A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Tomorrow marks 10 years since Michael Brown was shot and killed by a police officer in Ferguson, Mo. Brown was 18 years old and Black. The officer was white. Brown's killing sparked protests, and amplified the Black Lives Matter movement. As NPR's Kristin Wright reports, Brown's mother is not giving up her fight for justice.
KRISTIN WRIGHT, BYLINE: In testimony to a human rights commission last month, Michael Brown's mother, Lezley McSpadden, spoke of the pain of losing a child.
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LEZLEY MCSPADDEN: He was just beginning his life, so that was his first, you know, free summer to be a kid before he branched over into being a man, but he was robbed of that.
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UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: (Shouting) What's his name?
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting) Mike Brown.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: (Shouting) What's his name?
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting) Mike Brown.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: (Shouting) What's his name?
WRIGHT: McSpadden filed a claim against the U.S. government with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. She alleges the government violated her son's right to life, their right to equality before the law and the right to a fair trial. Brown's killing is a rare case brought by an individual to the IACHR. It heard arguments at a virtual hearing. Commissioner Gloria de Mees focuses on the rights of persons of African descent.
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GLORIA DE MEES: The commission has used its mandate to monitor and promote human rights in the Americas, to highlight systemic racism in the U.S. criminal system.
WRIGHT: McSpadden is asking the commission to urge the Justice Department to appoint a special prosecutor to carry out an independent investigation and bring charges in her son's death.
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MCSPADDEN: Primarily, I lost hope in the justice system.
WRIGHT: McSpadden declined to be interviewed through her attorney, Justin Hansford. He characterized her fight for justice this way to the commission.
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JUSTIN HANSFORD: The state failed Ms. Lezley McSpadden time and time again, each failure more gut-wrenching than the last.
WRIGHT: In 2014, a grand jury decided not to indict former officer Darren Wilson. Months later, the Justice Department also cleared Wilson. In 2020, St. Louis County's first Black prosecuting attorney reopened the case and also declined to charge Wilson. McSpadden's petition claims the investigations were flawed and based on racial bias.
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MCSPADDEN: Make Mike the aggressor. Make Mike's size and his color and his community the reason why Darren Wilson decided to kill Mike that day.
WRIGHT: At the hearing, the Justice Department defended its investigation into Brown's death. Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general for civil rights, described the review as careful and exhaustive.
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KRISTEN CLARKE: I know that it may be little consolation to the petitioners and others in the family, but I do want to pledge that where there is evidence that supports us doing so, we will continue to pursue charges and convictions against officers who criminally abuse their authority and violate people's civil rights in our country.
WRIGHT: Clarke highlighted recent federal civil rights convictions of law enforcement officers, including in the murder of George Floyd, and she explained DOJ is still enforcing a consent decree or agreement with the Ferguson Police Department to end racist policing and unreasonable use of force in the city.
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CLARKE: There still is much work left to be done to eradicate racially discriminatory and unconstitutional policing in America.
WRIGHT: The IACHR will release a report and make recommendations to the government in the coming months, but it has no authority to enforce them. The commission declined to comment to NPR. Former assistant secretary of the commission, Ariel Dulitzky, says if the U.S. fails to take recommendations seriously, Washington could risk losing credibility on human rights in the international community and lose standing to call for other countries to protect the human rights of their citizens. Dulitzky adds the commission's decision to hear the case brings international involvement.
ARIEL DULITZKY: And now it's not just the family saying, my right to justice was violated, but the U.S. has to justify its actions in front of this impartial body.
WRIGHT: Brown's mother is also asking the IACHR to demand public apologies from the federal government and Darren Wilson 10 years later.
Kristin Wright, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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