Before Kalief Browder, Michael Lewis found himself denied justice by the criminal justice system.
In 1997, Michael Lewis was convicted of murder and sentenced to life. Decades later, the impact of his imprisonment still exists.
Wise people have made powerful statements about how we reflect on our mistakes only after we have committed them. We take for granted how caught up we can be in the times. In the 1990s, violence was rising due to crack, and many politicians saw this as a chance to advance. President Bill Clinton’s 1994 Crime Bill fought crime with mass incarceration. Although we give him grief for it, black people too conformed to the ideas of our kids being super-predators. Politicians and authors alike embraced the idea of black males being inherently violent. Names like Robert “Yummy” Sandifer became embedded in our psyches to justify the need for more jails and police. Most major cities opted to imprison people rather than rehabilitating them.
Violence was at an all-time high. In the 90s, Atlanta was third in the nation for violent crime, falling behind Miami and New Orleans. Atlanta undertook a major renovation project and in 1996 hosted the Olympics. The following year Michael Lewis’ case rocked the city, drawing national attention because of the crime. Atlanta couldn’t afford to have its international image ruined. The cry for order affected everyone including many black professionals and politicians who ran on a tough-on-crime agenda.
Paul Howard, the first black district attorney in the state of Georgia, solidified his image when he led the charge against Michael Lewis, also known as Little B. In 1997, Little B, a thirteen-year-old orphan who grew up in Vine City in Atlanta, was charged with murder. His age, stature, and personal circumstances generated national attention as he became the system’s first victim. A newly passed state law, Senate Bill 440, allowed youth to be tried as adults. Lewis’s life sentence at thirteen invoked memories of George Stinney, the youngest person executed in U.S. history, but over time has become a distant memory. The only major work we have that describes this ordeal comes from former Black Panther leader and activist, Elaine Brown. Her book, The Condemnation of Little B…
