US Major General David Hogg inspects Ugandan troops/ Photo Ryan Sutherland. During the Obama administration, the U.S. has put boots on the ground throughout Africa, in the wake of the U.S./NATO led destruction of Libya and execution of Col. Muammar Gadhafi.
Asst. Editor- | Last updated: Oct 25, 2012 – 10:31:36 AM
Green Party candidate Jill Stein wants to be president
Dr. Stein is highly critical of President Obama’s expansion of drone wars in Yemen and Somalia, as well as sending armed troops into parts of Africa, which she believes was hastened once it was discovered that there was oil in Central Africa.
Green Party Presidential Candidate, Dr. Jill Stein (Right) and her vice-presidential running mate Cheri Honkala (Left) accept their nominations at the 2012 Green Party Convention in Baltimore, MD. Photo: Barbara G. Green
(FinalCall.com) – A recently released report from the Center for the Study of the American Electorate found this year’s estimated national primary turnout has reached a new record low.
According to the Virginia-based non-profit, non-partisan research institute, between 95 and 100 million eligible voters may sit out of this year’s election.
Though many disenchanted voters are unhappy with the binary presidential options presented by America’s two-party dominated political system, many either select what they consider to the lesser of two evils, while some opt-out of voting altogether.
Green Party presidential candidate Dr. Jill Stein articulates a view shared by an increasing number in the U.S. who have grown tired of corporate controlled political parties and their strong-armed dominance within a structure that only seems to benefit the wealthy.
She hopes to mobilize those nearly 100 million American citizens. Even if she were only able to mobilize a portion of those disaffected voters, the electoral landscape would be altered remarkably.
To put that goal and number in perspective, President Barack Obama won the 2008 election receiving over 69 million votes. His vanquished Republican opponent John McCain received just under 60 million.
When asked, she is very clear about why she is running for president and quickly runs down a long list of issues she considers important for the future of the country.
“I think we are in crisis,” said Dr. Stein. “People are losing their jobs, their homes, wages are going down, affordable health care and higher education are being placed out of reach. Our civil liberties are under attack, there is a racist war on drugs and racism is alive and well in America,” she added.
Dr. Stein says the wealthy few are doing better than ever, benefitting from crony capitalism, squandering trillions of dollars on foreign wars. There have been bailouts for Wall Street and tax breaks for the wealthy, while austerity measures are being thrust upon everyone else.
“I think the people of America and ordinary people all over the world in fact are at the breaking point and we need to take it and turn it into a tipping point,” she said.
A viable option?
The Green Party of the United States describes itself as “a federation of state Green Parties committed to environmentalism, non-violence, social justice, and grassroots organizing.”
Cynthia McKinney, formerly Green Party presidential candidate and six-term U.S. Congresswoman, speaks against the U.S.-NATO occupation of Libya on Aug. 27, 2011 in Detroit.
In 2008, former member of Congress Cynthia McKinney was the GP’s presidential candidate and tapped activist Rosa Clemente as her vice-presidential running mate. They garnered 161,680 votes in the election and were on the ballot in 32 states.
On November 6, voters will find Dr. Stein on the ballot as an available choice in at least 85 percent of the voting booths around the country, including the prized states of California, Texas, Illinois, New York, Florida and Ohio.
“We have benefitted from the hard work that Cynthia and Rosa did together. They were fighting this battle at a very difficult time and they were ahead of the curve,” said Dr. Stein. “A lot of people are waking up to the reality that a corporate sponsored candidate and a corporate sponsored political party isn’t going to solve this for us, so we have benefitted from the trailblazing that Cynthia and Rosa did,” she added. Continue reading →
Cecily McClellan (l) and others from “Free Detroit–No Consent” protest Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder’s appearance in downtown Detroit Nov. 1, 2012. A new poll published by the Detroit Free Press shows that PA 4 may be going down to defeat. VOTE NO ON PROP 1!
OPEN LETTER FROM RUSS BELLANT TO AG BILL SCHUETTE:
Russ Bellant
November 1, 2012
Attorney General Bill Schuette –
This is an open letter that I am sharing with about 1,000 Michiganders that is prompted by your reverence for the Michigan Constitution as displayed in your TV ads opposing Proposal 2, which would add collective bargaining rights to the Constitution for more employees than the state troopers that already have such rights in our Constitution.
In order to further your cause of protecting the Constitution, may I suggest two other special interests that are already abusing the Constitution that require your immediate attention:
Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette
1) In Article I, Section 10 of our Constitution, it says that “No bill of attainder, ex post facto law or law impairing the obligation of contract shall be enacted.” Yet our reckless Legislature passed and our Governor signed a bill, Public Act 4 of 2011, that enables appointees to impair contracts that would give our 1963 Constitutional Convention chairman, George Romney, heartburn. Not only was this law passed, but it is being widely implemented and contracts are being impaired across Michigan.
Do you think that you could help rectify this deplorable situation by calling for a repeal of PA 4 by issuing a press release calling for a NO vote on Proposal 1?
Michigan Supreme Court Justice Robert Young declared that PA 72 cannot be revived if PA 4 is defeated.
I know that you directed staff to argue in the Supreme Court that Prop 1 should be kept off the ballot so that voters could not decide this issue, but we all make mistakes.
Speaking of mistakes, did your Assistant AG tell you that in the July 25 Supreme Court proceeding that Chief Justice Robert Young insisted that PA 72 could not be revived with the mere suspension of PA 4, but then your staff argued in a Wayne County court that it could be revived? Did you know that your staff used a nonexistent citation to make their argument? Seems like someone in a position of responsibility should lose their job in all this mess, doesn’t it?
