Meet the Writer from Afghanistan: Zarghuna Kargar

Afghanistani writer, Zarghuna Kargar, shares her experiences with Girl Rising and what it was like getting to know Amina.

Mairead Farrell

“Your minds your strongest weapon, and that’s how we always counteract whatever they do, because they can’t control our minds, they can’t get inside them, and that’s their failure.”
Mairead Farrell

https://www.facebook.com/1MillionVoicesForIrishUnity

Did the Wrong Man Spend 40 Years in Solitary Confinement?

 

 picture from google

By Andrew Cohen

It is now only a matter of weeks, or days perhaps, before Herman Wallace dies of the liver cancer that is ravaging his body. He will likely die in prison, at age 72, without proper medical treatment, after spending nearly four decades in a 6' by 9' cell. He was placed in solitary confinement after being convicted in January 1974 of killing a prison guard at Louisiana's notorious Angola prison. Wallace is black. The guard was white, and so was each member of the southern jury that convicted him.

The case against Wallace was pitifully weak when it was presented to that jury; some of the constitutional infirmities at trial were almost farcical. But over the years the courts of that state, along with Congress and the federal courts, have constructed a mighty wall protecting that jury's verdict. Layer upon layer of procedural protections has been built around it so that today, as Wallace nears death, it is easy to see the vast gulf that exists here between law and justice.

And that, ironically, may be the most important legacy Wallace leaves from his miserable time on this earth. A member of the famed "Angola 3," Wallace in life has been a symbol of many different things to many different people. He has generated more than his share both of pity and scorn. In death, however, he will become a symbol of a justice system that too often prizes finality over accuracy, but without the candor or courage to actually say so. The law says that Herman Wallace got a fair trial. But we all can judge for ourselves what that really meant to a black inmate in Louisiana in 1974.

The Trial

Wallace and three other black prisoners at Angola were charged in May 1972 with the murder of a white guard named Brent Miller. The investigation into the crime was aggressive, naturally, and all of the witnesses, of course, were already incarcerated. There was trouble from the start. The prison warden and the associate warden feuded over how to proceed. At least one inmate later testified that he was beaten during the interrogations that followed. One coerced witness fingered another, who in turned fingered Wallace, who was already well-known to prison officials because of his work on the nascent Angola chapter of the Black Panther Party. Apart from the lack of evidence against him, Wallace was a perfect defendant.

Bloody fingerprints and a knife were found at the crime scene, but none of the prints belonged to Wallace or any of his co-defendants. The state police testified later that although they had on file the fingerprints of every Angola prisoner the bloody prints from the crime scene were checked only against the suspects that prison officials already had identified and just a few more people. Seven witnesses testified that Wallace could not have been at the scene at the time of the crime. Two other witnesses directly implicated Wallace; two others testified against him less directly. Not only was the testimony of these four inmates internally inconsistent, it also was inconsistent with the testimony each of the others had given.
At first, all four co-defendants were represented by the same attorney -- a clear and actionable conflict of interest. Then, midway through the trial, one of Wallace's co-defendants switched sides, made a deal with prosecutors, and became a government witness. During one recess, Chester Jackson left the courtroom as a defendant and returned minutes later, taking a seat with prosecutors at their table. The judge gave Jackson's stunned (now) former attorney all of 30 minutes to "regroup" before requiring him to cross-examine the man who just minutes earlier had been his client. Later, state attorneys would argue that this gave Wallace an advantage because the lawyer had inside information on his former client.
The trial lawyer later said that prosecutors never approached him to ask permission to talk with Jackson. Nor did the judge permit the defense to see two prior written statements Jackson had signed that might have impeached his credibility. In the version of the story Jackson offered at trial, he was able to offer details about the murder -- to implicate Wallace -- even though he said he was hiding behind a wall at the time of the crime. In one of the versions he had signed before trial, he had testified that he had seen, through a window, Wallace stabbing the guard.
In a case with no physical evidence and no confession, the testimonies of the other witnesses against Wallace were both crucial and tainted. One such witness suffered from schizophrenia, a fact hidden from Wallace's attorney. Another witness evidently was at one time during the investigation a suspect in the murder (another fact that was not disclosed at the time of the trial). Yet another inmate, who was not called as a prosecution witness at trial, had given prison officials a statement that might have helped exonerate Wallace. But that statement was never disclosed to the defense.
In the end, after quick deliberations, Wallace was convicted of murder and given a life sentence in Angola -- which meant decades of isolation in a 6' by 9' cell. To make matters worse, his lawyer then failed to appeal his conviction. It would take 16 years, until 1990, before an appellate court took a look at Wallace's case. And by that time, those procedural barriers had begun to pile up. More than 25 years after trial, a hearing commissioner reviewing the record of the case called it "the most disgusting thing I have ever seen." But it didn't matter. That commissioner's recommendation of relief was immediately, and virtually without comment, reversed.
The Next 40 Years: Louisiana
What happened next, what happens so often when the flaws of old tainted trials are exposed to the light of day, is that the gatekeepers of the criminal justice system, the prosecutors and state judges, became more interested in defending the verdict than in testing its accuracy. From 1992 to 2009, confronted with more and more compelling evidence of the constitutional failings of the trial, the Louisiana Supreme Court nonetheless refused on four separate occasions to consider Wallace's claims for relief. To this day, the highest court in that state has never issued a substantive ruling on any of the material issues arising from one of the state's most infamous cases.
Worse, the few dissenting voices that emerged from decades of judicial review were promptly squashed. In 1999, one state appellate judge declared that witness Jackson's mid-trial switch from defendant to prosecution witness suggested the presence of an undisclosed deal with the state. In 2006, another state judge recommended that Wallace's conviction be overturned because the defense was never told at trial about "material impeachment evidence" regarding Hezekiah Brown, the second primary witness against Wallace. When Louisiana's appellate judges reversed these rulings, they did so with virtually no substantive legal analysis.
Wallace's last chance for relief is now pending in federal court. The state's brief is a classic example of the types of procedural arguments states now use to block meaningful appellate review. Twenty-six pages of Louisiana's 64-page brief, for example, are devoted to reminding Chief U.S. District Judge Brian A Jackson that he is duty-bound to reject Wallace's claims unless he finds that the Louisiana courts were both "incorrect" and "unreasonable" in their application of the law. No matter how egregious those state court rulings may be, Louisiana argues, they are presumed to be correct and Wallace must prove otherwise by "clear and convincing" evidence.

