The Justice System: Avery Jenkins And Herbert Richardson

The Justice System was and still is very flawed, especially when it comes to African Americans.

This report will be centered around the experiences of Avery Jenkins and Herbert Richardson in relation to Walter McMillian. And how their shared experiences come into play of how bad the justice system was at the time and how bad it still is, even after all of the attempts to reform it and its justice members. This report will also comment on the inept doctors and lawyers who failed to do any type of real tests or research to purposefully have African Americans they “represented” go to prison or even death row. The justice system was so bad that a quote from David Bagwell, who apparently supported death row inmates but said in a letter “I generally

He was originally charged with the disturbing brutal murder of an elderly gentleman who was stabbed multiple times in his home. Jenkins was charged and sent to death row shortly after. The courts and lawyers failed to take his very apparent mental illness into consideration and the fact he was heavily abused, neglected, and removed from many foster homes due to the mental illnesses. When asked why he murdered the older gentleman, he claimed that he thought the man was a demon trying to attack and kill him so he stabbed the “demon.” While on death row, his prison records showed he would often experience psychotic episodes and scream for hours on end. His records never referenced any mental illness. The lawyers also didn’t do any of their homework on Mr. Jenkins history, which quickly led to the decision for him to be convicted of murder and sentenced to death. There was also a Dr. Seger who gave illegitimate testimonies to various defendants on their mental health, one of which was Mr. Jenkins. The EJI eventually was able to get him off of death row and he was transferred to a mental health facility soon

While he was in Vietnam, he was assigned to Camp Radcliff, which at the time was under constant heavy fire. During one mission Herbert and his platoon were on; he was the sole survivor out of his entire platoon. He was knocked out during the assault and later experienced horrible headaches which led him to attempt to commit suicide multiple times because of them. He was one of the thousands of combat veterans who eventually ended up in prison after completing their military service. He was charged with capital murder and sent to death after he unintentionally killed his ex-girlfriend's niece Rena Mae when he set a small package bomb on their porch and instead of his ex-girlfriend which he planned to save after the bomb went off in hopes she would get back with Herbert. During the trial, the prosecution needed to prove he did indeed have the intentions of gravely injuring or killing someone with the explosive. The prosecutor painted Herbert as an outsider from New York and didn’t take his service or trauma from his time in the service into consideration. And in a very racially motivated act, had all of the African American jurors taken out of the jury pool so it was all white people on the jury. One of the last things Herbert said to Bryan Stevenson before his execution was “It’s been a strange day, Bryan, really strange. Most people who feel fine don’t