Prof. Miller Tesitfies on HR40 and the Path to Restorative Justice Before House Judiciary Subcommittee

Professor Eric Miller testified the following during the House Judiciary Committee Hearing on HR40 and the Path to Restorative Justice held Wednesday, June 19, 2019. Read his prepared remarks below or watch the recording of the testimony.

I will speak to my experience as an academic studying the issue of reparations and a lawyer representing the victims of the Tulsa massacre of 1921 in a reparations lawsuit against the state of Oklahoma and the city of Tulsa. In the short time available, I want to make the following points:

1. Local, state and federal governments were active perpetrators of race-targeted discrimination against, and domination of, African-Americans during slavery and Jim Crow.

2. These governmental institutions engaged in the massive social, political, economic, and cultural destruction of African American communities and individuals.

3. Many of the perpetrators and victims of race-targeted state action are readily identifiable through a thorough investigation of existing historical records in the hands of public and private institutions.

4. The race based disparities brought about by federal, state, and local government discrimination remain baked into our governmental institutions as well as the persistently segregated private social ordering those institutions brought about.

5. Reparations addresses the ways in which these institutions entrenched race-based discrimination and domination throughout American social, cultural, economic, and political institutions.

6. The committee should consider specific legal remedies to remove the time-limited bars against litigation, which are the major impediment preventing the identifiable victims of extraordinary race-targeted state action to sue state and federal governments for financial damages.

7. Reparations must also include rebuilding the social political economic and cultural infrastructure of the communities destroyed by the state.

8. Without social, cultural, and political reparations, race neutral programs of economic uplift will preserve the relative social and political disadvantage, domination, and disempowerment of African Americans across this nation.

The urgent need for the HR40 Commission, and reparations as the path to restorative justice for the victims’ state-sponsored racial injustice, became clear to me in 2003. That is when I joined the Reparations Coordinating Committee, a group of lawyers led by Charles Ogletree and Adjoa Aiyetoro. Our legal team filed suit representing the more than one-hundred still living survivors of the Tulsa, Oklahoma Race Massacre of 1921.

Crime, Punishment and the Common Good in California

By Seth Weiner, Co-Director of the Center for Restorative Justice

Beautiful music began to fill the Sacred Heart Chapel as dusk had fallen and guests from across California took seats in the pews. Lively conversations between many reunited long-time friends quieted as Rod Hickman, former secretary of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, approached the microphone and welcomed the crowd.

It was a picturesque beginning to the Responsibility, Rehabilitation and Restoration symposium on "Crime, Punishment and the Common Good in California," co-hosted by Loyola Law School's Center for Restorative Justice and the California Catholic Conference on August 3 and August 4. More than 600 attendees from all parts of California, including dozens of restorative justice advocates, gathered to learn about the on-going historic reforms in the state's criminal justice system. After sharing a meal in the early evening on a grassy lawn overlooking West Los Angeles and the ocean from the bluffs on LMU's Westchester Campus, attendees were welcomed to an evening of healing music, poetry and testimony of people affected by crime and the criminal justice system.

As the lyrics of the hymn repeated, "hold us in thy mercy," survivor of violent crime and restorative justice advocate Jaimee Karroll spoke into the microphone. "I am a survivor of child abduction and violent abuse when I was 9 years old. I have found personal healing from working with both crime survivors as well as offenders incarcerated for violent offenses, including abduction." She returned to her seat and the music continued. A man replaced her at the microphone. "I am responsible for the murder of another man. I have served many years in prison and am now working to help heal the kinds of harm I have caused. I pray to God every day for forgiveness." These testimonies were followed by that of a sister of an incarcerated brother, the mother of a murdered son, and the sister of a murdered brother. As each person spoke, they took a seat side by side the others. The hymn played on as the tragedy and triumph spread through the chapel.

Darlene Chavarria and Frank Escamilla from Street Poets put many of the feelings into words with sharp and insightful poems. Azim Khamisa and Ples Felix, the father of a murdered son and grandfather of the shooter, gave a keynote presentation based on their own story of loss, forgiveness and work for the creation of safe schools and communities. The evening ended with a screening of the challenging and moving documentary film of a restorative victim-offender dialogue "Meeting with a Killer." And all of this was just the beginning!

Saturday, August 4 was a day that filled Gersten Pavillion both with more than 600 attendees and more inspiring stories and presentations from the likes of the restorative-justice pioneering Judge Gail Brewster Bereola and current CDCR Secretary Matthew Cate. Much of the event was recorded and will be made available soon. For more information and a listing of the full program please click here.

Center for Restorative Justice to host event on youth offenders and their victims

By Seth Lennon Weiner, Co-Director, Loyola's Center for Restorative Justice

he U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling in Brown v. Plata brings into sharp focus the current dilemma facing California's criminal justice system. With prison overcrowding currently at alarming levels, California must find a careful balance between protecting the Eighth Amendment guarantees to prisoners and the public safety of the state. Considering Philadelphia's less than positive experience with a court-ordered reduction in prison populations during the 1990s, many Californians have expressed their anxiety and doubt over the High Court's ruling. The ruling, however, highlights more fundamental questions about our current criminal system in America: Where should the focus of criminal law be and around whom should the justice system be centered?

Loyola's Center for Restorative Justice (CRJ) believes that the answer to these questions requires a transformation of our current criminal justice system. Unlike our current system where the offender is the focus of the criminal proceeding, restorative justice seeks to transfer the focal point to the victim. Currently, California replaces the victim and seeks retribution on behalf of the victim and community at large. A system based on restorative principles would shift the focus of criminal proceedings from sanctions to restitution in order to make the victim whole and the offender directly culpable for the harm caused.

Restorative justice is not only a way of holding offenders accountable but, more importantly, is an idea that seeks to change the behavior of offenders and mitigate the harm caused to victims. By recognizing and addressing the harm caused to the victim as well as the harm that caused the offender to commit the offense, restorative justice takes a comprehensive approach that promotes healing and justice between the victim, the offender, and the community.

Loyola hosts Franky Carrillo to discuss wrongful murder conviction

Loyola Law School's Center for Restorative Justice hosted a talk on campus on Monday by Francisco "Franky" Carrillo, who last week was released from prison after 20 years of incarceration for a murder he did not commit. Carrillo will discuss his experience with the criminal justice system and his legal struggle to prove his innocence.

Carrillo was 16 years old when he stood trial for murder. Based primarily on eyewitness testimony, he was sentenced to two life sentences. Several witnesses recanted their identification of him as the killer in a 1991 drive-by shooting. Last Wednesday, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Paul A. Bacigalupo ruled to have Carrillo released.

Clinical Professor Scott Wood, director of Loyola's Center for Restorative Justice, was instrumental in securing the release. Wood persuaded the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office to review the case at the urging of Carrillo's lawyer, Ellen Eggers. Eggers, a state public defender, was honored with the St. Ignatius of Loyola Award at a ceremony at Loyola on Feb. 10 for her pro bono work on the case.