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

Lakeith Smith after his arrest at age 15/Photo Elmore County Sheriff

Group of young unarmed teens broke into home, chased out by cops who shot one to death in the neck

Lakeith Smith charged with murder, just sentenced to 65 years in prison

Other three teens await sentencing

By Jessica Lussenhop 

BBC News, Washington

April 9, 2018

Millbrook, Alabama–After police killed a burglary suspect in a shootout, the officer was not charged – instead a teenage boy who did not fire the gun has been found guilty of his murder. How do accomplice liability laws work?

Lakeith Smith was 15 years old when he went along with four older friends on a burglary spree. A neighbour called police when the group went into a home in Millbrook, Alabama, and the responding officers surprised the teenagers as they were coming through the front door.

A’Donte Washington, unarmed, shot dead by cops at 16 for B&E

The group turned and fled out the back door, and a shootout ensued. When it was all over, 16-year-old A’Donte Washington was dead with a bullet w0und to his neck. 

It’s never been in dispute that a Millbrook police officer shot and killed Washington – officer-worn body cameras captured the fatal confrontation. A grand jury declined to charge the officer, finding that the shooting was justified.

[However, A’Donte’s family has put up a GoFundMe site saying that he was sleeping in his friend’s car before the B & E and submitted to peer pressure to go into the house. See https://www.gofundme.com/3byzyhs.]

Instead, Smith was charged and found guilty of his friend’s murder. Last week, a judge sentenced him to 65 years in prison. Under Alabama’s accomplice liability law, Smith is considered just as culpable in Washington’s death as if he had pulled the trigger himself.

“It’s sad in my opinion,” says Smith’s defence lawyer, Jennifer Holton. “The cause of death was the officer’s action.”

LaKeith Smith awaits sentencing in Alabama court April 6, 2018. He got 65 years in prison. Photo: WSFA 12

Alabama’s law is an example of so-called felony-murder laws and they are very common throughout the US – only seven states do not have some type of law that expands the definition of murder to include an unintentional killing in the course of committing a felony. These laws also sweep up accomplices who, again, may not have directly caused harm, but were still a party in the felony that preceded the death.

While rooted in English common law, felony-murder is a rare concept outside of the US.

In the UK, the “joint enterprise” law can be used to convict an accomplice in a murder, but it applies mostly to gang-related crimes. The UK Supreme Court narrowed its application in 2016, ruling that the person must have “foresight” and “intention” to be found guilty of the killing.

Prof. Emeritus Michael G. Heyman

“Felony-murder is a lovely American fiction,” says Michael Heyman, professor emeritus at the John Marshall Law School in Chicago. “It’s a fiction in that it attributes a killing to you that you need not have done by your own hand.”

For example, if a victim has a heart attack and dies while being robbed, the perpetrator can be charged with murder even if he had no intent to kill. If the robber’s friend was sitting in a getaway car a block away, under accomplice liability, he too can be charged with murder. One of the most famous examples involved a man convicted of murder for loaning his car to friends who went on to murder an 18-year-old girl. According to prosecutors, it didn’t matter that he was 30 minutes away.

These laws make cases like Smith’s surprisingly common, where defendants are charged with the murder of their own accomplices, who can be their friends and even relatives. These often occur in the course of burglaries gone wrong, when the perpetrators are confronted by police or armed homeowners. Recent examples include cases in Georgia, Florida and Oklahoma.

The legal logic has expanded into the opioid crisis, where, in one case, a husband was charged with the murder of his wife for providing her with the heroin that killed her.

What makes Smith’s case different, according to Scott Lemieux, a lecturer in the department of political science at the University of Washington, is that Smith went forward to trial instead of pleading guilty.

“These really long sentences are used to put pressure on people to plead,” he says. “The risk of going to trial is so extreme.”

Two brothers, same murder, but one goes free. Why?

Locked up for 23 years when the real killer was already in jail

The teenager sentenced to 241 years in prison

DA Randall Houston

Smith decided to take that risk, turning down a 25-year plea deal, and was found guilty by a jury. The other three surviving suspects have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing. Randall Houston, the district attorney who prosecuted Smith, says he felt the charges and the punishment were appropriate.

“If you’re gonna bring a gun and commit a crime and somebody dies, there’s consequences in Alabama – it’s felony-murder,” he says.

Houston points out that at his sentencing, Smith laughed and smiled. Holton, the defence lawyer, says that only shows how young Smith is.

