The Criminal Justice Amendments with Adia Victoria

[Music] Listener supported WNYC Studios. [Music] Hi, my name is Brianna Morelland. And when I first heard about this project, I was hanging out with my mom in Seattle. And I started talking to her about how I would approach the idea of writing a song about a constitutional amendment. We started talking about some different amendments and then started focusing on the Fourth Amendment. [Music] I started doing some research and I ended up finding a legal term associated with the Fourth Amendment, called "Free to the Poisonous Tree." [Music] I named my song after it. It means that evidence found by being searched illegally is deemed "tainted evidence" and cannot be used against someone in court. I had a realization that the Fourth Amendment is basically about having consent in the way you are treated by the government. And so my song references that by way of romantic consent. As a parallel. [Music] Bonafide can't be right. It's useless. I gave my heart safe from guaranteed. Every moment started something to prove. [Music] The first lyrics I wrote for the song were "When You Take What You Took For Me." [Music] That was Brianna Morella with her song "Free to the Poisonous Tree" inspired by the Fourth Amendment. Gotta say that's one of my favorites. I'm Chad Abumarad. This is more perfect. Season 3. This season we decided not just to make some podcasts. We decided to put together an album of songs inspired by the amendments to the U.S. Constitution. There are 27 amendments. These amendments outline our rights. As Americans, they show a country that is constantly evolving and changing. We reached out to a bunch of musicians and asked them to create a song inspired by one of these amendments. 35 different musicians responded. Because some amendments actually ended up with multiple songs. And we have created 27, the most perfect album. You can hear the entire thing at themostperfectalbum.org. The mostperfectalbum.org, the entire thing is on that website, along with all kinds of good information and some beautiful design. Albums also on iTunes, Spotify, all the places. Here on the podcast, the more perfect team are telling stories about the amendments. Sort of audio liner notes to accompany the songs. And for this liner note, producer Sara Carrey did some bundling. She took the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth. Stuck them together. When you read the fourth through eighth amendments of the Constitution, well, you're really looking at, according to Professor Bert Newborn, who we heard in episode one, is a story. You have an absolutely perfect chronological history or chronological picture of the law enforcement process. It's a story about how the Constitution is supposed to protect people when they come face to face with the police. The fourth amendment deals with investigation. The right of the people to be secure in their person's houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated. The fifth amendment deals with interrogation. She'll be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself. The sixth amendment, all criminal prosecutions, and seventh amendment suits at common law. Both deal with adjudication. The accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, an impartial jury, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense. And the eighth amendment deals with punishment. Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. It's a seamless story of the law enforcement process and the creation of protections at each stage in the process. So you can't investigate without a probable cause and a warrant. You can't interrogate by making somebody incriminate themselves. You can't adjudicate without giving somebody due process and a lawyer. And you can't punish in a way that's cruel and unusual. No other Bill of Rights anywhere has this kind of organized and thoughtfully developed set of protections. But we know that so often these amendments don't work the way that they're supposed to. Could you just tell me your name and how old you are? I'm 24 years old. How many years ago was it that you got arrested? Like 23 years ago, something like that. It was April the 17th, 1997. Back in 1997, Christopher is 26 years old. He lives in Dallas. He has a girlfriend and two kids. And he works in the produce department at the local grocery store. Just living an everyday life of every person want to live, having an employment, being independent, and being able to support your family. One night he's at his friend Claude's house. Okay, well, Claude's house is called. Claude was struggling with a drug addiction and he didn't want to be alone. So he called up Christopher. Christopher came over and he ends up taking Claude out on a drive around the block. Me and Claude make about three or four blocks around the corner just talking. And while they're doing that, I see cops everywhere. They