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

Video above after Jones first charged in 2018

From Detroit Residents Advancing Civilian Oversight (DRACO) press release

 May 12, 2023

DETROIT  –  As Mother’s Day approaches, 36^th District Judge Lynise Bryant today sentenced DPD Sgt. Dewayne Barren Jones to THREE DAYS of probation for disorderly conduct, in his assault on Sheldy Smith in the Detroit Receiving Hospital ER, Aug. 1, 2018.

Smith, a mother, was in a mental health crisis, unclothed and awaiting treatment at the time. Jones punched Smith multiple times (see video above).

Bryant said she will dismiss the charges WITH PREJUDICE if there are no further violations over the Mother’s Day weekend, before May 15.  Jones pled nolo contendere to disorderly conduct to avoid facing a jury for a third trial. Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy first charged Jones with felony misconduct in office and misdemeanor assault and battery. After objections from his defense, the felony charge was dropped.

Mainstream media broadly featured videos of the assault at the time. A corporal at the time of the assault, Jones has since been promoted to sergeant despite ongoing protests by Detroit Residents Advancing Civilian Oversight (DRACO), the National Action Network, and others.

“This is an abominable miscarriage of justice,” DRACO founder Scotty Boman reacted. “That a man in uniform can beat a defenseless woman, under color of law, and face no real consequences, sends a message to all police that they won’t face any real accountability if they abuse another defenseless civilian in this manner.

He added, “This is a gut punch to Sheldy Smith who remains a prisoner of the Wayne County Probate Court system, unable to communicate with her family or the public. I hope this tragedy raises public awareness on the need for reforms, in both police accountability, and the rights of people assigned guardians by the court.”

Judge Bryant said the sentence Jones served on the original assault conviction, overturned earlier pending a new trial, was sufficient. Jones served probation with anger management and mental health sensitivity training at the time.

The hearing included Jones, prosecuting attorney Josh Holman, and Jones’ defense attorneys Margaret Rabin and M. Gordner.

For further information:

Scotty Boman, D.R.A.C.O. Founder
Phones: (313) 247-2052 [Voice]  (313) 338-9769 [Text]

 ScottyEducation@yahoo.com and Draco.Life

Ashley Smith, Sheldy’s sister
Phone:  (254) 290-7303
justice4sheldy@gmail.com

Lory Parks, National Action Network Phone: (313) 492-6774

RELATED STORIES:

GROUP WANTS DPD COP DEWAYNE JONES FIRED FOR 2018 BEATING OF DISTRESSED WOMAN SHELDY SMITH IN ER | VOICE OF DETROIT: The city’s independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought

DETROIT COP DEWAYNE JONES BEAT MENTALLY ILL WOMAN AT HOSPITAL, GOT PROBATION, THEN GOT PROMOTED | VOICE OF DETROIT: The city’s independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought

Nicholas Hudson (r) with granddaughter Aamilah White;  from left, son Nicholas Hudson Jr., son-in-law Aaron White, daughter Ann (Hudson) White, with grandson Aaron White Jr.

Nicholas Hudson testified in 1999 against Sixth Pct. cops indicted during three-year FBI probe into cocaine trafficking by Detroit police

Defense: Hudson convicted of  murder in 2000 after DPD dragnet to get false testimony, despite witnesses who testified he was not at crime scene

Police charged brother with “obstruction of justice” during Hudson’s trial, arrested second brother in front of jury

Case v. Hudson dismissed after first preliminary: mother of Hudson’s child testified Reynolds threatened to charge her, lock her up for life, take child

Cops, WCPO withheld Brady evidence:  ID of man with murder victim at death, likely alternate suspects, other witnesses who did not testify–defense

Detroit police arrested three people per homicide during witness round-ups in the 1990’s, the highest rate in the country

Trial AP Michael J. King advocated sentence reduction, release of notorious jail-house snitch Joe Twilley for false testimony in over 20 other cases

By Diane Bukowski

April 30, 2023 Updated May 12, 2023

DPD Sixth (McGraw) Precinct decades ago. It became HQ for the infamous DPD Gang Squad before closing.

“I’m actually innocent of this crime,” Nicholas Hudson told VOD.

“It’s crazy how they can take a person’s life like this and take their time letting him go…I did everything people asked me to do to show my innocence, including passing a lie detector test, and I’m still sitting in here fighting for my life. To be in prison for 23 years for something you didn’t do is heartbreaking… I feel like the justice system let me down.”

Hudson, now 47, was sentenced to  life without parole in 2000, for the first-degree murder of Ivory “Chip” Harris on Detroit’s near west side. The Wayne County prosecutor pursued the charges after Hudson testified in federal court against cops from Detroit’s Sixth (McGraw) Precinct, 1o of whom were indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) on charges including conspiracy to distribute cocaine. Dozens of cops from other precincts were indicted in the three-year probe as well.

http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/FBI-Nabs-2-More-Detroit-Cops-DFP.pdf

Atty. Laurel Kelly Young

“Back in 1999, the City of Detroit struggled with police corruption within its police force. Nicholas Hudson. . . testified against the police officers of the 6th precinct who were the target of the federal investigation,” Hudson’s attorney Laurel Kelly Young says in a brief accompanying a motion for relief from judgment filed Dec. 7, 2022. “This was a prosecution that was fraught with corruption. In light of the bad faith of the Detroit Police and/or the prosecution, they obtained a false conviction of a man who is actually innocent.”

She asks for reversal of his conviction, or that the court order an evidentiary hearing to expand the record.

“It’s been very hard and depressing for us all knowing our brother is incarcerated for something he didn’t do,” Hudson’s brother Mark Hudson told VOD.  “All because he  testified against some cops that robbed him. During his trial they even arrested me in front of the jury in a case of mistaken identity. Our family won’t be complete until our brother is back home.”

A second brother, Percy Hudson. told VOD today he was charged with “obstruction of justice” in an assault on the daughter of the key prosecution witness at Hudson’s trial, but the young woman later testified in court in his support. He was charged April 15, 2000 during his brother’s trial after he and other family members testified for Nicholas. The case was finally dismissed on October 30, 2000 according to court records.

Third Circuit Court Judge Mark T. Slavens.

“My dad being in prison serving a life sentence for a crime he didn’t commit has been traumatic,” Nicholas Hudson’s daughter Ann (Hudson) White told VOD. “He’s a very active father and grandfather, so missing birthdays, holidays, graduations, seeing the birthing of his grandchildren, and even my wedding are all things that me and my family were robbed of. We can never get those moments back. The prison system doesn’t make visiting a pleasant experience for us at all. We are treated like criminals as well, only able to show affection in the beginning of our visit and at the end.”

