On JUNETEENTH, 2 MILLION STILL ENSLAVED
FREE DARRELL EWING, DERRICO SEARCY
Ewing’s pre-trial motions for bond, judicial notice of tainted ID testimony at first trial are now before Wayne Co. Judge Darnella Williams-Clayborne
Motion for bond cites People v. Davis, landmark 2021 ruling by state appellate court that bond in capital cases can be granted. COA 354927 PEOPLE OF MI V REGINALD LAMARR DAVIS Opinion – Authored – Published 04/22/2021 (michigan.gov)
Young relatives of Tamerra Washington participated in rally of hundreds at Frank Murphy Hall June 4, 2021.
Ewing, co-defendant Derrico Searcy won new trial Oct. 22, 2020, ten years after conviction of 2009 J.B. Watson murder
FBI told AP Kam Towns before first trial they had reliable evidence another man committed the crime, she ignored them.
Tyree Washington’s 2017 Mirandized confession, given to MSP detective, hidden in official files till 2021
Ewing, others held in Wayne Co. Jail beyond speedy trial limits file federal lawsuit vs. Wayne Co. Sheriff Raphael Washington and WCCC Chief Judge Timothy Kenny challenging illegal detentions and torturous jail conditions. — DETAILS ON THIS TO BE PROVIDED IN STORY TO COME.
By Diane Bukowski
June 20, 2022
DETROIT — Millions celebrated this country’s first Juneteenth holiday this week, commemorating the liberation of enslaved peoples after the Civil War with fireworks, dance, song, and prayer. But under the provisions of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, over two million people remain enslaved in U.S. prisons as a result of mass incarceration, the majority of them Black, descendants of those enslaved peoples.
Among the two million are Darrell Ewing and Derrico Searcy. Wayne Third Circuit Court Judge Darnella Williams-Claybourne is currently reviewing Darrell Ewing’s motions for pre-trial bond, to free him while Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy pursues the case against him and his co-defendant Derrico Searcy. They were charged for the Dec. 2009 murder of J.B. Watson on Detroit’s east side. He has also filed a motion for judicial notice of false pre-trial identification evidence in the case.
Top: Darrell Ewing (l), Derrico Searcy (r) Bottom: Wayne Co. Pros. Kym Worthy
On Oct. 22, 2020, an Appeals Court overturned their convictions and ordered a new trial. On Aug. 30, 2021, defense attorneys revealed Tyree Washington’s Mirandized confession to the murder, given to a Michigan State Police detective in 2017, and hidden in the prosecutor’s files while the defendants’ appeals have been ongoing.
Wayne Co. Asst. Prosecutor Kam Towns, who quietly retired June 1 of this year, was the chief architect of the case, basing it on unproven assumptions that the murder was gang-related, leading to jury misconduct on social media about gangs. State courts overturned the verdict on that basis. Proceedings for a new trial in the case are currently paused, pending a Michigan Court of Appeals ruling on Ewing’s interlocutory appeal of his motion for dismissal due to Brady disclosure violations and other issues.
Ewing’s current motion for appeal bond says, “From the start of this case–and this writer is talking about a decade ago, July 21, 2010, our nation’s highest and most respected government agency–the FBI–alerted the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office, that a mistake was likely taking place,”
“To show, Agents brought forth one of their top informants. He was taken in front of multiple grand juries about the present matter and found to be credible… Christopher Richardson disclosed that his very own blood cousin William Beal and and [his] federally charged co-defendant, Tyree Washington was/is responsible for the instant crimes and charges presently in front of this court.”
The motion is based in part on a landmark ruling from the Michigan’s appellate courts. See: COA 354927 PEOPLE OF MI V REGINALD LAMARR DAVIS Opinion – Authored – Published 04/22/2021 (michigan.gov)
Ewing’s motion for bond points out,
“”Pursuant to Const 1963, Art 1, § 15, a defendant is entitled to have bail set by the trial court except in certain circumstances, such as when defendant is charged with murder and the proof of defendant’s guilt is evident or the presumption great, Davis at HN 18. . . .it is becoming crystal clear to many that the proofs of Defendant’s innocence is evident. This Court has in front of it, a Mirandized confession, multiple acts of suppression, and polygraph results to bolster Ewing’s innocence.”
