By BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley
November 8, 2016
(Photos added by VOD)
Donald Trump, the white nationalist that claimed to oppose the corporate establishment, appears to have won the U.S. presidency. But, “even the victory of the openly bigoted Trump poses an opportunity to right our political ship.” The Democrats were not “our” party, but the party that thought they owned us. Their “rejection must be complete and blame must be laid squarely at their feet” for raising those chickens that have come home to roost.
“The Democrats were so entrenched in their corruption and self-dealing that they didn’t see the Bernie Sanders campaign for modest reform as the savior it might have been.”
This columnist did not see a Donald Trump victory coming. The degree of disgust directed at an awful candidate was more than I had predicted. Neither the corporate media, nor Wall Street nor the pundits nor the pollsters saw this coming either. Their defeat and proof of their uselessness is total. Those of us who rejected the elite consensus and didn’t support Hillary Clinton should be proud.
Bill Clinton and Barack Obama at Democratic National Convention,
Black people are now in fear and in shock when we ought to be spoiling for a fight. All is not lost. Even the victory of the openly bigoted Trump poses an opportunity to right our political ship. Not the electoral ship, the political one.
For decades Black Americans have been voting for people who have done them wrong. Bill Clinton got rid of public assistance as a right, and undid regulations that kept Wall Street in check. He put Black people in jail and yet Black people didn’t turn on him until he and his wife tried to defeat Obama. But Obama gave us more of the same. Bailouts of Wall Street, interventions and death for people all over the world, and a beat down of Black people who still loved him. Despite the fear of Republican victory we end up losing whenever a Democratic presidential candidate wins.
Linda Willis at protest in Detroit, 2012; Detroit is now stripped of its assets under bankruptcy; banks profit.
“Obama bailed out banks, insurance companies, Big Pharma and even Ukraine.”
Victory is ours if we dump the Democrat Party and their Black misleaders. The Democrats were so entrenched in their corruption and self-dealing that they didn’t see the Bernie Sanders campaign for modest reform as the savior it might have been.
Instead they marched in lock step with a woman who was heartily disliked. Sanders went along as the sheep dog who led his flock straight over the cliff. The Democrats inadvertently galvanized people who had stopped participating in the system and who want change from top to bottom.
One of our biggest problems lies not in facts but in perceptions. What did Democrats do for Black people? The Democrats ship living wage jobs off shore in corrupt trade deals like NAFTA and TTP. They don’t prosecute killer cops or raise the minimum wage. Trump will be hard pressed to deport more people than Obama did. The list of treachery is very long.
Protest against Flint water crisis/Photo: Record Eagle
When Donald Trump asked Black people, “What have you got to lose?” his words were met with derision. But in reality he posed a good question. What do we have to show for years of Democratic votes?
Obama bailed out banks, insurance companies, Big Pharma and even Ukraine. But he didn’t rebuild Detroit or New Orleans. The water in Flint, Michigan is still poisoned and the prisons are still full.
“There may be opportunity in this crisis if we dare to seize it.”
The outpouring of love for Barack Obama was purely symbolic. In state after state, Black people who gave him victory in 2008 and 2012 stayed home. They loved seeing him and his wife dressed up at state dinners but they were never fully engaged in politics because that is not what Democrats want. The love was phony and void of any political intent. Donald Trump will be president because of that veneer of political activism.
South African President Nelson Mandela and Libyan Pres. Muammar Gadhafi after first U.S. bombing; Hillary Clinton later gave the orders to assassinate Gadhafi in final US/NATO annihilation of Libya.
As for white people who voted for Trump, of course many of them are racists. However they are not without valid complaints. They don’t want neoliberalism but Black people don’t either. They don’t want wars around the world and neither do Black people. We corrupt our own heritage of radicalism in favor of shallow symbolism.
While we slept walk in foolish nostalgia for Obama and cried at the thought of him leaving office, white people kept their hatred of Hillary to themselves or lied to pollsters. They want America to be great again, great for them. White nostalgic yearnings are dangerous for Black people, and we must be vigilant. But there may be opportunity in this crisis if we dare to seize it.
Republicans have been the white people’s party for nearly 50 years. Trump just made it more obvious. He didn’t tell us anything we didn’t already know. We don’t have to be the losers in this election. Let us remember what we have achieved in our history. Half of Black Americans didn’t even have the right to vote in the 1960s yet made earth shattering progress in a short time. But we must understand the source of that progress. It came from struggle and daring to create the crises that always bring about change.
“The dread of redneck celebration should not be our primary motivation right now.”
Black Panther Party led revolutionary movement in 1960’s and 70’s, fighting for self-determination.
Yes white people will strut for president Trump but that doesn’t mean we must submit as if we are in the Jim Crow days of old. We have ourselves to rely on and we can reclaim our history of fighting for self-determination. The dread of redneck celebration should not be our primary motivation right now. Before we quake in fear at white America we must send the scoundrels packing.
The Black politicians and the Democratic National Committee and the civil rights organizations that don’t help the masses must all be kicked to the proverbial curb. The rejection must be complete and blame must be laid squarely at their feet.
Those of us who voted for the Green Party ticket of Jill Stein and Ajamu Baraka must stand firmly and proudly for our choice. We must strategize on building a progressive party to replace the Democrats who never help us. We must applaud Julian Assange and Wikileaks for exposing their corruption. There should be no back tracking on the fight to build left wing political power.
“We must strategize on building a progressive party to replace the Democrats who never help us.”
The Black people who didn’t return to the polls shouldn’t be blamed either. Those individuals must have personal introspection that is meaningful and political. Their lack of enthusiasm speaks to Democratic Party and Black misleadership incompetence. We should refrain from personal blame and help one another in this process as we fight for justice and peace.
The end of the duopoly is the first step in liberation. Staying with a party that literally did nothing was a slow and agonizing death. Sometimes shock therapy is needed to improve one’s condition. If we don’t take the necessary steps to free ourselves this election outcome will be a disaster. Instead, why not bring the disaster to the people who made it happen? The destruction of the Democratic Party and creation of a truly progressive political movement is the only hope for Black America.
Video below: Glen Ford of Black Agenda Report speaks at Black is Back Coalition meeting in April, 2016.
Margaret Kimberley’s Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BAR, and is widely reprinted elsewhere. She maintains a frequently updated blog as well as at http://freedomrider.blogspot.com.Ms. Kimberley lives in New York City, and can be reached via e-Mail at Margaret.Kimberley@BlackAgendaReport.com.
(Video above shows Atty. Bryan A. Stevenson, who argued and won Miller v. Alabama case in Supreme Court, which declared JLWOP unconsitutional)
In prison since the age of 16, Kincaid re-sentenced to 30-60 years, recommended for immediate parole by judge
“If given the opportunity for release, I want to help juveniles outside” –Kincaid
“I only wish his mother could have been here to see this”—Aunt Mattie Fudge
By Diane Bukowski
November 8, 2016
(VOD: apologies for quality of photos; IPhone camera flash was off in court, forgot to turn it back on outside court.)
Judge James Callahan
DETROIT—“Ostensibly, this is going to be a wash,” Wayne County Circuit Court Judge James Callahan said as he re-sentenced juvenile lifer Timothy Kincaid to 30-60 years during a hearing Nov. 4.
“According to the probation officer, the surviving victim believes she is still alive through the intercession of Mr. Kincaid, in light of his protective conduct during the shooting. She even visited him while he was housed in the Department of Corrections.”
Judge Callahan noted that pre-sentence report guidelines indicated Kincaid had already served years past the time recommended, and that the probation officer believed Kincaid had been rehabilitated.
“The Judge wanted him released today,” Evelyn told Kincaid’s family and friends afterwards. “But he still has to see the parole board to determine the accuracy of the guidelines, and he also has good time they have to look at.”
Timothy Kincaid and attorney Gerald Evelyn
Evelyn said that although Michigan’s juvenile lifer resentencing statutes ban the use of good time, negotiations are proceeding on that issue in a federal lawsuit, Hill v. Snyder, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union. It is currently in front of U.S. District Court Judge John Corbett O’Meara in Ann Arbor, with the next hearing set for Tues. Nov. 17 at 10:15 a.m.
Evelyn said it helped that Kincaid still had a “6500 motion” proceeding before Judge Callahan, which VOD covered (date). Otherwise known as a motion for relief from judgement, a 6500 motion is the last chance to raise and exhaust issues in state court.
“I want to express my remorse to the court, to my family and to the victims,” Kincaid said. “I’ve been locked up 36 years now, and if given the opportunity for release, I would like to help juveniles outside. I was working in preventive programs while I was in prison.”
Timothy Kincaid supporters (l to r) maternal Aunt Mattie Fudge, Greg Kelly, Mike Hudson, Min. Ervin Bell
Kincaid has served 36 years of a juvenile life without parole sentence for the first-degree murders of three women, carried out by two older men in 1976, when Kincaid was 16. He testified at his trial in 1982 that he took the fourth woman into another room and aimed a shotgun at the floor to make the others think he had killed her.
Kincaid’s aunt Mattie Fudge, who attended with her granddaughter Matysha Neeley, was joyful at the outcome, as were three childhood friends of Kincaid’s, Minister Ervin Bell, Greg Kelly and Mike Hudson.
“I’m glad it’s finally over,” Fudge said. “I only wish his mother could have been here to see this.” She said Kincaid now has a grandson.
Odessa Kincaid with her sons Timothy and Waymon Kincaid. Photo: Obituary
Kincaid’s mother Odessa Kincaid passed away in 2011, before either of her sons finally saw release from Michigan’s increasingly restrictive prison system. She and her daughter Vivian Kincaid campaigned both against juvenile life without parole and former Governor John Engler’s changes to the status of “parolable lifers.”
Waymon Kincaid was 19 in 1975 when he was sentenced to parolable life for second-degree murder. He was a plaintiff in a federal class action lawsuit filed by U of M’s Clinical Law program in April, 2005 on behalf of Kincaid, John Alexander, Kenneth Foster-Bey, William Sleeper, Robert Weisenauer, Eric McCollum, Gerald Lee Hessel and over 800 other “parolable lifers” in Michigan’s system.
Sister Vivian Kincaid Facebook
Prior to Engler’s term, judges sentenced defendants to “parolable life,” intending that if they showed evidence of rehabilitation, they could be released starting from 10 to 15 years after sentencing. Engler converted the civil service parole board into a board appointed by the governor.
One of the new parole board’s declarations was that “life means life.” It began keeping “parolable lifers” indefinitely, causing skyrocketing costs to the state’s prison budget.
The lawsuit did not ultimately succeed. However, Waymon Kincaid reportedly has finally been paroled subsequent to a Sept. 1 hearing, and John Alexander’s case is set for parole board consideration Nov. 14. The other named plaintiffs were all paroled far beyond the terms their judges intended.
Jeremaine Tilmon, stepfather of Davontae Sanford, found murdered on Detroit’s east side Nov. 2
Great joy of Sanford’s release turns into great sorrow for his mother, Taminko Sanford-Tilmon, family and youth he mentored
Tilmon worked tirelessly to stop gang violence in his community
Police investigating–still many questions
By Diane Bukowski, Editor Voice of Detroit
November 3, 2016
Jeremaine Tilmon, at back, stands with Davontae, his beloved wife Taminko Sanford-Tilmon, Pastor W.J. RIdeout, and at side, former Channel 7 news reporter Bill Proctor at press conference June 9 after Davontae’s release. Proctor reported from the beginning on Davontae’s innocence.
DETROIT — The staff of Voice of Detroit expresses our absolute shock, grief and condolences to the family and world-wide circle of supporters of Davontae Sanford, regarding the brutal execution-style murder of his stepfather Jeremaine Tilmon yesterday, Nov. 2, 2016.
