News — Prison

Jumans just got out after serving 31 years in prison. He shares never-heard-before stories of what prison is like and how social influence in his life contributed to his experience in prison. For a long time, he thought he was never going back home.  Now, he sees his release as a second chance and is ready to change his life. He expresses his concern over the number of black people in prison, showing how they have formed a community in there. The realness in his stories is unmatched. His opinion also shows that it is possible to live a fulfilling life after serving time. What do you think?

Nelson Mandela in a cell on Robben Island has become one of the most emotive mental pictures anyone can come up with when the story of Black South African push against white domination is told. But what if you were told that two hundred years before Mandela, a Black African broke twice from the Dutch penitentiary?

The man was a chief of the Khoi people, a group from one of the oldest, if not the oldest traceable lineage on earth. He has for long been called David Stuurman but that is not his real name. He is thought to have been born around 1773 and details about his upbringing are not known to us. The name he was identified by is of Dutch extraction, with the first name sometimes spelled Dawid.

What we do know is that he was born near the Gamtoos River in what is now known as the Eastern Cape. We also know that while a teenager, Stuurman was a farm laborer on the farm of the Dutch Vermaak family, who lived in Gamtoos. The Khoi, as well as their tribal kinsmen the San, were mistreated, a fact recorded by Christian missionaries in Bethelsdorp. The patriarch of the Vermaak family, Johannes extended the cruelty to Stuurman. All of this was happening while the European settlers dispossessed the native Black population of their lands.

Indeed, the relationship that existed between the Europeans and many of the Khoi people was one of indentured servitude on the part of the latter.

Dispossessing the Khoi and the San of their lands expectedly brought about tensions between the locals and the white settlers. These tensions are what collectively are called The Xhosa Wars. After 1790, Stuurman, along with his family. like many others, had to relocate to avoid the violence. But he was leaving the place of his birth a man permanently scarred by the events of his childhood.

Those who fled were welcomed in association with the Xhosa people, the main enemies of the Europeans. Having found security the Khoi who fled like Stuurman and his family refused to return to indentured servitude. This obviously incensed the white people who had usurped ownership of the lands.

But from this vantage point, Stuurman distinguished himself by leading the Khoi composite of the Xhosa opposition to Dutch and British settlements. He led expeditions, as a warring chief, against the Europeans and made life imaginably unpalatable for them. His efforts momentarily paid off when in 1802, he was granted land to settle on by the British governor, Francis Dundas. This was only to quiet Stuurman down because soon enough the British attacked. And so did the Dutch.

In 1809, Stuurman was arrested and according to cultural activist, Stephen Langtry, “charged for resisting colonial rule as well as opposing the conscription of the Khoi into militias that were created to defend the colony and to attack the San and amaXhosa”. He was essentially an enemy of settler interests since he would not go to war against other natives. He was taken to Robben Island.

That year, in December, Stuurman and a host of others escaped from the island using a whaling boat. When he arrived on land, Stuurman sought and found reunification with the Xhosa with whom he had enjoyed a camaraderie for two decades. But he was rearrested ten years later, only for him to escape again in 1820.

But the second escape was only short. He was recaptured as he tried to swim his way to shore. When he was taken back to the island, he was chained, unlike previous times. He was kept there for nearly three years and then transported to Australia where Stuurman would die in 1830.

In South Africa, Stuurman has been immortalized with a statue in the National Heritage Monument Park in Pretoria. The international airport formerly known as Port Elizabeth is now also the Chief Dawid Stuurman International Airport.

Atlanta Chaplain Gwendale Boyd-Willis is proof that no matter what challenges life may bring you, hard work, family, and faith can always bring you back.

In 2005, Boyd-Willis was living with her grandmother and trying to figure out her life when she went to an ATM and saw a card left inside. She made some purchases but it wasn’t long before the law caught up to her.

“I had just gotten a divorce and I was living in Carrollton,” Boyd-Willis told Black Enterprise. “I went to the ATM one night and a young woman left her card in and it said do you want another transaction, so I took some money out and went shopping. I was just in a very emotional place.”

About a month later, the cops caught up to Boyd-Willis, who admitted fault and cooperated with the investigation and had five charges dropped as a result. However Boyd-Willis still had had to serve time—four months at the West Central Center facility.