Perhaps the group sponsoring your ads to protect the Constitution (the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, which is not a special interest?) could pay for some NO on 1 ads with you as the centerpiece, but keep the stone-faced Ionia Sheriff in your Prop 2 ads out of this one – he reminds too many voters of the cop who gave them a ticket for 5 over. The YES on 2 Sheriff has you beat on this one.
Some of the 10,000 people who turned out to protest Public Act 4 in Lansing on April 13, 2011.
2) If you read Article VIII, Section 3 of our violated Constitution says that “Leadership and general supervision over all public education, including adult education and instructional programs in state institutions, except as to institutions of higher education granting baccalaureate degrees, is vested in a state board of education. It shall serve as the general planning and coordinating body for all public education, including higher education and shall advise the legislature as to the financial requirements in connection therewith.”
Now that seems straight forward enough. But again, our Governor, whose office is not even accorded a role in education, has set up a “state school district” and appointed a board to start running that “district” and receive taxpayer funds. Further, he has used his powers of the unconstitutional PA 4 (see above) to take schools from a local school district and claim them for his own “district.”
Did you know that some of those school buildings are being paid for until 2033 by taxpayers who thought that they were voting to approve bonds to build schools for their own local district before the Governor swooped in and just took them? Is that a form of voter fraud that you could investigate? Its almost like a compounded unconstitutional crime wave, wouldn’t you say?
Mr. Attorney General, there are a lot of concerned citizens that wish to arrest this unlawful activity. Please let us know when you are ready to stand with us by redeploying your bully pulpit.
You should consider this a formal complaint and request for action. Please let me know if I must resubmit it in a larger font size.
Mertilla Jones, grandmother of Aiyana Stanley-Jones, shot to death in polce raid at the age of 7, speaks to media before court hearing on cop who killed her Oct. 29, 2012.
Child, shot to death at 7, would have been 10 this year
Court, prosecution, defense delay trial of officer Joseph Weekley
By Diane Bukowski
October 30, 2012
DETROIT – “We are coming out here as long as it takes,” Aiyana Jones’ grandmother Mertilla Jones said before Detroit police officer Joseph Weekley appeared in court Oct. 29 for a second hearing on a motion to dismiss charges against him.
Mertilla Jones shows Aiyana’s photo during Oct. 29, 2012 press conference.
“It is frustrating that this is dragging on for so long, but it is more frustrating that Weekley is not locked up for murdering a seven-year-old girl,” Jones said. “He was supposed to protect and serve. But all he served Aiyana with was a bullet to the head. Many people in Detroit have forgotten about Aiyana by now, but I am still getting messages from people all over the country and all over the world expressing support.”
Weekley shot the child as she slept with her grandmother May 16, 2010, during a horrific military-style midnight raid on her home, as cameras from A&E’s “First 48” show rolled.
Jones spoke during a press conference called by the newly-formed Coalition for Justice for Aiyana Jones.
“The police were showing off for the reality show,” Aaron Petcoff, a representative of the Coalition, said. “They feel they can get away with this in a poor Black neighborhood, and the justice system is working to let them get away with it.”
Joseph Weekley (r) at arraignment in 2011. Also shown (l front) Wayne Co. Prosecutor Kym Worthy, (rear r to l) co-defendant Allison Howard and her attorney. Hedr trial has since been severed, and is set for Dec. 3, 2011.
Although he was charged with involuntary manslaughter and reckless use of a firearm a year ago, Weekley has yet to face trial. It has become apparent during a series of pre-trial hearings that the court, prosecution and defense want the child’s father Charles Jones tried on first-degree murder charges in a separate case first.
“Her daddy can’t even grieve with his family for his daughter, because he has been locked up for a year while Weekley is free with his family,” Jones added. “I have lost two sisters waiting for justice. One of them was in the room with me when my grandbaby was shot, and both just gave up hope on living after that.”
Weekley has been free on personal bond while Aiyana’s father and her aunt’s fiancé Chauncey Owens are in jail awaiting trial. They are accused in the killing of 17-year-old Je’Rean Blake two days before Aiyana’s death. Detroit police used that incident as a pretext to stage a midnight raid with grenades, tanks, and assault weapons on the Jones’ home, while cameras for A & E’s “The First 48” rolled.
Charles Jones (front) is comforted by his aunt JoAnn Robinson, now deceased, the morning of Aiyana’s killing May 16, 2010. His cousin Mark Robinson, who warned police children were in the home, is at left.
Police had a warrant for Owens, but did not obtain an arrest warrant for Jones until one and a half years later. Owens did not live with the Jones family, but in an upstairs flat with a separate entrance. He surrendered voluntarily and could have been arrested earlier when he left the house while police were surveilling it, according to nationally-renowned attorney Geoffrey Fieger.
Weekley’s defense attorney Steve Fishman and Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Cynthia Gray Hathaway expressed surprise at the extensive presence of TV cameras and reporters in the courtroom, claiming the hearing was minor.
“I tried to tell the media not to bother,” Fishman said, “but it was like talking to my wife and children.”
Weekley’s attorney Steve Fishman has defended numerous police officers.
At the first hearing Sept. 28 on the Weekley motion to dismiss, Judge Hathaway said she could not rule on it without reviewing extensive files. She asked Assistant Prosecutor Robert Moran and Fishman to produce those documents, including those from a one-man grand jury hearing conducted by Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Timothy Kenny. Judge Hathaway has had the case since November, 2011.
