Roland S. Martin/Tom Joyner Morning Show, 08.18.09: NAACP’s Ben Jealous discusses the Troy Davis case

Clarence Thomas to me is a bitter man. He knows that he will never fit the shoes of our first black Justice Thurgood Marshall! He will never side with us when it comes to justice, because he does not want to see himself, he only want to see the white side of justice, which is, if your black and get lock up you must deserve it no matter what. It is amazing how that mentality is among most black that live in the south!. I have been here four years and they still think that the white man will always be the superior of us! Sad very sad. Thomas knows that most blacks do not have the same respect for him as we do Marshall. So when it comes to justice for blacks, hispanics, let us not be surprise of his dissent.

Hello, My name is LeVon A. Gaither…I’m the mother of Albert Chapman, a young man that has spent 15 years of his life incarcerated, for a crime that he did not commit.  This is a case
That’s very similar to the Troy Davis case, as my son was initially sentenced to more than 100 years in jail, but with diligence, he’s worked very hard in the law libraries at the Federal Prisons throughout the years…filing Motions and Affidavits, which have resulted in his sentence being lowered to 45 years to life.

“Beyond a reasonable doubt?” If his trial was in fact fair from the start, should there even be an issue or existence of “doubt?” No way!

I would like to share this story in its entirety with you, and possibly get some attention directed towards it, as my son has finally been granted a hearing after fighting hard and requesting it for more than ten years.

This package of information that I’m sharing with you will prove to be very helpful in your understanding this case, and the crucial pieces of information that were left unaddressed by both the Prosecution and the Defense, which I know would have been very helpful mechanisms that would have never allowed the possibility of my son being convicted of First Degree Murder, 15 years ago.

The package even contains a letter that I wrote to D.C. Mayor, Adrian Fenty with regards to Civil Rights Violations which I attempted to address years ago…from the very start, but my letters went unanswered by the Government. 

My son’s case should have never gone forward…not as hastily as it did anyway. I have proof of that, and I had even provided his lawyer of that proof prior to the trial being underway, but his lawyer at that time, Mr. Thomas Farquhar, continuously pushed me aside, when I tried to provide information that would help my son with his fight in this case.

I tried to explain to him also the reason that my Mother would make a false statement to the Government, which proved to be a detriment to my son’s case.  Everyone immediately asks…”Why would the grandmother make such a claim…that she saw her grandson with a gun?”  I’m told that her statement had a lot of weight in the  Government’s being able to obtain their indictment against my son…but it was all a lie.  No one would listen to me…not even the man representing him.

I had my son, Albert, very young…I was 16 years old.  It wasn’t until I was 28 weeks pregnant that I found out that I was expecting a child.  My mother was furious when she found out.  She took me to many clinics in an attempt to get rid of the baby, but was told over and over that it was too late…the baby was fully developed. 

My Mother had a boyfriend from Nigeria named Albert Alusemi Adinkwuye.  He left the US to return to Nigeria, but promised to marry my mother and take her back to Nigeria when he returned to the USA to complete the course that he was taking. He was an International Student.

While Albert was in Nigeria, my Mother told him that she was pregnant with his child, and once my son was born, she named my son his entire name…Albert Alusemi Adinkwuye.  I included “Gaither” at the end of his name, which was my maiden name.
Because my father was military, I was a dependant child while still a minor, and my baby (Albert) was born at Walter Reed Army Medical Center on his father’s (Eugene Chapman Jr.) birthday…September 12th, in the year 1974.  My mother forbid me to allow the father to visit the child…she even chased him away from her house with her pistol a couple of times.

My Mother took me to the JAG office at Walter Reed and to Bolling AFB, in attempts to get me to sign adoption papers…or better yet, my parental rights to my child over to her.  I refused to do as she wished.  She was furious!  I left home shortly after that…with a young infant child, and I lived with my classmates and their mothers, from home to home,  for months, until I found my Father, who lived in Suitland, Maryland.  I continued to attend High School…I graduated…my father helped me by babysitting my son while I both went to school and worked.  He rented me an apartment in his same complex and paid half of my rent…I paid the other half with my salary.

My father had to go out of town one weekend, and I didn’t have anyone to keep my son for me while I worked.  After not seeing my mother for almost a year, I called her and asked if she would watch my son Al for me.  She said of course…bring the baby over…and I did.

