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I want to hold those in power accountable for my wrongful conviction, and those of others: Searcy; 19,000 have signed Change. Org petition for his freedom at Petition · Michigan Attorney General: FREE WRONGFULLY CONVICTED THELONIOUS SEARCY!!!! · Change.org.

 “It’s hard enough when you’re guilty, it’s twice as hard when you’re innocent.”—Vincent Smothers’ testimony exonerating Thelonious Searcy

‘The bullets don’t lie.” Defense Attorney Michael Dezsi

AP Patrick Muscat, DPD Sgt. Dale Collins played key roles in the convictions of both Searcy and Davontae Sanford

Appeals Court hearing Thurs. Feb. 4, 10 am, Panel 4, on Zoom

National Registry of Exonerations Report: 54 percent of wrongful convictions involved misconduct by prosecutors, police

By Diane Bukowski

January 23, 2021 

Thelonious ‘Shawn’ Searcy with daughter LaShyra Thomas before 2005 conviction. Photo: LaShyra Thomas

DETROIT—The Michigan Court of Appeals will finally consider shocking evidence from a 2018 evidentiary hearing in a high-profile murder case, 15 years after the conviction of Detroiter Thelonious “Shawn” Searcy, now 40, for the crime. Searcy has maintained his innocence from the start.

“As an Asiatic Black man,” Searcy told VOD, my purpose for fighting my case so hard is to speak truth to power and hold accountable those responsible for my wrongful conviction, as well as the convictions of others who’ve been wronged by the corrupt judicial system in the City of Detroit.”

Well-known hitman Vincent Smothers confessed to the murder of Jamal Segars outside City Airport on Conner in great detail at the 2018 hearing. It was held in front of Searcy’s trial judge Timothy Kenny just before he became Chief Judge of the Wayne Co. Third Circuit Court.

Ballistics testimony showed that Wayne County Prosecutor Patrick Muscat, aided by  Kenny, lied to the jury about the gun and the bullets which killed the victim.

Muscat and Detroit Police Detective Dale Collins, a key witness at Searcy’s trial, also helped frame 14-year-old Davontae Sanford for the “Runyon Street killings” of four people in 2007. Smothers’ confession to those murders, which was concealed by prosecutors and ,police  led in part to the dismissal of Sanford’s case eight years later.

Collins has been instrumental in numerous other frame-ups, including those involving the notorious “Ring of Snitches” in the 1990’s, which led to multiple exonerations.

The Appeals Court hearing on Searcy’s case is set for Thurs. Feb. 4 in front of Judges Mark J. Cavanagh, Deborah A. Servitto and Thomas C. Cameron, JJ. (Panel 4). It will be held via Zoom. Searcy’s attorney Michael Dezsi is asking the Court to allow public livestreaming of the event.

Wayne Co. 3rd Circuit Chief Judge Timothy Kenny (l), AP Patrick Muscat

Judge Kenny, who became Chief Judge for the Wayne County Third District in Jan. 2019, denied Searcy’s motion for a new trial six months after the evidentiary hearing, in Dec. 2018.

He said did he not think Smothers’ confession was  “credible,” based in part on Smother’s initial recantation to Michigan State police investigators after lawyers for Davontae Sanford told him it could delay Sanford’s release. Legal experts say that determination should be up to a jury.

Kenny also claimed bullets found around Segars’ car were .45 caliber, not .40 caliber as clearly shown in exhibits at Searcy’s trial in 2005, and at the 2018 evidentiary hearing.  In his confession on the stand in 2018, Smothers said he used .40 caliber bullets, corroborating a police report from the scene.

Searcy filed an application for leave to appeal, but the Michigan Court of Appeals at the time gruffly denied the application, “because defendant has failed to establish that the trial court erred in denying the motion for relief from judgment.” The Michigan Supreme Court later remanded the case back to the Appeals Court, saying, “in lieu of granting leave to appeal, we REMAND this case to the Court of Appeals for consideration as on leave granted.” This meant the COA must address the substance of Searcy’s claims.

Thumb Correctional Facility in Lapeer, MI.

During this appeal process, Searcy has twice suffered severe bouts with the COVID-19 virus which has decimated Michigan prisons. The virus threatened to make his “life without parole” sentence a summary death sentence, but Searcy, the father of twodaughters, has never ceased to fight for his life, his family, and his freedom.

Searcy is incarcerated at the Thumb Correctional Facility, where 60 percent of the prisoners have tested positive for COVID-19. After he tested positive a second time, he was shipped to the Macomb Correctional Facility for two weeks, where one-third of the prisoners have tested positive.

Judge Kenny’s instruction to Searcy’s trial jury that fatal bullets were “too deformed” to identify them, failing to note exhibits showed the bullets were .40 caliber, not .45 caliber.  (Trial transcript pp. 

Since his incarceration, Searcy has devoted his time to studying the law, recently gaining grades of all A’s in criminal law paralegal courses conducted by the Blackstone Career Institute.

He has combed through tens of thousands of pages of his trial transcripts and  his Detroit Police Department homicide file, while staying abreast of the latest court rulings in other cases. Assisted by another “jail-house lawyer,”  he wrote the 2016 pro se motion for a new trial which won his evidentiary hearing in 2018. That motion was based not only on the discovery of new evidence, but also filed under MCR 770.1, which addresses issues of likely innocence.

Searcy is looking forward to re-uniting with his two daughters, present as toddlers when police stormed into his grandmother Edna Richardson’s home in 2004 to arrest the newly-married Searcy.

(L to R) Thelonious Searcy today, daughter LaShyra Thomas with unidentified relative, grandmother Edna Richardson at hearing; grades in criminal law classes.

His daughters have visited him throughout his incarceration and supported him at his court hearings since. Mrs. Richardson hired private investigator Scott Lewis for Searcy’s case, paid for Searcy to obtain his homicide file, and maintained a voluminous trove of other case documents at her home for review by reporters.

Searcy’s supporters have garnered nearly 19,000 signatures on a Change.Org petition for his freedom, at  Petition · Michigan Attorney General: FREE WRONGFULLY CONVICTED THELONIOUS SEARCY!!!! · Change.org.

Additionally, Searcy’s case is featured on Thelonious Searcy | Actual Innocent Prisoners.

NRE Report 2020

54% of Wrongful Convictions Nationally involved Police, Prosecutorial Misconduct–Report by National Registry of Exonerations

In September, 2020, the National Registry of Exonerations released a study, “Government Misconduct and Convicting the Innocent,” which showed that misconduct by prosecutors and police contributed to the false criminal convictions of more than half — 54 percent— of innocent people who were later exonerated.

Reviewers called it the  “by far the most thorough study ever of official misconduct by police, prosecutors and others in criminal cases in the United States. It is the only such study based on a comprehensive database of cases of wrongly convicted defendants: the first 2,400 exonerations recorded in the vational Registry of Exonerations.” Read the full report at comprehensive report.