Andre Washington, A’Donte’s father, attended Smith’s trial, but he didn’t sit on the prosecution’s side of the courtroom. Instead, he sat with Smith’s mother.

“I went there to show him and his family some support. What the officers did – it was totally wrong,” says Washington. “I don’t feel [Smith] deserves that. No. Not at all.”

A’DONTE WASHINGTON’S FAMILY WAS DENIED A PERMIT FOR A PUBLIC VIGIL, HAD CANDLELIGHT VIGIL FOR THEIR SON AT THEIR HOME.

Collage at third anniversary memorial for Anthony Clark-Reed, April 30, 2018

“I can’t breathe” – Cops refused to give him his asthma inhaler while he lay handcuffed and straddled; Clark-Reed was asthmatic, weighed 300 lbs.

Clark-Reed’s youthful friends recall happy memories as well

Family awaits results of wrongful death lawsuit

Community continues to organize to stop the violence, help their neighbors

Across U.S., crazed cops continue to kill, beat and harass Black men: Stephon Clark in Sacramento, Johnnie Rush in Asheville, N.C.

By Diane Bukowski

April 4, 2018

According to a lawsuit now in federal court, filed by Attorney Herbert Sanders, Detroit police officers Tracy Moreno, Robin Carver, and Eric Carthan illegally stopped Clark-Reed, who had severe asthma and weighed 300 lbs., as he drove down Vernor Avenue.

Atty. Herbert Sanders

“Defendant Moreno then forcefully pulled Mr. Clark-Reed out of the vehicle, slamming him onto the ground,” the suit says. “While on the ground, Moreno straddled Mr. Clark-Reed and then handcuffed him. As a result of being forced to the ground . . .Mr. Clark-Reed began to struggle to breathe.”

The three officers then pulled Clark-Reed up to walk him to their squad car, while he was still having trouble breathing.

“While gasping for air, Mr. Clark-Reed asked that the officers provide him with the inhaler from his vehicle,” the suit continues. “Thereafter, Mr. Clark-Reed collapsed to the ground and died while in the custody of the Defendant officers.”

The officers claimed at the time that they did get the inhaler to Clark-Reed, but that it didn’t work. Numerous officers were seen at Clark-Reed’s car after his death, going over it with a fine-tooth comb looking for any sort of weapon or drugs. None were found. 

One cop claimed at the time that Clark-Reed died from swallowing drugs, but the medical examiner found nothing of the sort in his system, and ruled that he had died from an asthma attack.

New DPD grads get badges March 11, 2018; note most are white.

Officer Carthan was promoted to the rank of Corporal in 2017, according to the DPD website. Officer Carver was sued at least once more in front of Eastern District Court Judge Avern Cohn in 2015 by a defendant who was also stopped on the southwest side, which police said was a “high crime area.”

According to a document in the suit, Carver claimed he saw the defendant with a gun and gave chase. The defendant denied ever possessing a gun and said he did not fit the description of the individual police were pursuing.

Pastor Clark told the weeping crowd that Detroit police did not give any information on their son’s death to him or Clark-Reed’s mother Leda Reed until late the following day.

But there was hope for the future of this poor southwest Detroit community, among those who spoke of organizing their neighbors to build a better life for their children and grandchildren. They area of the southwest side that Rev. Clark ministers to is very multi-national; it includes many Black and white families as well as Mexican-Americans.

Among them was  Elizabeth Valdez, whose organization, founded in 2011, sponsors “Stop the Violence” campaigns including counseling sessions, community-based patrols of the neighborhoods, and provision of food and other necessities for families and homeless people. She said they have networks all over Detroit and outside of Detroit, and invited those present to join them.

After the memorial service in the church, participants gathered outside to release blue, white and green balloons into the sky and hold a candlelight vigil. VOD was not able to stay to cover this part. However, a photo of the vigil held three years ago on April 1, 2015, which involved dozens of youth from the community, is below. 

Youth at candlelight vigil for Anthony Clark Reed April 1, 2015, outside his father’s church on Springwells.

Across the nation including Detroit, brutal killings, beatings and harassment by police continue despite the years pf massive protests by the Black Lives Matter movement and other groups. 

Stephon Clark, 22, a father of two, was slaughtered by Sacramento police last week, sustaining multiple gunshots, most in his back, inside the home where he lived with his grandparents.

And in the last couple of days a shocking video has surfaced showing white cops beating and choking a young Black man, Johnnie Rush,  N.C. nearly to death last year, as he yelled, “I can’t breathe,” has surfaced. He told the cops he was only going home from work. His crime? Jaywalking.

