Clinica Legal

Voces de la Frontera

Happy Juneteenth!

Events all over Wisconsin and nationwide Friday, June 19 – Sunday, June 21, 2020. Event listing below and at: www.wibailoutpeople.org

Tomorrow is Juneteenth. Stand in solidarity with the Movement for Black Lives to demand justice, accountability, and change: bit.ly/3hG1tIP – Ieshia, Fightfor15

https://bit.ly/2UXuE0i

by Ernesto Che Guevara

This simple celebration, another among the hundreds of public functions with which the Cuban people daily celebrate their liberty, the progress of all their revolutionary laws, and their advances along the road to complete independence, is of special interest to me.

Almost everyone knows that years ago I began my career as a doctor. And when I began as a doctor, when I began to study medicine, the majority of the concepts I have today, as a revolutionary, were absent from my store of ideals.

Like everyone, I wanted to succeed. I dreamed of becoming a famous medical research scientist; I dreamed of working indefatigably to discover something which would be used to help humanity, but which signified a personal triumph for me. I was, as we all are, a child of my environment.

After graduation, due to special circumstances and perhaps also to my character, I began to travel throughout America, and I became acquainted with all of it. Except for Haiti and Santo Domingo, I have visited, to some extent, all the other Latin American countries. Because of the circumstances in which I traveled, first as a student and later as a doctor, I came into close contact with poverty, hunger and disease; with the inability to treat a child because of lack of money; with the stupefaction provoked by the continual hunger and punishment, to the point that a father can accept the loss of a son as an unimportant accident, as occurs often in the downtrodden classes of our American homeland. And I began to realize at that time that there were things that were almost as important to me as becoming a famous or making a significant contribution to medical science: I wanted to help those people…. https://bit.ly/2UXuE0i

https://fighting-words.net/2020/06/18/juvenile-lifers-stricken-with-covid-19-in-michigan-prisons/

The following is an abridged version of the original article.

By Efrén Paredes, Jr

As Michigan leads the nation in the chilling number of COVID-19 deaths occurring inside its prison, 196 incarcerated people sentenced to mandatory life without parole (LWOP) sentences for crimes they were accused of committing when they were children (“juvenile lifers”) are in prisons waiting to receive new resentencing hearings.

In 2012 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that mandatory LWOP sentences for juvenile offenders is unconstitutional and ordered the resentencing of all 2,500 juvenile lifers affected nationwide. In Michigan 363 people were originally affected by the ruling.

The high court stated that juvenile offenders who are not “irreparably corrupt,” “incapable of change,” or do not “exhibit such irretrievable depravity that rehabilitation is impossible” cannot receive a LWOP sentence again when they are resentenced. Those who do not fit this criteria are candidates to receive a term-of-year sentence making them eligible for release one day.

According to the U.S. Supreme Court, “Deciding that a juvenile offender forever will be a danger to society would require making a judgment that [s/he] is incorrigible — but incorrigibility is inconsistent with youth and for the same reason, rehabilitation could not justify that sentence.”

The court added, “Life without parole forswears the rehabilitative ideal. It reflects an irrevocable judgment about [an offender’s] value and place in society, at odds with a child’s capacity for change.” (Miller v. Alabama, 132 S. Ct. 2455, 2465 (2012))

Michigan is now shamefully home to the largest number of juvenile lifers in the nation. Thirty-seven states now either prohibit LWOP sentences for children or have not imposed the draconian sentence since 2012 when the U.S. Supreme Court abolished the sentence for minors.

Eight years after the landmark ruling there are still 196 Michigan juvenile lifers waiting to be resentenced. Over 80 of them have already served at least twenty years behind bars and ten of them have served over 40 years. They are still awaiting resentencing hearings because prosecutors delayed the process by filing motions seeking LWOP sentences in each case nearly four years ago.

This means each person must receive an expensive mitigation hearing to determine whether or not they are candidates to receive a LWOP sentence replete with psychologists, brain science experts, mitigation experts, and other necessary expert witnesses at taxpayer expense. The total costs, including attorney fees and court costs, will likely exceed $30,000 for each person. Some have already cost as high as $70,000.

It will cost the state a conservative estimated total of $5.7 million to conduct all the mitigation and resentencing hearings. And, each year juvenile lifers remain imprisoned, taxpayers are paying an additional $30,000 annual cost of incarceration per person. All this is occurring in the midst of the highest unemployment rate and worst economic crisis since the Great Depression….

From Organizer Lee Stedman:

***THURSDAY, JUNE 18TH! Just finished updating the list of BLM Protests, Vigils and other Relevant Actions for today. Also, just an FYI… Looks like Mike Pence (blehhh) is coming to Pewaukee on Tuesday, June 23rd.***

Link for the Updated List: https://docs.google.com/…/1uLk5DYYMqlxZAbO_TAbAxxS9dS…/edit…

As always, you can find all of the event pages listed under the “Events” section of the People’s Climate Coalition FB Page. You can (and should!) also follow the Wisconsin Bail Out The People Movementfor daily updates around the state.

If you’re having troubles finding the list, it will also be posted to the Gaia Coalition Network and Water Protectors of Milwaukee FB Pages.

***Covid-19 reminder to wear a mask and gloves to all in-person events and somehow try to social distance, if possible.

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If you can’t attend a protest, making a contribution to any of the following would be super helpful!

– Legal Aid & Resources: Milwaukee Freedom Fund

– Human First Project: https://gf.me/u/x79ydc

– Hands OFF Chrystul Kizer, Help FREE Chrystul Kizer: https://fundrazr.com/FreeChrystulKizer…

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Let me know if there are any other events / donation pages / relevant orgs that should be added to the list. You can email me at lee.stedman.gaiacoalition@gmail.com or PM directly on here.

#BlackLivesMatter #Milwaukee #milwaukeeprotest

#solidarity #GeorgeFloyd #BreonnaTaylor

#DontreHamilton #JoelAcevedo #FreeChrystul

#SayTheirNames #Juneteenth

Vice President Mike Pence is coming to Pewaukee for the “Faith in America” Tour.

The vice president’s website said the event will take place at 1 p.m. on June 23, 2020 at the Ingleside Hotel, 2810 Golf Road, Pewaukee, WI 53072.

Tickets for the event will be given on a first-come, first-serve basis, with a limit of two per mobile number per event.

To register, click here.

From Cape Town to Minneapolis to Madison, we will #DefendBlackLife #DefundPolice #FreeEmAll and get #CommunityControl

The Movement for Black Lives

The Movement for Black Lives, and our accomplices, are taking action on Juneteenth weekend, June 19-21. We are turning up digitally and from our homes, in our local communities, and mobilizing 20,000 strong to take action for three days in Washington, DC. We are stepping into the legacy of our ancestors, bringing the fight to the White House doorsteps, and ensuring that this generation does its part to win freedom dreams.

Freedom Youth Squad

We will create schools that are welcoming and loving for Black youth and youth of color.

#PoliceFreeSchools #InvestInYouth #DefundPolice #CommunityControl