OFFICIAL MISCONDUCT IN THELONIOUS ‘SHAWN’ SEARCY CASE

In Searcy’s case, Vincent Smothers testified that he repeatedly told numerous police, court and media representatives, in affidavits and letters over three years, that he had committed the Segars murder, but to no avail.

He took the stand at Searcy’s evidentiary hearing over the advice of his own lawyer, to describe the murder first-hand in great detail, as described in Deszi’s brief below:

AP Muscat presented a .45 caliber gun at Searcy’s trial, alleging it was the murder weapon without any fingerprint or other ballistics evidence.

However, he also presented Peoples Exhibit #23 at trial (at left above), in which Detroit Police Officer David Pauch identified the bullets found in Segars’ body at the morgue as .40 caliber. At Searcy’s 2018 evidentiary hearing, independent firearms expert David Balash confirmed Pauch’s report, and testified the bullets were found in Segars’ body.

Additionally, a .40 caliber bullet that the DPD crime lab initially identified as a 9mm shell casing was produced for analysis. The original designation was corrected by Detroit Police Officer Patricia Little of the Conviction Integrity Unit during the evidentiary hearing. The bullet is ET#07191604, shown on the report.

Also during the evidentiary hearing, the testimony of the prosecution’s reluctant key witness DeAnthony Witcher was challenged with newly discovered evidence showing that the DPD had covered up a concealed weapons arrest of Witcher just prior to Searcy’s arrest.

AP Muscat forced Witcher to submit to an investigative subpoena hearing without counsel, and Judge Kenny forced Witcher to testify by giving him “use immunity.”

Below is Private Investigator Scott Lewis’ audiotape of Vincent Smothers’ confession to the Jamal Segars murder, obtained in 2017.

RELATED DOCUMENTS:

Thelonious Searcy Atty. Grievance against Patrick Muscat

http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/TSearcy-grievance-PMuscat.pdf

Atty. Michael Dezsi’s Brief on Remand to Court of Appeals:

http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/TSSearcy.COA_.3.27.2020.pdf

Michigan Supreme Court’s remand of Searcy case to Court of Appeals:

http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Thelonious-Searcy-MSC-remand-to-COA-3-18-20.pdf

Michigan Court of Appeals denial of Searcy application for leave to appeal:

http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/TSearcy-COA-denial.pdf

Judge Timothy Kenny’s order denying Searcy motion for relief from judgment Dec. 3, 2018:

http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Searcy-Thelonious-Opinion-Order-12-03-18-compressed-1.pdf

Searcy’s pro se motion for new trial, filed July 22, 2016:

http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/TS-motion-for-new-trial-7-22-16.compressed-2.pdf

Part one of Searcy brief with Motion:

http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/TS-brief-7-22-16-part-one.compressed-1.pdf

Part two of  Searcy brief with Motion:

http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/TS-brief-7-22-16-part-two.compressed-1.pdf

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Voice of Detroit 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, and internet fees, as well as office supplies, gas, etc.

Please DONATE TO VOD at

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A PDF of this article is available for printing at 

http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/APPEALS-COURT-TO-HEAR-SEARCY-CASE-FEB.-4_-HITMAN-CONFESSED-TO-MURDER-LIES-TOLD-ABOUT-FATAL-BULLETS-_-VOICE-OF-DETROIT_-The-citys-independent-newspaper-unbossed-and-unbought.pdf

VOD STORIES ON THELONIOUS SEARCY’S WRONGFUL CONVICTION IN 2005, EVIDENTIARY HEARING 2017-18, IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER:

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COVID-19 Rally vs. inhumane treatment of prisoners at Gus Harrison Correctional Facility Dec. 11, 2020 Photo: Honeysuckle Magazine

By Ricardo Ferrell

Ricardo Ferrell, VOD Field Editor

Field Editor, Voice of Detroit;

Senior Writer, My Life Matters Too

January 10, 2021

Do Prisoners’ Lives Matter?

That’s a question repeatedly asked by people on the outside trying to look inside Michigan’s Prison system to understand why now 125 of its most vulnerable have die, and more continue dying daily, after contracting COVID-19.

In the spring of 2020, the MDOC saw its first prisoner test positive for the coronavirus. Before long there were hundreds of prisoners testing positive in a single facility.

On April 17, 24 positive cases were identified. And the death of four prisoners who had tested positive for COVID-19 brought the number to 17 prisoners in the MDOC to die from this virus.

On May 18, 830 positive cases were identified. Gus Harrison Correctional – had 612 positives. And the death of two prisoners who tested positive for COVID-19. The prisoners had been housed at Lakeland Correctional Facility and Gus Harrison Correctional Facility. This brought 57 prisoners in the MDOC to die from this virus.

Families protest outside prison in Santa Barbara, California.

The above dates reflect early on in the crisis. As the summer rolled in, we began to see several more facilities to catch on fire with COVID cases, and sadly more deaths.

By the fall, there were over a thousand cases reported in daily updates. In fact, on Nov. 12, there were 1,006 positive cases, and on Dec. 3, there were 1,362 positive cases to report.

The number of prisoner deaths continued to rise, for an example: On May 18th, they reported 57 prisoners who had died from COVID-19, then on Nov. 12th, it rose to 75 deaths, and by Dec. 29th, there were 116 deaths.

William Garrison, Family Photo, 2009

I am both angry and sad about how so many prisoners (over 22,000) have caught this invisible deadly disease and many losing their lives due to improper responses by corrections officials and prison administrators who both are responsible for assuring the safety and safeguard of those under its care against communicable diseases. When I learned of my friend William Garrison dying from COVID in April 2020, just two weeks before he was scheduled to be released, it saddened me to my core. Garrison had served 44 years, only to die at the end of his sentence because of gross negligence on the part of staff.

In mid November, we were hit particularly hard on the level II side of the facility at Gus Harrison. First, there were about 25 who tested positive, then on or about Nov. 23rd, the test results started coming in, and upwards of 200 of us received a ‘Final Results Report’ from Curative Labs in Washington, DC, showing us to be positive for SARS-CoV-2. Imagine the alarm this must have caused.

I sat on the bunk for 5 minutes staring unbelievably at the test results. Asking myself, how in the hell did this happen to me? Then immediately began to worry like crazy because I have an underlying medical condition which puts me at higher risk of dying from this deadly virus. The psychological effect brought on by knowing what type of damage this coronavirus can cause, is maddening to say the least.

GARWOOD TURNER, 76: Died while commutation on Gov. Whitmer’s desk

Garwood Turner

Within 3 days after he contracted the coronavirus, Garwood Turner, 76, an elderly sick prisoner at the Gus Harrison Facility was pronounced dead from COVID complications, Dec. 17, 2020. He locked just a few doors down across the hall from me before he was moved to another housing unit. Its obvious COVID killed Turner, but had staff properly checked on him during their required 30 minute rounds his condition could have been detected more quicker, and medical attention provided which could’ve help to save his life.

