Junteenth Rally In Support Of Community Activist Art McKoy To Be Held Saturday At 5 pm At Black On Black Crime Headquarters
Community Activist Art McKoy
By Kathy Wray Coleman, Editor of the DeterminerWeekly.Com and
the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog and Media Network
Cleveland area community members and grassroots factions such as the People's Forum, the Carl Stokes Brigade, the Imperial Women, the Oppressed People's Nation and the Lucasville Uprising Freedom Network will rally on June 19 at 5 pm at Black on Black Crime Inc's headquarters at McCall's at 14660 Euclid Ave in East Cleveland to denounce what some community activists say is the malicious prosecution by the State of Ohio of respected longtime community activist Art McKoy. The date is consequential because it is the anniversary of "Junteenth," an annual recognition of the day in 1865 in which slaves on a plantation in Texas were told that they were free in accordance with a proclamation from then U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, though most other slaves had been freed two years earlier in 1863 when Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.
For more information on the rally contact Judy Martin at 1-216-990-0679.
The founder of the grassroots organization dubbed Black on Black Crime that fights against injustices in the community and intra-group hostility, which culminates in Black on Black crime as a byproduct of racism, McKoy is by many standards the victim of a pending drug case brought in late 2008, allegedly in retaliation for his community activism.
"Anytime a Black man such as Art McKoy stands up for the empowerment of his people, we realize that the government sends in people to neutralize, discredit and destroy not only that person but the movement," said Ernest Smith, leader and founder of the Oppressed People's Nation.
The 66-year-old McKoy is charged with a fifth degree felony count of permitting the sale of drugs in his now defunct Superfly Barbershop in East Cleveland, though the cases of the two barbers accused of dealing the alleged drugs are long over. All three were indicted in December of 2008 by a Cuyahoga County Grand Jury following a police raid at the barbershop. If convicted, the popular community activist faces up to a year in prison.
McKoy, himself, is not accused of dealing any drugs and has pleaded not guilty to the charge. And the potential trial is on hold until the Ohio Supreme Court decides whether to hear an appeal from Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason on behalf of the State of Ohio where the zealous prosecutor has asked the high court to overturn a decision issued earlier this year by the Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals in McKoy's favor. That decision supported a previous order by Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge Nancy Margaret Russo, the trial judge in the case, for Mason to immediately give McKoy's attorneys the name of the alleged confidential informant against him so that they can prepare their client for any trial.
In asking Ohio's high court to hear his and the state's loss of the state appellate court decision Mason said in his memorandum in support of jurisdiction to the high court that by virtue of the inherent certification power of his office as prosecutor the names of alleged confidential informants can be withheld in McKoy's case and otherwise until after any trial begins if prosecutors certify, as they did relative to McKoy, that harm could come to the alleged informant or his family, though he fails to denote a shred of evidence that suggests that the laid backed McKoy would harm anyone. And, community activists say it is all a show since the cases of the other two defendants have long been resolved.
The case of Earl Nash, who pleaded not guilty to the charge that he dealt drugs out of McKoy's barbershop, was dismissed March 4 after prosecutors failed to produce an alleged confidential informant. And the case against Nash's former colleague, Leroy Sheets, who pleaded guilty early on, came to a close March 18 when following a judicial conviction he received a sentence of the 32 days in jail that he served after he was arrested in 2008.
McKoy's African-American legal team of the strong but temperamental Rufus Sims, an attorney representing alleged serial killer Anthony Sowell, and the brilliant and seasoned James Hardiman, who represented Black children and their families in the since resolved Cleveland schools desegregation case, is fighting tooth and nail for the activist whose activism around purported racism and alleged police brutality has repeatedly annoyed the status quo. They have asked Mason to either put up or shut up as to his failure to produce the alleged confidential informant.
The Ohio Supreme Court is expected to rule on whether it will hear Mason's requested appeal sometime this summer. And while the case at hand may appear on its surface not to be that important, it could have a longstanding impact on Ohio's Black community where, according to research acknowledged by Mason, and the Cleveland NAACP, Blacks are disproportionately prosecuted and unfairly sentenced in Ohio's courts in comparison to similarly situated Whites. Any decision on the merits, if the case is heard by the seven Ohio Supreme Court Justices of one Democrat and no Blacks, would be binding on criminal defendants throughout the state of Ohio. At issue is whether municipal and state prosecutors can withhold the names of witnesses from defense counsel until the middle of trial and deny defendants a fair trial by simply certifying that harm might come to a witness without any evidence of potential harm whatsoever.
"I hope people understand that this case is bigger than Art McKoy and is about whether the names of witnesses can be withheld by prosecutors until the middle of trial for no legitimate reason other than to deny Black and other defendants time to prepare and in essence, their constitutional right to a fair trial, " said Smith.