(UPDATED): Hudson is now awaiting a hearing in front of 3rd Circuit Court Judge Mark T. Slavens on his motion for relief, which tells a harrowing story of witness round-ups, police coercion, and threats to charge witnesses and take their children. His case was recently re-assigned from the docket of Judge Bradley Cobb. A “post-conviction” event is posted for June 28, 2023 on Judge Slavens’ docket.

It also lays out Brady v. Maryland violations, including hiding the ID’s of eyewitnesses, a likely suspect, and a police report by a woman who lived with the murder victim.  She told police the day after the murder that a different man had an ongoing conflict with Harris and was a likely suspect, but police never investigated him. See defense brief and exhibits linked below story.

The Wayne Co. Prosecutor charged that Hudson murdered Ivory “Chip” Harris Aug. 19, 1999, shooting him outside 14555 Stout on the city’s west side, allegedly because Hudson didn’t want drug dealers on his street.

Harris was killed just after he allegedly robbed Janet Inge, who lived at that address and was a self-admitted crack addict. They said he took a TV set to recoup $100 he gave her to let him sell drugs from the house. Police reported that they found the TV close to his body  outside the house.

The trial started April 11, 200o, after charges were dismissed during Hudson’s  first preliminary exam Nov. 11, 1999 due to a recantation by the mother of Hudson’s child, Kiahrenise Ransburg.

The only civilian witness at the exam, Ransburg testified she lied about Hudson to police after she was arrested and held along with his brothers, father, and others during witness round-ups for the case. She said Officer Lonze Reynolds threatened to charge her in the Harris murder, and take her 4-year-old child.

The DPD conducted rampant and unconstitutional witness dragnets throughout  the 1990’s. They held  those arrested in DPD HQ lock-ups for days, to obtain the testimony they desired.

In a 2007 deposition for the case of Moore v. City of Detroit, then DPD Det. Joann Kinney endorsed such round-ups. She claimed “probable cause” was the DPD’s BELIEF that a person MAY be involved in the crime, and “detention” was not the same as “arrest.” Regarding detained witnesses, she said “we may set them aside until they’re willing to cooperate.” Kinney has worked for Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy since 2012 after leaving DPD.

DETROIT FREE PRESS ARTICLE PUBLISHED MARCH 9, 2001

The Detroit Free Press reported in 2001 that the DPD arrested far more people during murder investigations than any other city in the country, three for every case. (The Freep also reported that in 1999, Detroit police had the highest rate of killing civilians in the U.S.)

The witness dragnets were one cause of the DOJ’s 11-year oversight of the DPD, which concluded in 2013 with a consent decree. Among other issues,  the decree said DPD must “require written supervisory review of arrests for probable cause, as well as prohibit the detention or conveyance of an individual without reasonable suspicion, probable cause or consent from the individual.”

Officers involved in Hudson’s case  ardently engaged in such witness round-ups, coercion, and threats in other cases as well, according to Hudson’s motion for relief from judgment. (See box at left.)

DETAILS OF THE NICHOLAS HUDSON CASE

Janet Inge, a self-admitted crack cocaine addict who is now deceased, was the Prosecution’s chief “eyewitness” at Hudson’s trial. Attachments to the defense brief include four contradictory statements she gave to police. Her live-in boyfriend, who told police he had put a stop to Harris’ drug sales at the house, said Inge could not have seen the shooting.

In a notarized affidavit signed in 2013, he swore that she was with him inside the house at the time, high on crack, and often told lies. He said the two first heard gunshots outside, and then a man came to their door to say there was a body on the street. He said police had coerced him to testify against Hudson. He said he testified only that he heard Inge say that she saw Hudson shoot Harris, but was never asked whether that was possible. (See affidavit below story.)

TV set police found near Ivory Harris’ body after he was killed.

Hudson’s brother Mark Hudson and five others testified at his trial that he was with them at the time Harris was killed, not at the scene of the crime. Hudson lived down the street on Stout, but the alibi witnesses said they and Hudson drove back to his house from other locations after police had already cordoned off the scene at 14555 Stout after Harris was killed.

Roy Collier and his cousin Mario Collier said they rode in the car with Ivory Harris to the house at 14555 Stout, and stayed outside while Harris went inside with another man, who police never identified, a violation of Brady V. Maryland. No statement from the other man was obtained and/or included in Hudson’s file.

Neither cousin could identify Hudson in a police photo line-up Nov. 11, 1999. Roy Collier later said Det. Reynolds coerced him into testifying against Hudson.

Evidence technician drawings from scene of Ivory Harris murder.

DPD Sgt. Henry Ellis, first on the scene, wrote, “Writer believes Mr Blue and Ms Inge are good suspects because the compl took their tv. If that doesn’t work out, Mr Gardner might need a second look because the compl was trying to set up a dope house in his area.”

“Gardner” was the man police said controlled drug trafficking in the area. Police claimed Hudson killed Harris because he didn’t want drug sales on the street where he lived.

Young’s brief on behalf of Hudson theorizes that the fourth man in the car with Ivory Harris and the Collier cousins when they went to 14555 Stout address actually shot Harris after discovering that Harris “had botched his task of expanding their drug distribution to Stout St.”

“The police had investigated (name redacted) in conjunction with this case and shared none of it with the defense,” the brief says. “It appears from the suppressed documents that Ivory Harris and (name redacted) had been beefing for years. . . .(Name redacted) was intentionally suppressed by the 6th precinct to guarantee Nicholas Hudson’s conviction in retribution for Nicholas Hudson testifying in federal court regarding corruption in the 6th Precinct.”

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VOD has separately found that Hudson’s trial AP Michael J. King also represented the prosecution on behalf of notorious jail-house snitch Joe Twilley on July 29, 1994, at his re-sentencing hearing in front of Judge John Shamo. Shamo reduced Twilley’s sentence on other charges to time served after testimony from Detroit cop Dale Collins who said he aided police in at least 20 other cases.  http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Twilley.Resentencing-1.pdf

Testimony from Twilley and Collins was instrumental in the cases of multiple Wayne County defendants whose convictions were later overturned, including those Wayne County’s Conviction Integrity Unit says it exonerated.

Twilley’s role and that of other such informants was detailed in a series of articles in Truth Out magazine, featuring what the publication called “The Ring of Snitches.” One expert estimates that up to 80% of Wayne Co. convictions in the 90’s were false. Ring of Snitches: How Detroit Police Slapped False Murder Convictions on Young Black Men – Truthout.

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TAMMY SOLOMON, NICHOLAS HUDSON’S SISTER, ADDS:

Nicholas Hudson visits with his granddaughter Aamilah, born since his imprisonment. Photo: Ann (Hudson) White

The impact of having a loved one wrongfully incarcerated is very hard on a person mentally, emotionally, physically. The fact that my brother has been locked up for over 20 plus years has been one of the hardest things to endure. Nicholas has missed out on so many life events and lost close family and friends all because of the same justice system that is supposed to give fair and equal justice.