Trial prosecutors failed to tell Wallace about a deal with witness Hezekiah Brown? No matter, state lawyers now argue; even if such a deal occurred, it was between the prison warden and the witness, and not between prosecutors and the witness. Brown received special privileges in prison after he incriminated Wallace? Received weekly deliveries of cigarettes and other favors? No matter, state lawyers now argue, because there is scant proof that any agreement existed between the warden and the prisoner before trial. There is scant proof because all of the witnesses now are dead and because Wallace's attorney never appealed the verdict.

So inmate Brown, who was once a suspect in the murder of the guard, later testified against Wallace and received extensive benefits from the warden. Brown was removed from the general prison population. The warden wrote letters on his behalf for parole. And decades later, the warden testified that he had  promised Brown aid before trial because "he had cracked the case for us." Yet none of this was enough to convince the state courts of Louisiana that Brown's testimony might have been tainted and that, even if it weren't, that Wallace was entitled to know about these arrangements at the time of trial.
The state court review of the Wallace verdict, in other words, was deliberately indifferent. But the law accounts for this. It's why there is a federal habeas review -- a procedural mechanism that permits federal judges to give men like Wallace a fairer and more neutral evaluation of their claims. But here, especially, lawmakers and judges have built walls separating law and justice. The Wallace case is a prime example of the ways in which the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act and other statutes have undercut the strength of the Great Writ of Habeas Corpus, a building block of Western law.
The Next 40 Years: The Feds
Wallace filed his last appeal in 2009. It took 18 months for Louisiana to respond. And then it took more than two years -- until September 13th of this year, two weeks ago -- for U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephen C. Riedlinger to issue a ruling on the merits denying all of Wallace's claims for relief. That ruling, styled as a "Report," is a 65-page paean to form over substance, an example of how diligent the law can be in avoiding a search for the truth. First, there was the obligatory recitation of the statutory and case law that has whittled down to a nub the scope of the writ of habeas corpus. Then there was the logic. Here is just one example:

Petitioner asserted that in 1998, 14 years after he was convicted, he obtained documents discovered by co-defendant Woodfox which indicated that the State suppressed evidence that Warden Henderson provided Brown favors and promised to help him obtain a pardon in return for Brown's testimony at the petitioner's trial..
The foundation of the petitioner's Brady claim is centered on testimony of Warden Henderson and corrections officer Bobby Oliveaux at Woodfox's 1998 retrial. Oliveaux testified that Brown was housed at the dog pen and received cigarettes, birthday cakes and incentive wages. Warden Henderson testified essentially that at some unspecified time prior to Brown's trial testimony he promised to help Brown obtain a pardon...
Wallace's Brady claim that the State failed to divulge the fact that Brown had received "favors," such as desirable housing in exchange for his testimony, is without merit. Suppression exists only where a defendant did not - and could not - know about the essential facts that would enable him to take advantage of the evidence... Garretson, the petitioner's attorney, testified... that prior to the petitioner's trial he was aware of the favorable treatment Brown was receiving (Citations omitted by me)

There is a lot going on here so let me be brief. First, the magistrate cites unfavorably the length of time it took for Wallace to make his claim -- 14 years -- without acknowledging that Wallace's attorney was to blame for that delay by failing to appeal the original verdict. Then, the magistrate denies Wallace relief on the ground that this lawyer was aware of Brown's special treatment at the time of trial. This is the same lawyer, mind you, who in addition to not appealing his client's murder conviction also failed to recuse himself from representing all four co-defendants at the start of the trial. In the magistrate's revisionist history, under applicable legal standards, this lawyer, of all lawyers, is presumed to be both diligent and competent.

Here from the magistrate's "Report" is another example of this sort of warped reasoning countenanced by current federal review standards:

Petitioner has not carried his burden to establish that evidence [of witness Brown's deal] was suppressed.... Warden Henderson emphatically denied that an agreement had been struck with Brown. Then... he testified that nothing was promised to Brown initially, other than protection. Warden Henderson testified that sometime after that... he told Brown he would support a pardon application. Later, Warden Henderson agreed with defense counsel that promises were made before Brown testified. Obviously, this testimony was inconsistent.

Even assuming, without deciding, that the petitioner has established that the prosecution suppressed evidence that Warden Henderson promised Brown help with a pardon in exchange for his testimony against the petitioner, there is no likelihood of a different result. Brown's testimony was consistent with Jackson's testimony, the co-defendant who testified on behalf of the State against the petitioner. Moreover, Brown was a neutral witness.

See what's happening here? Even though the warden ultimately conceded under oath that there was a prior deal with Brown, and even though logic and common sense tell us that such a deal existed, the magistrate instead concludes that this evidence is "inconsistent." Then he labels Brown, the inmate who first was a suspect in the murder and who later had cigarettes delivered to him by prison guards, to be a "neutral witness." This is not a searing search for truth and justice. This is not a meaningful review of a trial record. It is instead a post-hoc rationalization of a dubious status quo.

Postscript

Terminally ill, Wallace finally has been removed from solitary confinement. There have been calls from public officials and others for his "compassionate release" from prison but state officials are adamant in rejecting such requests. They say that Wallace's life sentence has always meant that he would die in prison, that elderly prisoners die regularly in confinement as part of their sentences, and that the inmate is entitled to no special medical treatment. So there he sits, a sick old man who spent four decades in solitary confinement for a crime he contends he did not commit, a prisoner running out of time to get any vindication from our courts of law.

When Herman Wallace dies, his case will die with him. And that will be a shame not just for him but for anyone who still believes that our criminal trials should from time to time be more than mere tests of evidence -- that they should strive, especially when a man's life or liberty are on the line, to find the truth of the matter. After Wallace's death, none of us will ever know what happened inside that prison in May 1972 -- what promises were made, what truths were hidden -- because no one other than Wallace has ever had any incentive to care about what happened that day. That's a failure of our justice system; a failure both in concept and execution.

Today, Judge Jackson, the federal trial judge, is likely the last judge who will ever have the job of reviewing Wallace's case. He can reject Magistrate Riedlinger's "Report," he can embrace it, or he can come down somewhere in between. Judge Jackson, an appointee of President Barack Obama, is a relatively new judge and this high-profile case presents the first big test of his young career on the bench. Win or lose, Wallace's legacy is secure -- he's always going to be the guy who spent 40 years in solitary after a sham trial. But how this judge handles this case now surely will say a great deal about what his legacy is likely to be -- and whether our justice systems will be capable than they have been of acknowledging and then fixing even their most grievous mistakes.

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/09/did-the-wrong-man-spend-40-years-in-solitary-confinement/279930/

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Copyright © 2013 by The Atlantic Monthly Group. All Rights Reserved.