When I got off of work that evening, I went to pick my baby up, and my mother acted as though I was crazy.  She told me that I never brought a baby over to her house, and that she didn’t know what I was talking about. She told me to get away from her with such nonsense…and that I knew that I didn’t have a baby. 

I wasn’t crazy…I knew that I had taken my baby there.  I began to cry…screaming at her…”give me my baby, Mom!”.  She called me crazy…said that there was no baby there…she didn’t know what I was talking about…so seeing that a crowd had gathered hearing the commotion, I asked someone to please call 9-1-1. 

She played that same game when the police arrived.  She told them that she hadn’t seen me in months, and that I’ve been out in the streets, doing drugs, which was why I was disillusioned and thinking that I had a baby. She went on to tell them that I had never had a baby…she didn’t know what I was talking about. The police really believed her too!  They really thought that I was crazy…until!!!  Someone in the crowd yelled, “In the window! Her baby’s in the window!“ I looked up in the bedroom window and there was my son…along with my two little sisters…yelling “Mommie!”  I told the police, “there is my son right there in the window“.  They could see that he was the same complexion as I was…and they asked my mother if that was my child…my mother laughed.  They asked her again.  She didn’t answer.  I kept screaming…”yes!  It is my Baby!”  They asked my mother to go get the little boy out of the window and bring him downstairs to them.  She brought my son to the door “bare…naked”… with no clothes on, which was so spiteful!  She said that he came into this world bare…he’ll leave there bare…I didn’t care about his clothes or even the diaper bag that I had taken there…as long as I had my Baby. 

I never went home again after that.  I married my son’s father when he returned from USAF basic training and we moved to New Jersey…McGuire AFB.  I stayed far away from my Mother after that.  But to take my son’s life away from him…to hurt me back, would be the ultimate…the one way for her to hurt me back for her not being able to give that African the son that she had fictitiously created for him.  It was all about revenge.  Why wouldn’t anyone listen to me when I tried to explain and share this story with them?  This story is the truth, so help me God.  If the Police Department’s Archived Records were checked for calls to what was once our address, 5936 Southern Avenue, S.E. in DC…there is where the truth lies. I don’t know why my mother wasn’t even arrested at that time, for blatantly lying to the police officers. Where in the world would my son have gotten a name like that, when he was born on his father’s birthday, and he could’ve been named Eugene Chapman III, the name that we gave to our second son, since my mother dominated my decision making when I was so young?

After reading about my son’s case and the issues that I’ve both shared and raised with the way that his case had been handled from the start, Mayor Fenty got the Police Chief involved, who then assisted me with contacting an officer in their office who deals with the Innocence Project, which is an organization that assists with addressing legal issues for persons who have been wrongfully convicted of certain crimes. If there was not any doubt at all, that the Government had not mishandled this case, I’m sure that the assistance would not have been provided.

After the Innocence Project saw that “travel” would be a factor in being able to investigate certain aspects of my son’s case, they decided that they could not take his case because of financial issues that they would encounter.

My son’s story in its entirety, as shared with Mayor Fenty is enclosed, photographs of the crime scene, which clearly show that no one could be standing in the lobby of this building, needless to mention that she even admitted under oath that she had smoked marijuana, drank beers and a couple of shots of liquor…and see past the wall shown in the photos that clearly obstruct the ability to view the staircase and what happened there, the night that the security guard was killed.

Please take a moment to review the enclosures, the explanation of and importance of the language used in the video…it’s timing…all of the issues that clearly validate the fact that my son’s rights to a fair and speedy trial were violated.

Al has currently been transferred to DC Jail, from the Federal Penitentiary in Kentucky, preparing for his hearing which is scheduled to be held on September 9th, 2009 at 9:30 a.m. in Courtroom #215, which is being heard by Judge Herbert Dixon, Jr.

After filing many motions Pro Se’ over the years, the Government has finally granted my son his chance to discuss the possibility of his being granted a new trial or to have the life sentence given him 15 years ago, vacated.

If there’s any way that your office is able to send someone to court on that day, to stand with or possibly represent my son, especially after reviewing the evidence that I’ve shared with you in this package, we would greatly appreciate it. What was done to him was totally wrong, and it’s time to enlighten those who were deceived during his trial.

Can you please provide me with a mailing address for you so that I can forward you the video that proves that my son’s rights were violated from the start?

Thank you so much in advance…
Ms LeVon A. Chapman-Gaither
(704) 274-9055