Andrew Johnson refused to plead guilty to attempted murder charges, insisting he’d been defending himself during a confrontation in California.
Andrew Johnson, now 33, spent 16 months in solitary confinement after being charged with attempted murder in San Jose, Calif. The cell was smaller than a parking space, bound by three dirty beige concrete walls and a steel door with a narrow slot to push in meals and shackle hands.
Then a nighttime encounter with two strangers in San Jose led to his arrest for attempted murder. Johnson insisted he was defending himself and had done nothing wrong. But at 26, he was sent to solitaryNo one ever explained to Johnson, his parents, William and Angela Johnson, or Johnson’s criminal defense attorney why he was put in isolation, they said.
has mounted about the long-term mental health damage caused by solitary confinement, there has been a “seismic shift” in the willingness of federal and state authorities to reform or eliminate its use in prisons, said David Fathi, director of the American Civil Liberty Union’s National Prison Project, which focuses on defending inmate rights.
While Johnson was being held, he witnessed fellow inmates being beaten by guards and was beaten himself, according to a lawsuit he filed in 2018 alleging his civil rights were violated. From his tiny, barren cell, he listened to the cries of a mentally ill inmate as he was pummeled by three sheriff’s deputies, who were later tried andProsecutors offered Johnson a lesser sentence in exchange for a guilty plea, but he refused to accept a deal.
Johnson, a lean 6-foot-4 with light brown eyes, donned his military-issued head covering, known as a balaclava, to keep his face warm in the chilly night air and then wedged Arriaga’s Glock pistol inside his zipped vest in the event, he said, that he needed to protect himself. Bicente lunged toward Johnson and grabbed his vest. Johnson said he saw the glint of a knife in Alvaro’s hand. Fearing he would be stabbed or pushed into traffic, Johnson testified he reached for the Glock.
After he fired, Johnson testified that he crossed the street and headed back to the apartment complex. In the growing distance, he said he could see two people, one of whom turned out to be an off-duty EMT, stop to aid the men before police arrived. Angela Johnson, a research analyst, had been battling for her son’s well-being and safety since the day he was born. She and William, a product manager, thought they were having a girl up to the moment Andrew emerged. There was shock, joy — and then worry.Andrew was a good kid who did well at school, but was full of rambunctious energy, his mom said.
In 2012, the family got an urgent phone call. Johnson had been working on a vehicle off base when he collapsed from carbon monoxide poisoning. He was rushed to the hospital and put into a coma so doctors could treat him. Even as it is frequently cited by reformers, the 15-day limit has no scientific basis, Rupers said. “I’ve seen people become psychotic or commit suicide after one day.”
But many who spend time in solitary confinement continue to suffer profound psychological damage after their release, often unable to be in close proximity to others without great anxiety, said Craig Haney, a professor of psychology at the University of California at Santa Cruz, who has studied the long-term effects.
In his civil rights lawsuit against Santa Clara County, the city of San Jose and individual police officers and jail guards, Johnson alleges that he was handcuffed and then punched and kicked in his cell and in a private interview room in 2015 by three guards. Bowman changed his mind when it became clear that the prosecution’s case was unraveling. Evidence had gone missing or was easily refuted. The Castro brothers were awful witnesses, struggling to get basic details right about the shooting, the court transcript shows. Alvaro Castro confirmed on the stand that he had a felony robbery conviction, often carried a knife and may have had one that night, and had been shot in the same leg again since the confrontation with Johnson.
Reflecting her faith, she had already purchased a one-way plane ticket for Andrew to return to Virginia with them. She also bought copies ofcivil rights attorney Bryan Stevenson’s account of racial inequity in the criminal justice system, to pass out to the jurors after her son’s acquittal.
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