St Patrick's Day: Immigration Bill Teach-in at the Capitol.

I actually missed all the protests myself, today - the students and teachers at the capitol and the arrest of George Bush - so I got my fix down at ASU's Taylor Mall on 1st St. - that's looking North towards my place past Roosevelt.

A cop came by as I was wrapping it up - he was rolling around one of those silly motorized unicycle things they stand on (I'd fall down laughing if they actually chased me down in one - except that they'd probably shoot me for it. I think the cops who use their weapons the most tend to be the laziest). He took in my message, my camera, and my costume for a moment, admonished me to be sure to stay off of ASU property with a smile, and left me to carry on.

---------------------------------

No wonder we need to add another 5,000 state prison beds - they're for the teachers, nurses, and children who defy the state. This is what happens when you give the bad guys an inch in the AZ Legislature - they want it ALL for themselves and their kin at the expense of the rest of us. I just want to go into the Senate during the pledge of allegiance or prayer opening each session and scream at the top of my lungs : "What is wrong with you people?!!!"


But they'd just lock me up and order a Rule 11 Hearing on the grounds I might shoot someone (I'm not the crazy one, I can assure you. Nor do I own a gun). This legislature has gone insane and very few people seem to notice it these days - there are 26 anti-immigrant bills pending: Go to Border Action Network to read them and act. This post addresses only four of them. Where are the armies of resistance - did everyone just go back to their lives and hope the whole SB1070 thing would blow over soon?


If a different person screamed at the legislature every day, they'd have a much harder time burying me - I'd volunteer to be the first. Or we could be more discreet (and maybe live to fight another day)- we could each just go in quietly with a t-shirt that says: "FUCK AZ FASCISM!" that we prominently display to the Senate floor once inside...they'll quickly ban EVERYONE from committees and sessions to prevent anyone from expressing their disgust and outrage at their conduct.



My hopes for overthrowing the state government are no doubt unrealistic; this is Arizona, after all, not Libya, where people will fight and die for their freedom and rights while we stand impotently by, chastising the man murdering them. There's only a handful of people showing up to protest Pearce et al each day anymore - we're still probably outnumbered by the bad guys' lobbyists on the inside. Never mind that we've plunged deep into a moral abyss here at their direction.


The vast majority of these people do not represent me, I assure you. Mine are relatively cool, though, because I live among artists, anarchists, and other poor people. We kind of get it, as a community.


You know what this state would do if we took over the AZ Senate like people in other states are taking back their Houses? Brewer would make Gaddafi seem pretty tame in squashing a real rebellion here...which is maybe what people voting for those fascists need to see, up close: blood in the streets, before giving her power to constitute her own little army of white supremacists to call out on us...


They sure don't care about bodies in the desert, here - or the children in the schools, young parents dying without health care, or any of the rest of us, for that matter. It's the Me Party Senate of Russ Pearce.

I really hope Mesa recalls that mean SOB they empowered to lead this pack of mad lemmings they call Republicans in this state. Too bad Fountain Hills doesn't have enough of a collective political clue or heart to recall John Kavanagh - he must be working out okay for enough of them, though I know there sure are families suffering there. Just try to be a single parent or live on a teacher's salary there.


That guy doesn't think our taxes should be used to cover health insurance for "these people". He knows damn well the people he's condemned to die are taxpayers, too. No one does anything in Arizona without paying the state their sales taxes - they're shifting as much as possible off the rich that way, on to the poor, while making the middle class think that it's being bled dry by the shiftless bodies populating our AHCCCS rolls, and that the feds are into socialism (hardly!)...


That sales tax last year was passed by voters on the claim that it would help spare education and other cuts, by the way. Advocates for the poor were even begging us to do so in order to save their programs, despite the negative impact the tax itself would have on so many families already on the edge. Now look at where we're at: she's cutting our programs despite taking more money from us, and now she's trying to lower business taxes despite the budget crunch. (It's part of the plan to make the tax shift shuffle permanent.)


Brewer's really got her priorities for The People straight - she'll dump $20,000/person per year to incarcerate drug and property offenders who we can't even keep safe inside, but she won't fund the schools adequately or support neighborhood programs that are key to protecting kids from being both victimized and criminalized in the first place. That's not a difficult connection to make - it would also be consistent with the trends towards evidence-based practice standards across the judiciary and in corrections. The people spending a billion dollars a year of our tax dollars on state prisons and extensive community surveillance aren't paying attention to outcomes of research or the consequences of the legislation they push on the public, though - they just twist data to justify pursuing their objectives. (which are apparently not really to prevent crime - just to punish it. Somehow that doesn't make me feel any safer knowing they're in charge).