His frailty and poor health should have been of significant concern to both custody staff, as well as health care providers. In short, Garwood Turner wasn’t given adequate attention by those responsible for assuring that his safety and health was protected. Staff simply dropped the ball in Turner’s situation. His family deserves to know of the negligence and incompetence by staff who failed to afford him the common decency of proper care. Sadly, Turner’s commutation was on Gov. Whitmer’s desk.

LEE W. “BABY” LAWRENCE, 83

Lee Weber Lawrence

Less than 12 days after Turner’s death, another elderly prisoner Lee W. Lawrence, 83, who had been in prison since the early 70s died from complications of COVID-19 on Dec. 27, 2020. He was known throughout the prison system as Baby Lawrence. I met him about 40 years ago, we were chained together on the infamous ‘Snow Bird’, en route to Marquette Branch Prison in the Upper Peninsula. We ended up in the same cellblock. I didn’t bump back into him until 1997 at Carson City, then it took 22 years before I would see him again. I would kick it with the ‘Babe’ from time to time about the old days.

He was quite the storyteller. He use to tell me some interesting tales about his time in Cuba, during the Bay of Pigs, back when Fidel Castro came out of the hills to oust Batista and his regime from power, and how he grew up in St. Louis, Missouri as a young man. He would tell me about his daughter Billie Lawrence, she’s a singer. Baby Lawrence was so proud of Billie and I think in his own way, he wished they could’ve visited one last time, to tell her face to face just how much he loved her. Baby, you will be missed by your family, your comrades and those who knew you best.

CURTIS ‘SUICIDE’ WATKINS, 68: 

Curtis Ray “Suicide” Watkins (family photo)

Also, we lost Curtis ‘Suicide’ Watkins, 68, one of the realest brothers these penitentiaries have ever seen. Back in 1975, when I first came to prison at age 17, ‘Cide’ was one of those cats I had heard about and wanted to meet. We had a mutual friend and based on that connection, we always had respect for one another. I remember his daughter Sharon Phillips back when she use to be on television. His family is going to miss him, just as thousands of incarcerated brothers are going to as well.

Its a shame how Garrison served 44 yrs, Turner 46 yrs, Lawrence 48 yrs, and Watkins 48 yrs., then ended up killed by COVID. This should be a shock to the conscience of officials in charge of the MDOC response to this pandemic.  It makes you wonder whether if the negligence by staff is intentional. There’s no justifying the lack of concern or the disregard for our lives by staff. Someone needs to be held accountable.

(RIP, RIP, RIP, RIP)

See “Suicide” Watkins’ obituary with video from ceremony, comments at

Curtis Ray “Suicide” Watkins Obituary – Visitation & Funeral Information (lawrenceemoonfuneralhomepontiac.com)

http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Curtis-Ray-Watkins-wall.pdf

SIGN OUR PETITION TO GOV. WHITMER NOW!! 

https://www.change.org/COVID-19VaccinesforMichiganPrisoners

Related:

ACLU TO MICH. GOV. WHITMER: COVID-19 VACCINES FOR PRISONERS NOW, A MATTER OF LIFE OR DEATH | VOICE OF DETROIT: The city’s independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought

Quentin Jones

In the story below, Quentin Jones, a leader of the My Life Matters Too Newspaper inside Gus Harrison CF along with Ricardo Ferrell, recounts how MDOC officials wrote him up for helping Shawanna Vaughn of NYC organize the Dec. 11 protest. On Dec. 23, he says he was transferred to Lakeland CF, a prison that has had 24 deaths from COVID-19 to date, by far the highest number of any facility in the state.

On Michigan Department of Corrections’ Negligent Handling of COVID-19: A Message From Prisoner Quentin Jones – Honeysuckle Magazine

Activists Organize Rally in Michigan to Protest Inhumane Treatment of Prisoners Affected by Covid-19 – Honeysuckle Magazine

Michigan Department of Corrections Under Fire for Failing to Take Appropriate Measures to Combat Covid-19 – Honeysuckle Magazine

RELEASE AGING PEOPLE IN PRISON BEFORE THEY DIE; END LIFE WITHOUT PAROLE | VOICE OF DETROIT: The city’s independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought

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Voice of Detroit 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, and internet fees, as well as office supplies, gas, etc.

Please if you can 

DONATE TO VOD at

https://www.gofundme.com/donate-to-vod

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Protest outside San Quentin Prison in California, March 2020

“Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and the most inhuman.”

 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. March 25, 1966

Sign Voice of Detroit’s petition to Gov. Whitmer at:

https://www.change.org/COVID-19VaccinesforMichiganPrisoners

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in jail during the Birmingham Bus Boycott.

ACLU to Gov. Whitmer, MDHHS Director Gordon: “A prison that deprives prisoners of basic sustenance, including adequate medical care. . . .has no place in civilized society.”

State’s failure to prioritize Michigan prisoners for COVID-19 vaccines violates 8th Amendment

Other states including Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Nebraska, New Mexico and Pennsylvania prioritize prisoners

Michigan prisons have second highest number of COVID-19 cases,  third highest number of deaths in the country

January 16, 2021

Editor: We are very heartened to see that a coalition of human rights groups formed by the Michigan ACLU called on Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Michigan Dept. of Health and Human Services Director Robert Gordon on Jan. 13 to prioritize people in prisons and jails for COVID-19 vaccine distribution, in tier one.

VOD began a petition asking the same officials to do so on December 18, 2020 and calls on readers to continue to sign it while state officials respond to the ACLU letter. Sign at https://www.change.org/COVID-19VaccinesforMichiganPrisoners.

We are hearing many frantic and heartbreaking accounts from  state prisoners with COVID-19 and about those who have died from the unchecked spread of this pandemic in the Michigan Department of Corrections. One hundred twenty-five (125) prisoners have now died, while nearly 60 percent of all MDOC prisoners, 23,400, have tested positive since the pandemic began, according to MDOC figures.

THE MICHIGAN CONSTITUTION HAS OUTLAWED THE DEATH PENALTY SINCE 1847, the first state to do so. No prisoner has been sentenced to death!

Carl Hubbard/MDOC photo

Carl Hubbard just returned to the Carson City Correctional Facility after weeks of hospitalization outside the walls. He is  suffering severe and likely permanent damage to his entire body including his lungs, heart, and circulatory system. He is in imminent danger of death. But he has been placed once again in an all COVID-19 unit.

Prior to his hospitalizations, he told VOD: “I have been very sick with this COVID-19. They tested me eight times and the last time it came back positive after Thanksgiving.  I have been sick ever since, lost all my taste and smell, and am having chest pains. There have been least three deaths here. I’m in the COVID unit 900 where everybody has COVID. But there is really no treatment going on here because an officer infected everybody here.  There are 240 prisoners with COVID in the unit, and in the whole compound,  2100 prisoners and at least 100 C.O.’s with it as well.”

