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Davontae Sanford was imprisoned at 14 for life for four homicides to which another man has confessed

Posted on July 12, 2011 by Susan Chandler

Wobbly Warrior’s blog

 Self-proclaimed “hit man” Vincent Smothers authorized his attorney to testify on Davontae Sanford’s behalf, to apprise the courts that Smothers and an accomplice had committed Detroit’s infamous Runyon Street quadruple homicide, not Davontae. Smothers had admitted to twelve homicides, but was only prosecuted for eight, so that Detroit police and prosecutors could hide their having coerced a confession out of blind-in-one-eye, developmentally disabled, 14-year-old Davontae. The judge wouldn’t allow Smother’s attorney to testify.  

Subject: False imprisonment of Davontae Sanford – Citizen Inquiry AG# 2010-0026914

The Honorable Bill Schuette, Attorney General
State of Michigan
G. Mennen Williams Building, 7th Floor
Lansing, MI 48909 

Mich. Atty. General Bill Schuette

Dear Attorney General Schuette: 

I am writing again to ask that you personally intervene in the ongoing persecution of Davontae Sanford. 

Allowing a judge to ignore a client-authorized exception to attorney/client privilege does not serve justice; it instead furthers a four-year fraud on Michigan taxpayers.

I also ask you to personally intervene in Governor Rick Snyder’s lawlessness.  For all you know, you may be the next elected public servant whom Snyder deems too inefficient to retain elected office. 

After it, it is fiscally irresponsible to incarcerate innocent young Davontae Sandford while guilty, self-proclaimed “hit man” Vincent Smothers is already behind bars and has named an accomplice who remains free to commit additional homicides. 

Sincerely,

Susan Chandler 

Judge in Davontae Sanford hearings bars testimony from hit man’s former lawyer – Detroit Crime | Examiner.com

http://www.examiner.com/crime-in-detroit/judge-davontae-sanford-hearings-bars-testimony-from-hit-man-s-former-lawyer  Continue reading →

(L to R) Cathryn Bachus, Robin Brooks, Robert Wagner, (unknown), and Robert Hart protest rate hikes for calls to their loved ones in prison at MDOC HQ, Lansing, July 7, 2011

By Diane Bukowski

 July 16, 2011 

LANSING – Family members and friends of Michigan prisoners came from as far away as Holland to march outside the Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC) headquarters here July 12. They said recent prison phone rate hikes of 80 percent have prevented their loved ones from calling them as often as needed to stay sane and rehabilitate themselves. 

The rate hike resulted from a contract with Public Communications Services, Inc.. It is a subsidiary of Global Tel-Link.

Global Tel Link is also connected with DSI-ITI.

Gov. Rick Snyder

On July 13, the day after the protest, Governor Rick Snyder signed an MDOC appropriations bill with the clause, “Any contract for prisoner telephone services shall impose fee schedules for prisoner telephone calls that are no greater than the fee schedules for standard calls placed by residential users in the area surrounding the correctional facility.” 

It is yet unclear what this will mean, but prisoner advocates say they hope it is a victory. The protest was well-covered in the state’s capitol by print and television media. 

Mitchell Pugh, incarcerated since 1988 at the age of 16, is one of 800 parolable lifers kept behind bars far beyond what their sentencing judges intended, despite evidence of rehabilitation

“We used to talk half an hour a day,” said Cathryn Bachus of her boyfriend Mitchell Pugh, who has been incarcerated since 1988, when he was 16, and is serving a parolable life sentence. “Now we can only afford twice a week. I travel to see him, but it’s a long way from Holland to Carson City.” 

Bachus organized the protest. 

A federal class-action lawsuit, Foster-Bey v. Rubitschun, filed on behalf of over 800 parolable lifers, who have been imprisoned under Gov. John Engler’s parole board mandates long beyond what their sentencing judges intended, resulted at least indirectly in the release of some, she said. 