Related stories:

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2015/06/11/detroit-police-prosecutor-cover-up-in-death-of-anthony-clark-reed-24/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2015/04/01/anthony-clark-reed-24-black-dies-during-detroit-police-traffic-stop-i-cant-breathe/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/04/03/i-cant-breathe-asheville-police-video-shows-white-officer-beating-choking-black-jaywalking-suspect/?utm_term=.ee2a7f845e9a

Wayne Co. Commission plans final vote BEFORE second town hall meeting

 Full Commission meeting Wed. Apr. 5 @ 10 am, Guardian Building

Put robber baron Dan Gilbert, failed reality show “THE CHIEF” star Warren Evans IN the jail for endangering east side neighborhood

 By Ron Seigel

 April 4, 2018

DETROIT –– Due to public concern about the location where billionaire Dan Gilbert and Wayne County Executive Warren Evans want to put a new county criminal justice complex, Evans has tried to calm the public by holding two town meetings, where citizens can express their views.

The problem is the whole thing may be voted on before the second town meeting.

The criminal justice center will include a jail, a juvenile detention center for kids, and a courthouse. (See full description at left.) The proposed location for the building would be on the east side of Detroit at East Ferry near the I-75 expressway.   

Some feel it should not be close to a residential neighborhood.  Area residents there have expressed fears that this will destroy the quality of the neighborhood and endanger the safety of their children.

There have been concerns about those in the building itself. As noted in past articles, former Detroit planner Hilanius Phillips warned that the air pollution in the area from an incinerator, a lead waste plant and the expressway itself would create the same health problems as the water pollution has in Flint.  He contends the prisoners living there, the police, guards law clerks and secretaries working there, families and clergy visiting prisoners and witnesses subpoenaed to testify at trials, could face sickness, breathing problems and lead poisoning.

Although a town meeting was officially scheduled on April 10 to give the people a chance to voice their views on this issue, the commissioners may be making it a dead issue.   On April 3 the commission’s Committee of the Whole voted to approve the location of the center exactly where Evans and Gilbert want it.  This may then be sent to the full board meeting on Thursday April 5, for final approval.

Commissioners Diane Webb and Jewel Ware were the only ones who did not vote for it.  Webb voted against it.  Ware abstained, because she wished to learn more.  

The commission did have a public session, where the public could be heard.  But that was held after the meeting was adjourned, the resolution had passed and any damage that existed was done.  Even then the citizens were given only two minutes to discuss such a complex issue.

When the formal meeting had been held commission members revealed several misconceptions.

Gilbert will get site of scrapped Wayne Co. Jail for $5oM; County lost $350M on scrapped project

Some members said the county should check the ground where the center would be built  for environmental problems and clean it up.  The trouble is that if Phillips is correct, the pollution would not come from the soil, but would be brought in from  the outside area by polluted air from the incinerator, the lead  waste plant and the expressway.  The county would have no official power to shut down the incinerator and the lead waste plant and the county certainly could not close a state highway.

The full commission meeting, where the final decision on the center’s location might be made, will be held five days before Evan’s public is scheduled to take place.  It will be held Thursday April 5 at 10 a.m. in the commission’s hearing room on the Mezzanine level  of Detroit’s Guardian Building, 500 Griswold.  Come one.  Come all.  Or give your commissioner a call. Tell county commissioners not to rush where angels fear to tread. People’s lives demand more deliberation.

Proposed new Wayne Co. Jail/courthouse/offices site

Youth demanded SHUT DOWN JAILS, TURN ON WATER! April 21, 2017

 RELATED STORIES:

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2018/03/31/should-wayne-co-put-courts-offices-jail-near-incinerator-evans-holds-town-meeting-tues-apr-10/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2018/03/21/cong-candidate-brenda-jones-must-answer-will-detroit-become-another-flint-for-homes-new-jail/

DETROIT YOUTH PROTEST WAYNE CO. JAIL DEALS; DEMAND SCHOOLS, HOUSING, WATER, NOT PRISONS, POLICE

The woman affectionately known to millions of South Africans as the Mother Of The Nation passed away on Monday afternoon at the Milpark Hospital surrounded by her family.

Eyewitness News | April 2, 2018 

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela waves as she attends 54th ANC Conference in Johannesburg 2017

JOHANNESBURG – The late Winnie Madikizela-Mandela is being remembered on Monday evening as a voice for the voiceless, a champion of justice and equality and a symbol of the struggle against apartheid.