As of Jan. 11, 2021, 2101 of 2,514 prisoners at Carson City have tested positive for the virus; 1,629 cases (65 percent of the total CCF population), are currently active.  Six CCF prisoners have died.

Hubbard was wrongfully convicted and incarcerated  in 1992, based solely on one man’s coerced testimony. Prosecutors had the man arrested for alleged “perjury” as he left the stand on the second day of the trial after recanting, but he has done so repeatedly since. The Wayne County Prosecutor’s office continues to oppose all Hubbard’s appeals.

Thelonious Searcy, Ricky Rimmer-Bey, and Darrell Ewing also have strong cases for exoneration. They have each suffered severely from COVID-19 and are fighting not only for freedom, but their very lives.

Searcy has a Court of Appeals hearing Feb. 4 on a Michigan Supreme Court remand of his innocence case ordering the COA t0 address factual issues including the testimony of hitman Vincent Smothers that he committed the crime for which Searcy was charged. Ewing is waiting to see whether Wayne Co. Prosecutor Kym Worthy will appeal his case further after eight judges ordered a new trial over the last three years. Rimmer-Bey, who is 67 and has been incarcerated since 1975,  has a motion pending in trial court for emergency re-sentencing due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its particular effect on him.  Will they survive long enough?

Some experts estimate that at least 30 percent of MDOC prisoners are innocent. There are tens of thousands of others sentenced to terms of 20 years up to life (a/k/a death by incarceration), These sentences are considered cruel and unusual in most of the rest of the civilized world, where a term of 15 years upon review is generally the most severe penalty for any crime. Why should any human being incarcerated in Michigan have to fear a horrible death from COVID-19 as well?

Release: ACLU Coalition Letter to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, MDHHS Dir. Robert Gordon, Jan. 13, 2021 

(Full letter at http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Civil-Rights-Coalition-Urges-Gov.-Gretchen-Whitmer-and-Michigan-Health-Department-to-Prioritize-Vaccinating-People-who-are-Incarcerated-_-ACLU-of-Michigan2.pdf.)

Mich. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, MDHHS Dir. Robert Gordon.

DETROIT – Today a coalition of civil rights organizations sent a letter to Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Director Robert Gordon, urging the state to prioritize COVID-19 vaccinations for people who live in correctional facilities statewide, just as the state has prioritized vaccinations for people who work in these facilities and people who live in other congregate settings.

The coalition sent the letter after previously raising these points prior to the updated release of guidelines as part of an ongoing effort to persuade the Governor and MDHHS to treat everyone in congregate living situations equally, because:

• The average rate of COVID-19 cases among people incarcerated statewide is 983% higher than Michigan’s overall rate, and the mortality rate is 133% higher than Michigan overall.
• In Michigan prisons, there have been at least 22,629 cases of COVID-19, the third-highest rate in the country, and at least 121 deaths, the second-highest rate in the country.
• Statewide, more than 2,000 people incarcerated have been infected, and 20 people incarcerated have died of COVID-19, in the last month alone.

Syeda Farhana Davidson

“Prioritizing who in Michigan gets the COVID-19 vaccine and when they get it must be guided by public health policies,” said Syeda Davidson, ACLU of Michigan senior staff attorney.

“Failing to prioritize people living in jails and prisons defies the recommendations of experts in this field, who recognize that vaccinating this highly vulnerable population as soon as possible is critical to protecting public health. This virus is infecting and killing people who are incarcerated at alarmingly high rates as compared to the general public, and the only way to stop it is to prioritize vaccinations for people in prisons and jails.”

While the MDHHS guidance prioritizes people who live in other congregate living settings, like adult foster care homes and psychiatric facilities, as well as staff for correctional facilities, the guidance excludes people living in correctional facilities from any level of prioritization.

The letter also addresses the racial implications of excluding people who are incarcerated from being prioritized to receive the vaccine. Gov. Whitmer recognized through executive directive last year that racism is a public health crisis, and that this pandemic exacerbates the inequities caused by systemic racism.

Protesters outside Philadelphia City Hall call for release of prisoners due to COVID-19 pandemic. March 30, 2020

“Both the offices of Governor Whitmer and MDHHS have consistently and rightfully followed public health experts’ guidelines while addressing this pandemic –  including the recognition that this deadly virus is disproportionately ravishing the Black community,” said
Jonathan Sacks, State Appellate Defender Office director.

“Leaving people in jails and prisons out of the state’s vaccine priority plan is contributing to the systemic racism Governor Whitmer and her administration has been fighting so hard to dismantle. Prioritizing people incarcerated is critical in fighting systemic racism in Michigan.”

COVID-19 is infecting Black Michigan residents more than three times the rate of white Michigan residents, and the Black death rate is more than four times higher than whites. Black people are also over-incarcerated compared to white people. While the Black population is 14 percent in Michigan, they are 49 percent of the Michigan’s jail and prison population.

Amanda Alexander, founder, Detroit Justice Center

[The Marshall Project reports, “Black prisoners in Michigan have accounted for 49 percent of positive COVID tests, at the same time black residents received 31 percent of positive tests in the state as a whole.]

“This unprecedented, deadly pandemic is disproportionately infecting and killing incarcerated people and Black Michiganders,” said Amanda Alexander, Detroit Justice Center founder and executive director. “It is not only humane, but necessary, to prioritize vaccinating individuals who are behind bars just as every other person the state is prioritizing.”

In addition to the ACLU, the State Appellate Defender Office, and the Detroit Justice Center, the letter was signed by Safe & Just Michigan, Michigan Liberation, the Michigan Center for Youth Justice, the American Friends Service Committee, the Neighborhood Defender Service of Detroit, and the Michigan League for Public Policy.

Related from Detroit News:

Opinion: Those in Michigan prisons face a humanitarian crisis during COVID-19 (detroitnews.com)

Related from Detroit Free Press:

Michigan can’t confirm if 115 prisoner cases were COVID-19 reinfection (freep.com)

Related from VOD:

MICHIGAN PRISONERS NEED COVID-19 VACCINES NOW, SAY ADVOCATES; A.M.A., OTHERS DEMAND 1st-TIER PRIORITY | VOICE OF DETROIT: The city’s independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought

IS MICHIGAN USING TRUMP’S COVID-19 ‘HERD IMMUNITY’ STRATEGY TO KILL OFF PRISON POPULATION? | VOICE OF DETROIT: The city’s independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought

COPING WITH COVID-19 IN MICHIGAN PRISONS: RALLY BY ‘SILENT CRY’ FRI. DEC. 11 AT GUS HARRISON CF IN ADRIAN | VOICE OF DETROIT: The city’s independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought

STATE OF EMERGENCY IN MICH. PRISONS: COVID-19 CASES, DEATHS SKYROCKET, PRISONER UPRISINGS INCREASE | VOICE OF DETROIT: The city’s independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought

U.S. HOUSE BILL: DISMANTLE MASS INCARCERATION, RELEASE PRISONERS FACING COVID-19 DEATH SENTENCE | VOICE OF DETROIT: The city’s independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought

