You heard of “12 Years A Slave,” well former police officer Sherry Hall of Jackson, Georgia, is starring in “15 Years A Inmate.” So grab yourself a beverage and sit back while I tell it.
Back on Sept. 13, 2016, Hall called in and said that she was shot by a 6-foot, 230-pound Black man who was wearing a green shirt and black jogging pants. She had claimed that the man pulled out a gun and shot her for no reason. A bullet was found in her protective vest. Well you already know, when a black man shoots a white women police officer in Jackson, Georgia for no reason, Home Depot and Loews sells out of rope overnight. There was a massive manhunt. Anyone sporting an Afro, dropping it like its hot or wearing Nike’s was under suspicion. The sheriff office hired dozens of men to cut down any tree within 50 feet of the court house… okay I’m exaggerating, but the whole community was on fire. One dude who matched Hall’s description was taken into custody and questioned. He was subsequently released. So how did they catch her in the blatant lie?
When she called in the shooting, she claimed that when the black man fired a shot at her, she took cover behind her police car and fired off two of her own. Now, Sherry had only been on the police force for a few months when this went down. She didn’t know that although the car was off and light were not on, the dash cam video was still running. Her supervisor said she had been doing a great job up until then. In the audio of the recording only two shots were heard, not three. Three bullets were found, two of them matching the gun Hall was carrying that evening. However, the casing from the other bullet matched, not a random gun, but the department-issued backup firearm that Hall kept on her nightstand. They had her. She was done and ready to put on the table.
Hall however did not give up. She opted to go to court. “First and foremost, I am innocent of all charges and allegations. This is nothing more than a cover-up in a small town. Hall said that a gun found in the woods near the crime scene disappeared and wasn’t tested. She also claimed a forensics sketch matched the description of the man she says shot her. ( Hmm, the artist drew a picture of the man you described… now that’s sinister..) Anyway, she went on to say, “I couldn’t understand why and how after being shot, I was accused of either shooting myself or protecting someone that shot me. From day one I have suffered horrible symptoms of PTSD. I continue to ask for counseling.” Hall was convicted by a jury of her peers for evidence tampering, giving false statements to investigators, interference with government property and violation of oath of office.
After she gets out she will have to serve another 23 years probation, more than enough time too get all the counseling she will need. Hall could have resolved her case with a plea deal. Before trial, she was offered a sentence of five years in prison followed by five years on probation. But she turned it down. The family never expected the judge would impose such a lengthy sentence if she were convicted, said her brother Steve Weaver. “We hope to seek a sentence reduction in the near future. I mean, this was a nonviolent crime. She wanted to take a plea, but not one that included prison time. She thought spending 90 days in jail before posting bond was enough.”
According to reports from the National Registry of Exonerations, researchers Samuel Gross, Maurice Possley, and Klara Stephens analyzed years of exoneration data, looking at how race may influence whether someone is wrongfully convicted and later cleared of a crime they didn’t commit. African Americans are only 13% of the American population but make up the majority of innocent defendants wrongfully convicted of crimes and later exonerated.
African Americans constitute 47% of the 1,900 exonerations listed in the National Registry of Exonerations as of October 2016, and the great majority of more than 1,800 additional innocent defendants who were framed and convicted of crimes in 15 large-scale police scandals and later cleared in ‘group exonerations. You might of heard of Reynaldo Guevara, the Chicago cop accused of framing more than 50 people. If you just want the facts about falsely accused African Americans, than you can click this link for an excellent article from Vox.
Finally, some famous last words from Solomon Northup..
“I am Solomon Northup. I am a free man; a resident of Saratoga, New York. The residence also of my wife and children who are equally free. I have papers. You have no right whatsoever to detain me…”
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