The young revolutionary.

The woman affectionately known to millions of South Africans as the Mother Of The Nation passed away on Monday afternoon at the Milpark Hospital surrounded by her family.

The struggle stalwart had been in and out of the facility, battling a recurring kidney infection.

Leading tributes is President Cyril Ramaphosa who says the country has lost a hero.

“Even at the deepest moments of our struggle for liberation, mam’ Winnie was an abiding symbol of the desire of our people to be free. In the midst of repression, she was a voice of defiance and resistance.”

African National Congress secretary-general Ace Magashule says Madikizela-Mandela’s spirit encouraged freedom fighters and inspired both young and old.

“Comrade Winnie dedicated her life to the betterment of her people and she worked for the realisation right to until the end of her life. She was an inspiration to both young and old who shared her vison of an egalitarian prosperous and free South Africa.”

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela at Union Buildings in Pretoria April 27, 2004

Opposition parties have also paid tribute to Madikizela-Mandela with the United Democratic Movement praising her as a feisty and vocal freedom fighter, while the Democratic Alliance has expressed its sadness.

Party leader Mmusi Maimane said: “We join the continent, the people of this country and certainly the freedom fighters all over the world in mourning and we certainly owe a great deal of gratitude as a country but also we need to celebrate her life and continu the values of the struggle that she stood for.”

The Nelson Mandela Foundation has described Madikizela-Mandela’s passing as a blow.

In a statement, the foundation says the woman many referred to as the Mother of the Nation travelled a long road with her former husband and fellow anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela

Pres. Nelson Mandela and Winnie Mandela in Detroit in 1990/Walter P. Reuther Library 

The foundation’s chairman professor Njabulo Ndebele says all South Africans are indebted to Madikizela-Mandela.

Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu has sent his message of condolences, hailing Madikizela-Mandela as a defining symbol of the struggle against apartheid.

Meanwhile, the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation has described Madikizela-Mandela as an iconic symbol against apartheid, whose militancy, courage and defiance kept the struggle alive.

‘YOU TOUCH A WOMAN YOU TOUCH A ROCK’ 

Hitekani Magwedze 

JOHANNESBURG – The African National Congress (ANC) has lauded late struggle stalwart Winnie Madikizela-Mandela as one of the greatest icons of the struggle against apartheid.

Winnie Mandela returns to Brandtfort, where she was exiled, to visit the children

Madikizela-Mandela passed away in the early hours of this morning at Netcare Milpark hospital after battling an infection to her kidneys.

The governing party, which she fought under, said it would be visiting her family home later on Monday.

Energy Minister Jeff Radebe says the ANC dips its banner following the death of Madikizela-Mandela on Monday morning.

“She was really a colossus of the southern African political landscape. As the ANC, we dip our revolutionary banner in salute of this great icon of our liberation struggle.”

He says Madikizela-Mandela’s fight against the apartheid regime is exemplary.

Nelson Mandela leaves prison with Winnie at his side.

“This was in recognition of her fearless and uncompromising stand that she took against the might of the apartheid regime.”

Joint details of her memorial and funeral will be released from the family, the ANC and the government.

Yonela Diko

Meanwhile, the ANC in the Western Cape says the passing of Madikizela-Mandela is indeed a sad day for the nation.

Provincial spokesperson Yonela Diko said: “And she really heeded to that call of Albertina Sisulu of ‘wa thinta abafazi wa thinta imbokodo’- you touch a woman you touch a rock. They were strong, they were resilient. And it’s not far-fetched to say that Winnie Mandela kept the struggle single-handedly while the men were languishing in prison.”

YOUTH, WOMEN LED DECADES OF BATTLES FOR FREEDOM

Hector Peterson, during historic Soweto Rebellion in 1976

SOWETO – SOUTH AFRICA, JUNE 16: On 16 June 1976 high-school students in Soweto, South Africa, protested for better education. Police fired teargas and live bullets into the marching crowd killing innocent people and ignited what is known as “The Soweto Uprising”, the bloodiest episode of riots between police and protesters since the 1960’s. (Photo by Bongani Mnguni/City Press/Gallo Images/Getty Images)

Women campaign with young Nelson Mandela.

South African youth battle apartheid, ready for combat.

In memory of the heroes of the Sharpeville massacre.

