VOICE OF DETROIT: The city's independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought

Some of Michigan’s 371 juvenile lifers involved in current litigation: (l to r, top through bottom row), Cortez Davis and Raymond Carp, awaiting re-sentencing under USSC decision; plaintiffs in USDC case Henry Hill, Keith Maxey, Dontez Tillman, Jemal Tipton, Henry Hill, Nicole Dupure, Giovanni Casper, Jean Cintron, Matthew Bentley, Bosie Smith, Kevin Boyd, Damion Todd, and Jennifer Pruitt; Edward Sanders and David Walton, in prison since 1975 at the age of 17; (photos show some lifers at current age, others at age they went to prison).

 USSC ‘Miller’ decision that JLWOP is unconstitutional ruled retroative;    State AG Schuette, appeals court fight to keep prisoners until death

By Diane Bukowski 

February 10, 2013 

DETROIT – A federal district court judge ruled Jan. 30 that the U.S. Supreme Court decision, Miller v. Alabama/Jackson v. Hobbs, which made mandatory juvenile life without parole sentences unconstitutional, is retroactive and applies to all of Michigan’s  juvenile lifers. They are those sentenced to death in prison while they were children, under the age of 18. 

U. S. District Court Judge John Corbett O’Meara.

The decision means all juvenile lifers are now eligible for parole, says Deborah LaBelle, attorney for the plaintiffs, calling it a significant victory. Click on Hill 1 30 13 highlighted to read U.S. District Court Judge John Corbett O’Meara’s entire ruling.

According to varying sources, there are from 362 to 371 juvenile lifers in Michigan’s prison system, 70 percent of them prisoners of color. Many have spent decades behind bars. Michigan has the second highest number of  juvenile lifers among the states. Before the Miller decision, the U.S. was the only country in the world that allowed juvenile life without parole. 

“Indeed, if ever there was a legal rule that should – as a matter of law and morality – be given retroactive effect, it is the rule announced in Miller,” said Judge O’Meara, ruling in Hill v. Snyder.  “To hold otherwise would allow the state to impose unconstitutional punishment on some persons but not others, an intolerable miscarriage of justice.” 

Although Hill v. Snyder is not a class action case, involving just 13 named plaintiffs, Judge O’Meara extended the reach of his ruling, setting precedent for all Michigan juvenile lifers. 

Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette: Heil!

Judge O’Meara said he did not have jurisdiction to grant the  plaintiffs’ request for re-sentencing. But he ruled, “The court declares M.C.L. 791.234(6) [Michigan life without parole statute] unconstitutional as it applies to these Plaintiffs . . . As a result, Plaintiffs will be eligible and considered for parole. It remains to be determined how that process will work and what procedures should be in place to ensure that Plaintiffs are fairly considered for parole.” 

Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette and a state appeals court, ruling in Michigan v Carp, had contended that the Miller ruling applies only to new sentences, dashing the fervent hopes of Michigan’s juvenile lifers.

Judge Michael Talbot was appointed to the appeals court in 1998 by Gov. John Engler.

On Jan. 16, an appeals court blocked the anxiously awaited re-sentencing of Cortez Davis, set for Jan.25 in front of Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Vera Massey Jones. The re-sentencing was set prior to the Carp decision. The appeals court in Davis was headed by Judge Michael Talbot, the chief appeals judge as well as the original sentencing judge in the Carp case. 

Click on Cortez Davis COA 1 16 13 for the Davis ruling.

“We are reviewing the [Hill] decision and considering options for appeal,” Joy Yearout, Schuette’s director of communications, said in a statement. “Attorney General Schuette … will continue to fight for crime victims and their families, who should not be forced to relive these horrific crimes at parole hearings.” 

Most recently, Schuette trumpeted his success in making Michigan a “four strikes and you’re out” state. 

“Gov. Rick Snyder has signed into law the Violent Offense-Fourth Felony (VO-4) legislation, which requires at least 25 years in prison for violent repeat offenders. Attorney General Bill Schuette proposed the law as part of his public safety plan,” his office said in a release. . . . SB 1109 is now Public Act 319 of 2012.”

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder.

 This act will likely swell the ranks of Michigan’s prison population, which the MDOC reported as 42,904 at the end of 2011. Michigan spends over $2 billion a year on its prison system, one-fourth of the state’s general funds, and is one of only four states in the country to spend more on prisons than education.

O’Meara noted the recalcitrance of Michigan’s state courts and government in his decision. 

“It may be that Plaintiffs are granted new sentencing hearings in state court, which mayobviate the need for changes in the parole system,” he said. “It appears, however, that the State and state courts (see Carp) intend to resist granting such hearings. Under these circumstances, the court believes that compliance with Miller and Graham requires providing a fair and meaningful possibility of parole to each and every Michigan prisoner who was sentenced to life for a crime committed as a juvenile.” 

DamionTodd (r) with brother John Meyers and mother Pamela Todd.