U.S. District Court Judge Marianne Battani ruled in their favor in 2007, but in 2010, the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ordered her to grant the state’s motion for summary disposition. At least three lead plaintiffs, Kenneth Foster-Bey, John Alexander, and Waymon Kincaid, are still imprisoned after 30 years and more, while one, William Sleeper, was paroled in 2009. 

Kenneth Foster-Bey is lead plaintiff in parolable lifers lawsuit, but still behind bars

Bachus said a request for commutation of Pugh’s sentence, endorsed by the Carson City Correctional Facility warden based on Pugh’s progress in rehabilitation, including his assistance to other prisoners, was denied after Snyder took office. 

“I just think that being able to communicate with your loved one aids in their rehabilitation,” said Robin Brooks of West Bloomfield, whose son is incarcerated. “For the state to hinder that shows they are not truly into ‘correcting.’ The money they are spending on additional equipment supposedly to keep prisoners from getting cell phones can be used for more rehabilitation and education, as well as pensions for state workers like the guards.”

She said aside from problems with rates, the PCS system requires that each person the prisoner calls must set up their own account. She said that is very difficult for elderly people like her son’s grandparents, for whom she had to set up account herself.  Continue reading →

 More on Medical Crisis, Need Support Pressuring Immediate Negotiations

http://prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com    

July 14, 2011 

A mother with two sons on hunger strike in Pelican Bay speaks to the media in front of the California State Building in San Francisco on July 13 surrounded by members of the Hunger Strike Solidarity coalition

Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity (PHSS) is “a coalition based in the Bay Area made up of grassroots organizations committed to amplifying the voices of and supporting the prisoners at Pelican Bay Security Housing Unit (SHU) in their hunger strike to end tortuous conditions.”

Legal representatives made visits to Pelican Bay SHU Tuesday and interviewed a number of hunger strikers. Each prisoner explained how medical conditions of hundreds of hunger strikers in the SHU are worsening. Many prisoners are experiencing irregular heartbeats and palpitations, some are suffering from diagnosed cardiac arrhythmia. Many are also experiencing dizziness and constantly feel light-headed. Many struggle with shortness of breath and other lung and respiratory problems. 

Dozens of prisoners have fainted and been taken to either the infirmary and/or outside hospitals. Some prisoners also have Crohn’s disease, which leads to extreme loss of fluids and electrolytes and needs to be treated by adequate nutrition and hydration. 

Pelican Bay is a living hell media.spcr.org

At least 200 prisoners continue the strike in solidarity with the prisoners at Pelican Bay at Calipatria State Prison, where summer heat has reached to 110 degrees F, even hotter inside the SHUs. Some people have experienced heat stroke due to severe dehydration. 

Prisoners at Corcoran have also notified us that hunger strikers there are struggling with the same symptoms of severe dehydration. After mild seizures and severe diabetic shock, some people have been taken to the infirmary. 

Many doctors outside of prison, some of whom have experience working with prisoners, have explained to us that adequate hydration is paramount to preventing fatal starvation. The fact that the prisoners are showing symptoms of such extreme dehydration shows the prisoners are approaching a medical crisis. 

Thirteen years ago Pelican Bay State Prison was cut out of a dense forest near Crescent City, CA. The highlight of the new super-max prison was the Security Housing Unit (SHU), the X-shaped builing at front, where 1,300 prisoners are kept in near isolation.

Dr. Corey Weinstein, a private correctional medical consultant and human rights investigator with 40 years experience providing health care to CA prisoners, explains: 

“The strikers’ claims of substandard and prejudicial medical care at Pelican Bay are certainly true. As well the medical staff refuses to take on their responsibilities as health professionals to advocate for their patients in matters of daily life related to food, nutrition, exercise and mental hygiene. Those who should be providing care act the jailer instead. Given my long history of working with California prisoners, I have grave doubts about the Department of Corrections’ ability to adequately carry out their own guidelines and protocols even during this urgent and public moment. Reports such as prisoners with very low blood sugar levels and lack of urination for 3 days should not be coming from the prison. These are men who require hospital care under prison protocols. We should ask why do they remain at the prison?”   Continue reading →

