Salem State Shines Light on

Criminal Justice in America

Alex Ragusa

This Thursday, Salem States Muticultural

department held Ndume Olatushani and his
wife Anne-Marie Moyes to share their story of
Ndumes wrongful conviction of murder and
their advocacy for his innocence.
Students gathered around Vets Hall in the
Ellison Campus Center, Thursday to hear
Ndume Olatushani tell his story of being
wrongly convicted of attempted robbery and
murder of a grocery store owner and sentenced
to death in Memphis, Tennessee in 1985. Even
though he had 30 alibi witnesses insisting that
he was hundreds of miles away in St. Louis
celebrating his mothers birthday. An all white
jury in a city convicted Ndume with a black
majority population.
Eight years after being sentenced to death,
Ndume met his wife, Anne-Marie Moyes who
was working for a California nonprofit as an
anti-death penalty advocate, organizing prison
art shows when they became pen pals. Moyes
was instantly convinced of his innocence and
began studying at Vanderbilt Law School to
make Ndumes innocence her mission. AnneMarie conducted a thorough investigation of
the 1985 case and uncovered strong evidence as
well as evidence withheld from trial that shown
light on his innocence.
The prosecutions case was weak and witnesses
testified that they were only 80 percent confident
in their identification of the suspect. When
Anne-Marie conducted her own investigation
and spoke with witnesses she found that almost
all of them recanted, had already committed

perjury, or had friendships with the felons who

had actually committed the crime, a pair of
brothers Michael and Eric Brown, their cousin
Charles Keller, and two prostitutes that worked
for them. Thirty-four percent of witnesses
misidentify suspects and in this case Ndumes
picture was the only one shown during the
identification process. We have a system that
doesnt treat this as the huge problem that it is.
During Ndumes years in prison he opted out of
having a TV in his small four foot high jail cell
and chose to bury himself in painting, Art was
the thing that allowed me to see the things I
wanted to see when I was trapped in that death
cell, I chose to try and put my best foot forward.
I could have easily spiraled into anger but that
wouldnt have done anything for me.
Twenty-seven years after being on death row,
Moyes and the state found Ndume innocent.
The fact that Im here is a miracle. Ndume
asked students to think about the death penalty
more deeply. Be informed about the death
penalty because it can take innocent peoples
lives, dont just swallow information that is
given to you, and take a position.
Ndume however has not seen restitution for all
those lost years, instead of facing another trial,
and more jail time he accepted the Alford Plea,
which is when a defendant pleads guilty while
claiming innocence and accepting that theres
sufficient evidence for a successful prosecution.
This year in national news we have seen
tension develop between police and black
citizens (Ferguson, Missouri, and Staten

Island, New York.) According to The Atlantic,

we need to stop seeing our country through
rose-colored glasses. If Americans are to be
honest with themselves, they must admit we
may never know what actually happened to
Michael Brown because of the unusual way the
grand-jury process was conducted by a local
prosecutor whose independence was in doubt.
They must admit that publishing a selective
collection of details online corrupts the integrity
of grand-jury deliberations and proceedings
meant to be held in confidence.
Ndume closed his presentation about time
and how that has been his biggest lost of all,
something restitution could never give him
back. It was only a few years ago that I bought
a watch. time never meant anything to me.

Time never
meant
anything to
me..