It allowed criminal manipulation and dishonesty to control the narrative of my brother’s life. His case is one of many where lies, coercion and even wrongful handling of evidence cost my brother his freedom.

Nicholas Hudson with grandkids Aamilah and Aaron White, Jr. Photo: Ann (Hudson) White

Our family has suffered so much by Nicholas being locked up and not being able to give much needed support to us especially to me during my bouts with mental illness, feeling as if I’ve let him down for not being capable of fighting for true justice for him about a crime that I as well as the judicial system knows that he didn’t commit. No one should have to go through birthdays, graduations, weddings and yes, even funerals while fighting for the release of a loved one. I see how easy it is to be locked up through my brother’s painful experience yet it’s a hard and long struggle. The laws that we have should be changed and updated to make it just as easy to be free when you’re wrongfully convicted of a crime that you didn’t commit.

The loss of freedom, the inability to get a job, or other things that are taken from you once you’ve been labeled a convicted felon and you’re eventually exonerated, you still wear that layer of being called a criminal. My brother Nicholas Hudson and the many more men and women who have been placed in a prison or jail for cooked up charges or false identification and so many other things need a system to figure out a way to fight just as hard to get them out as they fought to put them behind bars. 

RELATED DOCUMENTS:

Brief and exhibits:

http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Nicholas-Hudson-brief-Laurel-Kelly-Young-2.pdf.  and  http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/NIcholas-Hudson-Brief-Attachments6797.pdf

Joann Kinney Deposition:

http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Joann-Kinney-deposition-Moore_v_Detroit_City_of_et_al__miedce-07-11787__0020.5.pdf

Witness affidavit by man with chief prosecution witness at time of murder

http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Jimmie-Blue-affidavit-2.pdf

Transcript of Joe Twilley Resentencing:

http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Twilley.Resentencing-1.pdf

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URGENT: Voice of Detroit is a pro bono newspaper, now devoting itself entirely to stories related to our PRISON NATION and POLICE STATE. Funds needed now to pay quarterly web hosting fee of $460.00, due May 19, 2023. VOD will disappear from the web if fee not paid.

VOD’s editors and reporters, most of whom live on fixed incomes or are incarcerated, are not paid for their work. Ongoing costs include quarterly web charges of $460.00, P.O. box fee of $200/yr. and other costs including utility and internet bills, costs for research including court records and internet fees, office supplies, gas, etc.

Please DONATE TO VOD at:

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

CASH APP 313-825-6126 MDianeBukowski

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While working with a CIU can provide hope, there are risks.

Attorneys who work in a CIU are not defense lawyers.

CIU attorneys are still prosecutors, and working with them still carries great risks for incarcerated people, especially those without lawyers.

Nothing you say in person or in writing to a CIU lawyer is confidential. 

CIU could uncover information that opens the applicant or their friends and family members up to prosecution for new crimes or jeopardizes the applicant’s options for parole and probation

VOD discovered this article from the Criminal Legal News while investigating issues about the Wayne County Conviction Integrity Unit’s practices with several defendants whose cases have been covered in VOD. Reprinted with photos added by VOD.

By Marissa Boyers Bluestine, Kia Hall Hayes

MARCH 15, 2022

What You Need to Know Before Contacting a Conviction Integrity Unit | Criminal Legal News

Over the past several years, more and more prosecutors have created conviction integrity units (“CIUs”), or conviction review units (“CRUs”), in their offices. While still primarily used in offices serving bigger cities, such as Philadelphia, Chicago, or Detroit, many offices in smaller jurisdictions are also developing processes to review wrongful conviction claims. Working with a CIU or CRU can have tremendous benefits for convicted individuals, but working with a unit carries very real risks, especially for someone working without an attorney. In the best case, the CIU could agree the applicant’s wrongful conviction claim merits relief and support vacating the conviction rather than fighting against the petition in court.

But the CIU could also uncover information that opens the applicant or their friends and family members up to prosecution for new crimes or even jeopardizes the applicant’s options for parole and probation. For these reasons, incarcerated individuals applying to CIUs must understand the benefits and risks of working with a CIU before applying to one.

A CIU is a special unit within a state or county prosecutors’ office dedicated to reviewing claims of wrongful convictions from people convicted by that office. No state or county requires that a prosecutor’s office has a CIU. It is entirely within the elected or head prosecutor’s discretion to decide whether to have a unit or not and how that unit will run. There is no right to have a case reviewed by the unit, and any decision the DAs office makes about an application can’t be appealed.

The work CIUs do goes beyond investigating individual claims of wrongful conviction. Most CIUs are involved in creating policies for their offices and conducting trainings on the factors that lead to wrongful convictions such as faulty forensics, false confessions, or eyewitnesses led through a flawed identification procedure to make an incorrect identification. But at the center of the units’ operations is investigating wrongful convictions.

The types of cases CIUs investigate can vary from office to office. Some will only investigate cases where the applicant claims they had no involvement in the underlying crime (usually referred to as “actual” or “factual” innocence). Most will also investigate cases where the applicant claims their conviction “lacks integrity” due to procedural or constitutional violations.

_____________________________________________________________

Read Wayne County procedures published on their website Conviction Integrity Unit | Prosecutor (waynecounty.com)

Newman

Excerpt: Is CIU part of the appellate/post-conviction process provided by Michigan law? No. There are important differences between a review by CIU and any appellate filings. CIU was not created by statute, its investigations are not part of a court action, and it is not governed by court rules of procedure. CIU does not focus on determining whether important constitutional rights were violated, it focuses on determining whether an innocent person has been wrongfully convicted.  (r) Wayne Co. CIU Director Valerie Newman at 2016 prayer breakfast for Davontae Sanford.

REQUEST FOR STAY ON COURT PRODEEDINGS RE: INNOCENCE CLAIMS:        VOD has found this language recently included on an order in one pending case. 

____________________________________________________________

These units usually have at least one staff attorney and often an investigator so they can conduct an independent investigation. During its investigation phase, a CIU often will take many steps to conduct a full re-investigation of a case.

That could mean interviewing witnesses, finding witnesses who never testified at trial, conducting forensic or scientific testing of relevant evidence, reviewing police or other government files, and sharing those files with an applicant’s attorney. Because these investigations occur outside the regular proceedings of the judicial system, prosecutors aren’t focused on statutory or procedural issues. Rather, the purpose of the investigation is to determine whether the person convicted is the person who committed the crime.

If evidence developed or uncovered during the investigation proves the applicant’s innocence—or even if the evidence undermines the conviction to the point the prosecutors no longer have faith in it—the CIU can support the applicant’s request for post-conviction relief. Even if the evidence doesn’t prove the applicant’s innocence, CIUs can still work with an applicant’s counsel to negotiate a lower sentence or even reduced charges.

