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

JUDGE DISMISSES $30M MEDICAL MALPRACTICE SETTLEMENT FOR BLACK MOTHER, CHILD FOR $275,000

Posted on 06/08/2016 by Diane Bukowski

Lennette Williams, with daughter Mailauni at her right, listen as Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton speaks. Photo: Portland Press Herald

Lennette and Mailauni Williams (Rosa Parks’ godchild) targeted in agreement between Henry Ford Health Systems, Trustee Walter Sakowski

Probate Court Judge Terrance Keith to hold hearing Wed. June 8 2pm

Former Probate Court Chief Judge Milton Mack forced Williams into court despite earlier official’s advice that she could handle her own money

Trustee Walter Sakowski, dozens of others stripped estate with exorbitant fees, feasting off the suffering of a child afflicted with cerebral palsy

HFHS: “No comment” on whether it discriminates against patients of color

By Diane Bukowski

June 7, 2016

Arnetta Grable (center) and Cornell Squires (top right) have been some of the strongest supporters of Lennette and Mailauni Williams (at left). This photo is from an earlier hearing on police brutality. Williams has kept her daughter active in such events all her life.

Arnetta Grable (center) and Cornell Squires (top right) have been some of the strongest supporters of Mailauni and Lennette Williams (at left). Photo is from an earlier hearing on police brutality. Williams has kept her daughter active in such events all her life.

DETROIT – A $30 million settlement between Henry Ford Hospital and Lennette Williams, negotiated in 1984 to compensate her and her daughter Mailauni for gross negligence in the child’s 1981 birth, was slashed to $275,000 during a court hearing May 25 in front of Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Muriel Hughes.

Attorneys for Henry Ford Health Systems and Walter Sakowski, Trustee for the questionably legal “Mailauni R. Williams Irrevocable Trust,” agreed to the judgment. Attorney Lee Stevens of the Bier Howlett law firm sent a notice of the “settlement” to Williams to have her sign, then called her and retracted his request, saying her signature was not needed. (See http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Williamssettlementproposal.pdf.)

A separate hearing in Probate Court in front of Judge Terrance Keith is set for tomorrow, Wed. May 8 at 2 p.m., during which Keith will decide how to divvy up the remaining pickings.

Mailauni suffers from severe cerebral palsy and brain damage. Her mother is unable to work a steady job due to permanent damage to her back and stomach. In 1981, HFH doctors refused at first to admit Williams, then refused to perform a Caeserean section, instead filling her full of drugs for 36 hours before Mailauni’s birth.

Judge Muriel Hughes

Judge Terrance Keith

“I have more respect for a common thief who holds you up in the alley with a gun or a knife than I have for these racist maggots that target you in Probate Court,” said Williams, who is Black.

She has battled judges, lawyers, trustees, guardians, and police for decades, often acting pro se in court, fighting for the right to live peacefully with her daughter in their Grosse Pointe Farms home on the settlement proceeds, without having to beg for every penny of their money from various trustees.

Throughout their battles, Williams has received support from the Rosa and Raymond Parks estate, because Rosa Parks considered Mailauni her godchild, and from activists like Arnetta Grable of the Original Coalition Against Police Brutality and Cornell Squires of We the People for the People.

Officers of Wayne County Probate Bar Association including Walter Sakowski in white shirt)

Wayne County Probate Bar Association leaders including Walter Sakowski (in white shirt) and Probate Chief Judge Milton Mack (r).

Former Probate Court Chief Judge Milton Mack decided early on that a Black woman could not handle her own money, contradicting an opinion in 1986 from Mailauni’s guardian at litem (GAL) that Williams was perfectly capable of doing so.

The GAL recommended that the matter be left out of probate. Instead, probate judges, trustees, guardians and other court-appointed officials have raped the Williams estate for decades.

(To see the many dozens of times Williams has been subjected to demeaning hearings in on just one of three tracks in Probate Court, click on http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Mailauni-Williams-Trust-Probate-Court-Register.pdf.)

Williams compared her situation with that of the Grosse Pointe South High School students who published a racist video calling for the re-enslavement of Black people, but were punished with a simple suspension from school instead of arrest for a hate crime. (See part of video below.)

“The Grosse Pointe cops kicked my door down trying to take Mailauni, and Probate Judge Kathryn George sent me to jail for two weeks for contempt after I tried to speak out in her court in 2014,” Williams recalled. She said the Grosse Pointe community has represented nothing but “racism run amok” for her family, peppering them with racist hate letters and remarks. The City Council has agreed to repair the door the police broke down only if Williams does not sue.

Lennette Williams’ door after Grosse Pointe Farms police kicked it in.

The scene in the courtroom May 25 was no different. Walter Sakowski, trustee for the Mailauni R. Williams Irrevocable Trust, established without Williams’ consent in 1999, attorneys for Henry Ford Health System, and Judge Hughes are all white.

Sakowski testified cheerfully that he and HFHS had reached agreement on the $275,000, and said he would draft an order for Judge Hughes to sign.

“This agreement was not written with my consent,” Williams told Hughes, who responded that she had no say in the matter since she was not the Trustee or party to the trust.

“I’ve been trying to correct that in Probate Court for years,” Williams said. “But the judges, attorneys and guardians have been prejudiced and biased. They’ve conducted numerous ex parte proceedings. They set up the trust that way even though Henry Ford and everyone else knows there was no separation of moneys between me and my daughter in the original settlement.”

Mailauni Williams’ high school graduation portrait.

She told Judge Hughes she planned to bring litigation challenging the violation of the 1984 settlement by an illegal Trust and by Henry Ford Hospital. Probate Court Judge Keith commended her skills in the litigation she has filed pro se throughout the years, during a hearing Oct. 24, 2014. He also said he had reviewed medical records indicating that Mailauni was expected to survive no longer than two and one half years after her birth.

Mailauni will celebrate her 35^th birthday during the Christmas holidays this year, proving, Keith said, that “True love never fails against the greatest obstacles.”

Williams said at that hearing, “I love my daughter and have always taken care of her. I need my daughter and she needs me. I would die for my daughter. She is my hero. There are those who thought the hospital settlement was too much for people of color.”

She added, “I used to take her to the doctor, and he told me I did not have an M.D. But I have something better called love. God was working through me. Mailauni walked at 5, and danced to the music of Michael Jackson.” Mailauni later graduated from Grosse Pointe High School, as attested to by her graduation portrait which Williams proudly displays on the mantel of their living room fireplace.

Throughout hearings in Probate Court, Sakowski and other Trustees have claimed that the bankruptcy of Executive Life Insurance Company in New York, declared in 2012, is responsible for the reduction in funds available for the Williams estate. (See http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Executive-Life-Insurance-Company-Wikipedia.pdf.)

Defendants including judges, attorneys, trustees, court clerks and others who Williams says have ravaged original settlement, in affidavit with ELNY bankruptcy case.

Affidavit with ELNY bankruptcy case includes judges, attorneys, trustees, court clerks and others who Williams says have ravaged original settlement.

Strangely though, during the 2014 hearing, Sakowski said that under the bankruptcy ruling, there remained $869,000 in the Williams estate. Keith ordered that amount to be rendered forthwith so that Williams could provide needed repairs for her home, repairs that she had begged Sakowski and others for decades. Those repairs, including provision of a stove and refrigerator, have yet to be done.

Where did the other $594,000 go?

VOD contacted Henry Ford Health System spokesperson David Olejarz about the case, and put the following questions to him:

“Why cannot HFHS, with about $5 billion in assets, honor the original 1984 structured settlement agreement despite the bankruptcy of Executive Life of New York?

There has certainly been a lifetime of pain and suffering inflicted on this mother and daughter. Mailauni is now 34, and the settlement was structured with an assumption of a life expectancy for her of 73. How does HFHS expect she and her mother, who cannot work, to survive on $275,000 for the rest of their lives?”

Henry Ford Health Systems has at least $5 billion in assets.

VOD also asked how HFHS was handling any other such structured settlement insured by ELNY, and requested that HFHS specify the race of the patients involved.

“Does HFHS discriminate against its patients of color?” VOD concluded.

HFHS’ response through Olejarz: “Under a non-disclosure agreement, the parties are ordered by the court not to discuss the disposition of this case. We are honoring the court order.” Judge Hughes issued no such gag order during the May 25 hearing. Olejarz likely referred to an order issued in 1984 after the original settlement was reached.

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/10/24/rosa-parks-godchild-mailauni-williams-found-judge-george-guardian-rowan-removed-from-case/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/07/21/amber-alert-rosa-parks-godchild-mailauni-williams-missing-judge-kathryn-george-loots-estate-bars-mortgage-payments-on-her-home/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/06/16/shady-probate-judge-kathryn-george-jails-mom-seizes-daughter-and-estate/

http://www.metrotimes.com/detroit/mother-and-child-rebellion/Content?oid=2174098

#JusticeforLennetteandMailauni, #StopProbateCourtgrandtheft, #Saveourchildren, #Endracism, #Blackhomesmatter, #Beatbackthebullies

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged #Beatbackthebullies, #BlackHomesMatter, #Endracism, #JusticeforLennetteandMailauni, #saveourchildren, #StopProbateCourtgrandtheft | Leave a comment

CHILD KILLERS, CORRUPT AND KILLER COPS, AND KYM WORTHY

Posted on 06/04/2016 by Diane Bukowski

Grief for Deontae Mitchell, 13, and other Detroit children and babies dead in recent shooting sprees

BUT:

What about Lamar Grable, 20, Rodrick Carrington, and Darren Mitchell, killed by Detroit cop Eugene Brown, just sighted roaming free at the Belle Isle Grand Prix? Worthy refused to charge him despite internal report.

What about Aiyana Jones, 7, killed by Detroit police military task force? Shooter Joseph Weekley freed with Worthy’s collusion.

What about Terrance Kellom, 19, killed by police task force last year in father’s home? Worthy refused to charge cops despite evidence.

What about Davontae Sanford, framed at the age of 14 by Detroit cops and prosecutors? Will Prosecutor Worthy free him after 9 years in prison?

What about Kevin Matthews, 19, unarmed, killed by still unidentified white Dearborn cop in Detroit Dec. 23? Will Worthy charge him or Dearborn cops who killed Black Detroiter Janet White a month later?

What about 167 Wayne County juvenile lifers whose sentences Worthy has previously endorsed?

VOD Editorial

June 4, 2016

From report on Detroit’s Channel 7 News.

DETROIT – Hearts across Detroit are broken and grieving after news of the brutal kidnapping and death of Deontae Mitchell, 13, allegedly at the hands of a man or men old enough to be his father or grandfather.

The staff of VOD extends our deepest sympathy to Deontae’s family, friends and neighbors, and the children of Detroit, who have the absolute right to be protected by adults.

In recent months, children and babies have died in a rash of shooting sprees across the city’s poor neighborhoods. Similar violence is occurring in Chicago and other largely poor, Black and Latino cities across the U.S.

“The story of Deontae being senselessly killed over such a small amount of money is one that’s going to stay with us a long time, and I want Deontae’s family to know that this whole city is grieving with them,” Detroit “mayor” Mike Duggan said at a press conference. “When you lose a child in this community, it leaves a hole in the family, it leaves a hole in the neighborhood, it leaves a hole in their school. . . Officers said they’ve never seen anything like it. They had more than half a dozen individuals call with very valuable information.”

Wayne Co. Prosecutor Kym Worthy/Photo Detroit Free Press

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy’s office announced today that she has charged Earnest Coleman, 26, of Detroit, with kidnapping Deontae, aided by others.

