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

Billboard in Havana, Cuba addresses coronavirus outbreak there.

According to a widely-circulated brochure, Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan has advised his followers NOT to be vaccinated against COVID-19 for  various reasons.  He notes at the close of the brochure that Cuba and other countries will have better means to combat the coronavirus.

The Hon. Minister Louis Farrakhan Nation of Islam

The articles below show that Cuba IS vaccinating its people with their own experimental vaccines. However, the articles also note that Cuba HAD to turn to its own resources because the U.S. and other countries will not provide vaccines produced in the U.S. for distribution to the Cuban people.

Michigan now has the second worst record of new coronavirus cases in the country. States across the U.S. are reporting similar new waves. There is not time for people in the U.S. to wait for U.S.-Cuba relations to improve before being vaccinated. More deaths and grave illnesses are in store immediately if people here refuse available vaccines.

After reading numerous research articles on the vaccines, VOD’s editor and staff have all received COVID-19 vaccines here in Detroit. We suggest that our readers weigh their options very seriously.

The Final Call’s most recent article on the matter is at Reports of deaths after Covid vaccines up by 259 in one week, CDC data show – Final Call News. VOD notes that the CDC has repeatedly stated that the three vaccines in the U.S. are safe and effective. It has reported that deaths after receiving the vaccines have been due to a variety of reasons, including the health of the individuals, not necessarily due to vaccine reactions.

Also go to today’s New York Times article stating that “far-right” groups including QAnon are trying to undermine the vaccine roll-out in the U.S. citing the same report from the CDC.  “Far-Right Extremists Move From ‘Stop the Steal’ to Stop the Vaccine” at http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Far-Right-Extremists-Move-From-‘Stop-the-Steal’-to-Stop-the-Vaccine-The-New-York-Times.pdf

QAnon protests COVID-19 and flu vaccines.

CUBA TO ADMINISTER COVID-19 EXPERIMENTAL VACCINES TO NEARLY ALL HAVANA RESIDENTS

March 24, 2021, 10:40 AM EDT / Updated March 24, 2021, 11:52 AM EDT

By Reuters

This month Cuba began late phase trials of two of their five experimental shots, Soberana 2 and Abdala. If successful, they’d be Latin America’s first homegrown vaccines.

Dr, Ileana Morales Suarez, Cuban Health Ministry

HAVANA — Cuba will administer experimental Covid-19 shots to nearly the entire population of the capital Havana by May as health authorities carry out massive interventional studies and late stage trials, officials said on Tuesday.

Cuba, which has a long history of developing and exporting vaccines, this month began late phase trials of two of its five experimental shots, Soberana 2 and Abdala, which will be Latin America’s first homegrown COVID-19 vaccines if they prove successful.

Ileana Morales, the health ministry’s director of science and technological innovation, said on a roundtable broadcast on state television that authorities would conduct an intervention study in 1.7 million people in Havana by May.

That comes on top of one it has already started for 150,000 frontline workers in the city, which is estimated to have 2.1 million inhabitants.

Cuba’s capital is at the centre of its worst coronavirus outbreak since the start of the pandemic, registering 292 cases per 100,000 inhabitants compared with a nationwide average of 103.5, Deputy Health Minister Carilda Peña said.

Authorities could seek approval for emergency use of Abdala and Soberana 2, which both target the spike protein of the novel coronavirus, in June, Morales said.

“With the approval of emergency use… we would be on track to a more massive vaccination of the population,” said Morales.

That mass vaccination would start with the most at-risk groups including the over-60 and health care workers. By August, six million people should have received a vaccine, with all Cuba’s 11 million inhabitants vaccinated by year-end, Morales said.

Cuba is registering 600 to 1,000 new cases a day, well above the scores or a handful per day for most of last year. Since the pandemic started, the country has reported 68,250 cases and 401 deaths, one of the lowest rates in the world per capita.

Government critics have said Cuba should have purchased approved vaccines from abroad to kick off its immunization campaign while it completed trials on its homegrown vaccines.

The country developed a large biotech sector partly in order to become self sufficient in the face of a crippling U.S. trade embargo. Venezuela and Iran, which also face U.S. sanctions, say they will also trial the Cuban Covid-19 vaccines, which have attracted the interest of other countries like Mexico and Jamaica.

Cuba will administer Covid-19 experimental vaccines to nearly all Havana residents (nbcnews.com)

Vials of Cuba’s Abdala Covid-19 vaccine candidate during a press conference of the Biotechnological and Pharmaceutical Industries of Cuba in Havana on March 19, 2021.Katell Abiven / AFP – Getty Images

PRESIDENT OF CUBA PRAISES PROGRESS IN IMMUNIZATION AGAINST COVID-19 

The president of Cuba, Miguel Diaz-Canel, praised the country’s progress in immunizing the population against Covid-19 with the use of vaccine candidates produced by the national biotechnology industry.

