Deaf People: Bad News From State Supreme Court
I’m interrupting my long-planned break from blogging. I’ve taken short breaks before, but not an extended break since I began blogging almost three years ago. I’m also spending minimal time on the Internet. So far, the break has been wonderful and I’m loving it. I don’t know how much longer the break will last, though. Many people have asked me to blog on assorted topics, but I’ve declined since I needed the break big time. However, this one is too important, as the legal system as it impacts the Deaf community is an important issue for me.
Deaf woman’s murder, kidnapping convictions upheld | Grand Forks Herald | Grand Forks, North Dakota
This is bad news. Let me explain the reasons.
First of all, let me tell you I’m biased. I feel Daphne Wright deserved the death penalty because I’m convinced the killing was pre-meditated. Based on my extensive interviews with people who knew her well, in NC, MD and elsewhere, the police let the Deaf Community down for a long time by failing to arrest and prosecute this woman years ago. She was a ticking time bomb and it was a matter of time before she killed someone. It was no surprise that she ended up being charged with a murder. I felt sick to my stomach when I arrived at that sad conclusion.
However, as a civil rights activist, I see the recent decision of the South Dakota Supreme Court not to hear her appeal as a bad decision. It’s true that she didn’t receive equal accessibility during her trial. Her lawyer’s request for a certified Deaf interpreter for the deaf (CDI) was declined by the local judge. All the interpreters at court were supposed to be fluent in ASL, yet at least one interpreter used SEE. What the heck??? CART was provided on site as a back up, but she didn’t possess the fluency in English to fully understand the typed materials. Apparently none of the other interpreters on site took the time to inform her lawyer that she didn’t interpret ASL. After several spectators told me, I passed the news on to her lawyer who was apparently surprised at receiving this news. Good grief. Wasn’t there a consultant appointed to oversee the interpreters and ensure they are qualified to interpret a death penalty murder trial? It was unsettling to realize no safety net was provided for this Deaf defendant. By the way, for a lawyer with no previous experience representing a Deaf client, it’s my personal opinion that this defense lawyer did a pretty good job. She tried her best and she managed to get a life sentence for the defendant, no small feat. But overall, this experience demonstrates a tremendous need to educate the justice system regarding the needs of Deaf people.
Over the years, It had become painfully obvious to me that the rights of Deaf people in the legal system are not protected. I feel very fortunate that I was able to locate a superb lawyer for my hospital lawsuit, but it was not by coincidence. I did a lot of legal legwork and looked high and low for a hungry and aggressive lawyer, interviewing many lawyers before I settled on one. I conferred with the lawyer prior to depositions and court hearing regarding the communication needs of the Deaf people and discovered that she also recalled the mistakes made during the murder trial of Carl Dupree, during which the interpreters basically bungled their jobs. Prior to that court case in early 1990’s, it was assumed that the failure to understand the interpreters was due to Deaf people’s ‘limited English skills’, but that particular case proved poor comprehension wasn’t necessarily the cause, but due to the skills of the interpreters, a stunning and disturbing revelation for the lawyers and advocates of Deaf people. Unlike earlier cases, the Deaf witnesses and involved Deaf parties were college students and college graduates, some of them bearers of advanced degrees. Anyway, I realize I am the exception and not many people, including hearing people, have the same privileges I have. The majority of the public would be out of their league in the legal system to begin with–much more so for the Deaf.
I don’t think there are many people who are still convinced of Daphne Wright’s innocence. I am looking at the big picture. What if this Deaf defendant had been railroaded by shoddy police work and turned out to be innocent? And ended up in jail because of inappropriate interpreting work? Where is the protection for Deaf defendants and plaintiffs? To realize that in the 21st Century, there still aren’t adequate safeguards for Deaf people in the legal system is ominous.