Prayers outside Frank Murphy Hall for Davontae’s release in 2012. Jermaine Tilmon is at center.
Channel Two news reported, “According to Detroit Police, Jeremaine Tilmon was killed in the 3600 block of Chatsworth on Detroit’s east side Thursday morning around 2:30,” and more as in video above.
Jeremaine Tilmon was a Rock of Gibraltar for the family all through Davontae’s nine-year ordeal, present at all rallies, press conferences, court hearings, prayer breakfasts and other events. At a candlelight vigil Nov. 3, youth from East English Village Academy mourned the loss of this stalwart man who guided them away from the violence of the streets.
Tilmon married the love of his life Taminko Sanford before Davontae was finally freed June 8, 2016, after the 14-year-old child spent nine years since the age of 14 in Michigan’s prison system, for crimes he did not commit.
Jeremaine Tilmon stands at right holding his wife-to-be Taminko Sanford-Tilmon and grandnephew as family gathered at Appeals Court in support of Davontae Sanford. The Court of Appeals issued a resounding victory in the case.
Mr. Tilmon was outspoken in support of Davontae throughout all the events. He also headed a choral group that sang at a prayer breakfast for Davontae last February and was reportedly a school counselor.
Jeremaine Tilmon with his stepdaughters during rally April 23, 2012.
Voice of Detroit interviewed him numerous times, and has photos and videos of him beginning from the early years of the battle for Davontae’s release, which are published here.
Hitman Vincent Smothers confessed to the murders of the four people in an alleged drug house in 2007 blamed on Davontae, shortly after the child was sentenced by Judge Brian Sullivan.
Despite that, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy and Circuit Court Judge Brian Sullivan refused to relent in their persecution of this child until broad support for his cause forced them to back off. However, both Kym Worthy’s press conference on Davontae’s release, the joint motion to dismiss without prejudice (meaning charges can be brought back) by Worthy and SADO attorney Valerie Newman, and Judge Sullivan’s court order granting that motion painted a negative picture of Davontae as Worthy sought to salvage her reputation.
Taminko Sanford and Jermaine Tilmon are married in a fairytale wedding.
Sullivan did the same, defending his years-long trial of Davontae despite clear evidence of a child’s false confession, and even questioning the validity of Vincent Smothers’ confession. Worthy and Sullivan left open to question whether Davontae was actually innocent and leaving him open to possible repercussions from others.
At Davontae’s press conference June 9, a cordon of Detroit police officers including Gang Squad members hovered outside, allegedly to protect the family because it had received threats from the Runyon Street victims’ families. Police continued to escort Davontae on his speaking engagements afterwards.
Where were they when a vicious gunman shot Davontae’s beloved stepfather down to the ground and then pumped more bullets into him? Who executed Jeremaine Tilmon and why? Will the DPD truly investigate this case or will there be another cover-up?
Jeremaine Tilmon stands protectively over his family at back, at press conference called by Innocence Clinics, who filed the Motion for Relief from Judgment in April, 2015 that finally got Davontae freed.
The Michigan State Police report and other sources showed that Worthy and the Detroit Police knew Davontae was not guilty almost from the beginning, as indicated in the list of stories below. Eyewitnesses at the scene of the Runyon Street killings, including a woman inside the house, identified a man taller and older than Davontae.
Jeremaine Tilmon is at center with choral group at prayer breakfast for Davontae held in February, 2016.
We’re just too heartsick to continue right now, but are publishing the photos we have of that loving family, so filled with joy at Davontae’s release, and now so overwhelmed with grief, as well as links to VOD’s stories on Davontae and his family.
We will continue to follow events in Jermaine’s killing as they develop.
Below: Jeremaine Tilmon speaks in video about his stepson, Aiyana Jones, and Trayvon Martin, by VOD videographer Kenny Snodgress.
Lewis motion: rulings vacating convictions where partial court files were lost or corrupted must be applied in his case, where entire record is missing
APA Jason Williams wants life without parole; “defense” atty. Valerie Newman wants 40-60 years, under juvenile lifer statutes
Judge Lillard, Gov. Rick Snyder appointed, celebrates his new appointee to 3rd Circuit Court; Mich. has strongly opposed JLWOP changes
Angry family demands Lewis’ release, condemns Newman’s stance
Court Register of Actions shows next Lewis hearing set for Nov. 23, 2016
Next Detroit juvenile lifer hearings for Timothy Kincaid Nov. 4, Edward Sanders and David Walton Nov. 29
Hearing on ACLU motion in Hill v. Snyder challenging state statutes Nov. 17
By Diane Bukowski
October 31, 2016
Updated Nov. 7, 2016
DETROIT – Should Charles Lewis, 58, in prison for 41 years, have his conviction and sentence of life without parole vacated due to the loss of his entire official court file, as he has asked in his court motion, which cites U.S. Supreme Court and Michigan court precedents with that outcome?
The motion also says Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Edward Ewell was the last judge to actually read Lewis’ file before ruling on Oct. 17, 2012 that he should be re-sentenced. This was before controversial state statutes on re-sentencing were passed in 2014. Lewis contends that any further proceedings should go before Judge Ewell. (Link to motion below story.)
Charles Lewis (l) asks Judge Qiana Lillard (r) to follow the law.
“All these cases have the same remedy—to vacate the sentence,” Lewis told Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Qiana Lillard Oct. 28 regarding the precedents in his motion. “I am asking you as judge to follow established law. You have to evaluate both sides and decide.”
The Detroit News’ Oralandar Brand-Williams reported Nov. 6, “Wayne State University Law School professor Peter Henning, who is also a former federal prosecutor, says a lost file could have serious consequences.
“In the absence of documentation it could make it impossible to impose a life sentence again,” Henning said. “There is no basis to impose it if (the court file) is missing. What is the appropriate sentence? How does the judge make a decision in the dark? The court is really hamstrung on whatever sentence it can impose.”
Rosie Lewis with her son Charles in 1977, shortly after his conviction. He played in a prison band called the “Gospel Cavaliers.”
Or should Lewis be re-sentenced as Asst. Prosecutor Jason Williams and State Appellate Defender’s Office Attorney Valerie Newman contend, under draconic state statutes, concocted in the wake of the USSC’s 2012 Miller v. Alabama ruling that juvenile life without parole is unconstitutional?
The statutes are currently being challenged as unconstitutional in federal court in the ACLU’s Hill v. Snyder case, and negotiations are going forward regarding alterations. The next hearing on that case is November 17 in front of U.S. District Court Judge John Corbett O’Meara.
Lillard said at the conclusion of the Lewis hearing she would issue a ruling within 14 days. She wants to conduct ex parte consultations with Chief Criminal Court Judge Timothy Kenny and Chief Judge Robert Colombo, and meet with Assistant Prosecutor Jason Williams and court-appointed Attorney Valerie Newman, to go over copies of the records they claim to have. She did not indicate that Lewis, himself a party in the case with his own motions on the record, would be present.
“You see what I have here,” Lillard said, holding up a slim file. “I need what you have.”
Lillard signaled to a Deputy Sheriff to remove Lewis from the hearing before discussing those meetings, as can be seen in the video above, where Lewis is missing. He objected because proceedings were continuing. Newman did not object to his removal.
Deputy Sheriff removes Lewis from hearing without cause Oct. 28, before it had concluded.
The Court’s Register of Actions (ROA) now shows a hearing on Lewis’ case will be held Nov. 23 at 9 a.m.
Lillard’s impartiality in this case has been in question because she is an appointee of Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder. Snyder and other Republican state officials have strongly opposed any changes in laws on juvenile life without parole, as has Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy.
Judge Kenny earlier removed Lillard from the case involving Theodore Wafer’s second-degree murder of Black Detroit teen Renisha McBride due to her ties with members of the Prosecutor’s Office on Facebook.
The State Court Administrator’s Office has not returned a call from VOD asking whether records retained by others than the County Clerk can be considered part of a court file. State law mandates that the County Clerk supervise and protect all court records.
Lewis’ family and friends packed the courtroom, calling afterwards for his immediate release and condemning his court-appointed defense attorney Valerie Newman’s betrayal of his wishes, even calling for her disbarment. His family calls him by his middle name “Lamont.”
(l to r) Mother Rosie Lewis, sister Wendy Lewis, brother Mark Lewis
Lewis along with numerous eyewitnesses, including the partner of Detroit police officer Gerald Swypitowski, have maintained his innocence of killing the officer on July 31, 1976 during two trials held in 1977, the first of which was mysteriously concluded before sending it to the jury. The testimony of his alibi witnesses was never taken. Transcripts of those hearings should be in his missing court file.
Not only is Lewis’ official court file missing, but his computerized Register of Actions has been savaged. It falsely says he was convicted on April 3, 2000 in front of Judge Gershwin Drain and lists only actions after that date. Lewis has been in prison since 1977.
Wayne County Deputy Court Clerk David Baxter had control of files, Register of Actions
Wayne County Deputy Clerk David Baxter testified during the hearing about the loss of the physical court files themselves. Asked earlier by VOD how 23 years of the computerized Register of Actions was also lost, Baxter excused that. He said the Court’s computer system had been converted. VOD, however, has not noted such egregious deletions in numerous other criminal cases.
“A register of actions is a chronological list of events in the life of a case and is required for all cases, except district court civil infractions,” the Michigan State Court Administrator’s Office says in its General Records Retention and Disposal Schedule #16.
“Courts may keep these records permanently, but if they do not want to maintain them and the records still exist on the approval date of this schedule, the records must be transferred to Archives of Michigan. The records may not be destroyed.”
The schedule specifies that transfer to the archives can only take place 50 years after completion of a case. Similarly, according to the State of Michigan’s General Retention Schedule #19, files in capital cases (any crime with a life sentence) must be retained “until final disposition of the case plus 50 years, or the felon dies, whichever is sooner.”
Also testifying was Lisa Denise Peterson of the Clerk’s office, who denied any knowledge of Lewis’ case. Lewis told VOD afterwards, “I talked to her at least 20 times, and my attorneys from Foley & Lardner did so as well. She told me she had the files and records in her hands as we spoke.”
Asst. Prosecutor Jason Williams and supervisor appear to have a chortle over the matter.
Assistant Prosecutor Jason Williams and Attorney Valerie Newman of the State Appellate Defenders Office, Lewis’ court-appointed defense attorney, both argued for Lewis’ re-sentencing under the contested juvenile lifer state statutes, against his wishes.
Williams wants to keep Lewis in prison until death, while Newman said she wants a term of 40-60 years, despite Lewis’ age and poor health.
Both said they have some portions of Lewis’ court files.
Williams is proceeding on the original motion filed by Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy July 21, which says only, “Defendant’s crime in the current case was not the result of unfortunate yet transient immaturity, but, rather, evinced irreparable corruption that requires a Life without Parole sentence.”
It gives no specifics regarding the alleged “irreparable corruption.” Worthy has also asked that 62 other Wayne County juvenile lifers die in prison, the highest actual number in the state. Ninety-eight percent of the county’s 147 juvenile lifers are Black.
The U.S. Supreme Court said in Miller and Montgomery that “only the rarest” juvenile should be sentenced to die in prison.
“Regarding case law on missing transcripts or records, there is no authority that I am aware of,” Williams said during the hearing. “Miller factors concern the offense and I do have transcripts of Mr. Lewis’ trial in this case that resulted in conviction, the original Detroit Police Department homicide file, and Mr. Lewis’ institutional record from the Michigan Department of Corrections. Any pleadings subsequent to conviction are not an appropriate consideration.”