“The alleged facts in this case explicitly show that the lives of some of Detroit’s children continue to be less important than everything else‎ – in this case a few dollars dropped from a pocket,” Worthy said in the release. “May we all reexamine the worth of our children, and we in the criminal justice system will handle the senseless murder of Deontae.”

Whether Worthy, Craig or Duggan actually care about the lives of Detroit’s children, 59 percent of whom live in poverty, children who have watched as their schools and homes across the city are demolished with the blessings of city, county and state officials, children who are disproportionately sent to prison, is highly questionable.

BEWARE! Eugene Brown loose at Grand Prix

On June 3, an aunt of Lamar Grable, 20 when he was shot to death eight times by three-time killer cop Eugene Brown in 1996, spotted Brown on Belle Isle June 3 at the Grand Prix, with a name badge, evidently working in some official capacity.

She said she told him, “You’re the one who killed my nephew!” and that he asked her, “Who was that?” He might well have asked, since he also killed Rodrick Carrington in 1995 and Darren Miller in 1999. After the public disclosure of an internal police document recommending charges be brought against Brown for those killings, Worthy’s office refused again to charge him after Arnetta Grable and other family members of Brown’s victims met with her representatives.

Rodrick Carrington, Lamar Grable, Darren Miller, killed by cop Eugene Brown who was never charged.

Last year, Worthy refused to charge a federal agent and numerous Detroit police who invaded the father’s home of Terrance Kellom, 19, and shot him to death 8 times, once in the back. Police claimed he threatened them with a hammer, but Worthy reported at a press conference that his fingerprints were not found on the hammer.

Kellom leaves behind two very young children who will now have to grow up without the protection of their father in a world where children are killed for no sane reason.

Terrance Kellom, 19, and son

Aiyana Jones, 7

Worthy conspired with the defense and with Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Cynthia Gray Hathaway to get Detroit cop Joseph Weekley, Jr. off in the May 16, 2010 death of Aiyana Jones, 7, during a military-style police raid on her home.

Weekley fired the shot, heard round the world, that killed Aiyana, into the top of her head within seconds after entering her home, using an MP-5 submachine gun. Against regulations, he had the safety off and his finger on the trigger.

“They came to kill,” Aiyana’s grieving grandmother Mertilla Jones, who was sleeping on a front room couch with her favorite grandchild and witnessed the murder, told VOD.

Davontae Sanford, 14

Davontae Sanford, 22

As Worthy considers issuing warrants in 13-year-0ld Deontae Mitchell’s case, she is also reviewing the results of a report from the Michigan State Police on the case of Davontae Sanford, 14 when he was falsely charged with killing four adults in an alleged drug house on Runyon Street.

The actual killer, admitted hit man Vincent Smothers, confessed to the police, to his attorney, and to Associated Press writer Ed White, that he and an associate killed the four people. He said he did not know Davontae and would never have used a 14-year-old child to aid him in a drug hit.

Craig said now that the Detroit police will re-investigate the case before Worthy decides whether to charge Smothers and his accomplice. Whether Worthy will admit error and withdraw the charges against Davontae remains to be seen, as she has claimed that he could have aided and abetted in the killing.

Taminko Sanford-Tilmon with family and friends of Davontae at prayer breakfast in Feb. 2016.

Taminko Sanford-Tilmon, mother of Davontae, with family and friends of Davontae at prayer breakfast in Feb. 2016.

Meanwhile, Davontae has become an adult in prison in the most brutal conditions, even experiencing torture at the hands of prison guards. He is now 22 years old.

Even the Detroit News editorial board just called on Worthy to free Sanford, declaring in part, “Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy should be standing at the courthouse door to apologize to Davontae Sanford when he walks in to resume his request for a new trial for a murder that by now Worthy and everyone else must know he didn’t commit. Standing next to her should be Detroit Police Chief James Craig to ask for forgiveness on behalf of the police department for its role in framing Sanford in the 2007 slayings.”

But Paralegal Roberto Guzman went further, calling on Worthy to use the prosecutor’s option of admitting error, and free Davontae immediately. He said the additional DPD investigation may only prolong the excruciating process for Davontae and his family.

Some of hundreds of protesters condemn justice system outside home where Terrance Kellom was killed. Photo: Kenneth Snodgrass

“The American justice system is supposed to be better than a wretched process that allows the innocent to be railroaded through the arsenal by a corrupt cop that betrays the trust of a 14 year old mentally challenged kid,” Guzman said.

“It is supposed to be more than just labels about ‘innocent until proven guilty, ‘due process of law, and ‘a fair trial.’ If those terms are to have any meaning, then we should not allow a system as arbitrary and capricious as this that would frame a 14 year old kid into a bogus confession and then — to make matters worse — ignore post-conviction evidence of his innocence. That is indeed the worst crime, for it is the most egregious offense to all notions of due process of law.”

Worthy has also just received a request for a warrant in the death of unarmed, mentally challenged Detroiter Kevin Matthews on Christmas Eve last year, at the hands of a white Dearborn cop who chased him from Dearborn into Detroit. Ominously, that cop remains unidentified.

Kevin Matthews: Hands up, don’t shoot!

“The Detroit Police Department recently wrapped up its investigation of the Dec. 23 shooting of Kevin Matthews and it is now up to Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy to decide whether the shooting was justified,” The Dearborn Press and Guide reported June 1. . . “It is not known how long it will be before a decision is released.”

Earlier, Kevin Matthews’ family and attorney Milton Greenman released the results of a private autopsy by Dr. Bader J. Cassin which they said showed the cop’s culpability.

“Death was caused by multiple gunshot wounds. At least six bullets struck the body, one from very close range, and all coursed right-to-left and in an upward trajectory. Some of the wound paths were sharply upward.”

The Free Press reported that Greenman said there autopsy showed “evidence of intent” due to the multiple wounds.

The family of Kevin Matthews: l to r brother, mother, sisters Kimberly and Karen/Photo Kimberly Matthews FB

The family of Kevin Matthews: l to r brother Lavell, mother Valerie Johnson, sisters Kimberly and Karen with nephews /Photo Kimberly Matthews FB

Matthews’ sister Kimberly Matthews reported on Facebook that she and her mother met with Craig and his department heads April 26, who apologized for taking so long to do so. She said they seemed sincere, but in response to a comment, she added, “I felt from the meeting that they were just trying to pacify us….because we been marching….it is taking way too long.”

The Wayne County Medical Examiner’s office has not released results of its official autopsy of Kevin Matthews, nor that of Janet Wilson, a young Black Detroit woman shot to death by multiple Dearborn cops after leaving Fairlane Mall Jan. 27, despite requests by VOD. Worthy likewise earlier halted the release of Terrance Kellom’s autopsy, only to let his killers go free. There has also been no word from her office, which has jurisdiction over Dearborn, on whether anyone will be charged in Wilson’s death.

Janet Wilson, killed by Dearborn cops Jan. 28, 2016

Worthy HAS made repeated statements at Michigan Legislative hearings opposing any remedy for 147 Wayne County children sent to die in prison, a/k/a juvenile life without parole (JLWOP). After two U.S. Supreme Court decisions declaring JLWOP unconstitutional, she still has not retracted those statements.

Neither Detroit “mayor” Mike Duggan nor Police Chief James Craig, or previous mayors or police chiefs, ever made public statements about the deaths listed above, except for that of Lamar Grable. Previous Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer congratulated Eugene Brown, who had been part of his protection squad, for wearing a bulletproof vest during the shooting, and gave him an award for the unarmed young man’s brutal death. During a hard-fought civil trial years later, Brown finally admitted that he “may have” executed Grable by shooting him three times in the chest as he lay on the ground.

Both the Michigan Appeals and Supreme Courts denied the city’s appeal of a $4 million jury verdict in Grable’s death, citing that statement.

During her tenure, Worthy has refused to charge dozens of Detroit cops previously for clearly “unjustifiable” homicides, reported on by this writer in the pages of the now defunct Michigan Citizen and Voice of Detroit.

Families of killer cop Eugene Brown’s victims and members of Original Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality demand Kym Worthy charge Brown after release of “Shoulders Report.”

Related: (Stories from VOD cited below on the cases above are only a sampling of VOD’s coverage. To see more, put the names of those killed or framed by police into our search engine.)

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/opinion/editorials/2016/05/27/editorial-kym-worthy-must-free-man-wrongly-jailed/85018864/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2016/01/06/boycott-dearborn-charge-white-cop-who-executed-detroits-kevin-matthews-unarmed-harmless/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2015/12/25/family-mourns-detroits-kevin-matthews-killed-by-white-dearborn-cop-natl-march-jan-4-2016/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2016/02/04/dearborn-cops-kym-worthy-target-police-victim-terrance-kelloms-stepmom-hearing-fri-feb-5/ (includes information on Janet Wilson)

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2015/08/21/no-justice-for-young-detroit-dad-terrance-kellom-worthy-refuses-to-prosecute-killer-cops-again/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2015/04/19/davontae-sanford-moves-giant-step-closer-to-freedom-as-innocence-clinics-come-to-his-aid/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/10/02/weekley-shot-aiyana-instantly-gun-at-head-grandmother-says-weekley-grabbed-raid-sgt-s-gun-after-shooting/

#JailKillerCops, #JusticeforLamarRodrickDarrenAiyanaKevinJanet, #FreeDavontaeSanford, #StopPoliceBrutality, #EndPrisonNationPoliceState, #DownwithKymWorthy, #DownwithJamesCraig, #DownwithMikeDuggan

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged #DownwithJamesCraig, #DownwithKymWorthy, #DownwithMikeDuggan, #EndPrisonNationPoliceState, #FreeDavontaeSanford, #JailKillerCops, #JusticeforLamarRodrickDarrenAiyanaKevinJanet, #StopPoliceBrutality | 2 Comments

BLACKANAW ISLAND 2016; SAT. JUNE 4, SUN. JUNE 5: MICHAEL IMHOTEP SPEAKS

Posted on 06/03/2016 by Diane Bukowski

Blackinaw2016 Download flier at

http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Blackinaw-Island-flier.pdf

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

STOP TORTURING MICHIGAN’S JUVENILE LIFERS WITH STATE DELAYS! FREEDOM NOW!

Posted on 06/02/2016 by Diane Bukowski

Youtube Video above, published on Apr 26, 2016, produced for V.O.T.E by Alex Chemerinsky, Mariah Branyan

State juvenile lifers who waited decades for USSC to declare JLWOP unconstitutional subjected to further anguish as state stalls release

Of 364 cases, 8 convictions, including that of Charles Lewis, vacated and remanded to state trial courts after USSC Montgomery v. LA ruling, but under state statutes that are likely unconstitutional

Wayne County Chief Judge Robert Colombo appointing defense attorneys for re-hearings through SADO, co-opting defendants’ and trial judges’ choices

Juvenile lifers, ACLU, SADO conflicted over best solutions

By Diane Bukowski

June 1, 2016

Some of Michigan’s juvenile lifers: (l to r, top through bottom row), Cortez Davis, Raymond Carp, Dakotah Eliason, Henry Hill, Keith Maxey, Dontez Tillman, Charles Lewis, Jemal Tipton, Nicole Dupure, Giovanni Casper, Jean Cintron, Matthew Bentley, Bosie Smith, Kevin Boyd, Damion Todd, Jennifer Pruitt, Edward Sanders, David Walton (photos show some lifers at current age, others at age they went to prison).

Some of Michigan’s 364 juvenile lifers: (l to r, top through bottom row), Cortez Davis, Raymond Carp, Dakotah Eliason, Henry Hill, Keith Maxey, Dontez Tillman, Charles Lewis, Jemal Tipton, Nicole Dupure, Giovanni Casper, Jean Cintron, Matthew Bentley, Bosie Smith, Kevin Boyd, Damion Todd, Jennifer Pruitt, Edward Sanders, David Walton (photos show some lifers at current age, others at age they went to prison).