I’m interrupting my long-planned break from blogging. I’ve taken short breaks before, but not an extended break since I began blogging almost three years ago. I’m also spending minimal time on the Internet. So far, the break has been wonderful and I’m loving it. I don’t know how much longer the break will last, though. Many people have asked me to blog on assorted topics, but I’ve declined since I needed the break big time. However, this one is too important, as the legal system as it impacts the Deaf community is an important issue for me.
Deaf woman’s murder, kidnapping convictions upheld | Grand Forks Herald | Grand Forks, North Dakota
This is bad news. Let me explain the reasons.
First of all, let me tell you I’m biased. I feel Daphne Wright deserved the death penalty because I’m convinced the killing was pre-meditated. Based on my extensive interviews with people who knew her well, in NC, MD and elsewhere, the police let the Deaf Community down for a long time by failing to arrest and prosecute this woman years ago. She was a ticking time bomb and it was a matter of time before she killed someone. It was no surprise that she ended up being charged with a murder. I felt sick to my stomach when I arrived at that sad conclusion.
However, as a civil rights activist, I see the recent decision of the South Dakota Supreme Court not to hear her appeal as a bad decision. It’s true that she didn’t receive equal accessibility during her trial. Her lawyer’s request for a certified Deaf interpreter for the deaf (CDI) was declined by the local judge. All the interpreters at court were supposed to be fluent in ASL, yet at least one interpreter used SEE. What the heck??? CART was provided on site as a back up, but she didn’t possess the fluency in English to fully understand the typed materials. Apparently none of the other interpreters on site took the time to inform her lawyer that she didn’t interpret ASL. After several spectators told me, I passed the news on to her lawyer who was apparently surprised at receiving this news. Good grief. Wasn’t there a consultant appointed to oversee the interpreters and ensure they are qualified to interpret a death penalty murder trial? It was unsettling to realize no safety net was provided for this Deaf defendant. By the way, for a lawyer with no previous experience representing a Deaf client, it’s my personal opinion that this defense lawyer did a pretty good job. She tried her best and she managed to get a life sentence for the defendant, no small feat. But overall, this experience demonstrates a tremendous need to educate the justice system regarding the needs of Deaf people.
Over the years, It had become painfully obvious to me that the rights of Deaf people in the legal system are not protected. I feel very fortunate that I was able to locate a superb lawyer for my hospital lawsuit, but it was not by coincidence. I did a lot of legal legwork and looked high and low for a hungry and aggressive lawyer, interviewing many lawyers before I settled on one. I conferred with the lawyer prior to depositions and court hearing regarding the communication needs of the Deaf people and discovered that she also recalled the mistakes made during the murder trial of Carl Dupree, during which the interpreters basically bungled their jobs. Prior to that court case in early 1990’s, it was assumed that the failure to understand the interpreters was due to Deaf people’s ‘limited English skills’, but that particular case proved poor comprehension wasn’t necessarily the cause, but due to the skills of the interpreters, a stunning and disturbing revelation for the lawyers and advocates of Deaf people. Unlike earlier cases, the Deaf witnesses and involved Deaf parties were college students and college graduates, some of them bearers of advanced degrees. Anyway, I realize I am the exception and not many people, including hearing people, have the same privileges I have. The majority of the public would be out of their league in the legal system to begin with–much more so for the Deaf.
I don’t think there are many people who are still convinced of Daphne Wright’s innocence. I am looking at the big picture. What if this Deaf defendant had been railroaded by shoddy police work and turned out to be innocent? And ended up in jail because of inappropriate interpreting work? Where is the protection for Deaf defendants and plaintiffs? To realize that in the 21st Century, there still aren’t adequate safeguards for Deaf people in the legal system is ominous.
June 30th, 2009 at 7:07 am
Welcome back to blogging, Mishka, and yes, whether or not Daphne was guilty of the crime or not, she (as do we all) deserved every legal and communicative safeguards to make sure she had full and complete access to her trial proceedings in order to ensure a fair trial.
June 30th, 2009 at 7:34 am
Welcome back, MZ! I know that is just an unplanned diversion to do the blog reporting on the State Supreme Court’ decision on the issue of equal accessibility request specifically asked by the defense team.