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Freedom Archives 

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Have an Abortion, Lose Custody of Your Children

• by Robin Marty

Divorce is often ugly, especially when the couple have children to parent. However, one custody fight in New York recently went beyond the pale in terms of viciousness when the man’s lawyer demanded that his ex-wife be questioned about an abortion she underwent and how it could have affected her ability to raise her children.
According to the New York Daily News, Eleanor Alter, the divorce lawyer for Manuel Mehos, obtained medical records from ex-wife Lisa Mehos stating that she had an abortion and asked the judge in the case to allow her to question the woman about the procedure.
The attorney justified the questioning, saying, “[T]his is a woman who complains that she’s under great stress only caused by Mr. Mehos. I would be the first person to acknowledge that having an abortion, especially a two- to three-month late abortion, would be stressful.”
Emily Jane Goodman, Ms. Mehos’ lawyer, found the questioning offensive. “I think the very idea of the potential of using, against a woman in a custody case, the fact that she may have had an abortion sets women’s rights and the rights of choice back in a way that I can’t imagine this court would want to be associated,” she said.
The judge disagreed and allowed Mr. Mehos’s lawyer to question Ms. Mehos about the termination.
Allowing a woman’s abortion to be used in a custody battle, regardless of whether it occurred before or after the divorce, is an absolute new low when it comes to the idea of shaming women for choosing not to carry a pregnancy to term. The idea being presented is simple: A good mother would never seek out an abortion, so if she ends a pregnancy, she must be an unfit one.
According to Guttmacher, over 60 percent of those who have abortions already have children. The idea that every one of them is somehow a bad mother, or should feel as if she were one, is laughable. In fact, many say that it is for their families, and the benefit of the children who they have given birth to and are caring for, that they seek an abortion in the first place.
As Dr. Susan Robinson, one of the providers featured in “After Tiller,” put it in a recent Huffpo Live interview, “People have abortions because they want to be good mothers and they know that they cannot mother this pregnancy adequately.”
With one in three women having an abortion at some point, and 60 percent of those having abortions already having at least one child, that’s a whole lot of women out there to be painted as “bad moms” who shouldn’t be allowed to have custody of their children.
Even worse is lawyer Eleanor Alter’s assumption that Ms. Mehos must be under stress because of having an abortion, because abortions must be inherently stressful. Although abortion opponents have long brought up “post abortion stress syndrome” as an alleged psychiatric trauma disorder that countless patients experience after terminating a pregnancy, no legitimate mental health group supports their false claims.
In fact, a recent Berkley study showed that 90 percent of women who were able to receive an abortion when they wanted one reported feelings of relief a week after.
Does abortion cause women to be debilitated by stress? No. Does it cause them to be unfit parents to their children? Absolutely not. Is Mr. Mehos’ lawyer using tired anti-choice rhetoric to try to get her client a win? Yes. What’s even sadder is that the judge is letting her do it, and violating Ms. Mehos’ medical privacy and legal rights in the process.
Abortion, neither long in the past or a more recent one, has no place in a custody battle. Let’s keep it that way.

Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/have-an-abortion-lose-custody-of-your-children.html#ixzz2gNMKpnPK

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis - "Cant Hold us" as Gaeilge

oslódáil MP3 anseo: Nasc á chur anseo go luath
Liricí thíos:
Míle buíochas le ceoltóirí agus scoláirí chúrsa D as an méid oibre a chuir siad isteach i réiteach an fhíseán seo. Keith Ó Briain, Cian Gormley & Ian Mac Gabhann na rapadóirí agus Jenny Ní Ruiséil & Dáithí Ó Ruaidh na príomh-amhránaithe.


Seo muid ar ais,
Breathnaigh -mar a bhíodh, mar atá, mar a bheas, mar a bheadh
(Ag)Cuartú bealach eile,
Sin an chaoi 's toram leid
Agus creid go bhfuil muid ann le fad' an lá,
'S b'in 'tá uait?
Fágaí seo! Nós nu(a) - siúil go hálainn
Tuige do chuid cainte? - tuige do chuid toirní?
Caillte anseo idir tuisil is modh'nna
Bréan de do nósanna, stop do bhaothchaint
Yup! - Éist, (tá) sé éasca
Oibrigh ar feadh an lae
Léigh is léigh aríst é
Sin an chaoi ata sé
Cén tseafóid? Níor thuig (mé) do cheacht
Tá mo dhóthain de do ghramadach is na dánta
Níl suim a'inn ann
Seo'd an tús leis
Gabh is crith an domhan
Dul ag feabhsú, ag athrú aon sórt seafóid' tá ann

Tabhair faoi! Fanagaí ann
An líonra lán lenár bhfonn,
(Ár) n-oidhreacht ag dul sa tóir
Le háit a fháil dúinn ar domhan

Tusa'-, tú ann C-A-C-S-M-U-I-T-I-fada-N, aineaolach,
(Dul) As mo chiall ó bhí mé ceathair déag,
Ag éisteacht leis an gcac sin
Riail(acha) nach ndéanann ciall
Tóg an brat leat,
Craic a'd - freisin!
(Gach duine)
Linne ár dtír
Is ní ghéillfidh muid tada
Beart de réir ár mbriathar
Is ní dhíolfaidh muide 'mach í
Linne ár dtír
Is ní ghéillfidh muid tada
Beart de réir ár mbriathar
Is ní dhíolfaidh muide 'mach í

Curfá
Gabhfadh muid ar aghaidh,
Seo'd é an nóiméad
Ná breathnódh muid siar
'S tabhair faoi go cróga
Caith bhur lámha san aer,
Tá an saol seo romhainne
Tá an saol seo dhúinne



'Nois, 'bhfuil muid réidh leis?
(Go) maith! Tá an scéal seo tosaithe
Tiocfaidh sí, bhí mé i gcónaí ar bís,
ach anois tá sé ann, tá'n rí-rá tagtha

Coinnigh siar mé?
Ná bac, chuile cheo (mé) in ann a dhéanamh,
Gan dabht faoi
'S me ag smaoineamh ar an am
A shíl me nach mbeinn in ann
Seasamh suas dom fhéin
'Nois Bhuel 'nois -- Tá!

(Tá) nós seo slán
Gabhfaidh muid ar aghaidh.
Pleann idir lámh a'inn
Fad saol tá romhainn
Faoiseamh is tú ag smaoineamh
Frigg soir (thú) 'is an bád a thog anoir thú
Téigh dtí diabhail mura dtuigeann tú an chraic
'Nois tá sé ann, cas amach é


Foireann Camera: Tree Light Pictures
www.treelightpictures.ie

Foireann Soilsiú: Blacklight
http://www.blacklight.ie/--

Human Cost - #10kCuts #Atos

Human Cost - #10kCuts #Atos from You and I Films on Vimeo.


