Biography
Joy Powell was Pentecostal pastor from Rochester New York, who was the top community voice against violence and a major critic of the police department for over a decade. In 2005, a member of Powell's congregation was the victim of racial profiling. When she went to the department to file a complaint with internal affairs she was assaulted by police in the station lobby. She contacted the state attorney to try and have the officers charged with assault. She was quickly arrested for burglary after police claimed a pawn shop broker identified her as someone who had sold them stolen property. Over two dozen members of Powell's congregation testified at her trial that during the alleged burglary she was leading a Bible study class. Despite the lack of evidence she was convicted by an all-white jury and the judge gave her the maximum sentence of 16 years. While in jail as public support was mounting for an overturn of her sentence, Powell's cellmate claimed that Powell had confessed to her of having committed a decades-old unsolved homicide, the cellmate provided information that police say only the killer would have known that she claimed Powell had told her, Powell was charged and convicted of that crime based solely on the testimony of this jailhouse snitch and given an additional 20 year sentence.
