(Ep.74) Rescuing The Forgotten…

CHUCK: 0:10

Welcome back to another episode of let's Just Talk About it podcast. I'm your host, chuck, and if you're here for the first time, this platform was created to give genuine people just like you an opportunity to share a portion of your life journey. So, with that being said, I'm excited to have advocate Marva King on with me today. She's from Memphis, tennessee, but currently resides in Virginia, where she does amazing advocacy work, fighting for men and women to help them not to have to spend the rest of their lives behind prison walls. So you don't want to miss this amazing conversation. As a matter of fact, do me a favor go and grab your husband, your wife, your children, or even call a friend and gather around to listen to my conversation with Marva on let's Just Talk About it podcast. Hey, let's jump right in. Welcome back to another episode of let's Just Talk About it podcast. Today I have advocate Marva King on with me. She's very passionate about helping our young black men who have been incarcerated and given a hard sentence. So, first of all, how you doing today, marva.

Marva King: 1:14

I'm always fantastic and thank you for having me on your show. I'm definitely honored that you want to have me on your show, so thank you.

CHUCK: 1:22

Absolutely. I love your energy.

Marva King: 1:23

We talk each other.

CHUCK: 1:24

Absolutely, Marva. I love the jump right into my interviews to have those genuine conversations with genuine people just like yourself, just to share a portion of your life's journey. And I love to start off with this question when are you from?

Marva King: 1:39

I'm from Memphis, tennessee, actually Born and raised. I'm an old country girl that came from a good Christian home. You know story. I tell you about Tennessee. But I came from a good Christian, a Pentecostal home, a dead creature and, believe it or not, I went outside until I was around 18, 19 years old. So that's fine.

CHUCK: 2:01

So you went outside.

Marva King: 2:03

I went outside until 18, 19. I had strict protocols. Yeah, pentecostal, yeah, he was strict Pentecostal whole year. Got you, got you. So I was a good church girl it pays off, though it pays off. Teach you good morals.

CHUCK: 2:12

It pays off. So you say you didn't get out to 18. So when you got out of the house, how was that culture in Tennessee?

Marva King: 2:24

Oh my God. You know Tennessee is, you know it's religion. You know, everywhere you go, it's a church. Yeah, so a lot of churches down there. My father was well known as a Pentecostal preacher, so you know that was a life I led. You know I didn't watch a lot of TV and I wore dresses and all that kind of stuff. And so it was kind of a little shock when I got on my own at 18. So you know I jumped in it but I started running. I guess you could say in the start coming to me, but it was like wow a little bit, but hey, that's life.

CHUCK: 2:57

Like.

Marva King: 2:57

I learned a lot of structure from it.

CHUCK: 2:58

Yeah, absolutely, you know. Speaking about your father being a pastor, I'm quite sure he had a lot of passion for something right?

Marva King: 3:05

Yeah, he was an elder. He was right under the pastor, so he was very passionate though about religious bad, he was a good pastor, treating people right. You know all the stuff that I still kind of carry with me, you know, even as an adult. So I look at that part of my life too is as gratitude, because I am who I am though, because of my humble beginnings. So I never forget. You know, when you come from such humble beginnings like I did, you know you can never go too far and not forget where you started. You know.

CHUCK: 3:40

The reason why I brought that up. I'm quite sure he had a passion for ministry and, yeah, how I met you, I saw you on a live talking you'll talk about Advocating for young men. I saw the passion that you had in you and I'm quite sure it came from your dad, seeing how passionate he was. So I want to have this conversation about your advocacy for young black men. Yeah, you do so. Can you talk about that a little bit?

Marva King: 4:10

Well, I'll say, like I said to everybody, I was one of those people you know, keep your mind. I was very sheltered to go and so I didn't know a lot about incarceration in prisons and things like that. I was like most people that never paid a lot of attention to it until it came to my door, you know, my sister was 37 years old when the federal governor came knocking at the door, you know, and indicted her, and so that was my first introduction to, you know, the prison system. And then I watched how quickly the process went, yeah, how much I didn't understand it, you know, like some certain people, and then I only really remember, even to this day. The only process I remember is the day that she was sentenced in the Northford district and Judge ringing Jackson courtroom and all I remember is you know, he talked and he said some things, and then you know Last words, a hundred months, and then he walked out.