Damion Todd was sentenced at the age of 17 to life without parole in 1986, for his role in a shoot-out between two groups of youths which resulted in the death of a 16-year-old bystander. He also faced Judge Michael Talbot, who gave him not only life without parole, but said he should serve it in solitary confinement and at hard labor, provisions which are not used by the Michigan Department of Corrections. 

“I was totally overwhelmed,” he reacted. “I guess the best way that I can describe it was surreal. The morale is high with the men that I have spoken to. Even those who aren’t directly affected by this decision have congratulated me and expressed how pleased they were with Judge O’Meara’s decision. I, along with several men I have conversed with, are extremely grateful for Judge O’Meara’s decision, and we are humbled with the confidence that [attorney] Deborah Labelle will present a just recommendation to Judge O’Meara on our behalf.

Highland Park youth outside teachers meeting protesting lay-offs, April, 2004.

He continued, “From a personal standpoint, while never glorifying this tragic ordeal, I yearn for opportunity to educate not only at-risk youth, all youth. The consequences of one bad choice will not only change the course of your life, but it will also administer so much psychological harm and pain on the lives of people that you don’t even know. As a man, I refuse to allow anyone’s life that has been tragically lost go in vain, and not at least try to open the eye’s and ears of some at-risk youth. So Judge O’Meara’s decision, the work of Deborah LaBelle and all the lawyers who have assisted her with the body of work that she has put forth, is monumental.”

Attorney Deborah LaBelle, who represented the plaintiffs on behalf of the Michigan chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, explained the outcome in detail to VOD.

 In the wake of the Miller ruling, LaBelle has coordinated a coalition of progressive attorneys and organizations which have pledged to represent every one of the state’s juvenile lifers, pro bono if need be. The organizations include the ACLU, the State Appellate Defenders’ Office, the University of Michigan Juvenile Justice Law Clinic, and the Criminal Defense Attorneys of Michigan.

For more information on the legal campaign for Michigan’s juvenile lifers, contact attorney Deborah LaBelle’s office at  (734) 996-5620 or email her at deblabelle@aol.com.

Inmates at the Department of Youth Services juvenile boot camp wait to go outside for physical training in Prattville, Alabama.

By Edward Sanders

February 7, 2013   (also see earlier article below)

Prisoners at Chippewa Correctional Facility next door to Kinross in Upper Peninsula

God is Great. I am very elated with the court’s decision and order. The opinion was well written and to the point. It acknowledged this as a constitutional issue and demonstrated its willingness to effect change for the good. This now puts Michigan’s law makers in the position to act and get off the side-lines. All the former youths are elated as well here at Kinross Correctional Facility and hoping for change soon. No more file reviews, no more five year reviews, no more not giving reasons for passing over us. Both the court of appeals and the U.S. federal court there have agreed that the Michigan lifer law statute is unconstitutional as it applies to youth serving life without parole.

Sheldry Topp, Michigan’s oldest juvenile lifer at 67. He is also incarcerated at Kinross.

This also puts in question those youth who are serving parolable life as well as well as youth who have long sentences that are virtually equivalent to life. Michigan legislators have failed to act on recent bills to reform this very statute in amending the provisions that allow successor judges to veto parole board review and public hearings. They now must act if in fact they do not want a federal judge overseeing a state parole board that is burdened with constitutional failings that allow no review of parole board decisions and no appeal by prisoners where victims and prosecuters are allowed appeals. The oldest former juvenile lifer is here at KCF is in his 70’s and has been recently denied parole review which means in effect an order to die in prison,  but for the expedition of this courts recent opinion and soon to be issued order to reform michigan lifer law anew.

This is clearly a human rights issue. all of us juvenile lifers pray that our state will think and act in a progressive way that will demonstrate that we believe children are different than adults and have less culpability. Even though the Miller decision is procedural it nevertheless addressed culpability of the youth offender which is normally part of the standard of review when deciding to apply a ruling retroactively even though they usually describe it as the guilt or innocence. A person can be guilty but less culpable and this is the case with a child versus an adult.

We were also elated that the Catholic Church Council of Bishops has taken a supportive stance, along with the many other national and international organizations that are supportive of this issue including the ACLU, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch as well many others. I should also inform you that I received a letter from the ACLU of michigan dated Feb. 4 informing that the counsel for Mr. Carp filed an application for leave to appeal in the Michigan Supreme Court on Jan. 9^th, 2013, and an application for leave to appeal in the Michigan Supreme court in People v. Davis is imminent as the court of appeals reversed the trial judge’s decision to re- sentence Mr. Davis.  She also noted legislatively, bills have not yet been submitted in the house or senate which is astonishing. Ms, Labelle is currently part of a legislative working group that meets bimonthly to discuss legislative remedies to comply with the Miller decision.

VOD: On Jan. 30, U.S. District Court Judge John Corbett O’Meara struck down Michigan’s parole statutes with regard to those serving juvenile life without parole.  (See article above.)