Atty. Gerald Evelyn defended Lewis in Pearson hearing in 1981.
However, a relevant Pearson evidentiary hearing was held on Lewis’ case Jan. 16-20, 1981, with representation by defense attorney Gerald Evelyn.
Five additional Detroit police officers at the scene after the killing contradicted the testimony of Detroit officer Lorraine Williams at Lewis’ original trial in 1977. Williams had claimed that the partner of the officer killed was too intoxicated to have identified the real killer, after copying down his license plate number.
At the time, state law held that the prosecution must produce all res gestae witnesses relevant to the charges, whether favorable to the prosecution or the defense, within a certain time limit. Lewis’ Pearson hearing was held long after the limit. He had contended that required dismissal of the case under then existing law.
Lewis has a copy of a court order signed by then Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Gershwin Drain dismissing his case on April 3, 2000, which an MDOC worker gave him ten years after it was issued.
Lewis filed for enactment of the order after he saw it, but Drain denied issuing it in 2012. In a letter rubber-stamped (not signed) with Drain’s name, he claimed that his signature on the order had been forged and also that Lewis had somehow altered court computer records.
There is no way to determine the truth of THAT situation without access to ALL of Lewis’ court files and the complete Register of Actions.
Newman filed a motion almost identical to the one Lewis filed, citing the same three court precedents he used, along with another one from the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. In contrast to the remedies applied in those cases, she asked that Lewis be re-sentenced to 40-60 years, under the separate juvenile lifer laws.
After the hearing, Lewis’ uncle Lorenzo told VOD that he overheard Newman ask Lewis why he would ask for another attorney, in what he interpreted as a “threat.” He called for her disbarment. Lewis said he did not think her statement was an actual threat.
Newman announced for the first time that she has possession of FIVE boxes of court files on Lewis’ case, which she said can be used during a “Miller” hearing to re-sentence her unwilling client.
Valerie Newman talks with Charles Lewis, overheard by his uncle Lorenzo.
Where those files came from, whether she has read them, or may even have tampered with them is open to question. Newman said only that three of Lewis’ younger co-defendants testified at his original trial, against him.
She failed to mention the testimony of eyewitnesses including police officer Dennis Van Fletering (Swypitowski’s partner), William Eichman, an employee at Oty’s Saloon outside of which the shooting took place, and of Jay Smith, Gloria Ratachek, Kim Divine and Donald DeMarc, who happened to be on Harper at the scene.
Those witnesses all testified that gunfire from a white Lincoln Mark IV, later determined to be owned by Leslie Nathanial, caused Swypitowski’s death. Several also said they saw no other cars in the narrow width of Harper Avenue at the time. That contradicted the testimony of the juveniles, who claimed they and Lewis drove a yellow Ford Gran Torino to the scene, and Lewis got out of it to rob and kill Swypitowski. The three juveniles were not charged in exchange for their testimony.
1977 Lincoln Continental Mark IV: eyewitnesses testified that gunfire from such a car caused death of Detroit police officer in 1976.
Newman also failed to mention the testimony of police officers Joseph Grayer, Michael Kudle, Andrew Kuklock, Michael Yanklin, and Gerald O’Connor contradicting officer Lorraine Williams’ testimony at the Pearson hearing in 1981.
VOD has copies of those transcripts which were attached to several U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals rulings in Lewis’ case. However, they would not be considered part of the official court file, which is maintained only under the direct supervision of the Wayne County Clerk.
Timothy Kincaid
Edward Sanders
David Walton
VOD also submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the City of Detroit Law Department Police Division for records of witness interviews and forensic matters Sept. 19, but has not yet received a response.
Lewis told VOD he has given copies of crime scene photos from the trial and the names of his alibi witnesses to Newman, but she has refused to raise them in proceedings.
Still upcoming are re-sentencing hearings on Detroit juvenile lifers Timothy Kincaid this Friday, Nov. 4 at 9 a.m. in front of Judge James Callahan, and on Edward Sanders and David Walton in front of Judge James Chylinski on Tues. Nov. 29 at 9 a.m. Kincaid was 16 at the time of his offense, Sanders and Walton were 17.
U.S. District Court Judge John Corbett O’Meara.
According to the office of U.S. District Court Judge John Corbett O’Meara, a hearing in the Hill v. Snyder case, whose amended plaintiffs’ motion challenges Michigan’s juvenile lifer statutes, has been adjourned until Thurs. Nov. 17 at 10:15 a.m.in Ann Arbor. O’Meara ruled in 2013 that ALL Michigan juvenile lifers are eligible for parole after 10 years.
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that ruling, but remanded the case back to O’Meara for the parties to update the motions they filed. The state has taken that opportunity to try to wipe out the entire case including O’Meara’s 2013 ruling, while the ACLU is trying to negotiate changes to the state statutes including the restoration of “good time” in juvenile lifer re-sentencings. The state statutes discriminatorily bar that only for juvenile lifer defendants.
These supporters of Charles Lewis demonstrated for him during his Oct. 11 hearing.
Dearborn cop shot the unarmed Matthews nine times after boxing him in a Detroit backyard 3 blocks from his home
“Two, perhaps three of the gunshots . . .were at such close range to the right chest of . . .Kevin Matthews that stippling is detected on the autopsy report . . .the gun barrel . . .was resting upon or in immediate proximity of the right chest of the body . . .such that burn evidence exists on the body.” — Lawsuit
No charges brought by Wayne Co. Prosecutor Kym Worthy in Matthews’ case, or that of Janet Wilson, to date.
By Diane Bukowski
Oct. 29, 2016
Mayor Jack O’Reilly with Dearborn Police Chief Ronald Haddad swear in new recruits (l to r) Bryan Fox, Christopher Hampton, and Andrew Galuska, July 24, 2010. The vast majority of the Dearborn force is white. /Photo: Dearborn Press and Guide
DETROIT — Despite the unspeakable brutality a white Dearborn cop used to execute Kevin Matthews with nine gunshots in a Detroit backyard Dec. 23, 2015, described in an autopsy report and lawsuit released Oct. 23, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy has yet to act on a warrant request from the Detroit Police Department issued in May.
“A charging decision has not been made on the Kevin Matthews case, or the Janet Wilson case at this point,” Worthy’s communications chief Maria Miller told VOD. “Although there is not an exact date, I expect that our review of the cases should be winding up over the coming weeks.”
Terrance Kellom’s daughter, born after father’s death.
Janet Wilson, another unarmed Black Detroiter like Matthews, was shot to death at least four times by Dearborn Corporal James Wade III outside the Fairlane Town Center on Jan. 27, 2016, as she sat in her car after leaving the Center. Police claimed she tried to run them down, but photos show they boxed her in. Her family filed a $10 million lawsuit against the Dearborn police in August.
Worthy earlier refused to charge a federal I.C.E. agent and Detroit police who invaded the home of Kevin Kellom and shot his 19-year-old son Terrance Kellom to death eight times, after a similarly long wait. The cops claimed Kellom advanced on them with a hammer, but Worthy admitted at a press conference that the teen’s fingerprints were not on the hammer.
His stepmother Yvette Johnson was later stopped without legal cause by Dearborn police officer Cpl. Daniel J. Goebel, as she traveled in a jitney Jan. 21, 2016 from 19401 Hubbard, the address for Henry Ford Medical Center in Fairlane.
Janet Wilson/family photo
Kevin Matthews with young relatives/Facebook
Neither Worthy, the Dearborn police, nor the Matthews family attorney have yet released the name of the cop who gunned down Matthews, although attorney Milton Greenman said the cop’s name and history is known to him.
“This is the 10-month anniversary of Kevin’s death,” his sister Kimberly Matthews told VOD during a press conference at the Book-Cadillac hotel. “We want the officer charged and convicted. My family is still grieving and we are not doing very well.”
Earlier, a day after her brother’s death, she said, “My brother was very loving, he was my closest sibling,” she said. “Every time I saw him he told me he loved me, and he would kiss me. We talked on the phone every day. He was a family-oriented person, the person in our family that made everybody laugh, that made everybody feel special. He is going to be a big loss. He was the star of this family, just the sweetest, loving, caring person. We want justice and we are going to fight this all the way. We are not going to let my brother die in vain.”
Family members were part of a large march for justice in Dearborn Jan. 4, 2016. At center is Kevin Matthews’ brother Lavell Matthews; to his right is mother Valerie Johnson; Kimberly Matthews is 2nd from right.
Matthews’ large extended family packed the room where Attorneys Greenman and Eric Proulx, of the Thurswell Law Firm, announced the lawsuit. His mother Valerie Johnson told the gathering, “Kevin meant a lot to me. Without him, I don’t know how I can be. I don’t care. I’ll wait a long time. Just get justice for my son.”
Matthews was trying to get back to his mother’s house on Sussex, where he lived, three blocks from where he was killed, when he was gunned down. The cop who killed him claimed he was wanted to arrest him on a misdemeanor warrant. Neighbors in the area have said that the cop knew Matthews, knew that he suffered from mental illness, and had a history of stopping and harassing him.
New Era Detroit marches outside Dearborn Police HQ on Christmas Day, 2015. Photo: NED
Members of the New Era Detroit organization attended the press conference in force. They marched outside the Dearborn Police Department on Christmas Day last year, as part of a series of angry protests in December and January including mass marches down Michigan Avenue and a call for Detroiters to boycott Dearborn.
On Oct. 23, NED members called on Detroiters “to get up off their couches and rise up” against the ongoing wave of racist police killings here and across the U.S.
The lawsuit says in part, “That in order to effect the arrest of . . .Kevin Matthews, Defendant City of Dearborn Police Officer and Shooter John Doe reverted to the use of excessive force and shot his departmental issued handgun . . . a total of nine times into the chest and torso of . . .Kevin Mathews, and in essence, executing [him] as a result of his failure to stop during the aforesaid foot pursuit.”
Diagram from Matthews’ autopsy report. The gunshot wounds shown in bottom sketch underneath arm, with rings around them, are the ones referred to as close range in lawsuit.
It adds, “That two, perhaps three of the gunshots . . .were at such close range to the right chest of . . .Kevin Matthews that stippling is detected on the autopsy report . . .which identifies that the gun barrel . . .was resting upon or in immediate proximity of the right chest of the body of . . .Kevin Matthews . . .such that burn evidence exists on the body.”
It also says that Dearborn and its police department have a history of discriminatory treatment of Blacks.
“Defendant City of Dearborn has repeatedly permitted and condoned actions and activities of its police force and its police officers to undertake unlawful and unequal treatment . . .against African-Americans in and around the City of Dearborn jurisdiction.”
It cites a particularly egregious remark by Dearborn Mayor Jack O’Reilly, who claimed the cop who killed Matthews “actually had a relationship with the man that he shot, a positive relationship. He brought him home at times. He had done things. He knew him well.”
In a series of probing articles on MLive.com, reporter Gus Burns traced the background of Wilson’s killer.
Dearborn Mayor Jack O’Reilly
“Dearborn Police Cpl. James Wade III was warned or disciplined for unnecessarily endangering himself or others at least three times leading up to the fatal shooting of a Janet Wilson in January,” Burns wrote Oct. 23.
“Three prior incidents involving Wade — the injury of an alleged drunk man being escorted to jail Dec. 27, 2014; the arrest of four people at Fairlaine Town Center mall April 9, 2015, whom security kicked out and claimed might have a gun; and a near-collision while trying to stop a fleeing vehicle April 1, 2012 — were all recorded on in-car or jail video systems and reviewed as part of internal investigations.”
