| | | | | | | | Isabelle Armand
Levon Brooks and Kennedy Brewer, March 2015
Digital Pigment Print
Sheet: 38 x 43,7 cm / Image: 22,9 x 28 cm
© Isabelle Armand | | | | | | Levon and Kennedy: Mississippi Innocence Project | | | | 26 October - 30 November 2019 | | | | Opening: Friday, 25 October, 6pm | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Isabelle Armand
Train Tracks in Artesia, June 2014
Digital Pigment Print
Sheet: 38 x 43,7 cm / Image: 22,9 x 28,6 cm | | | | | | Gallery Julian Sander is pleased to present photographs by Isabelle Armand: With the “Mississippi Innocence Project”, for which a photo book of the same name has been published, she accompanies two Americans from the Mississippi Delta after their release from decades of imprisonment.
In the early 1990s, Levon Brooks and Kennedy Brewer, living in small communities in rural Mississippi, were sentenced for the murder and rape of two little girls from their communities in separate trials. However, both men were innocent. Levon Brooks was sentenced to life imprisonment even though he had an alibi. A few years later Kennedy Brewer was sentenced to death. He was imprisoned for 15 years. In 2008, the New York Innocence Project, which investigates legal cases, exonerated both men. | | | | | | | | | Isabelle Armand
Precious, Levon's niece with her children Jordan and Aya, June 2014
Digital Pigment Print
Sheet: 38 x 43,7 cm / Image: 22,9 x 28,6 cm | | | | | | After intense re-investigations, it was possible to establish a connection between the two cases, which had taken place exactly according to the same pattern. Subsequent DNA tests revealed the actual perpetrator.
The main evidence that led to the conviction of Levon and Kennedy consisted of bite marks on the victims. A prosecutor testified in court that the traces were consistent with the defendants’ dental impressions. A group of experts commissioned by the Innocence Project later found that the wounds were not biting marks. As a forensic discipline, the principle of using bite marks as a piece of evidence has been criticized heavily in the US recently. Through subsequent investigations, numerous other unjustly imprisoned prisoners could be exonerated. | | | | | | | | | Isabelle Armand
The creek in Brooksville, where the body of the second victim was found. July 2017
Digital Pigment Print
Sheet: 38 x 43,7 cm / Image: 22,9 x 28,6 cm | | | | | | In 2012, Isabelle Armand came across the cases of Brooks and Brewer and decided to document the reality and circumstances of the lives of the two men and their families. Both individual fates stand as an example of the failure of the American justice system. Using seemingly scientifically based evidence, both men were convicted beyond doubt and sentenced to death for their alleged deed.
In Armand’s book, published in 2018, they are portrayed and have their say: as African Americans, both men are structurally disadvantaged by the legal system dominated by white people. In the conviction, which was carried out by predominantly white jurors, the men were victims of a preliminary conviction based on their skin color.
In addition to racist resentments in the economically weak state of Mississippi, which has always been regarded as extremely conservative and is colloquially referred to as the "Lost South", their precarious living conditions also makes the men victims of classism: They are not in a position to afford a renowned defender, who will do everything in his power to prove their innocence in court. Due to these circumstances, they are doubly exposed to the complex US legal system. | | | | | | | | | Isabelle Armand
Mr. and Mrs. Levon Brooks, June 2016
Digital Pigment Print
Sheet: 38 x 43,7 cm / Image: 22,9 x 28,6 cm | | | | | | unsubscribe here
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