Michigan is among the most merciless states in the nation in its sentencing practices and treatment of those who are incarcerated.,

The related article below was written by Edward Sanders, a juvenile lifer who is among the longest-serving in Michigan. Incarcerated at 17 in 1975, he is now 55. He reflects here on the need for a complete overhaul of Michigan’s parole system if both the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Miller/Hobbs of June 25, 2012, and the Michigan federal district court ruling in Hill v. Snyder of Jan. 30, 2013, are to be substantively applied.

Sanders, who during his years behind bars has become an accomplished “jail-house lawyer,” cites a previous federal class action filed in 2005 on behalf of “parolable lifers,” titled Kenneth Foster Bey, John Alexander, Waymon Kincaid, William Sleeper, Robert Wisenauer, Eric McCullum, Gerald Lee Hessel, et. al v. John S. Rubitschun, et. al (the last being parole board members at the time.). Click on Foster Bey parolable lifers to read original lawsuit in full.

Former Michigan parole board chair Stephen Marschke testified in 1999 regarding parolable lifers, “It has been the longstanding philosophy of the Michigan Parole Board that
a life sentence means just that–life in prison . . . Good behavior is expected and is not in and of itself grounds for parole.” As Berrien County Sheriff in 1994, he was the last person to see Black teenager Eric McGinnis, 16, alive before the child’s body was found in the St. Joseph River which separates the white town of St. Joseph from nearly all-Black Benton Harbor.

In October, 2007, U.S. District Court Judge Marianne O. Battani ruled unequivocally on behalf of the plaintiffs and against what had become the parole board’s mantra, “Life means life,”  as follows:

“The change in the make-up of the Michigan Parole Board, the Board’s understanding of why the change occurred and how it was to exercise its discretion, its redefining of the eligibility procedure for nonmandatory lifers, and changes to the timing and intervals of the interview and review process, when considered in total have significantly disadvantaged the class and constitute a violation of the Ex Post Facto Clause.”

Click on Foster Bey order granting plaintiffs motion 12 07 to read Judge Battani’s full ruling

.In other words, such sentences, meant by most judges to be parolable within 10-15 years, were made significantly more severe after the fact of the plaintiff’s sentencings. The Parole Board and the State, however, fought Judge Battani’s ruling and subsequent remedial orders every inch of the way. They appealed to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, which  affirmed her ruling in part, reversed it in part, vacated it in part, and remanded it to Judge Battani for further proceedings.

Kenneth Foster-Bey

 To date Kenneth Foster Bey, sentenced in 1975 and now 59, John Alexander, sentenced in 1981 and now 51, Waymon Kincaid, sentenced in 1976 and now 55, and Eric McCullum, sentenced in 1976 and now 64, remain incarcerated according to state records.

Michigan continues to spend $2 billion a year on corrections, “nearly one fourth of the state’s general fund and $600 million more than it invests in higher education,” according to a recent Detroit News article. Besides having the nation’s second highest-number of juvenile lifers, Michigan is one of only four states in the nation to spend more on prisons than education.

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20130206/POLITICS02/302060362#ixzz2K7ct58L7.

http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/02/michigan_is_1_of_4_states_to_s.html

Write Edward Sanders at:

• Edward Sanders #141545 
• Kinross Correctional Facility
• 16770 S. Watertower Drive  Kincheloe, MI 49788

REMEMBER ‘FOSTER-BEY’ IN RULINGS ON ‘HILL’

By Edward Sanders

February 2, 2013

Edward Sanders, juvenile lifer.

In Re: Hill v Snyder, in the U.S. District Court, in Ann Arbor, I am hoping the judge takes into account the facts noted in the Foster-Bey case formerly before the Hon. Marianne O. Battani. That was an ex post facto claim, that included [as drastic changes in Michigan parole procedures]:  parole reviewed every other year in the old law and then changed to every five years; no longer entitled to an in-person hearing under the new law; written reasons for denial not required, but were before the change in the law; a statement of no interest or a pass-over is no longer considered a formal Board decision subject to judicial review; and the Board has changed from an independent entity to one under the direct authority of Michigan’s executive department.

All these changes were made retroactive to those who were serving parolable life before the new law went into effect. The facts are relevant even still to the Hill case e.g., the very small number of parolable-lifers that are paroled. In many cases even where the parole board wanted to hold a public hearing it was vetoed not by the sentencing judge but his or her successor. There is a House Bill (HB 5575) sponsored by Rep. Ellen Cogen Lipton (D., Huntington Woods) that would eliminate the authority of a successor judge to veto the parole board from releasing a parolable lifer. CAPPS (Michigan Coalition on Prisons and Public Spending) executive director Barbara Levine has noted, changes to this process could have significant consequences for the hundreds of parolable lifers who are now eligible for release, as well as for the parole board’s ability to make release decisions in cases it has carefully reviewed.

John Alexander, parolable lifer.