 ATOS Healthcare carries out disability assessments on behalf of the Cameron government’s Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). Currently, ATOS is being investigated…

Zombie Dance at NHS march and rally

Sat 10/19: In Honor of Trayvon Martin, the play "Political Incarcerations...

In honor of Trayvon Martin

For Our Children Productions, The Let's Go There Collective,

Jericho Boston, and Mus!kavanhu Art Gallery

present

Political Incarcerations, Torture, and

Persecution of Freedom Fighters

throughout US History

Saturday October 19

Doors open at 2 PM

Performance at 2:30 PM
Hibernian Hall

184 Dudley St, Boston

Free entry

(Donations appreciated)

Though there are many young men of color whose lives are violently cut short and disregarded 
by the vicious white supremacist system, the death of Trayvon Martin and the subsequent verdict 

in the George Zimmerman trial have come to symbolize a significant turning point in the brutal 
war on black and brown people. Trayvon's life and legacy reflect a break point in youth 
consciousness; no longer can folks tolerate the realities of injustice. 

This event in honor of Trayvon Martin will feature an audience interactive performance highlighting 
the struggles and exploits of New Afrikan  (African American), Latino, and Native American heroes 

and heroines throughout American history. It's not just a dramatic performance. It's a challenge to 
the people-- a call to action!

Following the play there will be a community discussion and Q and A with the writer/director of 
the play: Jihad Abdulmumit, former political prisoner.

Please join us!
(flyer attached)

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"We Must Pick Up The Work To Free ALL Our Political Prisoners & Prisoners Of War!"

Irish emigrants to American South welcomed slavery says new book

Many Irish “saw slave ownership as the way to success in the South”

By

IrishCentral Staff Writers,

A group of Confederate soldiers-possibly an artillery unit captured at Island No. 10 and taken at POW Camp Douglas (Chicago)

Photo by D. F. Brandon

A new book on the Irish on the Confederate side in the Civil War claims that Irish emigrants to the south saw slavery and owning slaves as their passport to wealth.

“The Green and the Gray”  by British-based historian David T. Gleeson also states that “Irish participation in the Confederate experiment,remains a “complex and imperfectly understood element of the American Civil War.”

 Irish  immigrants, Gleeson observes, “saw slave ownership as the way to success in the South.”

Among the slave owners was Bishop Patrick Lynch of Charleston, S.C. who  Gleeson says  “saw himself as a good Confederate paternalistic slaveholder,” and  was “willing to sell slaves” through an Irish-American slave trader.

Bishop Lynch was later sent by Confederate leaders  to  meet with Pope Pius IX, as Jefferson Davis and others  had become convinced “that papal recognition of the Confederacy might encourage other Catholic countries” to come to the aid of the South.
The pope met Lynch but told him slavery was “a major sticking point.”

Most Irish had arrived earlier than Irish in the North and were prosperous in the main.

Frederick Stanton arrived in Natchez Mississippi in 1812 and soon had six cotton picking plantations and owned 333 slaves.

Other Irish were active in politics, owned newspapers; and there were Catholic bishops and cathedrals in the largest cities.

Gleeson, an historian at Northumbria University in Britain says 20,000 Irish served  in Confederate units and bore names such as the  Irish Volunteers, Emerald Guards, and Shamrock Guards. The men “earned a reputation for bravery,” Gleeson says, but were known  “for being difficult to manage.” “Irish men fought hard but also deserted . . . in larger numbers than native Southerners,” he says.

There was apparently only one Irish vs. Irish battlefield clash at Fredericksburg, Va., in December 1862 when  Thomas Francis Meagher’s Irish Brigade“charged up Marye’s Heights toward certain death,” Confederates — including the Lochrane Guards, an Irish unit from Georgia — “ensconced behind a stone wall poured fire into the charging Irishmen.”

In the south Irish-owned machine shops  “were an integral part of the Confederate military complex.”

But in the end, “Irish loyalty was shallow,” writes Gleeson as they were unwilling to “sacrifice everything on the altar of the new nation as it disintegrated before their eyes.” He describes them as  “ambiguous Confederates,” and “when the Yankees finally came,” most Irish were ready to rejoin the United States.

Read more: http://www.irishcentral.com/news/-Irish-emigrants-to-American-South-welcomed-slavery-says-new-book-225701401.html#ixzz2gJcDP0Br
Follow us: @IrishCentral on Twitter | IrishCentral on Facebook

A Message from Lynne Stewart:

From Deep in the Belly of the Beast ... that is, Texas.

Now another month has passed and I am getting increasingly irritable that these jokers are so cavalier with my life and what time I have left. (I also am getting weaker.)

My application for compassionate release is moving but glacially (Are there any glaciers left? Only in the bureaucracy...). We learned that the request has left the General Counsel's office of the Bureau of Prisons in Washington and is now being considered by an "Independent Committee" (whatever that means). From there it will ostensibly go to the Director, Mr. Samuels, for the final recommendation and request for a motion to the Judge.

As you can appreciate there is still plenty of room for slips between cup and lip. I truly understand that I, with the strong and consistent support of all 30,000+ of you, do constitute a "threat" in their small universe. That is to say that, the will of the People cannot be ignored forever. With that in mind, I want to urge everyone to come on out on

OCTOBER 8, TUESDAY, MY 74th BIRTHDAY
FOR A LOCAL SHOW OF OUR COLLECTIVE WILL
IN OPPOSITION TO THE '"DEATH PENALTY "

ORGANIZE • ORGANIZE • ORGANIZE • ORGANIZE • ORGANIZE

YOU AND YOUR COMRADES, FRIENDS, ACQUAINTANCES CAN GATHER AT YOUR LOCAL FEDERAL (U.S.) COURTHOUSE OR POST OFFICE TO REMIND THEM THAT WE WILL NOT LET ME DIE IN A JAIL CELL!!!

In New York City, there will be an event at Theatre 80 St. Mark's on St. Mark's Place just west of First Avenue from 8 to 10 p.m.

If you can do this please notify Ralph of your location by sending an email to my web site. We hope this will be nationwide and we can spread the word of the senseless cruelty in the way the Bureau of Prisons administers a program that is supposed to be compassionate. I may be the "poster child" but this is done on behalf of all the prisoners who are languishing, in pain or worse, trying to go home.

Be out there on October 8. It is already an historic day. Let's make it More So!!! Let's Win.

Lynne Stewart

View the petition

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SIGN THE JERICHO COINTELPRO PETITION!