He said the City of Dearborn has refused most of MLive’s requests for copies of the videos. Protests across the U.S. have forced the release of such dashcam videos since the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. in August, 2014. Dearborn did release a dashcam video of the Fairlane Town Center mall incident showing the brutal means Wade and other cops used to arrest four Blacks on April 9, 2015, which MLive published.
Next door to Dearborn, Dearborn Heights cops covered up at first for Theodore Wafer after he shot unarmed Black Detroiter Renisha McBride, 19, to death on his porch in November, 2013 although she presented no threat to him as he viewed her through a heavy locked front door. But he opened the door and shot her to death through the screen.
Theodore Wafer
Renisha McBride, 19
Wafer was convicted of second-degree murder in front of Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Dana Hathaway, and received a sentence of up to 17 years.
An appeals court recently upheld his conviction, but ruled that he has the right to be re-sentenced below state sentencing guidelines.
The City of Inkster, adjacent to Dearborn Heights, finally released videos showing cop William Melendez nearly beating Detroit autoworker Floyd Dent to death on Jan. 28, 2015, after Attorney Gregory Rohl undertook Dent’s defense on false charges of cocaine possession. Channel Four’s Kevin Dietz kept the investigation alive, finally forcing the city to release more videos of Dent’s humiliating treatment, including withholding medical care, inside the Inkster police department headquarters.
Floyd Dent (r) and atty. Gregory Rohl speak to media including Kevin Dietz of Channel 4 (l) after Melendez’ sentencing.
Melendez was eventually charged with assault with intent to do great bodily harm, and sentenced to 13 months to 10 years by Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Vonda Evans.
The Michigan Department of Corrections, however, independently transferred Melendez to a boot camp. He is likely to be paroled shortly before even his minimum sentence expires.
Melendez earlier conducted a reign of terror as a Detroit cop, killing two men and framing, harassing, and threatening death to others on Detroit’s poor southwest side. His actions earned him the nickname “Robocop.”
Wm. Melendez MDOC photo
Such lenient treatment by the courts is not available for Michigan’s 363 juvenile lifers, some of whom have spent decades behind bars for crimes committed as children. Most of them are Black or Latin.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled twice that juvenile life without parole is unconstitutional on a retroactive basis, and constitutes “cruel and unusual punishment.”
But Michigan lawmakers sabotaged the USSC’s rulings by instituting state sentencing statutes that allow judges to re-sentence juvenile lifers to up to 40-60 years, meaning that some will wait 20 to 30 years before seeing the parole board.
(L) CHARLES LEWIS, 58, IN PRISON SINCE 17, MAINTAINS INNOCENCE, FILED MOTION TO DISMISS DUE TO LOSS OF CASE FILE; HIS SADO ATTY. VALERIE NEWMAN FILED FOR “TERM OF YEARS”—HEARING FRIDAY OCTOBER 28 @ 9 AMTop row, l to r from Wayne County: Timothy Kincaid, 54, in prison since 1982, resentencing set for Friday, Nov. 4 at 9AM in front of Judge James Callahan; Edward Sanders, 58, in prison since age 17 in 1975, David Walton, 59, in prison since age 17 in 1975, Cortez Davis, 39, in prison since 1994. Bottom row, l to r from Kent County: Giovanni Casper, 27, in prison since 17, got 40-60; Juan Cantu, 37, in prison since 16, got 40-60 yrs; Ahmad Williams, 33, in prison since 15, got 25-60, parole eligibility two years; Saul Montalvo, 36, in prison since 1996 at 17, got 25-60, eligible for parole in five years. Parole eligibility does not guarantee parole; Michigan parole board releases low percent of prisoners, says it will treat “juvenile lifers” the same as any other prisoners.
Others asking supporters to attend their hearings as well, send letters to judges; next hearing for Timothy Kincaid is Friday, November 4 @ 9AM
“When they sent my son to prison, they told me he would never get out, and that I could not even claim his body after he died.”—Rosie Lewis, mother of Charles Lewis
SADO uses same court precedents Lewis cited in his motion to dismiss, but asks instead for ‘term of years.’
Juvenile lifers appear in court in handcuffs, chains and jail scrubs instead of street clothes
Michigan juvenile lifers will not go home immediately; many will wait decades to see the parole board under state statutes
By Diane Bukowski
October 25, 2016
DETROIT – Hundreds of Michigan prisoners serving what the U.S. Supreme Court has twice declared are unconstitutional juvenile life without parole sentences may end up dying in prison as Michigan originally intended, under 2014 state statutes MCL 769.25 and MCL 769.25a.
CHARLES LAMONT LEWIS, DETROIT
Rosie Lewis and her first-born child Charles Lewis, shortly after he was incarcerated for life at the age of 17.
“When they sent my son to prison, they told me he would never get out, and that I could not even claim his body after he died,” Rosie Lewis, mother of juvenile lifer Charles Lewis, her first-born child, told VOD tearfully. Lewis has been incarcerated for 41 years since the age of 17 for a crime both he and eyewitnesses say he did not commit.
This Friday, Oct. 28, at 9 a.m. Lewis will again appear in Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Qiana Lillard’s courtroom at the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice, Rm. 501.
She is to rule on Lewis’ motion to dismiss his case due to the complete loss of his court file, dating from 1977. His motion cites three U.S. Supreme and State Court rulings which vacated the convictions and sentences of defendants due to the partialloss or corruption of their files. Those defendants were not subjected to automatic re-sentencing but to automatic release. The cases are Michigan v. Adkins, Michigan v. Abdella, and, in the USSC, Chessman v. Teets (1957). (Motion at http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/CLmotion-3.pdf)
Charles Lewis at court hearing Oct. 11. Juvenile lifers across the state are being forced to appear in court in jail garb and handcuffs.
Judge Lillard will also rule on a motion she requested Atty. Valerie Newman of the State Appellate Defender’s Office (SADO) to file. Newman asks for automatic re-sentencing to a “term of years” for Lewis, not release. Filed Oct. 21, long after Lewis’ Sept. 24 motion, it cites the same U.S. and Michigan Supreme and Appellate Court precedents Lewis used.
Newman contradicts her proposed remedy in the motion.
She writes,“Just as the appellate court in [Michigan v.] Adkins could not conduct a meaningful review of the Defendant’s guilty plea, in Mr. Lewis’ case certainly neither side can conduct a meaningful Miller hearing when the official court file is completely unavailable, nor can the court make an informed decision regarding Mr. Lewis’ sentence without access to that file.”(Motion at http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/SADO-MOTION-TO-SENTENCE-CHARLES-LEWIS-TO-TERM-OF-YEARS.pdf.)
Newman earlier told the Detroit News, “The bottom line is we’re not opening the doors and letting them all out — there will be a process and a hearing and some will be determined unfit for release. And there will still be parole hearings.”
The News added, “Gov. Rick Snyder has recommended adding $1.1 million to the state budget to fund 11 full-time employees at the State Appellate Defenders Office for compliance with the Supreme Court ruling.”
Corner at Harper and Barrett near where off-duty police officer Gerald Sypitowski was killed Jan. 31, 1975.
SADO told VOD from the outset that it would not challenge the state statutes, but they are being challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union in an ongoing lawsuit, Hill v. Snyder.
If Lewis is subjected to the jurisdiction of the parole board, as Newman wants, the same question arises—how will they determine THEIR decision without his full court file?
“They can’t sentence me because of the loss of my files, and if Judge Lillard does sentence me, it would be unconstitutional,” Lewis told VOD. “I will appeal, and a higher court would have to overturn it. I told Atty. Newman I would never agree to being re-sentenced to 40-60 years under the state statutes.”
He added, “This affects not just me but the majority of juvenile lifers who were convicted because they had bad court-appointed attorneys Now I have another one. Atty. Newman is not arguing from a position of strength, but from a position of weakness. I sent her crime scene photos that show there’s no way I could have killed the officer in question. I have alibi witnesses and eyewitnesses who say I did not kill him, but she has refused to call them.”
Lewis was convicted of killing off-duty Detroit police officer Gerald Swypitowski in 1976, despite the testimony of six eyewitnesses, including the officer’s partner, who identified another man as the perpetrator. Lewis’ court-appointed attorney never called his alibi witnesses at trial.
APA Jason Williams and Attorney Valerie Newman at Charles Lewis’ hearing Oct. 11. His mother Rosie Lewis is in rear row center, behind woman in white blouse. Neither attorney addressed Lewis during the hearing. Williams did not respond to Lewis’ question about how he planned to prosecute him with no court file.
Lewis is a true fighter, a writer, and a musician, who has often filed his own excellently written and researched appeals in state and federal court since his incarceration.
“I guess I’m addicted to the struggle,” he told VOD.
But he is now 58, has suffered three heart attacks in recent years for which he has received inadequate care from the Michigan Department of Corrections, and has a severe case of diabetes.
“Our Legislature amended the juvenile sentencing statute to ostensibly follow Miller,” Former Wayne County Prosecutor John O’Hair said in a broadly published column. “The statute retained the ability to impose a life without parole sentence and allowed the courts to impose a minimum sentence of 25 to 40 years, and a maximum sentence of 60 years. With the average life expectancy of a juvenile serving life without parole at 50.6 years, 40 and 60-year sentences are virtual life sentences.”
Chief Criminal Judge Timothy Kenny.
Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy
VOD has just been notified by General Counsel Richard Lynch that the prosecutor’s motion for Charles Lewis will be available tomorrow. So far, VOD has not been able to obtain copies of Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy’s motions for all 147 Wayne County juvenile lifers, although such motions are public record.
Worthy filed the motions June 22, including 63 asking for re-sentencing to JLWOP, the highest actual number of any county in Michigan. The motions are allegedly being held away from legally mandated public access in Chief Criminal Court Judge Timothy Kenny’s office.
Lewis is asking that supporters of the U.S. Constitution and the right of Michigan juvenile lifers not to die in prison come out in substantial numbers prior to and during his hearing and hearings of other juvenile lifers, proceeding across the state.
JUAN CANTU, GRAND RAPIDS
Juan Cantu of Grand Rapids stands with SADO attorney Valerie Newman (r) as he listens to judge sentence him to 40-60 years. Photo: MLive
Juan Cantu’s case demonstrates just how severely the State of Michigan is flying in the face of the U.S. Supreme Court rulings in its juvenile lifer re-sentencings. He is from Grand Rapids and is now 37.
“A 16-year-old would know, I believe, how very, very wrong the things that you and your co-defendant did that day were,” Kent County Circuit Judge Paul Sullivan said, according to an article in MLive. “There’s no getting around it.”
Sullivan must not have bothered to read the Miller decision, whose whole substance is that juveniles differ from adults in their capacity for impulse control and understanding of the consequences of their actions, among other factors. Miller says, however, that juveniles are more capable of rehabilitation than adults. (See link below.)
On Oct. 12, Sullivan sentenced Cantu to the maximum 40-60 years recommended by the Kent County Prosecutor, who said he did not recommend JLWOP because of Cantu’s role as an accomplice in a 1996 shooting death. Cantu is now 37.
Kent County Judge Paul Sullivan: “There’s no getting around it.”
Another participant who was not charged testified that Cantu played a minor role in the kidnapping and killing of the victim, according to a Court of Appeals decision which vacated his sentences other than that for felony murder. That decision was evidently overturned later, as Cantu still faces 50-80 years for the kidnapping.
Cantu was 16 and had an eighth-grade education in 1986. He will not be parole eligible for 20 years for the felony murder charge.
Cantu was also represented by Newman. A SADO spokesperson told VOD earlier that SADO did not plan to challenge the state statutes, although they are currently being challenged in an ongoing ACLU class action lawsuit, Hill v. Snyder.