Radio Reloj

Cuban President Miguel  Diaz-Canel (r) succeeded (l and center) Fidel Castro and Raul Castro.

Havana, Cuba.- The president of Cuba, Miguel Diaz-Canel, praised the country’s progress in immunizing the population against Covid-19 with the use of vaccine candidates produced by the national biotechnology industry.

The president tweeted highlighting that, between clinical trials and controlled intervention studies, thousands of Cubans are receiving the doses of Soberana-02 and Abdala, which opens the way to mass vaccination.

‘Dreaming and continuing a country: This year we will advance in immunization with our vaccines!’, he stated.

The head of state also tweeted thanking those who created the vaccines and those who produce them, ‘because they not only inject our body,’ but also sow ‘security and hope in the national soul.’

Cuban health authorities announced yesterday that 70 percent of the Cuban population will be immunized against SARS-CoV-2 between July and August of this year, thanks to a staggered vaccination strategy, which involves different population groups between 19 and 80 years.

Cuban women walk past wall with Cuban flag.

As part of the phase III clinical trials currently being conducted, 44,010 people will be inoculated with Soberana-02 in Havana, and 48 thousand with Abdala in the eastern part of the country.

The purpose is to gradually immunize the population, so that 1.7 million people will be protected against the virus between April and May. Later, the research will be extended to other population groups, in a larger trial with both vaccine candidates.

President of Cuba praises progress in immunization against Covid-19 – Radio Reloj, emisora cubana de la hora y las noticias

“While we cannot state that this is an exoneration, we are very certain that the trial process was not just.” Wayne Co. Prosecutor Kym Worthy

Fundraiser for Larry Smith by Dayale Grays : HELP LARRY (BUTTER) SMITH START OVER (gofundme.com).

Larry Smith among dozens of victims of Detroit’s notorious “Ring of Snitches” on 9th floor of Detroit Police HQ at 1300 Beaubien

County prosecutors, Detroit police suborned perjury by jail-house informant Edward Allen, who said “100’s” of other prisoners fell victim

By Ricardo Ferrell, VOD Field Editor, with Diane Bukowski, Editor

March 22, 2021

UPDATE March 25, 2021: VOD spoke with Larry Smith today, who says he is already working to get other wrongfully convicted Michigan prisoners free. He said he has not received any compensation from the state yet, because the state fund has run out of  money. But he is hopeful that he will qualify for state compensation when the fund is replenished.

Larry Smith hugs his mother Debra as he leaves prison Feb. 2. (Photo: WDIV Channel 4.)

DETROIT — Larry Smith, a victim of Detroit’s notorious “Ring of Snitches,” walked out of Michigan’s Gus Harrison Correctional Facility (GHCF) Feb. 2 after serving 26 years for a murder he did not commit. He had maintained his innocence and fought for freedom since his conviction at the age of 18.

“While I’m very excited, there’s no words that can explain how I’m feeling right now, but it’s a good feeling,” his mother Debra Smith told reporters.

She was joined by his sister and his daughter (a little girl when he went to prison), along with dozens of others outside the prison, including exonerees Darryl Siggers and Ramon Ward.

Smith read excerpts from journals he kept while incarcerated, detailing what he said was the Michigan Department of Corrections’ horrible treatment of those he left behind. Last year, he tested positive for the potentially fatal coronavirus, along with 75 percent of prisoners at GHCF (1,467 out of 1,956). That delayed an expected interview with Wayne County’s Conviction Integrity Unit in June.  At least seven prisoners at GHCF have died from COVID-19, among 139 others in the MDOC.

Wayne Co. Pros. Kym Worthy endorses Karen McDonald for Oakland County Prosecutor last year. McDonald withdrew 19 juvenile life without parole recommendations in Jan. 2021, but Worthy did not follow suit, maintaining 51 on record.

After Smith’s release, the Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration (MIOSHA) on Feb. 26 fined the Department of Corrections $6,300 for violations of pandemic safety protocols at the Gus Harrison CF. These  included lack of an adequate infectious disease preparedness and response plan, lack of mask-wearing, social distancing, and contact identification among employees, and insufficient cleaning and disinfecting of the facility.

Smith said he planned to advocate for other wrongfully convicted prisoners, raise money for the Wayne County Conviction Integrity Unit, and work to fix the broken criminal justice system.

Smith’s attorney Mary A. Owens, out of Grand Rapids, worked for decades to free him. Later she was assisted by Claudia Whitman, working with the National Capital Crime Assistance Network, and now with the Wayne County CIU.