As I said earlier: "What is wrong with you people?!!"


It's really quite disturbing that Kavanagh chairs the Appropriations Committee - the problem in our legislature won't be alleviated just by getting rid of Russ Pearce (though it's a good start). Who does he think "these people" are on AHCCCS, anyway? I've lived in Fountain Hills, and know a few good people there still: unless they do something about their elected representatives, they're hurting themselves and their kids, too.


AHCCCS patients aren't just our neighbors, they're OUR LOVED ONES - they're US - when we get leukemia, can't work, have to re-finance our homes and go bankrupt because the Republicans in Congress are determined to undo employer health care mandates. How can anyone raking in less than $250,000/year buy into what these people are up to?


You wouldn't know it by the Tea Partiers' promotions of their own entitlement and privilege while depriving others of any, but very few of the citizens of Fountain Hills can actually withstand that kind of economic devastation. Of course, our legislators and good sheriff needn't worry about that because they're pretty well taken care of. The rest of us need a safety net held by the entire community, though, when struck by disaster: no less so when that disaster is cancer or Hepatitis C than when it's an earthquake, tsunami, or hurricane. That's when people can be at their best.


It's a natural response for people to extend themselves when suffering is visible...if it hits home, particularly. My mom's whole town - Fountain Hills - has organized around helping her get to her chemo and radiation treatments in the next few weeks. Her illness hasn't burdened the people who love her - it's given us all a chance to give back, and makes us stop to take the time to be present in the day.


Why would Kavanagh want to discourage that impulse - it's what makes us better people. Compassion and generosity of that kind helps build stronger, more resilient, and less crime-ridden communities, too. Invest in more of that, instead of the vitriol that people like these guys spew, and we can start closing down the prisons and bringing people back home.


They are "our people", you know - like it or not. Many are, anyway - not the sociopaths who go out of their way to harm others, but the ordinary Americans who got convicted of breaking a law - not all those in prison are really guilty, you know. Similarly, not all the guilty are in prison - remember that. Some of them actually make the laws.


My mom's a retired teacher, by the way, who would have never turned in a child for being undocumented. This legislature will criminalize people like her if they can, and steal our health insurance and retirement benefits for their own pet projects - like suing the federal government (i.e. the American People - us TAXPAYERS you're so valiantly championing in our House and Senate buildings every day.)

So what about "Boycott Arizona!" does the rest of this country not understand, anyway? We could use your help out here, America. Especially you musicians and artists - what's the deal with coming to the Dodge in Phoenix, anyway: look at these people! If you think you're progressive and you're coming here to perform, you are selling our people OUT!


Get on with the Boycott, tell these people you're canceling conferences and vacations and performances here because our fascism is growing beyond SB1070 (give them an inch and they'll take your child here), and be serious about the damage you do! These legislators are criminalizing and killing people out here - don't you get it? You could be next, too - your state lawmakers may well be modeling your next laws after these below! Look at Georgia! (not surprisingly, they neglect and abuse their prisoners, too. ) Tell them you're supporting the workers of Wisconsin, instead of businesses here.

PLEASE SEND HELP!!!

And stay tuned to blogs like Fires Never Extinguished, O'odham Solidarity Across Borders , Censored News, Survival Solidarity, Resistance to SB1070, and Chaparral Respects No Borders for the stories from the resistance to this fascist beast in the Deep Southwest that you seldom ever Google. We don't just want reforms. We want revolution and a sane, decent world where people are taken care of when they get ill instead of being imprisoned for being no more than a nuisance.

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I know a lot of the folks going to this thing, but we didn't conspire about this post, and my promoting their event here isn't suggesting that anyone affiliated with Promise Arizona agrees to any of the above editorial. I take full responsibility for what I put up here...

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Anti-Immigration Bill Teach-In
Thursday, March 17 · 12:00pm - 3:00pm


Arizona State Capitol
(Wesley Bolin memorial across the street from the flagpole)
1700 West Washington St. / Phoenix, AZ


Promise Arizona


Promise Arizona We're organizing this teach in to ensure that members of our community understand the process and are equipped to with the knowledge needed to fight against these laws! *Please wear your PAZ t-shirts (or white t-shirts)

If you can't make it, call your senators and tell them to vote no on laws that will attack our families and economy!

English: 866-794-6052
...Spanish: 866-891-0358


· SB1611- “Immigration Omnibus” or the “Throwing Arizona Under-the-Bus” bill –Sponsored by Senator Russell Pearce, this bill is a 30-page, measure requiring business owners, police officers, apartment renters, school employees, and others to verify citizenship, notify immigration and in some cases, failure to do so could result in loss of licenses, certification or imprisonment.