In this July 3, 1981 photo, anti-apartheid demonstrators march through Auckland, New Zealand to protest the tour of South Africa’s Springbok rugby union team. The tour had proceeded, in the face of bitter opposition from critics of South Africa’s system of apartheid or racial segregation; with the sanction of the New Zealand Rugby Union and government of then Prime Minister Robert Muldoon. Few of the players who will wear the New Zealand or South African jerseys in Saturday’s, Sept. 12, 2009, Tri-Nations rugby test at Hamilton directly remember the last visit by the Springboks to this sedate North Island city.(AP Photo/New Zealand Herald) ** NEW ZEALAND OUT, FAIRFAX AUSTRALIA OUT **

Community challenges racist environmental pollution

Some worried about jail in residential area

By Ron Seigel

 March 30, 2018

Who rules Detroit? Dan Gilbert (l), Warren Evans (rear center), Mike Duggan (rear r) or the people?

DETROIT–Wayne County Executive Warren Evans will be holding a second town meeting dealing with public reactions toward a tentative agreement he made with billionaire Dan Gilbert’s firm, Rock Ventures, to build a new county criminal justice center at a controversial location.

It will take place Tues. April 10 at Detroit’s AME Bethel Church at 5050 Saint Antoine  from 6 to 7 p.m.

For this to happen the Wayne County Board of Commissioners must approve the deal.

According to the agreement, the justice center will be located near Warren Avenue and the I-75 expressway.  

For some this location represents a problem.  

Evans office was quoted as saying this would include a county jail, a juvenile detention facility, county offices and a court.

Nearby residents expressed concern about having  prisoners incarcerated near their neighborhood. They note if any of the prisoners escape, their children might be endangered.

Former Detroit planner Hilanius Phillips expressed concern that air pollution from both the nearby Waste Management Incinerator, a lead waste plant and the expressway itself could cause the same health problems as the water pollution in Flint, that resulted in the water crisis there.

Phillips states this would mean those imprisoned in the center, those working there (police, guards, court clerks, prosecutors, lawyers, secretaries, public officials), as well as those coming into the building, whether witnesses, lawyers, and court warchers, or relatives and clergy visiting the prisoners, would be affected and endangered in the same way Flint residents were. 

Residents march against Detroit incinerator pollution.

Evans stated the land deal would add to the prosperity of the area.  However, recently the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Flint residents harmed by the water crisis could launch class action suits for damages.  If there is a similar problem at the justice center, how much would the county have to pay?

Evans himself was not available for comment.

Keith Owens, deputy director of the county communications office, said he was not aware of Phillips warnings.  This reporter agreed to mail him some information.

Related stories:

CONG. CANDIDATE BRENDA JONES MUST ANSWER: WILL DETROIT BECOME ANOTHER FLINT FOR HOMES, NEW JAIL?

PROTESTERS RALLY FOR  YOUNG DAD STEPHON CLARK, BLOCK STADIUM AGAIN

Block Golden 1 Center, again, after disrupting council meeting on shooting of Stephon Clark

Sacramento Bee

 By Dale Kasler, Tony Bizjak, Nashelly Chavez and Hudson Sangree

 March 28, 2018

Video by the Associated Press

Sacramento, CA  — Hundreds of protesters headed toward Golden 1 Center in downtown Sacramento and blocked its entrance Tuesday night for the second time in a week, preventing Kings fans from attending an NBA game as the protesters called for action in the police shooting of Stephon Clark.

A few blocks away, a Sacramento City Council meeting intended to address the shooting and others like it quickly devolved into chaos, with council members leaving the dais, police officers entering the City Hall chambers and some protesters and pastors calling for the overflow crowd to show restraint.

Members of the public testified for several hours, lamenting what they called endemic racism among police and a lack of meaningful action by public officials in Sacramento for decades.

“This city is killing us. And we demand economic equity and justice,” shouted Malaki Seku-Amen, founder of the California Urban Partnership.

Protesters raise revolutionary platform of Black Panther Party

But Mayor Darrell Steinberg adjourned the meeting about 8:25 p.m., hours early, saying he was concerned about safety. An altercation between police and protesters on the sidewalk just outside the council chambers and banging on the chambers’ windows had disturbed the gathering.

Later police saId a man had been arrested for allegedly assaulting an officer.

At Golden 1, the Kings were scheduled to tip off against the Dallas Mavericks at 7 p.m. The game started on time with more fans in their seats than during the first protest Thursday. The Kings estimated 4,000 were in attendance in an arena that holds 17,600.

Thousands more were stranded outside.

“You ain’t seeing no game tonight. Join us or go home!” protesters shouted at them.