CHUCK: 5:10

What was that?

Marva King: 5:11

that was around to 15 July, july 30 or not too far back yeah. Yeah, and I was, like most people, 100 months. What does that mean? What does?

CHUCK: 5:19

it mean.

Marva King: 5:20

I'm gonna give her you know, so I was asking what he give her, but he walked out. And then, you know, in the federal court, once he walks out and he gives judgment, you know you got to walk out of the courtroom. So you know that was my introduction to the prison system. Wow, yeah, so it was. It's very hard because you have two us marshals Stay on each side of her and as soon as he gave judgment, you know she was gone, she was taken away. You know, very quickly, yeah, and you know it traumatized me. Mmm, yeah, I was very traumatized, well, very, you know very long time. To this day, to be honest with you, I still have some trauma, you know from that.

CHUCK: 5:56

I still do so talk about that that's. That's deep when you say you had trauma behind seeing your bigger sister. You're your older sister, yeah, taken away. What did you go through?

Marva King: 6:06

Um, she's my identical twin sister. She's old, yeah, so Watching her being taken away, you know, you see these two us marshal. Yeah, it was, and so for a long time I had nightmares of running to the courtroom to try to see her before they took her back. As you can't say anything to him, you know, in the courtroom they have to look ahead and not say anything. You know it's not a good process to go through right in the lawyers don't really say anything to you. So he gave judgment, took her right back out. We're outside the courtroom. I'm still trying to calculate what a hundred months mean and that's all God. I said years almost. You know, yeah, and so it ain't never saying anything to you. So you know, her lawyer calls me Mm-hmm. He says what you want to do with her paperwork. I said what's this bringing to me? Okay, yeah, that's what I told him. And so when he brings the paperwork to me, they begin my journey. You know, I sat down and I learned her case because I didn't understand. Yeah, so that's how I began. So I wasn't trying to be abacus.

CHUCK: 7:12

But seeing your sister being taken away, it created some menu. It's the idea, yeah it did.

Marva King: 7:18

It woke up a side of me because, I'm gonna be honest, you have to keep in mind my father, mm-hmm, in a cost of preaching Mm-hmm, they didn't necessarily want this Situation now, wow. So I was also put in a situation to whether to Somewhat preserve my father's they can see who he was or fight for my sister life. Right, you know, I chose to fight for my sister life because I said to myself eight years is a long time. And she had a one-year-old too. You know, at the time she left, and so I chose that to fight for her and I mean the family has come back together, but they weren't happy about it at the time. Wow you know, but I felt I had a duty to do it right, which leads into this part of this conversation.

CHUCK: 8:03

That's a deep marvel, because you're just, you know, one percent I'm gonna look at it like that of family members who are afraid to share with their son or daughter is going through, so they remain behind bars because we don't want anybody to know my child is incarcerated, so they saw her Mm-hmm. You know what I'm saying.

Marva King: 8:23

Yeah.

CHUCK: 8:23

Yeah.

Marva King: 8:24

Yes. So they suffer a lot. I see that a lot and that's what I say to families, because in my sister case to Judge, rebecca Smith was initially her judge and she treated my sister horribly. You know, throughout the process and you know her lawyer said to us because she was supposed to sentence my sister after she was found guilty Mm-hmm, I knew if my sister stayed in her courtroom she's gonna give her a lot of time, yeah, and so my sister and myself Immediately became a team and we found a complaint. A lot of people don't know you can follow Chief Justice, chief Justice at the time. I mean, look it up, she's the Chief Justice. And we found a complaint and her attorney, time told us you guys just committed legal suicide. You found a complaint against the Chief Justice.

CHUCK: 9:12

Okay, stop right there for somebody who doesn't know who's listening. What is the Chief Justice?

Marva King: 9:18

The Chief Justice, the head judge of all the judges in the federal court in that district got you, so going out that that person you committed what suicide.

CHUCK: 9:28

Yeah, that's what the lawyer was.