· SB1308 and 1309 – “Eroding Children’s Futures and the Constitution” bills. Two bills introduced by Senator Ron Gould to create a new Arizona Citizenship that excludes children born to parents in the U.S. without immigration authorization. The bills are an attempt to ignite a national legal battle challenging the 14th amendment of the Constitution’s recognition of birthright citizenship.

· SB1405 –“Turning Health Providers into Health Deniers” bill. This bill introduced by Senator Steve Smith would require hospital employees to verify the citizenship of people seeking emergency and non-emergency medical attention and to notify immigration agents if someone cannot prove they are authorized to be in the U.S.
· SB 1407 - “Schools as Immigration Checkpoints” Requires the Arizona Department of Education (ADE) to collect data from school districts on populations of students who are enrolled and who cannot prove lawful residence in the United States (U.S.) Schools who fail to comply would result in loss of funding.

AZ Freedom March for the Wrongfully Convicted

Saturday, October 2, 11am
AZ Capitol Lawn

Join our fight to "free the innocent" and to restore fair justice in Arizona!

These Arizona cases involve overzealous law enforcement and prosecution resulting in wrongful convictions when Constitutional Rights are violated. The dire economic consequences of draconian mandatory minimum sentencing that puts non-violent, first offenders in prison for decades can no longer be ignored. Taxpayers can no longer sustain the alarming growth of the mass incarceration of Arizona's people, putting all at risk.

It's time for immediate change from a system that has operated out of control with no accountability for decades and is destroying thousands of innocent lives and the future of Arizona. Help us restore fair justice for all in Arizona!

Falsely accused, wrongfully convicted and wrongfully imprisoned people in Arizona: It's time to "right the wrongs"!

Featured Speaker: Alison Hicks, author and producer, "Backspin" - her experience in a rush to judgment arrest by Sheriff Arpaio, shattered lives of mother and child, Tent City gulag and a warning to others. Successful women are vulnerable in Arizona. A movie in the works. http://www.backspinmymovie.com

Free Courtney Bisbee, "Anatomy of a Wrongful Conviction", falsely accused in February 2004, of an "alleged" crime that never happened, never investigated in a rush to get a "high-profile" child molest case during a Presidential election year. A "he said, she said" case with no investigation and a total disregard for Constitutional Rights and established protocol resulting in a manifest injustice. New Evidence-Proof of innocence, recantations, affidavits and depositions - demanding a New Trial --is swept under the rug by an out of control Maricopa County Attorney's office that the public has been aware of for years.

How many millions of taxpayers dollars have been wasted on this bogus case? http://www.justice4courtney.com

Free William Macumber, an innocent 75 year old man, Clemency Board voted 100% to release; Arizona Justice Project has been working on his case since year 2000. Governor Brewer recently denied his release. Taxpayer dollars wasted on a person who is no harm to society.

Authors' real life experiences with the Arizona criminal justice system, jails and prisons:

Jim Rix, author, "Jingle Jangle", story of Ray Krone, exoneree, who spent almost 20 years in the Arizona state prison as an innocent man until he was exonerated. Raises questions about the integrity and competence of Forensic labs.

Daniel Horne, author, "Accidental Felons" and his story of overzealous prosecution resulting in shattered lives, horrific experience incarcerated in Tent City and lived to tell about it. A DUI, car accident and then "labeled" "violent felon".

Contact Camille Tilley at justice4courtney@mac.com

http://www.justice4courtney.com/

SIGN ONLINE PETITION FOR COURTNEY:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/free-courtney-bisbee---actual-innocence

-------------From criminaljustice.change.org's blog-------------

DNA Tests Have Freed 260 Wrongfully Convicted People

by Matt Kelley August 17, 2010

In case after case, people who were wrongfully convicted are finally seeing their freedom.

In Virginia, Calvin Wayne Cunningham will soon be exonerated for a rape he never committed — 30 years after his conviction. In Texas two weeks ago, Michael Anthony Green was freed after serving 27 years for a rape he likewise never committed. In Minnesota, a man was freed earlier this month, after a judge decided a defect in his Toyota Camry could have caused an accident for which he had been sentenced to prison.

All in all, fully 258 people have been exonerated through DNA testing in the United States, while hundreds more — perhaps thousands — have been cleared through non-DNA evidence.

Now, more than ever before, the road to exoneration is starting in an unlikely place: a prosecutor's office, or even the governor's desk. In Virginia, though Cunningham had begun asking for forensic tests in 1982, shortly after his initial rape conviction, it took a state review of old cases launched by former Gov. Mark Warner that finally turned up Cunningham's file decades later for closer scrutiny.