The goal of a well-functioning CIU is to review cases as objectively as possible, without considering what legal arguments may have been made and rejected before. Where a DA’s office may have taken a position that a given conviction should stand, a CIU looks at the case in a different light by focusing on the facts, not the law or procedural defenses. Often—61 times in 2020 alone those CIUs support a petition for vacatur (reversing a conviction) in court.

WHAT UNREPRESENTED PEOPLE NEED TO KNOW

Davontae Sanford was 14 when charged and convicted of 4 murders he did not commit. The Wayne Co. Prosecutor and the Detroit Police knew from eyewitness testimony the date of the crime in 2007 that he was not the killer, according to a 110 pp. Michigan State Police Report. Wayne Co. Prosecutor Kym Worthy kept Davontae in an adult prison for nine years although the real killer confessed just after Sanford was sentenced. To this day, Worthy denies Sanford is innocent. 

Most people writing to CIUs are not represented by counsel. While some CIUs will not work with people who do not have an attorney representing them, many will. Indeed, for some units, pro se applications for assistance make up well over 70% of the cases under review.

But, while working with a CIU can provide hope, there are risks. People reaching out to a CIU need to know how that unit operates and be aware of not inadvertently waiving otherwise protected information.

First and foremost, attorneys who work in a CIU are not defense lawyers.

They do not, and never will, represent someone who has written to them. They are prosecutors who investigate wrongful conviction claims, and they do not provide legal advice to people who have written to them.

It can be used against you for the case being reviewed or even for other criminal activity for which you were never prosecuted. In addition, in many states anything that is in a prosecutor’s file is subject to right to know or freedom of information laws. That means what you provide to a CIU can end up in the hands of a reporter or anyone else whose request to see the file is granted. Once you provide information to a CIU you can’t take it back.

As mentioned above, the CIU will conduct an investigation if they choose to review your case. An investigation means they will contact every person in the case or who has information about the crime. That could include your family members or loved ones.

THE CIU WILL WANT TO TALK WITH YOUR LAWYERS

To conduct a thorough investigation, the CIU may want to talk to the attorneys who represented you at trial, on appeal, or in post-conviction proceedings. The CIU may also want to review your past attorneys’ files and the files of any attorney or innocence organization currently representing you or with whom you’re working.

You should understand your attorneys are required by law to keep confidential any information they learned about your case from representing you—including the contents of their files. They cannot share their knowledge of your case or their files with the CIU without your permission. You can choose to allow your attorneys to share this information if you want to.

If a CIU requires you to waive attorney-client privilege to have your case reviewed, you should be very cautious.

Also, any communication between you and your attorneys—letters, conversations, messages, and so on—about the case is considered a privileged communication the attorney cannot reveal to the CIU without your permission.

Wayne Co. Prosecutor Kym Worthy (seated) with Atty. Gabi Silver (l) and CIU head Valerie Newman (r) behind her, during announcement of Richard Phillips’ exoneration March 25, 2018

You may not know all the information your former or present attorneys have in their files; they may have information linking you or people you know to a crime. You may need to decide if you will permit your past and any current attorneys to share what they know about the case, their communications to you and from you, and their case files with the CIU. In making that decision, you may want to consult with a lawyer who is not part of the CIU.

While the CIU may begin reviewing your application even if you decide not to share   or files with the CIU, at some point they may need to speak with your lawyers. The CIU may advise you that their investigation cannot be completed and a decision cannot be made on your claim without speaking with your past attorneys and/or reviewing their case files. At that point, you will need to decide if you are willing to waive your rights and give your past lawyers permission to share their information, case files, and communications with you to the CIU.

Families demand FREE THEM ALL at Wrongful Conviction Rally June 4, 2021 at Detroit FMHJ Courthouse

Many times, when convicted individuals write to a prosecutor’s CIU, they send long letters talking about their prosecution, conviction, and appeal. But these narratives often have information which would otherwise be privileged: information about the legal strategy, things your lawyer said, and even why the person decided not to testify at trial are all topics that are privileged and that don’t have to be disclosed. If you reach out to a CIU or are completing paperwork for them, make sure to keep the communication focused solely on the facts of the case or what happened. Talking about anything related to conversations you had with your attorney or decisions you made after consulting with them could inadvertently waive those privileges going forward—even without you realizing you’ve done it.

CONCLUSION

The increase of CIU units nationwide has given wrongly-convicted individuals another potential avenue to win their freedom. But CIUs vary greatly in the cases they accept and in the way that they operate. CIU’s review cases from a more objective viewpoint than the appellate unit of DAs offices, but CIU attorneys are still prosecutors, and working with them still carries great risks for incarcerated people, especially those without lawyers. Before reaching out to a CIU for help, incarcerated people need to understand how the CIU in their jurisdiction is run, and how working with them could potentially help or hurt their case. 

Marissa Boyers Bluestine is an Assistant Director of the Quattrone Center for the Fair Administration of Justice at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. She joined the Quattrone Center after a decade leading the Pennsylvania Innocence Project, where she spearheaded the reversal of 14 wrongful convictions.

Kia Hall Hayes joined the Quattrone Center after working for eight years as a staff attorney at the Innocence Project New Orleans, where she helped secure the release of six individuals who served a total of 146 years for crimes they did not commit.

Gov’t. Misconduct and Convicting the Innocent
The Role of Prosecutors, Police and Other Law Enforcement – Nat’l Registry of Exonerations

http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Government_Misconduct_and_Convicting_the_Innocent-2.pdf

 2016 Conviction based on Mistaken Witness ID, False/ Misleading Forensic Evidence, Official Misconduct, Inadequate Legal Defense — NRE

Michigan Innocence Clinic researched case, presented to newly-formed Macomb County ‘Conviction Integrity Unit’

Store clerk who testified as eyewitness positively ID’s Howell, testimony called into question due to police coercion, cross-racial issue, et. al.

(Videos, photos added by Voice of Detroit.)

From left: Student-attorneys Eugene Lee and Lauren Jung, Mack Howell, student-attorney Rob Harrington, and Dave Moran, co-director of Michigan Innocence Clinic (Photo: Michigan Innocence Clinic)

By Maurice Possley

March 28, 2023 

Mack Howell – National Registry of Exonerations (umich.edu)

Mack Howell (center) with nephew Dwayne Howell at right during press conference on release.

Shortly before 1 a.m. on April 3, 2014, 46-year-old Roselyn Gaston was the only employee on duty at the 7-Eleven convenience store at 10 Mile and Kelly Roads in Eastpointe, Michigan, when a man dressed in black and a ski mask covering all but his eyes burst through the front door. The man was holding a cardboard Frappuccino box in one hand which he said was covering a gun.
“Give me the money!” he shouted. “I don’t want to hurt you. I have a gun. Give me the money under the drawer.”

