By Nayaba Arinde
Editor at Large
Brooklyn’s global community activist and founder of the social services agency Man Up Inc. USA (MUSA), A.T. Mitchell-Mann, is advocating for pardons and clemency for eligible formerly incarcerated citizens, including himself.
While he is well known for his Cure Violence and anti-gun violence advocacy, Mitchell-Mann is asking Gov. Kathy Hochul to pardon a crime he said he was wrongfully convicted of 40 years ago.
“A lot of people do not know that I am a formerly incarcerated person,” he told Our Time Press. “I was convicted of a crime that I did not commit when I was 18, and was given a 15-year sentence.”
He now determines that it was to “prep me for the work that I am doing now, and to be very relatable with transferable skills to lead that population as I’m doing throughout the world, and to be able to represent formerly incarcerated people, recently released, returning citizens.”
Mitchell-Mann is turning to Gov. Hochul through social media and community outreach to “get as many signatures as we can from the general public and from people who know me and the work we have done, or have relatives that are like me, have come home, and have put in as much work as we have, and have made a big difference in our communities and in our societies.”
Born and raised in Brooklyn, he is busy with his offices set up in East New York, Brownsville, Bed Stuy, and Canarsie. Mitchell-Mann told Our Time Press, “Man Up Inc. has national acclaim and global recognition.
With the summer heat, with the lack of things to do, and some people having access to things that they shouldn’t have, it creates a powder keg. We make sure that we have resources to pour into the community all summer. We also have three summer camps.”
In June 2022, Mayor Eric Adams appointed Mitchell-Mann as the New York City Gun Violence Prevention Czar.
The leading figure in New York’s Crisis Management System is wearing a ‘#FreeAT’ T-shirt and asking the governor to grant him a pardon.
“I grew up in Brownsville and in East New York, the two feeding grounds for the criminal injustice system,” said Mitchell-Mann, “and so I too at the age of 18 years old I was approached by homicide detectives, and questioned about a homicide that I had no involvement in; and because I guess I did not confess to a crime that I did not commit, they charged me with the homicide at 18…my first run in with the law ever in my life.”
Born in the projects, with 7 siblings, “We lived in a poverty-stricken, drug-infested, and violent neighborhood,” said Mitchell-Mann, an alumnus of East New York’s Thomas Jefferson High School and a teen father.
He insists that he was a victim of mistaken identity when he was picked up in the case, which was actually a Brownsville neighborhood dispute between two individuals where there was a jewelry robbery, and a subsequent shootout occurred.
“We had no money for a legal defense. I had to rely on a public defender and was just put through the system. At that time, I had faith in the system and thought I would be proven innocent and be let go. I quickly learned that the scales of justice do not weigh in favor of Black and brown boys, and I took my case to trial to prove my innocence, but the jury came back with a manslaughter verdict.
I was sentenced to a maximum security prison at nineteen.”
After his five years in prison, he served 10 years of parole. “That was the worst part of serving time, because now you’re back in society. When you come home with a stigma, when you are a felon or a convict, trying to get employment or housing is hard.”
Saying that he came home, and quietly sought ways to get back into society with alternative to incarceration programs, saying “prison isn’t cool,” and no glorification, because for me it was a nightmare going to a prison for a crime that I didn’t commit.
I was traumatized. My mother passed away during the time that I was incarcerated, and she believed in me and was there every step of the way.” Mitchell-Mann recently took on his late mother’s surname as a sign of respect.
So he said he came out “doing the work, mentoring young people,” and thought his journey “was a curse originally, but I see it as a blessing in disguise for 40 years. I was 18 years old when I was arrested–I’m 58 years old now. When men and women come home from prison, they have a lot of restrictions that are placed on them. They can’t leave the country. They can’t leave the city. They have a lot of restrictions.
After applying for my Certificate of Relief from the State of New York, it was issued back in 2011. But, it’s almost like the 13th amendment–all slaves shall be free, except for those that are convicted of a crime–and on mine it says that I have been given all of my relief except for my right to bear arms and my right to run for public office… for the rest of my life for a crime that I did not commit.”
Mitchell-Mann, the former Chief of Staff to former Councilman Charles Barron, said, “I think that people who have done exceptional work in the community, even though they might have been formally incarcerated, should be given a pardon and clemency by the state because they’ve earned it. I believe I’ve earned that right, just looking at the work that I’ve done in the last 30-something years.”
New York State determines on the official website that, “Anyone who has been convicted of a crime under New York State law can apply for a pardon…for applicants who have successfully completed all court-imposed requirements connected to their conviction and sentence…
Applicants should show that they are contributing members of their communities…for example, through accomplishments in employment, education, or through family or community service.”
Mitchell-Mann founded the social service agency Man Up! Inc. in 2004 when an 8-year-old Daesean Hill was shot and killed by a stray bullet as he walked home from school.
“I’m going to keep doing what I’ve been I’ve been called to do, but at the same time now I really do want to be free of these bars, that are placed on people like me, there are so many formerly incarcerated people that are doing amazing things throughout this city, and throughout this nation and that should account for something.
“Gov. Hochul has the signature power to grant pardons and clemency. I want to present her office with thousands of signatures, and she will see that this is something that is rightly earned and deserved.”
Governor Kathy Hochul’s office did not respond to an Our Time Press request for a response by our deadline.