MASS MURDER IN MICH.: GOV. SAYS ‘NOTHING SHE CAN DO’ TO RELEASE MORE PRISONERS AS COVID ENGULFS MDOC | VOICE OF DETROIT: The city’s independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought

PROTESTERS URGE WHITMER TO RELEASE MICHIGAN INMATES FACING RISK OF CORONAVIRUS IN STATE PRISONS | VOICE OF DETROIT: The city’s independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought

WAYNE CO. JAIL RESIDENTS SAY MANY SICK, DYING WITH COVID-19; MDOC PRISONERS SAY LARGE NUMBERS TOO | VOICE OF DETROIT: The city’s independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought

Related from other media:

America’s Innocent Prisoners Are Going to Die There – The Atlantic 

Is COVID-19 Falling Harder on Black Prisoners? Officials Won’t Tell Us. | The Marshall Project

COVID-19 and mass incarceration: a call for urgent action – The Lancet Public Health

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Voice of Detroit 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, and internet fees, as well as office supplies, gas, etc.

Please if you can 

DONATE TO VOD at

https://www.gofundme.com/donate-to-vod

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From left: Raymond Santana, Yusef Salaam, Korey Wise, Kevin Richardson, and Antron McCray in 2019.Credit…Bennett Raglin/Getty Images for BET

Opinion: By Yusef Salaam, Kevin Richardson and Raymond Santana

January 4, 2021

On Dec. 19, 2002, a judge vacated our convictions for the brutal attack of Trisha Meili, who many know as the “Central Park jogger.” On that day, our 13-year fight for justice came to an end. The lies that we were told by detectives to wrongly convict us were finally exposed and ceased to hold power over us. Now, we are fighting to prevent others from facing the same fate.

At the time of our arrests in 1989, we were just boys — Kevin and Raymond, the youngest among us, were only 14 — and we came to be known as the “Central Park Five.” Now we are known as the “Exonerated Five,” and, largely because of Ava DuVernay’s series “When They See Us,” the world knows our stories.

Central Park 5 after arrest.

But what people may not realize is that what happened to us isn’t just the past — it’s the present. The methods that the police used to coerce us, five terrified young boys, into falsely confessing are still commonly used today. But in its coming session, New York State legislators have the power to change that.

It’s hard to imagine why anyone would confess to a crime they didn’t commit. But when you’re in that interrogation room, everything changes. During the hours of relentless questioning that we each endured, detectives lied to us repeatedly. They said they had matched our fingerprints to crime scene evidence and told each of us that the others had confessed and implicated us in the attack. They said that if we just admitted to participating in the attack, we could go home. All of these were blatant lies.

With these tactics of deception and intimidation, detectives sought to exhaust, disorient and confuse us. They hoped to make us so fearful of never seeing our loved ones again that we’d say anything to protect ourselves and our families. Ultimately, that’s what nearly all of us did.

It felt like the truth didn’t matter. Instead, it seemed as though they locked onto one theory and were hellbent on securing incriminating statements to corroborate it. A conviction rather than justice felt like the goal. And with those false confessions, they were able to secure our wrongful convictions. These deceptive tactics aren’t right — but they are 100 percent legal.

One of many protests in support of wrongfully convicted Central Park 5.

The miscarriages of justice in our cases weren’t isolated incidents. False confessions played a role in nearly 30 percent of wrongful convictions later overturned by DNA evidence. In New York State alone, 43 people who have been exonerated, including us, were wrongly convicted based on false confessions. Several of those innocent people were, like us, teenagers at the time they were wrongly accused.

In a courtroom, a confession — whether true or false — is likely to seal your fate. Judges and juries tend to believe confessions over DNA evidence that points to a person’s innocence, but they also have a surprisingly difficult time discerning between a true confession and a false one.

If confessions were evaluated for reliability before trial — the same way that the reliability of forensic evidence and eyewitness identifications are assessed before they are admitted as evidence — the use of false confessions could be drastically reduced. This could go a long way toward preventing wrongful convictions, and the groundwork has already been laid.

Since 2018, New York has required the recording of interrogations of individuals accused of serious crimes that occur in police stations, correctional centers, prosecutor’s offices and similar holding areas. These recordings, along with other evidence, could be examined during admissibility hearings to thoroughly evaluate a confession’s reliability before it’s admitted into evidence and presented in a courtroom.

NY State Senator Zellnor Myrie

Recording interrogations is crucial for accountability, but it’s not enough to prevent false confessions in the first place. The juries at our trials saw only videotapes of the statements we made after hours of questioning and coercion without lawyers present. They didn’t see the hours of threats and manipulation that preceded those recorded statements. To truly protect the innocent, New York must go a step further by banning the use of deceptive interrogation methods.

A bill by New York State Senator Zellnor Myrie that will come up this session could make this possible. Senator Myrie’s proposed legislation would ban the use of deception in interrogations and ensure that confessions are assessed for reliability before they make it into the courtroom. It’s crucial that New York lawmakers pass these measures to prevent future wrongful convictions and ensure that no one else is ever robbed of their youth or freedom.

These psychologically coercive tactics presume guilt rather than innocence and, as a result, they taint law enforcement’s efforts to find facts. Yet most police agencies in the United States still permit their use, even while many of their European counterparts have abandoned these methods.

These measures, together with a legislative proposal to ensure the right to legal counsel for young people during interrogations that will be considered in Albany would help prevent others from experiencing the injustices we endured.

New York could lead the way for the country by adopting these changes and strengthening our justice system. But until then, there’s no telling how many more innocent people the system will ensnare, forcing them to fight for their freedom and their lives.

Yusef Salaam, Kevin Richardson and Raymond Santana are members of the Exonerated Five and criminal justice reform advocates. Mr. Salaam serves on the board of the Innocence Project.

December 29, 2020

Capitalism + Covid-19 = Mass Death in US | Black Agenda Report

“The US health system has failed utterly and completely to protect the people” in this country, said veteran activist Sara Flounders, co-editor with Lee Siu Hin of the new, 50-writer anthology “Capitalism on a Ventilator: The Impact of Covid-19 in China and the US.”

The US accounts for a quarter of the world’s infections and a third of deaths, a catastrophe due to “the cost of health care for profit, of no national health care, and no national coordination,” said Flounders, who notes that the US “does not lack infrastructure in police, in the military, and in prisons.”

Now in print and available: ‘Capitalism on a ventilator: The Impact of Covid-19 in China & the U.S.’ (iacenter.org)

Pope Francis blesses a prisoner as he visits the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility in Philadelphia Sept. 27. (CNS photo/Paul Haring) See POPE-PRISON Sept. 27, 2015. The Pope regularly visits prisoners world-wide: “There but for the grace of God go I.”