like circling the blocks and speeding out, then just you know, just, it's like they're looking for people. He says that because he and Claude are both black driving around late at night, seeing all of these police officers around. It made him nervous. I told Claude I said, look, I'm going to park my car in your driveway, going to have a sitting down for a minute. When they leave, I'm going to go home. So they go back to Claude's house, get inside. I sit on the couch, I'm watching TV. Next thing you know, the phone ring. It's Dallas Police Department. The cops say to him, we're outside your house. They want the two guys that they started getting out of the car that come outside. I was like, me, what, why they won't us? They hesitated at first. But Christopher says that they eventually got up to open the door. But before, before we even had a chance to go out. The police officers, cops running in, I look up, I got about seven to eight, nine millimetres guns pointed at me. Fourth amendment. Search and seizure. The fourth is designed to protect your privacy. The right of the people to be secure in their person's houses, papers and effects. When you first come into contact with a cop. Against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated. We laid on the ground for approximately, probably about 20, 25 minutes just laying there. No warrant shall issue, but upon probable cause. Did they show you a warrant? No. They were supported by oath and affirmation and particularly describing the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized. They went and checked the house. Searched his car? I mean, they told my car a port and they couldn't find anything. I'm like, what are they doing? At this point, he said he had no idea what was going on. And then they escorted me to a police car. And if you immediately put me in handcuffs once I got into police car. They say we take you downtown to the capers' meeting. Crimes against person. At the police station, Christopher is taken in for questioning. They take me to the interrogation room. And I'm still not being told when I'm being charged with what I'm being questioned about a nothing. Fifth Amendment. Grand jury, double jeopardy, self-incrimination, due process, taking. The fifth is designed to protect you when the cop has you in custody and is asking you questions. The fifth is the one that gives you. You have the right to remain silent. No, what out? Anything you say to us can be used against you in a court of law. And did they like, did they like read your rights and whatever? Like you have the right to remain silent and all that? Nope. I didn't get my Miranda rights read to me until I left interrogation. At some point that evening when they're at the station. The cop tells me, "A lady is going to come identify you." Christopher is taken to this room and handcuffed to a bench next to this big window. We a big glass window and they walked the lady straight up to the window and pointed at me and me in the lady to see each other. And the police also said, "This is the guy that cured your husband." Now, I couldn't hear it, but I read her lips. She said, "Yeah, that's him." And I'm like, "Now I know she didn't just say what I thought she said." And I go back in there. I'm like, "Look, sir, whatever y'all seen, I didn't do." And they say, "Well, you know what, Mr. Scott? We tied a BS in which you're going to be charged with Calvin and murder." I said, "C Calvin and murder?" I say, "Sir, I ain't nobody. So I go in a restroom. I can't cry because I'm so scared. Tears won't even come out my eyes. I literally paced myself as probably the hardest I ever could and it hurt it." So right then I said, "It is real." Sixth Amendment. The sixth, seventh Amendment. And the seventh aren't designed to protect you when they've decided to charge you. In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense. Sixth Amendment is for criminal cases. Seventh is for civil, but they both say that you get the right to a jury and a lawyer. And I said, "I don't even know what Captain murder me. What does that mean?" "Well, your lawyer tell you." I said, "My lawyer." Christopher is appointed a lawyer and that same day in his cell, he meets with the guy. I can tell by his body language that he felt like I was actually guilty. He said, "But periodically I'm gonna come and talk to you about the process and none of that never happened." None of that never happened. Christopher says he talked to the guy for maybe five minutes. I didn't see him anymore until my trial began. And so starting from that first conversation that you have with him to the all the way to the trial, how long were you in jail? Maybe a couple of months. Whoa. First day of the trial during jury selection. I'm sitting there. I'm dressed in my suit. You know, I'm trying to look respectable and trying to keep a good face for my girl freeing. I was used there trying to show that