DETROIT –Despite two U.S. Supreme Court rulings declaring all juvenile life without parole sentences unconstitutional, Michigan’s 364 juvenile lifers, 147 of them from Wayne County, remain in limbo, as their cases face review under state statutes that often “do not provide a meaningful and realistic opportunity for release,” in the words of attorney Deborah LaBelle.

Most have spent long decades in prison since childhood.

Their continued agonizing wait to experience justice under the USSC rulings in Miller v. Alabama (2012) and Montgomery v. Louisiana (2016) represents yet more “cruel and unusual punishment.” The U.S. is the only country in the world that sends children to die in prison. The USSC and the United Nations have declared that practice “cruel and unusual and degrading,” with a UN expert adding that it amounts to “torture.”

Ironically, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan just announced, “The Obama administration awarded [Detroit] a $5 million grant to establish a new workforce initiative that in its initial phase will help place 1,500 Detroiters in full-time jobs, including our returning citizens. We have partnered with the Michigan Department of Corrections on an effort to train and prepare those who will be released for jobs before they leave so that they can step out of jail or prison and into a job.”

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan

Detroiters Charles Lewis, Edward Sanders, and Damion Todd want the chance to benefit from that grant and other resources NOW. Lewis and Sanders have spent 41 years in prison, while Todd has been incarcerated for 30 years, all since the age of 17.

“I’m hoping God will touch everybody’s hearts so they will give me and others a second chance,” Charles Lewis said prior to a post-conviction hearing May 26 on his case. He was likely falsely charged with first-degree murder in 1976. He just celebrated his 59^th birthday at Lakeland Correctional Facility May 13, miles away from his loved ones.

“I represent a lot of juveniles coming behind me,” he went on. “Whatever I say or do is going to affect others. A lot of guys are waiting and wondering what is going to happen to me.” Lewis spoke on courtroom video as he awaited another post-conviction hearing in front of Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Qiana Lillard May 26.

Judge Lillard announced at the hearing that the Michigan Supreme Court had vacated Lewis’ sentence May 24 (under orders from the USSC), and remanded his case to the Wayne Circuit Court for re-sentencing pursuant to the state statutes, MCL 269.25 and MCL 269.25a. (See order at http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Charles-Lewis-MSC-order-on-USSC-remand.pdf).

Charles Lewis

Lewis said the USSC has so far remanded the cases of seven other state juvenile lifers, among those who pursued their appeals under the Miller and Montgomery rulings to the nation’s highest court.

“I don’t think that the Statute[s] that became effective in 2014 should apply to me,” in a JPay email to VOD, he said. “My resentencing was granted by Judge [Edward] Ewell on October 17, 2012. How can they apply a statute to me that became effective in 2014? My situation is unique because to my knowledge I am the only one that was granted a resentencing by the trial court [prior to 2014].”

The USSC first declared juvenile life without parole sentences unconstitutional in in 2012 in Miller, then affirmed that its ruling was retroactive in Montgomery on Jan. 25 this year. Since then, Michigan’s county prosecutors have been scrambling to set up re-hearings under state statutes passed in 2014 anticipating, and likely sabotaging, such a ruling.

Miller box The state statutes, MCL 769.25 and 769.25a, provide for a portion of juvenile lifers to be automatically re-sentenced to terms of years, a minimum of 25-40 and a maximum of 60 years. They also provide for county prosecutors to select which juvenile lifers will receive full Miller re-sentencing hearings.

But Miller requires that ALL juvenile lifers receive hearings taking into account numerous special factors related to their youth. Since Miller and Montgomery, the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court essentially upheld U.S. District Court Judge Corbett O’Meara’s 2013 ruling that all Michigan juvenile lifers should be eligible for parole after 10 years and also left open the possibility of a challenge to the state statutes.

During Lewis’ hearing, his court-appointed attorney Felicia O’Connor of Foley & Lardner withdrew as counsel with little to say other than that she and her client differed on trial “strategy.”

Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor Jason Williams said that Circuit Court Chief Judge Robert Colombo is appointing defense attorneys where needed, and has handed off all of Wayne County’s cases to the State Appellate Defenders’ Office (SADO). Attorney Peter Van Hoek of SADO earlier told VOD they were not contesting the state statutes, but claimed that under them, all juvenile lifers WOULD receive hearings.

Further hearings on Lewis’ case in front of Lillard have been suspended until the appointment of new counsel. Normally, the trial judge is responsible for such appointments, but Lillard said she would recommend Lewis’ choice of an attorney to Chief Judge Colombo. Lewis has since contacted VOD, to say that attorney Valerie Newman of SADO contacted him regarding his attorney assignment, and that he was actually favorably impressed by her courtroom defense record. He said she told him she is filing an appearance as his counsel, but that he may receive other counsel from SADO. Newman is coordinating the project.

The Sixth Amendment guarantees a defendant’s right to counsel, and the USSC has generally upheld the right to counsel of one’s choice. Where the defendant has no specified attorney, the trial court normally appoints one, not the Chief Judge.

Also during Lewis’ hearing, Lillard promised, but did not officially order, an examination of a document signed by then Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Gershwin Drain, dated April 3, 2000, dismissing Lewis’ conviction and sentence, as well as an UNSIGNED (rubber stamped) 2012 order by Drain, refusing to carry out that order, declaring it fraudulent. (See below).

CLGDstamp

Lillard then promised, but did not rule, that she would assign independent parties to search for three cartons of Lewis’ court files. They conveniently disappeared after a prison counselor found the 2000 order by Judge Drain vacating Lewis’ conviction and sentence, ten years after the fact, in files sent to the prison by the Wayne County Clerk’s office.

Lewis has since protested his continued incarceration. He says an earlier Michigan Supreme Court ruling, People v Adkins, 436 Mich 878; 461 NW2d 366 (1990), held that in a similar case where court files had disappeared, the prisoner must be immediately released.

Lewis’ next hearing, according to the Third Judicial Circuit Court website, is set for June 10, in front of Judge Lillard.

Atty. Dawn Van Hoek, Director of SADO

Atty. Deborah LaBelle, with Mich. ACLU

Attorney Dawn Van Hoek, who heads SADO, had not returned a call for comment on whether their standing on the state statutes has changed since the Hill v. Snyder decision, before publication of this story. Likewise, VOD has not yet heard from Attorney Deborah LaBelle, who with the Michigan chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) won the Sixth Circuit decision, regarding whether the ACLU will challenge the state statutes.

The conflict between SADO and the ACLU over the matter is reflected among juvenile lifers, including Edward Sanders, who has served 41 years and hoped to be released immediately under the state statutes.

Edward Sanders with daughter Shay in photo taken about 20 years ago. He said she recently visited him again.

“Just because the Sixth Circuit action was a + for the ACLU and – for the AG (Attorney General) doesn’t mean that the State can’t or will not act under the statute,” he wrote to VOD. “They have every right to and will do so. The question is will they do so in good faith. . . .The cases of JLWOP will move on unless the ACLU files an action to stop them and the court will only take such an action after we demonstrate real harm. This may be the case with the good time with the older cases. Once good time is used against the time that inmates have served it will in some cases allow us to be released upon resentencing by the trial court. The AG knows this no matter what the state law says and to not to do the right thing will be not acting in good faith.”

MCL 769.25 says in part, “A defendant who is sentenced under this section shall be given credit for time already served but shall not receive any good time credits, special good time credits, disciplinary credits, or any other credits that reduce the defendant’s minimum or maximum sentence.”

Juvenile lifer Damion Todd wrote VOD on May 19, “I am constantly in a state of anxiety, as I eagerly await future Miller/Montgomery re-sentencing hearings, and/or a Hill parole board interview. I am prepared, as I have just finished completing another class (Personal Enrichment and Parole Readiness . . .) geared toward either one of these proceedings. I have been personally preparing myself for such relief long before the Roper v. Simmons (2005) case. Which is why I’m certain I’m experiencing so much anxiety. To counter these anxious feelings, I continue to work out, listen to my music, and engage in meaningful conversations. I have so many creative thoughts, questions, ideas, etc. that I want to put into practice now.”

Damion Todd after 30 years in prison.

He said he is currently working with a group of juvenile lifers at Kinross Correctional Facility in Michigan’s upper peninsula to facilitate more classes.

Todd, who is now 47, was charged with first-degree murder in 1986 at the age of 17, for the killing of a young woman which happened during a dispute between two groups of youths. It remains unclear who pulled the trigger.

He says the family of the young woman who was killed and the suffering they have experienced are extremely important to him. The young woman’s mother wrote him, “I forgive you Damion, and I want you to promise me that when you come home that you won’t let me and your family down.”

Todd says the mother has been on his visiting list for years and visited regularly before his change of location to inaccessible places like the Upper Peninsula, and the deterioration of her health over the last 30 years.

“Although one of my immediate goals is to be the best person I can under these conditions,” Todd said, “I am constantly and diligently working towards being a productive FREE MAN in society which is something I’ve never experienced before BECAUSE I CAME TO PRISON AS A CHILD.”

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/opinion/2016/06/02/prisoner-re-entry-detroit-comeback/85268614/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2016/05/24/free-charles-lewis-innocent-juvenile-lifer-who-has-spent-41-years-in-state-prisons/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2016/05/18/michigan-juvenile-lifers-score-6th-circuit-appeals-court-victory-in-hill-v-snyder/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2016/04/30/why-is-juvenile-lifer-charles-lewis-still-in-prison-16-yrs-after-his-case-was-dismissed/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2016/04/12/dying-in-prison-michigan-juvenile-lifers-get-new-hope-under-montgomery-still-face-obstacles/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/03/06/mich-supreme-court-hears-3-key-cases-today-re-ussc-ruling-barring-mandatory-juvenile-life-without-parole/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/02/12/u-s-judge-rules-all-michigan-juvenile-lifers-eligible-for-parole/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/02/12/juvenile-lifer-reflects-on-hill-ruling-by-judge-omeara/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/01/10/michigan-juvenile-lifers-justice-delayed-is-justice-denied-re-sentencing-in-key-detroit-case-cortez-davis-jan-25/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/10/28/michigans-juvenile-lifers-want-state-to-comply-with-u-s-supreme-court-ruling/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/10/28/michigans-juvenile-lifers/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/08/16/michigan-challenges-u-s-supreme-court-ruling-on-juvenile-life-without-parole/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/07/02/us-supreme-courts-juvenile-lifer-decision-brings-hope-to-thousands/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/07/02/nations-high-court-ends-mandatory-life-without-parole-sentences-for-youth/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/03/18/us-supreme-court-to-hear-key-juvenile-lifer-homicide-cases-march-20-2012/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/03/04/juvenile-lifer-anthony-jones-wins-new-sentence-battle-for-justice-for-all-juvenile-and-parolable-lifers-still-needed/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/11/12/us-supreme-court-agrees-to-hear-juvenile-lifer-cases-could-have-major-impact-in-michigan/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/11/11/why-michigan-has-more-juvenile-life-sentences-than-almost-any-other-state/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/09/06/battle-for-juvenile-lifers-picks-up-steam-in-michigan-california/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/03/06/voice-of-juvenile-defendants/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2010/11/24/aclu-lawsuit-challenges-life-without-parole-for-michigan-juveniles/

#FreeMichiganJuvenileLifersNOW, #SaveOurChildren, #PrisonNation, #ENDMassIncarceration, #SchooltoPrisonPipeline, #Breakdownthewalls, #Beatbackthebullies, #Blacklivesmatter, #BlacklivesmatterDetroit, #Blackkidslivesmatter, #StandUpNow, #StopWaronBlackAmerica, #StopWaronourYouth, #Michissippigoddam

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged #Beatbackthebullies, #Blackkidslivesmatter, #blacklivesmatter, #blacklivesmatterDetroit, #Breakdownthewalls, #ENDMassIncarceration, #FreeMichiganJuvenileLifersNOW, #Michissippigoddam, #PrisonNation, #saveourchildren, #SchooltoPrisonPipeline, #StandUpNow, #StopWaronBlackAmerica, #StopWaronourYouth | 2 Comments

US SUPREME COURT NIXES DEATH PENALTY FROM ALL-WHITE JURY

Posted on 05/29/2016 by Diane Bukowski

Video above shows Edward Hood, one of four Black jurors excluded from Timothy Tyrone Foster’s jury through “peremptory” challenges. The Supreme Court did not rule on the lack of Black jurors on the original jury venire, a problem that has existed in Wayne County, Michigan’s courts.

