It’s our carceral system that sent an innocent man to prison
Photo: Ted Soqui/Corbis via Getty Images In May 1981, a young white woman in Syracuse, New York, is attacked by a man on the street and raped in the glass-littered tunnel near her campus. In 1992, the story of her assault and what follows becomes a best-selling memoir hailed for its bravery in resolution. Reading Alice Sebold’s Lucky for the first time yesterday, I found myself sick to my stomach with the images of her prose.
In a lineup, Broadwater stares blindly through a two-way mirror at an 18-year-old Sebold. He stands among four other Black men of similar complexion, of varying features but all of the same height, men who could be mistaken for cousins if seen together in a casual setting, but from behind this mirror, they are considered criminals, and Sebold’s one job in this moment is to identify the right one. But she picks a man out of the lineup who is not Broadwater.
Sebold’s complicity in perpetuating racial stereotypes, and thus racist harm, is obvious. But her bias isn’t evidence, and it wasn’t supposed to be permissible as evidence in an objective court of law. Yet, of course, by design, it was. Her unconscious bias is an ugly example of the way bias is often weaponized toward structural ends — but Sebold is not responsible for the robbery of Broadwater’s life. Her racism wasn’t supposed to matter to the court.
There are two victims in this situation and only one criminal: the carceral justice system. Anthony Broadwater’s life matters. The time he lost, the grueling sacrifice of his dignity and pride, the unbelievable resilience of his innocence — all of it matters. And while Sebold certainly owes him every apology she can muster, it’s the State of New York and the system at large that owes him every penny in the bank.
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