Larry C. Johnson: Does Black Judge Emmet Sullivan Believe Every Black Man Falsely Accused of Murder Should Be Charged with Perjury?

Guest post by Larry C. Johnson

Headline got your attention?

Good. If I am reading the amicus brief filed by discredited former Federal Judge John Gleeson on behalf of Judge Emett Sullivan, Gleeson and Sullivan are incensed that Michael Flynn had the audacity to withdraw his guilty plea, which Flynn insists was coerced. Gleeson argues that Flynn (and I presume others who have done the same thing) must be charged with perjury for having the audacity to go into court and recant his plea. You do not need a keen sense of irony to appreciate the hypocrisy of Judge Emmet Sullivan, an African American, wanting to throw the book at Flynn for doing what many black men falsely accuse of crimes have done. If the Emmet Sullivan and John Gleeson standard becomes the rule–i.e., once you confess to a crime in court under oath you cannot take back your confession–then there are a bunch of innocent black men we need to round up and put back in the pokey.

Let me introduce you to two black men from Chicago–Kevin Bailey and Corey Batchelor. They were physically coerced by an Area 2 Chicago Police detective into falsely confessing to the June 1, 1989 murder of Lula Mae Woods–Bailey subsequently served 28 years for the crime while Batchelor was imprisoned for 15 years.

According to the Innocence Project:

Bailey and Batchelor eventually sought post-conviction relief, with the Innocence Project and the People’s Law Office representing Bailey and The Exoneration Project and The Center on Wrongful Convictions of Youth representing Batchelor. Despite early opposition by the prior Cook County State’s Attorney, attorneys secured DNA testing of the crime scene evidence. Bailey and Batchelor were excluded as the source of all DNA detected. Further, hairs with matching DNA profiles were recovered from (1) the Domino’s Pizza cap worn by the murderer and (2) a bloody towel found near the body. Bailey and Batchelor have been excluded as the source of these hairs. The identity of the person who shed his hair on these key items is still unknown.

“This is yet one more example of detectives from the Chicago Police Department closing murder cases too quickly by coercing false confessions from black teenagers,” said Steven Drizin, one of Batchelor’s attorneys from Northwestern Pritzker School of Law’s Center on Wrongful Convictions of Youth. “This further cements Chicago’s reputation as the ‘false confession capital’.”

Over 120 Black men and women were subjected to torture that was racially motivated and included electric shock, mock executions, suffocation and beatings by now convicted former Police Commander Jon Burge and his subordinates. Although Burge was terminated from the Chicago Police Department in 1993 and convicted for perjury and obstruction of justice stemming from the torture cases in federal court in 2010, scores of individuals continue to languish in prison as a result of confessions based in whole or in part on physically coerced confessions.

I hope you realize I am not suggesting that being accused of murder is the same as being accused of lying to the FBI. I tend to believe that murder is a far more serious charge. Call me crazy. But I also recognize that just because a person is coerced into confessing to a crime, whether heinous or mundane, the defendant still  has the right to recant their plea if it was coerced by crooked or corrupt authorities.

Michael Flynn did not commit murder. In fact, he committed no crime. But that did not stop a criminal conspiracy by politicized elements of the Department of Justice with loyalties to Barack Obama from going after Flynn with every trick and tool in their bag of skullduggery. Flynn was accused of lying to FBI agents–a charge that we now know is demonstrably false. We have the transcripts of his phone conversation with the Russian Ambassador and we have notes from FBI Agents Strzok and Pientka stating that the two agents did not believe Flynn was lying.

But truth did not matter to senior FBI leadership and the equally corrupt team of lawyers working for the mentally addled Robert Mueller. Yes, Flynn initially caved in the face of threats to prosecute his son unless he pled guilty. But he was represented by lawyers who were either incompetent or corrupt. Once he obtained proper counsel he filed to withdraw his plea.

We will be witnessing history tomorrow, albeit a sad chapter in our history, as Emmet Sullivan, with the encouragement of Deep State conspirators keen on the illegal ouster of President Donald Trump, will argue before a U.S. Court of Appeals that he should be allowed to behave as a 21st Century reincarnation of Robespierre and inflict new terrors on Michael Flynn. This is beyond delusional. It is dangerous and a fundamental threat to our Republic. Judges are not prosecutors.

It is ironic that this issue of recanting a coerced confession is taking center stage while the American media is cheerleading the refrain that America is a racist society and that only some Black Lives Matter. If the Court decides that a coerced confession must stand, there are a slew of black men walking the streets of America who were freed from prison because they had been forced to lie who must be rounded up and put back in the slammer. Has Judge Sullivan really thought this through?  I doubt it. I have but one word for Sullivan–J’Accuse.