Associated Press

May 23, 2016

Timothy Tyrone Foster, sentenced to death in Georgia at the age of 18.

Washington — The Supreme Court ruled decisively in favor of death-row inmate Timothy Tyrone Foster in Georgia on Monday, chastising state prosecutors for improperly keeping African-Americans off the jury that convicted him of killing a white woman.

The justices ruled 7-1 in favor of death row inmate Foster in underscoring the importance of rules they laid out in 1986 to prevent racial discrimination in the selection of juries.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court that Georgia “prosecutors were motivated in substantial part by race” when they struck African-Americans from the jury pool.

But the court did nothing to limit peremptory strikes, lawyers’ ability to reject potential jurors without offering any reason. The late Thurgood Marshall once said that racial discrimination would persist in jury selection unless peremptory strikes were curtailed.

[Foster, an 18-year-old African-American, was charged in 1986 with killing Queen Madge White, an elderly white woman, in Rome, Georgia. At Foster’s capital trial the following year, the prosecutors used four of their nine peremptory strikes to remove all four black prospective jurors, resulting in an all-white jury to try this racially charged case. They claimed that the strikes were not based on race, asserting eight to twelve “race-neutral” reasons for each. The lead prosecutor later urged the jury to impose a death sentence to “deter other people out there in the projects.”]

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas dissented from opinion.

The outcome probably will enable Foster to win a new trial, 29 years after he was sentenced to death.

Justice Clarence Thomas dissented, saying he would have respected the decisions of state judges who sided with prosecutors and rejected Foster’s claims.

When the case was argued in November, the justices did little to hide their distaste for the tactics employed by prosecutors in north Georgia. Justice Elena Kagan said the case seemed as clear a violation “as a court is ever going to see.”

Still, Georgia courts had consistently rejected Foster’s claims of discrimination, even after his lawyers obtained the prosecution’s notes that revealed prosecutors’ focus on the black people in the jury pool. In one example, a handwritten note headed “Definite No’s” listed six people, of whom five were the remaining black prospective jurors.

The sixth person on the list was a white woman who made clear she would never impose the death penalty, according to Foster’s lawyer, Stephen Bright. And yet even that woman ranked behind the black jurors, Bright said.

Prosecutor’s notes on jury selection document.

The court was not persuaded by the state’s argument that the notes focused on black people in the jury pool because prosecutors were preparing to defend against discrimination claims. The Supreme Court’s ruling about race discrimination in jury selection was about a year old when Foster’s case went to trial, the state said. The 1986 decision in Batson v. Kentucky set up a system by which trial judges could evaluate claims of discrimination and the explanations by prosecutors that their actions were not based on race.

“This argument falls flat,” Roberts wrote. He noted that the record shows “a concerted effort to keep black prospective jurors off the jury.”

Have the times really changed? Lynching of Black man accused of rape in Royston GA around 1935.

Foster’s trial lawyers did not so much contest his guilt as try to explain it as a product of a troubled childhood, drug abuse and mental illness. They also raised their objections about the exclusion of African-Americans from the jury. On that point, the judge accepted prosecutor Stephen Lanier’s explanations that factors other than race drove his decisions. The jury convicted Foster and sentenced him to death.

The jury issue was revived 19 years later, in 2006, when the state turned over the prosecution’s notes in response to a request under Georgia’s Open Records Act.

The name of each potential black juror was highlighted on four different copies of the jury list and the word “black” was circled next to the race question on questionnaires for the black prospective jurors. Three of the prospective black jurors were identified in notes as “B#1,” ‘’B#2,” and “B#3.”

An investigator working for the prosecutors also ranked the black prospective jurors against each other in case if “it comes down to having to pick one of the black jurors.”

Henry Montgomery, 17, before sentence of death of in Louisiana in 1986.

VOD editor: George Montgomery was the plaintiff in the historic Montgomery v. Louisiana case

The USSC declared Jan. 25, 2016 that an earlier Supreme Court decision banning life without parole (death in prison) sentences for juveniles was retroactive.

Montgomery was originally sentenced to death in 1968, but his conviction was overturned due to the defense’s allegations of extreme racism during his trial. When will the times change?

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

SANDERS PUSHES DEMS TO REJECT PUERTO RICO DEBT DEAL, ENGINEERED BY BANKS WHICH DESTROYED DETROIT

Posted on 05/27/2016 by Diane Bukowski

Democratic Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders/Photo: Mark Ralston, Getty Images

Breaks with Pres. Obama
Puerto Rico subjected to situation similar to Detroit bankruptcy deal, which stole city’s assets, impoverished retirees, continued state control

By Seung Min Kim

May 23, 2016

Bernie Sanders is pushing fellow Senate Democrats to reject the Puerto Rico debt deal reached by the Obama administration and Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) last week — a move that may help trigger fresh opposition to the agreement from the left.

In a letter to Senate colleagues released Monday, Sanders rips the agreement to restructure the island’s $70 billion in debt, arguing that the deal favors Wall Street creditors at the expense of residents in Puerto Rico.

Puerto Rican unions earlier called a general strike against government’s austerity measures.

“I am urging the Senate Democratic Caucus to make it clear to the Republican leadership that this legislation is unacceptable and will not be supported by Senate Democrats,” Sanders wrote in the letter to Senate Democrats. “At a time when the people of Puerto Rico are suffering, the legislation introduced in the House would make a terrible situation even worse.”

In particular, Sanders takes issue with a new oversight board created under the legislation to oversee Puerto Rico’s finances because the majority of the seven-member panel would be controlled by Republicans with little input from Puerto Rico citizens. The board will have expansive power over Puerto Rico’s economy.

Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) get two picks each to the oversight board, while House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) each choose one. President Barack Obama also gets an appointment to the board.

Puerto Rico already has a general poverty rate of 46.2 percent.

“In my view, we must never give an unelected control board the power to make life and death decisions for the people of Puerto Rico without any meaningful input from them at all,” Sanders wrote to his colleagues. “We must not balance Puerto Rico’s budget on the backs of children, senior citizens, the sick and the most vulnerable people in Puerto Rico.”

Sanders also takes aim at a provision that allows the Puerto Rican governor to cut the minimum wage to $4.25 an hour, while giving Wall Street creditors excessive influence over the U.S. territory’s finances. Workers also cannot benefit from the Obama administration’s new overtime rule for workers making less than $47,000 per year.

Lowering the minimum wage does not apply to current workers, however, and will be subject to the oversight board’s approval and be optional for the Puerto Rican governor.

Hedgefund billionaires are trying to murder Puerto Rico.

The deal “looks out for the needs of Wall Street vulture funds first and foremost,” Sanders wrote. “That is unacceptable.”

Sanders has been particularly outspoken on the issue of Puerto Rico’s finances as he campaigns against Hillary Clinton ahead of the island’s June 5 caucuses. Clinching the Democratic nomination is almost mathematically out of reach for Sanders, though he has vowed to stay in the campaign until the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia in July.

Sanders released a statement in opposition to the Puerto Rico deal last week, insisting that the United States “must stop treating Puerto Rico like a colony.” Meanwhile, Clinton endorsed the bipartisan deal, although she made it clear that she has “serious concerns” about a handful of provisions in the legislation.

Hillary Clinton endorses Puerto Rican debt deal.

How the caucus reacts to Sanders’ call could also be the first big test of his influence back on Capitol Hill since his surprising success in the Democratic presidential primary. Key Democratic lawmakers have given the deal their seal of approval, including Pelosi.

Arizona Rep. Raul Grijalva, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee who helped negotiate the deal, will support the bill despite his own reservations. Grijalva was the first Democrat in Congress to endorse Sanders in the Democratic primary.

Another liberal favorite in the Senate — Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts — has also not taken a position on the bill.

Colin Wilhelm contributed to this report.

Protesters demanded cancellation of Detroit’s debt to the banks outside bankruptcy hearings April 1, 2014.

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/07/04/vowing-to-paralyze-this-island-puerto-rico-unions-call-general-strike-against-austerity/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/06/11/puerto-rico-unions-threaten-strike-against-austerity-budget-jones-day-law-firm-involved/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2015/12/11/protests-shut-down-detroit-bankruptcy-forum-run-rhodes-duggan-snyder-out-racism-v-city-cited/

#FreePuertoRico, #FreeDetroit, #Moneyforpeoplenotbanks, #Beatbackthebullies, #PuertoRicanLivesMatter

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged #Beatbackthebullies, #FreeDetroit, #FreePuertoRico, #Moneyforpeoplenotbanks, #PuertoRicanLivesMatter | Leave a comment

FREE CHARLES LEWIS, INNOCENT JUVENILE LIFER WHO HAS SPENT 41 YEARS IN STATE PRISONS

Posted on 05/24/2016 by Diane Bukowski

Rosie Lewis with her son Charles Lewis in 1977, shortly after his incarceration. He is wearing a T-shirt from a prison band called “The Gospel Cavaliers.”

Hearing in case in front of Judge Qiana Lillard set for May 26, 2016, 9 am

Lewis has long fought for his freedom, claiming actual innocence and citing recent USSC court decisions in Miller v. Alabama, Montgomery v. Louisiana

‘Pure Pleasure’ band alibi witnesses were never produced during his trial

Judge Drain claims his signature was forged on April 3, 2000 order freeing Lewis, but says nothing about clerk’s signature and stamp on same order

Lewis’ court files conveniently disappeared after he filed to have Drain satisfy his judgment

Lewis fighting in Sixth Circuit Court as well

By Diane Bukowski

Third Judicial Circuit Court Judge Qiana Lillard, appointed to bench by Gov. Rick Snyder

DETROIT—Rosie Lewis has grieved every day for 41 years, as she fights for her son Charles Lewis, now 59, a Michigan juvenile lifer in prison since the age of 17. He is currently undergoing post-conviction hearings in front of Third Judicial Circuit Court Judge Qiana Lillard, with the next hearing set for Thurs. May 26 at 9 a.m.

Mrs. Lewis nearly breaks into tears after every discussion of her child, yearning for him to return home to the comfort of his family’s arms.

“People do not know what a mother suffers every day knowing their child is unjustly locked up,” Mrs. Lewis told VOD. “I need to write a book about it.”

His attorney Felicia O’Connor of Foley & Lardner is set to argue her motion for withdrawal from Lewis’ case on May 26, allegedly due to differing opinions with her client on trial strategy.

Former head of Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy’s appellate division, Timothy Baughman. He retired in 2015.