Marva King: 9:30

Yeah, yeah, that's what he told us, and so I'm like she ain't got though. Mm-hmm Talk about you know, you know the biggest thing that I tell people. I think that was a day that I lost fear. Mmm, I had no fear at all because even when he said that you know most people, we got afraid. You know, my response to him was she's not God. Wow, you know, she's not God your background kicked in.

CHUCK: 9:53

Go ahead, yeah.

Marva King: 9:54

I don't fear her, you know. And so I found that in my sister one. Yeah, yeah, so she won and that's how she ended up in Judge Raymond Jackson courtroom.

CHUCK: 10:04

Yeah yeah, yeah. So the biggest thing that we talked about off off air is Some people, or a lot of people, don't have the knowledge that they can do certain things to help their child or family member, you know, advocate for them. They have the power to file different things to get things moving or change some stuff.

Marva King: 10:26

Absolutely. I tell family that they don't understand. It was like I, you and I discussed at one point. These are people who work for us. Our tax dollars pay them. We pay the US attorney and prosecutors and state prosecutors, commonwealth attorneys and this, and that these are elected people. You know the city are elected, you know commonwealth attorneys and things like that. So you have the right as a family member, when something's not done right, to request a meeting with them and sit down and discuss your concerns. You know not going there and act up. You go on there and you have your legitimate concerns and you discuss it and you say to them you know, the justice system works. I tell people it works. The problem is it's not always followed, you know. So you can go on here and say, hey, due process was violated, my family member did not receive their discovery, which you know. When you're charged you're supposed to receive your discovery, which is everything. That's against you, because you have a right to address your accuser. That's your right, you know. I talked to a young man. He said he never got his discovery until after trial and was doing time. He saw his discovery for the first time.

CHUCK: 11:45

Wow. So it's like a knowledge not having the knowledge of what you can do.

Marva King: 11:49

Yeah, it's lack of knowledge, of not knowing what to do. I tell people when you are arrested. Of course you get a lawyer, but you should have an advocate, because your advocate is the person that fights for you. It's like the liaison between you and your attorney. Because I don't care. If you pay these attorneys a hundred thousand, they'll sell you out.

CHUCK: 12:10

Absolutely. And go to lunch. Go to lunch with a prosecutor, yeah.

Marva King: 12:14

Well, or sell you out for another client that they want them to do this favor for. So a hundred thousand dollar lawyer doesn't guarantee you freedom. Knowledge guarantees your freedom. Losing fear guarantees you not being afraid. You know a lot of people don't like when I say this. You know I said this to you when we spoke before. But I tell them, these churches and these people, we gotta get off by needs and we waiting on God to tell us and fall out of the sky and tell us. I said y'all better get off y'all knees and start running and do what they did in the civil rights movement. You see, in the civil rights movement the church was the meeting place. The preacher went to the prison. Now the preacher is in a church and telling the mother to tell your child in the name of Jesus except this time if prison and that God would be with him. You understand what I'm saying. I have a problem with that. I had someone call me about a few weeks ago. He brought the preacher on the phone, this real life. What happened? He brings the preacher on the phone, the preacher, you know, he telling us what happened in XYZ I wanna go into detail that deep but he brings the preacher on the phone. The preacher starts to talk and tell him what he should do is go in and he should, you know, give a statement, which you never give a statement and tell them that he's sorry and he'll be all right. And I told that guy if you listen to that preacher, they gonna lock your son up for life. I said you go in there and you follow what you're supposed to follow. You exercise your right to remain silent.

CHUCK: 13:53

Talk about that, the statement part. You never know who's listening. Talk about what is a statement.

Marva King: 14:00

So when you go, anytime you're being charged, the first thing I ask you is do you wanna get a statement? But they supposed to read them around the right you have a right to remain silent. You say can it will be used against. But listen to what they say. Can it will be used against you when you say something even if you innocent. It's a statement and when you go on that courtroom they gonna say Yonah XYZ gave a statement. You're like I gave them statement, I just told them what happened and I'm not guilty.

CHUCK: 14:26

Out of fear.