POPE ON COVID-19 VACCINE: NEEDY, VULNERABLE MUST COME FIRST

Sign petition to save the lives of Michigan prisoners NOW

HTTPS://WWW.CHANGE.ORG/COVID-19VACCINESFORMICHIGANPRISONERS

Frances D’Emilio

Associated Press

December 25, 2020

POPE FRANCIS DELIVERS CHRISTMAS MESSAGE DEC.25, 2020

Vatican City — Pope Francis made a Christmas Day plea for authorities to make COVID-19 vaccines available to all, insisting that the first in line should be the most vulnerable and needy, regardless of who holds the patents for the shots.

“Vaccines for everybody, especially for the most vulnerable and needy,” who should be first in line, Francis said in off-the-cuff remarks from his prepared text, calling the development of such vaccines “light of hope” for the world.

“We can’t let closed nationalisms impede us from living as the true human family that we are,” the pope said.

He called on the leaders of nations, businesses and international organizations to “promote cooperation and not competition, and to search for a solution for all.”

Amid a surge of coronavirus infections this fall in Italy, Francis broke with tradition for Christmas. Instead of delivering his “Urbi et Orbi” speech — Latin for “to the city and to the world” — outdoors from the central loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica, he read it from inside a cavernous hall at the Apostolic Palace, flanked by two Christmas trees with blinking lights.

Normally, tens of thousands of people would have crowded into St. Peter’s Square to receive the pope’s Christmas blessing and listen to his speech. But Italian measures to try to rein in holiday infections allow people to leave their homes on Christmas for only urgent reasons like work, health, visits to nearby loved ones or exercise close to home.

Pope Francis washes the feet of 12 prisoners in Rome on Holy Thursday, 2016.

The pandemic’s repercussions on life dominated Francis’ reflections on the past year.

“At this moment in history, marked by the ecological crisis and grave economic and social imbalances only worsened by the coronavirus pandemic, it is all the more important for us to acknowledge one another as brothers and sisters,” Francis said.

Fraternity and compassion applies to people “even though they do not belong to my family, my ethnic group or my religion,” he said.

Francis prayed that the birth of Jesus would inspire people to be “generous, supportive and helpful” to those in need, including those struggling with ”the economic effects of the pandemic and women who have suffered domestic violence during these months of lockdown.”

Venezuela Sanctions: Venezuelan people protest U.S. economic blockade of their country, which is causing massive suffering.

Noting that the “American continent” was particularly hard-hit by COVID-19, he said that the pandemic compounded suffering, “often aggravated by the consequences of corruption and drug trafficking.” In particular he cited the suffering of the Venezuelan people.

On a day when Christians recall Jesus as a baby, Francis drew attention to the “too many children in all the world, especially in Syria, Iraq and Yemen, who still pay the high price of war.”

Among others he said sorely needed comfort at Christmas time were the Iraqi people, and “in particular the Yazidi, hard hit by the last years of war.” And, he said, “I cannot forgot the Rohingya people,” adding that he hoped that Jesus, “born poor among the poor, will bring hope in their suffering.”

Related:

MICHIGAN PRISONERS NEED COVID-19 VACCINES NOW, SAY ADVOCATES; A.M.A., OTHERS DEMAND 1st-TIER PRIORITY | VOICE OF DETROIT: The city’s independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought

IS MICHIGAN USING TRUMP’S COVID-19 ‘HERD IMMUNITY’ STRATEGY TO KILL OFF PRISON POPULATION? | VOICE OF DETROIT: The city’s independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought

Men at Gus Harrison Correctional Facility Report New Wave of COVID-19

Recent mass testing at GHFC shows virus migrated from Unit 2 to Unit 1, where there were previously no positive tests

GHFC prisoners denied request for N95 masks, recommended by CDC

Now 95 deaths state-wide in the MDOC

RALLY BY ‘SILENT CRY,’ NATION OUTSIDE SET FOR FRI. DEC. 10 outside GHCF in Adrian; Shawanna Vaughn/Silent Cry: “Because I have Black sons”

Ricardo Ferrell

By Ricardo Ferrell

VOD Field Editor

December 8, 2020

Not since 1918 has a pandemic like COVID-19 had such a devastating impact around the globe. During the 1918 Spanish Flu tens of millions of lives were impacted and millions died from the deadly disease. Now here we are 100 years later facing, arguably, an even deadlier virus that knows no boundaries. No one is safe and the most vulnerable like elderly patients in nursing homes have been ravished with illness and taken out by the coronavirus.

Another vulnerable population is within prisons across the U.S., where states including California, Texas, New York, Louisiana, Ohio –to name a few, have seen spikes in the virus where thousands of inmates have succumbed to the disease and many have died.

Here in Michigan a reported 47 percent of the inmate population has tested positive and contracted the virus. As of today, there have been 91 inmates who have died as a result of COVID complications. How is  that even possible when inmates are confined behind highly secured walls, fences, bars, and doors? In other words, if inmates are secured within the perimeters of secure prisons, then how are thousands still being infected? It’s no secret that employees are the main cause of how the virus is seeping into prisons in Michigan. Here are some indisputable facts:

The pandemic has hit the U.S. hard and the prison system has been impacted severely. We have been put at-risk by gross negligence on the part of the MDOC. There is no way an incarcerated individual can go out into society by day and contract the virus and come back at night and spread it.

Here is how things unfolded at the Gus Harrison Correctional Facility located in Madison Township, just outside of Adrian.

In early April we didn’t have any cases on either side of the facility (level I, Level II or level IV). Then suddenly inmates on the Southside (level I) were testing positive right after the reopening of Unit 6, outside the perimeter of Gus Harrison. Unit 6 was being used as one of the first step-down units for those at other facilities who were recovering after they tested positive. Many of us assumed that inmates on the Southside who worked outside the gate near Unit 6 must have contracted the virus and carried it back to their housing units. Before long, more than half of the inmates housed in the level I (pollbarn) open dormitory style setting had tested positive, over 700 inmates. The administration responded by separating both sides of the facility, which we all hoped would keep the virus from spreading to the level II & level IV units.

Shawanna Erena Vaughn of New York City, Director of “Silent Cry.”

Although we couldn’t pin point how the virus still made it over to our side of the facility, many staff started testing positive, and due to staff shortages and requested overtime, some of those same staff members were assigned to work in housing units and other areas of the facility. Up until that time, there weren’t any inmates who had tested positive on the Northside,  just a handful of close contacts from being near infected staff.

Fast forward to now.  After almost eight months without any of the +/-  1,000 prisoners on the Northside testing positive, the housing unit I reside in, has had some 20 positive cases since Friday the 13th. We are tested every Friday with a nasal swab. Last week Monday, healthcare began checking everyone’s temperature and other vitals. When someone has a high fever, they are given an instant test. And there have been at least seven instant tests to show positives. So, as a result of the outbreak, the entire housing unit is on ‘quarantine status’ and have daily outside yard times isolated from the other housing units. All three meals are being delivered from food service. Health care (nurses) come to the units to dispense medications and insulin. Everyone is on edge, because since last week’s testing, it’s believed others may also be infected and could unknowingly be spreading the virus.