Gaston, who had been stacking coffee cups and lids, opened the cash register and pulled out the drawer to show that there was no money underneath the drawer. She said the man grabbed money from the drawer and ran out the front door. Gaston pressed a silent alarm and called 911.

Gaston, who was white, told police that the robber was a Black man, about 6 feet tall and weighing 180 pounds.

Among the officers who responded was Brian Dobrzycki, from the nearby Roseville police department. Dobrzycki was close by on patrol with his German Shepherd scent dog, Cato. Dobrzycki brought the dog into the store where a $20 bill had apparently been dropped by the robber. The dog circled around and was not given anything the robber had handled. The dog started tracking outside the front door which had been trafficked by police, the robber and perhaps customers.

A Roseville PD K-9 dog was used to ID ‘skin raft’ particles at 7-11 store

Several feet from the front door, next to a garbage can, the dog alerted to a paper bag. Inside the bag was a nearly empty Milwaukee’s Finest beer can with a drinking straw inserted into the opening. The dog then continued on, heading to the rear of the store where it stopped next to a concrete wall.

About 7 a.m., the owner of the 7-Eleven, Fazal Abbas, arrived. He viewed store surveillance video from the inside of the store, and created a compact disc of the 86-seconds from the entry to the exit of the robber. He turned that disc over to the police. Abbas also viewed video from an exterior camera, but did not save it, and a week later it was taped over.

Eastpointe police detective Matthew Hambright sent the paper sack, beer can and straw to the Michigan State police crime lab. A fingerprint on the beer can was deemed suitable for comparison. DNA testing was conducted on the beer can. In June, 2014, the profile of DNA found on the lip of the beer can was submitted to the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) and was identified as that of 53-year-old Mack Howell. The DNA profile of a female was found on the straw and could not be linked to anyone. Howell was excluded as the source of the fingerprint on the beer can.

Based on the DNA finding, Howell became the primary suspect, even though he was 5’6” tall and weighed 213 pounds.

‘Suggestive line-up’ conducted by Eastpointe P.O. Matthew Hambright 

Detective Hambright would later testify that he did a frame by frame analysis of the interior store video to capture the moment when the robber left the 7-Eleven, and passed by a measuring stick next to the front door designed to help clerks assess the height of robbers.

Hambright said he compared his own height of 6’4” to the measuring stick, and determined that it was an accurate gauge. He said that based on the surveillance video, the robber was 5’6” tall. Hambright called Gaston and asked if she could be wrong about the height and weight. Hambright later testified that she said that the robber was a bit taller than her and she was 5’4 1/2 inches tall.

On September 19, 2014, Hambright took a photographic lineup to Gaston’s home. This lineup would later be criticized as suggestive. Four of the six photographs showed Black men with their eyes half-closed. The other two – Howell, who was in the #1 position, and another Black man, who was in the #5 position – had brighter eyes.

After looking at the photographs, Gaston selected #5, who was a filler. Hambright asked, “Are you sure?” Gaston said she was not. Hambright asked her to look again. Gaston used her fingers to cover up all of the faces of the individuals in the lineup so that only their eyes were visible. She then selected Howell, and said she was 100 percent sure that he was he robber.

Nearly a year later, on August 7, 2015, Howell was arrested. During questioning, he denied being involved in the robbery. He was charged with armed robbery.

At a preliminary hearing in September 2015, Gaston, who was 5’4” tall, changed her description of the robber. She said the robber was 5’8” tall and had a “medium build.” She said she was 100 percent certain of her identification of Howell.

Trial Judge Edward Servitto

On August 23, 2016, Howell went to trial in Macomb County Circuit Court. Gaston testified and again said she was 100 percent sure that Howell was the robber. She said she would “never forget” the robber’s eyes.

Abbas, the owner of the 7-Eleven, testified that he viewed the surveillance video of the exterior of the store. He said the robber stopped briefly at the dumpsters and then continued to the rear of the property. He said he did not provide the video to the police because no one asked him for it. He also said the video quality was not good enough to identify the robber.

Dobrzycki testified about how he and his “canine partner,” Cato, came to the scene. He said he brought the dog into the store where the dog “scented” into the area. Asked by the prosecutor, Sunita Doddamani, to explain, Dobrzycki said, “People drop skin rafts when they are doing something; when their adrenaline is going, they drop more skin rafts [than] a normal person that walks around.” “What’s a skin raft?” Doddamani asked.

Trial AP Sunita Doddamani

“It’s skin follicles that actually fall that you can’t even see from your body,” Dobrzycki said. “The skin rafts are falling from everyone’s body on an everyday basis, and when you’re doing something you’re not supposed to, you’re dropping more than…a normal person.”

Howell’s defense attorney, Arlene Woods, objected, arguing that Dobrzycki was not qualified to testify about skin droppings. Judge Edward Servitto Jr. agreed. “Under certain circumstances he’s not qualified to say that more droppings are going to occur under certain circumstances, but otherwise there are droppings from the human body, the dog’s olfactory has the ability to pick up those rafts,” the judge said.

Dobrzycki testified that the dog was allowed to roam inside the store where the robbery occurred and then was taken to the front door. Tracking began just outside the front door, Dobrzycki said. “He begins tracking…and he, what we call downs or alerts on a beverage container that’s right outside the front door.”

“What do you mean to down and alert?” Doddamani asked.

“He is basically telling me that [it] has fresh human odor and that’s part of the track,” Dobrzycki testified. The dog will actually lie down with its front paws in front of the alerted item, Dobrzycki said. “He’ll just down until we tell him to begin to track again from that item.” Continue reading →

Ricardo Ferrell, VOD field editor

Invite from Ricardo Ferrell, Voice of Detroit Field Editor

You are cordially invited to join the ACLU, The U of M Sentence Commutation Project and the Michael Thompson Clemency Project for a forum with prominent clemency experts to discuss actionable solutions to mass incarceration in Michigan’s Department of Corrections.

The panel will be moderated by Hill Harper and include former Governor of Oregon Kate Brown, Washtenaw County Prosecutor Eli Savit, and winner of the ACLU Award for Leadership in Clemency Michael Thompson.

We will be unveiling a “Clemency Menu” with recommendations to the Whitmer Administration for parameters around which to base a largescale statewide clemency initiative. The Clemency Menu is a joint creation of the Michael Thompson Clemency Project, The ACLU and the U of M Sentence Commutation Project.

Forum is April 17 at U of M Law School, Hutchins Hall, from 5-6:30 to be followed by reception.  Click here to preregister

Sincerely,

Obituary for Lovie Mae Rimmer | Q A Cantrell Funeral Services LLC.

My momma is my heart. On February 13th, 2023, at 11:00a.m., my heart stopped beating forever.