TIMOTHY KINCAID, DETROIT
Timothy Kincaid
Juvenile lifer Timothy Kincaid, now 54, will appear in front of Wayne County Circuit Court Judge James Callahan on Nov. 4 at 9 a.m. He was 16 when he was charged as an accomplice to an older man in three 1976 murders. VOD attended a hearing in his case June 27.
“I didn’t think there was any reason for doubt after the Miller v. Alabama ruling,” Court Judge Callahan said, regarding Miller’s retroactivity. But Michigan courts held out for four years until the Montgomery decision before proceeding with re-sentencing, after sabotaging the Supreme Court intent with its 2014 state statutes.
Kincaid’s friend, Minister Ervin Bell, said, ““I’ve known him since childhood. Me and little Tim hung out together just about every day. But I clearly remember the day that [an older man] pulled up on us in his ’77 Fleetwood. Tim was blinded by the flash. Whatever part he played in the murders, he was forced to play. He was not the type to try to hurt anybody.”
Vivian Kincaid speaks at Wayne State University forum
This characteristic of youths to be susceptible to older individuals and to peer groups is cited in the Miller decision.
Kincaid’s attorney, Gerald Evelyn, said he was “guardedly optimistic” that Callahan would give Kincaid the minimum sentence of 25 years and that he would be immediately paroled. He said a woman who was injured during the multiple murders and is in a wheelchair plans to come to court to ask for Kincaid’s release.
During the time Kincaid has been incarcerated, he lost his mother. He is also hoping for the release of his older brother Waymon Kincaid, who has spent decades in prison as a “parolable lifer.”
His younger sister Vivian Kincaid has been active for years in movements for justice for both juvenile and parolable lifers, and against U.S. policies of mass incarceration.
GIOVANNI CASPER, GRAND RAPIDS
Giovanni Casper with his mother. Photo: ACLU
“I’m not the same person I was 10 years ago,” Giovanni Casper said in an MLive article. “I made a terrible decision that night. I think about it constantly. The night I killed Kenneth Dear. I didn’t understand the pain I was actually causing his family, agony, anguish. It’s just something I didn’t understand.”
Casper was sentenced to JLWOP for first-degree murder in Dear’s 2006 shooting, after a fight broke out between two groups of youths at a roller skating rink in Kentwood when he was 16.
Casper is a named plaintiff in the ACLU’s class-action lawsuit against juvenile life without parole in Michigan, Hill v. Snyder. U.S. District Court Judge John Corbett O’Meara ruled in response to the lawsuit in 2013 that Michigan juvenile lifers are ALL subject to parole after serving 10 years.
Giovanni Casper now.
The ACLU said Giovanni was a high school drop-out and functionally illiterate.
“Upon arrest, police interrogated Giovanni for hours without a parent present,” the ACLU said in a report on juvenile lifers.
“The officers wrote out a statement and told Giovanni that if he signed it, he could go home. Giovanni did not meet with his court appointed attorney until the first day of trial. His attorney did not call any witnesses on his behalf and, against his wishes, would not allow Giovanni to testify. Giovanni’s attorney never informed him that a plea was offered.
“When Giovanni received his paperwork after sentencing, he learned that the prosecutor had proposed a term of 13–22 years in exchange for a guilty plea. Giovanni remembers that his attorney asked him to sign a number of papers during trial but, because he could not read, he did not realize he was rejecting a plea offer. Since his incarceration Giovanni has learned to read and write, and has also obtained his GED.”
Kent County Judge Dennis Leiber
Kent County Circuit Judge Dennis Leiber re-sentenced Casper to 40 to 60 years in prison. He will not be eligible for parole for 30 years, when he is 56, if he survives that long.
U.S. District Court Judge John Corbett O’Meara ruled in 2013 that ALL Michigan juvenile lifers are eligible for parole after 10 years. The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals supported his ruling, but sent it back to him for updating.
The state has now moved to dismiss Hill v. Snyder. A hearing will be held Thurs. Nov. 3 at 10 a.m. in Judge O’Meara’s court in Ann Arbor. The ACLU intends to present strong arguments against dismissal, said Attorney Deborah LaBelle.
EDWARD SANDERS, DAVID WALTON, DETROIT
Childhood friends Edward Sanders and David Walton were 17 years old in 1975 when they were caught up in a nightmare largely involving the heavy use of alcohol sold to them by multiple store owners where they grew up, who violated the law in doing so.
Edward Sanders with VOD editor Diane Bukowski during one of many visits she made while he was at the Mound Road facility in Detroit. It is now closed.
With three other friends, they went looking for a party they had heard about. They had the wrong address. Instead, they arrived at a location where a man was helping a friend move into an upper flat. He told them there was no party there.
A companion insisted on going back to get a dilapidated shotgun with a hair-trigger. They returned to the flat, where their companion tried to pull the shotgun to shoot the man. His friends struggled to stop him, but the gun went off, killing the man.
At the constant urging of police, including an officer named James Younger, the companion testified that Walton pulled the trigger while Sanders drove the car. At that time, the Detroit Police Department was conducting a war against what they called neighborhood “gangs.” Younger later became Deputy Chief and head of Detroit’s ill-reputed Gang Squad.
VOD has covered Sanders’ progress throughout the years, as he obtained his bachelor’s degree, became a jailhouse lawyer assisting other prisoners, as well as a devout and peaceful Muslim. He is currently tutoring a group of prisoners at who benefited from a college grant from the federal government, part of 1500 around the state.
Attorney Elizabeth Jacobs (Photo by Mark Copier/The Grand Rapids Press)
Sanders told VOD recently, “I don’t want my resentence to be viewed as a protest, because its not that at all. . . . I would like the opportunity to request forgiveness not only to the family of the person who lost his life, but the witnesses to the crime as well. They lost something too. . . .You want to witness things in youth, but not a death of anyone. This was someone they all knew, and they knew me as well. They did not ask to disregard a street code, or be part of one. I understand that now. I would like the chance to tell them that they did the right thing. I look forward to just say I am sorry after more than 40 years. No one should have lost their life.”
Sanders attorney Elizabeth Jacobs responded to an inquiry from Voice of Detroit. She said that Sanders is happy with the sentence of 40-60 years being proposed for him.
However, Sanders countered, “I have not agreed to any form of resentence because I have not been resentenced yet. I hope that I can get 25 to 40 years under the terms of the statute. That is why I am looking forward to my day in court. I can accept a higher sentence if the court itself would provide me with my good time for the past 41 + years.”
David Walton
The state statutes, however, bar the use of juvenile lifers’ good time in their resentencings. But Sanders said he is hoping the judge will see fit to override that part of the state statute.
The Detroit News reported in April that Attorney Deborah LaBelle singled out Walton as an example of a juvenile lifer who deserved release.
The News article continued,
“Walton is “deeply trusted by staff” at the Ryan Correctional Facility, she said. Some prisoners at the Detroit prison, including Walton, may have saved the life of a Corrections officer who had been targeted by an angry inmate in their unit. According to a state prison document, prisoners blocked doors, dressed the officer in state “prisoner blues” and “sent him out a unit window” to safety.
In a 2010 lifer review report at the prison, resident unit manager Alan Greason said Walton has been cited for work on numerous service projects, including an Alcoholics Anonymous fellowship program, a “Dose of Reality” tour program for youth and a gymnasium floor restoration.
“Mr. Walton has proven himself worthy and well deserving of a second chance,” Greason wrote in the report, which urged then-Gov. Jennifer Granholm to commute his sentence. Granholm denied the request.”
Both Sanders and Walton are set for post-conviction hearings in front of Wayne County Circuit Court Judge James Chylinski this Friday, Oct. 28 at 9 a.m., the same time the hearing for Charles Lewis is set. However, Sanders’ attorney Jacobs said Sanders’ hearing will be a second status conference to further discuss the re-sentencings. Judge Chylinski’s clerk confirmed that neither prisoner will be present. Such hearings are suspect, because, as Sander’s comment above indicates, defense attorneys are not always in sync with their clients.
CORTEZ DAVIS, DETROIT
Cortez Davis
Sixteen-year-old Cortez Davis was involved in a robbery that ended with the shooting death of the robbery victim. Davis’s companion fired all of the five shots that killed the victim; witnesses testified that Davis was involved in the robbery aspect of the crime. A jury convicted Davis of first-degree felony murder, armed robbery, assault with intent to rob while armed, and felony-firearm. The trial judge, the Hon. Vera Massey-Jones, held a hearing in 1994 to determine if Davis should be sentenced as an adult or as a juvenile.
“[I]n this instance when this young man was not the person who pulled the trigger, he was an aider and abettor in an armed robbery, he was convicted of first-degree murder by the jury . . . the only other option of then sentencing him as an adult and imposing a life sentence, mandatory life sentence, is cruel and unusual punishment, when everyone agrees that he is capable of rehabilitation.”
Judge Massey-Jones sentenced Davis to a prison term of 10 to 40 years for felony murder in addition to lesser terms for the other convictions. But the Court of Appeals peremptorily reversed, and the Judge Massey-Jones was forced to impose the required term of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Her ruling in 1994 predated the 2012 U.S. Supreme Court Ruling in Miller v. Alabama, which used virtually the same language, by 18 years. After Miller, she once again tried to re-sentence Davis, but Prosecutor Worthy appealed blocked her efforts and appealed. Unfortunately, Judge Massey-Jones retired from the bench last year.
He told VOD recently that he has emailed his attorney Clinton Hubbell, “asking for him to try to get my original sentence re-instated and have the judge to give me time served since my original sentence was 10 to 40 and I am 12 years past that original minimum sentence. So I am waiting to hear something about that.”
The state statutes, however, set an arbitrary minimum sentence of 25 years, meaning Davis would not see the world outside again for another three years if his judge does not challenge the statutes, or if the ACLU prevails in its lawsuit, Hill v. Snyder.
Davis adds now, “The U.S. Supreme Court emphasized that the distinctive attributes of youth diminish the penological justifications for imposing the harshest sentences on juvenile offenders, even when they commit terrible crimes. Does this also hold true when determining if a child that has been locked away for decades is mature and rehabilitated enough to be released back into society? They have suffered continuous punishment and incapacitation. When will they be released to truly pay their debt to society by contributing to the community that they hurt?”
Juvenile lifer Ahmad Williams of Kent County brought into court for re-sentencing in handcuffs, chain, and jail scrubs. Prisoners are normally allowed to wear street clothes during court hearings. Photo: MLive
Oct. 10 — This debacle of an election process is unprecedented, bizarre and absurd. And it is also dangerous.
Analysis of the latest election scandals and the latest debate uproar can tell us more about how to go forward when one of these two “predator” capitalist candidates is elected.
On Oct. 7, the Washington Post published a 2005 video in which today’s presidential candidate Donald Trump, at that time the reality show host of “The Apprentice,” can be heard making the most obscene, vulgar comments about women. That opened up a “shitstorm” for the Trump candidacy.
This past weekend the elections tragically came down to voting for either a “sexist predator” or a “drone predator.” A racist buffoon or a war hawk. A misogynist, corrupt idiot or a corrupt Wall Street lackey. A billionaire rogue thief or a billionaire establishment thief.
This scandal is another example that the two parties of the capitalist system are in crisis. The Republican Party is imploding. The Democratic Party had to resort to corruption to get its nominee in place, including shutting opponent Bernie Sanders out of funding and support.
Neither party can produce legitimate leaders because they represent an illegitimate system.
TRUMP’S BUS A BUST
Action in the just-released video took place on an Access Hollywood bus in 2005. A host of the show, Billy Bush — kinfolk to former Presidents Bush — can also be heard on the tape, going along with Trump, laughing lasciviously. The lewd comments Trump made are not printable; they are so offensive. Women’s body parts are referred to as open season for Trump as he declares that because he is a “celebrity, he can kiss” or “grab” anything he wants and “get away with it.”