Still a prisoner is not truly eligible for parole until each and every one of the statutory conditions has been met. See MCL 791.234(6). These include the parole board interview, public hearing, and  hurdles set by possible objections of the sentencing judge or the judge’s successor. Of the 156 public hearings scheduled for 2007 through December 2011, 39 (25%), were cancelled because of judicial objections. Of these, 14 objections were based solely on the offense or its effect on the victim; only 13 were based, even in part, on current information about the prisoner; 12 gave no reason at all. Five of the objections were in cases where the board’s interest in proceeding was based on medical problems that left the prisoner wholly incapacitated. All but one objection was by a successor judge.

Paul D. Reingold is a clinical professor of law at the University of Michigan Law School and was lead counsel in the Foster-Bey case, challenging the post-1992 drop in lifer paroles as a violation of the ex post facto clause. He noted, parole-eligible lifers tend to share a number of characteristics. They are much older than the average prisoner. Although nearly 100 were younger than 18 when they committed their offenses, and more than 200 were under 21, their median age is now around 55.

Waymon Kincaid, parolable lifer.

There are more than 800 parolable lifers here in Michigan. In regard to the House Bills relating to JLWOP, sponsored by  they may be unconstitutional because they would only allow a judge to make a decision between a frst degree sentence of life without parole and parolable life. This should be a decision of a jury and not a judge where a person demanded a jury trial which is the case in almost all these cases I would think, if not all of them. I would think the bills need amending. (VOD: this standing also violates the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Miller/Hobbs, which held that each juvenile lifer must have a chance at individual consideration during sentencing based on seven factors.)

The Court of Appeals has issued an order of stay in People v Cortez Davis, in regards to his resentencing. I am not informed what his attorneys will do at this point, they may appeal the order to the Michigan Supreme Court (MSC) or wait on the outcome of the Carp case once it goes before the MSC.

PERSONAL REFLECTIONS

Eric McCullum, parolable lifer.

I have been spending much time considering what it means to be contrite and I wish not to be distracted by the turn of events relating to this case law or bills before the state law makers. I love the subject of law – religious and or non-religious, just as much as morals. My own errors in life have caused me not only to reflect but also to grow as a person. I know that my errors have Affected others in ways that I never foresaw or intended. I’m now very sorry and feeling heart felt about my actions. I know that I did not live up to what was given to me from my family and community. I just did not see it the way I do now. I’m sorry I believe that I did things that my family should have disowned me for, as well as my community, but I’m sure they never did. I’m thankful for that.

I know what the story of Adam is about (Allah knows best). He was young too, and given much and was careless with what he had and his status in creation and he had a great fall. But he did acknowledge his mistake and ask forgiveness of his Lord. My accepting Al-Islam is my asking..I would also like to ask the same of the victim’s family members I remember his mother and sisters were at my trial the whole time, from beginning to end. His oldest sister would look at me as if she was my big sister with this question on her face–why? She did not have a look of being mad but very concerned and sorry for me, it was a look of care. She could have been a member of my own family, she could have been my own sister. I have always been thankful that she did look at me like that because she made me think about what I had been a part of with my actions.

Portrait of American political activist and radical civil rights leader Malcolm X (1925 – 1965) as he holds an 8mm movie camera in London Airport, London, England, July 9, 1964. Shortly after breaking his affiliation with the Nation of Islam, and just days after his formation of the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU), Malcolm X was in London en route to Egypt to attend a meeting of the Organization of African Unity and to meet with the leaders of various African states. (Photo by Express Newspapers/Getty Images)

I am very sorry for my part in the loss of a life and a family member taken from his family, friends and his own life. I wish that I had been more responsible, that I had taken a leadership role when it counted. I could have changed that situation that night. I ask forgiveness of him, his family, friends and my own family and friends and our Lord (Allah).

Do you know who also was killed on Feb. 21th [the date of the killing for which the author was sentenced]? El-Hajj Malik Shabazz. Then to be told that I look like him and to be called by his former name by other inmates since I was about 18, I have been unable to forget Feb. 21, 1975 and my own behavior that evening. It helps me to be more progressive because of my mistakes that evening, I like to believe that I learned something from my failures in life.

I also remind myself, that 17 is not like one’s older years. Decisions are not made the same way (Allah Willing). I now look back and I don’t see my youth as who I am today. That is not to say that there were no good decisions that I made in my youth and that I don’t own up to them. There were and I do. It’s the bad ones that I dis-own and yet I accept them as learning. I would like to get beyond my errors in my youth. They say you do adult crime, you do adult time. The young in fact do more time. In 20 years, you are still young and no one is saying time’s up. However, the adult that says to him or her 20 years is a long time it’s up, you may go old man, but the youth who came in to the prison system at 14-19 he or she may do 40-50 years and their time may not still be up.

There is a former youth here at Kinross Correctional Facility that is about 70 years old who committed his crime at about 16 or 17. No one is telling him time is up. The parole board may see him again in 5 years if he is alive and still not let him go. I pray Allah that is not the case.

Edward Sanders as a youth.