Marva King: 14:28

So you always, at all times, please exercise your right to remain silent. Don't say anything. It's not your job to put on a, you know to put on defense. It's a prosecutor's job to go and court to make a case and say, yonah, reason of doubt, you know you're guilty. Don't help the prosecutor make a case and a lot of times they're not even guilty or they maximize them more than what the situation was. You know. So I tell them. If you wanna, you know, take the preacher, let go to him and pray to him. But you know what I tell him If you're gonna take somebody in there, take a Catholic priest, because the Catholic priest ain't gonna say nothing. They can threaten to lock him up. Catholic priest is not gonna talk. They will tell you to lock them up. This is serious talk. I am serious.

CHUCK: 15:24

So remain silent, remain silent so let's talk about like, say, for instance, you get a case right. You get a case and what's the process? What do you do?

Marva King: 15:35

You know, if someone reach out to me for advocacy, the first thing I do is talk to the one that's being impacted by the justice system. So I talked to them first, because they were there. They know the facts. The paperwork only tells the way they wanna tell the story. And so I talked to them and I've learned from doing this for the past eight years. You know, you kinda get an idea, you know, and then I'm self-taught. I'm not taught by you know class or anything else. I'm taught by experience and going through it and so I have an ear to listen, to catch something in you know what they may have told me that I'll look into a little bit more to see if that calls for advocacy or does it call for something that could be filed in court Right, Primarily, 95% of what I've done has been advocacy Just merely putting some things together and then you go to the prosecutor. I'm not afraid to make a prosecutor, talk to me because it's your job, my taxes paid you. You know to have conversation with me, and so that's what I do.

CHUCK: 16:43

I love that You're not afraid.

Marva King: 16:45

You know what? I tell people you get afraid. When they lock your child up for life. That's when you get afraid. When a judge passed judgment and say your sentence, we sentence you to life in prison. That's when you become afraid. You know you don't come afraid when they charge them. That's when the fear's supposed to leave you and you ask God for guidance. You know I tell them y'all need to get off y'all. They get on their knees and stay there. You know, through that whole process, crying and looking for something to fall off the sky. But if you really connect with God correctly and you get off your knees and you allow Him to take the fear away, he'll start to guide you and what happens is when you talk, you speak with confidence, wow and then he'll give you a knowledge there that a classroom can't teach. I've never been to law school a day in my life, wow but I know it a lot. Yeah, I've never been to law school a day in my life, but I've sat with many US attorneys and prosecutors and lawyers who asked me several times are you sure you never went to law school?

CHUCK: 17:50

I've never went to law school a day in my life. Wow, self talk, self talk, yeah, mm-hmm, that's amazing. So you're able to walk people through the process.

Marva King: 17:59

Yes. Yeah, yeah the process and it's a passion because on the side of experiencing it it wasn't easy, I can say with an unclear heart because, I'm transparent, I was traumatized, got you. I was traumatized terribly from watching my sister go through the indictment. The feds come to the house and stuff like that and you go into that federal building. That federal building is cold. There's not a lot of people in there, no, for. God's sake, yeah, and the judges are very firm and it's just not a fun process and she go through. I watched her. After found guilty, you go to the city jail, to the feds come get you. You don't know when they come get you. Then, when they come get you, you don't know where they are for a while.

CHUCK: 18:50

Absolutely Because of security. Yeah, the phones come off yeah.

Marva King: 18:53

So they don't tell you where they are, they just fly them until they put them at what destination prison they choose for them to go. And then you get a call and say, hey, I'm at this prison. She went to Alderson in. West Virginia. So, that's how it was, so that was a lot.

CHUCK: 19:11

Mentally on you.

Marva King: 19:13

Yeah, it was a whole lot mentally. So I don't want people to feel that, so I try my best to go in in the pretrial process to prevent the long incarceration, because post trial can take time, because you're looking through trial transcripts, you're looking at the appeals. They found the 2255s, there's all this stuff that they filed. So you have to read all that to see what happened. But when you come in early, then when they're telling you, wave your preliminary hearing A preliminary hearing is so important Talk about that, because a preliminary hearing is a hearing that you have, where they decide where the charges that you've been charged with, if you're going to be formally charged and you're indicted. So what happens that I've seen quite a bit here in Virginia is the lawyer's telling them wave your preliminary hearing. I'm like, why did you wave your preliminary hearing? That's where you it's like a mini-trial and so you really get to see if they have a lot of wave against you. Yeah, that's true. And they wave them like they wave in flags down here.