Free All Political Prisoners!
www.jerichony.org

Kym Worthy

picture from google

Kym Worthy's office faces a pretty big dilemma if her office decides not to appeal the favorable ruling we got from the Michigan Court of Appeals yesterday in Davontae Sanford's case. It will be interesting to see if Judge Sullivan, after hearing the newly-discovered evidence of Smothers' confession on the record, allows Sanford to withdraw his plea. The prosecutor's office would be faced with a quandary of deciding to then charge Smothers and drop the charges against Davontae or charge them both. How could she charge them both based on two separate "confessions" in which neither of them mentioned the other? Smothers, however, mentioned an accomplice named Nemo Davis and led DPD to Davis' home where the gun used in the killings for which Davontae was wrongfully convicted was positively identified by DPD as the murder weapon in those murders. So today Nemo Davis walks the streets of Detroit, a professed hitman who along with Smothers killed many people -- all because Worthy's office has refused to charge them for the killings for which she had already sent Davontae to prison. I wonder how many people Nemo has likely killed since then. Pretty scary.

Roberto Guzman

FULL STORY: A City's Shame

Correspondent Jennifer Tryon investigates the shocking story of a former Saint John, NB police officer who was charged with sexually assaulting children while working on the police force. For more info, please go to www.global16x9.com.

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Hundreds of California prisoners in isolation should be covered by class action, attorneys argue in court

Oakland – On Sept. 26, lawyers from the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) urged a federal judge to grant class action status to a lawsuit challenging prolonged solitary confinement in California prisons. The case, Ashker v. Brown, was filed on behalf of 10 prisoners in the Security Housing Unit (SHU) at the notorious Pelican Bay State Prison who have spent over 10 years, and as many as 29 years, in solitary confinement.

In this aerial view of Pelican Bay State Prison, the X-shaped white building is the notorious SHU, or Security Housing Unit.

Three weeks ago, California prisoners, including plaintiffs in Ashker, suspended their third hunger strike protesting their confinement and conditions, after 60 days. More than 500 Pelican Bay prisoners have been isolated in the SHU for over 10 years; more than 200 have been there for over 15 years; and 78 have been isolated in the SHU for more than 20 years. Class certification will allow remedies in the case to apply to all Pelican Bay SHU prisoners who have been held in solitary confinement for more than 10 years. “There are hundreds of prisoners at Pelican Bay who have been suffering just as long and in the same appalling conditions as our clients,” said Center for Constitutional Rights Staff Attorney Alexis Agathocleous, who argued today. “If the length of time prisoners are held in isolation and the conditions they live under are unconstitutional, they are unconstitutional for everyone, not just the 10 named plaintiffs in the suit, and any remedies should apply to everyone affected.”
The lawsuit alleges that prolonged solitary confinement violates Eighth Amendment prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment, and that the absence of meaningful review for SHU placement violates the prisoners’ right to due process. SHU prisoners spend 22 ½ to 24 hours a day in a cramped, concrete, windowless cell. They are denied telephone calls, contact visits, and vocational, recreational or educational programming.

More than 500 Pelican Bay prisoners have been isolated in the SHU for over 10 years; more than 200 have been there for over 15 years; and 78 have been isolated in the SHU for more than 20 years.

According to experts in the case, who have interviewed the plaintiffs and other Pelican Bay SHU prisoners, long-term solitary confinement is “well-known to cause severe psychiatric morbidity, disability, suffering and mortality.” Further, “[t]he magnitude of the suffering that [these prisoners] have endured … is difficult to fathom. … [They] have lost a connection to the basic sense of who they ‘were.’”
Because SHU prisoners do not receive any meaningful review of their placement, their isolation can effectively be permanent. Though a prisoner’s SHU placement is ostensibly reviewed once every six years, prisoners are routinely placed and held in the SHU without any gang activity, violent conduct or serious rule infraction. Rather, they are labeled “gang affiliates” and have been confined in isolation for activities such as reading about Black history, creating or possessing cultural artwork, or writing in Spanish or Swahili.
In October 2012, the CDCR introduced a pilot program aimed at addressing some of the issues raised in the suit, but the changes are neither permanent, nor do they resolve the fundamental deficiencies in the policies that have been in place for years, say critics.

According to experts in the case, who have interviewed the plaintiffs and other Pelican Bay SHU prisoners, long-term solitary confinement is “well-known to cause severe psychiatric morbidity, disability, suffering and mortality.”

“The step down program does nothing to resolve the fundamental wrong of keeping men in isolation in perpetuity based on flimsy evidence, arbitrary decisions and policies designed to inflict mental and physical abuse. It is a glossy sugar coat over a rancid practice,” said attorney Charles Carbone.
SHU assignments disproportionately affect Black and Latino prisoners. The percentage of Latinos in the Pelican Bay SHU, for example, was 85 percent in 2011, far higher than their representation in the general prison population, which was 41 percent.
Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, California Prison Focus, Siegel & Yee, and the Law Offices of Charles Carbone are co-counsel on the case.
Ashker v. Brown, amends an earlier pro se lawsuit filed by Pelican Bay SHU prisoners Todd Ashker and Danny Troxell. The case is before Judge Claudia Wilken in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.
The Center for Constitutional Rights is dedicated to advancing and protecting the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Founded in 1966 by attorneys who represented civil rights movements in the South, CCR is a non-profit legal and educational organization committed to the creative use of law as a positive force for social change. For more information, contact press@ccrjustice.org.
http://sfbayview.com/2013/hundreds-of-california-prisoners-in-isolation-should-be-covered-by-class-action-attorneys-argue-in-court/?fb_source=pubv1 

Political prisoner Romaine ‘Chip’ Fitzgerald writes to Assembly Public Safety Chair Tom Ammiano

Dear Mr. Ammiano:
It is my sincere hope this letter will be received in the same spirit of appreciation and cooperation in which it is written. First and foremost, I wish to acknowledge the courage and independent thinking and actions you demonstrated in the unannounced visit to inspect the conditions of confinement at Pelican Bay State Prison Security Housing Unit and speak with the strike leaders.

This photo, taken in 1996, is the most recent available of Romaine “Chip” Fitzgerald. Many California prisoners have been denied photographs for decades.

