Fifty-six-year-old Felicity Huffman, a rich, white actress, was charged on March 12, 2019, with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services fraud and arrested at her luxury home in a wealthy Los Angeles suburb but not jailed.
- Sixteen-year-old Kalief Browder, a poor black teen, was charged on May 15, 2010, with robbery, grand larceny, and assault and arrested on a street in the Bronx and was immediately jailed. The crime? Browder was accused of allegedly stealing a backpack.
Huffman hired high-priced criminal defense lawyer Martin Murphy of Foley Hoag, a well-known Boston law firm. Huffman appeared on March 13, 2019, in Los Angeles Federal Court, where her attorneys successfully argued for her immediate release after she handily posted a $250,000 cash bail bond.
- Browder couldn’t afford an attorney, so he sat in a cell in a New York City jail until the next day when he appeared before a judge in arraignment court. Bail was set at $3,000, but Browder and his family were unable to come up with the $450 he would need to pay a bail bondsman.
On March 13, 2019, Felicity Huffman was driven from federal court to her opulent home where for the next six months; she freely relaxed with family and friends. On April 8, Huffman took her attorney’s advice to plead guilty, hoping to get a shorter sentence.
- On May 16, 2010, Kalief Browder, who consistently proclaimed his innocence, was transported to New York’s infamous Rikers Island penal facility where he would be locked up for three years and would be assaulted, beaten, threatened, and placed in solitary confinement for nearly two years.
On September 13, 2019, after having jetted from Los Angles to Boston with William Macy, her wealthy actor husband, Felicity Huffman was sentenced by the honorable Judge Indira Talwani to 14 days in jail, plus a $30,000 fine, and 250 hours of community service. Judge Talwani allowed Huffman to stay comfortably at home until October 25, 2019.
- On March 13, 2013, Browder stood before the honorable Judge Patricia DiMango who offered to release him if he would plead guilty, but since he was innocent of the charges, he refused. Judge DiMango ordered Browder to be returned to a cell on Rikers Island.
Even though Huffman will likely serve fewer than 14 days, on September 13, 2019, Attorney Martin Murphy asked Judge Talwani to send Huffman to a minimum-security prison in Dublin, California, known as one of the cushiest institutions in the country.
- On May 29, 2013, after serving two and a half more months behind bars in arguably one of the worst prisons in America, Judge DiMango released Browder after the prosecution announced that it agreed that he was innocent and intended to drop all charges.
Huffman will serve a couple of weeks or less in a campus-like setting where she will probably sleep in a dormitory and play board and card games and maybe even work out in a gym or weight room for a crime she did commit.
- Browder was locked-up for three years in a quagmire of misery and violence, including two years in solitary confinement for a crime he didn’t commit.
One wonders . . . what if Kalief Browder had been born Felicity Huffman?
Huh?