We as a Black people are consumer drunks when it comes to wanting the best of the best.

We take our dollars and we spend hundreds and even thousands for the best "dubs and rims", best tennis shoes, best fabrics made in China, best suits and high-priced cars.

However, with law enforcement and the criminal justice system targeting us and successfully putting over 2,000,000 Black people serving time behind bars in this country and untold thousands on probation and parole, we are foolish when it comes to criminal defense.

When we are nailed by law enforcement and need criminal defense attorneys, we opt to go "cheap" and trust our lives with public "pretenders" (defenders).

Public pretenders are nothing more than "yes" men and women whose devotion lies with the prosecutor, state, court and judge, not with you as a defendant.

Case after case proves that using public pretenders do nothing for you. Why not want the best then?

It’s a situation where the issue is not guilt or innocence. It becomes, "If I say yes, how much time will I get? I ask is this fair and honest justice?

Does this really give you your constitutional right to a fair trial by a jury of your peers?

Thomas Miller-El is a classic example of how a man can spend his whole life trapped in a web of "public pretenders", and still end up on death row and without a fair and equal justice.

He has fought his case with court appointed lawyers, been on death row over 23 years, endured 10 execution dates with three times coming close to laying on the death table before the U.S. Supreme Court ordered a new trial last year. They saw something wrong!!

It is imperative that Miller-El be supported and get a private attorney for his defense because the Texas criminal justice system has bullied and railroaded Black men and women from the interrogator’s chair to the death chamber and shortchanged the premise of liberty and justice for all for far too long.

Miller-El is a political prisoner in a system that wants to "re-try" him, convict him and send him back to death row to die by lethal injection.

Not only does his life hang in the balance, but the very principle of executing Black men and women in Texas should be tested in this case.

Miller-El’s case also demonstrates that "public defenders (pretenders)" do little to give Black defendants on trial for their lives any voice and fair justice in courts of law.

With little noise or opposition from the "go along get along" public defender, prosecutors are pushing forward and preparing to move forward with plans to do just that.

We as Black people need competent private attorneys to represent us when our very lives are on the line. Shoes, cars, clothes and rims and dubs mean little on death row!!!

We are aware of the drunk, imbalanced justice system that loves to strap Blacks and Hispanics to the lethal injection bed.

Knowing this, why would we still "skimp on the legal" knowing how "Public Pretenders" have treated Gary Graham, Miller-El, and at least one or more of your relatives or friends?

Given the magnitude of what a prison record will do to his or her future in the job market during re-entry after serving his time, the false, cheap promise of "the bargain" of a better tomorrow is just is not good enough.

This is a cycle that is diluting the Black vote, but also is destroying the ability of young Black males ages 18-30 to come out and make a positive impact on the Black family, Black Church, Black community and society.

"Public pretenders" are part of our problem in this "tainted" justice system in America. They are not the solution to your legal troubles. You are just another case for them to dispose of quickly so that they can move on to destroy the next Black life.

It is time that we as Black people put some of those Millions we spend on "rims, dubs, glitter jewelry, cell phones and cars" in a strong powerful legal fund that can help us when that time comes… and you know what I mean.