“After a thorough review of the investigation and evidence in this case, we have determined that Mr. Smith certainly is entitled to a new trial,” Wayne Co. Prosecutor Kym Worthy said in a statement. “We found that the Detroit Police Department’s informant was unreliable as well as the testimony of a key witness. . . .While we cannot state that this is an exoneration, we are very certain that the trial process was not just.”

Worthy’s office said Smith will not be re-tried because of the ‘passage of time’ since his trial in 1995. It is unclear if he will be compensated under Michigan’s Wrongful Imprisonment Compensation Act. That act allots $50,000 for year served in prison for a crime they did not commit.  See http://legislature.mi.gov/doc.aspx?mcl-Act-343-of-2016.

Meanwhile, Smith’s supporters have set up a GoFundMe page for him at  Fundraiser for Larry Smith by Dayale Grays : HELP LARRY (BUTTER) SMITH START OVER (gofundme.com).

Smith was convicted for the murder of Kenneth Hayes, 20, on March 24, 1994. Hayes, an alleged drug dealer, was fatally shot on Annabelle Street on Detroit’s southwest side.

At trial, a medical examiner testified that he took the sole fatal bullet, a .32 caliber, from the victim’s chest. The victim had been shot twice, with the second bullet exiting his arm and not recovered.

But in the face of that testimony, Asst. Pros. Robert Donaldson and police tied Smith to the murder with one .40 caliber bullet allegedly found in a laundry hamper at Smith’s home. Crime lab technician David Pauch testified that the .40 caliber bullet and seven other .40 caliber bullets found near the crime scene came from the same gun. Donaldson posited that Smith could have been firing with a gun in each hand.

The chief factor in Smith’s conviction was the coerced, concocted testimony of  jailhouse snitch Edward Allen, who claimed Smith had confessed the crime to him. Allen had been housed at Detroit Police Headquarters, then at 1300 Beaubien, on the notorious 9th floor. There, inmates formulated wild concoctions claiming countless defendants suddenly confessed their guilt to them. In exchange, they had charges against them dropped or reduced, and allegedly received special privileges including extra food, time outside the jail, and sex.

Allen later recanted his testimony against Smith and others, estimating that over 100 murder convictions were obtained through the use of perjured testimony solicited by police and prosecutors on the 9th floor.

Paralegal Travis Herndon (l) and Ramon Ward (r) welcomed Lacino Hamilton (center) home from prison last year.

VOD identified Smith, Lacino Hamilton, and Marvin Cotton as victims of the “Ring of Snitches” in its article on the exoneration of another “snitch” victim, Ramon Ward, published in Feb. 2020. At the time Smith, Hamilton,  and Cotton were still incarcerated,  despite media exposures of “Ring of Snitches” frame-ups including the seminal 2015 article by Miguel Aaron Cantu.  Smith, Hamilton and Cotton have since been released,  (See links to both articles at bottom of this one.)

In his story, Cantu included links to the following letters from Allen.

“I’m one of the guys that wrote the UCLA about Detroit Homicide getting Joe Twilley and 7 0ther guys police reports and making up false statements,” Allen wrote Smith on Sept. 15, 2002.

“They got to overturn over 100 cases, newly-discovered evidence. Homicide had guys put next door to guys on the 9^th floor to get info. After they show[ed] them photos of the defendants and high-tech shit. . . It’s over 100 guys with cases from Detroit that homicide set up flat out. Some of them are under investigation.”

In a letter to Judge Warfield Moore, Jr., Allen alleged that he had been “helping” the prosecution convict others for the last 16 years.

Jail-house snitch Edward Allen’s letter to Judge Warfield Moore, Jr. It is not known if Judge Moore submitted this letter for further investigation of the cases Allen cited.

“Now here is my complaint to the prosecution,” Allen wrote. “For me helping them out for the past 16 years on the following cases, the Hart Street murders, the Monica Childs Larry Smith murder case 1994 conviction, the Edward Knolton Robbery Murder Conviction, and the help I put into the 1995 Anthony Gates murder trial, I want a 3 to 5 year plea.”

At retirement party for AP Augustus Hutting (2nd from left): Judge Richard Hathaway (l to r) Wayne Co. Prosecutor Kym Worthy, Chief Judge Timothy Kenny.

Covering the trial on the 1984 Hart Street murders of Charles and Pamela Hampton, Charlie Grace and 12-year-old Herman Robinson, Detroit Free Press writer Joe Swickard wrote that Edward  Allen testified against his four co-defendants in the case. They were all convicted.