Boyd-Willis will never forget the feeling of walking in. “I was sad, depressed and ashamed,” she says. “I was really disappointed in myself.”

Boyd-Wills said the facility was run like an army barracks: bunk beds, 5 a.m. wake up, and everyone has a job. Hers was in the kitchen, which meant she had to get up at 3 a.m.

“After we cleaned up our area in the morning, everyone would report to their assignment and if you didn’t have one, you’d stay in the barracks,” Boyd-Willis says.

The inmates did get a break during the day, but Boyd-Willis says she largely kept to herself during that time. The one thing she did look forward to was church.

“When we would go out on the yard I would just keep to myself, I didn’t really socialize with anyone, I wasn’t trying to make friends,” she says. “They did give us time to go to church so I took advantage of that and I would go and seek counsel on a regular basis.”

Boyd-Willis began going to every church service, not only to get away but because she always had a strong sense of faith. During the services she felt moved by the music and it wasn’t long before some of the inmates who also attended church found out that Boyd-Willis had a voice.

Eventually the women in the barracks began asking Boyd-Willis to sing to them at nights when their work was done for the day. “They always asked me to sing Sam Cooke, ‘A Change Is Gonna Come,’ so I’d sing that song every night.” Boyd-Willis says laughing.

When she found out her release date, Boyd-Willis kept it to herself. On the day, she she was excited to get out, but the four months inside West Central made the transition difficult.

“When I went home for a little while I didn’t want to be around anybody, I had to get adjusted back to doing normal things,” Boyd-Willis says. “On the day I got out my mom took me to Ruby Tuesday’s and I couldn’t even eat the food; I went home and had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.”

Boyd-Willis moved to Atlanta after her grandmother passed away and found it difficult to leave her past behind her due to her record. Since she couldn’t get a job, she went to school, earning her Bachelor’s degree in criminal justice at Westwood College.

But after getting her degree, she still couldn’t find a job, so she decided to go back to school.

“I was looking for a job and couldn’t find one so I said I guess I’ll go back to school. Half of my family is in law enforcement and the other half of my family is in ministry, so I got my masters in religious studies at Beulah Heights University,” Boyd-Willis says. “My mother was a licensed evangelist, my grandmother and uncles were pastors, so there was a lot of influence from them.”

Even after getting her masters, Boyd-Willis still couldn’t find employment as her record continued to follow her. So she continued pursuing her education at Luther Rice College and Seminary School.

Boyd-Willis now had two bachelor’s degrees and a master’s degree. And while her resume was stunning, her record always came up in job interviews. During that time, she made money through a catering business she started and twice tried to get her record expunged but was denied.

It wasn’t until she got help from the Georgia Justice Project, a nonprofit that provides legal advice for Georgia residents with a state criminal record that she was able to get her record expunged.

Boyd-Wills is now a chaplain and is writing her autobiography. She wants those who may be struggling the same way she did to know that if you work hard enough and stay on the path, things will happen for you.

“When I look back, first of all I have to give God glory and praise because I know he was with me,” Boyd-Willis said. “There’s a purpose behind what you’re going through and to those who are struggling I would say keep your faith and don’t give up.”

A White Iowa man who intentionally plowed his car into a crowd of Black Lives Matter protesters in August last year – reportedly injuring at least one person – will not be sentenced to prison and will also have his criminal record expunged if he doesn’t get into any trouble over the next three years.

According to USA Today, 45-year-old Michael Ray Stepanek was charged with one count of assault while displaying a dangerous weapon, an aggravated misdemeanor, and one count of willful injury causing bodily harm following the incident. He spent 76 days in jail.

Stepanek had initially justified his actions and reportedly told the police he drove his Toyota Camry into the protesters because they needed an “attitude adjustment.” In December, however, a district court judge moved to dismiss the first charge and also defer the second one. A $1,025 civil fine that was imposed on him was also suspended by the judge.

Per a criminal complaint of the incident, Stepanek got stuck in a hold-up together with other vehicles as the protestors had taken over the road. He then started “honking, and eventually making a U-turn while squealing his tires to turn around,” USA Today reported.