Mr. Ammiano, as indicated by the return address on this envelope, I am a state prisoner and I have been incarcerated for a little more than 43 years. When I entered the prison system in 1970, the mission focus of the prison system was rehabilitation: to keep prisoners out of the cells as much as possible and engaged in prison work assignments, academic and vocational training programs, and organized sports. All of the prisons in operation at that time required prisoners to participate in weekly group counseling and individual therapy sessions. These programs were designed to build character, explore the motivations of their actions, instill discipline and good work habits. The success of these programs was reflected in the less than 50 percent recidivism rate that was somewhere in the area of 40 to 45 percent or less. The prison system was relatively successful at that time, which is supported by the historical record.
In 1976 the California Prison Movement compelled the abolition of the Indeterminate Sentencing Legislation (ISL) by the California Legislature because of its racist and discriminatory practices. It was replaced by the Determinate Sentencing Legislation (DSL), Senate Bill 42, which passed and was signed into law by Gov. Brown.
The progressive legislators and the prison reformists who supported them viewed the implementation of SB 42 as progressive prison reform and a positive move toward equal application of the law when determining the parole of prisoners regardless of race, gender or religion.
However, from the perspective of the distance of time, it can be said there were draconian-minded, right wing legislators who were operating with a hidden agenda to nullify or reverse the progressive, liberal aspects of SB 42. The implementation of SB 42 was accompanied by the conservative shift of mission focus from rehabilitation to punishment.
The right wing elements in the legislature and their supporters interpreted the shift in mission focus from rehabilitation to punishment as giving them carte blanche to dramatically increase sentences and to slash rehabilitative programs that were in place throughout the prison system. This began in 1978, moving forward to the present.

An older photo of Chip

The CDCR’s current administration inherited a prison complex that has been operating on a draconian model that began in the early 1980s. Most of these administrators did not advance up through the ranks from the frontline prison guards to positions of power and policy creation. Therefore, it is safe to say their understanding of corrections and of the dynamics of the modification of human behavior is based on textbook penology; they have little or no practical experience in the trenches of daily prison life. Mr. Ammiano, my concluding point is that the current culture of CDCR reflects an adversarial relationship between correctional personnel and the prisoners entrusted to their care and treatment. Prisoners are seen as the “enemy”; therefore, the preventive measures that are taken to maintain the “safety and security of the institution,” regardless of inefficiency and costs, are justified.
The CDCR administration, from the state level at Sacramento to the correctional facilities at the local level, does not have a clue in terms of transforming the adversarial culture prevalent throughout the prison system, nor do they know what concrete, practical steps should be taken to break down the artificial racial divisions and inspire prisoners with the motivation to make a successful transition back into society.
For some years now the CDCR has been under a federal court order to racially integrate the cells of prisoners throughout the prison system. All of the prisons have not complied. I would first approach the racial integration of the cells by implementing an athletic program based on competing racially integrated teams – the theory being, if the men can find a common ground on the playing field as teammates, then why not as cellmates?

CDCR reflects an adversarial relationship between correctional personnel and the prisoners entrusted to their care and treatment. Prisoners are seen as the “enemy”; therefore, the preventive measures that are taken to maintain the “safety and security of the institution,” regardless of inefficiency and costs, are justified.

The following is a concrete suggestion of what I think is part of the solution: In the fall of 1984, I was transferred from the California Men’s Colony (CMC) to San Quentin for my fourth and final stay. There was a high level of violence and people were dying.
The prisoners themselves took the initiative to start a comprehensive football program that was permitted – perhaps even encouraged! – to enter a Bay Area semi-professional league. The San Quentin football team was racially integrated. The anger, frustration and rage that would usually be directed at each other was focused on the opposing teams, leading the semi-pro league in victories.

Dominique DiPrima holds a poster featuring Romaine “Chip” Fitzgerald as one of the Black Panthers railroaded into prison by J. Edgar Hoover’s then secret COINTELPRO. DePrima, popular TV and radio host, was speaking at an event for political prisoners at Kaos Network in Los Angeles on June 28, 2008. Chip rarely brings attention to himself, but he is certainly not forgotten.

The racial divisions and tensions among teammates quickly dissipated and were replaced by team pride and genuine camaraderie. The goodwill growing out of that positive development spilled over into the general prison population and brought an end to racial hostilities – just as the strike leaders have called for and carried through with, ending the racial hostilities throughout the state prison complex and the county and city jails. It is absolutely imperative that more legislators follow your example and tour these correctional facilities for the purpose of talking with the prisoners to get their input regarding the type of rehabilitative programs that would best serve their interests. That is what an enlightened people would do in a society based on democratic principles and the rule of law.
Thank you for the demonstration of courage and integrity.
Romaine Fitzgerald
This letter was written Aug. 15, 2013, by Romaine “Chip” Fitzgerald, a revered political prisoner formerly a member of the Black Panther Party. Chip’s friend, Bruce Richard, also a former member of the Party’s Southern California Chapter and now a union executive, recalls: “We were totally consumed in the Party’s Free Breakfast Program, the tutorial program, selling Panther papers, political education classes and other projects. Chip was a favorite of many in the communities we served, and the children, especially, loved him, reflected in their smiling little faces when he appeared.” On June 15, 1969, shortly after Chip joined the Party, J. Edgar Hoover declared that “the Black Panther Party, without question, represents the greatest threat to internal security of the country”; he pledged that 1969 would be the last year of the Party’s existence. Send our brother some love and light: Romaine Fitzgerald, B-27527, Kern Valley State Prison, A5-110, P.O. Box 5101, Delano CA 93216. This letter was written to Assembly Public Safety Committee Chair Tom Ammiano, who has, since the current series of hunger strikes started in 2011, held two hearings on issues raised by prisoners and whose announcement of a series of legislative hearings was a major incentive for the prisoners’ suspension of the recent 60-day hunger strike.
http://sfbayview.com/2013/political-prisoner-romaine-chip-fitzgerald-writes-to-assembly-public-safety-chair-tom-ammiano/?fb_source=pubv1 

Native Americans & Christopher Columbus

http://BlackPowerProductions.com The Native Americans and Christopher Columbus, what's the relation between the two. How di d Christopher Columbus become and American icon? What did he accomplish that was so grand to have a holiday in his name?
Here 1st hand stories in this chilling documentary.

Are You A Felon? California Bill Would Ban This Question From Job Apps

"In an attempt to cut down on employment discrimination against felons and reduce recidivism rates, a bill waiting for Gov. Jerry Brown's (D-CA) signature would remove a question on local and state job applications asking applicants about their criminal record.


Checking that box on a job application can often automatically disqualify an applicant who has served time in prison, making it nearly impossible for ex-convicts to find legitimate work. California already removed the questions regarding felony and domestic abuse convictions from most public job applications, putting them instead on a supplemental form to be used when relevant to the position. Employers can still ask about criminal backgrounds, but will not see that information up front. On September 12, the state Senate expanded this policy into law and extended it to more than 6,000 local and regional government agencies.".* Ana Kasparian, Dave Rubin (The Rubin Report), and Ben Mankiewicz (What The Flick?! and TYT Sports) break it down on The Young Turks.

*Read more here from Aviva Shen / Think Progress:
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013...

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Distraught father was pepper-sprayed, handcuffed to a bench while his da...