And then there's the case of Michael Green. Convicted in Houston in 1983 of a rape he didn't commit, though Green requested DNA testing in 2005, his appeal languished for several years — until the Harris County Prosecutor's Office began reviewing innocence claims and requests for DNA testing. Eventually, such attention from the prosecutor's office proved Green's innocence. (Though proof of wrongful convictions may seem to put prosecutors' offices in harsh light, wise district attorneys know that the same evidence which frees an innocent person also often points to the crime's real perpetrator.)

Across the nation, efforts to overturn wrongful convictions are spreading. Milwaukee recently launched a Virginia-style evaluation of old convictions, using DNA testing. Several other counties and cities are considering this approach, as well. In Ohio, the governor recently called on judges and prosecutors to grant DNA tests in seven cases in which they were previously denied.

Is your local district attorney up for election (or reelection) this November? Ask them whether they support reviewing claims of innocence from prisoners or decades-old convictions. A progressive platform emphasizing overturning wrongful convictions can get a district attorney elected, help overturn countless injustices and point to the real perpetrators of crimes — all at minimal cost. It's a win-win all around.

Conditions of confinement: Sheriff Joe's jail is our responsibility, too.

The following is a revised and somewhat more radical version of my post from AZ prison watch earlier in the night. It seemed appropriate for this blog, too. No one is listening to us at the Governor's office or ADC, so try the DOJ now. Please call or write today.

Amnesty International poster: Write a letter, save a life.

For those who missed Stephen Lemons' review of Shaun Attwood's new book, "Hard Time: A Brit in America's Toughest Jail", it's worth the read. I'd post it here but I've already packed in too much for the night. It is, of course, about the Maricopa County Hell they call a jail. Hit Shaun's blog, "Jon's Jail Journal" too, if you haven't already. He posts letters from prisoners there, and is a good friend to many who would otherwise have no audible voice.

As for the conditions of confinement in our jails and prisons: I don't understand why the Department of Justice hasn't held Arpaio criminally responsible for his abuse of so many people over the years - from medical negligence to conspiracies to deprive us of our civil rights. Their failure to do so thus far is akin to the feds' consent for every harm he's done under his tenure, and complicity with every additional prisoner he neglects or kills. I'm really starting to worry that they plan to make some kind of closed door deal with him, then pack their bags and walk away.

The Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act covers prisoners precisely because the People so often end up needing protection from the sadistic cruelty of those wielding power in our name, and few in America are more disenfranchised and vulnerable than those disposed of in jails and prisons - citizens and "aliens" alike. They include our elderly, our poor, our sick, troubled youth, our mentally ill, our developmentally disabled - all those people we once institutionalized elsewhere (and have thrown out into the streets) are thrown into the stew.

Of course, the more vocal idiots in our community argue after every article about prisoner abuse or suicide that because they are in a jail or prison they deserve whatever they get, whatever that may be. Just because those readers like to stone prostitutes, though, doesn't mean they are themselves without sin. Nor do they represent all of us. Those people are twisted bullies hiding behind fake identities looking for someone to kick who's already down. They've probably commented on this blog of Stephen's, in fact.

That's a tangent I can't stop from exploring in this context. The media shouldn't give such people the platform on which to celebrate brutalization, suicide, and murder, including among prisoners, in the first place. That's not supporting freedom of speech - it's just intimidating the voices of reason and humanity into silence. Giving hateful people our shared public space empowers them to use shame to perpetrate cruelty, and it perpetuates the stigma felt by prisoners' families who read "good riddance" from the community after their loved ones die. They screen such things out of printed "letters to the editor"; why not moderate their public forums? Only abusive and rich people seem to get amplified when they speak - the rest of us get censored, even if we head the nightly news.

Frankly, most of "free" Arizona should be locked up, looking at the multitude of laws that require jail or prison for those who break them - and at how unbelievably easy it is to put someone away, especially in this state. We are just privileged or very lucky if we've escaped such a fate so far. Those who think they will never be prosecuted because they really aren't "criminals" need to check out the Arizona Justice Project. There are all sorts of innocent people behind bars.

Once in a while the law reaches out and touches us where we never thought it would - and since it's not a common occurrence in our white, middle class communities, we are sure that there is just a deviant in our midst, or it is a fluke of the justice system that will work itself out. Dad's in an accident while on painkillers following surgery and goes to prison because he had an old DUI. Presumably he will get treatment in prison, but he's already been sober for 5 years - instead he just loses time from his kids' lives and his ability to support his family. The neighbor is arrested for embezzling to save the house from foreclosure and her kids from homelessness - losing everything and everyone in the process. We pay over $20,000 a year to incarcerate her for five years - and God knows how much to put the kids in foster care - while her banker gets a bonus from the taxpayer bailout.  