On Oct. 29, the two attorneys said they had compiled records they agreed would be needed, consisting solely of transcripts of testimony by police officers, detectives and two family members. Everything related to the grand jury hearing has been sealed from public view, and both attorneys agreed it should continue to remain so.
Asst. Prosecutor Robert Moran (front) during preliminary exam for Charles Jones, who he is also prosecuting in what many say is a conflict of interest. Jones’ defense attorney Leon Weiss speaks at podium Jan. 26, 2012.
“We didn’t provide photos, evidence technician reports and sketches, firearms reports and the autopsy report because we felt they were not important to the theory of gross negligence,” Moran told the judge.
“One exhibit is a disc of 150 photos,” he added. “We don’t think the court needs to see those. The court doesn’t need to review the entire transcripts. The court might want to focus on the testimony of the Detroit police officers, all the police on the Special Response Team, and the homicide detectives. A number of civilians were not in the room. Just two were there, and the court needs to read those.”
During the raid, numerous members of the Jones family were present in the small flat, including Aiyana’s father, aunt, and younger siblings and cousins, and Owens’ 15-year-old daughter. Her adult cousin Mark Robinson was first detained by police outside the home. He said he warned them that children were present in the house before they fire-bombed it and entered shooting.
Painting of Aiyana Jones on her mother Dominika Jones’ Facebook page.
According to court records, police also brought Owens into the lower flat, seating him on the couch where Aiyana died, with her blood and body fragments still there.
The Wayne County Medical Examiner’s office said in its first autopsy report that Aiyana had been shot through the throat, but later concurred with a second autopsy report by forensic pathologist Daniel Spitz which showed she was shot through the top of her head, with the bullet exiting her throat.
(See video below, in which Fieger explains how the autopsy report is key to the theory of the crime. Channel 7 reported in print, “A Wayne County spokesman is confirming to Action News that the cause of death on the death certificate for Aiyana Stanley-Jones was changed from ‘gunshot wound to the neck’ to ‘gunshot wound to the head.’ The spokesman says it was changed on Friday after the Wayne County Medical Examiner spoke to the Macomb County Medical Examiner, Dr. Daniel Spitz.”
Fishman said, “I feel the same way as Moran as far as the exhibits go, although if the court wants to see them we can have them there.”
Judge Timothy Kenny, the “one-man grand jury” on the investigation of the police killing of Aiyana Jones. He refused to release any documents from court file to VOD.
Hathaway appeared not to be interested in the exhibits, stating, “I would assume the exhibits were included in the probable cause motion to indict.” Judge Kenny granted that motion to indict Weekley on the limited charges, and reviewed those exhibits secretly.
Ron Scott, also working with the Coalition for Justice for Aiyana Jones, questioned why Judge Hathaway would not want to review the same exhibits if she is considering dismissing the case.
Hathaway asked about what she termed “the companion case, for lack of a better term.”
Moran said the hearings on Jones and Owens have been postponed until the beginning of 2013. He said the state Supreme Court should decide by then on an application for leave to appeal filed by Jones’ attorney. An appeals court earlier overturned a ruling by Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Richard Skutt that the testimony of “jail-house snitch” Jay Schlenkerman could not be used against Jones.
Judge Cynthia Gray Hathaway
Hathaway subsequently said she would not be ready to rule on the motion to dismiss the charges against Weekley until “early next year.”
The “companion case” to Weekley’s is actually that of Allison Howard, an Arts & Entertainment (A & E) producer who has been charged with perjury and obstruction of justice for her alleged actions related to A&E’s taping of the raid. Her trial has since been severed from Weekley’s.
Former Detroit police chief Ralph Godbee tried to blame Mertilla Jones for the killing of Aiyana, then later retracted statement.
Jones said that when she was deposed during the grand jury proceedings on possible charges in her granddaughter’s death, the court was most interested in details pertaining to the earlier killing of Je’rean Blake.
“Ralph Godbee [who just resigned as Detroit police chief] said I interfered with Weekley and that made his gun go off,” Jones said after the hearing. “But if I had, I would be dead too.”
Hathaway set Nov. 30 as the date for the next hearing on Weekley’s case. She set the same date for a demonstration of the effects of the “flash-bang” grenade which was thrown through the window above the sleeping child and her grandmother just before Weekley entered and shot the child to death.
The contention has been that the detonation “dis-oriented” Weekley, although Moran said that officers in the SRT are specially trained to function while it goes off.
That demonstration was earlier scheduled for July, but Hathaway said Sept. 28 that she was the only person who showed up for it.
Ron Scott at courthouse Oct. 29, 2012.
“This is a total miscarriage of justice,” Ron Scott, who is also working with the Coalition for Justice for Aiyana Jones, said after the hearing. “Since when have you heard of a case of this magnitude being postponed for this long? In this kind of case, the forensic evidence is placed up front and first, but rhere are certain things they don’t want the public to hear or know. The entire Special Response Team, which is a paramilitary unit, and everyone in the police command who told Weekley what to expect and do need to be indicted as well. It will be a travesty if Weekley and all these others walk.”
Mertilla Jones said her family celebrates Aiyana’s birthday every year. She would have been 10 years old July 20, 2012.
Families brought their children to the rally against ICE raids and deportations, held Sat. Oct. 20, 2012 in Clark Park on Detroit’s southwest side.