The motion also argues that further confinement in the Wayne County Jail under torturous conditions including the spread of COVID-19 endangers Ewing’s life. It cites Ewing’s family and community ties, including the support of hundreds of letters in his federal pleadings for compassionate release, in front of U.S. District Court Judge Stephen Murphy.
Judge Murphy ruled June 9, “I will appoint counsel from the Federal Community Defenders Office to represent Defendant for his compassionate release and resentencing motions. . . .The Court expects that Defendant’s appointed counsel will file a new motion for compassionate release and resentencing after the en banc Sixth Circuit issues a ruling in McCall.” See http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Darrell-Ewing-Appointment-of-Federal-Defender-2-22-cr-20178-2.pdf and http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Darrell-Ewing-Murphy-order-6-9-22-United_States_of_America_v_Gaskin_et_al__miedce-11-20178__0541.0-2.pdf.
In his “Motion to Take Judicial Notice of Key Facts that Lend Credence to the Granting of Bond,” Ewing notes that eyewitness identifications are the most common factor leading to to wrongful convictions in the U.S. Citing trial transcripts, he breaks down factors in the eyewitness identifications at his trial by Raymond Love and his wife Jendayi Love, who were stopped in traffic at the scene of the shooting of J.B. Watson.
Raymond Love: Saw shooter for “a few brief seconds.” In photo line-ups, only said “he looks close,” “never 100% sure,” “out of all the people in the pictures, he was him.” At trial, he said he was “guessing” at face,” “viewed the shooter through the rearview mirror while leaning on my wife’s lap,” “my first and immediate selection was photo #2, a wrong person,” fdmet with prosecutors during trial “to get their ducks in order.”
Jendayi Love: viewed shooter through “the rearview mirror,” “for a few seconds,” “two quick seconds,” “took close to five minutes” to select Ewing’s photo, “FELT like it was the shooter,” and her height “made it a little difficult to see through the rearview mirror.”
Below is expert analysis of such claims by lawyers and legal experts on the podcast series “Undisclosed” at Undisclosed Podcast (undisclosed-podcast.com)It is one of a series of six podcasts on the Ewing/Searcy case and focuses on issues related to the identifications made by the Loves.
STORY ON PRISONERS LAWSUIT V. WAYNE CO. JAIL TO COME
Wayne Co. Sheriff Raphael Washington (l), WCCC Chief Judge Timothy Kenny
Ewing and dozens of others held in the Wayne Co. Jail far past state and federal mandates on speedy trials, have filed a federal lawsuit against Wayne County Sheriff Raphael Washington and WCCC Chief Judge Timothy Kenny challenging illegal detentions and torturous conditions in the jail. Numerous affidavits from the men detailing their claims are attached to the lawsuits.
For an overview of Darrell Ewing’s battle for freedom from his wrongful conviction, listen to Maggie Freleng, nationally acclaimed journalist in this “Unjust/Unsolved” podcast. Previous VOD stories on these cases are listed below that.
RELATED:
DID PROS. KYM WORTHY AND DPD SUPPRESS KILLER’S CONFESSION IN EWING/SEARCY CASE? HEARING DEC. 1 | VOICE OF DETROIT: The city’s independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought
APPEALS CT. UPHOLDS NEW TRIAL ORDER IN ‘GANG’ SOCIAL MEDIA CONVICTIONS OF DARRELL EWING, DERRICO SEARCY | VOICE OF DETROIT: The city’s independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought Continue reading
Newman’s stance on Kensu’s case runs counter to what Robyn Frankel told “Proving Innocence,” an organization originally set up by former TV news reporter Bill Proctor.
After beginning the brief with the statement in red above, they write in part, “. . .MCL 770.1 stands as a substantive ground for relief independent of any provided by the Michigan Court Rules. The State of Michigan passed MCL 770.1 into law to correct wrongful convictions within the State of Michigan, by providing substantive relief from judgment from trial courts ‘when it appears to the court that justice has not been done.’ Statutes passed into law in the State of Michigan may not be overridden by court rules. . . MCL 770.1 stands as a substantive law independent of the Michigan Court Rules.”