JOPLIN, MO — A tragic situation went from awful to worse as two family members were arrested by police in the process of trying to save a teen girl's life after a self-inflicted gunshot wound. A father tells of how he missed the final hours of his daughter's life because he was handcuffed to a bench in a police station, his face still raw from being pepper-sprayed. Now he and his son face criminal charges that have not been dropped, six months later.

READ MORE: http://www.policestateusa.com/2013/di...

After discovering that 16-year-old Brooke had shot herself in the head, the Russell family raced to get her to a hospital. They met an ambulance at a police station. The family was frantic. There was no time to lose. They began transferring Brooke to the ambulance.

"To me, time was everything. I was going, 'Let's go, get her to the hospital, hurry up, hurry up,'" father Kevin Russell remembered saying to the EMT, according to KSPR.

The situation took a turn for the worse when an EMT let Brooke's body fall off the gurney, in the rush to save her. Her father says this happened when the EMT turned away to ask what had happened.

Overcome with emotion, Kevin lost his cool. "I started screaming and said, 'Do your f-ing job, get her to the hospital,' and the EMT put his finger in my face and said, 'Calm down, sir.' I was screaming, '"'Please get her to the hospital.' "

That's when police started pepper-spraying the family.

"I was on the pavement, I couldn't breathe and another officer put a knee in my back and told me to get up and he said if I didn't get up he was going to Tase me."

Kevin was pepper sprayed as well. "I heard someone tell me to calm down or they would pepper-spray me, and then I saw the spray shoot out. I turned my head to the left and felt it land against the back of my head," he explained. "The fumes made it hard to breath. I turned around, still screaming to get my daughter to the hospital, and then another stream of pepper spray hit me right in the eyes."

Both Kevin and his son were dragged into the police station and handcuffed to a bench. They were initially told that they would be released in 20 minutes and charged with disturbing the peace. Instead they were detained for 3.5 hours, covered with chemical irritant, while Brooke's life was quickly fading away.

Kevin and Brant were both charged with 3 misdemeanors each; assault, obstruction of an EMT, and disturbing the peace. He says the prosecutor offered them each a deferment on 2 charges if they plead guilty to assaulting a police officer. Kevin refused to plead guilty to something he says he didn't do, and plans to go to trial.

The "crazy reports," as described by Kevin, included claims that he believed were inserted just to justify the mistakes of the EMT and the overreaction by police. According to Kevin, the reports would blame Kevin for knocking Brooke off the gurney, fabricated accounts of aggression and blocking the ambulance door, and other wild accusations.

FAIR USE / SOURCE:
www.kspr.com/news/kspr-part-2-why-a-jopl­in-man-was-handcuffed-to-a-bench-when-hi­s-daughter-died-20130926,0,2963964.story

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Kanye West - Runaway (Full-length Clean)

Music video by Kanye West performing Runaway (Full-length Clean). © 2010 Roc-A-Fella Records, LLC

EATING FRUIT ~

picture from google

It's not as easy as you think. It's important to know how and when to eat.
DON'T EAT FRUIT AFTER MEALS!
FRUITS SHOULD BE EATEN ON AN EMPTY STOMACH.
It will play a major role to detoxify your system, supplying a great deal of energy for weight loss and other life activities.
FRUIT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT FOOD. Let's say you eat two slices of bread and then a slice of fruit. The slice of fruit is ready to go straight through the stomach into the intestines, but it is prevented from doing so.
In the meantime the whole meal rots and ferments and turns to acid. The minute the fruit comes into contact with the food in the stomach and digestive juices, the entire mass of food begins to spoil....
Eat fruit on an empty stomach or before meals! People complain, "Every time I eat watermelon I burp; when I eat apples, my stomach bloats up; when I eat a banana I feel like running to the toilet, etc ” This will not arise if you eat the fruit on an empty stomach. Fruit mixes with the putrefying other food and produces gas, hence you will bloat!
Gray hair, balding, nervous outburst, and dark circles under eyes will NOT happen by taking fruit on an empty stomach.
There is no such thing as some fruits, like orange and lemon are acidic, because all fruits become alkaline in our body, according to Dr. Herbert Shelton who did research on this matter. Master the correct way of eating fruits, and you will have beauty, longevity, health, energy, happiness and normal weight.
Drink only fresh fruit juice, NOT from the cans. Don't even drink juice that has been heated up. Don't eat cooked fruits because you don't get the nutrients at all. Cooking destroys all the vitamins.
Eating a whole fruit is better than drinking the juice. If you should drink the juice, drink it mouthful by mouthful slowly, because you must let it mix with your saliva before swallowing it. You can go on a 3-day fruit fast to cleanse your body. Just eat fruits and drink fruit juice throughout the 3 days and you will be surprised when your friends tell you how radiant you look!
KIWI: A good source of potassium, magnesium, vitamin E & fiber. Its vitamin C content is twice that of an orange.
APPLE: Although an apple has a low vitamin C content, it has antioxidants & flavonoids which enhances the activity of vitamin C thereby helping to lower risks of colon cancer, heart attack & stroke.
STRAWBERRY: .. have the highest total antioxidant power among major fruits & protect from cancer-causing, blood vessel-clogging free radicals.
ORANGE : Taking 2-4 oranges a day may help keep colds away, lower cholesterol, prevent & dissolve kidney stones as well as lessening the risk of colon cancer.
WATERMELON: Composed of 92% water, it is also packed with a giant dose of glutathione, which helps boost our immune system. A key source of lycopene the cancer fighting oxidant. Other nutrients found in watermelon are vitamin C & Potassium.
GUAVA & PAPAYA: for their high vitamin C content. Guava is also rich in fiber, which helps prevent constipation. Papaya is rich in carotene; good for your eyes.
Drinking Cold water after meals = Cancer!
It will solidify the oily stuff you have just consumed and slow down digestion... Once this 'sludge' reacts with the acid, it will break down and be absorbed by the intestine faster than the solid food. It will line the intestine. This will turn into fats and lead to cancer. Better to drink hot soup or warm water after a meal.
HEART ATTACK PROCEDURE': Not every heart attack symptom is going to be the left arm hurting. Be aware of pain in the jaw line. You may never have chest pain during a heart attack. Nausea and intense sweating are common symptoms. Sixty percent who have an attack while asleep do not wake up. Pain in the jaw can awaken you.
 Roderick Shirley

OFFENSIVE FOR OSCAR LOPEZ RIVERA!

Contact the President by clicking on this link:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comments

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The ProLibertad Freedom Campaign
Website:   http://www.ProLibertadWeb.com
Email:       ProLibertad@hotmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ProLibertadFC
Twitter:    https://twitter.com/ProLibertad




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SIGN THE JERICHO COINTELPRO PETITION!