Clark died March 18 after two officers, believing he was a burglary suspect and armed, fired at him 20 times in his grandparents’ backyard after a helicopter pilot saw him jumping over a fence. Turning over Clark’s handcuffed corpse, police found not a gun but a cellphone.

Graphic videos of the shooting, released by police, prompted a week of social unrest that continued Tuesday, as several thousand ticket holders stared at a few hundred protesters blocking the arena’s front doors.

Here and there, words were exchanged, and at least one scuffle broke out. A handful of fans joined the protesters blocking the doors.

A dozen police officers showed up on bicycles, and a dozen more arrived in riot gear.

Some in the plaza cheered and others booed, saying “F– the police.” One Kings fan, Chuck Bachelor, of Sacramento, said, “I’m interested in going to the game. How do I do that?”

When a similar lock-out occurred Thursday, Kings principal owner Vivek Ranadive spoke publicly after the game about Clark’s death and the unrest that ensued. He vowed the team would help “prevent this kind of tragedy from happening again.”

Kings players wore shirts commemorating Clark at Sunday’s game.

Sacramento Kings players wore shirts commemorating Stephon Clark

That wasn’t enough to prevent more trouble Tuesday.

One protester, Tyrone Brown, helped break up a minor fight between fans and protesters. He said protesters were frustrated that they couldn’t get into the City Council meeting Tuesday because it was so full and moved to Golden 1 Center instead.

“No one was being heard at the City Council meeting,” Brown said. “They decided to come down here and go for a bigger platform.”

The City Council meeting opened at around 5 p.m. with Steinberg calling for a moment of silence for Clark.

Then, as Councilman Larry Carr was speaking, Clark’s brother, Stevante Clark, burst into the chambers chanting his brother’s name.

He ran right up to Mayor Darrell Steinberg at the council dais, turned and began addressing the crowd directly. When Steinberg tried to speak to him, Clark shouted, “Shut the f– up.”

Stephon Clark’s brother Stevante Clark leads protesters who took over City Council meeting

The mayor called a 15-minute recess.

As the council members filed out, a phalanx of police officers lined the dais. Clark charged the dais again but was hustled out by friends.

At other moments of the meeting, Stevante Clark, who wore a shirt with his brother’s image, jumped onto the dais and stood on furniture to speak.

Protesters streamed onto the open floor between the audience and council members. People outside chanted “Stephon Clark!” and pounded on the chamber’s windows. Some in the lobby taunted officers in helmets who blocked the entrance to the chambers.

An activist named Rashid Sidqe appealed for calm, saying, “We are better than this.” Pastor Les Simmons asked the crowd to join hands in prayer.

Former Kings player Matt Barnes is organizing march Sat. March 31, 2018 for Stephon Clark.

The meeting resumed, but emotions remained raw, as a series of more-or-less orderly speakers took the podium to have their say.

“What you saw today was the truth,” said Tanya Faison of Black Lives Matter, demanding that the two officers who shot Clark be fired. “You’re killing us. … It feels like genocide.”

After 6 p.m. the crowd outside City Hall roared “Stephon Clark!” repeatedly as many decided to make for Golden 1 Center.

Tuesday’s large-scale protests echoed those from Thursday and Friday of last week. Friday’s unorganized protest and a late-night vigil for Stephon Clark in south Sacramento led to a series of incidents between protesters, police and passers-by, including protesters jumping on police cars and the arrest of a man for allegedly breaking a bus window.

Also on Tuesday, members of Black Lives Matter Sacramento met in front of Sacramento District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert’s office to demand prosecutors file charges against the two officers who fired at Clark.

Dozens picketed in front of her office doors starting around 3 p.m.

Berry Accius, with the nonprofit Voice of the Youth, told the crowd: “Don’t be fooled. Don’t be blind. If this lady was for the people, she would be right here with us.”

Andre Young, Stephon Clark’s cousin, attended the event. There is “going to be a riot in Sacramento” if the officers aren’t convicted, Young said.

Dale Kasler: 916-321-1066, @dalekasler

Related:

SACRAMENTO COPS SHOOT, KILL STEPHON CLARK, 22, ANOTHER UNARMED BLACK MAN, IN OWN BACKYARD

Thelonious Searcy (r) consults with his attorney Michael Dezsi during hearing March 26, 2018

“He confessed and he said his motivation was to free the innocent;” –Black

Prosecution tries to undermine Smothers’ confession

DPD officer testifies on questionable ballistics evidence

Judge Kenny brags that he handled case that led to shut-down of Detroit Crime Lab, says it should NOT have been shut down

By Diane Bukowski

March 27, 2018

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 and and all stories on the Thelonious Searcy case.