Trump’s comments amount to coarse verbal sexual assaults and to the gross objectification of women. Trump believes women are his property, second-class citizens that he can say or do anything to that he wants. His words then and his demeanor now speak volumes about unbridled white, straight, male privilege.
Imagine what might happen if a Black man had been caught saying such words. At the least his career would be over. He could end up in jail, or even worse.
The exposure created an immediate firestorm.
Trump’s campaign was called into question. Republicans jumped ship in large numbers, and over 20 elected officials and other prominent Republicans withdrew their endorsement over the weekend. Both Trump and his vice presidential nominee were disinvited from a Wisconsin Republican event that included Paul Ryan, Speaker of the House. On Oct. 10, Ryan basically disavowed Trump, saying he would not campaign for him.
Announcement: Billy Bush leaving Today show.
Worried about losing the House, Ryan opportunistically advised other Republicans up for re-election to endorse or break from Trump depending on their situations.
NBC was forced to suspend Billy Bush after an avalanche of criticism on social media — a victory for women.
There was some speculation that Trump would not only cancel the second presidential debate scheduled for Oct. 9, but withdraw from the race altogether. But there is no stopping Trump. Not at this moment at any rate.
Political pundit after pundit advised Trump to be humble, to show compassion and empathy to get over the sexism storm. Trump did just the opposite. In a taped message prior to the debate, he said his words did not reflect his true self. He shockingly added more sexism to the fire as he instead retaliated against Bill Clinton.
Newswoman after newswoman reminded viewers that it was not Bill Clinton who was running for president. But to no avail. The day of the debate Trump not only paraded before a Facebook news conference four women who had at one time accused Bill Clinton of assault, but he brought them to the presidential debate. Like a four-year-old, Trump’s defense of his sexism was how Bill’s was worse!
WHO’S THE MOST SEXIST OF THEM ALL?
Antron McCray, Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, and Korey Wise in New York City. Known as the Central Park Five, they served prison sentences after being wrongly convicted in the Central Park jogger case. Credit Michael Nagle for The New York Times
As Republicans denounced Trump over the weekend, as many of them declared, “That’s it. This is the last straw,” one has to wonder: Why now? Why did it take this ultra-sexist tirade for them to say, “Enough”?
Why not be as outraged at Trump’s painting Mexican migrants as rapists? Why not be outraged over his continued lies and demonization of the innocent and freed Black teenagers known as the Central Park Five? What about his constant vilification of Muslims? How can other Republicans support a presidential candidate who makes fun of the physically challenged?
Indeed, why “circle the wagons” regarding women? Could it be the Republicans’ own misogyny and ideas of patriarchy? Could it be that white women who are married to white men are the line in the sand, while oppressed people are disposable and are to be reminded of “their place”?
How insulting it was to hear male after male, Republican and Democrat alike, talk about how offensive Trump was to “our women.”
Women are not property. From story on Hyde Amendment which still denies funding for abortion to many women.
“Our daughters, our wives, our mothers” should not be talked about the way Trump talked about women, they said. But women are not the “ours” of anybody, as the women’s movement must remind them. Women are not property to be reviled. Nor are they property to be cherished either. They are not property at all.
After the debate, news outlets declared that it is almost guaranteed that Hillary Clinton will win the election. Women are polling heavily against Trump after the latest scandal.
One of Trump’s constant defenses was “that was just locker room talk.” Trump must be reminded that from many a campus locker room, many a male has come out to rape and assault women as they walk home from studying.
But it would be wrong to blame all male athletes or assume some of them are the only ones participating in this foul language and behavior. Sexist attacks of all kinds permeate capitalist society. Sexism, woman-hating, misogyny are institutionalized under capitalism. A woman cannot go to Starbucks without fear of hearing the “C” word thrown about against her or around her, and we don’t mean “coffee.”
Women’s oppression is the oldest oppression of all, and it cannot be eradicated without abolishing capitalism.
WHAT TO DO ABOUT THE ELECTION?
The Access Hollywood bus scandal overshadowed other important news over the weekend. On Oct. 10, Counterpunch commented how “providential” (or not) it was for Clinton that Trump’s sex tapes were released by the Washington Post the same day as Wikileaks dumped damning emails about her. Some e-mails disclosed speeches Clinton made to Wall Street where she endorses trade policies that benefit the 1%.
Others spilled a memo revealing the Clintons’ “strategic goal” of elevating Trump as a “poison pill” for the GOP:
“Trump was their preferred candidate and they worked frantically to help launch his campaign and fuel his ascent, knowing he would detonate prematurely like one of those SpaceX rockets.” Be careful what you wish for!
Anabel Park
From the Bernie Sanders’ side came an Oct. 8 Washington Post article by Annabel Park, the Korean-American documentary filmmaker and political activist, headlined “I don’t like Hillary Clinton or the Democratic Party. I’m voting for them anyway.”
Park explains her decision came after witnessing first-hand the violent behavior of white Trump supporters at a Virginia rally where they cursed a crowd of Muslim, Latin, Black, Asian and white people protesting Trump. Attempting to film the incident, Park was attacked by a Trumpite woman.
Park writes, “It finally hit me. … Trump has a playbook for power that includes targeting journalists and activists, branding dissidents as enemies … fostering a culture of violence and bullying against minorities, controlling women through sexual humiliation …and blocking a democratic path … by undermining … voting rights. … These tactics have made a cultural impact. … Violent hate crimes against Muslim Americans are escalating, and teachers are reporting that there’s more bullying in schools.”
Protest against fracking, Dakota pipeline.
Park admits fears about Clinton: “She is a war hawk. She sold fracking to the world … [and] sees no path for single-payer health care. She will probably try to pass the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, though she’s promised not to.”
But Park concludes that now she sees Trump “as the dangerous intruder with a gun threatening America” and calls for “fellow Bernie supporters” to join her in “fighting off the intruder.”
LESSER EVIL IS NO EVIL
Honestly, Annabel Park is spot-on in her descriptions of both Trump and Clinton. The dangerous by-product of Trump’s candidacy is real. Those right-wing, violent, backward, racist, white supremacist misogynists who attend Trump rallies have indeed been galvanized by his candidacy. They will not easily go back into the woodwork if Trump does not win.
But the danger of Hillary Clinton, while different, is just as real. The Clinton election emboldens those in the Pentagon who already have raised the fearsome possibility of a war with Russia. It guarantees more forced refugees. She has proven to the Pentagon that she can carry out a coup in Honduras and Haiti and come out smelling like a rose. She has proven to Wall Street she can steal an election and still get her opponent [Sanders] to support her candidacy.
Either a Trump or a Clinton administration will mean continued war at home and abroad because that is the nature of the capitalist system, a system both are beholden to. There is clearly only one choice for the workers and the oppressed. Build a revolutionary movement to show the Trumpites, the Clintonites, Wall Street and the Pentagon who is the real power in society: the workers.
On Jan. 20, whoever wins the White House must be met by a powerful counter-inaugural protest. Masses of people should descend on Washington to demand an end to police terror, no war on Russia or Syria or anywhere, no to the Dakota Pipeline, yes to a raise in the minimum wage and a union, and much more.
After this past weekend, women, who are already spearheading today’s struggles against the police, will surely be in the forefront of saying “No” to both partiesof the capitalist class.
Gutierrez is the campaign manager for the Moorehead/Lilly campaign
Workers World Party candidates (l to r) Lamont Lilly (Vice-President), Monica Moorehead (President), Teresa Gutierrez.
Lewis filed motion to dismiss his case due to loss of court files, based on USSC decision in Chessman v. Teets re: case of altered transcripts
“You have nothing to hold him on and you can’t substantiate what you say”—Rosie Lewis, mother; Lewis has always maintained innocence
“We want all these brothers that have been locked up for 30 to 40 years for crimes they may have committed as children to come home”–DocX
“We will move to have him serve 40-60 years.”–SADO ‘defense’ attorney Valerie Newman, contradicting Lewis’ position
Judge Qiana Lillard postpones decision, sets next hearing for Oct. 28
By Diane Bukowski
Oct0ber 12, 2016
DETROIT – “My son’s conviction must be dismissed,” Rosie Lewis said regarding juvenile lifer Charles Lewis. “I would hope they would do what is legitimate, right, and let him go. You have nothing to hold him on and you can’t substantiate what you say you have, and you can’t allow him to speak. And you have no charge, and I would be filing for a wrongful imprisonment.”
Jelekeco DocX Whitaker and other supporters gathered outside prior to a hearing on Lewis’ case, which was supposed to have been a hearing to determine finally whether the files cannot be retrieved.
Doc X and other supporters of Charles Lewis and Michigan juvenile lifers apeak to media before hearing October 11. Photo: Cornell Squires
Supporters outside Frank Murphy Hall in downtown Detroit.
“We are looking to have justice done,” Whitaker said. “He has been locked up for 41 years. He is a role model in the prison, working with the youth. He’s teaching young brothers music in there. We want all these brothers that have been in there for 30-40 years for crimes committed when they were children to come home. They are clearly biased against them because most of them are African-American.”
Ninety-eight percent of Wayne County’s 147 juvenile lifers are Black.
‘Pure Pleasure’ band Charles was with the night of murder; they were not called to testify at his trial.
Wendy Lewis said her brother was a talented musician during his youth, playing every instrument. She said he was out with a band playing at a UAW Local 212 cabaret during the time he was charged with killing an off-duty police officer in 1976.
“I had to go afterwards and pick up his guitar, amplifier, cords all the equipment had in his entourage,” Mrs. Lewis said.
Wendy Lewis added, “He was almost like Prince, he played every instrument. He had them down in our basement. I just watched him play and I miss watching him play, I miss my brother. He’s not only a leader for our family, he’s a leader for the community. He took that into consideration, what this sentence means for almost 400 other people.”
Lewis told VOD earlier, “I think that my case is the test case for how missing transcripts and files will be dealt with in the future. I also think that if I can successfully challenge the juvenile statute that it will help other similarly-situated juveniles in the future. Right now I’m 57 years old and the best years of my life are behind me. So, I fight to make things better for those coming behind me. Hopefully, if I play my part they won’t have to go through what I’ve gone through.”
Lewis was finally present in court after appearing only on videotape multiple times. He has filed a motion with Judge Lillard requesting that his case be dismissed, citing U.S. Supreme Court precedent in Chessman v. Teets (1957), which held that tainted case files are grounds for reversal of convictions.
In a series of hearings before Judge Lillard this spring, court officials have testified that they cannot find three cartons of records including Lewis’ arrest, charges, trials, conviction, and post-conviction proceedings on a 1976 first-degree murder charge Lewis has always maintained is false. Yet they are maintaining a falsified Register of Actions which states he was convicted on April 3, 2000 in front of Judge Gershwin Drain and lists other undocumented actions since then.
Charles Lewis listens to court hearing. Neither Valerie Newman nor the judge asked him to speak, as he has done in earlier hearings before Lillard. Photo: Sarah Cwiek, Michigan Radio
Judge Lillard’s courtroom was packed with Lewis’ family and friends, as well as TV news cameras and reporters from much of the mainstream media.
Over 363 juvenile lifers across the state are being re-sentenced after tw0 U.S. Supreme Court rulings, Miller v. Alabama (2012) and Montgomery v. Louisiana (2016) that juvenile life without parole is unconstitutional on a retroactive basis, “cruel and unusual punishment” under the Eighth Amendment.
However, Michigan is conducting the hearings under draconic state statutes passed in 2014 that have sabotaged the high court’s intent.