Marilyn Jordan talks to major media as crime lab protesters lend support June 28 outside federal building

PLAN TO PROTEST RENEWAL OF CITY CONTRACT FOR PROSECUTOR WORTHY’S INVESTIGATION, ON COUNCIL AGENDA TUES. JULY 19 

By Diane Bukowski

July 14, 2011 

Sandra Hines and Asst. h Grand Sheik Douglas Smith-El of Moorish Science Temple of American #4 head up portion of protest June 28

DETROIT  —  The Detroit People’s Task Force to Free the Wrongfully convicted has kept up the battle  to expose what they say is blatantly falsified crime lab evidence and the fates of many who have languished behind bars for years as a result of convictions tainted by it. 

“We want accountability,” said Kevin Carey, Executive Director of the People’s Task Force, during a protest outside the Detroit Federal Building office of U.S. Congressman John Conyers June 28. “We want a federal investigation which he promised us last year, and we want crime lab personnel and Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy and her assistant prosecutors who have been using the falsified evidence to convict innocent people to be incarcerated.” 

They also appeared in front of Detroit City Council July 12 to demand to know why Council members voted $2.7 million in funding for an investigation of the crime lab over the past three years to Worthy, and what happened to the funds. They have contended that it is a conflice of interest for Worthy to investigate the cases, because her prosecutors brought charges on falsified evidence in the first place. 

Kevin Carey speaks to media

Afterwards, members held a boisterous protest outside the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center which garnered major media coverage, as did the June 28 protest. 

The Council, which voted that day to ask Worthy for an accounting, is to consider a renewal of her contract Tues. July 19. Councilwoman Brenda Jones requested that Worthy and former Deputy Mayor Saul Green be present. 

Mothers Marilyn Jordan and Valerie Watts-Williams tell of their sons' plight

The firestorm over the crime lab exploded in 2008 when an audit of its firearms unit, staffed wholly by Detroit police officers, showed a 10% error rate. In the case of Jarrhod Williams, state police auditors said results bordered on criminal conduct by firearms technicians. 

“The gun involved in my son’s case was never shot, and the bullets the prosecution presented at his trial didn’t match the gun,” Valerie Watts-Williams, Jarrhod’s mother, said outside the federal building June 28.  “He is serving two natural life sentences for double homicide. He turned down eight plea bargains offered to him because he is innocent.” 

Dominique Manuel, cousi of Jarrhod Williams, was about many Task Force members who spoke at City Council July 12

“No one ever sees new trials, despite Worthy’s promise that she would review all the cases,” said the Task Force’s paralegal Roberto Guzman. “We do want the guilty to go to prison, but we want the innocent to have their charges dismissed or at least get new trials. If you value your freedom, it could be you tomorrow. Karen Plants [head of Worthy’s drug task force] is in jail for perjury, but she is by no means the only one suborning perjury in her office.” 

Marilyn Jordan, President of the Task Force, said they are determined to fight until they win. 

“My son Kelly Nobles was falsely convicted in 2002 even though there’s tons of evidence in his case and others we’ve investigated that prove his innocence. This is not something that just started, it’s been going on for a long time. There were federal investigations when crime lab evidence unraveled in Boston, Dallas and in other cities, and the Kym Worthy said herself that there are thousands of cases here that need to be reviewed.” 

To date, only four convicted individuals have received new trials as a result of Worthy’s investigation since 2008. Three, including Jarrhod Williams, of them were re-convicted, generally using the same evidence from their first trials.  Continue reading →

 Click on http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/07/11/godboldo-hearing-adjourned-to-mon-july-25-830-a-m-%e2%80%9cpromptly%e2%80%9d-mother%e2%80%99s-supporters-to-rally-sun-july-17-8801-woodward-4-6-p-m/ for VOD story on the latest in Maryanne Godboldo’s case.