By Ricky Rimmer-Bey

Ricky Rimmer, son of Lovie Mae RImmer, during youth

In preparation of this missive for my mother, this is the hardest communication I have had to address due to the fact my emotions are RAW. With MOMMALOVE, I could talk about any subject and she would always give me her honest opinion. When I would call home, before hanging up, she would always ask me, “RICKY, when are you coming home?” I would tell her about the filing of my case, and that I would be home soon.

I recall as a youngster coming to her with a falsehood that I’d prepared on my own, telling her that a group of boys had a hit out on me because I owed them five dollars. She gave me the five and watched me go to the corner store to buy five dollars worth of candy. She didn’t whip me for the lie, but sat me down and explained to me the meaning of being truthful. I learned then to not lie to her from that point on. She explained that by telling her the truth, that she would always know how to defend me. In later years, MOMMALOVE would always tell this story to many of my friends. We would all get a good laugh from it.

I love telling her stories of my journey here in prison. I would tell her stories about Abner,(my brother in -law), how he would squeeze a penny until the rust color would fade; she would crack up and that would make my day. Her and Cat told me how Abner had to go to the hospital due to eating good food at home after eating prison food for the past 45 years. I told MOMMALOVE that Abner ate cat head for 45 years, that all they had to do was feed him food out of the garbage can and he would have been straight. She and Cat got a chuckle out of that.

Everyone that knew MOMMALOVE, loved her dearly. She was a mother and granny to all. All of my Moors and prison family loved her dearly, they all call her MOMMALOVE.

I know it is not well to weep because of death, that it is selfishness to wish to call back departed souls. But it hurts so hard. My greatest fear came to reality when I called home and Cat told me she was at the hospital with MOMMALOVE , that she had a stroke. MOMMALOVE passed three days after her born day. I have never been to the zoo. We had plans to go to the zoo together. I will still go in remembrance of her, yet we all know and understand it will not be the same.

My momma is my heart. On February 13th, 2023, at 11:00a.m., my heart stopped beating forever.

Ricky Rimmer was wrongfully convicted of murder in 1976, and has been in prison since. His Motion for a New Trial is now slated for a hearing in front of 3rd Circuit Court Judge Christopher Blount on April 6, 2023. His supporters had hoped that his mother would see his exoneration and release in her lifetime. But he and his family are continuing that battle in her memory now.

MICH. LIFER RICKY RIMMER CITES RACIST, VIOLENT HISTORY OF DPD COPS HAIDYS, HARRIS IN MOTION FOR NEW TRIAL | VOICE OF DETROIT: The city’s independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought

MICHIGAN LIFER RICKY RIMMER-BEY: CONVICTED DRUG DEALER COP JAMES HARRIS FRAMED ME FOR MURDER | VOICE OF DETROIT: The city’s independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought

Carl Hubbard (l) and Curtis Collins (r) say Hubbard’s wrongful murder conviction resulted from the actions of (center clockwise) former Judge Richard Hathaway, DPD Sgts. JoAnn Kinney and Ronald Gale, AP James Gonzalez, and others, including DPD Sgt. Richard Ivy.

Hubbard, new atty. tell 6th District Judges he has “a colorable claim of actual innocence;” based on “extremely thin evidence at trial,” witness statements not seen by jury, DPD cops’ history of frame-ups, other issues

Court, prosecutor, DPD officers involved in alleged frame-up are now on staff of Wayne Co. Prosecutor Kym Worthy or have been in recent years

By Diane Bukowski

February 14, 2023

U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, Cincinnati, Ohio

DETROIT — Carl Hubbard has been battling his conviction of the 1992 murder of Rodnell Penn on Detroit’s east side against all odds, largely on his own, filing impressive pro se pleadings in recent years, even while surviving a severe case of COVID-19.

Now he has made it to the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, after U.S. District Court Judge David Lawson granted him a certificate of appealability on one issue: whether he has a “colorable claim of actual innocence that excuses the untimeliness of his habeas petition.” The Sixth Circuit has appointed Washington, D.C.-based attorney Alexander Kazam to represent him.

Atty. Alexander Kazam

“Rodnell Penn was shot and killed on a street in a high-crime neighborhood in Detroit on a winter night in 1992,” Kazam’s brief begins.

“The State charged Carl Hubbard with the murder, but Hubbard has always maintained his innocence. The State presented no eyewitnesses, and never recovered any physical evidence connecting Hubbard to the crime, no murder weapon, no forensic evidence, and no stolen property.  .  . Meanwhile Hubbard denied even being at the scene at the time of the murder. He presented an alibi through the testimony of two friends who confirmed that he was at their home that night. Nevertheless, Hubbard was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.”

Read entire brief at http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Carl-Hubbard-6th-Circuit-Court-Appellate-Brief-12-19-2022.pdf

3960 Gray, Detroit , MI

Hubbard was convicted of the 1992 murder of Rodnell Penn outside 3960 Gray, after a three-day bench trial in front of Recorders Court Judge Richard Hathaway, who sentenced him to life without parole.

Afterwards, an eyewitness to the Penn murder came forward and swore in a detailed affidavit that he saw another man gun Penn down outside a home at 3960 Gray near Mack Avenue. But police never interviewed that witness, or others who lived nearby who agreed on the likely identity and motive of the killer. The eyewitness said he was across the street from the address at the time, but was afraid to come forward because he feared retaliation.

36th DC Judge Ronald Giles, formerly Hubbard’s trial atty. See affidavit below.

He said he saw Penn and another man arguing, and when Penn walked away, the man shot him in the back, then stood over him and repeatedly shot him again on the ground. He said the killer got into a car with several other men and left. (Names of this witness and alleged killer withheld due to pending court action and safety concerns.)

His affidavit and dozens more from parties who support Hubbard’s innocence claims are included with Kazam’s brief.  Hubbard gathered their affidavits together over the years, never ceasing his fight.

Hubbard’s conviction was primarily due to “especially critical” testimony by Curtis Collins, 19, that he saw Hubbard in the area of the murder, according to his attorney at trial, Ronald Giles (now a Judge at Detroit’s 36th District Court.)

After Collins recanted on the first day of trial, Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor James Gonzalez drove him from the stand, ordering his arrest by DPD officer Ronald Gale directly after he testified in front of Judge Hathaway. Collins was held in the Wayne County Jail for two days.