Mainstream media has been hungry for information on these hearings. Wayne Co. Prosecutor Kym Worthy filed motions on the county’s 147 juvenile lifers June 22, asking that 63 of them, including Lewis, be re-sentenced to JLWOP. The motions are being kept from the public record. They are not filed in individual case files. Neither VOD nor Michigan Radio have been able to get access to them, despite a Freedom of Information Act request by VOD. No notice is sent to the public when a hearing is scheduled.
During the Oct. 11 hearing, Lewis at one point turned and asked Assistant Prosecutor Jason Williams how he plans to proceed with re-sentencing despite the lack of files on his case.
APA Williams, SADO attorney Valerie Newman hold secret meeting with Judge Lillard for 15 minutes before hearing; Lewis was not present in the courtroom. Lillard did not put substance of discussion on the record.
Lillard cut Williams off before he could respond. She then asked “defense attorney” Valerie Newman to file her own brief. Newman has not actually even filed an appearance in Lewis’ case.
Lillard did not ask for a prosecutor’s brief in response to Lewis’ motion.
Despite broad state judicial opposition to Michigan’s juvenile lifer resentencing process, particularly its statutory maximum of 60 years, and ban on use of prisoners’ earned “good time,” Newman said she would file a brief calling for Lewis to be re-sentenced to 40-6o years whether or not the files are found.
Former Wayne County Prosecutor and Judge John O’Hair has called for the federal government to intervene in what he, the Michigan Retired Judges’ Association, and numerous other organizations term a process deliberately designed to circumvent the USSC decisions on juvenile life without parole.
Former Wayne Co. Prosecutor and Circuit Court Judge John O’Hair.
“With the average life expectancy of a juvenile serving life without parole at 50.6 years, 40 and 60-yr. sentences are virtual life sentences,” Hon. O’Hair wrote in a broadly published column. (See link below.)
Lillard said she would hear both Lewis’ and Newman’s contradictory motions Fri. Oct. 28 at 1:30 p.m., and rule on them. She did not say she would allow Lewis to argue his own motion.
As Judge Lillard did Sept. 6, she held a secret 15-minute conference with Newman and Williams prior to Lewis’ entrance into the courtroom, and once again made no official record with the court stenographer summarizing its substance.
Lewis told VOD in a call from the Wayne County Jail that another prisoner there with him, Robert Trombley, 70, has been incarcerated for 53 years since 1963. He said Trombley told him he was just sentenced to 40-60 years, meaning he is at the mercy of the parole board for seven more years.
Robert Trombley, 70, has been re-sentenced to 40-60 yrs. after serving 53 yrs. in prison.
SADO has featured six other juvenile lifers on its website, boasting that they got them re-sentenced to the same term. The Michigan Legislature has provided millions in funding for SADO to handle the juvenile lifer re-sentencings. SADO then said they would not challenge the state re-sentencing statutes.
But after the Miller ruling in 2012, Attorney Deborah LaBelle and the Michigan American Civil Liberties Union recruited pro bono attorneys for all of the state’s juvenile lifers. In a class action lawsuit brought by LaBelle and the ACLU, Hill v. Snyder, U.S. District Court Judge John Corbett O’Meara ruled in 2013 that all Michigan juvenile lifers are subject to parole consideration after 10 years.
His ruling was upheld by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals and remanded for further adjustment. LaBelle told VOD the next hearing in his court in Ann Arbor will take place Nov. 3.
Judge Timothy Kenny
Lewis said that SADO has filed no motions for the juvenile lifers housed with him at Lakeland Correctional Facility to hire neuropsychiatrists, psychologists, crime scene re-constructionists, and other specialists that would be needed to conduct legitimate Miller re-sentencings. It appears to be the case that SADO is taking state tax dollars to get prisoners to take plea deals. Those deals involve giving up any right to appeal, an admission of guilt even though the juvenile lifer may have a claim of innocence, and giving up all right to the use of “good time” credits.
Lewis’ previous attorneys, employed by Foley & Lardner, had actually begun interviewing his alibi witnesses from the band, who had never testified at his trials. LaBelle had retained Foley & Lardner for Lewis on a pro bono basis. But a new Foley & Lardner attorney, Felicia O’Connor, announced their withdrawal from the case later on. Assistant Prosecutor Jason Williams told the court at the time that Chief Criminal Judge Timothy Kenny was appointing attorneys from SADO to handle juvenile lifer cases in Wayne County.
KINCHELOE, MI – More than two weeks after prisoners at Kinross Correctional Facility participated in a nationwide prison workers’ strike, the prisoners’ own accounts of what happened are beginning to emerge. Prisoners report that the facility was on lockdown from September 10 to the morning of September 22, preventing communication with their outside supporters.
Most prisoners, including kitchen staff, did not report for work on September 9 in conjunction with the nationwide work stoppage [in remembrance of the historic Attica rebellion in 1971.] The following morning, between 400 and 500 prisoners marched peacefully in the yard.
Slop for dinner at Kinross Prison
The deputy wardens came to the prisoners, who communicated their grievances, including low wages, the commutation process , restrictive visitation room seating in violation of MDOC policy, high phone rates, poor quality and quantity of food provided by private contractor Trinity Services Group, the way the yard is run, living conditions that squeeze eight men into a room intended for four, no re-entry programs, no bleach for clothes, MP3 players that break easily and cannot be fixed or replaced, not enough room in the law library, not enough room in the visiting room and so some visitors are turned away, and not being allowed to transfer to other facilities.
Prisoners also demanded no retaliation for their peaceful protest, and according to prisoners, the deputy wardens agreed to address the grievances or communicate them to the legislature if necessary. The prisoners thought they had come to a common agreement and began to disperse.
To their surprise, as soon as the deputy warden left, a tactical team stormed into the yard with guns, rifles, tear gas, and shields. The armed officers then started grabbing the men alleged to be instigators, handcuffed their arms behind their backs with zip ties, and threw the men to the ground in the yard. They were left for five to six hours in the rain, and were not permitted to use restrooms during that time, forcing some to soil themselves.
Kinross prisoners teargassed.
The violent assault of the armed officers triggered panic among the prisoners, who feared for their lives. Some reported being shot at directly with tear gas canisters. Others attempted to barricade their unit doors. Reportedly, fires were set in several units, at least one window was broken, and sinks and surveillance cameras were damaged after the officers began their assault. Media reports have focused on who was to blame for the damage to physical property, not the violence done to prisoners in violation of their human rights.
Evelyn Williams, a family member of a prisoner, said, “It’s a very racist facility, where they intimidate and harass prisoners on a daily basis. The men just wanted the broken policies to be fixed. They’re treated like animals, with no respect and no justice. They can’t even afford to buy soap on their wages.”
About 150 prisoners accused of being instigators were transferred to other facilities, where an unknown number were charged with inciting a riot and punished with isolation. Prisoners report that some punished had nothing to do with the protest. In violation of MDOC policy, guards destroyed the property of the accused prisoners and encouraged other prisoners to steal their personal food.
MEDIA AVAILABILITY: Prisoners, family members, former prisoners, and local organizers are available for interviews with local and national media.’
“With the average life expectancy of a juvenile serving life without parole at 50.6 years, 40 and 60-yr. sentences are virtual life sentences”–John O’Hair
State statutes bar use of “good time” credits when re-sentencing juvenile lifers; many would be released immediately otherwise
SADO ignores Retired Judges Assn., former Wayne Co. Prosecutor O’Hair, others condemning state statutes; forges ahead with plea bargaining, not Miller mitigation hearings
Charles Lewis’ motion: “The defendant asks this court to be guided by the U.S. Supreme Court, because the proponent before this Court is not the defendant but the U.S. Constitution,” citing USSC Chessman v. Teets ruling on death penalty case where trial transcripts were corrupted
Lewis expected to be present in person at Oct. 11 hearing in front of Judge Lillard
By Diane Bukowski
October 7, 2016
Charles Lewis at 17, after unjust conviction
Lewis now: at 58: “I have grown old in prison.”
DETROIT – As an October 11 hearing date for Charles Lewis approaches, it is becoming clear that the state of Michigan, county prosecutors, and many defense attorneys are conspiring to keep most of the state’s juvenile lifers locked up until they die.
This is despite two U.S. Supreme Court decisions, Miller v. Alabama (2012), and Montgomery v. Louisiana (2016),which declared juvenile life without parole unconstitutional, “cruel and unusual punishment,” to be applied only to the “rarest” of children.
Lewis, now 58, is one of 63 juvenile lifers that Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy still wants to die in prison, the highest actual number of any county in the state. He has already served 41 years, on murder charges he has always maintained are false.
Lewis filed a motion with Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Qiana Lillard to dismiss his case, due to multiple constitutional violations including the complete loss of any record of his conviction. He wants it to be heard at his Oct. 11 hearing, scheduled for 9 a.m. in courtroom #502 of the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice.
Judge Lillard said on the record at his last hearing Sept. 6 that she would “writ him out” to be present and to spend one hour meeting with attorney Valerie Newman prior to the hearing.
In Lewis’ motion, he says in part, “The United States Supreme Court said in Chessman that the proponent before the Court was the Constitution of the United States, not the petitioner. The defendant asks this court to be guided by the United States Supreme Court, because the proponent before this Court is not the defendant but the United States Constitution.”
In Chessman, the USSC vacated the conviction of a prisoner facing a death sentence because of the loss of the original transcripts of much of his trial. The stenographer died leaving hundreds of pages untranscribed. Chessman contended the transcripts produced by another stenographer were corrupted.(See link to ruling at end of story.)
Lewis says he is being held unlawfully without any sentence in violation of due process of law under the Sixth and Fourteen Amendments.
The U.S. Supreme Court specifically vacated his conviction and sentence after its Montgomery decision this year, which declared juvenile life without parole unconstitutional on a retroactive basis. It then remanded Lewis’ case, along with others, to the Michigan Supreme Court, which again vacated his sentence pending a hearing under the Miller decision.
However, Lewis says, such a hearing cannot be held without his case file. He cites part of the Miller decision as follows:
“Mandatory life without parole for a juvenile precludes consideration of his chronological age and its hallmark features–among them, immaturity, impetuosity and failure to appreciate risks and consequences. . . .It neglects the circumstances of the homicide offense and the extent of his participation in the conduct . . . .Indeed, it ignores that he might have been charged convicted of a lesser offense if not for the incompetencies associated with youth.”
Even Michigan’s 2014 state statute regarding re-sentencing hearings, MCL 725.6, says that evidence from an individual’s trial may be produced on his behalf.
Witness Dennis Van Fleteren currently lives in outstate Michigan.
In Lewis’ case, six witnesses at the scene of the 1975 killing of off-duty police officer Gerald Swypitowski, including SwAypitowski’s partner Dennis Van Fleteren, testified for the prosecutor that the shots that killed Swypitowski came from a white Lincoln Mark IV.
Van Fleteren copied its license plate number and the driver, Leslie Nathanial, was arrested, but inexplicably later released after denying his involvement. A co-worker told VOD that Nathanial was a bookie at the plant where they worked.
The witnesses also said they saw no other vehicles or individuals in the area at the time of the killing, despite contradictory testimony from three minors police had evidently recruited, who claimed they and Lewis drove a yellow Ford Gran Torino to rob Swypitowski.
On cross-exam, Lewis’ defense attorney was able to pin down the first group of witnesses’ testimony more firmly by quoting from reports that they gave police after the killing, which indicated they did indeed hear a gunshot and saw a shotgun blast coming out of the Mark IV.
The defense attorney also got the medical examiner to refute police claims that Swypitowski was shot from a distance of two feet, instead indicating that he could have been shot from as far away as seven feet, consistent with the first witnesses’ testimony that it was a drive-by shooting. (VOD has reviewed a copy of the first transcript of this trial that was retained by a Lewis relative.)
