Friends of Justice

DO JUSTICE. LOVE MERCY. WALK HUMBLY.

Friends of Justice bids gratitude to Board members going off this year: Maida Asofsky, Nancy Barber, Jim Barber, Fred Brookins, Michael J. Carr, Oswin Chrisman, and Bill Julius Wilson.

Friends of Justice welcomes new Board members: Luis Castillo, Rev. Charles Stovall, Liliana Ibarra, and Mark Osler:

Luis Castillo, a program administrator at DFW Airport, is the president of Arlington LULAC and is active in civil rights advocacy in City and School Administration.   A former police officer, Luis has firsthand knowledge of the importance of public scrutiny of officials in safe-guarding due process and accountability. Luis and his wife Rosa, who works for Arlington ISD, have two daughters. Luis brings an emphasis on management for action to our Board.

Rev. Stovall serves as Minister of Justice for St. Luke United Methodist Church in Dallas. Rev Stovall, alongside his wife, Denise Johnson Stovall, a journalist with United Methodist Women, is well known in civil rights circles throughout the country. Pastor Stovall is a former member of the national board of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He served as the Texas State director for SCLC during a campaign to alleviate police brutality in the Lone Star state. The clergyman was also a co-founding member of the United Organizations for Justice which challenged citizens to monitor racial profiling and alleged killings by the police in the black community. He led a team to dialogue with the Dallas Police Department and encouraged the city to change many of its policies and practices. Pastor Stovall is an active member of the Washington-based African American Leadership Council and African American Ministers in Action. Rev. Stovall recently traveled to Mississippi to pursue our intervention in the Curtis Flowers case with Dr. Bean.

Liliana Ibara is a founding member of Friends of Justice who worked at much personal sacrifice to distribute the materials questioning the Tulia Drug Sting and the Rodriguez brothers debacle and to research the appeal for Tulia resident and son of founding Board member, David Johnson. Lili, an attorney and licensed social worker, has recently been working alongside Lydia and Alan Bean to research funding opportunities for Friends of Justice. Liliana, her husband Jeremy Thompson, an urban planner and social activist, and their infant daughter, Iris, live in Boston, MA.

A Yale Law School graduate and former Federal Prosecutor, Mark Osler is Professor of Law at Baylor. His recent book, “Jesus on Death Row” challenges the death penalty based on the experience of Jesus as a criminal defendant.  Osler’s work in Hearne, TX to overturn wrongful convictions is portrayed in the recent movie “American Violet”.  Mark Osler was honored as 2009 Wacoan of the year. Friends of Justice Interns, Edward Cloutman and James Hatchitt were recruited for us by Mark.

Alan Bean: Executive Director, Board President, and Founding member. Since the spring of 2000 Alan Bean has been the Executive Director of Friends of Justice, a criminal justice reform organization that specializes in narrative intervention. Dr. Bean was serving a Methodist church as an interim pastor when 46 people were arrested in Tulia, Texas on the uncorroborated word of a corrupt undercover officer.  Dr. Bean’s articulate public protest transformed him into an advocate for criminal justice reform. 
In 2006, Dr. Bean’s work led to the exoneration of a Louisiana family convicted of running a crack cocaine ring on the perjured testimony of convicted drug dealers.  Dr. Bean researched the story of six juvenile defendants in Jena LA, bringing public scrutiny to Jena and creating the biggest civil rights protest since the March on Washington.  He is now working on a murder case in Mississippi that is about to go to trial for the sixth time.
 In the fall of 2008, Alan’s unique brand of advocacy was featured in Taking on the System: Rules for Radical Change in a Digital Era, a book by Markos Zuniga of the Daily Kos. 
 Alan’s book Taking out the Trash in Tulia, Texas, an insider’s account of the role Friends of Justice played in reversing one of the most egregious injustices in recent American history, is now available in paperback. 
 A resident of Arlington since 2007, Dr. Bean is a member of Arlington Coming Together, a committee established to advise the mayor on issues related to diversity, inclusion and racial justice. 

David Carlton Hughes: Board member since October, 2007. David is a Dallas attorney who handles both criminal and civil cases. A veteran of over 140 jury trials, David graduated from Baylor Law School in 1982 and practiced in Corpus Christi and Austin before moving to Dallas with his family. David’s interest in criminal justice reform flows from his professional and personal experience with the inequities of the legal system.

James Canup: Board member since September, 2008. James Canup is a native Texas dedicated to working for social, economic and environmental justice. James is Director of Development for American Gateways which promotes justice for immigrants and refugees by providing free and low cost legal services and education. Previously James served as Executive Director of Texas League of Conservation Voters and Director of Development for the ACLU Foundation of Texas. 