CHUCK: 20:29

That's deep. That's deep Because sometimes they tell you to do that, they mean they have a lot of stuff against you, right, exactly.

Marva King: 20:36

Keep in mind they only have what you tell them. Yeah. You see what I'm saying. They can make assumptions, but the majority of what I've seen they don't have anything until you tell them you get scared the mama, come in there and tell them just do what they tell you to do.

CHUCK: 20:53

I said yeah.

Marva King: 20:54

Yeah, I've been telling these mamas like, stop sending y'all children to prison. Yeah, it's game. You know, go in there and talk to your son and tell them this. And you know sons trust mama because I work with primarily a lot of black men that a lot of them went through a lot of stuff. Yeah. These black men have a lot of trauma and I think that we, I don't know, it's just like we have no compassion for them. I talked to a young man that's been incarcerated for about 23 years and you know we discussed some things about his case. But when you got to, what was going on with him? Just a lot of abandonment in his early life, a lot of pain in a heart that they don't know how to express in their week if they do, you know. So they have nobody to talk to. I had another young guy that I'm advocating for. He told me. He said I just need somebody to talk to on a psychological level. He said I keep telling them that but they're just giving me pills.

CHUCK: 22:03

That makes me worse, make them slower yeah.

Marva King: 22:05

Yeah, it makes them worse, it makes them more angry, it suppresses more. But he said I just need to talk to somebody, so it's like the world has lost compassion for our black men. We just locked them up for the rest of their life, for 20, 25 years, and hurt them more psychologically. And then we validate and say, well, they needed prison. You know, they don't need prison, some of them just need some psychological rehabilitation. Something different. Yeah, correct I agree, I agree. Yeah, so that's why I think I have. I haven't passed up to anyone you really do, but my heart goes out a lot to the black men that's been in there since 17, 18 years old and they're 43, 44 years old Now. You know it's still in prison.

CHUCK: 22:51

Yeah, yeah. And not only that, you talk about the trauma before you get there. Now it's added trauma when you're in there, because you're around a whole lot of men or women all the time and you go through things and the CEOs or the nurses, they don't believe you because to them everybody has game. Everybody, you know, got an angle, but it's not so, you know. So you go through that kind of trauma too. You know your family members are dying and you know so forth.

Marva King: 23:25

I have Marcus Bord. I know you seem to be advocating for him. He's been incarcerated now for 24 years but the trauma that he has experienced in prison his case alone is one of the most injustice case I ever seen, because, you know, in his case it was back 24 years ago, around 2000. His judge and his prosecutor was husband and wife. How did they make that happen? Come on, we both know that's a conflict of interest Absolutely. And then they never gave him his discovery, saying that you know he's a drug dealer. So we fear for the witness's life, which means his rights are violated, where he never had a right to even confront his accuser. And what stood out to me the most is in his transcripts. His own lawyer said to the jury this is an ambush case. So we got a 23-year-old black man who the case was solely based on other drug dealers who were caught, who wanted to give back time, and they say I'm willing to testify. Tell on them yeah. Yeah, so throughout his case. You just hear the prosecutor say he's the leader. So if he knew this and he knew that, then he might then have to know this part. But because he's the leader and we got all these people who are saying it, he has to be guilty. And I say this is insane and it angered me a little bit because I did research on the Judge, julia Gibbons. This lady has been given awards and I say to myself we as a black community, we will not contest these judges and why they have done things a certain way. He had a right to a fair trial. They violated his due process. At the end of the day, no prosecutor and a judge should be husband and wife. Y'all at home talking, I don't care what nobody's saying.

CHUCK: 25:33

Pillow talk, absolutely.

Marva King: 25:36

If we're married. We're going to talk about this case, Some cases Absolutely. Without a son, without a year. So I read the trial transcript and I hear him in his opening statements. Keep in mind, at the end of the trial, when she gives you jury instruction, she's going to explain to you how he was a leader. He's guilty of XYZ and they give him three life sentences. Wow. You know, and I just say to myself we sit here and we let these men die in prison. We never contest these judges and prosecutors. We just sit back and say, oh man, that's messed up. Then he got that time like that. I hope he eventually get out. So how the heck are you going to get out if y'all never say nothing about it? Why is nobody ever saying that these judges' cases need to be reviewed?