I hope everyone out there finds those images as disturbing as I do. It happens all the time.

As for the wrongfully-accused: Americans don't really presume innocence, which is why Joe's jail was allowed to get so bad. We recoil from the accused as soon as they hit the news because the possibility that agents of the almighty law might be corrupt or wrong threatens our sense of social order. We sacrifice Innocence like she's the designated virgin just to maintain the illusion that the guilty among us are eventually caught, and that those who are caught are always guilty. 

People who are innocent tend to believe that the truth will prevail, and if it doesn't they end up being punished worse than the real criminals who make a deal. Real-life case in point: Courtney Bisbee, the school nurse accused of touching a 14-year old liar and branded as a child molester, was a feather in the cap of the detective who arrested her and the prosecutor who got the conviction. To assure that the rest of us got our taste of blood, the judge slammed her with 11 years for fighting it out in court instead of taking a plea bargain that would have had her back home with her child by now.

Stephen Lemons even investigated Courtney's case and advocated on her behalf (here and here, too), but no one wants to hear the new evidence that would exonerate her because it implicates incompetence - or worse. For law enforcement's ego and our sense of order, she's been in prison for at least 6 years now. Maybe Romley is the man who will have the courage to help set her free - we'll see. He was the Maricopa County Attorney when she was originally prosecuted, so if he steps up to the plate and looks at it in a new light, I'll be impressed. Andrew Thomas was too much of a political coward.

In these ways the brutality of our courts, Joe's jail, and Ryan's prisons hits home. It's not a freakish thing for families to be ripped apart by "justice" in poor and minority communities - it's all too common. The legal system works exactly as it's designed to there, oppressing resistance to white supremacy and defiance of the rules of capitalism at every turn. Justice is the sheep's clothing that America dons to promote the interests of the few, and the myth that we are a model of democracy is what blinds us - and Her - to the deceit. 

But Justice is not supposed to prey on the rest of us "ordinary Americans"- it is supposed to protect us. It only seems to be when we fall from grace ourselves (or get falsely accused and imprisoned) that we begin to see the system for what it is. We get inside and see people doomed to spend the rest of their lives in prison for charges as petty as fraud, while murderers walk away with money in their pocket after 15 or 20 years. Looking around, we also realize that the majority of the people behind bars are not a public safety threat - most are public nuisances, eyesores, "sinners" and surplus laborers who legislators thought would be better hidden away. Those still claiming their innocence are all too often out-maneuvered by the state in legal proceedings, and seldom have the luxury of an attorney to help them once appeals are exhausted. 


Look closely and you'll see that America's prisons and jails have, by and large, replaced our mental hospitals, poorhouses, and plantations. And they are major money-making machines for those in power, as long as they skimp on human rights and basic needs like food and health care. That's why the prisoners who would expose them are discredited, discounted, and silenced in every way possible.

Never mind that the desperate and vulnerable are being relegated and abandoned in these hellholes to sociopaths who will rape and torture them for the fun of it, or even kill them just to score a new gang tattoo. To the private and public prison industries alike, each new body is just an addition to their growing empire - they have no interest in anyone's innocence or special circumstances, and no reason to help prevent or reduce the effects of crime in our communities. 

Despite lamenting about the high recidivism rate (usually as an excuse to be better funded and more brutal), jails and prisons are just as well-paid for recycling the people they chewed up once already. Buying the industry's line of BS, a terrorized public decides that parole officers and prosecutors are always professional and responsible and work in a functional system, so it must be the criminal's own fault for getting put back in - he should have learned his lesson the first time. Our perceptions are too often shaped by the expectation that what we pay nearly 10% of our state budget for includes some effort at "rehabilitation" (hence the AZ Department of Corrections' designation as such, not the "Department of Confinement"). The criminal justice system isn't rehabilitating anyone - they're spending our money lobbying the governor and legislature to pass more laws and assure more prison sentences for less serious crimes than ever.

The prison industrial complex as a whole (of which Sheriff Joe is actually just a small part) cultivates the rest of us to feel exploited and victimized, though, so that we seem defenseless and helpless without them. Then they glorify themselves as our protectors (though they usually arrive after the crime, not in time to prevent it), and we willingly pay them some other kid's lunch money to keep it up. It's a racket. Actually reducing crime and making us all more safe would just cut into their power and profit margins.  