I'm still strong even though I'm weak at this time. Now, the sixth Amendment guarantees you a trial by a jury of your peers. And what that means legally is always a fridavate. But the spirit of it, the spirit of that word peers basically means that the jury should represent the group, the people that live around you. But at some point Christopher looks over to the jury box and he realizes that every black member of the jury pool has been dismissed. I had an all-white jury panel and I saw that. I see it now. How did this happen? And I looked at my attorney. I said, "How did this happen?" In the most technical sense, the sixth Amendment is present. But somehow it still doesn't protect him. They try to last about four hours. Probably about four hours. Capital murder case, four hours. My deliberation lasted for about 30 minutes. That's it? That's it. So they come back in a judge as a jury panel. How have you came up with your decision in a jury form and say, "Yes, Your Honor." And the decision is guilty. Christopher Scott, you're guilty of capital murder. Just like that. Now, years later, Christopher Scott would be cleared of all of these charges. Unequivocally. So in that moment, these amendments, the fourth, fifth, sixth, they let him down. But there is this one moment at the trial where you could argue that one amendment ever so faintly rings out. Eighth Amendment. The eighth says, "Once they've convicted you and they want to punish you, how can they do it? Can they be cruel and unusual?" And the eighth amendment bars cruel and unusual punishments. The only thing that I appreciated the most that my judge did for me, she asked me, "Why should I seek the death penalty?" In my own words was, "How could you kill an innocent man?" In this moment, it almost feels like the spirit of the eighth amendment is what changes Christopher's fate. She said, "Mr. Scott, you just saved your own life today. We're not going to kill you, but we're going to give you a capital life sentence." And I almost thanked her. Because although he was about to go to prison for a crime that he didn't commit, he says that this sentence, it feels like mercy. Because I'm like, "Well, you're not going to kill me. I can fight for my freedom again." Christopher Scott spent 12 years in prison before being exonerated in 2009, after someone else confessed to the crime. He since founded an organization called House of Renewed Hope, which tries to help exonerate others who've been wrongfully convicted. In the story of the events of that night, there are some places where Christopher Scott's account in the Dallas Police Department's differ. What we've presented here is largely based on Christopher's experience as he tells it. When we reached out to the Dallas PD for comment, they did not offer a response. We'll be back in a minute. [Music] Hey, this is more perfect. I'm Chad Abel-Morod. We've put together an album of songs for this season based on the 27 amendments to the US Constitution. Sarah Carrey just brought you some liner notes from amendments 4 through 8. And we started off the episode with the 4th Amendment song from Brianna Morella. But that leaves songs 5 through 8. We haven't talked about those yet. We haven't heard them. So I want to play you excerpts now. I heard that one. It's starting with this woman. I'm Mackenzie and I play music under the name Torres. Well, and what amendment did you choose to write about? I wrote about the 5th Amendment. 5th Amendment. So the 5th Amendment, as I understand it, it's the one that protects a person from from no person shall be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or land. Double jeopardy and from self-incrimination. But the last part, nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation. Is the one that I chose to focus on for this song? Takings. That last part of the 5th Amendment is often referred to by just that word "takings". It's what you always hear being debated when the government decides to seize private property for public good, like a park, or more controversially for a high rise. Mackenzie chose to write about this part of the 5th Amendment, connecting it to the story of Dred Scott. [Music] [Music] [Music] ♪ And it calls ♪ ♪ And it calls ♪ ♪ For anyone to play ♪ That was Torres with a song about the fifth amendment onto the sixth, which comes from a band headed by a guy that you may recognize from the movies. - This is Ezra Miller from "Sensvenos" G.S. Father, which is the sixth amendment, sixth amendment, right to Speedy Trial by Jury Witnesses' Council. - Because I think reading through them, we recognized both its importance and how rarely in our time it was observed or adhered to. ♪ And for a while they can hold ♪ ♪ Out of fair speech ♪ ♪ I'm they can hold ♪ - We use various examples in the song from current events to illustrate and demonstrate that this, like many of the other amendments, has lost its meaning and