Stop the raids at schools, churches, homes and jobs
All human beings are legal
By Diane Bukowski
October 30, 2012
DETROIT – Families from Detroit’s southwest side are rallying to stop rampant raids by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE), including the recent arrest of a father dropping his child off at Cesar Chavez Academy and the attempted detainment of parents dropping another child off at a Head Start Program.
Another father seized by ICE, Alfredo Avila-Mendez, is awaiting a pre-trial hearing Nov. 6 and trial Nov. 8 in front of U.S. District Judge Julian Abele Cook. Francisco Romero-Caspeto was found guilty of illegal re-entry into the U.S. October 17, and is awaiting sentencing by U.S. District Court Judge Marianne O. Battani on Nov. 13 at 2p.m. at the U.S. Federal Courthouse on Lafayette in downtown Detroit, according to court documents.
(Click on Francisco and Alfredo RALLY for flier describing their situations. Both men had been in the country for many years, are married with children, and were working to support their families and pay taxes.)
Attorneys George Washington, Shanta Driver, and Joyce Schon, all affiliated with the national Coalition for Affirmative Action, Integration and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality by Any Means Necessary (BAMN), are representing the men in court.
Familes crowded the park to mobilize against ICE raids and in support of two fathers now facing deportation.
“The President has claimed that ICE and DHS (Department of Homeland Security) will only target undocumented people for deportation who pose a ‘threat to society,” said Manuel Mendez, an organizer for the By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) coalition.
Arecely R. tells crowd that her husband, the sole support of herself and three children, was seized by ICE two months ago.
“Yet they are detaining and criminalizing thousands of innocent people whose only so-called ‘crime’ is crossing the border for a better life, just as the ancestors of most Americans did in the past. If this is not the administration’s policy, we demand that the President send out a clear message by firing Detroit ICE Director Rebecca Adducci immediately.”
To date, families including mothers and children deprived of their husbands and fathers have gathered in Clark Park at rallies Oct. 20, 27, and 28. They said ICE has been showing up not only at schools, but churches, homes and workplaces.
“Two months ago, ICE picked up my husband,” Arecely R. said, weeping. “I want them to let him out and stop harassing people. His family, me and our three children, need his support. He is hard-working, responsible and dedicated. We have to join together to stop this. We have a lot of support in the community.”
Western High School student Lydia M. also broke down crying as she said that her grandmother in Mexico is very sick.
Lydia M. weeps as she tells how her father cannot go to visit her sick grandmother in Mexico for fear of not being able to come back home.
“My father really wants to go see his mother, but he is scared that if he does, he will not be able to come back home to us. I am so proud of my sister who is going to law school. She wants to be an immigration lawyer. I want her to go for that dream.”
Another speaker who attends the University of Berkley California said that people there have mobilized a direct action system to stop the ICE raids.
“We had an alert system for when ICE was coming to our school,” he said. “We would surround the student they were looking for with a lot of students so that they couldn’t single out the individual. We need to do the same thing here, to stop ICE from showing up anywhere they please. President Obama’s program to allow students to apply for deferred action is very limited, but it can become a pathway for citizenship.”
Many youth from the Latina/o community in southwest Detroit came to the Oct. 20 rally.
Benjamin Royal reminded the crowd of the spring of 2006, when massive rallies for immigrant rights across the U.S. defeated right-wing anti-immigrant legislation in the U.S. Congress.
“We must build a movement independent of the Democrats and Republicans to demand equality for all people, and put an end to this policy of kidnapping and deporting our friends, neighbors and family members,” Royal said.
Benjamin Royal, Issamar Almaraz, Monica Smith and Leroy Lewis all spoke at the rally; here Almaraz and Smith read position paper on ICE raids.
BAMN attorney Monica Smith co-chaired the rally with Issamar Almaraz translating for Spanish-speakers.
The two read a position paper in both English and Spanish to the crowd. (Click on ICE flier to read entire statement.)
“With only a few weeks remaining until the elections, a mobilization of the Latina/o and immigrant communities can send a message to the President, who is commander of the ICE, that he call off his dogs now,” the two said. “The President or one of his cabinet members could, with a single phone call, end the ICE harassment we face everyday.”
As world-renowned activist and author Angela Davis told a crowd in Detroit Oct. 24, the two said that the people’s power at the polls pales in comparison to the real power communities possess.
“When we stand together, documented and undocumented and take to the streets, we can change the course of history, not just the outcome of a single election,” they said. “Those without a vote—the youth, the undocumented and others, have more social power acting together than individual voters in our communities can cast. . . .Just a few of us need to rival the boldness of the ICE to begin to loosen the fear imposed by them on the majority of people in Southwest Detroit.”
For more information on the growing movement to stop ICE terror on Detroit’s southwest side, contact organizers Monica Smith at 313-585-3637, and Issamar Almaraz (Spanish speaker) at 313-421-2513 or
The Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration, & Immigrant Rights, and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) at 855-ASK-BAMN (855-275-2266), email@bamn.com. www.BAMN.com and twitter: @followbamn.
Rally participants spread out to march to the campaign offices of Pres. Barack Obama at 2727 Second to ask that he stop the raids and deportations.
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).
State AG Schuette wants them to die behind bars
AG lost Davis case; re-sentencing set for Nov. 16, 2012
AG now part of Raymond Carp appeals case
USDC Judge O’Meara considering answer to Mich. ACLU motion; his ruling could override appeals court on Carp
By Diane Bukowski
October 25, 2012
Michigan AG Bill Schuette. Photo: Wikimedia.org.