Officials who have testified so far said they have been trying to locate three cartons of Lewis’ court records, which mysteriously went missing after a prison counselor gave him a copy of an April 3, 2000 order from Judge Gershwin Drain quashing his conviction and sentence, ten years after the fact, and he filed an “application for satisfaction of judgement.”

At a hearing May 5, documents written in 2012, from then Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor Timothy Baughman and then Third Judicial Circuit Court Judge Gershwin Drain denying the validity of the April 3, 2000 order and making general allegations of forgery were read into the record. Baughman and Drain did not appear to testify and face cross-examination.

On Jan. 5, 2012, Baughman wrote to Drain, “I am writing in response to your order that we respond to defendant’s ‘application for satisfaction of judgment.’ Defendant attaches an order purportedly signed by you in 2000, more than 11 years ago, granting a motion for relief from judgment and vacating his conviction. This order must be fraudulent.”

Baughman then related the history of Lewis’ numerous court filings since 2000, asking why he would be filing them if he had been freed.

Former pros. Karen Plants, Judge Mary Waterstone.

Baughman concocted the infamous scheme which landed Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy’s former top drug attorney, Karen Plants, in prison for conspiring with the late Judge Mary Waterstone to conceal the name of an informant from the defense. He has also written numerous pleadings in favor of juvenile life without parole sentences.

“This court has no recollection of signing such an Order nor of handling the Defendant’s Motion for Relief from Judgment,” ruled then Third Judicial Circuit Court Judge Gershwin Drain on Jan 18, 2012. The order, ironically, has no copy of his signature. Even the rubber stamped signature used is barely visible.

“Although there are other judges who have handled the Defendant’s file, I did not see my name anywhere in the file as handling anything. . . .This Court believes that the signature on the order submitted by Mr. Lewis is a forgery. . . .More importantly, if in fact this Court had ordered his release back in 2000, why would Defendant have waited 12 years to be released pursuant to that order. It just doesn’t add up. Additionally, a fraudulent register of actions has been prepared or someone has entered our computer system and manipulated entries.”

Rasmea Odeh, Palestinian-American activist whose deportation Judge Drain upheld, not allowing testimony about her torture by the Israeli army. His decision has since been overturned.

Rasmea Odeh, Palestinian-American activist whose deportation Judge Gershwin Drain upheld, not allowing testimony about her torture by the Israeli army. His decision has since been overturned.

Apparently Judge Drain had not read Lewis’ account of how he obtained the order, ten years after it was issued. Since Lewis’ court files have mysteriously disappeared, there is currently no way to trace his original motion for relief from judgment and the events which led up to it.

U.S. President Barack Obama appointed Drain to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan on August 8, 2012, not long after this order. Drain’s clerk told VOD that Drain still believes the order is fraudulent and has ordered that an investigation be opened.

“What I want to point out for the record is the fact that there are two signatures on the order, Judge Drain’s and a Deputy County Clerk’s signature,” Lewis told VOD in a Jpay email May 23. “The Deputy County Clerk’s signature and stamped certification made the order a valid Court Order. An Order does not become valid until it is signed by the Clerk’s Office, certified by the Clerk’s Office and entered on the Register of Actions. I also want to point out that counsel never read MCR 8.119 or Lapeer County Clerk’s v Lapeer Circuit Court Judges. The Michigan Supreme Court in the Lapeer County Clerk’s case spelled out the duties and responsibilities of the County Clerk. The County Clerk’s office is a gatekeeper for the Court’s they are part of the check and balance system that is in place to ensure that what happened to me does not happen to anyone else.”

Charles Lewis as he appears now, with copy of 2000 court order freeing him.

Determined and unbowed throughout the last 41 years, Lewis has filed hundreds of extremely well-written and legally researched court pleadings in state and federal couts providing substantial evidence that he is actually innocent of the crime that put him in prison. But meanwhile he has lost the major part of his life “in the world,” as prisoners call it, and a budding musical career.

Lewis was 17 on the Saturday evening of July 31, 1976, when off-duty Detroit Police Officer Gerald A. Sypitkowski, 27, was shot to death outside Oty’s Bar on at Harper near Barrett, east of Conner.

Judge Joseph Maher in 1976, the year before Lewis trial. Late Atty. Kenneth Cockrel, Sr. called him a “racist monkey, a honky dog, a racist pirate, and a bandit” in 1969 during New Bethel police raid trial.

Lewis was eventually charged with Sypitkowski’s murder, and tried twice in front of Recorders’ Court Judge Joseph E. Maher. Jurors from his first trial were dismissed without explanation. He was found guilty of first-degree murder in the second trial and sentenced to life without parole.

The late defense attorney Kenneth Cockrel, Sr. called Judge Maher a “racist monkey, a honky dog, a racist pirate, and a bandit,” under his breath, outside the courtroom, in 1969. Maher was hearing the case of Al Hibbitt, one of four defendants in the famous 1969 New Bethel Baptist Church police raid, during which two police officers were killed and all 142 people in the church were arrested.

Maher charged Cockrel with contempt of court, a charge Cockrel, Sr. fought and won after gathering a massive following and using linguists and other experts to prove the accuracy of his words.

At both of Lewis’ trials, the most direct eyewitness, Sypitkowksi’s partner, laid-off officer Dennis Van Fletering, testified that the shots that killed Sypitkowski came from a white Lincoln Mark IV travelling at a high rate of speed with its headlights off. According to transcipts from the second trial, in Rosie Lewis’ possession, he said he saw gun flashes from the car and memorized its license plate number, which he cited in his police report. He also testified that he did not recall seeing any other cars driving on Harper at the time.

Dennis Van Fleteren today, as retired Detroit officer. Facebook

“The automobile [came from] west on Barrett at a high rate of speed and I tried to stop him by waving my hands and the car kept going even faster,” Van Fleteren testified. “We were crouching down and I was trying to direct my full attention toward the license plates.”

He said he then went over to his wounded partner, who had a gunshot wound in the left side of his head. When a police medical transport vehicle arrived at the scene, he rode with his partner to the hospital after a brief disagreement with Officer Lorraine Williams in the car.

The Lincoln Mark IV belonged to Leslie Nathanial of Detroit, reported to be a loan shark in the plant where he worked. Newspaper accounts of the period said Nathanial complained of police harassment and brutality, after police raided his home, arrested its occupants, and destroyed his car, erasing any evidence from that source. Then he got an apology, and was inexplicably released.

Afterwards, Detroit police focused on Lewis and three younger friends, claiming they drove a yellow Gran Torino and shot Sypitkowski in an attempted robbery, either of the bar itself, or of the officer personally. Later the teens testified against Lewis at his trial, bargaining for their own freedom.

Chuck Jackson of “Pure Pleasure” during the 1970’s. He says Lewis was with his band all night the date of Sypitkowski’s death.

But international bass player Chuck Jackson, a founder and member of the musical groups Soulful Sonics and Pure Pleasure, recalls Lewis sitting in with his band all that night of July 31, during an engagement at the UAW Local 212 hall, until the early morning hours. Back then, the hall, whose local originally represented Briggs plant workers, was located at Mack and St. Jean. It was approximately two miles from the site of Sypitkowski’s death. (UAW Local 212 has since relocated to Sterling Heights.)

Jackson said he had a contract with Local 212 for that date.

Lewis’s sister Wendy Lewis, a disabled veteran and mother, was 12 years old when her brother went to prison.

“I was very close to Charles,” she told VOD earlier. “I looked up to him, he was my idol. I tried to follow him everywhere he went. He was a musician who played with various groups back then. Our basement was full of musical instruments. I would sit on the basement steps and listen as so many people practiced with him.”

Jackson told VOD, “[Lewis] wasn’t a band member. He would bring his guitar and amplifer, come to see our guys, and sit in and play. A lot of kids stayed out of trouble that way, following us around, coming to rehearsals and gigs. I still run into a lot of them. We used to play for a lot of clubs.”

Location of Otys bar on Harper, 2 miles from location of former UAW Local 212 hall at St. Jean and Mack.

But, he said, “I never testified at his trials. No one ever contacted me. I never even knew about his arrest at the time.” He said he was horrified to find out about Lewis’ fate after being interviewed by a private investigator for Lewis’ former appeals attorney.

No other members of the band were called in Lewis’ trial as alibi witnesses although Lewis said he told his court-appointed trial attorney M. Arthur Arduin, who he has called a “mob” lawyer in court filings, to contact them. He unsuccessfully asked Judge Maher to remove Arduin.

A 1992 U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals unpublished ruling in Lewis’ case said Lewis’ due process rights were violated by the failure to hear alibi witnesses.

The late M. Arthur Arduin in 1990’s; copy of photo from Free Press.

“Lewis is entitled, however, to further review of his claim that trial counsel failed to investigate potential alibi witnesses,” says the Sixth Circuit. “If Lewis is correct when he alleges that his attorney unreasonably failed to investigate alibi evidence, then a constitutional violation may well have occurred. . . .The District Court failed to address this claim in the proceedings below. On remand, the District Court should permit Lewis to present this claim. He appears to have raised it in the state court proceedings although he has not had any ruling.”

Arduin’s original family name was Arduino, and he was a member of the Italian-American Lawyers Club, according to his obituary. At the time, Detroit’s Italian mob was heavily involved in loan-sharking, the purported sideline of Leslie Nathanial.

It is clear from the transcripts of Lewis’ second trial that Arduin did everything he could to sabotage his client’s case, grilling Van Fleteren unmercifully on cross-examination about his drinking the night of his partner’s death, as if to discredit his testimony. Detroit police officer Lorraine Williams, who was at the scene after the killing, testified that Van Fleteren was too intoxicated at the time to have made accurate observations.

The Gospel Cavaliers, band at Ionia Reformatory. Charles Lewis is at right. Photo featured in article on band in Grand Rapids Organizer.

However, during a 1981 “Pearson” evidentiary hearing in Lewis’ case, five other officers at the scene who were not called to testify during Lewis’ second trial all agreed that they noted nothing abnormal about Van Fleteren’s behavior, other than his grief over his partner’s death. One said Williams tried to prevent Van Fleteren from accompanying his partner to the hospital.

“When Van Fleteren testified at the first trial,” said Mrs. Lewis, “he had me in tears because it was clear that his partner’s killing had affected him deeply.”

See transcripts of those officers’ testimony at http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Charles-Lewis-transcript-1-1.pdf and http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Charles-Lewis-transcript-2-1.pdf

If he had not been incarcerated for life, Lewis likely would have followed Jackson’s path in carving out a career in the music industry. At Ionia Reformatory, he played in a prison band called the “Gospel Cavaliers,” and later expanded his interests to include the study of journalism. He has written wrote for several prison newspapers, and continues to hone his writing skills, authoring a book and essays in addition to his pro se court pleadings.

Meanwhile, Chuck Jackson and his group became successful and traveled world-wide, with Jackson known as “CJ Styles.” Jackson’s bio under a YouTube video he produced describes the world in which Lewis might have grown up.

“In the early 70’s ‘The Soulful Sonics’ changed their name to ‘Pure Pleasure’. . . .Playing in the ‘chitterlin’ circuit’ like Henery’s Palace, Phelps Lounge, Ben’s High Chapparal, and Ernie D’s Ballroom to name a few, the group soon . . .recorded their first song ‘By My Side,’ which was released in 1983, produced by Charles Jackson and Roderick Brewer on their label QC(Quick Cash) Records.

“The group soon started touring as the opening acts for such acts as Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, Bar-Kays, the Dramatics, Al Hudson and Soul Partners, and Enchantment to name a few. Pure Pleasure also embarked on the 1980’s Air Force Tour, in Atlanta, GA , Texas, Okalahoma, Kentucky and Florida. Shortly after, the group broke up. Charles continued on with his musical career, by joining the local band Destination Love. . . .He now tours with the band T.F.O as the backing band for such acts as The Temptations, The Platters, The Jones girls, Jr. Walker and The All-stars, The Floaters and Carl Carlton to name a few….”

