A Paper and Portal of Reformed Social Action

 

Issue 0701

 

From Loving to Sing to Loving a Convicted Felon?

 

How does one go from doing good works to "doing justice?"

How did one man go from loving to sing to loving a convicted felon named Maurice Carter?

Doug Tjapkes, a member of Ferrysburg Community CRC in Michigan, loves music. The church organ salesman directed a choir called His Men Chorus for twenty‑one years. His Men most often sang in penitentiaries for the inmates, and it was through these visits that Tjapkes became interested in the stories of some of the men serving time.

 

Tjapkes heard about Maurice Carter, a man who was convicted twenty-five years ago for assault with the intent to kill. In 1973, a man opened fire on an off-duty police officer in a Benton Harbor wig and record shop. The officer was shot six times in front of his wife and twelve other eyewitnesses. Two years later, Carter stood trial for the shooting, was convicted, and has been in jail ever since. The strange thing is, the evidence overwhelmingly shows that Carter had nothing to do with the crime.

What happened? The details of the case are disturbing. Carter was arrested two years after the crime on the testimony of an acquaintance, a habitual drug offender who, in return for a dismissal of the harsh drug charges against him, gave testimony against Carter. Though the acquaintance recanted his testimony during the trial saying that he fabricated the story to avoid his own charges, the trial went on. There was no physical evidence linking Carter to the crime, nor was there any apparent motive.

"His trial was a mockery end a farce," said Tjapkes, who met Carter after hearing his story. The jury, all white, was not informed of the weaknesses and discrepancies in the testimony of various eyewitnesses. One witness who testified that Carter looked like the gunman had initially stated that he did not see the gunman at all. Another witness who testified against Carter (who had initially stated she saw only a "shadow of a black man") was employed by the prosecutor's office at the time. The store clerk, a black woman, who had actually waited on the gunman for several minutes before the shooting, has stated for the past twenty‑five years that Carter was definitely not the gunman. The gunman shot with his left hand, while Carter is right‑handed. And the list does not stop there.

What started for Doug Tjapkes as a ministry of singing soon turned into an interest in the lives of the incarcerated, which then turned into a specific ministry of action and justice for a man Tjapkes believed was wrongly accused.

"Maurice was so nice that I agreed to see him once in a while and write him once in a while. Nothing more," said Tjapkes. "Then God stepped in, and the doors that opened were incredible."

The University of Wisconsin Innocence Project, Rubin Hurricane Carter and his Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted based in Toronto, the Middle School of Journalism, and Northwestern Law School's Center on Wrongful Convictions have all taken on Maurice Carter's cause, working to free him.

Tjapkes became the Executive Secretary of the Citizens Committee for the Release of Maurice Carter. "I'm not going to be satisfied until he gets out," said Tjapkes. Carter has one appeal left.

There is not a very great gulf between loving to sing and loving justice. In fact, it's a natural progression. It's a simple gift of grace that gets people like Doug Tjapkes to notice who's in their path, to sense the wrong, and to put some effort into making it right.

Maurice Carter is only one man. One twenty‑five year "mistake" in a system that may have almost 200,000 innocent people locked away. What's the next natural progression?

To learn more about Maurice Carter's case or to join the effort please visit Free Maurice Carter or contact Doug Tjapkes at  Consider this for a social justice project for your church, and keep Maurice Carter and those working on his case in your prayers.

 

Sources: The Banner, October 2, 2000

                 The Muskegon Chronicle, May 4, 2001

                 http://FreeMauriceCarter.com