That could be real dangerous legal precedent for every of us, deaf Americans and other deaf people in general.
National Association of the Deaf (NAD) and Alexander Graham Bell Association of the Deaf (AGBAD) MUST TAKE UP THE LEGAL CASE TO THE U.S. SUPREME COURT TO RE-ASSURE THE LEGAL RIGHTS OF DEAF DEFENDANT/VICTIM TO THE EQUAL BASIS OF LAW TO GET THE FAIR TRIAL!
I am kinda disappointed with the NAD’s Legal Advocacy for not taking up anything with the State Supreme appeal case. Same thing with the AGBAD to see if they are really giving any damn about deaf people in general or just largely focused only on their own constitutents (members).
One legal advocate of the deaf spent considerable time with the legal case of Joseph Mesa to oversee that the court treated Mesa fairly, especially interpreter capacity to provide excellent interpreting ability, not undermine the deaf defendant in any given manner.
Go back to your own hitaus. We are living in the 24/7 world nowadays.
Robert L. Mason (RLM)
June 30th, 2009 at 8:52 am
“The law is an ass” is frequently quoted by the legal profession. Add to that “Justice is only as fair as the people who uphold it.”
Personally, I feel that however it zigzagged, justice was served for Daphne even if it has not for many other people. She was taken off the streets, not returned as people like OJ Simpson were. She had access to the appeal procedure.
We can still learn from the Daphne Wright case, however and demand an overseer in cases involving Deaf defendants, as it may be cheaper than an appeals procedure in the future. Interpreter training programs should have this included in their legal interpreting courses. Writings on this should be included in legal journals on a regular basis.
Good to see you again, MZ. There must be some hidden intrinsic reward in blogging to keep us coming back!
June 30th, 2009 at 11:11 am
Yup, I agree…guilty as charged, but legal proceedings should be reviewed.
This is scary for any deaf person who is not very educated about his/her rights. I wonder if a similar thing would have happened to me if I were accused of murder? Would I be able to force the lawyer/judges to issue QUALITY interpreters?
Then again, I might not push the issue…and save it for the time when I need to appeal a guilty verdict (it is a loop hole we can exploit if we are actually guilty of murder and need to get out of a conviction..shameful indeed..but I have no doubt that I would try this if I were guilty of murder).
June 30th, 2009 at 4:10 pm
If you’re analysis is accurate, then it seems that perhaps the US Supreme court can remedy the situation.
August 3rd, 2009 at 8:50 am
Carl Dupree was one of my old boyfriends for a short time at G.S.D.
back in the mid ’60s.
I endured complete injustice that began with my mother’s death of May 18, 1994. The entire city of Columbus, Georgia did nothing to stop the audistic practices of the legal system. My older hearing half-brother encouraged audism practices for self enrichment purposes and also to exact his life long revenge against my father, who was late deafened, by using me ( I was my father’s only child. My brother and I had the same mother. Brother and mother were hearing.) to hurt my father. My father was my half brother’s stepfather. Everybody grew up with my brother while I grew up in boarding schools. Everybody knew my brother, not me. They knew me only what my brother told them. He misled them. He painted a false image of me by taking advantage of everybody’s audistic views which worked 100% to his advantage successfully. My father died still fighting my brother’s cruel audistic influence over the entire community, the legal system, the business people and relatives. My brother died 7 months later. However he made sure his illegally acquired business partner and another guy, our cousin who s a lawyer will continue to oppress me from getting back my Rights forever after he dies. Unless people in Columbus, Georgia take action to reverse the complete injustice against me that began in May 1994.
I started alerting people of the DEAF world in 2000. For strange reasons, they refused to help nor write letters nor give me support. NADlaw refused. Deaf/Hoh lawyers across U.S.A. made excuses not to represent me. Organizations for the Deaf from the TTD phone books ignored me on purpose.