Free All Political Prisoners!
 www.jerichony.org

Democracy Now: We’ll have more on the Angola 3 next week when we broadcast live from New Orleans on Monday and Tuesday.

From Democracy Now: We’ll have more on the Angola 3 next week when we broadcast live from New Orleans on Monday and Tuesday.

Former Black Panther Herman Wallace, held in solitary confinement for more than 40 years in Louisiana, now reportedly has just days to live. Supporters say his terminal liver cancer has taken a turn for the worse, and his request for compassionate release has so far gone unanswered by Governor Bobby Jindal. Wallace and two others known as the Angola Three were placed in solitary in 1972 following their conviction for murdering a prison guard. They say they were framed because of their political activism. Wallace is 71. In other Angola 3 news, another member of the group who remains in prison, Albert Woodfox, says he has been subjected to strip searches and anal cavity searches as often as six times a day — even though his wrists and ankles are shackled together when he is outside of his cell. Woodfox is 68 years old. The searches had been declared unlawful in the 1970s by Louisiana District Court Judge Daniel LeBlanc. Guards reportedly resumed the searches almost immediately after LeBlanc died in May. Woodfox’s legal team requested a restraining order to put a hold on the invasive searches but a hearing on the motion has been delayed. We’ll have more on the Angola 3 next week when we broadcast live from New Orleans on Monday and Tuesday.

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SIGN THE JERICHO COINTELPRO PETITION!

Free All Political Prisoners!
 www.jerichony.org

A Letter From a Convict About Rape and Abuse

 

 

by Laura Cowan

Think you know all about how abuse feels? Take a look from the other side.

[Editor's Note: Laura Cowan is a survivor of domestic abuse, and now conducts educational programs about victim awareness and understanding abuse. After conducting one such program in a state prison recently, she received the following letter from one of the inmates spoken to. It is presented here with permission, with identifying names and details omitted for privacy. Spelling and grammar errors are in the original.]
Dear Ms. Cowan,
First off, my name is _________, and I want to take this time to thank you for coming to _______ and speaking to us in the “Victims Awareness Class.” I am going to be honest with you, when I first started this class, I thought it was going to be like all the other classes that I have taken in different programs. This class so far has helped me tremendously. Thank you for coming and changing my life.
I always thought of myself and not of my victims. I couldn’t see past my own needs and desires. But when you came, you and shared your story, you really opened my eyes to the whole picture, the picture of my victims. I had no idea what exactly I put them through. let me say that I guess I was really acting out what had happened to me as a child. When I was six years old, I lost my father. My mother remarried later on, and my step-father would beat me for no reason and when I clean the floors to the house, if I missed a piece of paper, he would tie me to a chair and beat me telling me the whole time not to cry, and then make me sit there staring at that piece of paper or whatever until I would tell him that I would not do it again and mean it sincerly. Come to find out, I needed glasses.
In order to keep away from his abuse, I would spend more time with my uncle. We would go out and fly a bite out in the back pasture, and when we were winded from all the running, we would sit down under a tree, and he would have me masterbate him, and he would fondle me. I would also spend nights over at my grandmothers’ house when my cousin came to visit from Michigan. At bed time he would wait for me to got to sleep and he would sexually molest me. I would never tell anyone any of this, because when I tried to tell them, they would say I was imagining it. Well, needless to say, I am in here for 2 counts of rape. I acted out what was done to me when I was young. I would never bring this up to anyone here or at the parole board, because they would say that I was only trying to make excuses. Well, I have taken responsibility of my actions, and I understand the hurt that I have put my victims through. I couldn’t face this fact until you came and shared your story with us. I am not one to cry easily, but your story really brought tearss to my eyes, and opened up my heart to the hurt that I have caused my victims.
When I went to the parole board last month, my past was brought up for the first time in 10 years. While talking to them, the past came upon me and I broke down in the parole board hearing. I feel they brought this up for a reason. I don’t know quite yet why, but it will be revealed in time I guess. Not only was I a predator, but I was a victim living with this demon inside of me. I have finally faced my darkest fear, and I couldn’t have done it if you haven’t shared your story with us. Thank you for caring about us. Thank you again for your trust in us to come and want to help us see that what we have done has had an impact not only on our victims, but others as well and wanting us to change our lives so that we can be more productive and not destructive.
Sincerely,
___________
PS. Please continue saving the lives of the ones needing saved, and want to open up their ears and hear the change they need, and a second chance at correcting the wrong and making a positive input on the community in which they live. You have a very meaningful message. Too bad alot of people won’t be able to hear it.
[Editor's note: We wish again to emphasize that Ms. Cowan has suffered horrific abuse in her own past, and that her contribution of this narrative should not be read as condoning the author's actions, but rather as the extension of empathy by a person who has every reason not to extend it. Please leave comments in that light.]
 Photo—Smath./Flickr
http://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/a-letter-from-a-convict-about-rape-and-abuse/ 

Pakistani Teen Honored As Humanitarian

A 16-year-old Pakistani girl who survived an assassination attempt by the Taliban is being honored as Harvard University's humanitarian of the year.

#zeroLRA - Stand for nothing

To set up your page: http://inv.fm/zeroLRA_yourpage5

Invisible Children's newest campaign - #zeroLRA. Stand for nothing. No child soldiers, no killing, and no war. Celebrate everything. Every escape, every name, and every life. Help children, women, and abducted soldiers escape from the LRA and return home. Every escape is a step closer to #zeroLRA.

Donate: http://inv.fm/give5_zeroLRA
To find out more: http://inv.fm/zeroLRA_5

To set up your page: http://inv.fm/zeroLRA_yourpage5

Music:
"Wings of Cause" by Ryan Taubert
https://www.facebook.com/ryangtaubert
https://twitter.com/ryantaubert
https://soundcloud.com/ryantaubert

"Pumpin Blood" by NONONO
http://www.nononoofficial.com/
https://www.facebook.com/nononoofficial
https://twitter.com/nononoofficial

"Pompeii" by Bastille
http://www.bastillebastille.com/
https://www.facebook.com/bastilleuk
https://twitter.com/BASTILLEdan

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b...

Convicted hitman could help clear another man of murder

Convicted hitman could help clear another man of murder

Justice will prevail #FREEDAVONTAE

Breaking news

 

 

 

Breaking news and good news. The Michigan Court of Appeals REVERSED Judge Sullivan's ruling in the Davontae Sanford case today!! The court ordered Judge Sullivan to allow Smothers to take the witness stand and confess to the murders in open court and then weigh that purported testimony in determining whether Sanford's guilty plea should be set aside. This is the result we wanted and the right thing to do.

Roberto Guzman

 http://publicdocs.courts.mi.gov:81/opinions/final/coa/20130926_c291293_170_291293.opn.pdf#search=