![\"Under](\"https:\/\/cdn.kpbs.org\/dims4\/default\/e8d8afa\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/1024x768+0+0\/resize\/1024x768!\/quality\/90\/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fkpbs-brightspot.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com%2F4b%2Fab%2Fe8d06bb549f486bfa7e4f63aa348%2Flife-without-parole-4.png\")
\u201cWhen you’re looking at people \u2014 not even numbers anymore, I know all of their names by heart \u2014 when you\u2019re looking at people and you see them treated differently by the same exact system, you’re like, \u2018Separate but equal. Plessy versus Ferguson, Jim Crow. It all feels the same,\u2019\u201d Aziz said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The data show it wasn\u2019t one problem judge, one over-eager attorney, or even prior convictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was a racial pattern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Aziz traces a line from life without parole sentences to lynching trees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe called it strange fruit because it reminded us of where we were 50, 60 years ago and where we said as a country we were not going to go back to,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pillars decided to hold what they call a \u201cPeople\u2019s Tribunal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Putting the District Attorney on trial<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Aziz said trying to approach the District Attorney\u2019s office directly over this issue was not working. The community decided to take power into their own hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTo charge this district attorney the way they charge us, to subpoena the district attorney the way they subpoena us, and even write a declaration affidavit saying that we attest that all of these things are true,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They put the current San Diego County District Attorney, Summer Stephan, on mock trial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On a Thursday night in late January, people who had been impacted by the justice system filled a room near the Chollas Parkway and spilled out into the hallway. Enlarged mugshots bordered the room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEvery single person has the same exact crime,\u201d Aziz said. \u201cLook around the room.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She pointed to a Black man\u2019s mugshot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat’s a nonkiller. Death or parole?\u201d she asked the crowd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDeath,\u201d they murmured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDeath,\u201d she confirmed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then, she pointed to a white man\u2019s mugshot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cGuy next to him, nonkiller. Death or parole?,\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cParole,\u201d the room answered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDo you know these people?\u201d The room shook their heads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOh, ain’t that something? Why can you tell? Is that okay that you can tell?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A lone representative from the DA addressed the room, Frank Jackson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHow did this happen? The answer to your question is, I don’t know that answer, so I’m not going to make it up. That happened in, I think most of these look like the 1998s and 2000s,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n KPBS asked the District Attorney’s office for an interview with Stephan on three separate occasions and they declined. They would not respond to any of the claims in this story or answer any of KPBS\u2019s related questions. Spokesperson Tanya Sierra responded with the following statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe cases summarized in the document you provided were all adjudicated more than 21 years ago under a District Attorney who left office in 2003, and it would be inappropriate for us to comment on them specifically. Our office\u2019s current policy requires prosecutors to file special circumstances allegations in all cases where the facts meet the legal definition of the crime, as we do for all charging decisions. Our office\u2019s mission is focused on pursuing fair and equal justice for all. We take our duty very seriously to treat every case and each defendant the same based on the evidence and the law. To suggest otherwise is reckless and ignores our office\u2019s commitment and track record over the years of seeking fair and equal justice and putting various criminal justice reforms in place.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Aziz isn\u2019t accepting that response, because Stephan\u2019s office has the power now to resentence the felony murder cases under Paul Pfingst from life without parole to life with parole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBut she has chosen not to do it. So you can’t fight to uphold Paul Pfingst\u2019s legacy of foundational racism and then say it was before your time,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pfingst did not respond to KPBS\u2019s three emails, a voicemail, and a message left with an assistant, sent over a month and a half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jackson said when California district attorneys gained the power to resentence old cases, their office was the first in the state to request it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Aziz said individual cases are not enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cA lot of people don’t have access like that. A lot of people don’t have the ability to write something that would capture the DA’s attention,\u201d she said. \u201cYoung white men don’t need that when they come in the system. They don’t need you to cherry-pick them. So change the system so that it works for all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the People\u2019s Tribunal, they called witnesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Including Linda Whitley. Her son\u2019s mugshot was in the room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She asked Aziz to hold up what she sees as proof he\u2019s changed: College degrees he earned in prison; books he wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI just want my baby to come home,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Going through the court process with her son was hard for Whitley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt was terrible because I didn\u2019t understand a lot of the stuff they was saying,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Whitley was never taught to read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Without that ability, she can\u2019t drive. She\u2019s scared to fly. She doesn\u2019t take the bus beyond a few familiar stops. Her son is incarcerated in Los Angeles, and she can\u2019t visit him often. The reality of living separated from her only son still brings ready tears after 25 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She doesn\u2019t fully understand the word \u201cparole.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She knows some people get to come home. And her son, Marquell Smith, can\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI know he can show the world now. He could be a better person now,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She video visits with her son over the prison\u2019s communications app.