application in this country. ♪ So stop the right to a public trial ♪ ♪ And impart your dirty, supposed to be speeding ♪ ♪ Supposed to be fun ♪ ♪ So how then do they explain ♪ ♪ The bodies change the walls ♪ ♪ In Chicago's home in the square ♪ ♪ Been there for a while ♪ ♪ Thinking ♪ - That's an excerpt from the sixth amendment song from Ezra Miller and "Sensvenos" G.S. Father, Brooklyn-based trio, "On to the Seventh." - Hello. - This is Theo Hilton from "Nana Grisel." - I was excited to write a song about the seventh amendment. - Seventh amendment, "Jury Trial in Civil Lawsuits." - Because even though it's a part of the Bill of Rights, very few people know what it does. I can see it in this song using an analytical frame known as racial capitalism. ♪ The early on quite celebrated ♪ ♪ Mostly on its incorporated ♪ ♪ Access to a jury in a federal civil case ♪ ♪ Made it easy to do business for the planting class ♪ ♪ And digs with your venture crisis ♪ ♪ Big stuff where excised and excess ways ♪ ♪ What our rights within the ancient of our slaves ♪ ♪ Where mass extropleation is the order of today ♪ ♪ To frameless kept their vision ♪ ♪ On the dream of death or a living ♪ ♪ And so make through the solution ♪ ♪ Of their contradicting ways ♪ ♪ To the 19th century ♪ ♪ It's right where it's played ♪ ♪ The reason you leave us ♪ ♪ You know the thing is what you believe ♪ - That was the seventh amendment song from "Nana Grisel" a band based in Athens, Georgia. That included a couple members of a great experimental rock band from my era. Neutral Mill Co-Tel, remember them. For the eighth amendment, we got a song from a local NYC Sirf Rock Band named "High Wasted" who were once apparently named the best party band by GQ Magazine. Here is "Front Woman Jessica Luis Die" set it up. - I chose to write a song about the eighth amendment because I thought it just so obviously already sounded like song lyrics, excessive bail, and aptly required, nor excessive fines and post, nor cool, and unusual punishments inflicted. (upbeat music) - "High Wasted's Take on the Eighth" springs out of the two most debated words in that amendment. "Cool" and "Unusual" those words contain a lot of stuff. The idea of mercy is tucked in there, the idea of what is just, as a punishment, tucked in there. We, the people are supposed to be protected from punishments that are cool and unusual, but those words, those are hard words. What is cool? What is unusual? Like what if a punishment is cool, but not unusual? Are we protected from that? These are the kind of questions people ask about the death penalty, which is what Jessica says the band was thinking about when they wrote this song. - Over 17,000 people have been executed while in death row, and 32 states still have the death penalty, which is why I, and just my mind is ball-gold, with the idea that these inmates, their last bit of freedom, is the freedom to choose how they're going to die. And I can't imagine being the captain of your own soul and being forced to decide how you're going to travel into the next world. (upbeat music) ♪ I miss all of my fate ♪ I wanted the song to have an eerie, haunting, creepy, it sticks with you by like a siren song lowering you in with this beautiful melody, and then building to this freak out, the realization that this amendment is so important, it involves so many people that have to clarity the weight and burden of death. And I think that's why I was most drawn to the eerie amendment and why this song kind of is a little bit different of a sound for me and for my band, I was, did. We usually tend to write things that are more pop than this song just broadly into writing this sort of psych jam. (upbeat music) ♪ You're the sun ♪ ♪ You're the sun ♪ ♪ You're the sun ♪ ♪ You're the sun ♪ (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - Kai wasted with a song about the eighth amendment. Now we only played excerpts of the songs here in the podcast, but you can hear the whole things, all the songs, in their entirety, at themostperfectalbum.org, themostperfectalbum.org. If you go there, there is a whole site which we worked really hard on, which tells you not only all about these bands, but all about the amendments, what the words mean, how they've been used throughout history, we're hoping it's gonna be really, really useful to people. So check out themostperfectalbum.org, help us spread the word. You can find the album itself, 27, the most perfect album, on iTunes, Spotify, anywhere you can download music. More perfect is created by me, Chad Avon-Rodz, Susie Lektonberg, Julie Longoria, Kelly Primes, our Akari and Alex Overrington, with help from Michelle Harris, David Gabel, and Nora Keller, and thanks to Jeffrey Wright, the amazing Jeffrey Wright, for reading the amendments for us. Thank you guys for listening. I'm Chad Avon-Rodz, signing off. On our next episode, we'll be exploring the ninth, tenth, and 11th amendments.