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Mary McBride Mary McBride is in FMC Carswell, Fort Worth, Texas. No news is available about her health or how she is tolerating her sentence of life imprisonment. Her mother writes (March 2002) from Greenville, MS: My name is Lessie Gray, I am writing about my concerns for my daughter Mary McBride. I have much heart felt problems that has caused me to be glad to write this letter. I have not seen my daughter in so many years and this has placed a lot of pain and agony on me. I know that people look at inmates and say that they got what they deserve, but what about their families what do they get out of this. They get nothing but lost time and no memories. I have been in and out of hospital without my daughter being able to see about me and hold my hand just to tell me that everything will be all right. She has had a lot to deal with. She hasn't been able to see any of her children daily or grandchildren. You can't imagine how hard it is to be away from your children or to be able to visit anybody. I just want you to know that if there is anything that can be done then if you can please help my child. I not only have a daughter in prison, but 2 grandchildren as well. One is located in the federal prison in Yazoo, the other one is in Louisiana. If there is any way possible something can be done to help any of them I will love it if you can inform me. I will love to see them before anything happens to me. Thank you just for the interest you had even if nothing can be done. May God bless you and your family. Lessie Gray
Dear Lessie Gray, We too grieve for your daughter Mary McBride, unjustly sentenced to life imprisonment for "conspiracy" and "being in the wrong place at the wrong time." A glance at her picture in "The Tallahassee Project" (page 54) shows that Mary McBride is not a malicious psychopath whose imprisonment for life might do society some good; on the contrary, she is a gentle soul who means society no harm, and belongs at home with her family. The sentencing of Mary McBride to imprisonment for life is a stain on the justice system of the United States. It shows up the degraded ethics of the War on Drugs. The people of the United States do not understand
the implications of sentencing Mary McBride to prison for the rest
of her life because they are unaware of the systematic misuse of justice
in the United States. Such a thing can happen in the United States
of America? Impossible, most people will protest. In Soviet Russia
perhaps, not in the United States. Denial is a frequent reaction when
people are told that the country we are talking about is the United
States and not Soviet Russia, which is in any case passé. Given
that this happens, and moreover that the case of Mary McBride is typical
of many in the climate of today's War on Drugs, something is clearly
wrong. Most people think the United States is not supposed to be this
sort of place.
The wrong done to Mary McBride is a wrong done to all people in America.
Injustice to one is injustice to all - is this not the rule we judge
things by? Then why do the people of America tolerate this misuse
of justice? What accounts for the denial?
The answer to that question is uncertain. One thing is certain, though.
It rests with us to tell the people of America about the injustice
done to Mary McBride. It is up to us because we have the evidence.
If we do not pass on the information, it is certain that no one else
will. The people of America will remain ignorant of the corruption
of the justice system in our country. The end will be the disappearance
of democracy. It happened in the Soviet Russia, why not here?
The sentencing of Mary McBride to prison for the rest of her life is
a crime for which the justice system of the United States bears responsibility.
The justice system has allowed itself to be corrupted by commitment
to a War on Drugs which is indifferent to and even alien to justice.
The relation of the War on Drugs to the system of justice in the United
States is that of master to slave. The justice system knuckled under
to pressure that it conform to the requirements of the War on Drugs.
In doing so it gave up a commitment to the rule of justice.
A country which lets its justice system decline to the point where it no longer shields the people against assault by an oppressive government - the Constitution was drawn up by men who foresaw the possibility and did what they thought necessary to forestall it - is a country not worth working to preserve. A pervading sense of worthlessness will lead to its destruction. So there is a connection between the injustice done to Mary McBride and the continued existence of the United States. People should think about this. This is as far as an answer to your letter can go. You ask what can be done to help. It starts with telling everybody, everybody we know, about the wrong done to Mary McBride, and it ends with telling everybody about the wrong done to the United States. It is worth repeating that if we do not help the people of America to enlarge their understanding of the War on Drugs and the state to which it has reduced the justice system of this country, no one will do this for us. Only the people of America have the will to remedy injustice, but they need evidence of injustice in order to act. Presenting the evidence to the people of America is thus a patriotic duty.
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