NCJ Number
166076
Date Published
1995
Length
3 pages
Annotation
The mother of a 22-year-old man who is serving a sentence of 25 years to life in a California prison asserts that he did not commit the murder and that he is incarcerated because his family is poor, black, and speaks out and fights for what is right.
Abstract
Lonzell Green turned himself in to clear his name in July 1991, but the Oakland police charged him with first-degree murder. The case lacked any murder weapon or lie detector test, and no investigation was conducted on the defendant's behalf. The prosecution's main witness was a drug dealer who was an ex-convict. Another witness was also a former convict who did not see Green at the scene. A final witness changed her story at least three times and admitted in the courtroom that she lied to the police. The author's brother was part of a 1989 class-action lawsuit against the Oakland Housing Authority for allowing its police to conduct terror and abuse against its tenants. The Oakland Housing Authority police began raiding the house of the author's mother in 1990 and have called the McCullough family DP, which stands for dirty people. The police asked the author's mother to inform on people in the neighborhood; she refused. The author believes that her son's incarceration is a frame-up to attack anyone who stands up for what is right. She has decided to join Mothers Reclaiming Our Children and establish an Oakland chapter. Her son says that he was falsely accused and convicted.