Press release from Just Us:
Just Us, a Black-led community group of leaders unsatisfied with the Restorative Justice program mandated for former Asheville Police officer Christopher Hickman was joined in filing an Amicus brief with the Court. Fifteen additional Asheville organizations want to ensure that Buncombe County District Attorney Todd Williams requires Hickman to meaningly fulfill the community service portion of his guilty plea agreement. “We are still fighting to make sure that the voices of the communities most directly impacted by this case are heard,” says Bob Smith who co-convened the group last September. “We have been joined by the Asheville Friends Meeting, Baptist Minister’s Union, Beloved Asheville, Christians for a United Community, Coming to the Table-Asheville Chapter, Elders Fierce for Racial Justice, Faith 4 Justice Asheville, Faith Tabernacle Christian Center, Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance, Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church, NAACP, Racial Justice Coalition, Residents Council, UMOJA, and YWCA-Asheville.”
Hickman, who brutally beat and strangled Johnnie Rush August 24, 2017, was convicted August 9, 2019. He was then sentenced to one year of supervised probation and participation in a Restorative Justice program designed by Jon Powell. As stated in the sentencing hearing transcript, Powell committed “to bring in voices from the community that have been affected… [and] to have conversations with parts of this community that have been affected…[to] craft solutions that we think are aimed at trying to help with that community harm.” The kind of community engagement that the program’s description prescribes has not happened. Instead, Powell facilitated an experience for Hickman in West Asheville’s Peace Garden without reaching out to additional Black communities for ideas, namely the former Lee Walker Heights where the assault occurred.
Just Us is asking for the Restorative Justice program to be extended so that it can involve substantive engagement with impacted communities. Elizabeth White, co-founder of Just Us, explains, “COVID-19 has been used as an excuse for Jon Powell to not engage the community, but we have been connecting him to multiple community members across Asheville since last year. All we ask is that time be given to make this Restorative Justice process real for Black citizens here.”
The hearing to determine if Hickman has met the terms and conditions of his probation has not yet been scheduled but is expected to convene before the end of October. The Amicus
Brief specifically requests that at this hearing the process of Restorative Justice be extended so that there is an opportunity for community harm to be addressed.
Just Us, a Black-led community group, files amicus brief in Christopher Hickman case by Laura Hackett on Scribd
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