PACK THE COURT FOR MARYANNE’S PRELIMINARY EXAM:  

MONDAY JULY 25  at 8:30 am promptly, 36TH DISTRICT COURT

DETROIT - NOVEMBER 20: A pedestrian walks by graffiti on a downtown street November 20, 2008 in Detroit, Michigan. An estimated one in three Detroiters lives in poverty, making the city the poorest large city in America.

The Impact of Poverty on Utility Shut-offs

 Report to the Dexter Inquiry

 By Debra Watson
31 March 2010

http://wsws.org

The following report on poverty and welfare in Michigan was submitted to the Citizens Inquiry into the Dexter Avenue Fire, which held a hearing on March 20.

For several years, Detroit has had the highest poverty rate in the country. Many of the victims of deadly house fires are struggling to get by, balancing utility payments with other necessities. With real unemployment of 50 percent, many households rely on the completely inadequate social safety net.

Homeless people line up for food in downtown Detroit

Even the term “poor” is no longer adequate to describe the desperate conditions in Detroit. Judy Putnam, spokesperson for the non-profit Michigan League for Human Services (MLHS), told the World Socialist Web Site that a new term, “deep poverty,” has entered the agency’s lexicon. It describes a vast and growing population of US families whose income has fallen to a fraction of the official poverty level.

Putnam decried the failing of the safety net in Michigan. MLHS reports that since 1979 the value of the maximum public assistance grant has dropped from 23 percent below the poverty threshold to 66 percent below the poverty threshold. Thus a Michigan welfare or Family Independence Program (FIP) recipient today often lives at just 34 percent of the poverty level, a situation dictated by the very design of the program.

The current FIP grant is about $492 a month for a family of three. This leaves even the small percentage of families that do qualify for some form of state cash assistance without an adequate safety net to counter the effects of double-digit unemployment. As the recession drags on, more and more people are simply unable to live.

Display for Sylvia Young's three children at their funeral; they died due to a DTE utility shut-off in their desperately poor neighborhood.

One tragic form this situation has taken in Detroit is the death of three children, Trávion, Fantasia, and Selena Young, ages five, four, and three respectively, in the March 5 house fire on Bangor Street. Their mother, Sylvia Young, received FIP payments and was using a faulty space heater after utilities were shut off.

The current maximum FIP grant in Michigan for a family with seven children, the size of Young’s family, is only $11,820 annually. This is about one third of the 2009 poverty level for a family of this size ($37,010). Even with the full food stamp benefit for a large family, currently equal to a little over $1,000 per month, the family would have been far below the already inadequate monthly income the federal government has designated as the official poverty level. Continue reading →

By Marian Kramer

The People’s Tribune www.peoplestribune.org

June, 2011

The Michigan House and Senate passed legislation approving a four-year lifetime limit on welfare benefits. If you have been on welfare for four years, you are automatically cut off.

Come October 1, 12,600 families will be cut off the rolls. The family unit will also lose their insurance and their food stamps. Then every month, more people will be eliminated. If you have been on welfare for say three years, you only have one year left. Ohio is also going through this process — they are trying to legislate a three-year time limit. These are examples of the wholesale cuts that are taking place in the Rust Belt against that section of the working class that has the least. If allowed, it could eventually affect the whole working class.

Former Pres. Bill Clinton initiated 4-year limits with his federal welfare "reform" prorgam, which set back 60 years of improvements in the social safety net; Gov. John Engler was head of his reform task force

The four-year time limitation is part of TANF (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families), the welfare “reform” bill that was passed in 1996 under the administration of Bill Clinton.

However, it was left up to the states as to when they would implement this part of the bill. Some states rushed to implement it and others tended to leave the time limitation alone.

Now, the present administration in Lansing—via Gov. Snyder—is not only implementing the time limitation with the blessing of the legislative branch of the government, he is going back retroactively.

[VOD ed.: However, the original legislation establishing the four-year limit was signed by Governor Jennifer Granholm at the beginning of her second term, although she had promised during her campaign not to do so. She used as an excuse that the legislation only cut off adults, not children in the family. It is unclear from the legislation whether that provision is still maintained.]