I am now 55 as of Jan 8, 2013. I came in at 17. The board just looks at my file every five years. No person-to-person contact. It’s like I am not human. It’s like there is only the file that speaks for me. This is a prison that makes note of your every error, all mistakes are recorded. What you may do of merit is not. You are told you can keep that for your file. It means nothing. This is what your tax money is used for. I once had a parole hearing where the board member spoke to me about actions that I had never been accused of and I pointed this out he said, I have your file here, I am reading it. After my continued protest he accepted that he was wrong and ended my five year review.hearing. I once had a member of the public (Richard Berry) come and he was told that it was not clear if he could be at the hearing so he was not allowed to sit in.

VOD: Below is a video of  a conversation with the oldest juvenile lifer in Michigan, to whom Sanders refers, Sheldry Topp, published with an MLive.com article by Jonathan Ostling at the address below. MLive.com ran an  excellent series on juvenile lifers in Michigan.

http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2011/11/aging_michigan_inmates_sentenc.html

Postmaster General Donahoe today announced plans to eliminate Saturday letter delivery, starting in August. Activists in the Bay Area are among those waging a raucous fight to save the postal service from death by a thousand cuts. Photo: Patricia Jackson.

By Alexandra Bradbury 

February 06, 2013  

The Postmaster General startled postal workers today by announcing that letter delivery will drop to five days a week in August. Packages, but not letters, will still be delivered on Saturdays.

Postal workers heard the news from their managers early this morning.

In this Sept. 6, 2011 file photo Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington. The U.S. Postal Service will stop delivering mail on Saturdays but continue to deliver packages six days a week under a plan aimed at saving about $2 billion, the financially struggling agency says. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

“Everyone’s been running up to me all morning really angry and scared, asking me what they can do,” said Manhattan letter carrier and shop steward Frank Couget.

“My response is we need to fight,” Couget said. He suggests workers should treat it as a lockout and show up to work as usual Saturday August 10, inviting community allies and news reporters along.

Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe has made no secret of his ambition to cut Saturday service, but it is not clear whether he has the legal authority to make the move without Congressional action. He acknowledged he expects a legal challenge.

The cut is supposed to save 45 million work hours and $2 billion per year. Yet Donahoe said this morning that he hopes not to cut the hours of any “non-career” employees because “they’re young people. They need jobs.”

Instead, he plans to cut back on career workers’ overtime and offer them buyout incentives to retire—affecting 22,500 jobs altogether.

A growing share of postal work is already assigned to non-career employees, who work alongside career employees, doing the same work—but for much lower pay, and without health benefits, pensions, or even access to progressive discipline.

Postal workers protest in Detroit two years ago, after Pres. Barack Obama first announced plans to cut postal service.

The one saving grace of these perma-temp positions is that they offer a way to accumulate seniority into a career position, Couget said. But cutting Saturday delivery further erodes the already dwindling chances that any career job opportunities will be available.

“This should be a wake-up call—for all the people in the community, and for the workers—that Donahoe has no qualms about destroying the post office,” Chicago letter carrier Melissa Rakestraw said.

Obama Could Solve with Stroke of Pen

Pres. Barack Obama could stop postal service cuts with an executive order.

All four postal unions—the American Postal Workers, Letter Carriers, Rural Letter Carriers, and Mail Handlers—condemned the move. The Letter Carriers called for Donahoe’s resignation.

But postal worker activists say that’s not enough.

“The strategy of the unions all along has been lobbying Congress and having polite rallies,” said New York mail handler John Dennie. “This strategy has failed.”

Communities and Postal Workers United (CPWU), a network of activists involved in grassroots fights against post office closings and other cuts, has been calling for a national, multi-union march in Washington, D.C.

Despite Donahoe’s bemoaning of falling mail volumes in the Internet era, the major causes of USPS’s financial troubles are simple accounting issues. In 2006 Congress required the Postal Service to prefund its retiree health benefits 75 years into the future—far beyond what other federal agencies or private companies do. Postal activists say the onerous requirement was meant to create a budget deficit, and thus opportunities to privatize profitable parts of the service. The Postal Service has also significantly overfunded its pensions, to the tune of billions of dollars.

So the unions call for Congress to repeal the prefunding mandate, and for President Obama to sign an executive order refunding the pension money, which would be enough to solve the immediate budget shortfall.

“[Obama] has the power to solve this crisis, at least for the short term, with the stroke of a pen,” Couget said.

Whack-a-Mole Attacks

Postal workers’ hunger strike June 29, 2012.

The cuts are part of a multi-pronged attack on the postal service, including closing or cutting back hours at rural post offices and closing processing plants where mail is sorted. In local fights where postal workers and community activists have gotten organized, they’ve been able to stop some of the cuts.

CPWU members have staged rallies, civil disobedience actions, and two hunger strikes on the National Mall to call attention to their demands. Continue reading →

February 8, 2013 

By Diane Bukowski 

DETROIT—A jubilant crowd of supporters packed Bert’s Place in Eastern Market Jan. 31 to hear Detroit’s former Corporation Counsel Krystal Crittendon formally announce she will run for Mayor this year. Many pledged to work on her campaign.

