Friends of Justice

DO JUSTICE. LOVE MERCY. WALK HUMBLY.

Alan Bean: Executive Director 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 is currently putting the finishing touches to 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. 
 
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.

Friends of Justice Board

David Carlton Hughes: Board Chair and 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.

William Julius Wilson: Board member since May 2008.  A leading sociologist, Wilson is the Lewis P. and Linda L. Geyser University Professor at Harvard University.  Bill Wilson is the author of numerous publications about race and inequality, including “The Truly Disadvantaged”, “When Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban Poor,” and “The Bridge Over the Racial Divide: Rising Inequality and Coalition Politics.”  A MacArthur Prize Fellow from 1987 to 1992, Wilson is also the recipient of the 1998 Medal of Science, the highest scientific honor in the United States.  In June 1996 he was selected by Time magazine as one of America’s 25 Most Influential People.

Oswin Chrisman: Board member since September, 2008. Os is a Retired District Judge living in Dallas and with a faith commitment to righteous justice.

Nancy Barber: Board  member and Treasurer since September, 2008. Recently retired Accounts Manager for Barber Law Practice.

Jim Barber: Board member since September, 2008. Jim Barber is a semi-retired civil rights and personal injury trial lawyer from Dallas with over forty years of experience, who is winding down his practice after extensive involvement in the seventies and eighties in civil rights litigation; and later in medical negligence and pharmaceutical liability litigation. He is a past president of the Dallas Trial Lawyers Association in 1981, and former board member of Texas Trial Lawyers Association from 1975 to 1991, and is certified as a personal injury trial lawyer by the Texas Board of Legal Specialialization and the American Board of Trial Advocacy. He has been recognized by Texas Monthly as a “superlawyer” for the past four years, 2005-2008, and is a life member of the Dallas and Texas Bar Foundations.

James Canup: Board member since September, 2008. James Canup is a native Texas dedicated to working for social, economic and environmental justice. He works as executive director of Texas League of Conservation Voters. Prior to 2008, James was director of development for the ACLU Foundation of Texas. 

Director of Texas League of Conservation Voters and former Staff of ACLU of Texas.

Lydia Bean: Strategy and Development and Founding member. While working as a vounteer organizer for Friends of Justice, she 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 is finishing a PhD in Sociology at Harvard University, writing 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, advises the Christian movement Sojourners, and is involved in Christian social justice organizing in the Boston area. 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.

J. Michael Carr: Board member since October 2007. J. Michael Carr, Jr. is a social entrepeneur with an extensive backgound in management. A native of Chicago, J. Michael grew up on the city’s South Side. As a cancer survivor who believes in the power of positive thinking, Mr. Carr established Fathers for the Future, a foundation aimed at assisting young fathers with economic and workforce development. An accomplished musician, J. Michael possesses a thorough knowledge of the histoy of jazz and hip hop.

Rafiki Cai: Board member since October 2007. Rafiki Cai is an expert in internet technology who became interested in criminal justice reform in response to a string of murders in Atlanta during the mid-1980s. a resident of Palmdale, CA who grew in in Chicago, Rafiki is the founder of Digital Freedom Institute, has worked as consultant for Tavis Smiley, Jesse Jackson and the National Black United Fund and describes himself as a “visionary technologist and consultant, dedicated to the empowermen of people and communities, through the creative leveraging of technology, financial literacy and regenerative economics.”

Thelma Johnson: Founding board member and past President/Chair. 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.

Donna Nassor: Board member since January, 2007. A practicing attorney from Hackensack New Jersey, Donna also serves as Vice President of an electrical company and an adjunct professor at New Jersey City University. Donna has long been associated with peace and justice work and met Friends of Justice board members Freddie Brookins Jr., Thelma Johnson, and Alan and Nancy Bean at a Fellowship of Reconciliation conference in Los Angeles in 2004. A few months later, she showed Freddie Brookins Jr. and Alan Bean around the Big Apple. Donna is currently a Ph.D. candidate in psychology with a concentration in social transformation.

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.

Maida Asofsky: Board member since 2004, Maida has served as the Houston Regional Director of the ACLU of Texas. After graduating from law school in 1979, Ms. Asofsky worked as a trial attorney in the New York State Attorney General’s office (1979-1990), in the City of Houston Department of Law (1990-1992) and in a private law practice (1992-2004). Apart from her work with the ACLU, Maida is also actively involved in the American Jewish Committee, the Jewish Family Service, and the Jewish Community Center.

Charles Kiker: Founding Board Member and past Treasurer. 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 and Secretary. 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.

Freddie Brookins Sr.: Founding Board Member and NAACP Liaison. 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.

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.