Collins has repeatedly sworn since that DPD Homicide Investigator Sgt. JoAnn Kinney, officers Richard Ivy and Ronald Gale, AP James Gonzales, and others threatened to have his parole revoked because they found drugs on him, and to charge him with perjury and the murder itself, if he did not change his testimony. Fearing a return to prison, he did so on the third day of Hubbard’s trial.

http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Joann-Kinney-deposition-Moore_v_Detroit_City_of_et_al__miedce-07-11787__0020.5.pdf

Sgt. Kinney, by then a detective with the Wayne Co. Prosecutor’s Office, testified regarding similar DPD practices in the case of Moore v. City of Detroit, USDC 2:07-cv-11787. She claimed they were legally valid police  actions used routinely during the now infamous “Ring of Snitches” era in the 1990’s and continuing into the next century. She said police BELIEFS constituted “probable cause” for witness “detentions” in the Wayne County Jail, denying they were “arrests.”

Kinney put her beliefs into action in the notorious case of Thoanchelle Taylor, a mother of two. Police locked her up as a witness to a murder in 1992 and held her until her 12-year-old daughter and 6-year-old son implicated her in the death.

Joann Kinney today/FB

Judge Kathleen McDonald said she was outraged that police charged her with murder without a “scintilla of evidence.”  She added, “If I have ever seen a case where the police have manufactured the facts, this is one. I have never had facts as egregious as this case.”

“Kinney testified that she had Taylor locked up as a witness for days without charges against her and said there was no standard procedure as to how long witnesses could be held without being arrested. Kinney also admitted threatening to take Taylor’s children away if she did not cooperate. . .” the Detroit News reported at the time.

Kinney was also involved in eliciting a confession from a 12-year-old girl to a charge of murder of a child she was babysitting, by promising she could go home if she confessed. The confession was thrown out by a juvenile court judge in 1992.

Curtis Collins has affirmed his recantation multiple times, at Hubbard’s trial, in multiple affidavits and on a video for Voice of Detroit (above).

A Detroit police officer gave Collins a polygraph exam in 2017, recording his impressive detailed account of the alleged frame-up before proceeding to the questions for the exam. The examiner found that Collins was truthful when he said he did not see Hubbard kill Penn, and told him at the end that he basically believed his account of the entire frame-up, including that he was not in the area, despite his doubts that the police would have pulled off the conviction solely based on Collins’ testimony.

The pertinent part of the polygraph video below begins at about 17 minutes in, after initial preparations.

Kinney has been employed as a detective by the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office since 2006, one reason Hubbard says he refused to give the Prosecutor’s Conviction Integrity Unit permission to take his case. In response to VOD’s inquiry, Maria Miller, Communications Director for Wayne Co. Prosecutor Kym Worthy, confirmed the following:

“Ms. Kinney is a detective in the WCPO. She does not work on CIU cases. Richard Hathaway [Hubbard’s trial judge] is the Chief Assistant for WCPO. James Gonzales is retired; he was the head of the Special Prosecutions Section. Mr. Gonzales started working in WCPO in the mid-1980’s and retired approximately 4 years ago.”

Regarding Hubbard’s case, Atty. Miller said,

3rd Judicial Circuit Court Judge Lawrence Talon

”Mr. Hubbard sent his case into the WCPO CIU, but later he requested that he no longer wanted his innocence claims investigated, and the case was transferred back to appeals.  He had raised his claims in a Motion for Relief from Judgement before Judge Lawrence Talon. The motion was denied.  He appealed the denial of relief in both the Court of Appeals and MSC culminating in the MSC denying leave to appeal on June 17, 2020.”

Judge Talon’s ruling in Hubbard’s case was based on his assessment that evidence presented by Hubbard was not “newly-discovered” and  that those who signed affidavits were “not credible” in Talon’s view. He did not order an evidentiary hearing to determine the credibility of the statements.

Exonerees Kendrick Scott (2nd from l),  Justly Johnson (r) with Attys. Imran Sayed and David Moran, U-M Innocence Clinic

“Neither the police not the prosecutor intimidated the witness after his initial recanting,” Judge Talon wrote. “The police and prosecutor have not intimidated the witness because the witness was forced to face perjury charges or testify against a man accused of murder. There was no intimidation, only a tough choice that Collins had brought about by his own actions. The prosecutor did not withhold evidence. Neither the police nor the prosecutor had a reason to threaten Collins. As the facts have shown, there was no Brady violation.”

He added, “Defendant argues that he does not need to [show good cause for not raising evidence earlier] because he is actually innocent. However, defendant was seen in the area both before and after the shots. Indeed, Defendant’s multiple lies to the police showed his guilty state of mind. This court also finds that the Defendant’s alibi witnesses were not credible.”

Prior to Talon’s 2019 ruling, the Michigan Supreme Court held in the case of two defendants, Justly Johnson and Kendrick Scott, that only a jury, not the judge, can weigh in on the credibility of witnesses. They also upheld the use of witness affidavits as long as they were not the sole source of an innocence claim. Johnson and Scott went on to be fully exonerated, with the support of the Wayne County CIU, and won an $8 million verdict against the City of Detroit in a civil lawsuit

MSC 154128 PEOPLE OF MI V JUSTLY ERNEST JOHNSON Opinion – Leave Granted – Remand to Tr Ct 07/23/2018 (justia.com)

The Wrongful Conviction Story of Andre Lee Nelson: Joann Kinney got false confession from man who could not read and write, had IQ of 55

Jay Love

Andre Lee Nelson, who is serving life for first-degree murder based on a confession written by Kinney despite his low IQ and inability to read and write, says his case has been languishing with the CIU for five years.

His sister Yolanda Nelson described Kinney’s actions on a recent “Wrongful Conviction Task Force” report by radio personality Jay Love.

See entire video above by clicking link below:

https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/? ref=watch_permalink&v=5398198343642699

WCPO’s communications director Maria Miller commented only, “This case is currently an open file that is awaiting review by the WCPO CIU.”

U.S. v. City of Detroit, Michigan

2:03-cv-72258 | U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan

Detroit police and prosecutor’s practices of witness round-ups and coercion in Hubbard’s the other cases involving Joann Kinney were condemned and banned as unconstitutional by the U.S. Department of Justice, in the 2003 consent decree between the the city and the DOJ. The DOJ alleged a pattern or practice of unconstitutional misconduct by officers of the Detroit Police Department (DPD), including  excessive force, holding cell conditions and arrest and detention policies and practices.

WRITE CARL HUBBARD AT:

Carl Hubbard (MDOC photo)

Carl Hubbard #205988 

Carson City Correctional Facility

10274 Boyer Road
Carson City, MI 48811-9746

RELATED STORIES:

TIME TO FREE CARL HUBBARD; AP GONZALES JAILED KEY PROS. WITNESS AFTER HE RECANTED AT TRIAL | VOICE OF DETROIT: The city’s independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought

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Voice of Detroit is a pro bono newspaper, now devoting itself entirely to stories related to our PRISON NATION and POLICE STATE. Funds needed now to pay quarterly web hosting fee of $460.00, due March 4, 2023. VOD will disappear from the web if fee not paid.