No matter the outcome of the hearing in Judge Lillard’s court May 26, Lewis still has other avenues of relief. The U.S. Supreme Court remanded his case back to the Michigan Supreme Court (MSC) effective April 6, 2016, for reconsideration under Montgomery v. Louisiana. The Michigan Supreme Court, however, only put a placeholder “miscellaneous order” in place on its website April 8. The Clerk of the state Supreme Court informed VOD that it is not known when the MSC will take up the case.

U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Edmunds

In the recent juvenile lifer case of Raymond Carp, 15 at the time of the alleged crime, the MSC remanded his case back to St. Clair County. Whether that will help or hurt him remains to be seen.

Lewis additionally has hearings ongoing in Federal court. In response to Lewis’ Motion for Relief from Judgment filed Feb. 11, U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds issued an order April 26 granting his motion to lift the stay on his case pending the Montgomery decision, and also requiring to state to reply to his contentions regarding the April 3, 2000 court order and other declarations of innocence.

The state filed a motion to dismiss Lewis’ claims regarding Montgomery because it is still pending at the Michigan Supreme Court, stating he has not exhausted his state court remedies. They also attached copies of Baughman’s and Drain’s documents regarding the April 3, 2000 order to dismiss Lewis’ case.

Lewis, who is representing himself in Federal Court, has until the end of the week to answer their claims and a ruling will eventually ensue from Judge Edmunds.

The saying goes, however: JUSTICE DELAYED IS JUSTICE DENIED! Justice for Charles Lewis has been delayed for 41 years–how much longer? When he and other juvenile lifers return home to their families, AREN’T REPARATIONS DUE?

Justice delayed denied

RRelated documents:

http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Charles-Lewis-MRFJ-federal-habeas.pdf

http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Charles-Lewis-Judge-Edmunds-order-April-26.pdf

http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Charles-Lewis-state-response-to-Edmunds.pdf

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2016/04/12/dying-in-prison-michigan-juvenile-lifers-get-new-hope-under-montgomery-still-face-obstacles/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/03/06/mich-supreme-court-hears-3-key-cases-today-re-ussc-ruling-barring-mandatory-juvenile-life-without-parole/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/02/12/u-s-judge-rules-all-michigan-juvenile-lifers-eligible-for-parole/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/02/12/juvenile-lifer-reflects-on-hill-ruling-by-judge-omeara/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/01/10/michigan-juvenile-lifers-justice-delayed-is-justice-denied-re-sentencing-in-key-detroit-case-cortez-davis-jan-25/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/10/28/michigans-juvenile-lifers-want-state-to-comply-with-u-s-supreme-court-ruling/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/10/28/michigans-juvenile-lifers/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/08/16/michigan-challenges-u-s-supreme-court-ruling-on-juvenile-life-without-parole/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/07/02/us-supreme-courts-juvenile-lifer-decision-brings-hope-to-thousands/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/07/02/nations-high-court-ends-mandatory-life-without-parole-sentences-for-youth/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/03/18/us-supreme-court-to-hear-key-juvenile-lifer-homicide-cases-march-20-2012/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/03/04/juvenile-lifer-anthony-jones-wins-new-sentence-battle-for-justice-for-all-juvenile-and-parolable-lifers-still-needed/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/11/12/us-supreme-court-agrees-to-hear-juvenile-lifer-cases-could-have-major-impact-in-michigan/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/11/11/why-michigan-has-more-juvenile-life-sentences-than-almost-any-other-state/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/09/06/battle-for-juvenile-lifers-picks-up-steam-in-michigan-california/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/03/06/voice-of-juvenile-defendants/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2010/11/24/aclu-lawsuit-challenges-life-without-parole-for-michigan-juveniles/

#FREECHARLESLEWISNOW, #StopJLWOP , #SaveOurChildren , #PrisonNation , #MassIncarceration , #SchooltoPrisonPipeline , #Breakdownthewalls , #Beatbackthebullies , #Blacklivesmatter , #BlacklivesmatterDetroit , #Blackkidslivesmatter , #StandUpNow , #StopWaronBlackAmerica , #StopWaronourYouth , #Michissippigoddam

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged #Beatbackthebullies, #Blackkidslivesmatter, #blacklivesmatter, #blacklivesmatterDetroit, #Breakdownthewalls, #FREECHARLESLEWISNOW, #MassIncarceration, #Michissippigoddam, #PrisonNation, #saveourchildren, #SchooltoPrisonPipeline, #StandUpNow, #StopJLWOP, #StopWaronBlackAmerica, #StopWaronourYouth | 4 Comments

MICHIGAN JUVENILE LIFERS SCORE 6TH CIRCUIT APPEALS COURT VICTORY IN HILL V. SNYDER

Posted on 05/18/2016 by Diane Bukowski

In Hill v. Snyder, 6^th Circuit rejects state statutes, calls for “meaningful and realistic opportunity for release” for all state juvenile lifers

Michigan officials including AG Bill Schuette, Wayne Co. Prosecutor Kym Worthy have opposed ANY relief for children sent to die in prison

Michissippi GODDAM (variation of Nina Simone’s song)

By Diane Bukowski

May 18, 2016

Henry Hill, Jr., lead plaintiff in Hill v. Snyder; most juvenile lifers are Black men

DETROIT—Over 364 residents of Michigan’s prisons sentenced to die there for crimes committed as children advanced another step towards freedom May 11. The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ordered that “a meaningful and realistic opportunity for release” must be accorded to every juvenile lifer in Michigan, beyond what is allowed by state statutes passed in 2014.

The Sixth Circuit ruling, in the case of Hill v. Snyder, follows two U.S. Supreme Court decisions declaring juvenile life without parole “cruel and unusual punishment” and therefore unconstitutional (Miller v. Alabama), and that the Miller decision is retroactive to ALL juvenile lifers (Montgomery v. Louisiana.)

The U.S. Supreme Court said in Montgomery, “Although Miller did not foreclose a sentencer’s ability to impose life without parole on a juvenile, the Court explained that a lifetime in prison is a disproportionate sentence for all but the rarest of children, those whose crimes reflect ‘irreparable corruption.’”

The United States is the only country in the world that sentences children to death in prison. A young Mexican resident of Detroit’s southwest side expressed horror to this writer when told that children in the U.S. face such penalties. Michigan is one of only four states that continued to insist that Miller was not retroactive, and has the second highest per capita population of juvenile lifers in the states.

Judge Bernice Donald

Judge Jane Stranch

Judge Gilbert Merritt

“We vacate the [U.S. District] court’s prior orders to enable the court to address remedies in the context of the new legal landscape and because it is necessary in light of our instructions to allow the parties leave to amend the pleadings,” ordered Sixth Circuit Senior Judge Gilbert Merritt with Judges Jane Stranch and Bernice Donald. “If, for example, plaintiffs file a second amended complaint directly challenging Michigan’s 2014 legislative fixes, there may be no question that the eight plaintiffs the district court previously dismissed are entitled to pursue such a claim.”

OMearabox The Sixth Circuit also suggested that U.S. District Court Judge Corbett O’Meara, who ruled Nov. 26, 2013 that all Michigan juvenile lifers are eligible for parole after serving 10 years, might want to formalize the class action status of his ruling, even though it is not legally necessary.

The state has continued to insist that it only applied to the eight plaintiffs, Henry Hill, Jemal Tipton, Damion Todd, Bobby Hines, Kevin Boyd, Bosie Smith, Jennifer Pruitt, Matthew Bentley, Keith Maxey, Giovanni Casper, Jean Carlos Cintront, Nicole DuPure, and Dontez Tillman.

“This recent Sixth Circuit Court opinion is great news,” said Edward Sanders of Detroit, who has been incarcerated for 41 years since 1976 at the age of 17, for a drive-by killing in which he was not the shooter. “It noted that the U.S. District Court Judge did a very good job. It sent the case back before that court to allow the parties to start over with filing new briefs.

“We can now address concerns we may have with the [state statutes],” Sanders continued. “This is a good thing to start over again and with the same judge. The State should have moved on this matter long ago.”

Michigan’s legislature passed MCL 769.25a in 2014 in the event that the U.S. Supreme Court declared Miller retroactive. The statute said in part, “prosecutors in each county have 180 days from the date of the retroactivity decision to file a motion seeking re-imposition of LWOP in selected cases. If they do not file such a motion, the defendant must be re-sentenced to a minimum term of 25 to 40 years, with a maximum term set at 60 years. Prisoners who have served more than 20 years are given priority for re-sentencing. See http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Juvenile-lifers-mcl-769-25a.pdf.

Deborah LaBelle is the attorney who with the Michigan chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union first brought the Hill v. Snyder lawsuit in the Eastern District of Michigan federal court in 2010.

Juvenile lifer Edward Sanders

“After Montgomery, the state moved to dismiss their appeal [of O’Meara’s ruling] in the Sixth Circuit, arguing that the issue was now moot, as they had cured the unconstitutional sentences with the legislation, which now took effect . . . ” she told VOD.

“We said that the legislation did not cure the constitutional violations found by Judge O’Meara and was not an appropriate remedy . . . the Sixth Circuit’s order is pretty much what we requested. They recognized that his [O’Meara’s] ruling applied to all youth (and said if the state disagreed he should consider certifying the class), returned the case to Judge O’Meara to decide what needed to be done to actually provide a meaningful and realistic opportunity for release as required by Montgomery and Miller. They specifically allowed us to amend the complaint to add our claims that the [state] statute is unconstitutional.”

LaBelle said the plaintiffs are considering one amendment in particular, given that Judge O’Meara ordered the parole process instead of re-sentencing.

Attorney Deborah LaBelle

“Michigan has a parole process, albeit one that the District Court agreed was flawed absent some changes to address the unique requirements for youth entitled to second chances– with Miller factors guiding the appropriate punishment,” she noted. “I think a separate or extended parole board is the answer— without the public hearing mechanism, as [the current parole process] does not give anyone a meaningful and realistic opportunity for release. This is what needs to be developed.”

In another development in the case of juvenile lifer Charles Lewis, VOD discovered that the U. S. Supreme Court vacated his sentence and remanded it to the Michigan Supreme Court for re-consideration under the Montgomery decision, effective April 6. On April 8, the state Supreme Court website indicates that court issued a “miscellaneous” order, with no linked document, but the website goes on to reiterate that his case is closed.

Lewis had filed a state appeal of his sentence after the Miller decision, but it was rejected due to the state’s claim at the time that Miller was not retroactive. VOD has filed a Freedom of Information Act request for a copy of the April 8 MSC order, as well as other related documents. (A separate story on Lewis’ unique case is forthcoming shortly. He has another post-conviction hearing scheduled for May 26, 2016 at 9 a.m. in front of Judge Qiana Lillard.)

Juvenile lifer Charles Lewis

Sanders sadly noted earlier that Michigan’s second-longest serving juvenile lifer, Rogers Walker of Detroit, passed after being incarcerated since 1965 and surviving cancer. He said they were in prison together during a stretch at Lapeer.

“He was hoping to go home after the U.S. Supreme Court [Miller] ruling,” said Sanders, “but Allah knows best. From Allah we come, to Allah we return.”

Walker’s death emphasized the cruelty of the lengthy process to which the State of Michigan has subjected its juvenile lifers. They at first celebrated after the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed their sentences, but have been in limbo since.