ADA Laws was a great start but its’ aftermaths was horrible. It created many enemies for me. The enemies? Lawyers, judges, relatives. They ignored my request for an interpreter and threatened to have me put away in an asylum if I don’t stop “interferring with their hard work to do what is best for me” (my non stop request for an interpreter and for my due process to be HEARD by me in person…not through relatives, not through lawyers, not through judges….they all violated my Rights to be HEARD, claiming they have a Right given to them by the DISABILITY LAW!!!! Look up this DISABILITY LAW in any dictionary within your reach. They took advantage of this illegal and outlawed DISABLITY LAW. They ruined my reputation, they ridiculed me, they made derogatory remarks about me in addition to defamation and libel in their depositions and correspondences and on the public records.
I knew it was all going to happen BUT I did expect the experts who created the ADA LAWS and DEAF people to come forward. They didn’t. I didn’t let them stop me. I went all the way. I finally found a lawyer 4 years later, a Christian lawyer from out of town, 3 hrs away.
I signed the papers last year, 2008, to end the legal battle. My brother’s “army” of relatives and friends who owns businesses and who runs the city of Columbus, GA’s legal system and the financial institutions, too, made sure they manipulated the legal system into putting me in the same ring with a very powerful and wealthy local bank immediately after my brother died, this way they with full support financially from this one local bank are assured they will win as long as they got money. They don’t care about justice. They go by the game: whoever’s got the most money WINS, regardless of Rights, Fairness, and Justice. My supporters is God, Jesus and my Christian Lawyer. The reason it lasted 14 yrs (1994-2008) long is because I went “by the book” accordingly to the Laws. I told the truths. That’s why I was not afraid to face the most powerful wealthy political lawyers and judges and their friends. I had nothing to hide from them. I hoped they would realize that but they never did. They continued to give me a hard time. When I watched the “Passion of Christ”, there are so many similiarities in the experiences between Jesus and mine, between the people rallying for crucifixion of Jesus and people of my hometown I was born and raised in, I cried so hard throughout the entire movie and kept on crying afterwards. My mother told me as long as God knows I’m doing the right thing, I have nothing to be afraid of. People of Columbus, Georgia did not “SEE” that. All they see is a DEAF WOMAN LIVING IN A FANTASY WORLD, NOT IN THE REAL WORLD, A DEAF COGNIZANT-DISABLED WOMAN LYING ABOUT EVERYTHING SHAMELESSLY RIGHT TO THEIR FACES AND ON THE COURT ROOM FLOORS. They think being deaf made me a moron and they see me as an actress pretending to be smart because they remember me for acting as Sarah Normans of the Children of a lesser god at the Springer Theatre Broadway Play in 1984.
They are all furious with me for trying to make fools of them, for not being honest with them. My brother and my relatives in Columbus, GA incited everybody to be mean, punitive and vindictive, they actually showed how much they are enjoying hurting me, ridiculing me in public. They laughed and made jokes.
I am the quiet type, not a drama queen.
Now that I’ve done everything that needs to be done with the legal system 100% that proved Audism is still alive and well on Planet Earth, I’m moving on, caring for feral cats, became a member of Morningside Baptist Church, beginning a new lifestyle as a 3 time divorcee, continue filmmaking/photography/painting and looking for a writer to do my mini autobiography beginning with my mother’s death.