Marzell Black testifies during Searcy evidentiary hearing March 26, 2018 to corroborate Smothers’ confession to Segars murder.

DETROIT—Marzell DShawn Black, 30, took the stand March 26 during an evidentiary hearing in the case of Thelonious Searcy, in front of Searcy’s trial Judge Timothy Kenny. Black corroborated earlier dramatic testimony March 19 from former Detroit hit man Vincent Smothers that Smothers, not Searcy, killed Jamal Segars Sept. 5, 2004.

Smothers’ testimony had been challenged by the prosecution as coerced by Searcy family members and associates.

Most of the packed courtroom was filled with Searcy supporters, while a small group of hostile family members and associates of Jamal Segars was also present.

Black is serving a 15-40 year sentence for “Homicide-Solicitation of Murder.” He confessed earlier that he recruited Smothers to kill Rose Cobb at the request of her husband, Detroit police officer David Cobb, in 2007.  Cobb allegedly hanged himself later.

Black told Searcy’s defense attorney Michael Dezsi, “I knew Vincent Smothers since I was 12 years old, in the east side neighborhood we grew up in. I know him as ‘Vito.’”

Thelonious Searcy, in fight for his life.

He said while they were in prison after their joint trial in the Cobb killing, Smothers mentioned to him “a couple of guys” that were serving time for murders Smothers committed, that Smothers wanted to exonerate.  The two were Davontae Sanford, arrested at the age of 14 for four killings in 2007, and Thelonious Searcy, known as “Skinnyman,” arrested in 2005 for the Segars killing.

“I met Skinnyman in the URF [Chippewa Correctional Facility], and I let him know my rappee [co-defendant] did that situation he was in for,” Black testified. He told Searcy’s defense attorney Michael Dezsi that Smothers never said he had been threatened by anyone into testifying about the Segars murder. He added that he himself has no fear of Vincent Smothers.

“He confessed, and he said his motive was to free the innocent,” Black said.

Black identified two notarized statements dated in March 2017 that he had written to give to Searcy. See statement dated March 17, 2017 below.

Black was composed on the stand, telling Assistant Prosecutor Thomas Chambers on cross exam that he did not feel Smothers had “ratted him out,” since he himself pled guilty in the Cobb case.

Black’s testimony was preceded by Chambers’ introduction of three witnesses, Michigan State Police Trooper Christopher Corriveau,  Detroit police evidence technician Patricia Little, and Segars’ widow Antoinette Segars.

Corriveau was involved in the MSP investigation of Vincent Smothers for the four Runyon Street murders for which falsely accused Davontae Sanford spent 9 ½ years in prison.

MSP’s Christopher Corriveau

Corriveau said the Michigan Innocence Project also sent the MSP one of Vincent Smothers’ statements confessing to the murder of Jamal Segars. On cross-exam, he admitted to Deszi that neither the MSP nor Pros. Worthy ever re-investigated the Searcy case as a result of the statement.

Smothers testified earlier that he recanted the one statement given to the MSP because he was told by unspecified parties that it would hold up the Sanford case. Michigan Innocence Project Director David Moran last year sent an unsolicited letter to Searcy telling him the Clinic could not represent him due to an unspecified “conflict of interest,” and refused comment on the case to VOD in a rather hostile manner.

Smothers later gave numerous written statements and wrote letters to law enforcement and media officials including Wayne Co. Prosecutor Kym Worthy admitting to the Segars killing. Private investigator Scott Lewis also conducted a detailed taped interview with Smothers over the phone.

Corriveau said regarding Smothers’ statement on the Segars killing, “I’ve interviewed Smothers on several occasions. He speaks fairly well and is well-written. It was not consistent with the way he spoke.”

He said also that the killing did not fit the pattern of Smothers’ hits, which involved lengthy preparation, and that he “had the impression” that Searcy was involved with a gang which threatened Smothers.

But he admitted to Dezsi that Smothers’ statement said he had been tracking Segars for six months, and found his opportunity while Segars’ car was stuck in a bumper-to-bumper traffic jam during a street “Black Party” outside City Airport during the Labor Day weekend in 2004. Police later tried to say that Searcy killed Segars in a case of mistaken identity because he was driving a silver Corvette, as did DeAnthony Witcher, the jailhouse snitch police used in Searcy’s case. However, Searcy later found a DPD arrest report indicating Witcher drove a blue Corvette and was let off from a gun possession charge shortly before he implicated Searcy in the Segars killing.