“I believe you must stand up for what you believe in,” Crittendon told the cheering crowd of over 200. “There is absolutely no reason we should be discussing the lease or sale of Belle Isle. Our assets are not for sale. . . . We have an obligation to the people of Detroit to seek justice and fairness. It has been difficult to live here in a city where you don’t know if the street lights are going to come on, and people in high places continue to live in  pockets inhabited by the very wealthy while ignoring the needs of the people.”

Krystal Jackson, co-chair of rally, joins mayoral candidate Krystal Crittendon on podium at end of rally Jan. 31, 2013, held at Bert’s Place in Eastern Market.

She added, “I am sick and tired of hearing people say that ‘those’ people down in Detroit can’t manage our business. We don’t need an emergency manager, we need to manage our own emergency. I’m sick and tired of hearing them blaming the overworked, underpaid city employees who are doing the best they can do with little resources for the city they love.”

Les Little and Chris Griffiths were part of crowd of 200 supporting Krystal Crittendon for Mayor Jan. 21, 2013.

Crittendon’s supporters included many who have fought against Public Act 4, the dictator act signed by Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder in 2011, and the city consent agreement tied to it, which remains in place despite the repeal of PA4. Using powers newly bestowed on the Corporation Counsel by the City Charter, Attorney Crittendon sued the state over the consent agreement, citing city and state rules that a municipality cannot contract with an entity that owes it money.

Wall Street ratings agencies immediately downgraded Detroit’s bond ratings. The U.S> Justice Department has just sued one of the three major agencies, Standard and Poor’s, for $5 billion to compensate for fraudulent ratings activities.

Crittendon contended, as Michigan Treasurer Andy Dillon confirmed, that the state owes Detroit at least $224 million in revenue-sharing funds. She also said the state owes the city various water, electric and parking ticket bills.  The consent agreement essentially put 13 emergency managers in charge of Detroit, a nine-member advisory board appointed largely by Gov. Snyder, Project Management Director Kriss Andrews, CFO Jack Martin, and Dillon and Snyder, cutting city services and slashing workers’ pay and benefits.

Joy and hope light up the eyes of Crittendon’s supporters, many of whom were women.

Ingham County Circuit Court Judge William Collette said he had his mind made up from the beginning.

“This is such an obvious situation,” Collette opined at the outset of the hearing. “I saw it from the moment it happened. People just need to learn to live with this and move this ahead. I don’t know how anybody else can sue the state. Dave Bing is the mayor and he has the authority.”

Crittendon and her supporters from Free Detroit-No Consent also opposed a contract with Miller Canfield, a law firm whose attorney Michael McGee co-authored Public Act 4.

During a hearing on the contract at City Council Nov. 20, 2012, Crittendon said,“There are a number of conflicts of interest [in the contract] that I cannot ethically advise this body on.The Charter requires the Corporation Counsel to prepare or approve all contracts with outside legal firms. I did neither. . . .My opinion is that you would be violating the Charter.”

Crowd wildly applauds as Crittendon takes podium.

Bing and the Council Rogue Six fired Crittendon at the state’s bidding shortly afterwards, on Dec. 4. She maintains a position as a Law Department attorney meanwhile.

Krystal Jackson, who co-chaired the meeting, said, “Krystal Crittendon is a beacon of light in the darkness, who can put an end to the corruption, male chauvinism, and extortion that is currently rampant in city government. She has zero tolerance for fraud and lawlessness. She is a warrior armed with devotion, she IS Detroit.”

Krystal Crittendon (rear l) and sister and mother (rear r) wait in the wings at the outset of rally.

Crittendon’s mother and sister took the podium to detail her life. (See biography at end of article).

They stressed Crittendon’s campaign slogan, “Courage, Commitment, and Character.”

“This is a Lincoln Moment,” Valerie Simmons-Glenn of Free Detroit, No Consent said in introducing Crittendon. “Krystal would be Detroit’s first African-American female mayor. Our organization started April 4, 2012, when the Council approved the consent agreement [despite Crittendon’s legal advice]. We want to go with someone who knows the law and will not let the city be stolen. We need to get out there to educate the people, tell them to stop reading the mainstream media, whose editors will change anything the reporters write.”

Valerie Simmons Glenn of Free Detroit No Consent introduces Crittendon.

Former U.S. Congresswoman and City Council member Barbara Rose Collins also addressed the rally in Crittendon’s support.

“I prayed that God would send us a leader, like Harriet Tubman, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Erma Henderson,” Collins said.

“He sent us Krystal Crittendon, who didn’t move into the city for the election, who has been here all along, who looks just like you, and loves Detroit. Gov. Snyder needs to go back to Lansing with his kinfolk. He is just like the European settlers who fought Native Americans at Wounded Knee and Bloody Run after they found gold in the Black Hills. We have lost a battle, but we are going to win this war. People like Roger Penske and Dan Gilbert didn’t build Detroit or America, you did, they took their money off your labor.

Former U.S. Congresswoman and City Council member Barbara Rose Collins.

During the remainder of her talk, Crittendon stressed the courage it takes to stand up to the powers that be.