CHUCK: 26:31

Because, like you say I hear you say you don't care until it hits your doorstep.

Marva King: 26:36

Yeah, Then we outrage.

CHUCK: 26:38

Yeah.

Marva King: 26:38

You should be outraged when somebody else's son is locked up. Yeah, true, why he's been locked up. That's the fact. He lost his mom. Yeah. Mom's boy has lost his mother, he's lost his father, he's lost his brother, he lost his nephew and just a few months ago he lost his cousin. Can you imagine You're doing prison term? You're number one mother. Yeah. Yeah, alone is heartbreaking and his mother passed away in the car accident because she was on her way to put money on his books.

CHUCK: 27:08

Oh, wow, wow.

Marva King: 27:09

And somebody hit her. Somebody hit her car, killed her instantly.

CHUCK: 27:15

So that's another level of trauma.

Marva King: 27:17

Yeah, that's a whole other level of trauma. So can you imagine the psychological that he experienced in prison and then been left for dead. Now you know. Wow. And then I tell them I say I go back to the prisons as I get them, we getting them out of here, getting them out of there, you know. But where is the support? Where is the support? We don't have to know each other to want justice for people Right.

CHUCK: 27:45

Ein Mein, mein, mein Mein.

Marva King: 27:46

And I want people to start to say to themselves we, as the people, we demand justice, justice for everybody, everybody. Let me say this they may not like when I say this, but Kyle Rittenhouse right, the one that killed the Black Lives Matter protestant. You know why he won. The justice system worked for him, but guess what? He had people that were in high position with money and things like that. They got behind you. That's it, yeah. And they made sure, at the end of the day, that he got justice in the system. They made sure that the process worked for him. And I said people don't wanna say it because we look at it as black and white. I said I want people to stop looking at it black and white and look at the process. They made sure that the process worked for him because his community said to themself he's a young man and we don't want him to be lost in the system. But we won't say that. We won't say it. So I just say to myself I feel like God gave me a purpose and when I leave this world, I just want the justice system to work for people. I just want them to understand what that process is and my desire is that nobody is lost in the system. I call them the forgotten people. They're forgotten behind the walls of prison.

CHUCK: 29:15

I always say you never know who's listening to these episodes and hear your passion and who may get behind you. So I'm hoping that happens. I'm really hoping that happens, because you are unique and I believe that is your purpose, because you're self taught. You're self taught, you know it's not in vain. You know what I'm saying, yeah, so I tell people self talk.

Marva King: 29:38

some of the most self taught people are the best. Like an entrepreneur, who may have been their way when they were, you know, a child, started as something that was in them. I mean, they are the best at putting something together Versus your own school could only take you so far.

CHUCK: 29:54

Right.

Marva King: 29:55

It can only take you so far. But when you have passion In your heart, In your heart for something, Then for one you know, in the heart it's where God is. Mm-hmm. And I tell people at the end of the day that any case I do, I consult God throughout the entire case on what to do. That's why I have a hundred percent right. I've never lost a case.

CHUCK: 30:15

Amazing.

Marva King: 30:16

Yeah, I have never lost one case that has come to me. Wow, yeah. But I tell them I consult God. However, I'm not on my knees and crying and begging to clean, because that's not who God is. God wants us to be strong and fearless, because that's the spirit that he has given us. You know a warrior spirit, warrior. And so I tell him, you know you guide me and you be with me and you help me to be fearless and you show me how to do this. You know, so this person can have a second chance at life and they don't spend the rest of their life in prison. You know so that's my life work.

CHUCK: 30:58

Amazing, amazing. So, as we jokingly said you don't have your pictures in the courtroom called Marvah King.

Marva King: 31:11

I know you have been laughing at it. You said your pictures not in the courtroom, but they're all one.

CHUCK: 31:16

They are enough, right? People don't know Marvah King. How can I get in contact with you?

Marva King: 31:20

Well, I'm on Facebook a lot and then they can email me at federalvillage79, at gmailcom. You know people inbox me. I kind of start there first to get the inquiry of where you know they want to go or whatever. So I start there. They find I'll say this. They find me. Yeah, yeah, wow. They find me, I got one more.