The results from mass testing held on Nov. 20th, came back three days later) with over 100 positives in this housing unit alone and 20 or so in another unit. I wonder how this unit got hit like this. Two prisoners tested positive on Nov. 13,  there were other positives the morning of Nov. 15, and the number continued to rise until Nov. 29th, where it is now 240 positives in unit one. Each housing unit holds 240 prisoners, so everyone is positive.

Grounds of Gus Harrison CF in Adrian, MI.

There wasn’t a single positive case in this unit until a corrections officer tested positive that’s regularly assigned to work in our unit. Records should show this officer working a double-shift (morning and afternoon) on Nov. 5th, in housing unit one.

A hard fact is, we can’t go out to the free world, contract COVID-19, then come back to the facility and spread it among prisoners and staff. Everyone knows the only way for us prisoners to get infected, is from a staff member. There should be video footage of this particular staff member improperly wearing a mask, and coughing for hours. In fact, coping with COVID.

The MDOC should’ve been more proactive in containing this virus and more measures taken to assure the safety of everyone. I believe each staff member’s temperature is checked and he/she is asked if they’re experiencing any symptoms, before they’re allowed into the facility. So, if a staff member comes into a correctional facility and states NO to the question of having symptoms, in an effort to avoid being sent home and quarantined, then they are intentionally undermining the COVID protocol to prevent spread. The bottom line is, many of us have now been infected and could be in jeopardy of losing our lives to the coronavirus?  The MDOC now has nearly 16,000 prisoners who have tested positive for COVID.

Gus Harrison CF, Adrian MI

This is how COVID is affecting those of us in housing unit one. We just learned that at least three units on the Southside are also under ‘quarantine status’ due to outbreaks in those units. It’s really a sad affair, this virus is spreading and we’re like sitting ducks. As of December 1st, housing unit two has been placed on ‘quarantine status’ as well due to over 100 positive cases in that unit, which brings the total on the Northside of the facility to roughly 400 cases.

The prison administration at Gus Harrison dropped the ball in handling this outbreak, it seems that they would’ve learned from the approximately 700 inmates and several staff members on the Southside of the facility who contracted the virus, on how best to separate the positives, negatives, close contacts, and PUI’s, but again they were grossly negligent. Mixing positives, negatives and close contacts in the same units and dayrooms contributed to many inmates getting infected.

William Garrison in a 2009 photo from family vist.

Among the 91 prisoner deaths across the MDOC so far, was William Garrison, a Detroit man who had been convicted as a juvenile of First Degree Murder and sentenced to Life Without Parole. He served 44 years before being resentenced under the landmark decision in Miller v. Alabama, where the U.S. Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional to give juvenile offenders LWOP sentences. He was scheduled to be released from the Macomb Correctional Facility near New Haven, MI. Less than two weeks before his release date he contracted COVID-19 and died before he could walk out the door a free man.

There are many men and women that have caught the virus and no longer are with us. Curtis Watkins had served 47 years before he contracted COVID and later died after being placed on a ventilator. His case was being looked at by the Michigan Law Clinic at the University of Michigan due to being locked up on the abolished Felony Murder statute. Garrison and Watkins would likely still be with us had they not been exposed to the Coronavirus.

Honeysuckle Magazine reported, “More recently on December 2, 2020, [an individual] known as DJ, was found dead in his cell in the Gus Harrison Correctional Facility in Adrian, Michigan, from complications of coronavirus. Just three weeks earlier, DJ had returned to the facility after undergoing open heart surgery, a result of his battle with multiple sclerosis (MS). He had survived an initial contraction of the virus in April.”

VOD editor: The MDOC does not publish the names of prisoners who have died from COVID, but it is recently publishing numbers per facility. See: http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/REMEMBERING-PRISONERS-WHO-HAVE-PASSED-MDOC.pdf

Although prison officials put in place some measures early on when the pandemic first hit the Michigan Department of Corrections, e.g., suspended visits, stopped transfers between facilities and gave each prisoner poor quality cloth masks, made at factories inside correctional facilities, it wasn’t enough to prevent the spread of the virus. Social distancing is virtually impossible inside a prison, especially in close quarters like pole barn settings, where inmates are forced to live cramped up in small cubicles with eight  people, or in 8×10 cells double-bunked with a cellmate. While we have had to wear the poor quality cloth masks, majority of the staff have the luxury of sporting the more effective N95’s.

During a recent Warden’s Forum meeting, Unit Representatives proposed that the prisoner population be allowed to have the same N95 masks, but that was quickly shot down, despite the suggestion that the Prisoner Benefit Fund could pay for them.

Published by the CDC.

We are given updates on JPay which are questionable at best. The following is what was reported to us in November: On Nov. 13th, there were a reported 1,006 positive cases in the MDOC, on Nov. 18th there were 751 cases, on Nov. 19th there were 699, on Nov. 23rd there were 199 cases, on Nov. 24th there were 75 cases, and on Nov. 30th there were 87 cases. Already on the first day of December, there were 63 cases, and on Dec. 3rd there were 1,362 cases. This facility has had five prisoner deaths due to the coronavirus including at least one staff member. To find out more information and data related to COVID in the MDOC go to Email: askmdoc@michigan.gov with questions, or see MDOC Response and Information on coronavirus (COVID-19) | by MI Dept. of Corrections | Medium

In summation, since this pandemic began we have constantly been at-risk, especially the elderly prison population who are the most vulnerable with underlying health conditions. Today’s positive cases in the State of Michigan were reported at 7,146 where 22 percent, or the 1,362 the MDOC reported on December 3. If more isn’t done to prevent the spread of COVID inside the prison system, we are going to see higher numbers in positive cases, and unfortunately even more deaths. What’s stopping the virus from infecting the entire prison population? We are already at 47 percent of the 34,000 or so that’s in our prisons. The other 53 percent are like what I said earlier, sitting ducks.

Heidi Washington, MDOC Director

Michigan’s governor, along with the MDOC’s director Heidi Washington have a chance to really do something about this out-of-control spread of COVID-19 in Michigan prisons. At least separate every prisoner by placing them in single occupancy rooms until the virus is brought under control by one of the vaccines (Pfizer or Moderna) sometime next year. If not, we are going to see this virus continue to languish in every prison in our state. And sadly, it’s going to keep killing vulnerable prisoners and staff.

Early this spring, when the pandemic first hit jails and the MDOC, Governor Whitmer talked about releasing upwards of 5,000 nonviolent, low risk offenders, and those who were either past their earliest release dates, or already parole eligible. How about looking at releasing 10,000 more prisoners that fall in that same category of the 5,000? They can be paroled or released and placed on home confinement like the Federal Bureau of Prisons did with thousands of inmates who they let out under compassionate releases.