DPD arrest report on DeAnthony Witcher shows him driving a BLUE Corvette, not a silver Corvette.

Defense attorney Dezsi objected to most of Corriveau’s testimony about the Smothers’ Segars statement as extremely vague hearsay, unsupported by any written documents, notes or tapes. But Judge Timothy Kenny overruled that motion as he did most of the defense motions.

During testimony by Detroit Police evidence technician Patricia Little on forsensic ballistics evidence from the Segars killing, Kenny made the startlingly proud admission that he was involved in the case of Jarrhod Williams, which led to the shut shown of the Detroit Crime Lab in 2008. The MSP found 10 percent of forensic results had been falsified and 42 percent did not comply with scientific forensic standards.

“I never thought the crime lab should have been shut down,” Kenny said during Little’s testimony.

Crime Lab protest by families of wrongfully convicted prisoners June 11, 2017; Valerie Watts is at right in white pants.

Williams’ defense attorney Marvin Barnett argued that the MSP had found that 42 spent shell casings at the scene of the crime involved came not from one gun, which they claimed belonged to Williams, but from two guns.

Judge Timothy Kenny: crime lab should not have been shut down.

Williams first judge David Allen did not dismiss the case, but instead ordered a new trial over which Kenny presided. Williams was re-convicted in front of an all-white jury.

Williams’ mother Valerie Watts told VOD during a protest in 2011, “The prosecutor brought in the same gun they used in the first place, except this time they showed it to the jury and said it was the wrong weapon. But all the jury saw was the gun. There were no eyewitnesses. How can you convict someone on a statement a police officer wrote down, and didn’t even read to him? The police said they found a scoop of shell casings all in the same spot. My son’s gun was never fired and its clip couldn’t hold that number of bullets anyway.”

This may present a conflict of interest for Kenny in the Searcy case, since some of it hinges on falsified ballistics evidence introduced by the prosecution and dramatically followed up on by defense attorney Deszi, with two large exhibits.

Exhibits showing falisifed ballistics reports.

Chambers had Little testify regarding  a sealed envelope from the Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office, allegedly containing one of the slugs or pieces of slugs found either at the scene of the Segars’ murder, or in Segars’ head. The original evidence tag identified it as a 9 mm shell casing, while the tag number was later changed to identify it as a 40 mm casing.

Searcy contends this means that forensic evidence in his case was deliberately falsified. While Smothers and his associate Jeffery Daniels carried two guns that were consistent with most forensic findings, the discovery of a third gun, possibly carried by Detroit police who fired shots as Smother and Daniels, brings further doubt into his conviction.

Judge Kenny ordered the MSP to take possession of the sealed envelope for another examination of the contents, and allowed Dezsi (who is court-appointed) to hire a forensics expert to oversee the examination.

Family and associates of Jamal Segars in court; man at left grabbed this reporter by the wrist  to drag her someplace private to talk to her about her stories on this case, but she refused. Later, she identified him on the court record, in case anything should happen to her. When she tried to talk to him afterwards with witnesses, he ran away.

RELATED STORIES:

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2018/03/23/vincent-smothers-takes-stand-to-exonerate-thelonious-searcy-in-2004-detroit-murder/

 http://voiceofdetroit.net/2018/03/13/pack-court-to-stop-wrongful-conviction-of-thelonious-searcy-mon-march-19-9-am-judge-kenny/\

 http://voiceofdetroit.net/2017/06/10/false-detroit-conviction-vincent-smothers-says-he-not-thelonious-searcy-killed-jamal-segars-in-2004/

 http://voiceofdetroit.net/2017/07/05/is-exoneration-near-for-thelonious-searcy-serving-life-for-murder-vincent-smothers-confessed-to/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2017/08/14/searcy-wins-evidentiary-hearing-smothers-expected-to-testify-he-was-the-killer-in-2004-case/

 http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/29950-ring-of-snitches-how-detroit-police-slapped-false-murder-convictions-on-young-black-men

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2016/06/23/msp-wayne-co-pros-kym-worthy-knew-davontae-sanford-was-innocent-for-8-years-not-8-mos/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2016/07/21/davontae-sanford-formally-freed-time-for-charges-vs-kym-worthy-cops-in-frame-up/

 http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/10/15/the-hit-mans-tale