VOD requested comments from Michigan Attorney General (AG) Bill Schuette and the Prosecuting Attorneys Association of Michigan last week regarding the Sixth Circuit Hill v. Snyder decision but has received no response. It was last reported that county prosecutors had already begun the process described in the state statutes, which have now been invalidated. The state has filed no appeal to date of the Sixth Circuit order.

Maria Miller of Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy’s office deferred comment on the Sixth Circuit order to the Attorney General, and declined to comment on the Lewis case because it is “still in litigation.”

Related documents:

Sixth Circuit order Hill v. Snyder 5/11/16:

http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Sixth-Circuit-decision-Hill-v-Snyder-May-11-2016.pdf

Judge O’Meara’s order Hill v. Snyder 11/28/13:

http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/OMeara-final-ruling-on-Hill-v-Snyder-1.pdf

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/03/06/mich-supreme-court-hears-3-key-cases-today-re-ussc-ruling-barring-mandatory-juvenile-life-without-parole/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/02/12/u-s-judge-rules-all-michigan-juvenile-lifers-eligible-for-parole/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/02/12/juvenile-lifer-reflects-on-hill-ruling-by-judge-omeara/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/01/10/michigan-juvenile-lifers-justice-delayed-is-justice-denied-re-sentencing-in-key-detroit-case-cortez-davis-jan-25/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/10/28/michigans-juvenile-lifers-want-state-to-comply-with-u-s-supreme-court-ruling/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/10/28/michigans-juvenile-lifers/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/08/16/michigan-challenges-u-s-supreme-court-ruling-on-juvenile-life-without-parole/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/07/02/us-supreme-courts-juvenile-lifer-decision-brings-hope-to-thousands/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/07/02/nations-high-court-ends-mandatory-life-without-parole-sentences-for-youth/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/03/18/us-supreme-court-to-hear-key-juvenile-lifer-homicide-cases-march-20-2012/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/03/04/juvenile-lifer-anthony-jones-wins-new-sentence-battle-for-justice-for-all-juvenile-and-parolable-lifers-still-needed/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/11/12/us-supreme-court-agrees-to-hear-juvenile-lifer-cases-could-have-major-impact-in-michigan/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/11/11/why-michigan-has-more-juvenile-life-sentences-than-almost-any-other-state/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/09/06/battle-for-juvenile-lifers-picks-up-steam-in-michigan-california/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/03/06/voice-of-juvenile-defendants/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2010/11/24/aclu-lawsuit-challenges-life-without-parole-for-michigan-juveniles/

#StopJWLOP, #SaveOurChildren, #PrisonNation, #MassIncarceration, #SchooltoPrisonPipeline, #Breakdownthewalls, #Beatbackthebullies, #Blacklivesmatter, #BlacklivesmatterDetroit, #Blackkidslivesmatter, #StandUpNow, #StopWaronBlackAmerica, #StopWaronourYouth, #Michissippigoddam

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged #Beatbackthebullies, #Blackkidslivesmatter, #blacklivesmatter, #blacklivesmatterDetroit, #Breakdownthewalls, #MassIncarceration, #Michissippigoddam, #PrisonNation, #saveourchildren, #SchooltoPrisonPipeline, #StandUpNow, #StopJWLOP, #StopWaronBlackAmerica, #StopWaronourYouth | Leave a comment

VENEZUELA PRES. MADURO DECLARES EMERGENCY, BRAZIL PRES. ROUSSEF OUT IN ‘COUP;’ U.S. ACCUSED

Posted on 05/15/2016 by Diane Bukowski

Both Maduro, Roussef champions of poor, workers, opponents of U.S. policies

U.S., global banks, oil corporations, others behind attacks

Editor: While the people of the U.S. are blindly involved in national elections, NO candidate offers a platform that would withdraw U.S. troops and U.S. economic blockades and pressure from virtually every country across the globe. Now Venezuela, Brazil, and the rest of Latin America are under the gun.

Reuters May 14, 2016

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro declared a 60-day state of emergency on Friday due to what he called plots from within the OPEC country and the United States to topple his leftist government.

Maduro did not provide details of the measure. A previous state of emergency, implemented in states near the Colombian border last year, suspended constitutional guarantees in those areas, except for guarantees relating to human rights.

Protest against U.S. intervention in Venezuela Sat. May 14, 2016. Sign calls U.S. Pres. Obama an assassin, fascist, and imperialist.

Earlier on Friday, U.S. intelligence officials told reporters they were increasingly worried about the potential for an economic and political meltdown in Venezuela and predicted Maduro was not likely to complete his term. [VOD: Telesur reported, “U.S. President Barack Obama issued an Executive Order March 9, 2015 declaring a ‘national emergency with respect to the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States posed by the situation in Venezuela.” See story at http://www.telesurtv.net/english/telesuragenda/US-Threats-on-Venezuela-20150311-0012.html.]

Venezuela’s opposition is seeking to recall the unpopular leader, 53, amid a worsening crisis that includes food and medicine shortages, frequent power cuts, sporadic looting and galloping inflation.

Protester’s sign says: I want Maduro.

But the former union leader and bus driver has vowed to stick out his term, and accuses the United States of fomenting an undercover coup against him. He pointed to this week’s impeachment of fellow leftist Dilma Rousseff in Brazil as a sign that he is next.

“Washington is activating measures at the request of Venezuela’s fascist right, who are emboldened by the coup in Brazil,” Maduro said during a Friday night broadcast on state television.

Washington has had an acrimonious relationship with Caracas for years, especially following U.S. support for a short-lived 2002 coup against late leader Hugo Chavez.

Pres. Maduro during celebration of Pres. Hugo Chavez’s revolutionary history.

Venezuela’s ruling Socialist Party has long been a strong ally of Rousseff’s Workers Party, however, and her departure adds to Maduro’s isolation in Latin America.

Flanked by his ministers and a statue of Chavez, Maduro signed a state of emergency and extend a state of economic emergency to protect the country from foreign and domestic “threats,” without providing details.

Venezuela’s opposition, which scoffs at Maduro’s accusations of coups-mongering, quickly condemned the measure.

“Today Maduro has again violated the constitution,” said opposition lawmaker Tomas Guanipa. “Why? Because he is scared of being recalled.”

(Reporting by Deisy Buitrago and Alexandra Ulmer; Writing by Alexandra Ulmer)

BRAZIL IMPEACHMENT: PRES. DILMA ROUSSEF CONDEMNS ‘COUP,’ AND ‘FARCE’

Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff has condemned the move to impeach her as a “coup” and a “farce”, denying she has committed any crimes.

She was addressing the nation on TV for the first time since senators voted overnight to suspend her for budgetary violations and put her on trial.

Ms Rousseff vowed to fight the “injustice” by all legal means.

Vice-President Michel Temer will assume the presidency while Ms Rousseff’s trial takes place.

Pres. Dilma Roussef celebrates opening of new workers housing.

The trial may last up to 180 days, which would mean Ms Rousseff would be suspended during the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, which start on 5 August.

Senators had voted to suspend her by 55 votes to 22 after an all-night session that lasted more than 20 hours.

Ms. Rousseff is accused of illegally manipulating finances to hide a growing public deficit ahead of her re-election in 2014.

‘Fraudulent’

In her TV speech, flanked by ministers at the presidential palace, Mr Rousseff said that she may have made mistakes but had committed no crimes, adding: “I did not violate budgetary laws.”

Protest supports Pres. Roussef as she leaves on suspension.

She said: “What is at stake is respect for the ballot box, the sovereign will of the Brazilian people and the constitution.”

Branding the process “fraudulent” and saying her government was “undergoing sabotage”, she vowed to fight the charges against her and said she was confident she would be found innocent.

Michel Temer became interim president as soon as Ms Rousseff was suspended.

The 75-year-old law professor of Lebanese origin was Ms. Rousseff’s vice-president and was a key figure in the recent upheaval.

Michel Terner's new cabinet is composed of all-white males for the first time in decades.

Michel Temer’s new cabinet is composed of all-white males for the first time in decades.

Up until now, he’s been the kingmaker, but never the king, having helped form coalitions with every president in the past two decades

He is president of Brazil’s largest party, the PMDB, which abandoned the coalition in March.

In recent months, his role has become even more influential; in a WhatsApp recording leaked in April, he outlined how Brazil needed a “government to save the country”.

Ms Rousseff, 68, accused the opposition of leading the impeachment because they had vehemently opposed all the advances she and her predecessor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, had made for the Brazilian poor and lower middle classes.

After her speech she left the presidential palace and shook hands with supporters lining the pathway.

In another speech outside she told supporters she could feel their “love and energy” on what she called a “tragic” day for the country.

Dilma Roussef, age 22, during military hearing. She was tortured by the government then, but said her ouster this time is worse than that torture.

Michel Temer is set to be sworn in later on Thursday and he is expected to give a speech and present some of his cabinet.

During the overnight debate, Senator Jose Serra, tipped to become the new foreign minister, said the process was “a bitter though necessary medicine”.

“Having the Rousseff government continue would be a bigger tragedy,” he said.

Brazil is suffering from its worst recession in 10 years, unemployment reached 9% in 2015 and inflation is at a 12-year high.

The 180 days allocated for the trial to take place expire on 8 November.

Stories related to U.S., neo-imperialist attacks on Venezuela, Brazil, Latin and Central American countries:

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/telesuragenda/US-Threats-on-Venezuela-20150311-0012.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/05/world/americas/president-rousseffs-decades-old-torture-detailed.html?pagewanted=all

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/03/30/u-s-hands-off-venezuela/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/01/20/the-latin-american-left-seizes-the-initiative-with-elections/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/12/14/caribbean-nations-call-for-reparations-from-europe-reparations-for-detroit-and-blacks-in-u-s-also-needed/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/09/01/i-too-can-demand-repayment-evo-morales-pres-bolivia/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/03/26/president-hugo-chavez-a-special-tribute/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/02/14/the-wikileaks-revelations-the-afl-cio-and-colombia/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/01/22/workers-youths-including-gm-colombian-hunger-striker-besiege-2013-detroit-auto-show/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/10/25/venezuela-condmens-crime-committed-against-libyan-leader-muammar-gaddafi/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2010/12/03/haiti-underdevelopment-and-genocide/

#USHandsoffVenezuela, #USHandsoffBrazil, #MaduroSI!, #RoussefSIM!, #StopUSWarsAbroad, #ENDGENOCIDE, #ReparationsforCARICOM, #UStroopsout, #EndUSIMFeconomicwars

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged #ENDGENOCIDE, #EndUSIMFeconomicwars, #MaduroSI, #ReparationsforCARICOM, #RoussefSIM, #StopUSWarsAbroad, #USHandsoffBrazil, #USHandsoffVenezuela | 2 Comments

GENOCIDAL SNYDER/RHODES PLAN HARMS DETROIT PUBLIC SCHOOL CHILDREN, WORKERS, RESIDENTS

Posted on 05/06/2016 by Diane Bukowski

Teachers shut DPS May 2, 3 not only over pay threats, but dismantling of nation’s largest majority-Black school district

Race a central issue—DFT President Ivy Bailey

“Rise up to defend jobs, schools, children, strike to win”—Former DFT pres. Steve Conn

Senate, House bills all destroy Detroit Public Schools, pay off banks

By Diane Bukowski

May 6, 2016

DPS students stress Snyder plan to dismantle DPS is focus of sick-out May 2. /Mlive

DETROIT – Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder’s racist plan to obliterate the Detroit Public Schools (DPS) district by July 1, forcing city residents to pay off $3.9 billion in operating and bonded debt incurred under state control, is the common denominator of legislation just passed in both chambers of the Michigan Legislature.