The Governor says people are to get a job. How can you get a job in an economy that is not producing jobs for the vast majority of people—people are thrown off the job rolls by technology. We have people coming into the Michigan Welfare Rights Office who are trying to match up two or three jobs. They still can’t survive. They are not grossing the amount of money they would have realized if they had their old jobs. They need assistance.

Homeless family waiting for housing assistance

The Michigan government claims that by moving to do the four-year time limitation, an estimated $77.4 million will be saved. There is no consideration given to what will happen to people without money to buy food or shelter. They will be out on the street.

If the masses of people do not rally against these particular cuts, it will set the foundation for the cuts to go deeper. They will continue the taxation on the pension, eat away at other benefits of the workers, and eliminate certain programs not relevant for the corporate interests. If we allow this to go forward, what is it going to do for social security on a federal level—and will there be a time limit for social security? We have to think about this. Enforcement of this bill would set the foundation for all of our benefits to be eliminated. Continue reading →

James Willingham and Jeffery Frazier, the real subjects of this story

From  the Committee to Defend Diane Bukowski and Freedom of the Press

July 11, 2011

 DETROIT — The families of two Black Detroiters, James Willingham and Jeffery Frazier, who died during a high-speed chase by state troopers the same day President Barack Obama was elected, Nov. 4, 2008, continue to grieve for them. Meanwhile, Michigan courts focus instead on the prosecution of reporter Diane Bukowski, who sought to tell their story in the pages of the Michigan Citizen. 

Trooper John Hetfield drove the car which pursued Willingham, who had ten children, and caused both his and Frazier's deaths.

That no discipline or charges have been brought against Troopers John Hetfield and James Wojton, who carried out the chase, and that the deaths of Willingham and Frazier have been forgotten by the major media, starkly illustrates the importance of this country’s First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of the press.

 WHO WILL TELL THE STORIES OF PEOPLE LIKE WILLINGHAM AND FRAZIER, STORIES THAT ARE REPEATED EVERY DAY ACROSS THE POLICE STATE AND PRISON NATION CALLED THE U.S., IF THE PRESS IS PROSECUTED FOR COVERING THEM? SUCH STORIES ARE NOT TOLD TODAY IN THE PAGES OF THE MICHIGAN CITIZEN; THE PAPER FIRED BUKOWSKI IN 2010. 

Judge Michael Hathaway

Bukowski’s trial judge Michael Hathaway refused even to permit arguments at her trial in 2009 regarding her constitutional rights as a reporter. She was convicted of two felony counts of “assaulting, battering, wounding, resisting, obstructing, opposing, or endangering” troopers, brought by Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy. Bukowski had reported on unjustified killings by police and Worthy’s refusal to prosecute them for the previous nine years. 

On May 10, 2011, Appeals Court Judges David H. Sawyer, Jane E. Markey, and Karen M. Fort Hood denied her appeal, filed by attorneys John Royal and Sharon McPhail. They denied it on every single ground raised in the appeals brief, a summary of which is available on http://freedianebukowski.org.  The appeals court decision is available by clicking on Bukowski COA opinion.) 

There are numerous issues addressed in both documents. But most glaring is the fact that the appeals court upheld Hathaway’s refusal to allow arguments on the First Amendment, a matter that should concern every reporter and every freedom-loving person in this country. 

“Although this case does not involve a defense based on an illegal arrest, the clarity of the Statute [MCL 750.81d] in terms of its intent and its elements supports a conclusion that defendant may not defend based on her status as a news gatherer,” the Appeals Court said. “The statute does not call upon an officer performing his or her duties to ascertain whether the person obstructing, resisting, opposing, or endangering the officer is a news gatherer, or permit a person that is gathering news to avoid criminal liability for such actions with respect to an individual who is known or should be known to be an officer who is performing his or her duties.” 

