A Mom's Fight For Justice
A doctor at my job was a juror on this case in New Jersey. This mother and son's story proves that true justice demands courage in the face of injustice.
Light,
anDre
A Mom's Fight for Jusice (excerpt)
by Paul Johnson from northjersey.com
Sunday, January 23, 2006
Lorraine Greene wakes in the middle of the night, gasping for air, feeling the walls close in.
She rushes to the window, certain her son is screaming for his life, but finds only silence.
She runs down the hall, sure her family is in danger, but finds each of them safe in bed.
"Can't be nothing wrong," she tells herself. "Everyone is asleep."
She puffs into a brown paper bag to try to calm herself. Still the panic rises, and it goes on for weeks.
Finally one night, she opens a Bible and places her hands on the open pages.
"I asked God to help me," she says. "I said 'Whatever you do, take these panic attacks from me.'"
Her baby-faced son, Courry Rice, has been in jail since the summer of 2003, accused of first-degree murder. He was 19 then. He turned 22 last July 31.
Rice insists he is no murderer. His mother believes him. She has not had a panic attack since that night several weeks ago with her Bible, but her fright has been supplanted by almost unbearable dread.
Greene fears the judge and the police are against her. She's convinced her son's lawyers aren't acting in his best interests. The lawyers repeatedly tried to convince the family that Rice should make a deal - plead guilty to a lesser charge and serve some time.
Mother and son refused. Greene, who's already lost one boy to prison, doesn't want to lose another. She wants a trial. It's a risk - if Courry is convicted of first-degree murder, he could spend much of the rest of his life behind bars.
Greene has little faith in the justice system. She has seen it swallow up too many young black men who were presumed guilty because they lived in a certain neighborhood or hung with a particular crowd.
But she trusts the facts. And for her son, she decides to put her faith in truth. (continue reading)
Light,
anDre
A Mom's Fight for Jusice (excerpt)
by Paul Johnson from northjersey.com
Sunday, January 23, 2006
Lorraine Greene wakes in the middle of the night, gasping for air, feeling the walls close in.
She rushes to the window, certain her son is screaming for his life, but finds only silence.
She runs down the hall, sure her family is in danger, but finds each of them safe in bed.
"Can't be nothing wrong," she tells herself. "Everyone is asleep."
She puffs into a brown paper bag to try to calm herself. Still the panic rises, and it goes on for weeks.
Finally one night, she opens a Bible and places her hands on the open pages.
"I asked God to help me," she says. "I said 'Whatever you do, take these panic attacks from me.'"
Her baby-faced son, Courry Rice, has been in jail since the summer of 2003, accused of first-degree murder. He was 19 then. He turned 22 last July 31.
Rice insists he is no murderer. His mother believes him. She has not had a panic attack since that night several weeks ago with her Bible, but her fright has been supplanted by almost unbearable dread.
Greene fears the judge and the police are against her. She's convinced her son's lawyers aren't acting in his best interests. The lawyers repeatedly tried to convince the family that Rice should make a deal - plead guilty to a lesser charge and serve some time.
Mother and son refused. Greene, who's already lost one boy to prison, doesn't want to lose another. She wants a trial. It's a risk - if Courry is convicted of first-degree murder, he could spend much of the rest of his life behind bars.
Greene has little faith in the justice system. She has seen it swallow up too many young black men who were presumed guilty because they lived in a certain neighborhood or hung with a particular crowd.
But she trusts the facts. And for her son, she decides to put her faith in truth. (continue reading)
posted by Andre Lancaster at
3:48 PM
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