Regina kelly where is she now

The way our criminal justice system works, their pleas were considered to be binding, in spite of the fact that they were innocent. Regina stayed committed to seeking justice, and sued the district attorney in civil court.

Her civil suit ultimately exposed the virulent racism and callous opportunism that motivated the district attorney, and forced a favorable settlement.

Everyone is racist in this town. The public defenders at the conference were forced to contemplate their roles in a justice system, where someone like Regina can rightfully end up feeling that even her advocates were against her. From the beginning of the case, her public defender advised her to plead guilty, without investigating the case.

She had no representation in family court, where Paschall attempted to have her children taken from her. Her story highlighted the fact that in a plea-based criminal justice system, facts matter less than situations: Her public defender was over-burdened and under-resourced, and the prosecutor had unchecked power, and a federal mandate to make arrests.

We have 50 percent more people in prison than China and they have four times our population. So part of my emotional reaction to Regina's story, frankly, is outrage. But then there's my reaction to the courage and character that Regina showed in risking her freedom to change the criminal justice system for all of us.

I'm incredibly uplifted by her. I'm not interested in celebrities and movie stars; I'm interested in ordinary Americans who find the courage and character to do something extraordinary.

Regina's story inspired me to action and I hope American Violet will inspire others to action. What was it like to be in this small Texas town, in this racially tense environment, where everyone on both sides are ostensibly good churchgoing folks? What was it like to find yourself in the middle of this? Haney: It was fascinating. When I started work on this project I was finishing a film with a priest at the center of it. He was enduring death threats because of his efforts to improve human rights conditions for the poor.

I was flying from that story in the Dominican Republic back and forth to Texas—and oddly enough, I felt more threatened in Texas. In the Dominican, the front page news said the sugar plantation owners wanted to kill the priest. But frankly, the conditions Regina and her community were living under felt much more intimidating because they were better masked as being somehow within the law. As far as their particular, personal religious convictions, I can't speak to those on the police force or the DA.

The particularly repellent behavior on behalf of some, frankly both African-Americans and whites, is very hard to square with my understanding of Judeo-Christian principles.

But that doesn't mean they find it hard. I grew up at a Benedictine monastery, and my experiences with that religious order are still very important to me.

They're at the core of my values of social justice and the need for action on behalf of the least among us. Kelly: The Christian community is totally divided in my town.

It's like our side is our side and their side is their side. Our churches are our churches and their churches are their churches. We never come together in our faith.

But it's like my mom always said, anyone can put on dress clothes and go to church. That doesn't make you a Christian.

Your case was successful, but the DA remains in power in your small town. How is that possible? Kelly: No one will run against him because they're afraid of him, because he has so much power.

It's an elected position, but most people don't vote. Haney: A DA in a small Texas town is a king. In a community like Regina's, that office has great power to control the lives of people. And when you have mandatory sentencing, it's difficult for a judge to even question a decision by the DA. If the DA charges you, it's pretty easy to get an indictment.

So if a DA charges you and then offers you a chance to plea, the pressure to plea is awfully high. And once you've pled, the judge often has no choice in what happens. So the power of the local DA is unbelievable. There isn't an apparent check and balance. And I think the fact that Regina's DA is still in power suggests that the checks and balances in the U.

Regina, I know you recently moved, but what was it like to continue living in your town for so many years after your case? Did you feel intimidated? Kelly: Yes, all the time. She became more accepting of the consequence and even said her good-bys.

People are willing to argue with the fact that she is guilty. They, being her friends say that she was with her. They believe that she would have no notions to kill her husband. Her friends tell the police that she was a chick, not a murderer, she was not capable of murdering anybody. Her family claims that they had contact with her at that time.

Tish was scared, but her Mom understood and tried to understand her situation. This type of love help Tish go through all the stuff she was going through while Fonny was in Prison. Without her Mother i don't think she would of have done. Then Abuela points her finger at me like a judge passing a sentence on a criminal. No, they are with me. But they keep their tongues in leash. When Creon is told something and he choses not to believe it he says the other person is wrong and that they do not know what they are saying, this is just like Antigone.

Obviously Wesley would not understand but Gail is a woman and although she probably has never gone through that she would want somebody to do the same as she did Marie, for her. Yes, Gail keeping her mouth shut would have prevented every single problem presented to the Hayden family, but that would not have been the right thing to. The younger generation officials simply look over her not paying taxes for years.

They never did more than send a request for her to pay. Anyone else with a lower social status who would have committed this serious offence would have simply been made to pay or been sent to jail.

Since the late Colonel Sartoris made the lie and Miss. Emily Grierson continues with it they will not dare accuse them. Rebecca states that being in jail exchange Rebecca she 's 32 years old and does not want to return to jail. Rebecca is trying to get the jail to give Rebecca her bipolar medication. Rebecca feels that if she receives her medication she has a better chance of that relaxing.