A European scratched his head and said in a memory searching tone, “What was that about a Black man getting shot 50 times by police?”

I felt he was treating the Sean Bell situation lightly. Even here, the coverage of a young man being killed in a November, 2006 barrage of New York City police bullets was on corporate airwaves.

This “aware” person was fuzzy, he said, on whether the police violence against African people in the US was actually that bad.

On occasions like this I mention to listeners (and many of all nationalities and races turn off their attention antennas) that the most obvious of Human Rights violations are not addressed in the USA. And that the most egregious of all are those concerning Black Brown and Red impoverished people.

Although two wounded witnesses survived in the murder of Sean Bell, a 23 year old man on the eve of his marriage the case has not found the police killers guilty and sentenced to prison.

Yet anyone who is impoverished and who is accused of taking the life of a police person can expect an existence in America that neither Kafka or Dostoevsky could create.

The gauntlet Zolo Agona Azania, now in his 50s, has run is not unusual.

“The judges (all of them so far) allowed the police to cover up their official misconduct and false reporting, after it was revealed to the public that they intimidated people to lie on me. The prosecutors used innuendo, veiled references and out-and-out lies to bolster their weak case. Two all-white jury trials were rigged against me in Allen County.”

Zolo has been in a box like prison cell in Indiana since a skinny guard named Michael Jordan dropped a jumper in the NCAA championship game in ’82. Zolo was charged with a police death and given the penalty of death. Twice, in the intervening years, he has been tried and the walk to the death house door stopped.

Last month, 2 Indiana supreme court judges ruled for him getting free from the date with death. The problem is 3 others said he didn’t deserve this. He has to face the fact that Indiana wants him dead, again.

J. Boehm, one judge, no doubt White like all Indiana colleagues at this level, said:

“Ultimately, as I see it, this case presents an issue of cruel and unusual punishment.”

The other dissenting judge, agreed, saying:

“…Azania’s constitutional rights to a speedy trial and due process would be violated if the State continues to seek a death sentence. A part of the due process violation includes Azania’s Eighth Amendment right to present meaningful evidence in mitigation. His inability to do so is of itself sufficient to preclude the State from seeking the death penalty. Therefore I dissent.”

Zolo himself has said in the past:

“The torture revelations perpetrated against people in Iraq is common place in US jails and prisons. It’s business as usual.”

America and it’s burden of proof-is it clear?

You be the judge. There are many Zolos in trouble with US law.

In numerous states the US penalty of death has been temporarily halted.

The real story is yet to be told, but there is always the first hand option.

Write:

- www.zoloazania.org/
- www.geocities.com/exiledone2002