DETROIT—Despite the Michigan Supreme Court’s refusal Sept. 7 to halt the re-sentencing of Cortez Daviz (shown above), Michigan’s Attorney General Bill Schuette is continuing his crusade to have Davis and the rest of Michigan’s 371 juvenile lifers die behind bars.
Michigan has the second highest number of juvenile lifers in the country. Seventy-four percent of them are prisoners of color, according to a study by the Michigan chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
Davis, of Detroit, was 16 when he was sent to prison in 1993 in a felony murder case. But in June, the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed mandatory juvenile life without parole sentences for any crime, in Miller v. Alabama and Jackson v. Hobbs.
Wayne Co. Prosecutor Kym Worthy listens to top assistant prosecutors including Robert Moran (r) during court hearing.
The Michigan Supreme Court refused to hear arguments from Schuette and Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy against Davis’ re-sentencing.
“We REMAND this case to the Wayne County Circuit Court for reconsideration of the defendant’s successive motions for relief from judgment in light of Miller v. Alabama . . . .including the question whether Miller applies retroactively to cases that have become final on direct review,” the state high court wrote.
Judge Vera Massey Jones/Photo: Legal Aid and Defender Association
Wayne County Circuit Judge Massey Jones is now set to conduct Davis’ re-sentencing hearing on Nov. 16, 2012 at 9 a.m.
“We’re pretty excited to have this back at the trial court,” attorney Dylan DuVall, who along with Clinton Hubbell represents Davis, said in published remarks. “That’s where they belong, in the community where they occurred, where the judge is familiar with the case.”
He said he and Hubbell will ask that Davis be re-sentenced to time served.
Raymond Carp in prison six years after conviction at age of 15.
“We are not victimizing the community or anyone else with these re-sentencings,” Hubbell said earlier. “The individuals in question did not actually commit the offense for which they were sentenced, first-degree murder, and they had diminished culpability as juveniles.”
Now Schuette has gone after Raymond Carp, 15 when he was sent to die in prison in 2006 for a murder his adult brother confessed to committing in Michigan’s St. Clair County. His brother testified that Carp did not actively participate in the crime, although a hearsay witness told the court that Carp confessed his participation to him.
Schuette (pronounced “shooty”) has said he considers all juvenile lifers “teen-age murderers” despite a study showing that the majority were not the “principal actors” in the crimes involved.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, who wrote the majority opinion in Miller v. Alabama,
“Hauling hundreds of crime victims and their families back into court to relive these horrific murders would be cruel, unusual, and unnecessary,” Schuette said in a release, repeating terms U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan used to characterize sentencing children to death in prison. The USSC ruled that such sentencing violated the Eighth Amendment.
“Fortunately that scenario can be avoided by following established court precedent that says U.S. Supreme Court rulings addressing criminal justice processes are not retroactive.”
A Michigan Court of Appeals panel heard Carp’s case Oct. 16. Schuette and the state prosecutors’ association faced a formidable array of adversaries. They included the State Appellate Defenders’ Office (SADO), the Criminal Defense Attorneys of Michigan (CDAM), the Michigan Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and the University of Michigan Law School Juvenile Justice Clinic.
Kuntrell Jackson and Evan Miller were both 14 when they were sentenced to death in prison in Arkansas and Alabama, respectively.
These and other organizations have promised to represent every one of Michigan’s juvenile lifers, beginning with those who were not the principal actors and have served the longest terms. They contend that Miller v. Alabama is clearly retroactive.
Presiding Judge Michael Talbot was on the panel that denied Carp’s earlier appeal. In 1986, as a Detroit Recorders’ Court Judge, he caused gasps when he sentenced Damion Todd (shown in group photo above), 17, to mandatory life in prison without parole at hard labor and in solitary confinement, for murder. He added another term of 100 to 200 years for assault with intent to commit murder.
Charles Jones with daughter Aiyana Stanley-Jones before her shooting death by Detroit police officer Joseph Weekley.
Talbot was on the appeals panel that summarily overturned Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Richard Skutt’s recent ruling barring “jail-house snitch” Jay Schlenkerman from testifying against Charles Jones, the father of Aiyana Stanley-Jones.
The child was seven when Detroit police officer Joseph Weekley shot her to death. Jones’ attorney, from Geoffrey Fieger’s firm, is asking the state Supreme Court to overturn the appeals ruling.
Ignoring the state high court’s refusal to weigh in on Miller, Talbot questioned whether the USSC ruling was “substantive” during the Oct. 16 hearing.
“If Kagan had the votes, she would have said it was substantive. But it’s not clear because she didn’t,” Talbot said.
Appeals Court Judge Michael Talbot in 2009. Photo: Detroit Transportation Club.
“Rulings are deemed substantive if they prohibit a certain category of punishment for a class of offenders on the basis of their status or offense,” Carp’s attorney Patricia Selby countered. “In this case… what they banned was mandatory application without parole.”
She said that Miller v. Alabama clearly reflected the intent of the USSC, since the court previously banned mandatory death sentences as well as mandatory juvenile life without parole in non-homicide cases.
“We think because this involves something as significant as the Eighth Amendment,” Selby said, “that it should apply, and that it’s basically telling the courts they have to take a whole new look at people in Mr.Carp’s position.”
SADO Attorney Jonathan Sacks stressed the Supreme Court’s ruling mandating individualized sentencing for juveniles, based on seven factors (see sidebar.)