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In March, KPBS did the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEven though I have a life without the possibility, plus 206 years sentence, I know that the good Lord has a plan for me in the near future,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Smith didn\u2019t always talk this way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFor years, I was just bumping my head in and out of the hole, catching SHUs, doing ignorant things, being involved with violence, and just the prison nonsense. And the way prison was back then, there was no … You wouldn’t hear about nobody going home. If you had life, you had life. You know what I mean? And so that was the social structure. That was the culture. It’s all about survival and doing what you do to maintain your status. You’re doing things out of fear because you don’t want people to feel that you’re less than. You want to be known as being hard. But at the same time, that comes from your adverse childhood experiences. All of that, the fear that you obtain when you were young, still resides within you,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Adverse childhood experiences are among many challenges Smith has lived, but for which he only recently learned language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Education and faith changed his thinking, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A priest used to visit him in solitary confinement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He started attending the prison\u2019s church services. And college classes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He said he began \u201ccoming up with ideas about how could I make a difference in the world instead of being a product of destruction. And so now I want to be an engine of putting a stop to the self-destruction that goes on in the same type of communities in which I come from.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He wrote two books, including one intended to steer youth away from crime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He quit cursing and smoking weed. He mentors other incarcerated people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He said he hasn\u2019t been written up for bad behavior since 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI want others to understand that there’s a better way, and love is the key,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite these changes, Smith can\u2019t go before the parole board to let them decide if he deserves a chance to come home. His sentence doesn\u2019t let him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He was convicted of killing a 19-year-old clerk during a convenience store robbery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n KPBS reached out to the clerk\u2019s parents but did not receive a response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Smith admits guilt to other things he\u2019s been accused of, but denies that charge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n His codefendant Lazair Carter was not convicted as the actual killer, but is also serving life without parole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Whether Marquell Smith is innocent or guilty doesn\u2019t change the racial differences in the sentencing of cases like his.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Smith thinks there was racial bias in his trial, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe judge was calling me and my co-defendant \u2018dudes,\u2019 and when the detective was allowed to talk about ghetto gang hits in my case, and my case is not even a gang case. You know what I’m saying? Why are you talking about the ghetto? You know what I’m saying? In front of a jury. That had to be racist. You know what I mean? I knew that long ago, but I didn’t know how to incorporate it into my arguments, and finding the case law that was against it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He has an appeal hearing in May.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If that\u2019s denied, he might appeal again under California\u2019s Racial Justice Act, or RJA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It would allow for resentencing if he could prove racial bias in his case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When the RJA was passed in 2020, Colleen Chien got to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She co-directs the UC Berkeley Center for Law and Technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She wanted to provide evidence for the unequal treatment Black people have voiced for decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLived experience has been there the whole time, but the ability to tell a more broad story based on data has been missing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She built a database to compare sentencing outcomes by race in the California justice system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She found a pattern she calls striking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat you might hear is in general, we see that Black people are overrepresented in the criminal justice system. But when you actually go at the granular level and look specifically at, well, are they arrested more? Are they convicted more? At every county in every single charge, we saw that there was disparity,\u201d she said. \u201cIt’s really hard to explain that as existing without the presence of bias.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Chien says bias doesn\u2019t necessarily mean the judge or attorney or arresting officers are explicitly racist, but that unconscious attitudes add up at every step of the judicial process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marquell Smith wants to earn a law degree and parole, and change that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A new bill introduced this month could give him the opportunity: California Senate Bill 672.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Senate Bill 672 would allow all people convicted for crimes committed between the ages of 18 and 25 to go before the parole board after 25 years served.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If Smith were granted parole, he said the first thing he would do is spend time with his mother.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI was locked up, like I said, at 17. I got out at 21, came back at 22, and here it is, I’ll be 50 this year. So I haven’t had a chance to spend no time with my mother,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He wants the opportunity to show his growth to the board, and let them decide whether he should return to her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPeople do change. You know what I’m saying? If people see that people can change, that should mean something … How is our response in life when people change? Let’s have compassion. Let’s have love. Let’s just not give up on our people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The California legislature has six months to pass Senate Bill 672.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Community](\"https:\/\/cdn.kpbs.org\/dims4\/default\/b67bcc1\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/6000x3695+0+152\/resize\/880x542!\/quality\/90\/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fkpbs-brightspot.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com%2F04%2Fb2%2F1a8ab5bd497a9f1c5843098ab708%2Fdsc00516.jpg\")
![\"Chief](\"https:\/\/cdn.kpbs.org\/dims4\/default\/6111c40\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/5323x3549+0+0\/resize\/880x587!\/quality\/90\/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fkpbs-brightspot.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com%2F6b%2Ff5%2F012530eb486392196ec3a0e6d5c4%2Fdsc00595.jpg\")
![\"Community](\"https:\/\/cdn.kpbs.org\/dims4\/default\/69c4634\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/5457x3361+0+138\/resize\/880x542!\/quality\/90\/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fkpbs-brightspot.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com%2F6a%2F45%2Ff4b0dd344e89bd430d5d6049869b%2Fdsc00938.jpg\")
![\"Linda](\"https:\/\/cdn.kpbs.org\/dims4\/default\/82efddb\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/6000x3695+0+152\/resize\/880x542!\/quality\/90\/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fkpbs-brightspot.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com%2Ff3%2F19%2F5ee1ae574617b41be24ba0876cd9%2Fdsc00755.jpg\")
One family behind the number<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/cdn.kpbs.org\/dims4\/default\/46875fb\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/rotate\/90\/crop\/1536x1152+0+379\/resize\/1240x930!\/quality\/90\/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fkpbs-brightspot.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com%2F63%2F20%2F67c0946d4a88984b5830885228d4%2F2879270940367554720.JPG\")
A \u2018striking pattern\u2019<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"Community](\"https:\/\/cdn.kpbs.org\/dims4\/default\/6f6c642\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/5576x3434+0+141\/resize\/880x542!\/quality\/90\/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fkpbs-brightspot.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com%2F32%2F93%2F27fca6e048a89eed38fe923f32ba%2Fdsc00692.jpg\")
New hope<\/h3>\n\n\n\n