By Kathy Wray Coleman, Editor of the DeterminerWeekly.Com and
the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog and Media Network
Cleveland area community members and grassroots factions such as the People's Forum, the Carl Stokes Brigade, the Imperial Women, the Oppressed People's Nation and the Lucasville Uprising Freedom Network will rally on June 19 at 5 pm at Black on Black Crime Inc's headquarters at McCall's at 14660 Euclid Ave in East Cleveland to denounce what some community activists say is the malicious prosecution by the State of Ohio of respected longtime community activist Art McKoy. The date is consequential because it is the anniversary of "Junteenth," an annual recognition of the day in 1865 in which slaves on a plantation in Texas were told that they were free in accordance with a proclamation from then U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, though most other slaves had been freed two years earlier in 1863 when Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.
For more information on the rally contact Judy Martin at 1-216-990-0679.
The founder of the grassroots organization dubbed Black on Black Crime that fights against injustices in the community and intra-group hostility, which culminates in Black on Black crime as a byproduct of racism, McKoy is by many standards the victim of a pending drug case brought in late 2008, allegedly in retaliation for his community activism.
"Anytime a Black man such as Art McKoy stands up for the empowerment of his people, we realize that the government sends in people to neutralize, discredit and destroy not only that person but the movement," said Ernest Smith, leader and founder of the Oppressed People's Nation.
The 66-year-old McKoy is charged with a fifth degree felony count of permitting the sale of drugs in his now defunct Superfly Barbershop in East Cleveland, though the cases of the two barbers accused of dealing the alleged drugs are long over. All three were indicted in December of 2008 by a Cuyahoga County Grand Jury following a police raid at the barbershop. If convicted, the popular community activist faces up to a year in prison.
McKoy, himself, is not accused of dealing any drugs and has pleaded not guilty to the charge. And the potential trial is on hold until the Ohio Supreme Court decides whether to hear an appeal from Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason on behalf of the State of Ohio where the zealous prosecutor has asked the high court to overturn a decision issued earlier this year by the Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals in McKoy's favor. That decision supported a previous order by Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge Nancy Margaret Russo, the trial judge in the case, for Mason to immediately give McKoy's attorneys the name of the alleged confidential informant against him so that they can prepare their client for any trial.
In asking Ohio's high court to hear his and the state's loss of the state appellate court decision Mason said in his memorandum in support of jurisdiction to the high court that by virtue of the inherent certification power of his office as prosecutor the names of alleged confidential informants can be withheld in McKoy's case and otherwise until after any trial begins if prosecutors certify, as they did relative to McKoy, that harm could come to the alleged informant or his family, though he fails to denote a shred of evidence that suggests that the laid backed McKoy would harm anyone. And, community activists say it is all a show since the cases of the other two defendants have long been resolved.
The case of Earl Nash, who pleaded not guilty to the charge that he dealt drugs out of McKoy's barbershop, was dismissed March 4 after prosecutors failed to produce an alleged confidential informant. And the case against Nash's former colleague, Leroy Sheets, who pleaded guilty early on, came to a close March 18 when following a judicial conviction he received a sentence of the 32 days in jail that he served after he was arrested in 2008.
McKoy's African-American legal team of the strong but temperamental Rufus Sims, an attorney representing alleged serial killer Anthony Sowell, and the brilliant and seasoned James Hardiman, who represented Black children and their families in the since resolved Cleveland schools desegregation case, is fighting tooth and nail for the activist whose activism around purported racism and alleged police brutality has repeatedly annoyed the status quo. They have asked Mason to either put up or shut up as to his failure to produce the alleged confidential informant.
The Ohio Supreme Court is expected to rule on whether it will hear Mason's requested appeal sometime this summer. And while the case at hand may appear on its surface not to be that important, it could have a longstanding impact on Ohio's Black community where, according to research acknowledged by Mason, and the Cleveland NAACP, Blacks are disproportionately prosecuted and unfairly sentenced in Ohio's courts in comparison to similarly situated Whites. Any decision on the merits, if the case is heard by the seven Ohio Supreme Court Justices of one Democrat and no Blacks, would be binding on criminal defendants throughout the state of Ohio. At issue is whether municipal and state prosecutors can withhold the names of witnesses from defense counsel until the middle of trial and deny defendants a fair trial by simply certifying that harm might come to a witness without any evidence of potential harm whatsoever.
"I hope people understand that this case is bigger than Art McKoy and is about whether the names of witnesses can be withheld by prosecutors until the middle of trial for no legitimate reason other than to deny Black and other defendants time to prepare and in essence, their constitutional right to a fair trial, " said Smith.
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