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Four stories let public peer into soul of Houston justice system

The justice system can be difficult to understand for experts and darn near impossible for laypeople. Grits believes that's in part because the public best understands issues of crime, punishment and justice through storytelling, but there are too many stories emerging from the system which often seem to produce contradictory moral conclusions. Which story one latches onto may tell more about the storyteller (or the listener) than the system. Yet at the same time, the stories are important and the public can't comprehend what's happening without them.Today it occurred to me that many of the most difficult dynamics facing the 21st-century justice system are revealed through the lenses of four black Houston men's stories: Houston PD Sgt. Harold Preston, shot down after 41 years on the force while responding to a domestic dispute; Narcotics Detective Gerald Goines, whose false affidavit resulted in the deaths of two innocent homeowners; George Floyd, whose death in Minneapolis was preceded by numerous run-ins with Houston PD, including a drug conviction in which he was possibly set up by Detective Goines; and Lydell Grant, a Houston man convicted of murder and exonerated by DNA and the confession of the real killer, but whose innocence the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals refuses to acknowledge...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on October 22, 2020 (boomark / email).