“I am not stubborn as I have been portrayed,” Crittendon said. “I have been a city litigator who is able to deal with the corporations, but I will not compromise with them if they will hurt the people of Detroit. My decision to fight for the people of Detroit and those who work for the city is the right thing to do. I will make sure the city’s legal interests are protected. I will not be the Mayor of downtown or midtown, the people need a Mayor of all around town. Investors need to know their money won’t be wasted or squandered. I know the city government inside and out. I believe elected leaders paid by the public do not have a right to disrespect the people’s Charter. What is coming will be better than what has been.”

Crittendon;s pastor Charles Stewart.

Debra Taylor with attendee.

Tyrone Travis

Poet Honecomb

Morris Mays

 
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Contact info:

• The Committee to Elect Krystal A. Crittendon Mayor
• P.O. Box 442080, Detroit, MI 48244
• 313-822-4758
• crittendonformayor@att.net

Stephen Murphy of Standard and Poor’s (r) speaks at Detroit City Council meeting Jan. 31, 2004 as Joe O’Keefe of Fitch Ratings listens smugly. They successfully pushed a hotly contested $1.5 BILLION pension obligation certificate loan on Detroit, from UBS (which just paid the USDOJ a $1.5 billion fine after admitting fraud), and its minority partner Siebert, Brandford and Shank. The Council finally caved under threat of lay-offs and credit downgrades. Detroit defaulted on the debt twice, after the market crashed in 2008. To prevent bankruptcy, the city agreed to have its casino taxes and revenue-sharing funds funneled through the U.S. Bank of NA as trustee, to ensure debt payments. Photo: Diane Bukowski

NO CRIMINAL ACTION TAKEN

By Aruna Viswanatha and Lauren Tara LaCapra

Tue Feb 5, 2013 6:03pm EST

(Reuters) – The U.S. government is seeking more than $5 billion in a lawsuit against rating agency Standard & Poor’s over mortgage bond ratings, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said on Tuesday.

Standard and Poor’s offices.

The civil suit against S&P and its parent McGraw-Hill Cos Inc is the first federal enforcement action against a credit rating agency over alleged illegal behavior related to the 2007-2009 U.S. financial crisis.

The government is accusing the ratings service of defrauding investors, in one of the most ambitious cases yet from the Justice Department over conduct tied to the financial crisis.

The United States said S&P inflated ratings and understated risks associated with mortgage securities, driven by a desire to gain more business from the investment banks that issued those securities. S&P committed fraud by falsely claiming its ratings were objective, the lawsuit said.

U. S. Attorney General Eric Holder.

“Put simply, this alleged conduct is egregious – and it goes to the very heart of the recent financial crisis,” said Attorney General Eric Holder at a news conference in Washington announcing the charges.

The 119-page lawsuit, filed late Monday in federal court in Los Angeles, is the first from the government against a ratings agency, a sector that has generally shielded itself from liability by citing First Amendment protection of free speech.

Sixteen states and the District of Columbia are also suing S&P, a unit of the McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. McGraw-Hill shares fell as much as 8.9 percent on Tuesday, after dropping 13.8 percent on Monday.

Neither Michigan’s Slavemaster Gov. Rick Snyder nor his ally Detroit Mayor Dave Bing have instituted lawsuits against S & P or any banks for the devastation they have wrought in particular on Detroit and other majority Black cities.

No individuals were charged in the DOJ’s lawsuit, and it was not immediately clear why the government focused on S&P instead of rivals Moody’s Corp or Fimalac SA’s Fitch Ratings, which were also major raters of such securities.

The 2007-2009 financial crisis was due in large part to massive losses triggered by risky mortgage loans packaged and sold to investors, often with top ratings from credit raters.

S&P issued a statement on Tuesday saying the lawsuit is meritless and that it will vigorously defend itself. It said the government “cherry picked” emails to misconstrue analyst activity.

“Claims that we deliberately kept ratings high when we knew they should be lower are simply not true,” the company said.

Senator Carl Levin, who led a year-long inquiry into the causes of the financial crisis and singled out credit raters for blame, said in a statement the public was “eagerly awaiting” legal actions tied to the financial crisis.

“The credit rating agencies have yet to acknowledge any blame or make the changes necessary to prevent conflicts of interest from fueling more inflated ratings in the future,” the Democrat from Michigan said.

YEARS-LONG BATTLE

A source close to S&P said the firm expected a years-long battle with the government over the lawsuit. Settlement talks recently collapsed, the source said, after the government sought a penalty of over $1 billion and admissions of wrongdoing, which would exposed the firm to outside liability. Continue reading →

BAMN protest against anti-affirmative action Proposal 2 in Lansing before its passage.

Feb. 4, 2013

 By Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action by Any Means Necessary (BAMN)

BAMN today supported Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette’s request that the Supreme Court review the decision of the Sixth Circuit striking down Proposal 2, Michigan’s anti-affirmative action proposal.  In a brief filed with the Supreme Court today, BAMN asked the Court to grant review in order to strike down California’s Proposition 209 and the identical laws that have been passed in Arizona, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Washington. 