Alibi witness Chuck Morgan told VOD that Charles Lewis was with him and his band “Pure Pleasure” at the UAW Local 212 hall at the time of the alleged crime.
In violation of state law, the only record of Lewis’ case is a file folder kept by Judge Lillard with scattered documents inside. VOD obtained a copy of the motion from Lillard’s office and unsuccessfully attempted to get it properly recorded with the County Clerk’s Criminal Division.
Lewis says he cannot file his motions with that Clerk’s office because they have no file on him, despite the fact that they maintain a falsified Register of Actions on his case, listing only events from his alleged conviction in 2000 to the present. Lewis was actually convicted in 1977 and had multiple post-conviction and appeal hearings after that, none of which are in his record. See a full copy of his motion at http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/CLmotion.pdf
VOD has contacted Wayne County Clerk Cathy Garrett and scheduled a meeting with her regarding such gross abuse of criminal court records in this and other cases. It is the County Clerk’s responsibility to oversee and ensure the safety and veracity of court files, not the individual judge’s.
Judge Qiana Lillard was removed from trial by Chief Criminal Judge Timothy Kenny due to alleged bias.
In Judge Lillard’s case, her objectivity has been questioned before. Wayne County Criminal Court Chief Judge Timothy Kenny removed her earlier from the Theodore Wafer case after defense attorneys contended she had been a prosecutor and maintained close ties with Prosecutor Kym Worthy and others in her office through Facebook contacts and other means.
Wafer was later convicted by Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Dana Hathaway of second-degree murder in the case of Detroiter Renisha McBride, 19, who he shot to death on his front porch without cause after unlocking and opening a solid door.
Lillard’s staff denied she is a niece of Kym Worthy, as several individuals have alleged, but she would not come to the phone to deny it herself.
SADO attorney Valerie Newman is in charge of its juvenile lifer re-sentencing unit.
Valerie Newman of the State Appellate Defenders’ Office (SADO) earlier refused to file a motion to dismiss Lewis’ case, instead plea bargaining for a 40-60 year sentence, as SADO appears to be doing for the majority of its juvenile lifer clients. This is despite the fact that state statutes regarding juvenile lifer re-sentencing specifically exclude the use of a prisoner’s “good time” credits, which could let many go free immediately.
Dawn Van Hoek, SADO’s director, has once again not responded to VOD’s phone call and email regarding SADO’s stance in handling juvenile lifer re-sentencings.
Newman has also not addressed Lewis’ innocence claim, refusing to call “alibi witnesses” who never testified at his trial, a factor cited in a Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals remand of his case. Such innocence claims are a prime issue in juvenile lifer cases, because many such individuals had no access to paid attorneys and were not familiar with legal processes.
Re-sentenced juvenile lifer John Hall, 67
John Hall, 67, the juvenile lifer featured in a Detroit Free Press article on his re-sentencing (see link below), was forced to admit his guilt although it was questionable, forego all right to appeal, and apologize to the alleged victims, according to an informed source, in order to be re-sentenced to 40-60 years after already serving 50 years. Michigan’s Parole Board generally requires an admission of guilt before paroling prisoners as well.
“With the average life expectancy of a juvenile serving life without parole at 50.6 years, 40 and 60-year sentences are virtual life sentences,” former Wayne County Prosecutor and circuit judge John O’Hair said in an article published Sept. 22. (See box above).
O’Hair called for the federal government to step in to remedy Michigan’s position, which distinguishes it as a rogue state. He noted that many county prosecutors have re-recommended life without parole for 100 percent of their juvenile lifers, relying heavily on statutes passed by the state legislature in 2014, unlike 38 other states which have banned JLWOP completely.
Former Wayne Co. Prosecutor and judge John O’Hair
“Our Legislature amended the juvenile sentencing statute to ostensibly follow Miller,” O’Hair wrote. “The statute retained the ability to impose a life without parole sentence and allowed the courts to impose a minimum sentence of 25 to 40 years, and a maximum sentence of 60 years. With the average life expectancy of a juvenile serving life without parole at 50.6 years, 40 and 60-year sentences are virtual life sentences.”
Attorney Deborah LaBelle told VOD, “It is a terrible mistake for Michigan to keep going down this path, when that sentence is on its way out. Thirty-nine states have now abolished it for all youth or haven’t used it for anyone under 18.”
LaBelle’s federal case, Hill v. Snyder, is still being argued before U.S. District Court Judge John Corbett O’Meara, who ruled in 2013 that all Michigan’s juvenile lifers are eligible for parole. The state appealed, but lost at the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, which remanded the case to O’Meara. Human Rights Watch cited this case in an amicus brief filed with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in 2014.
“The United States is alone in the world in its widespread use of life-without-parole sentences for children, and these sentences are a direct consequence of its practice of prosecuting children as adults,” said Alba Morales, US criminal justice researcher at Human Rights Watch,” a release from Human Rights Watch said.
LaBelle said the next hearing on Hill v. Snyder will take place in O’Meara’s court in Ann Arbor on Nov. 3, 2016 at 10 a.m.
Retired Judge Peter E. Deegan/Photo Port Huron TimesHerald
VOD spoke with Retired Judge Peter E. Deegan, Vice-President of the Michigan Retired Judges Association, who said O’Hair proposed the resolution they passed Sept. 22 at the State Bar Association of Michigan’s Annual Meeting in Grand Rapids.
“Several of us felt very passionately about this issue,” Judge Deegan said.”As retired judges with the wisdom gained from years of experience, we are very careful to pick out issues that are relevant and will be beneficial to criminal justice in our courts. This was a desperately needed conversation with Miller when it first came down. We felt that our voices needed to be heard. The conversation is developing. Hopefully it will get to reflect where we should be now in America and how we should treat our youth.”
Judge Deegan read the resolution to VOD over the phone.
It says in part, “. . . . for almost a year the state of Michigan has employed a failed re-sentencing process, placing a heavy burden on the funds and human resources of state and local units of governments and often requiring victims’ families to revisit [painful past memories.]” It calls on Michigan to forego the resentencing process and replace it with a declaration of parole eligibility for all juvenile lifers, as 38 other states have done.
Former Michigan Gov. William Milliken, now 90.
The full resolution is linked below this story. Judge Deegan has himself written passionate articles for the Port Huron Times-Herald on this matter, also linked below.
Former Michigan Gov. William Milliken also wrote an article denouncing juvenile life without parole sentences, linked below. He said in part that the following organizations have also passed anti-JLWOP resolutions: the American Probation and Parole Association, American Correctional Association, National Association of Counties, National PTA, American Bar Association, American Psychological Association, Boys Scouts of America, Council of Juvenile Correctional Administrators, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, General Synod of the United Church in Christ, Jesuit Conference, Muslim Public Affairs Council, Union for Reform Judaism, United Methodist Church General Board
Michigan Parole Board chair Michael C. Eagen
VOD asked Holly Kramer, the press representative for Michigan’s Parole Board, about the board’s stance regarding re-sentenced juvenile lifers.
VOD asked in part whether the board has received training in the Miller and Montgomery cases, met to establish specialized procedures for these individuals, or plans to expedite their hearings.
VOD also asked, “Is anything being done to speed up programming for release of these offenders while in prison so their parole is not delayed, considering they have been serving sentences that have been declared unconstitutional on a retroactive basis? Some of these juvenile lifers are in fact innocent, due to their financial inability to retain their own attorneys, their lack of knowledge of the judicial system, and to other factors. Will declarations of innocence be held against them by the parole board?”
Although these questions were emailed two days ago, Kramer stated there were technical difficulties in received repeated copies. She gave the following statement on behalf of the parole board, which skirts the issues involved entirely.
“The Parole Board has significant experience in reviewing a wide variety of cases, including those of youthful offenders that were sentenced to long indeterminate sentences. While some of these juvenile lifer offenders might be newly eligible for parole, the types of cases are not new to the board in terms of handling them.”
Former Michigan Gov. John Engler
Apparently the real answer to VOD’s questions is that newly sentenced juvenile lifers would not be treated differently than anyone else.
That is not good news for them, since many prisoners experience repeated “flops” from the parole board. Since its conversion from a civil service entity to a board appointed by the governor under former Michigan Governor John Engler, the parole board has released fewer and fewer prisoners every year. Many are serving time far beyond their earliest release date.
S0-called “parolable lifers,” such as John Alexander used to be paroled beginning after 10-15 years, but Engler’s appointed parole board head Stephen Marschke declared, “Life means life.” Alexander has now spent 35 years in prison and is awaiting his next parole hearing. A class action lawsuit filed for the parolable lifers earlier eventually petered out. A few such as Kenneth Foster-Bey have finally been released far beyond the times their judges expected them to serve, indicating the continuing recalcitrance of Michigan’s parole board.
In Alexander’s case, his sentencing Judge, Michael Sapala, said he expected Alexander to be released with evidence of rehabilitation after 10 years. But Alexander has been behind bars for 36 years, despite obtaining a doctoral degree in theology, teaching ant-recidivism classes to prisoners, accumulating numerous work-related certificates, and maintaining his long-time marriage, among other accomplishments.
The Michigan Citizens Alliance on Prisons and Public Spending reported in 2013, “The proportion of paroles granted declined from 68% in 1990 to 48% in 2002. In 2010, it was 56%. At the end of 2010, a total of 9,322 prisoners were past their earliest release date. Nearly 1,200 people were required to “max out.”
Michigan’s current budget calls for over $2 billion to be spent on prisons. A report from the U.S. Department of Education said that from 1979 to 2013, Michigan increased spending on schools by 18%. During that same time period, the state increased spending on corrections by 219%.
Freedom Rider: Dump the Democrats for Good
The Black people who didn’t return to the polls shouldn’t be blamed either. Those individuals must have personal introspection that is meaningful and political. Their lack of enthusiasm speaks to Democratic Party and Black misleadership incompetence. We should refrain from personal blame and help one another in this process as we fight for justice and peace.
DETROIT – Should Charles Lewis, 58, in prison for 41 years, have his conviction and sentence of life without parole vacated due to the loss of his entire official court file, as he has asked in his court motion, which cites U.S. Supreme Court and Michigan court precedents with that outcome?
Lewis has a copy of a court order signed by then Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Gershwin Drain dismissing his case on April 3, 2000, which an MDOC worker gave him ten years after it was issued.
Regarding the video above, the Michigan Supreme Court upheld the “common-law right to resist unlawful arrests or other invasions of private rights,” in “People v. Moreno,” 2012. Read 
This past weekend the elections tragically came down to voting for either a “sexist predator” or a “drone predator.” A racist buffoon or a war hawk. A misogynist, corrupt idiot or a corrupt Wall Street lackey. A billionaire rogue thief or a billionaire establishment thief.
Trump’s comments amount to coarse verbal sexual assaults and to the gross objectification of women. Trump believes women are his property, second-class citizens that he can say or do anything to that he wants. His words then and his demeanor now speak volumes about unbridled white, straight, male privilege.
Lewis filed a motion with Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Qiana Lillard to dismiss his case, due to multiple constitutional violations including the complete loss of any record of his conviction. He wants it to be heard at his Oct. 11 hearing, scheduled for 9 a.m. in courtroom #502 of the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice.
In Alexander’s case,
The Michigan Citizens Alliance on Prisons and Public Spending reported in 2013, “The proportion of paroles granted declined from 68% in 1990 to 48% in 2002. In 2010, it was 56%. At the end of 2010, a total of 9,322 prisoners were past their earliest release date. Nearly 1,200 people were required to “max out.”