Stakeholders in Lansing could convene a special group of: Lawmakers, Prison Officials, Michigan Parole Board, Advocacy Organizations, and Michigan Citizens to figure out how to safely release those who no longer pose a risk to public safety.

TO CONTACT SHAWANNA VAUGHN OF “SILENT CRY” SEE HER FACEBOOK PAGE AT:  Shawanna Erena Vaughn | Facebook

Related: 

Michigan Department of Corrections Under Fire for Failing to Take Appropriate Measures to Combat Covid-19 – Honeysuckle Magazine

VOD HAS PUBLISHED MORE THAN 30 ARTICLES BY RICARDO FERRELL: PUT HIS NAME IN OUR SEARCH ENGINE TO READ THEM.

Agnes Hitchcock with daughter Kirsten at her right, Call ‘out supporters at Drive-By Birthday Thank you party Nov. 20, 2020 Photo: Diane Bukowski

AGNES HITCHCOCK HAS NEVER FAILED THE PEOPLE OF DETROIT: FIGHTING BACK AGAINST ALL ODDS!

Ihekerema Goree and Agnes Hitchcock at Birthday Thank You Party Nov. 20, 2020/Agnes Call ’em Out Facebook pg.

By VOD Editor Diane Bukowski   

November 21, 2020

Call ’em Out members and supporters flocked out to Agnes Hitchcock’s storied home on E. Philadelphia for a “Thank You” 75th Birthday party honoring this indefatigable Detroit hero, steward of the vanguard grassroots organization Call ’em Out.  Her daughter Kirsten Hitchcock organized the party as a “THANK YOU” to everyone who fought for a “NO” Vote on Proposal N in the Nov. 4 election. VOD pays tribute to this life-time Detroit hero with a photo array covering many of the battles she and Call ’em Out members fought over the years. Recent property tax battle photos are first, then the array detours to early years beginning with Agnes throwing the “Grapes of Wrath” to protest massive school closings at the DPS board meeting in 2007.

Call ’em vs. foreclosure devastation of Detroit 

Agnes Hitchcock led protest vs, $600M Property Tax swindle Feb. 28 2020

Agnes Hitchcock on Proposal N Photo Pulse Institute; dragged out of CAYMC over $600M Property Tax swindle Feb. 28, 2020 Photo: Clarence Tabb, Detroit News

Detroit homeowner Arizona Vaughn with Agnes Hitchcock fighting tax seizure of home she bought from city in 1994 and completely re-built at her own cost; Agnes berates Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan for city’s role in tax foreclosures.

VOTE NO!! ON DETROIT PROPOSAL N–NOV. 3–TAX THE RICH, NO BONDS FOR BANK PROFIT | VOICE OF DETROIT: The city’s independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought
Agnes Hitchcock: Detroit’s Fiery Black Activist Urges ‘No’ Vote On Proposal N – THE PuLSE INSTITUTE
ARIZONA VAUGHN: HOW CAN THEY TAKE MY HOME? FIGHTS WEALTHY DETROIT ELITE, TREASURER, UCHC | VOICE OF DETROIT: The city’s independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought

Fighting to save Detroit Public Schools

Agnes is arrested at DPS board meeting in June, 2007 for protesting the closing of 34 schools, with hundreds more to come. In these mainstream media photos, she is shown under arrest (l) after throwing the grapes of wrath (r).

CANCEL DPS DEBT TO THE BANKS! QUALITY EDUCATION FOR DETROIT CHILDREN; TUNE IN WHPR SAT. 2/27@10:30 AM | VOICE OF DETROIT: The city’s independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought

Chaos, arrests and sour grapes at Detroit school board meeting (wistv.com)

STATE WAR ON DETROIT PUBLIC SCHOOLS CONTINUES, “SELLING BLACK CHILDREN TO THE HIGHEST BIDDER” | VOICE OF DETROIT: The city’s independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought

RHODES’ RULE OVER DETROIT SCHOOLS OMINOUS; AS BANKRUPTCY JUDGE, HE DISMANTLED CITY OF DETROIT | VOICE OF DETROIT: The city’s independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought

Battling massive water shut-offs

Agnes Hitchcock, Call ’em Out mobilize for direct action vs water shutoffs May 31 2014

Mary Shoemake and other Call ’em Out members at Detroit Water Board building; 2014 blockade of Homrich contractors who shut water off; Agnes Hitchcock and Teresa Kelly of Michigan Citizen are arrested at Homrich blockade 

CALL ‘EM OUT GOES BACK TO WAR! DIRECT ACTION TO STOP WATER SHUT-OFFS! | VOICE OF DETROIT: The city’s independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought
PASTORS, COMMUNITY LEADERS ARRESTED BLOCKING HOMRICH GATES TO STOP DETROIT WATER SHUT-OFFS | VOICE OF DETROIT: The city’s independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought
DETROIT SHUTS WATER OFF AGAIN, VIOLATING UN DECLARATION; WHEN WILL CITY RISE UP? | VOICE OF DETROIT: The city’s independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought

Fight vs. politicians, corporate grab of city assets 

Call ’em Out camped out in City of Detroit Clerk Janice Winfrey’s office in original protest v. election fraud, in race of Tom Barrow for mayor and in Schools Proposal S (Agnes with Marie Thornton)

Call ’em Out protested at City Councilwoman Kay Everett’s home and at Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s Manoogian Mansion during original round of water shut-offs.

Call ;em Out demands No Giveaways of Detroit’s assets during Mackinac Island annual conference of corporate flunkies. May 28 2009

Call ’em Out has held dozens of town hall meetings with large crowds in attendance. (left to right) Mary Shoemake gives Power Couple Award to Jan and William Malachi; the late AFSCME Local 207 President John RIehl and a DWSD worker protest Water Dept. privatization; Agnes Hitchcock receives award.

 Call ’em Out’s Annual Sambo Award Dinners

Agnes and Call ;em Out have hosted annual “Sambo Awards” dinners calling out Black politicians for selling out. (l) (Award to Kwame Kilpatrick; (r) Agnes at dinner DATE

Sambo Award dinners have drawn large audiences, shown applauding at two events.

DEADLINE DETROIT | GRAPE-THROWING ACTIVIST GIVES ‘SAMBO AWARDS’ TO DETROIT POLICE, WATER CHIEFS

DETROIT ACTIVISTS NOT BACKING DOWN IN ‘SAMBO AWARDS’ CONTROVERSY (FOX2DETROIT.COM)

Call ’em Out Stands Up to Detroit Police 

Call ’em Out passed torch to youths of New Era Detroit, after supporting their leader Scrill against police frame-up, packing courtroom and achieving victory. Marie Thornton with Scrill at Call e’m Out dinner (l)

Call ’em Out steward Agnes Hitchcock stood up to attack from DPD Chief James Craig after giving him a Sambo award; Mary Shoemake, Erma Thomas and Linda Willis marched with hundreds of others to denounce DPD murder of Aiyana Jones, 7, on May 16, 2010