Sacks and Selby also asked the court to consider changing first-degree sentences for juvenile lifers to second-degree sentences, which would automatically allow parole.
Edward Sanders is one of the state’s longest-serving juvenile lifers, having gone to prison in 1975 at the age of 17 for a drive-by killing in which he was not the shooter. He has now been assigned an attorney, Susan Reed, who is currently preparing his motion for re-sentencing.
Sanders, who obtained his bachelor’s degree while incarcerated and functions as a “jail-house lawyer,” said that he had offered the ACLU his input on the issue of substituting second-degree sentencing before the Oct. 16 hearing.
“I noted a precedent, People v. Jenkins, 395 MI (1975), which remanded a case to the trial court for re-sentencing due to a failure to instruct the jury on the possibility of a second-degree charge,” Sanders said.
The Michigan ACLU report says that juveniles, who are not familiar with legal options and frequently have court-appointed attorneys, often turn down pleas to lesser offenses.
Sanders’ co-defendant David Walton (in group photo bottom right) was also 17 at the time of the alleged crime. Another occupant of the car, under severe pressure from prosecutors and now retired Detroit Police Deputy Chief James Younger, testified that Walton was the shooter. That individual tried to hang himself during a break in the trial according to transcripts.
Edward Sanders as youth; he is shown above in group photo, bottom, second from right.
Younger went on to head the city’s notorious Gang Squad, which since has been severely cut back due to criticisms of its methods. The Detroit Police Department has been under federal oversight since 2001 for issues including excessive force and wholesale witness round-ups, which occurred in the Sanders-Walton case.
Just prior to the Carp hearing, U.S. District Court Judge John Corbett O’Meara of Michigan’s Eastern District heard a motion Sept. 20 for “summary judgment and equitable relief” in a long-standing federal lawsuit filed by the state ACLU on behalf of 13 juvenile lifers. His ruling in that case may supercede whatever the Appeals Court decides.
Judge Corbett O’Meara earlier refused to dismiss the case as the state requested.
Attorney Deborah LaBelle argued the motion, filed on the heels of the U.S. Supreme Court decision. It asks that state law allowing juvenile life without parole accordingly be found unconstitutional.
“As parents, teachers and older siblings, we inherently understand that kids are fundamentally different than adults,” LaBelle said in May while announcing the release of a report, Basic Decency: An Examination of Natural Life Sentences for Michigan Youth.
Attorney Deborah LaBelle
“They are impulsive, inexperienced, vulnerable to mistreatment, and are not able to easily escape or cope with abuse and other trauma. While there is no denying that youth must be held accountable for actions, as a state, we can do better than sentencing them to die in prison.”
During the Carp hearing, Judge Talbot asked attorneys for both sides to come up with proposals for legislative solutions to comply with the U.S. Supreme Court decisions. However, recent actions in other states show there are pitfalls in such solutions.
The state with the highest number of juvenile lifers is Pennsylvania, with 444. The Pennsylvania State House voted 174-20 on Oct. 20 for a measure that would give defendants under age 15 at least 20 years for second-degree murder and 25 years for first-degree murder. Those 15-17 would receive minimum sentences of 25 and 35 years respectively. The measure is supported by Pennsylvania’s Republican Governor Tom Corbett, according to a report from the national Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth.
In California, where more than 309 juvenile lifers are incarcerated, the third highest number in the U.S., Governor Jerry Brown signed a measure Sept. 30 allowing juvenile lifers to ask judges to reconsider their sentences after at least 15 years in prison. The judges would then be able to reduce no-parole sentences to 25-years to life.
Previously, Iowa Governor Terry Branstad commuted the sentences of the state’s 38 juvenile lifers to 60 years, a measure roundly condemned by youth advocates as unduly harsh.
None of the states’ legislative remedies appear to allow for individual consideration of cases by the sentencing judges as Miller mandates, although California’s measure has been hailed by some opponents of juvenile life without parole.
Families AND VICTIMS of Michigan’s juvenile lifers packed the State Captiol in 2006 to lobby for legislation to outlaw juvenile life without parole. No such laws were ever passed. Now Michigan Atty. General Bill Schuette is fighting every attempt by juvenile lifers to be re-sentenced as the U.S. Supreme Court mandated in Mlller v. Alabama/Hobbs v. Jackson.
EDITORIAL
Michigan’s juvenile lifers
Published: 10/22/2012
Last summer, the U.S. Supreme Court finally banned mandatory life sentences for juvenile offenders, including Michigan’s Draconian juvenile-lifer law.
Yet some states with these practically barbaric laws continue to resist efforts to bring their criminal justice systems in line with the Constitution. They should move expeditiously to rehear and resentence the nation’s 2,600 juvenile lifers.
Thomas McCloud, Jr. and Dontez Tillman of Pontiac, Michigan were sentenced to life without parole at the age of 14 four years ago.
More than 350 juveniles, some as young as 14, have been sentenced to life without parole in Michigan — among the most in a nation that stands alone in imposing such sentences on children. Michigan ranks second only to Pennsylvania, which has 475 juvenile lifers.
Others in the top ten include Florida with 355 juvenile lifers, Louisiana with 238, and Illinois with 98. The Supreme Court ruling affects 28 states. Ohio does not have a mandatory juvenile lifer-without-parole law, although it does have 38 prisoners under the age of 18 among its 49,000 inmates.
States with mandatory juvenile lifer laws should try to remedy these injustices as soon as possible, by rehearing the cases of those who are currently convicted, and enacting constitutional sentencing laws for future cases. In Michigan, bills that would enact new juvenile sentencing laws have not been introduced.