Anyone who believes such a system really upholds justice or promotes the public good is delusional or has been duped. Law enforcement is an integral part of the fascist decimation of our rights, not the power protecting them. We - the People - are the only power that will protect liberty and justice for the future, but only if we have our eyes wide open and are ready to risk jail, prison, defamation, and even execution in the process. If we are not, then we have surrendered that which is most important in life for nothing more than illusion. We are on a leash, instead of in a cage. At least some prisoners, with their integrity intact, mange to remain free.

The DOJ is grossly negligent for failing to act aggressively under CRIPA against the MCSO, and therefore shares the blame for emboldening our greedy, bigoted, fear-mongering lawmakers and enforcers to continue to imprison, injure, and kill those of us whose nationality or skin color or gender or politics or religion they hate. But we are also responsible for letting this go on so long without holding either the feds or Arpaio accountable ourselves. So, here are the names and contact info for the people at the DOJ who should be investigating the real public enemies - and taking action - under CRIPA, regardless of what else they're doing. Please call or write on behalf of those fighting  a losing battle to defend their lives. Don't wait for your loved one to end up in trouble: he or she may be the next prisoner of the MCSO or Arizona Department of Corrections to die.

So could you or I.

------------------------

DOJ - Special Litigation Section

Mailing Address

Special Litigation Section

950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, PHB
Washington, D.C. 20530
For FEDEX: 601 D Street, NW, Washington, DC 20004

Telephone Number
(202) 514-0195
toll-free at (877) 218-5228

Fax Numbers
(202) 514-0212
(202) 514-6273

---

Acting Chief
Judy Preston
(202) 514-6258
Principal Deputy Chief
Tammie Gregg
(202) 616-2009
Deputy Chiefs
Julie Abbate (Acting)
(202) 353-4637
Mary Bohan (Acting)
(202) 616-2325
Luis Saucedo (Acting)
(202) 353-0299

Where There is Darkness, Light...

This is stunning. In a time and place where we've come to expect the worst from our public servants, Mr. Romley seems to be emerging as a man who is willing to put his job - serving the people - before his career. Unfortunately, that's something of a miracle here.

I can think of a few people who could learn something from this, beginning with the governor herself. As some of you may know, she's left a man she knows to be innocent, William Macumber, to die in a prison cell.

I can also think of a few more innocent souls whose nightmares have yet to end. Courtney Bisbee is one. Andrew Thomas buried the evidence that will exonerate her. God willing, Mr. Romley will have the political courage to set someone free again.

It's one thing to correct an injustice done on the watch of another, however. It's something else altogether to admit and fix the ones we own. Mr. Romley has a long history here; I hope he's willing to take responsibility for that as well. If so, even people like me might vote for him then. If not, we may just give up believing there's enough difference between any of them to bother voting any more at all. For now, however, we're grateful for this ray of light in the darkness that envelops the wrongly convicted, and for the hope that it brings to their loved ones.

Blessings to you, Lisa Randall: welcome to the rest of your life. May you be forever free.

------------------------------

Charges Dropped, Nightmare Ends for Peoria Woman

KSAZ Fox News

Updated: Thursday, 22 Jul 2010, 7:22 PM MDT
Published : Thursday, 22 Jul 2010, 7:22 PM MDT

PHOENIX - A beloved babysitter for nearly three decades found herself charged with murder in the death of a baby under her care. But now, a prosecutor has dismissed those charges.

"I can finally breathe. It's been a long 3 and a half years of hell," said Randall as she came out of a courthouse Thursday. Her ankle monitoring bracelet will finally come off.

In 2007, Lisa Randall's odyssey began as she faced the death penalty when 4-month-old Dillon died while in Randall's Peoria home in day care.

A medical examiner has since ruled the 4-month-old boy's death as undetermined, but Randall's attorney, David Cantor, says the child died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. (S.I.D.S.)

"Lisa was the victim of a witch hunt," said Cantor. "She had a police department with a detective who did his first homicide investigation, and his last, he didn't know what he was doing. And the medical examiners based everything on the information given to them from the detective, which was faulty."

The detective had said the baby suffered blunt force trauma, but when there was an autopsy, no skull fractures were found.

"Rick Romley, once he took over and Andrew Thomas was out, we finally had a voice of reason. They put it to an incidents review committee and they voted 8-0 and said this case needs to be dismissed in the interest of justice."

All charges were dropped and a court tossed out the case. Randall may decide to file a civil lawsuit against the Peoria Police Department and the Maricopa County Attorney's Office.

This is the first prosecutor-initiated dismissal of a capital murder case in at least 10 years in Maricopa County.

Courtney's Scar: Deeper than we will ever know.

I gave The Phoenix New Times a hard time in December over their treatment of sex workers, but I have to tell you, Stephen Lemons has been writing on Courtney's innocence for several years now, taking an unpopular position, considering how Thomas goes after resistance... thank you Stephen.