It is also a chief factor underlying the massive teacher “sick-outs” of May 2 and 3, which shut down 94 of 97 schools left in a district which once had 261 schools, and educated 92 percent of the city’s children, not the 42 percent left today. DPS has the second highest number of charter schools in the U.S., after New Orleans, which have drained billions from its per-pupil funding, mostly for profit.

In an “Open Letter to the Detroit Community” May 4, Judge Rhodes said regarding the sick-outs, “[this] unfortunate and unnecessary strike … threatens the community’s ability to achieve our shared goal of a new, locally governed DPS that can give our students the best possible education.”

DPS EM Steven Rhodes roller skates with grandkids in seaside resort hometown of Cape May, N.J., 90 percent white with median family income of over $50,000

He added that the actions kept 45,000 children out of school, depriving them of free breakfasts and lunches, and inconveniencing their parents.

He did not address the issue of the genocide committed on the total of 167,000 students who attended DPS in 1994.

That number has dwindled as over 164 DPS schools closed under orders from a succession of state-appointed CEO’s and Emergency Managers under Governors Engler, Granholm and Snyder, and hundreds of thousands of Detroit homes housing these children were foreclosed through illegal mortgage and taxation scams.

“This is not just about our teachers, it is about the destruction of DPS,” Detroit Federation of Teachers (DFT) President Ivy Bailey told VOD May 4. “It shouldn’t just be on back of the educators who work here to take on this fight. The entire city needs to get involved.

Detroit Federation of Teachers President Ivy Bailey addresses teachers outside the school district’s headquarters, Tuesday, May 3, 2016, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

“The plan is to split our school system. This is an atrocity. Detroiters’ tax money will be going to pay off the debt for schools we don’t even have any more. We want a fully elected and empowered school board, and to keep our system the way it is. The bigger question is why is this happening to Detroit? They don’t want to call it an issue when it comes to race—why not? What’s the problem? We were in better shape under our elected school board than we are now are under an EM.”

DPS’ students are approximately 88 percent Black, while the city has a child poverty rate of 59 percent, the highest in the U.S. Detroit also has the second highest number of charter schools in the country after New Orleans, which have drained billions from the DPS budget. New Orleans itself is 58.8 percent African-American, down from 66.7 percent in 2000.

The white power structure used Hurricane Katrina to shut down the city’s public schools, housing and health systems, and relocate thousands of Blacks out of the city after Katrina.

Bailey referred to packages of bills in both the State Senate and State House that would terminate the Detroit school district effective July 1. A skeleton structure would remain solely to pay off the district’s debt with millages and property taxes. The amount will increase under provisions providing for “re-financing” of that debt, meaning stretching it out over a longer term, with higher interest rates. It will mean property tax increases and more millage votes.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan

A “community school district” including the population of charter schools in Detroit, answering to the State Financial Review Board created under the Detroit bankruptcy plan, would replace DPS. Both its Superintendent and Chief Financial Officer would be appointed by the state. Elections for a new school board would be held this August, but under the House version of the plan, it would not take power until Jan. 2018, after a board appointed by Snyder and Mayor Mike Duggan assumes duties for the community district meanwhile.

Despite the uproar about the massive debt DPS has incurred under state control, its ability to take on more debt would be expanded under both sets of bills.

During previous years, DPS debt, payment of which is controlled by the New York Mellon Bank through a state-appointed trustee, has taken the largest portion of per-pupil aid provided by the State of Michigan through mandated debt set-asides. (Chart below provides an example.) Add to that the fact that per-pupil aid is set by the amount of property taxes each district pays, with the wealthier districts getting a proportionately larger share of the pie.

DPS debt set asides 2011 2012 chart

“The state should have the responsibility for all the debt incurred under emergency managers and state-appointed CEO’s since the 1999 takeover,” Bailey said. “We also want a forensic audit, but Rhodes said the district doesn’t have money to do that. The state should want to find out where all the money went. All teachers want to do is work for a school system they can trust, that respects teachers, and puts its students first.”

Demands raised by EON/BAMN Caucus in DPS.

Demands raised in “STAY OUT TO WIN” flier by EON/BAMN Caucus.

What the Detroit Federation of Teachers (DFT) calls a “lock-out,” precipitated by Emergency Manager Steven Rhodes’ order to stop teachers’ pay June 30, ended May 4.

Rhodes verbally withdrew the attack on teachers who prorate their paychecks through the summer months, and followed up with a vague written statement saying teachers are “legally entitled to be paid in full” for their work, and that DPS “will honor that legal obligation.”

Steven Conn, a long-time DPS math teacher at Cass Technical High School, was recently ousted as DFT President but is appealing that action to the International Union. He and a “Strike to Win” faction among the teachers are calling for the strike to continue until Snyder’s plan is defeated.

After Katrina, state officials in Louisiana created a highly unsuccessful all charter-school district for New Orleans, known as the “Recovery School District.” Conn and others fear that is the veiled intention of the Snyder plan for DPS.

“Certainly the teachers are very angry,” he said. “Their expectations during the sick-out went well beyond just getting paid for what they had to get paid for anyway. We have to translate it into defeating the Snyder plan.”

Former DPS Pres. Steve Conn, 2nd from left, and other board members sworn in Jan. 20, 2015.

He said he believes that the DFT leadership and Randy Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, are supporting the Senate version of Snyder’s plan, which does not include the wholesale anti-union provisions of the House version, passed yesterday, although it still includes the dissolution of DPS and pay-outs to the banks.

“They want to get their union dues, and are criminals for selling members down the drain,” Conn said. “Why would they trust Rhodes’ statement—he is a professional liar, and an agent of a governor who is a professional liar. The more we pull punches, the harder it gets to fight. Teachers are not bluffing. I think they feel they can organize themselves. The sick-outs [earlier sick-outs took place in January to protest school conditions] are an expression of power that’s still there.”

A flier distributed by the Equal Opportunity Now/By Any Means Necessary Coalition concludes, “Today, in the wake of the Flint and Detroit water crises, Gov. Snyder is the most unpopular and weakest government in modern Michigan history. His own party has deserted him. It would be ridiculous for the DFT to prop up his political corpse and help him get his essentially dead plan through the State Legislature. The power of, by and for the Black, Latino and working people of Detroit holds the only possibility of solving our fundamental problems. (See full flier at http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/BAMN-flier-Stay-Out-May3-v2.pdf.

City of Detroit Wastewater Treatment Plant workers on strike Sept. 30, 2012. Hundreds of DWSD workers have been laid off since the bankruptcy. Staff at the WWTP is down to a skeleton crew, endangering the health of all DWSD water users.

The EON/BAMN flier is reminiscent of the last ditch efforts of Local 207 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) to save the City of Detroit through a 2012 wildcat strike at the Wastewater Treatment Plant which they hoped would generate a city-wide walk-out.

Their efforts were sabotaged by AFSCME Council 25’s top leadership including Pres. Al Garrett, his assistant Ed McNeil, and Staff Representative Catherine Phillips.

These “leaders” did not even bother to attend the funerals of militant long-time local leaders who died too early under the stress of battle. They included Local 207 President John Riehl, who died at the age of 62 in 2015, and Bus Mechanics Local 312 President Leamon Wilson, who died at the age of 55 the year before.

The lessons of the Detroit bankruptcy have not stopped the Snyder/Rhodes “Hurricane Katrina” roaring towards DPS, after destroying the City of Detroit under Rhodes’ Chapter 9 bankruptcy plan.

City retirees protest outside Judge Rhodes bankruptcy hearing Aug. 19, 2013.

Under that plan, city workers lost not only large parts of their pensions, pay and benefits, but residents lost nearly all the city’s assets, including the $6 billion Detroit Water and Sewerage Department.

The city’s creditors walked off with 95.9 percent of their original claims, including lucrative assets like the Joe Louis Arena, the Windsor-Detroit Tunnel, and other riverfront property, while retirees got an average of 13.5 percent of their claims. (See chart below.) The city’s after bankruptcy debt climbed 300 percent.

Detroit Bankruptcy Recovery-chart The Senate and House are haggling over which set of bills is more pro-charter. The House versions, passed May 4, have numerous anti-union provisions in them, including the use of non-certified teachers, the elimination of seniority considerations, non-recognition of the unions after the takeover, severe penalties for teachers who conduct “sick-outs,” and a prohibition against a federal audit of the DPS budget. The latest version of House Bill 5384 adds a $250,000 appropriations clause to make it referendum-proof.

Kidnapped African woman learns to read after abolition of slavery.

The Senate versions of the bills include a seven-member advisory “Detroit Education Committee” appointed by Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, which will have the power to site both public and charter schools. The so-called “Coalition for the Future of Detroit’s Schoolchildren,” led by the Rev. Wendell Anthony, who supported the Detroit bankruptcy plan as a trustee of the Detroit General Retirees System, and Walbridge Aldinger CEO John Rakolta, a firm supporter of Gov. Snyder, has called for the passage of the Senate bills.

The final legislative battle is boiling down to a battle between Republicans vs. Democrats, with neither offering a genuine solution to revive and restore the Detroit Public Schools district and the future of Detroit’s children. DPS was founded in 1842, around the time that kidnapped Africans across the country fought slavery during the Civil War and built public schools during the Reconstruction Era after the War. Their struggle established a large part of the groundwork for the public school system nationally.

After all, kidnapped Africans were lynched for learning to read and write, for educating themselves. Many Detroiters feel the destruction of the Detroit Public Schools District is nothing but another mass lynching, genocide carried out against Detroit’s Black population.

Recent related stories:

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2016/04/24/state-war-on-detroit-public-schools-continues-selling-black-children-to-the-highest-bidder/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2016/03/29/detroit-kids-in-danger-bills-end-dps-pay-off-banks-with-state-control-tax-levies-closings-charters/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2016/03/24/stop-snyder-recall-petitions-approved-campaign-begins-easter-sunday/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2016/03/23/detroit-retirees-demand-city-council-oppose-em-law-dps-re-structuring-support-rebuilding-flint/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2016/03/21/thousands-of-boston-public-school-students-walk-out/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2016/03/07/rhodes-rule-over-detroit-schools-ominous-as-bankruptcy-judge-he-dismantled-city-of-detroit/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2016/03/03/detroit-will-be-paying-for-school-bonds-until-year-2040-dismantling-of-dps-all-about-corporate-greed/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2016/02/26/cancel-dps-debt-to-the-banks-quality-education-for-detroit-children-tune-in-whpr-sat-2271030-am/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2010/09/13/bank-of-new-york-mellon-controls-dps/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2010/11/26/bail-out-the-schools-not-the-banks-2/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2010/10/22/banks-bobb-school-board-collude-against-detroits-schoolchildren/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2010/09/13/dps-caught-in-devils-triangle/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2010/09/29/bings-detroit-the-next-new-orleans/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/09/02/save-our-schools-save-detroits-oakman-and-school-of-the-arts/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/08/26/detroit-joins-natl-coalition-to-call-for-moratorium-on-school-closings-rally-wed-aug-28-3-pm-dps-hq-fisher-bldg/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2016/04/01/chicago-teachers-walk-out-demand-funding-for-education-not-banks/

#StopSnyderDPSPlan, #StopGenocide, #SaveDetroitChildren, #SaveDetroit, #Beatbackthebullies, #StandUpNow, #StopWaronBlackAmerica, #BlackStudentsMatter

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged #Beatbackthebullies, #BlackStudentsMatter, #SaveDetroit, #SaveDetroitChildren, #StandUpNow, #StopGenocide, #StopSnyderDPSPlan, #StopWaronBlackAmerica | Leave a comment

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