From Defenseless To Defenders: How One Global Nonprofit Is Equipping Thousands Wrongfully Imprisoned In Africa To Represent Themselves And Receive Fair Trials

Even with the top-notch justice system we have here in the United States, false convictions have still been part of our nation’s history. One measure in particular that assists in ensuring citizens’ constitutional rights are properly honored is found within our Sixth Amendment, which guarantees an American citizen’s right to an attorney, regardless of their ability to afford one.

In countries lacking proper checks and balances and where government accountability is low, false convictions are exponentially higher, and the imprisoned can sit in their cells for years before even having their case heard. African countries are particularly heinous offenders when it comes to processing it’s citizens in an expedient and upright manner, and legal representation to ensure the law is not being abused is only obtainable to those who are able to pay.

CBS reports that in Kenya alone, 80% of those who are imprisoned have never been represented by an attorney. But one nonprofit is fighting back hard at this injustice, and is going a step further than merely offering pro-bono legal aid.

In a 60 Minutes segment, Anderson Cooper introduced an organization called ‘Justice Defenders,’ a group dedicated to training prisoners in countries such as Kenya and Uganda in law so they can represent themselves and others as paralegals and attorneys.  Founded in 2007 by Alexander Mclean, the organization was originally called the ‘African Prisons Project, and is comprised  of lawyers,  judges, prisoners, and more who work together to expand access to justice in defenseless communities.

According to their website, Justice Defenders has accomplished the following to date:

• 341 auxiliary paralegals running legal practices at prisons in Kenya and Uganda
• 30,903 imprisoned clients without access to justice, served with free legal advice
• 68 prisoners & prison officers in the University of London law degree program
• 102,000 attendances by defenseless people at legal awareness sessions

In the segment, Cooper speaks with a former prisoner about his experience with Justice Defenders and how his life was impacted by the organization.

Former police officer Morris Kaberia was arrested in 2005 for stealing a cell phone and credit card, an accusation Kaberia insists he was innocent of and charged with because he refused to pay a bribe to a superior officer. Spending 8 years in pre-trial detention, Morris was eventually convicted of his crime and sentenced to death.

That’s when Kaberia was introduced to Justice Defenders. Enrolling in their law classes offered in the prison, Morris was introduced to his very first computer and set to studying the law with the purpose of appealing his death penalty sentence. Five years later, after 13 years in prison, Morris went before the judge and argued his appeal himself.

Astonishingly, the judge acquitted Mr. Kaberia of all charges against him, and he was released after more than a decade imprisoned for a crime he never committed.

With his new-found freedom, Morris Kaberia decided to dedicate his life to helping others who were like him, and now works as a full-time employee of Justice Defenders.

But it’s not just the innocent who Justice Defenders are interested in helping.  Their core belief is that positive societal changes occur only when all citizens are treated fairly and equally.

“…our hope with our work is that we give people fair hearings– So even if they’re convicted or they’re given a prison sentence, afterwards they say, “Well, that’s fair– because– my voice has been heard,” says Alexander McLean.

Under the Justice Defenders’ leadership and initiative, and in cooperation with inmate-students of the program, the constitutionality of Kenya’s mandatory death sentence was challenged and subsequently changed. As a result, thousands of inmates who had been sentenced to death became eligible for appeal and re-sentencing.

Summing up the importance of the work done by Justice Defenders, Morris Kaberia states “You know, there is one thing we do. We make assumptions as people, as a society. And we– dig our graves through those assumptions. Law is not for lawyers. Law is not for the government. Law is not for some people somewhere or the rich. Law is for everyone.”

Watch a short clip on the 60 Minutes segment below:

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