Attorneys Shanta Driver, George Washington, and Monica Smith announce victory Nov. 15, 2012 after Sixth Circuit Court overturned Proposal 2. Since then, at the request of Michigan AG Bill Schuette, the decision has been stayed pending a hearing at the U.S. Supreme Court.

Shanta Driver, BAMN’s National Chair and one of the attorneys representing BAMN in this case, said “We are asking the Supreme Court to review this case not because the Sixth Circuit was wrong, but because it was right.  The Sixth Circuit decision should be extended to California and the other four states where Ward Connerly’s amendments have passed.  If Proposal 2 is unconstitutional, so is California’s Proposition 209.”    

George B. Washington, an attorney for BAMN, said “Proposal 2 and Proposition 209 have turned black, Latina/o and Native American residents into second-class citizens.  Racial minorities are now the only groups who cannot ask the universities to adopt admissions programs that will make it possible for their children to attend their state universities.”

Michigan AG Bill Schuette

Washington also said, “These laws have driven down minority admissions by one third or more at the University of Michigan and at the University of California at the very moment the country is becoming majority minority.” 

The anti-affirmative action amendment passed in Michigan November 2006.  The entire Sixth Circuit held that it was unconstitutional on November 15, 2012.  Michigan’s Attorney General has asked the Supreme Court to review the case. 

The exact same proposal had passed in California in November 2006 and was upheld by the Ninth Circuit in 1997. 

Driver said, “We need to build a movement like we did to win the Grutter decision in order to assure that the Fourteenth Amendment applies to California as well as to Michigan.” 

Contacts:  George B. Washington  313-715-4886   Shanta Driver  313-407-4865 

Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN)    http://www.bamn.com

Related article: http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/11/24/court-overturns-michigan-ban-on-affirmative-action/

Tribesmen this week examine the rubble of a building in southeastern Yemen where American teenager Abdulrahmen al-Awlaki and six suspected al-Qaida militants were killed in a U.S. drone strike on Oct. 14, 2011. Al-Awlaki, 16, was the son of Anwar al-Awlaki, who died in a similar strike two weeks earlier. Khaled Abdullah / Reuters

Justifies Obama administration’s use of drone strikes

By Pete Yost                                                                                                                                        Associated Press

February 5, 2013 

Washington — A confidential Justice Department memo says it is legal for the government to kill U.S. citizens abroad if it believes they are senior al-Qaida leaders continually engaged in operations aimed at killing Americans.

The document, first reported Monday night by NBC News, provides a legal rationale behind the Obama administration’s use of drone strikes against al-Qaida suspects.

The 16-page document says it is lawful to target al-Qaida linked U.S. citizens if they pose an “imminent” threat of violent attack against Americans, and that delaying action against such people would create an unacceptably high risk. Such circumstances may necessitate expanding the concept of imminent threat, the memo says.

“The threat posed by al-Qaida and its associated forces demands a broader concept of imminence in judging when a person continually planning terror attacks presents an imminent threat,” the document added.

Samir Khan

A September 2011 drone strike in Yemen killed Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan, both U.S. citizens linked to al-Qaida.

The memo does not require the U.S. to have information about a specific imminent attack against the U.S.

“A decision maker determining whether an al-Qaida operational leader presents an imminent threat of violent attack against the United States must take into account that certain members of al-Qaida … are continually plotting attacks against the United States” and that “al-Qaida would engage in such attacks regularly to the extent it were able to do so,” says the document.

The document also says that a decision maker must take into account that “the U.S. government may not be aware of all al-Qaida plots as they are developing and thus cannot be confident that none is about to occur; and that…the nation may have a limited window of opportunity within which to strike in a manner that both has a high likelihood of success and reduces the probability of American casualties.”

For more, including link to document, click on http://openchannel.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/04/16843014-exclusive-justice-department-memo-reveals-legal-case-for-drone-strikes-on-americans?lite

Also read U.S.-allied Yemeni government’s story on killing of Imam Anwar al-Awlaki, in which it says its government killed al-Awlaki, at http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2011/09/yemen_claims_aqap_cl.php.  The Yemeni government has earlier covered for U.S. incursions into its country. This article is published on the website of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, described as a “neo-conservative think tank” based in the U.S. by RightWeb, at http://www.rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/foundation_for_defense_of_democracies.

Imam Luqman Abdullah, assassinated by FBI, Dearborn and Detroit police Oct. 28, 2009.

And VOD wonders where the intelligence document is allowing the U.S. to kill American citizens suspected of terrorism at home, without a trial. Let us not forget the assassination of Iman Luqman Abdullah in Dearborn, MI on Oct. 28, 2009. Attorney General Eric Holder and the Justice Dept. eventually exonerated those responsible. Click on VOD/Final Call story at http://voiceofdetroit.net/2010/10/16/family-religious-and-civil-rights-leaders-outraged-after-doj-exonerates-imam-luqman-abdullah%e2%80%99s-killers/.