“Edward Allen, testifying with immunity from prosecution, said he, Wiley, Wilson and Goodman planned to rob ‘Rusty’s weed house’ of drugs and money,” Swickard wrote.

“Allen said he pulled out of the robbery — which netted about $200 and a pound of marijuana — while it was happening when he realized people were going to be hurt. Assistant Prosecutor Augustus Hutting told the jurors they did not have to ‘love Allen, but listen to him with an open mind . . . Sometimes, you have to cut deals. It may be better for one person to go free than five.'”

Ricardo Ferrell, VOD Field Editor who also writes for “My Life Matters Too,” also incarcerated at Gus Harrison CF:

Ricardo Ferrell, VOD Field Editor

“What kind of system of justice allows for innocent citizens to be railroad by way of lies and fabrications purposely told by a jailhouse informant looking to curry favor from police and prosecutors? The absurdity of such an unimaginable injustice pulls at the fiber of any common person’s conscience.

I am looking for the Statewide CIU, to announce its first case where an innocent person is exonerated and immediately released, and the hundreds of cases out of Wayne County currently being reviewed by its CIU. I believe when a conviction’s integrity is questionable, it must be reviewed. That includes the integrity of my own 1982 murder conviction for a killing outside the new Renaissance Center.

“No prosecutor wants to be party to knowingly convicting or keeping someone in prison that is either factually not guilty, or a case we can’t sustain,” Worthy said in 2017.

REVIEW ALL OF OUR WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS NOW!

***********************************************************************************Voice of  Detroit thanks the many people who contributed to keep VOD online for this quarter. Without you, we couldn’t have done it!  VOD is a pro bono newspaper. VOD’s editors and reporters, most of whom live on fixed incomes or are incarcerated, are not paid for their work. Ongoing costs include quarterly web charges of $380, P.O. box fee of $150/yr. and costs for research including court records, travel,  internet fees, as well as office supplies,  etc. Please, if you can:

DONATE TO VOD at  https://www.gofundme.com/donate-to-vod

***********************************************************************************Related:

Larry Smith, Jr. – National Registry of Exonerations (umich.edu)

RAMON WARD, FAMILY CELEBRATE RELEASE AFTER 27 YRS. ON FALSE CONVICTION; WHEN WILL 100’S MORE BE FREED? | VOICE OF DETROIT: The city’s independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought

‘RING OF SNITCHES’ VICTIMS: LACINO HAMILTON CLEARED, FREED AFTER 26 YRS; CONVICTIONS TOSSED ON 2 MORE | VOICE OF DETROIT: The city’s independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought

Michigan prison cited for violating COVID-19 safety rules (lansingstatejournal.com) 

Ring of Snitches: How Detroit Police Slapped False Murder Convictions on Young Black Men (truthout.org)

Stories related to COVID-19 in the prisons:

Continue reading →

One-time survival checks are not enough. Even before the pandemic, most U.S. residents were living paycheck to paycheck and struggling to pay bills each month. As the economic crisis worsens, ongoing relief is absolutely critical for people’s survival and human dignity.

That’s why I co-introduced the Automatic Boost to Communities (ABC) Act, which would deliver monthly $2,000 payments to everyone in the U.S.—regardless of immigration status. We’re building a coalition of progressive groups in order to show massive public support for this effort. Can you join us?

Please add your name now as a grassroots co-signer to the ABC Act if you’re in favor of recurring payments during the pandemic.

U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) represents 13th District including Detroit.

Our government’s failure to provide assistance in this pandemic has forced 10 million more people into poverty. At least half of all U.S. residents are struggling to afford essentials like groceries, rent, and water and utility bills. Many parents are going without food in order to feed their children, and many families are on the brink of homelessness.

This is unacceptable. It’s past time for bold action that includes everyone.

There are a few ways the ABC Act would ensure that no one gets left behind:

• Every single person in the U.S. would get $2,000 per month for the duration of the pandemic and $1,000 per month for a year afterward—including undocumented people, children and other dependents, and people in U.S. protectorates and territories.
• Everyone would be able to get prepaid debit cards that would automatically reload each month, to cover the 25% of Americans who are underbanked or unbanked and can only cash checks through predatory lenders.
• An Emergency Responder Corps would conduct wellness checks and targeted outreach to vulnerable groups such as elders, homeless people, and people without phone or internet access, to ensure they receive and understand how to use the debit cards.
• The bill would also chip away at inequities that have widened during the pandemic, including the racial wealth gap. One example of how Black and brown communities are disproportionately affected by this crisis: More than 2.5x as many Black U.S. households are going hungry than white households.