Lydia Bean: Founding member. While working as a vounteer organizer for Friends of Justice in its Tulia days, Lydia developed a youth leadership training program for children affected by the incarceration of a family member, called Power Corps. Lydia currently spends countless hours assisting her father, Dr. Bean in program strategy as well as developing potential allies and funding for Friends of Justice. Lydia, a professor at Baylor University, recently graduated with a PhD in Sociology at Harvard University, completing her dissertation on religion and public life in Canada and the United States. She is an associate of the think tank advancing progressive ideas and strategy, New Vision, and advises the Christian movement Sojourners. Lydia formally joined the Board in January, 2008.

 Tory Pegram: Board member since October 2007. Tory worked closely with the Jena community to organize, strategize, and protest. At the request of the parents of the Jena 6, Tory founded and coordinated the work of the Jena 6 LaSalle Parish Legal Working Group, a network of over 100 lawyers, law firms, law schools and law students working together to provide support to the defendant’s legal teams and to thoroughly examine evidence of racial injustice built into the school system, criminal justice system, electoral process, and other governmental systems in Jena. Previously with the Louisiana ACLU, Tory now works with the Angola Three Project in New Orleans. 

Thelma Johnson: Founding board member. Thelma Johnson has experienced first-hand the injustice of our justice system, spending time behind bars and watching a son, two nephews, and long-time friend, Joe Moore sent off for long sentences on trumped up charges. Thelma, a retired cook and club owner, is the unofficial “Auntie” of Tulia’s black community. Thelma has traveled extensively with Friends of Justice and has spent long hours counseling many of the young people involved in the Tulia drug sting.

 Ann Colomb: Board member since January, 2007. A housewife and community organizer,  Ann and three of her sons were wrongfully convicted on the uncorroborated testimony of several dozen federal inmates. Following the aggressive intervention of Friends of Justice, Ann and her sons were completely vindicated and released to their families. Already, Ann has worked with Friends of Justice on cases in Jena and Bunkie, Louisiana.

Charles Kiker: Founding Board Member. Dr. Kiker and his wife Patricia had just retired to their home county after 40 years wandering the continent as a Baptist minister and teacher when the Sting came down. Charles has traveled to places like New York, Atlanta and Kansas City and the Texas legislature, telling the Tulia story and speaking out for criminal justice reform. Recently, Charles has developed an interest in alternative energy as a job-creating dynamo for hardscrabble communities like Tulia, Texas. Charles currently serves as President of Amarillo ACLU and on the state board of the Texas ACLU.

Nancy Bean: Founding Board member. Nancy was a teacher at Tulia High School when Friends of Justice began its work and experienced daily the devastation the “criminalization of poverty” wreaks on young people. The Bean family had just moved to Nancy’s hometown of Tulia to expose their three children to extended family community and the diversity of small town life when they began to smell something rotten. Nancy now works as a Counselor with Arlington Schools. Nancy heads up our camping program for children with incarcerated family members and has traveled widely representing Friends of Justice.

Community Advisors and Founders:  

Irene Favila: LULAC Liaison. Irene Favila is Deputy District Director for Region 1 with the League of United Latin American Citizens and was a member of the Plainview, TX City Council until her recent move to Hereford, TX. She has worked as a civil rights advocate for many years and has cooperated with Friends of Justice since we first made a presentation to LULAC in January of 2000. Irene was directly responsible for the coverage in the Los Angeles Times in the fall of 2000. Recently, Irene spearheaded a successful fight for Latino voting rights in Plainview, Texas. Irene has retired from our Board but continues to be a valued advisor and advocate. 

Caseptla Bailey: Caseptla was instrumental in bringing Friends of Justice attention and action to Jena in December, 2006. Currently Director of Organizing in the Trenches, the resulting grassroots organization in Jena. 

Denise Atkins: Denise initiated contact with Friends of Justice in February 2007, introducing Dr. Bean to the community members in the wake of a series of drug sweeps affecting the black community in Bunkie, LA.  

Larry Bazille: A Dallas real-estate agent who became involved in the fight for justice in Bunkie after his brother, Larry, was arrested in a warrantless search and charged with drug-trafficking without any evidence. 

Freddie Brookins Sr.: Founding member. Freddie Brookins, a longtime advocate for fairness and empowerment in Tulia’s black community, is President of the Tulia NAACP Branch. His son, Freddie, Jr. was sentenced to 20 years when he refused to plea bargain the truth. Freddie, a meatpacking supervisor, has made frequent trips on behalf of Friends of Justice, telling his story in places like New York, Washington DC, Houston and Austin. 

 Former Board Members and Prominent Supporters: 

Sociologist: Dr. William Julius Wilson of Cambridge; ACLU Attorney: Maida Asofsky of Houston; Retired Judge: Honorable Oswin Chrisman of Dallas; Retired Trial Attorney: Jim Barber; Retired Manager: Nancy Barber; …more to come…