Verbal assault and physical battery seem to be enough to have someone arrested and given prison time, correct? Well, for seven African- American lesbian females, they are enough to be convicted of self defense. While walking in the West Village, a historic central area and safe haven for the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bi sexual, and transgendered/transsexual) community, especially youth, seven young lesbian females, Patreese Johnson, Renata Hill, Venice Brown, Terrain Dandridge, Chenese Loyal, Lania Daniels, and Khamysha Coates, were approached by an African- American male DVD salesman who made a sexual proposition to one of the ladies. They declined and continued walking; in rage of the ladies being lesbians, he followed them making anti-lesbian remarks including “I’ll f*** you straight, sweetheart!”, he grabbed at his genitals, and continuously berated them about their sexuality. The ladies became fed up with the verbal attack and confronted him. In the midst of the heated argument the male, Dwayne Buckle, spat in one of their faces and threw his lit cigarette in their faces, thus, escalating the verbal altercation into a physical one. He grabbed at them, pulled out large patches of hair from one of the girls, and when he ended on top of one of the girls, he proceeded to choke her. One of the ladies, when defending her friend, grabbed her small dollar store steak knife and aimed for Buckle’s arm to keep him from killing her friend. Then, two men came over to help the ladies remove Buckle from being on top of one of the girls and while that was happening, Buckle was stabbed and ended up with a lacerated liver and stomach. Buckled was hospitalized for five days, and told those who asked him, that he was attacked by men.
All of this was caught on tape by a video camera from a nearby store; there was no blood visible on the kitchen knife, no evidence showing that the kitchen knife, belonging to Patreese Johnson, was the weapon used, no forensic testing done to the knife, and no search for the two men, who more than likely were the ones that stabbed Buckle. However, all seven of the ladies were arrested for Buckle’s stabbing, and after a year of trial, in June 2007, four out of the seven ladies were convicted and sentenced 3 ½ to 11 years in prison for attempted murder by a jury of all white women and one black male, and a biased judge and DA, when it was really self defense. What about the other three? They took pleas and only served a few months if prison; they are now out of prison, but they now have shattered lives. Their friends are still in prison for a crime they did not commit, they are unable to get jobs due to pleading guilty to a crime they did not commit. Their lives have been turned upside down, but at least they no longer have to sit in a jail cell.
Unfortunately, there is nothing more we can do for the three ladies that are now free, but Patreese Johnson, Renata Hill, Venice Brown, and Terrain Dandridge are still in prison, waiting and hoping that we will act do get something done so that they can get out, and be freed of the punishment for self defense.
Here is a banner created to support them and spread the word, when clicked on one will be redirected to the online petition. Please add it to your online networking pages and spread the word. If the code does not show up here, you can go to my page www.myspace.com/SolitairetheONEandOnly and copy the code and add it to your page. Thank you all for your support!!
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..It is I.. Solitaire...