It’s past time for bold action that includes everyone. Public opinion is on our side: 60% of voters support recurring payments, along with a growing coalition of Congress members and advocates. But we need to show huge public support for this legislation in order for it to pass. We need you.

Please sign on now to be a grassroots co-signer of the ABC Act.

Together, we can make the change we need.

Thank you, Rashida Tlaib       DONATE NOW

                    Above: Interview with Temujin Kensu on Dec. 28, 2020

Michigan Gov. Whitmer denied clemency for Kensu Jan. 2, 2021 despite extensive evidence of innocence, prominent supporters

Multiple witnesses saw Kensu (Freeman) in Escanaba, MI at time of murder for which he is serving a life sentence, which took place in Port Huron, MI

AP Robert Cleland, now a U.S. District Court Judge, told jury Kensu could have chartered a plane to commit the murder, used jail-house informant

U.S. District Court Judge Denise Page Hood granted new trial in 2007 in 51-pp. ruling which said Cleland guilty of prosecutorial misconduct

By Diane Bukowski with

B. David Sanders of Proving Innocence

DONATE TO VOD at https://www.gofundme.com/donate-to-vod

(L to R) Temujin Kensu (a/k/a Fred Freeman) in 1986 at age of 23 and today at age 57

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer denied clemency in January to a Michigan man Detroit News editor Nolan Finley called “the poster child for unresolved wrongful convictions,” Temujin Kensu (a.k.a. Fredrick Freeman).

Kensu has now served 35 years of a life term in prison for the 1986 shotgun slaying of Scott Macklem in a Port Huron Community College parking lot. Multiple eyewitnesses  testified at trial, and since, that he could not have committed the crime because he was in Escanaba, Mich. 400 miles away at the time.

“For years Michigan’s judicial system has time and again failed this wholly innocent man and now the fail-safe option, Executive Clemency, has failed him as well,” said David Sanders of Proving Innocence. “This is in no small part due to the Governor accepting the Parole Board’s recommendation, a body totally unqualified to examine cases of actual innocence.”

Bill Proctor, retired Ch. 7 News reporter

Proving Innocence was founded by former Channel 7 news reporter Bill Proctor, who did numerous investigative stories on Kensu’s case over the years, beginning in 1995.

At trial, Asst. Prosecutor Robert Cleland, now a U.S. District Court Judge, presented what some have called the “flying carpet” theory that Kensu, penniless at the time, could have chartered a private plane to Port Huron to commit the crime. U.S. District Court Judge Denise Page Hood, sitting in the same district as Cleland, granted Kensu’s habeas appeal of his conviction in a scathing 51 page opinion in 2010.

She said Cleland had indeed committed “prosecutorial misconduct,” among other factors. Judge Page Hood is now Chief Judge for the Eastern District of Michigan.

“We know of no case in the country where a Chief Judge has condemned a judicial colleague serving on her very bench,” Sanders said.  “Unfortunately, her ruling was overturned on purely procedural grounds of late filing, having nothing to do with Temujin’s actual innocence.”

U.S. District Court Judges Robert Cleland (l) and Denise Page Hood (r) now Chief Judge of the Eastern District of Michigan.

No forensic evidence connected Kensu to the murder, only two vague witness statements, one of them elicited from a jail-house informant recruited by Cleland. The other witness was Kensu’s ex-girl friend, who was engaged to Macklem at the time and reportedly was angry about her break-up with Kensu.

No follow-up was done to locate a shotgun shell box found at the scene that has a fingerprint that is not Temujin’s.

The University of Michigan Law School’s Michigan Innocence Clinic submitted a clemency application on Temujin’s behalf based upon his innocence as well as his serious health conditions that put him at high risk of re-infection by COVID-19, which is raging through the prison system.

“It is incomprehensible that this innocent man could be considered guilty when every independent examination (outside the prosecution’s) has concluded otherwise,” Sanders said.

“It is mystifying that the Governor denied Temujin’s clemency based upon the Parole Board’s recommendation when that body does not include innocence as a consideration and they are on record saying so. How can anyone have faith in Michigan’s justice system with such a truly irrational and dysfunctional approach to reviewing clemency applications?”

State law requires that the Governor consider (though not adopt) the recommendation of Michigan’s Parole Board. In its deliberations for parole, the board considers such matters as whether the prisoner has expressed remorse for the crime, has reformed, and has a place to live and work. MDOC prisoners applying for parole who claim innocence are almost always denied.

“It is apparent that the Governor’s office simply rubberstamped the Parole Board’s recommendation and did not review actual innocence at all,” Sanders said. “If innocence was examined, what is the evidence of Temujin’s guilt?  If such evidence exists, it should not be kept under veil as the Parole Board does but should be publicly revealed.  What good public Purpose is served by not revealing a solid rationale for keeping this man in prison?”