We need to fix this injustice before anyone else changes office this year. We need to get Courtney home to her family.

How promptly and responsibly these wrongful convictions in Arizona are handled should have direct bearing on who ends up getting elected and who doesn't.

Courtney's unjust incarceration and vulnerability to assault strike me as a law enforcement emergency, and Courtney and her daughter have been separated far too long already...I think the Maricopa County Attorney's office could spring her within a week if they really wanted (that's the link to their "comment" page).

He's supposed to be a powerful man, right?

Hang in there, Courtney and Camille.

Above: "Letter From the Son of Dorothy Gaines": a child's plea to a judge to not send his mother off to prison. It's tragic how many judges do so anyway - despite begging children, dying loved ones, even dying prisoners...they even ignore these kids when evidence of their parents' innocence arises. Ego and politics trumps what really matters in this state, once again.

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Courtney Bisbee Is Assaulted in Prison...
Stephen Lemons / Phoenix New Times
March 18, 2010

COURTNEY'S SCAR
 
A trip to Goodyear's Perryville Prison can be a deceiving experience. On any given Sunday, family members visit moms, sisters, and daughters warehoused at Perryville. The female convicts in their orange jumpsuits seem happy for the respite from serving their time, short-lived though it may be.
Even Courtney Bisbee, who is doing 11 years on bogus child-molestation charges detailed in my October 2008 New Times cover story "Nursing Injustice," seems pleasant and untroubled at times, even though she's still fighting to clear her name.

In 2006, Bisbee, then a school nurse, was convicted in a bench trial of touching 13-year-old Jon Valles inappropriately. The case of he said/she said was heard by Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Warren Granville.

Granville believed Bisbee's accuser. But Jon's brother Nik Valles — a key prosecution witness — has since recanted his testimony, saying his mother put Jon up to lie on the stand.

Still, despite a petition for post-conviction relief, which documented many of the problems of the case and introduced new evidence arguing for Bisbee's innocence, Granville refused to reverse his finding of guilt. Bisbee's challenging his ruling before the Court of Appeals, asking for a new hearing, possibly a new trial.

The appeals court probably will rule on Bisbee's challenge later this year. Meanwhile, Bisbee waits and fights in court to have a relationship with her daughter, Taylor Lee, who lives with her father and has had no contact with her imprisoned mother or her maternal grandparents for more than four years now.

If Taylor Lee ever sees her mother again, Bisbee will look different. Not only will she be older, there may well be a 2½-inch scar running from her scalp to her left eyebrow.

The gash, which is on the mend, went all the way to her skull, severing muscle and causing nerve damage. Bisbee suffered it March 1, as she was putting away equipment from an aerobics class she teaches at Perryville.

Another inmate, whom Bisbee had not dealt with before, called her from behind. Bisbee turned and was immediately punched in the face. Bisbee's assailant then grabbed her and flung her off her feet and into a metal door, opening up a gaping head wound. Bisbee was treated with 11 stitches at a hospital.

Two weeks later, when I visited her at Perryville, Bisbee's eye was still bruised and swollen, and the head wound was shockingly thick.

"They were big stitches, not the little kind," Bisbee said, pulling back a lock of hair to show me. Bisbee explained that the doctors wanted room for the wound to drain.

Though she was given painkillers at the hospital and was prescribed more, she says she's received none in prison. The left side of her scalp is still numb from the injury, she says, and she has painful headaches. Her left eye is also sensitive to light, and her eyesight has not fully recovered.

But she's more concerned about receiving the prescribed ointment Mederma, which is supposed to lessen scarring. This, too, prison authorities have withheld, though Bisbee's parents are willing to pay for it.

She playfully chastises her mother, Camille Tilley, for referring to the wound as a "Frankenstein scar" in an e-mail to Bisbee's hundreds of supporters. The wound might fit the description if Bisbee's bangs didn't hide it.

Fortunately, the attack on Bisbee was carried out in plain view of a Perryville guard, who immediately arrested the other inmate.

Why was she attacked? The scuttlebutt is that her assailant wanted to be written up and transferred to a high-security yard, where the assailant's girlfriend was assigned.

Bisbee says she gets along with most of the other inmates but says there is a small group whose members might think badly of her because she maintains her innocence.

"I don't fit in," she told me. "It's like I have one foot in this world, and one foot in the outside world."

Bisbee contends she's "feisty" and can tough out the situation. She doesn't have much choice.

The recent attack should light a fire under those who believe she's innocent and, at the very least, deserves a new trial. Until she's released, all those concerned for justice in her case can only hope for her safety.