I refuse to listen to anyone, DEAF and HEARING, who says, “That’s the way life is”. I can’t sit back and do nothing. It’s not over. Audism is not here to stay. Period. DEAF people have got to stop wasting time TALKING, blah, blah, blah about Audism, blah, blah, blah… and get into action instead! Stop being afraid of HEARING relatives and lawyers and judges and police, to get out and reach out to people like me. We have to have a lot of people. Many people wins against one person EVERYWHERE. Ever heard of “THE MAJORITY RULES” ? And start showing support for any individual DEAF/Hoh PERSON politically or legally involved, no matter if they do not know this deaf person personally. they should show support just like BLACKS show support for any mistreated BLACK person on Earth. We, the DEAF PEOPLE, have been persecuted and mistreated inhumanely since before the 1st Century. There are more of us now than in any time in History for the first time, now’s the time to arise and reform our society of Audism Practices once and for all. Gently, lovingly and with wisdom, planting seeds of DEAF AWARENESS throughout the HEARING WORLD who knows nothing about the Audistic Authorities of LAW AND CRUEL AUDISTIC RELATIVES WHO PURPOSEFULLY ENCOURAGES THE GULLIBILITY OF AUTHORITIES’S AUDISM INTO VIOLATING ALL LAWS AGAINST A LONE DEAF/HOH INDIVIDUAL.
NADlaw (National Association For The Deaf Law) advertises its’ need for donations because it is in trouble financially and so are a lot of organizations for the DEAF federally funded and privately funded because none of them, in the past, helped any single DEAF INDIVIDUAL victimized by Audistic Judicial System and audistic relatives. No DEAF person wants to fund NAD and other organizations that does not help DEAF people in trouble with legal systems that are not crime-related and crime-related, too. DEAF people don’t care how much work NADlaw and other Law Firms had done to save DEAF patients of asylums and hospitals and sueing McDonalds and YMCA. Millions of DEAF people don’t go to YMCA and are not lawsuit-happy people sueing every single company/store/resturant every second of the day. BUT they do deal with legal issues constantly and forever and have never been served fairly and equally. Their tax money SERVING ONLY HEARING PEOPLE AND THEIR HEARING CHILDREN’S PUBLIC SCHOOLS, which accordingly to informations makes U.S. DEAF CITIZENS slaves serving every need of HEARING U.S. CITIZENS, EXCLUDING U.S. DEAF CITIZENS. This is one system that is not working in the U.S. This is one system that demands a complete reformation. Audism is deeply rooted into HEARING SOCIETY’S POWER STRUCTURE FOR MANY CENTURIES, DEAF PEOPLE HAVE TO MAKE A LOT OF NOISE TO GET HEARING PEOPLE’S ASSISTANCE TO STOP HEARING AUTHORITIES FROM INHUMANE ACTIONS AGAINST U.S. DEAF CITIZENS’ RIGHTS AUDISTICALLY. God bless you all for reading this far.
August 3rd, 2009 at 9:06 am
To be continued from previous comment made by me:
I left out one comment: Millions of DEAF PEOPLE don’t live in asylums or psychatric wards yet why do NADlaw and other Law Firms insist on serving DEAF/HOH PATIENTS who are outnumbered by DEAF/HOH non-patients? Discrimination by medical fields but they won’t come forward for any DEAF person discriminated by local legal system. It’s out of their jurisdiction? Then they know DEAF PEOPLE are hugely outnumbered by HEARING PEOPLE, it takes common sense to apply for an international/national jurisdiction lawyering licence, not just in their hometown’s jurisdiction. They probably don’t make a lot of money as lawyers in their hometown. I’ve talked to all of them and they conveyed their message signifying they got better things to do than serve DEAF PEOPLE. It don’t matter these lawyers are DEAF OR HARD OF HEARING THEMSELVES. I am not defaming nor slandering nor libeling any of them. They advertised themselves in the 1993 and 1994 TDD Phone books and a couple probably from the internet during the yrs of 1994, 1995, 1996 and 1997. One of them a hearing lawyer advertised in one of the TDD phone books as ADA Laws Lawyer. He was hired and I learned later on he is not an ADA LAW Lawyer. I told him false advertisement is illegal. He laughed. I got it all on record. Printed it out. I thank God for TTYs and ii7 for the printing ability because without the printed conversations, it is easy for HEARING people to point out Deaf person is “Deaf and misunderstood, did not get all the words right” in a world where it’s always the HEARING PERSON’S WORD AGAINST A DEAF PERSON’S WORD. HEARING wins and DEAF loses. Everytime.