Sanders said the parole board falsely claimed in their recommendation to Whitmer on Kensu’s clemency application that Kensu had 17 Class I misconduct tickets during his time  in prison, although he now has an excellent record, at -33 points, the lowest possible.

Temujin and Paula Kensu today.

He told the Port Huron Times-Herald that Kensu’s case still is being reviewed by Atty. General Dana Nessel’s office. Nessel  established a state-level Conviction Integrity Unit that operates out of her office in 2019. Later that year, partnering with the Western Michigan University Cooley Law School Innocence Clinic, it received more than $1 million in federal grants to freview 600 post-conviction claims of innocence. To date, however, that office has yet to announce final results in any case.

“Michigan’s process for reviewing clemency is broken, irrational, and dysfunctional,” Sanders added. “It requires immediate reformation or more wholly innocent people will be denied their rightful freedom.  Michigan cannot claim to have a system that delivers true justice with a process that ignores innocence and condemns innocent men and women to a lonely death behind bars.”

Whitmer spokeswoman Chelsea Parisio told VOD, “The clemency request for Temujin Kensu was denied, but we don’t have anything to add, as we do not comment on clemency applications.” She failed to address VOD’s request for a copy of the parole board’s recommendation on his application.

Send letters to: Temujin Kensu #189355, Macomb Correctional Facility, 34625 26 Mile Road, Lenox Twp., MI 48048

Letters of support can be sent to:  governorsoffice@michigan.gov  for Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and NESSELD@michigan.gov for Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel.

U.S. District Court Judge Denise Page Hood’s ruling granting new trial:

http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Temujin-Kensu-Judge-Hood-USCOURTS2-mied-2_07-cv-10350-2.pdf

Related stories:

Innocence website stories on Kensu:

• http://www.m2solids.com/kensu/temujin.html
• https://actualinnocentprisoners.com/temujin-kensu
• https://www.provinginnocence.org/temujin-kensu
• Episode 14: Temujin Kensu (unjustandunsolved.com)

Deadline Detroit | Detroit Federal Judge Compared Illegal Immigrants to Insects and Japanese Beetles

Judge defends 1987 case handling | State News | record-eagle.com (record-eagle.com)

Macklem Blog #6 – An Open Letter to Judge Cleland (provinginnocence.org)

‘

On March 4, VOD will have to pay our quarterly web hosting fee of $380 in order to keep the paper online. This will be a struggle this month. VOD operates on a skeleton budget provided by editors and reporters that live on fixed incomes outside and inside the walls and we sincerely appreciate any donations our readers can afford to keep us going into our 11th year.

We have focused lately on stories related to mass incarceration, the ongoing reincarnation of slavery in the U.S. which disproportionately devastates Black and other communities of color and currently is subjecting millions to virtual COVID-19 execution.

Our many stories on the case of Thelonious ‘Shawn’ Searcy hopefully contributed to his recent appellate victory, We look forward joyfully to his eventual release. Stories on the innocence cases of Temujin Kensu, Larry Smith and Kenneth Nixon are in the works, along with our continuing coverage of the cases of Ricky Rimmer, Carl Hubbard, and Darrell Ewing and Derrico Searcy.

STOP WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS!

END DEATH BY INCARCERATION!

STOP EXECUTION BY COVID-19!

Please DONATE TO VOD at
https://www.gofundme.com/donate-to-vod

13TH AMENDMENT TO U.S. CONSTITUTION SANCTIONS SLAVERY IN PRISON.

Recent VOD stories relating to mass incarceration:

• THELONIOUS ‘SHAWN’ SEARCY WINS NEW TRIAL; MICH. APPEALS COURT CITES HITMAN’S CONFESSION, BALLISTICS | VOICE OF DETROIT: The city’s independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought
• 150 MICHIGAN JUVENILE LIFERS FACE POSSIBLE DEATH FROM COVID-19 AS THEY SERVE OUTLAWED SENTENCES
• APPEALS COURT TO HEAR SEARCY CASE FEB. 4: HITMAN CONFESSED TO MURDER, LIES TOLD ABOUT FATAL BULLETS
• DO PRISONERS LIVES MATTER? 125 NOW DEAD, HALF IN MICH. DEPT. OF CORRECTIONS INFECTED WITH COVID-19
• ACLU TO MICH. GOV. WHITMER: COVID-19 VACCINES FOR PRISONERS NOW, A MATTER OF LIFE OR DEATH
• NO ONE SHOULD GO TO PRISON FOR A CRIME THEY DIDN’T COMMIT–THE EXONERATED CENTRAL PARK FIVE
• CAPITALISM ON A VENTILATOR: THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 IN CHINA AND THE U.S.–BLACK AGENDA REPORT
• POPE FRANCIS ON COVID-19 VACCINE: NEEDY, VULNERABLE MUST COME FIRST; HE VISITS PRISONERS WORLD-WIDE
• IS MICHIGAN USING TRUMP’S COVID-19 ‘HERD IMMUNITY’ STRATEGY TO KILL OFF PRISON POPULATION?
• MICHIGAN PRISONERS NEED COVID-19 VACCINES NOW, SAY ADVOCATES; A.M.A., OTHERS DEMAND 1st-TIER PRIORITY
• COPING WITH COVID-19 IN MICHIGAN PRISONS: RALLY BY ‘SILENT CRY’ FRI. DEC. 11 AT GUS HARRISON CF IN ADRIAN
• DARNELL SUMMERS FIGHTS GLOBAL 52-YR. WITCHHUNT IN COP KILLING; SUPPORTS OTHERS STILL IN PRISON