VOD’s editors and reporters, most of whom live on fixed incomes or are incarcerated, are not paid for their work. Ongoing costs include quarterly web charges of $460.00, P.O. box fee of $180/yr. and other costs including utility and internet bills, costs for research including court records and internet fees, office supplies, gas, etc.

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TYREE NICHOLS–photo published by Kansas City Defender

Do not talk to us today about potential for “violence” from protestors, to do so is to appropriate the language and framing of white supremacy. 

                                THE POLICE ARE THE NUCLEUS OF VIOLENCE

“The very idea of being non-violent in this system is laughable because it is erected and maintained through violence at our expense.”

Ryan S

BY RYAN S. & BREANNA BONNER ● JUSTICE ● JANUARY 27, 2023

Stop Telling Black People Not To Riot Over the Lynching of Tyre Nichols (kansascitydefender.com)

[VOD Editor: We have just discovered this newspaper, established by young Blacks after the murder of George Floyd. It is reminiscent of the original Michigan Citizen here, which ceased publication in 2014. KCD broke the story of dozens of Black women missing in Kansas City, some victims of a white supremacist. Please go to the KCD website at Home – Kansas City Defender to see the entire newspaper and donate on its website. ]

Photo by WFLA News–published in Kansas City Defender

Less than two weeks ago, we celebrated the birthday of one of our most prolific leaders, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who famously stated that “the riot is the language of the unheard.” Today, these words ring truer than ever in the wake of the lynching of Tyre Nichols by Memphis police.

In the past week, those who have watched the video of Nichols’ ruthless murder have expressed their disgust, Chief of Police and government leaders alike have urged people not to protest in response to the video.

“There’s a right way and a wrong way to express yourself when you’re upset or angry about something, we need to make sure if there’s that sentiment expressed here it’s done in the right way,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said at today’s press conference in a thinly veiled threat.

President Joe Biden said in a written statement “Violence is destructive and against the law. It has no place in peaceful protests seeking justice.”

But the system brought this upon itself when it barbarically murdered Tyre Nichols — may peace, love and protection be brought to his family. Rest in Power, brother.

Whatever the response of the people, regardless of how visceral, how unorganized, how expressive, whether it is a candlelight vigil or burning down buildings – there can be no condemnation of such actions that are themselves responses to the brazen, vicious violence inflicted daily on the Black community by the systems of policing and white supremacy.

We will no longer be fooled or misled by the media which detracts from the truth and fact of the savagery, the unconscionable brutality of the police.

Protesters face Memphis police officers and state troopers during a six-hour shutdown of the Hernando Desoto bridge on July 10, 2016. Photo by Brandon Dill for MLK50

The police are the nucleus of violence 

They are such when suffocating, shooting, kneeing on the neck, choking and asphyxiating, lynching, beating and tazing, hanging and murdering people, but also when inflicting psychological violence through slave-era patrolling, surveilling and terrorizing our neighborhoods and cities.

Derek Chauvin murders George Floyd May 25, 2020.

Their mere everyday existence is structural violence as it extracts and drains hundreds of millions of dollars that would otherwise be invested in education, healthcare, affordable housing, mental health, childcare and other life-affirming institutions.

The police instead siphon off these necessary community nutrients, acting as a parasite which extracts these resources from our communities – ultimately driving us into homelessness, segregation era education facilities, and children so food and housing insecure that worms eat half of the food they ingest – all while the police purchase multi-million dollar helicopters, military grade vehicles, weaponry and drones.

If we are to discuss violence today, let us discuss this.

Do not talk to us today about potential for “violence” from protestors, to do so is to appropriate the language and framing of white supremacy, to be the slave risking their own life to protect the master’s burning house – it is traitorous to our people.

We urge all Black people, all students, all poets, all dreamers, all blue collar workers, and all those from coast to coast to snap out of their spell of apathy. 

On some level, it is both anger and love that fuel our movements forward towards liberation. And we should be very angry.

Over 1000 National Guard soldiers arrive in Atlanta as all major U.S. cities militarize and prepare for uprisings following the release of the video showing Tyre Nichols’s lynching. Photo from Kansas City Defender

Between the police once again waging warfare on Black Americans for doing everyday tasks, police murdering indigenous protectors from protecting their land against the expansion of military power, and bills across the country stripping Black people from the rights to know their history and their rights to survive, we are warranted anger.

What should first exit our hearts and mouths as we prepare for what is to come – is solidarity, what can we do to support the family and each other – if or when riots do occur, how we can be establishing mutual aid networks and bail funds for these courageous freedom fighters sacrificing their lives and safety to uplift Tyre’s name, these freedom fighters who are demanding a dismantling of this unimaginably destructive system and through their actions saying we will absolutely not allow this to go on with business as usual.

These oppressive systems wreak both physical ills and psychological destruction on our minds. With every outburst of violence as a result of policing, we shrug it off, we keep going with our day in hopes of not being worn down by the reality of our country becoming increasingly unlivable.

We urge every reader to break this cycle.

Instead, take a second and really feel an emotion about the state of our country. Reflect on every Black victim of police violence and feel anger towards a system that encourages and condones this. Consider the Black women who have been missing and killed.

Feel longing, feel hurt, feel anger, feel slighted. Feel human.

Truly, take a moment and mourn for those that you will never meet. We must grieve and grieve publicly. As the quote states “Grief is the last act of love we have to give to our loved ones. Where there is deep grief, there is great love”.

MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE – JANUARY 26: Candlelight vigil in honor of Tyre Nichols at the Tobey Skate Park on January 26, 2023 in Memphis, Tennessee. Photo published in Kansas City Defender

With our collective grief, we re-instill the value in sharing love for every member of our community- both the ones we love for a lifetime, and the ones we love but never get to know.

Next, we must understand collectively that this level of grief should not be necessary; we shouldn’t be losing our community members to state sanctioned violence. Reject the notion that these deaths are inevitable. Reject the idea that some must suffer in order to maintain safety.

Ultimately, reject the notion that the world must continue to look this way.

It doesn’t. We must act, and we must act quickly. The very idea of being non-violent in this system is laughable because it is erected and maintained through violence at our expense.

Stop telling Black people not to riot after the release of the Tyre Nichols Video.

Any form of riot in response to such horrific violence can be described only as sacred and righteous action.

The World’s Most Innovative Black News Startup Home – Kansas City Defender

We are a nonprofit digital startup producing news, digital tools and public services for Black people across the midwest. 

Related, published by Kansas City Defender:

KANSAS CITY POLICE DEPT. UNDER FIRE FOR DENIAL OF KIDNAPPINGS, RAPES AND MURDERS OF BLACK WOMEN | VOICE OF DETROIT: The city’s independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought

Read VOD’s extensive coverage of murders by police in Detroit by searching “police” and names of victims listed below in our search engine.