CHUCK: 31:51

I got another question. You mentioned indictment. You mentioned the word indictment. Explain what an indictment is?

Marva King: 31:59

An indictment is when they go before what they call is a grand jury. Ok, so the US attorney or the prosecutor, if it's state, us attorney, if it's federal and they gather these people together and they're called the grand jury, and so they present to them this evidence that they have. And when they present the evidence to them, the grand jury then says to themselves you know, they agree with the prosecutor, us attorney, and say that they, you know, they agree to formally charge them, and so it then becomes an indictment. They're formally charged with these particular charge. There is enough evidence to charge them.

CHUCK: 32:46

Yeah, so in the process, it's not like they wake up in the morning and say, OK, let's go indict such and such. They're building a case. People are jumping on your case. They say they know you and they've seen you. So all of this is built against the person before they come for you.

Marva King: 33:02

Yes.

CHUCK: 33:03

Wow.

Marva King: 33:03

Yeah, they have to. You know they get in the diving first. A lot of times, especially federal, it could be like you know other people or you know they call them CI's, confidential informants. Sometimes it could be your charged partner or it could be some of the greatest amount of time is when someone else has gotten caught up in a situation Mostly drug cases and then they'll ask them if they're willing to cooperate and they'll start like giving names and things like that to you know, to start building a case. So they take all of that to you know, to the grand jury, and the grand jury decides if they believe in that. Let me say this the grand jury does not always agree. Sometimes they have to go to the grand jury a few times, wow. So these are not just a group of people that say well, I believe what you as a attorney say, so it's a yes, it's. Sometimes it takes time.

CHUCK: 34:03

OK.

Marva King: 34:03

Where they have to go back and get more evidence. So they have to go find more people or witness this more believable, you know, to do the indictment. I tell people to ask for your indictment too, Because when my sister was found guilty, obviously I got the indictment and I read it, you know. So I was able to see what the grand jury, you know, wanted to hear what you were saying, yeah, yeah, so the grand jury, they wouldn't indict twice. Then the third time, when they went to them, they were still leery but they was like we'll let the process take its course and they agreed to indict.

CHUCK: 34:43

Wow, so it's a process.

Marva King: 34:46

It's a process.

CHUCK: 34:47

Man shout out to you for being a part of let's just talk about it podcast. I know you can go on and on because it's a part of who you are. You have a passion for what you do and I love having that conversation with you because, marv, you know your stuff.

Marva King: 35:02

Yeah.

CHUCK: 35:03

Yeah, hopefully I can talk about it forever. Yeah, hopefully in the future, we'll have a visual interview. You know, sit down with each other and have this conversation in front of the camera. It's coming.

Marva King: 35:16

Yeah, I can't wait. You know I've been getting on you like look, we need to sit down, we need to have face to face. Yeah. We need to talk about this because the thing is, and I'll say this, and I have a phone number, a business number I can give out too OK. But we have to get in our community and I really want to say to the black churches we have really lost sight of saving our community, our black youth and things like that, because I've even heard people say some of them need to be locked up. You know what I'm saying and I say to myself if you want to go back and use religion, let's remember when Jesus died on the cross and the thief was next to him. What did he say to the thief when he repented? Guess what? He was redeemed and he told him he will be welcome in paradise. Wow. So why, if we say we're Christians, we condemn and say lock them up for the rest of their life?

CHUCK: 36:22

You don't deserve another chance.

Marva King: 36:24

Yeah, you never deserve another chance to get out of prison, but yet, if we weren't afforded that forgiveness from God, where would we be? So I want to say to the pastors of all these churches that you see in the black neighborhood, they need to bring classes in on this teaching, teach them about their right. We have Sunday school. Let's have justice classes that teach you about your rights Real conversations. Let's have classes to support the mommas. So that's what I would say to them. But I want to say to them I'm all for prayer, but let's say a prayer and then let's put a plan together to teach rights. Let's support these mothers, these fathers. So they're locking up our fathers, our children, our daughters and things like that. So let's go back to where we was and then see it right there and teach each other. So that's what I would say, and my business number is 757-695-4279.

