairness, felony
enfranchisement seems to correlate with a fear of 'being soft
on crime,' as well as the fact that the present system works
well for the incumbent legislators who tend to resist any change
to election reform that will change the status-quo."
In New Jersey, out of the 115,000
or so people convicted of a felony who can't vote, fewer than
30,000 are in prison, according to Rutgers law professor Frank
Askin's 2004 report for New Jersey Policy Perspective.
Felony disenfranchisement does
not affect all populations equally. The racism in New Jersey's
criminal justice system from laws to arrest to trial to
sentencing is common knowledge. The state has the fourth
largest percentage of minority inmates in the country 79
percent even though blacks and Hispanics compose only 29
percent of the state population.
And this inequality is reflected
in the voter rolls -- or who's barred from the rolls.
More than 60 percent of the
parolees and probationers who are disenfranchised in New Jersey
are black or Latino, according to the ACLU-NJ. Nationwide, these
disenfranchisement policies prevent 2.5 percent of the total
population from voting but bar 13 percent of the total population
of black men from voting, according to the ACLU.
The War
on Drugs and The Vote
New Jersey also has the highest
percentage of inmates in prison for drug offenses 34 percent
-- meaning that many of those who lose the vote are non-violent
offenders. Minorities make up 90 percent of drug offenders in
New Jersey prisons, testified Richard J. Williams, Administrative
Director of the Courts, before the NJ Senate Judiciary Committee
in 2004.
Mandatory sentencing contributes
to this inequality and disenfranchisement. For example, distributing
five grams of crack carries the same federal minimum sentence
five years as distributing 500 grams of powder cocaine,
according to the ACLU.
New Jersey's drug-free school
zones, which increase sentences for drug offenses committed within
1000 feet of a school, also target people in urban areas. Ninety-six
percent of those who were imprisoned for a drug-free school zone
offense are black or Latino, according to a 2005 report by the
New Jersey Commission to Review Criminal Sentencing. The legislature
created the committee in 2004; its members include prosecutors,
legislators and public defenders.
The commission also found that
fewer than 2 out of 10 rural drug distribution offenses occur
within school zones versus more than 8 out of 10 urban distribution
offenses. Out of the 90 school zone cases studied, none involved
selling drugs to minors, the commission reported. And just 2
of the cases even occurred on school property.
"The disproportional impact
of the State's school zone law on minority populations is apparent,"
testified Williams. "[N]early every street corner in urban
centers is within a school zone..."
While drug-free zones blanket
75 percent of Newark, they cover only 6 percent of Mansfield
Township, the Justice Policy Institute found.
This all adds up to longer
sentences and fewer votes for New Jersey's black and Latino residents.
But even after someone is eligible
to vote, like Peterson, they may run into trouble. Their names
may not be on the rolls on election day or they might never be
informed of their rights, said Jacobs. However, some progress
has been made, she noted.
"We partnered with the
Department of Corrections under the previous administration to
provide all inmates completing their sentences with voter registration
forms and 'How-To' packets," she said. "The State Parole
Board requires that parole staff provide parolees completing
parole with a voter registration form."
But more education, oversight
and funding is still needed.
"Our own outreach has
shown that there is massive misinformation about voting requirements
in New Jersey, including among corrections and election officials
as well as the affected citizens themselves," she said.
Enfranchisement isn't just
about offering someone the technical right to vote poll
taxes, literacy tests and voter intimidation have clearly shown
that. Without access and education, the right to vote remains
theoretical for many, and for those incarcerated, on parole or
probation, impossible.
Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg writes for City
Belt, where this piece originally appeared. She can be reached
at Elizabeth@citybelt.org.
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