Feb 042015
 

Who does not know the 60-year old classic novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee and the movie featuring Gregory Peck as lawyer Atticus Finch, who defends an Afro-American defendant being tried for rape of a white young woman in the State of Alabama during the Great Depression of the 1930s?

One of the key scenes is Atticus Finch’s cross examination of alleged rape victim Mayella Ewell. It plays a role in the book “Louisiana v. Vincent Simmons: Frame-up in Avoyelles Parish.”

Harper Lee’s first book was “Go Set a Watchman.” It was the original but eventually became the sequel to “To Kill a Mockingbird.” Finch’s daughter Scout returns home from New York in the 1950s to visit her father. According to the publisher’s announcement: “She is forced to grapple with issues both personal and political as she tries to understand her father’s attitude toward society, and her own feelings about the place where she was born and spent her childhood.”

“Go Set a Watchman” is released on July 14, 2015.

Jan 022015
 

Comment

After an interview with Karen Sanders and her twin sister Sharon Chism, there is another newspaper article by the Town Talk with no news about the victims’ point of view.

Simmons’ victims vow to continue fight
By Melissa Gregory | mgregory@thetowntalk.com | (318) 792-1807 7:12 p.m. CST December 31, 2014
http://www.thetowntalk.com/story/news/l … /21130275/

Both women say all three were interviewed separately, and Sharon said that the infamous “all blacks look alike” quote was a way of keeping the secret.

When the girls reported the crime on May 22, 1977, Sheriff “Potch” Didier interviewed them separately (i.e. one after the other), but they were and stayed in the same room together all the time. Each one of them should have been interviewed alone, i.e. without having the sister by the side, in order to avoid mutual influencing.

Interestingly, they are still interviewed together and handled as a double pack nowadays. There is no Sharon without Karen.

Mar 292013
 

One of the indirect but important topics of the book “Louisiana v. Vincent Simmons – Frame-up in Avoyelles Parish” is the scanty health system in the USA – especially for the poor, of course. The wealthy can afford anything anytime anywhere. At the first sight, the health system has nothing to do with the criminal justice system, but it does – indirectly. Example: contraception. Do American minors (age 14 – 18 or 20) have access to “the pill” for free as those in Germany, for instance? What do desperate underage pregnant girls who cannot afford an abortion or are afraid of telling their parents? Sometimes, claiming they were raped seems to be a way out of the “embarrassing” and difficult situation. However, that is usually where the true nightmare begins for all parties: the alleged rape victim and the falsely accused.

Current District Attorney of Avoyelles Parish (Louisiana) and former state legislator, Charles A. Riddle, speaks up for medicaid expansion and healthcare in this YouTube video of March 21, 2013, uploaded by Louisiana Forward.

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