The state’s attorney general, Bill Schuette, maintains that the Supreme Court ruling applies only to new offenders and juvenile lifers who haven’t finished their appeals. Nonsense. Those who were sentenced under a law that has been deemed unconstitutional should, at the very least, get a second look.
Michigan’s juvenile lifer law covers homicide cases only, but nearly half of the state’s juvenile lifers didn’t actually kill. Instead, they were convicted of aiding and abetting the crime, which can mean little more than being at the scene or some other peripheral involvement.
The Supreme Court ruling requires judges to consider the backgrounds of individuals and details of their crimes before sentencing. Sentences can’t be automatic, as they were in Michigan.
Banning such laws is consistent with science, logic, and common sense. Medical brain-imaging research has proved what every parent knows: Teenagers are more impulsive than adults, even without the abuse and neglect many young offenders have experienced.
Juveniles don’t possess the same rights and responsibilities as adults because of their maturity levels. Imposing adult penalties on someone who is too young to buy a pack of cigarettes legally is irrational.
Despite compelling legal, moral, and practical arguments, Michigan lawmakers have failed for more than a decade to abolish the state’s Draconian juvenile lifer law, enacted in the 1980s, even though repealing it would not, in itself, release a single prisoner. A new law would only give juvenile lifers a chance to earn a parole after they serve lengthy sentences.
Many juvenile lifers in Michigan have already served decades in prison. Two-thirds are African-American.
Michigan is not the only state that is dancing around the high court ruling. Iowa’s governor commuted mandatory life sentences for his state’s juveniles — on the outlandish condition that they stay in jail for 60 years before they seek parole. That’s tantamount to the life sentences the high court outlawed.
Fighting the Supreme Court decision with unjustifiably narrow legal interpretations, or sidestepping it with unreasonably lengthy minimum sentences, will neither pass constitutional muster nor move states out of the Dark Ages.
Joseph Weekley, killer of Aiyana Stanley-Jones, at earlier court hearing.
Joseph Weekley, the Detroit cop who shot Aiyana Stanley-Jones, 7, to death on May 16, 2010, is scheduled to be in court on continuing action related to a motion to dismiss his case, on Oct. 29 at 9 a.m. in the courtroom of Judge Cynthia Gray Hathaway, Frank Murphy Hall, Room 801.
To download and print flyer, click on Aiyana rally.
Col. Muammar Gadhafi, leader of the Libyan People’s Jamahirya and also of the African Union, had proposed separate African currency, army to unite continent.
(RT.com) – Libyan rebels abused and mass murdered Colonel Muammar Gadhafi, his son Mutassim, and 66 loyalists, after their capture a year ago, Human Rights Watch says. It calls for an investigation and prosecution of those responsible for what they slam as a war crime.
The 50-page report “Death of a Dictator: Bloody Vengeance in Sirte” details the last hours of Muammar Gaddafi’s life on October 20, 2011, when he was caught trying to leave the city with his remaining supporters.
Bodies of apparent execution victims found at the Mahari Hotel in Sirte on October 21, 2011, the day after the final battle with the Gaddafi convoy (left). An estimated 66 captured members of the Gaddafi convoy were apparently executed at the site by opposition fighters. Human Rights Watch researchers visited the site on October 23, 2011, and found the decomposing bodies of 53 apparent execution victims, all male, still at the scene. Photo: Human Rights Watch
HRW admits difficulty in reconstructing the final days of Libya’s ex-leader since “he was surrounded by a small circle of trusted confidants and bodyguards, most of whom were killed in the attempted escape from Sirte,” stated the report.
The report relies heavily on interviews with Mansour Dhao, a senior security official and head of the pro-Gaddafi People’s Guard, and other surviving witnesses of the event. The interviews took place in Libya two days after Mr. Gadhafi’s death.
Capture, abuse, murder
Col. Gadhafi is said to have fled Tripoli with a handful of his trustful men in the end of August to his hometown of Sirte, where he “spent most of his time reading the Koran and praying,” Mr. Dhao told HRW.
“His communications with the world were cut off. There was no communication, no television, no news,” he added.
Mutassim Gadhafi visiting U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton in 2009. Clinton reportedly gave the order for his father’s execution two years later.
On Oct. 20, Col. Gadhafi’s son Mutassim deemed the situation unsafe and organized a 50-vehicle convoy for all to flee the city in the morning. The convoy consisted of 250 people, including civilians who supported Col. Gadhafi.
As the cars were trying to make their getaway, they were struck by a NATO air-fired missile, which exploded next to the car carrying Col. Gadhafi. In defense, the convoy turned on to a dirt road, but was pinned down by militia fighters and then further bombed by NATO fighter jets.
NATO jet firing missile over Libya. Such a missile struck Gadhafi’s convoy before he, his son and 66 supporters were slaughtered by counterrevolutionaries.
After the bombings Col. Gadhafi, accompanied by 10 other people, including his bodyguards, tried to take shelter by a drainage pipe, but was once again attacked by militia.
One of Col. Gadhafi’s bodyguards reportedly threw three grenades at the rebels, but one of the grenades hit a cement wall and bounced back, injuring Col. Gadhafi and leading to his capture.
“As soon as the militia fighters had custody of Gaddafi, they began abusing him. Blood was already gushing from the shrapnel wound in his head. As he was being led to the main road, a militiaman stabbed him in his anus with what appears to have been a bayonet, causing another rapidly bleeding wound,” described the report.