CHUCK: 37:28

Wow, you have a cash app if somebody wants to support you.

Marva King: 37:32

Yeah, dollar sign 39 MLA. I have Sussis for Justice, which is a for-profit. However, I'm still a human being. Some people really actually don't have the money to pay us. I spend my own money sometimes to help them and it's not cheap because you got to pay per page. But what is the price of a life? There's no price on a life and I just I don't have it in me to say I'm not going to help you, yeah, try doing for them. I see a helping and giving my time to get them free, because they're freedom. It's more important than a price that you can put.

CHUCK: 38:16

But by saying your cash app, you never know who's listening. You never know who's listening to somebody. I want to help support what she's doing. So they got your information. I really appreciate it. You wake up in the morning and you have $100,000 in your account.

Marva King: 38:31

Yeah, let's go, let's go. But we have to. But you know all seriousness, before we end we have to build that back in our community Talk about it. We have to build. That I have said to the NAACP, because I've gone to them. Since we brought that up real quick, I'll say this real quick I've gone to the NAACP, naacp and I've said to them you guys have become political. There came a day when there was an injustice, the NAACP went to the prosecutors, to the courts, and we demanded justice, spoke truth to power and we got justice, but now it's like everything is political. We don't want to step on this person told and this person told and I'm like you don't want to step on somebody told for the life of somebody. Them going to prison for 20 and 30 years of life and you're worried about stepping on somebody told. That's insane. I was disappointed in NAACP.

CHUCK: 39:29

So you mean to tell me you went to the doorstep, knocked on the door and you spoke to them. Oh, yeah. Marvel, king, everybody.

Marva King: 39:37

Don't make me, don't make me call no names.

CHUCK: 39:39

Marvel King, everybody, yeah, I know it.

Marva King: 39:45

But you know, I already told you I'll go to anybody. Yeah, when it's a life hanging in a ballad, that big state, you know where they will be in 10 and 15 years and it's the prison system, I have no problem going to where these elected officials that we've elected and having a conversation about that person's life and making sure they get justice.

CHUCK: 40:11

So Wow, is there anything else you want to share before we go?

Marva King: 40:16

Just support. Don't wait till your family members want. That's the biggest thing. Yeah, that's deep. And then support me, follow me, share the line. That's the first thing I always say. You never know who may need to hear it, so follow me on Facebook under Marva King. Under TikTok. I'm Marva underscore King, justice Advocate, and it's the same thing on Instagram and I'm always going on there and talking about who I'm advocating for or just telling people what they can do to navigate through the justice system. But if people don't support and share, nobody will ever know. Don't wait till somebody in your family or you build it. So if you need it because everybody in jail ain't guilty, you know is there, so we can help each other. So that's all I could say. Yeah.

CHUCK: 41:09

Yeah.

Marva King: 41:09

That's all I could say.

CHUCK: 41:10

Shout out to you, marva, for what you do, yeah.

Marva King: 41:13

All right, Thank you so much and I'm looking forward to you know, even after this podcast, you know we still do the work together, we still talk and do whatever we got to do to help as many people as possible.

CHUCK: 41:23

So thank you for bringing me. So. Marva King, everybody, marva King, absolutely, absolutely. Thank you again for being on. Let's Just Talk About it podcast. I really appreciate it and I'll talk to you soon.

Marva King: 41:37

All right, have a good one. All right, you too.

CHUCK: 41:41

Wow, what an amazing conversation. Shout out to my friend, marva, for having this dialogue with me. You know, what really stuck out to me about this conversation with Marva was her passion and compassion for those who have to grapple with the justice system. She's one who has a heart to see people really get a second chance at this precious commodity called life. And after listening to this conversation, you realize now how important it is to support those who are doing the work to save our family members from a long life in prison. So again, shout out to you, marva, for the work you do. We appreciate you as always. Thank you so much for tuning in to let's Just Talk About it podcast and please check out my website. Just Google Let'sJustTalkAboutItPodcastcom and then hit that Subscribe button to receive all the new episodes every Friday. You can also find me on Facebook. Just type in Chuck LJTAI, which means let's Just Talk About it. So, as always, until next time, don't hold it in, but let's Just Talk About it. Talk to you soon and I'll see you next time.