The complaint further stated Stepanek “shut off his lights, and drove around the block, where he chose to turn southbound … where there were no vehicles between him and the protesters. The defendant intentionally struck multiple protesters with his vehicle and sped away.”

The incident left at least one person injured, with the victim complaining of “pain due to being struck intentionally by the defendant’s vehicle,” the police said.

Responding to the incident and the judge’s ruling, John W. Bruzek, Stepanek’s lawyer, said his client was “remorseful” and his actions were spurred as a result of him being “inundated” with “propaganda” that labeled the Black Lives Matter protesters as “criminal, thugs, terrorists.”

“He apologizes for his conduct and to those he harmed. Michael is being held to account with a full and clear recognition of how much worse things may have been,” Bruzek said in the statement. “The court gave Michael an opportunity to prove himself during a statutory term of probation and expects him to be a decent person and that he not conduct himself like he did. If Michael doesn’t, the court will have the opportunity to convict him and take away the deferred.”

The plea deal was struck between Stepanek and the Johnson County Attorney’s Office. The department could, however, possibly be called out for double standards as prosecutors are currently pursuing charges against some Black Lives Matter protesters who partook in the demonstrations over the summer, Time reported.

“I can’t believe there’d be someone who hates the organization so much that they’d be willing to possibly kill people just because they’re blocking the road,” a student who witnessed the incident and recorded it told USA Today. “It is all crazy now that’s he’s not getting in very much trouble or anything.”

In what was a summer of racial reckoning triggered by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, the largely peaceful protests during that period also saw over a hundred incidents of people – including Stepanek – driving their cars into protestors. A terrorism researcher at the University of Chicago’s Project on Security and Threats, Ari Weil, told the news outlet that out of the 104 incidents he recorded, 43 were intentional and meant to cause harm. Thirty-nine drivers were charged for those incidents.

Officials in Philadelphia on Wednesday agreed to pay $9.8 million to an exonerated Black man who spent 28 years of his life in prison after he was convicted for a murder he did not commit. Prior to his conviction, Chester Hollman III had no criminal record.

According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, Hollman, then a 21-year-old armored-car driver, was driving around Center City in 1991 when he was pulled over and arrested for allegedly fatally shooting a student from the University of Pennsylvania in a botched street robbery. Hollman was, however, exonerated last year at the age of 49 after a judge ruled the evidence the police and prosecutors used was based on fabricated statements from witnesses they coerced. They also reportedly withheld evidence that could have likely implicated those who committed the crime.

“There are no words to express what was taken from me,” Hollman said in a statement, according to The Inquirer. “But this settlement closes out a difficult chapter in my life as my family and I now embark on a new one.”

Hollman’s settlement – which is one of the largest ever for an exonerated person in the city’s history – comes in the wake of other seven-figure settlements authorities have had to pay for acts of misconduct committed by the city’s police between the late 1980s and 90s. Since 2018, they have had to fork out over $35 million of taxpayers’ money to settle over a dozen people who were wrongfully convicted. City officials agreed to Hollman’s settlement even before he filed a lawsuit.

Speaking with The Inquirer, Hollman’s attorney, Amelia Green, said authorities were forced to swiftly resolve his case due to the weight of the evidence proving his innocence. City officials and the police have, however, not admitted any wrongdoing.

“There was irrefutable evidence that Chester was innocent, is innocent and has always been innocent and would never have been wrongfully convicted aside from extraordinary police misconduct,” Green said.

Hollman’s attorneys also said their client – who always maintained his innocence while incarcerated – was racially profiled by the police just because the car he was driving matched the description of the assailants. The two witnesses who confirmed Hollman as the shooter at the trial, also recanted, saying they were coerced by the detectives handling the case.

Detectives also allegedly ignored crucial tips and evidence that strongly linked likely suspects to the murder because they were already building their case around Hollman, the Conviction Integrity Unit revealed, according to The Inquirer. Prosecutors also failed to present that evidence – which would have vindicated Hollman – to the defense during the trial.

Meanwhile, the detectives behind the many wrongful conviction cases the city has had to settle, have either retired or are still with the force and have risen up the ranks. “You don’t have this many exonerations from one cohort of detectives unless it was a pervasive culture,” Green said. “There’s no way that the highest ranks weren’t aware.”