(L to r) Thelonious ‘Shawn’ Searcy today; daughter LaShyra with relative and Searcy grandmother Edna Richardson at court hearing in 2018; Searcy with LaShyra as toddler, 2004

Panel says 3rd Circuit Court Chief Judge Timothy Kenny “abused discretion” in nixing Smothers’ confession, committed legal errors

Finds that court repeatedly withheld key ballistics evidence identifying murder weapon  from Searcy jury 

Defense attorney Michael Dezsi calls on prosecution to dismiss charges

By Diane Bukowski 

February 14, 2021

Update April 20, 2021: DeAnthony Witcher, referenced in stories on Thelonious Searcy case, stated in a phone call to VOD Editor Diane Bukowski that he is NOT a police  informant and denies all allegations made against him in any and all stories on the Thelonious Searcy case.

DETROIT—Seventeen years after Thelonious ‘Shawn’ Searcy, now 41, was sentenced to life without parole for murder, a Michigan appeals court has granted him a new trial. A confession by Vincent Smothers, an admitted hit man, to the Sept. 2004 murder of Jamal Segars near Detroit City Airport, and ballistics evidence withheld from Searcy’s jury were key to the unanimous ruling handed down Feb. 11.

“When considering the trial evidence in light of the other evidence that would be presented at retrial, we conclude that Searcy has a reasonably likely chance of acquittal,” the Appeals Court said. “Therefore, the trial court abused its discretion by denying Searcy’s motion for relief from judgment with respect to Searcy’s claim of new evidence relating to [Vincent] Smothers.” See:  http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/COA-Thelonious-Searcy-20210211_C349169_62_349169.OPN-3-1.pdf

Chief Judge Timothy Kenny

Timothy Kenny, now Chief Judge of Wayne Co.’s Third Judicial Circuit Court, presided over Searcy’s trial in 2005 and at his evidentiary hearing in 2018, which Kenny ordered based on Searcy’s own pro se motion for a new trial filed from behind prison walls.

“I can’t thank God enough for his everlasting mercy and grace for my life,” Searcy reacted. “As I stood in the midst of my storm of affliction, He never left me. He bound up every wicked and evil principality scheme that the enemy had for my life, through multiple angels that he surrounded me by on my day of judgment.”

Searcy, a father of two daughters, has earned outstanding grades in paralegal courses during his time in prison. He worked closely with defense attorney Michael Dezsi, who represented him at the 2018 hearing and during multiple appeals of Kenny’s denial of his motion.

“I’m happy the Court of Appeals examined the overwhelming new evidence showing that Mr. Searcy didn’t commit the murder for which he has now served almost 17 years in prison,” Dezsi said. “Indeed, the Court of Appeals noted in its decision that my client would likely be acquitted upon presentation of this new evidence.”

COA hearing Thelonious Searcy Feb. 4, 2021 on Zoom/top: Judges Mark Cavanagh, Deborah Servitto, Thomas Cameron; below, (l) WCPO AP Thomas Chambers, (r) defense atty. Michael Dezsi

He said “glaring questions” remain about how the prosecution misled the jury on the bullets found in Segars’ body. “We now know it doesn’t match the gun presented at trial as the murder weapon. Given these obvious problems with the prosecution’s case, it is my sincere belief that the prosecution should dismiss the charges against Searcy.”

Appellate Judges Mark J. Cavanagh, Deborah A. Servitto, and Thomas C. Cameron ruled  per curiam that Judge Kenny “abused his discretion” in his ruling on the evidentiary hearing, which called Smothers’ confession unbelievable. They said that determination is up to a jury, not the judge. They reviewed Smothers’ testimony at that hearing at length in their opinion, and found it

“As our Supreme Court made clear in Johnson, ‘a trial court’s credibility determination is concerned with whether a reasonable juror could find the testimony credible on retrial,” the panel said.