Never mind that Judge Hathaway precluded First Amendment arguments in a pre-trial motion, while Bukowski was only charged under MCL 750.81d, not convicted. No details of her arrest (during which she was completely passive as shown in a Fox 2 news video) had yet been presented to the jury. 

Never mind that Hetfield and Wojton testified at the trial about the chase, although they were long gone by the time Bukowski arrived on the scene. Never mind that Hathaway once again stopped Bukowski from telling the story of Willingham and Frazier’s deaths when he prevented her trial attorney from cross-examining the officers on whether the chase violated vehicle pursuit rules, and then stopped Bukowski from testifying about her findings on the chase during her direct exam. 

(Click on http://freedianebukowski.org to read the full history of the Bukowski case, including links to stories of other journalists similarly attacked by police.) 

Asst. Prosecutor Tom Trczinski

That Prosecutor Worthy and her Assistant Prosecutor Thomas Trczinski even brought a motion to preclude arguments regarding the First Amendment is an indication of the evil depths into which the “justice” system in Detroit has fallen. 

“I at first wanted to let the appeals court decision go,” Bukowski said. “I have witnessed the absolute injustices perpetrated by the court system not only in my case but in numerous other cases I have covered over the years. Many who are currently incarcerated or in the ground are there because of that system, especially those who are Black, Latin, and poor.” 

“I was at least fortunate enough not to serve jail time, or to be a young person still seeking employment and housing with felonies on my record. My dedicated and highly skillful appeals attorneys have been paid virtually nothing for their work, and there are no more funds available. But attorney Royal convinced me that it was important to pursue the appeal, and volunteered to do so only for payment of court costs.” 

The crimes, the deaths of WIllingham and Frazier, were committed by State Troopers

So, on May 31, Attorney Royal filed a Motion for Reconsideration of the appeals court opinion. The motion addresses numerous other issues raised in Bukowski’s appeal, including the fact that she was convicted for allegedly crossing a crime scene tape, a charge on which she had not been bound over from District Court. 

“Contrary to this Court’s opinion,” Royal wrote, “. . . .it was and continues to be improper for the prosecution to try a defendant on a legal theory of the offense which was not submitted at the examination without first making a pretrial motion to amend the information.” 

Royal also argued that the Appeals Court was erroneous in ignoring the actions of a trooper who erased photographs from Bukowski’s camera, then testified at her trial that those photographs would have shown that she was inside a prohibited area. Royal said it is legal precedent that photographs are considered material evidence, and that the trooper’s testimony should have been ruled inadmissible as “hearsay.” 

During her trial, on cross-exam by Trzcinski, Bukowski characterized the statements of the state troopers who testified against her as “perjury.” Royal and McPhail objected that Trczinski should not have been allowed to question Bukowski on the validity of their statements. The appeals court claimed that Bukowski opened the door by testifying the officers had perjured themselves on direct exam. The motion for reconsideration says that Bukowski never gave such testimony on direct exam. 

“If the Appeals Court denies the motion, I will still continue to the State Supreme Court level,” Bukowski said. “Meanwhile, I continue to battle our criminal INJUSTICE system in the pages of the Voice of Detroit, the Final Call, and the San Francisco Bay View National Black Newspaper. I have covered miscarriages of justice like the conviction of Jason Gibson in the death of Officer Brian Huff, the appalling police murder of seven-year-old Aiyana Jones, the unjust prosecution of Maryanne Godboldo, and the battle of families whose loved one were convicted based on falsified crime lab evidence. I have not been scared off or silenced by this attack, and I hope that it will not have that effect on other journalists.” 

Despite Attorney John Royal’s willingness to pursue her appeals pro bono, Diane Bukowski asks that anyone who wants to contribute to this battle for freedom of the press please send checks made out to “John Royal” to The Voice of Detroit, P.O. Box 32684, Detroit, MI 48232. For further information, call Attorney Royal at 313-962-3739. Diane Bukowski can be reached by emailing diane_bukowski@hotmail.com.