Col. Muammar Gadhfai suffers vicious beating before being executed by CIA-sponsored counterrevolutionaries.
Video clips taken of the capture suggest that after enduring abuses Col. Gadhafi was shot by militia fighters.
Report suggests that rebels took “bloody revenge” against Col. Gadhafi and his loyal supporters in light of the eight-month civil war.
An HRW team on the ground counted that 103 pro-Gadhafi supporters died during that escape. Half of those were killed by NATO bombings, and the other half was either killed in combat or executed.
On top of that, 140 Gadhafi loyalists were taken prisoner, but instead of being transferred to prison authorities, 66 of them were executed in a nearby hotel.
A Libyan man visits the wreckage of Muammar Gaddafi’s convoy the morning after his capture and death, Oct 21, 2011. The convoy, containing some 250 people, attempted to flee Sirte before being bombed by NATO and engaging in a fierce final battle with opposition fighters. More than 105 bodies were strewn around the wreckage of the convoy. While the majority of them appeared to have been killed during the NATO strikes and the final battle, some showed signs of having been executed. The bodies of an additional 66 members of the convoy who were detained alive after the final battle were later discovered dead at the nearby Mahari Hotel, most of them apparently victims of summary executions.
Col. Gadhafi’s son Mutassim was also captured alive, according to YouTube videos taken by his captors. However, by the afternoon of the same day, Mutassim was dead with a large new wound in his throat, suggesting he was murdered, HRW concluded.
“The throat wound thus must have been inflicted after the videos of a captured Mutassim were recorded, strongly indicating that he was killed in the custody of his captors just hours after he was detained.”
HRW points out that “these killings apparently comprise the largest documented execution of detainees committed by anti-Gaddafi forces during the eight-month conflict in Libya. The execution of persons in custody is a war crime.”
Libya’s powerless authority
HRW also accuses Libyan transitional government of lack of control and unity for failing to properly investigate and prosecute those responsible for the killings in Sirte, a year after the incident.
Aisha, daughter of Muammar Gadhafi, is calling for the International Criminal Court to investigate executions of her father, hundreds of supporters.
“To some extent, the failure of Libya’s authorities to investigate shows their continuing lack of control over the heavily armed militias, and the urgent need to bring Libya’s numerous militias under the full control of the new authorities.”
UN and International Criminal Court (ICC) have already been calling upon Libya to investigate Col. Gadhafi’s death back in October 2011.
ICC had spoken out that there were strong indications Col. Gadhafi was killed in custody, yet it left things be by letting Libya to investigate on its own.
Libya announced it had created a committee to look into circumstances of death. However, there has not been a proper update into the investigation in just under a year.
Back in January, Col. Gadhafi’s daughter Aisha hired Nick Kaufman, an Israeli lawyer, to convince the International Criminal Court to investigate the full circumstances of her father’s death, arguing that time for a proper probe is running out.
“(The investigation) would involve forensic analysis of the crime scene, ballistic analysis of the crime scene, it would involve taking detailed statements from objective and independent witnesses,” Atty. Kaufman told RT. And with time memories deteriorate, people forget, and evidence goes missing.
Yet Aisha’s efforts failed to yield results.
When HRW contacted Libya government imploring them to take action, local authorities stated that all murders were the result of Col. Gadhafi regime’s “dictatorship” and that rebels were defending themselves. However, they failed to account for those evident executions.
Published on Oct 16, 2012 by HumanRightsWatch
New evidence collected by Human Rights Watch implicates Misrata-based militias in the apparent execution of dozens of detainees following the capture and death of Muammar Gaddafi one year ago. The Libyan authorities have failed to carry out their pledge to investigate the death of dozens held in rebel custody. http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/10/16/libya-new-proof-mass-killings-gaddafi-deat…
Tom Barrow (l) ran against Dave Bing in the last mayoral election. He is shown here with supporters at Board of Canvassers hearihg. The Canvassers found over 51 % of the vote unrecountable due to massive irregularities.
BE SURE TO REGISTER FOR THE TOM BARROW EXPLORATORY MEETING
REMINDER OF UPCOMING PLATFORM AND CITY ISSUES MEETING
I am following up to remind you of the Tom’s Exploratory Committee meeting coming up soon in about ten days. Tom intends to discuss the issues and measure potential support. As he values your input, he would like for you to be there and feel free to bring any friends.
Tom will be organizing around a host of issues including his potential platform, volunteer support and handing out petitions to gather signatures on election day at your own neighborhood precinct.
I hope you are planning on attending as it will be exciting to be in on the ground floor. That date again is Saturday, November 3rd at 2PM. Cake, coffee and water will be served.
If you have questions or want to RSVP by telephone, just give my office a call at 313.533.8764 and let us know. Meanwhile, I’ll look forward to seeing you on November 3rd..
AFSCME Local 207 members, supporters from Occupy Detroit protest U.S. District Court Judge Sean Cox’s imposed cuts at federal courthouse Oct. 25, 2012.
Green Party presidential candidate Dr. Jill Stein articulates a view shared by an increasing number in the U.S. who have grown tired of corporate controlled political parties and their strong-armed dominance within a structure that only seems to benefit the wealthy.
“I think we are in crisis,” said Dr. Stein. “People are losing their jobs, their homes, wages are going down, affordable health care and higher education are being placed out of reach. Our civil liberties are under attack, there is a racist war on drugs and racism is alive and well in America,” she added.