Exonerees Justly Johnson (l) and Kendrick Scott (r) with PI Scott Lewis at Proving Innocence conference in 2019.

“We conclude that, when considering Smothers’s testimony in its entirety, it is clear that his testimony is not wholly incredible, as the trial court found, and that a reasonable juror could find his testimony worthy of belief on retrial. Consequently, the trial court clearly erred when it concluded that Smother’s testimony was entirely incredible.”

The Michigan Supreme Court’s ruling, at People v Johnson, 502 Mich 541 (2018), involved the convictions of Justly Johnson and Kendrick Scott in 1999 for the murder of Lisa Kindred. See ruling at http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/MSC-People-v-Johnson-People-v-Scott.pdf

The Michigan Innocence Clinic and private investigator Scott Lewis, who also interviewed Vincent Smothers on his confession to the murder for which Searcy was convicted, succeeded in obtaining the exonerations of Johnson and Scott.

Searcy’s appeals panel also found that Kenny and the prosecution repeatedly withheld ballistics evidence from his trial jury in 2005, or misinterpreted it.  Asst. Prosecutor Patrick Muscat introduced a .45 caliber gun found in the home of Searcy’s grandmother as the murder weapon. Kenny told the jury that the only bullet casings in “physical” evidence were two from that gun, and that the caliber of the bullets found in Segars’ body “could not be determined.”

“The jury was very interested in information concerning the casings, the type of gun that was recovered, and the type of bullet that was found in the murder victim,” the panel said.

“Importantly, the jury was informed that ‘the gun that is in evidence is a .45 caliber semiautomatic handgun’ and was then informed that the bullet that was removed from the murder victim could not be tested because it was ‘too deformed.’ However . . . .the type of bullet was able to be discerned and had been accurately described as a .40-caliber bullet before trial. Without this important evidence, the jury was left to decide whether, based on the location of the .45-caliber casings and other record evidence, Searcy committed the crimes.”

The court’s opinion clearly showed that it thoroughly examined the transcripts and briefs submitted by Attorneys Dezsi and Chambers, but it stopped short of saying that the judge and/or the prosecution deliberately suppressed ballistics evidence or misled the jury with regard to it.

AP Patrick Muscat, DPD Detective Dale Collins

AP Muscat also handled the trial of 14-year-old Davontae Sanford for murdering  four adults in a house on Runyon St. where drugs, primarily marijuana, were allegedly sold, in 2007. Vincent Smothers told Detroit police and prosecutors shortly after Sanford was sentenced that he had committed the murders and provided a clear, detailed description of the crimes in affidavits submitted during Sanford’s trial. DPD Detective Dale Collins also played a major role in both convictions.

Vincent Smothers recounts details of 2004 murder of Jamal Segars during Thelonious Searcy evidentiary hearing in 2018.

But Smothers’ confession was withheld from Sanford’s defense attorneys just as his confession to the murder of Jamal Segars in 2009 was withheld until the Innocence Clinic received an affidavit from Smothers confessing to the crime, and forwarded it to the Michigan State Police for investigation. Smothers testified that  he withdrew that confession after being told that it might hold up Sanford’s release, but never signed an affidavit to that effect.

He confessed under oath in great detail again, during the 2018 evidentiary hearing in Searcy’s case. He said he had repeatedly submitted additional affidavits regarding the Segars murder. The appeals court noted that he even testified in person against the advice of his attorney.

In Sanford’s case, Judge Brian Sullivan blocked any direct testimony from Smothers, likely further delaying Sanford’s release. Despite that, an appellate court ruled in Sanford’s favor. But that ruling was overturned by the Michigan Supreme Court, which said they would reconsider if Sanford’s attorneys filed a motion for relief from judgment instead of a motion to withdraw his confession. That was later done, finally leading to Sanford’s release.

During his sentencing in 2005, Searcy said on the record, “I would like to say for the record–NO, I’m not guilty of these charges that were brought against me. These charges are false. I didn’t kill Jamal Segars and I didn’t shoot Brian Minner. I thought justice would prevail. But still as a young Black man in the system I didn’t have a chance.” – Thelonious “Shawn” Searcy, of Detroit, statement May 23, 2005, prior to being sentenced to life without parole.

Over 20,000 have signed Change. Org petition for Searcy’s freedom at Petition · Michigan Attorney General: FREE WRONGFULLY CONVICTED THELONIOUS SEARCY!!!! · Change.org.

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