VOD’s staff lives either on limited fixed incomes or is incarcerated. We are not paid; we publish the newspaper pro bono. Help keep us afloat by chipping in so stories on this Prison Nation and Police State, and related matters, coming! Any amount is appreciated.
Erickson did not address VOD’s request for a copy of the directive ordering the shut-down, or to requests for comment on the shut-down of prisoners’ access to legal research, the cancellation of recreation time, or the number of prisoners in the jail, including the time they have spent there.
The Statement and Calhoun’s court documents show that court-appointed attorneys at the trial and appellate levels advised Calhoun to plead guilty on Feb. 21, 2007 prior to his sentencing March 27, 2007, and to waive his appeal of right on September 10, 2007. Prior to those events, Calhoun was determined “competent to waive his Miranda rights” after a forensic exam that also found he still had “cognitive deficits.”
Police referred him and his girlfriend, listed as a witness, who was with him when he saw Ray in bloodied clothing, for polygraph exams twice, but each time the two failed to show up after first stating they would be there.
The lawsuit also describes complicit behavior by other AP’s not cited as defendants. They include Thomas Beadle, Rosemary Gordon, William Peterson, and James Heaphy.
In a May, 2017 Detroit Metro Times article, journalist Ryan Felton exposed the rampant use of jailhouse informants (snitches) by DPD/WCPO. He reported that Edward Allen told a private investigator that Detroit police filed over 100 murder cases as a result of such testimony.
“Prison was hell. It was a new kind of plantation. I felt like an escaped slave. What I saw in the United States in those prisons was slavery, it was Black people with chains, in cells, it was just poor people stepped on and smashed. I’ll never forget what I saw. I’ll never forget what I’ve lived through . . . what my people have lived through.” –Assata Shakur in new documentary, Black and Cuba
These men and women watch from the jail’s narrow windows every day as thousands of party-going visitors flood downtown Detroit’s streets around the prison, and others make their way to work, oblivious to the plight of those inside the jail.
Wiley has been held since Oct. 3, 2017 on capital (life) charges which were dismissed twice in 2017 and 2019 after lengthy trial proceedings including jury trials. He was not released after those trials because judges dismissed the cases WITHOUT prejudice.
In the capital, most observable to the west, Kyiv city authorities say that some 55 buildings have been damaged and that 222 people have died since February 24. It is a city of 2.8 million people.
Editor, Voice of Detroit (Please note: to contact the organizers of these events, use the phone number above for Operation Liberation.)
The 
Although COVID restrictions have been lifted, for the most part, in Michigan and across the country, family members still cannot visit their loved ones in the Wayne County Jail, and even attorney visits are sometimes constricted. Courtrooms are not open to the public in-person.
As far back as 1915, the Supreme Court held that when a state grants a criminal defendant a right to direct appeal, “The proceedings in the appellate tribunal are part of the process of law under which he is held in custody by the state, and to be considered in any question of alleged deprivation of his life or liberty, contrary to the Fourteenth Amendment.” See 
Courts thew out the convictions in proceedings after trial, citing Brady. Tennison later won a $4 million wrongful conviction settlement and was fully exonerated after the prosecutor filed for dismissal of the case.
The cases of Ewing and Searcy have been featured on various national wrongful conviction websites, including a series of six episodes in which legal criminal conviction experts have reviewed the Ewing-Searcy case and found it woefully wanting in evidence to convict.
Voice of Detroit Editor’s Note: I recently announced that this paper is being devoted to issues regarding mass incarceration and police abuse in this country. But as a journalist for the past 22 years, I cannot stand by while the U.S. mainstream media shamelessly delivers coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war straight from the mouths of U.S. politicians and military leaders. 
Under the title “Democratization of Ukraine,” Denis Denisov wrote in Izvestia about the direction of development Russia wants for its neighbor Ukraine. Denisov, Director of the Institute for Peacekeeping and Conflict Initiatives, Associate Professor at the Russian Government’s Financial University, said:
24 February 2022, 08:32
