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Leonard Pitts: There are some people who just don’t matter much

That's a painful truth, starkly at odds with our Jeffersonian creed and national mythology. But it is a truth, nevertheless, one frequently proven in actions if denied in words.

In this country, by dint of race, gender, class or status, some people just don't seem to matter. Apparently, Tammy Jackson is one of them.

No other conclusion is possible after reading the May 3 letter her public defender, Howard Finkelstein, sent to Broward County, Florida, Sheriff Gregory Tony. In it, he decries the "outrageous and inhumane" treatment accorded his client in a Broward lockup. And if anything, the lawyer is guilty of understatement.