A life sentence in prison for Daphne Wright

I wrote about the Wright murder trial here and here, but I'm going to defer to the Deaf bloggers that have been covering this case so closely.

Ricky Taylor at RIDORLive:

Few days ago, the jury has decided to turn the cheek and grant the life sentence to Daphne Wright who murdered Darlene VanderGiesen.

I applaud the jury’s decision. After all, we failed Daphne and Darlene both when the NCSD did not intervene when Daphne was having problems back then. We left the problems unchecked for years until Daphne killed someone else.

Mishka Zena on the defense's experts:

My biggest question is why hasn’t any of the lawyers use Deaf experts? We have Deaf psychologists, Deaf educators, and Deaf linguists. They live in the Deaf Community 24/7 and use ASL everyday. Of all the people, only they are the best to know how Daphne ticks. After all, they all are Deaf, something no hearing expert will ever understand. This should be obvious to anybody. Do the hearing people underestimate the intelligence of educated Deaf professionals? Audism?

Or is it the lack of access to these Deaf professional people? Are the Deaf professionals too ‘invisible’ to the hearing people? Any ideas?

Deaf in the City's Joseph Rainmound on the isolation and dangers waiting for Deaf people in jail:

The Alternative Solutions Center talks about this same issue:

As deserving of their punishment that some Deaf criminals might be, none of them deserve the cruel and unusual punishment of inaccessible communication during their prison time. Even with the ADA and constitutional guarantees, too many Deaf prisoners have their rights violated every day. They are denied access to certified sign language interpreters for court hearings, disciplinary meetings, and educational classes. Deaf prisoners have been punished unfairly for not following guards� orders because the guards did not know they were Deaf or were unable to communicate with them. Many prisons lack flashing light systems, TTYs, videophones, and captioned televisions. Deaf prisoners also face dangers of physical abuse and isolation.

It's more than just that though: they lack regular and consistent access to any of the rehabilitation facilities afforded to normal prisoners. Unless jails suddenly start having ASL interpreters available - or require all their prison staff to learn ASL - Deaf prisoners probably won't get the same kind of rehabilitation and preparation-for-release training that prisoners who can hear can access. This demands a bit of pity for the prisoner, but also worry - is this person ready to be released to our community?

Oh, yes, legally the jail is required to provide such access. But debates about what access is necessary - debates about whether the cost places undue burden on the jail - and of course the never-ending obsession some hearing people have with saying "Those Deafies just want everything and never stop complaining!" - are sometimes insurmountable obstacles. But it's not just for the benefit of the prisoner - it's also for the benefit of the communities to which that prisoner is going to be released. Deaf Civilians have a responsibility to make sure that access happens in prisons, because the prisoners are eventually going to be released to the Deaf community.

And the trial's liveblogging for the Argus Leader of South Dakota continues, though at a slower pace now that the verdict is in.