10 Jul, 2014
U.N. to Confront U.S. on Persistent Racial Discrimination – ACLU
Imagine receiving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for serving as a go-between in the sale of two small $5 bags of marijuana. That’s exactly what happened to Fate Vincent Winslow, an African American homeless man who says that he accepted the offer of an undercover police officer for a $5 commission in order to earn some money to get something to eat. Mr. Winslow is now serving a life sentence, without the possibility of parole, in Louisiana for this and his other prior non-violent crimes. In that state, African Americans are serving life without parole sentences for nonviolent crimes at approximately 23 times the rate of whites. Nationwide, an estimated 65.4 percent of the prisoners serving such sentences are African American.
These are but two examples of the widespread racial disparities that continue to exist in the United States, and which result in serious and pervasive human rights violations in a wide range of areas, from racial profiling to voting rights.
Read the rest: U.N. to Confront United States on Persistent Racial Discrimination | American Civil Liberties Union.
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