Punishing innocence must end. HB 2675.

From the UTNE Reader Blog, this snippet at the very bottom. Links below will take you to the full report. I'm posting this as a reminder to folks to take the following action, posted first, making the system more fair and opportunities for exoneration more accessible, at least in Arizona. This bill needs to be put on the Judiciary Committee's agenda next week. The appeal came to me today from a friend with a wrongfully convicted child in Arizona's prison system:

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HB 2675 - "Erroneous Convictions"

Call and Fax today and next week to get this bill put on the Agenda.

Rep. Driggs makes the decision. Contact him first, then the Judiciary Committee members.

adriggs@azleg.gov    

fax: (602) 417-3007  

tel: (602) 926-3016

Contact information:

AZ Judiciary Committee-HB 2675

http://www.azleg.gov/agendas/0225012493.pdf

 AZ House Members:

http://www.azleg.gov/MemberRoster.asp?Body=H

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"It's time for laws that "help the people", rather than laws that give more power to the police and the prosecutors, who have ALL the resources to go after the people who pay for this.

Remember Ray Krone?  The Arizona Legislature apologized and said, "we must do better next time".  Well, it's next time and nothing has changed except to sweep wrongful convictions under the rug.

Once the County has to pay for carelessness and malicious prosecution of innocent people, then maybe they will then begin to do their job, starting with following established protocol in investigation with highly qualified people. The taxpayers have been bilked long enough on the "fear-mongering" sound bytes and "label" of the day -- "high-profile" witch-hunts.

Wrongful convictions in Arizona have been swept under the rug in the Maricopa County Attorney's office. 

The State Legislature apologized to Ray Krone, wrongfully convicted and exonerated in 2006, and said we have to do better next time.  Well, nothing has changed except the state is in financial collapse with all the felonies County Attorney Andrew Thomas has thrown into the court system, jails and prisons, like a wrecking ball (read "Jingle Jangle" by Jim Rix and  "Sunbelt Justice: Arizona and the Transformation of American Punishment" by Mona Lynch).

The jails and prisons are over-crowded and unsustainable. Almost 50% with NON-violent inmates, who are no harm to society.  

Mandatory minimum sentencing has been used as a weapon by the prosecutors to get their "conviction", rapidly making the U.S. #1 Jailer in the world, with Arizona #1 in the West in percentage of growth (Pew Report on the States).  MMS allows the police, lawyers, prosecutors, judges and victims rights advocates, to fail to do their jobs. They have become "processors" -- processing peoples' lives faster than parking tickets; defendant' s choice -- take a "plea" (en masse) or go to trial (a Kangaroo court). This money making industry for some is at the expense of innocent peoples' lives and at the root of a decaying society, which is where Arizona finds itself.

Innocent people with a NON-violent first offense are being sent to prison for years and DECADES in Arizona. Families are being destroyed daily, children's lives and the future society of Arizona hangs in the balance.  Overzealous prosecution of "easy" convictions while discarding the tough cases is unacceptable.

Someone needs to be held accountable for this failure of the criminal justice system. It starts with the police and the prosecutors.  The County should pay for their wrongful convictions. Then we might see an end to the race to convict and incarcerate.

Once again, HB 2675 must be put on the Agenda.  Show the people that you believe in fair justice and want to "right the wrongs" that have destroyed innocent peoples' lives."

 

Arizona Coalition for the Wrongfully Convicted - an Innocence movement

Arizona Coalition for Criminal Justice Reform

NCCJR National Coalition for Criminal Justice Reform

http://reformingjustice.com

Freedom March for the Wrongfully Convicted -2009 

http://www.freedommarchusa.org/default.htm

FREE COURTNEY BISBEE

http://www.justice4courtney.com

PETITION FOR COURTNEY BISBEE:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/free-courtney-bisbee---actual-innocence

PETITION: Mandatory Minimum Sentencing Scheme is Morally Unacceptable

http://www.change.org/actions/view/mandatory_minimum_sentencing_scheme_is_morally_unacceptable

------------the Innocence Project Report: 250 Exonerated------------

How 250 Prisoners Got Their Lives Back

2/5/2010 12:57:25 PM

by Jeff Severns Guntzel

The Innocence Project is celebrating the latest prisoner to be exonerated through DNA testing in the United States by detailing his case and the cases of each of the 249 wrongfully convicted who came before him. The report, 250 Exonerated: Too Many Wrongfully Convicted also offers a crunching of the exoneration numbers, among them:

- There have been DNA exonerations in 33 states and the District of Columbia.

- The top three states for DNA exonerations are New York (with 25), Texas (with 40) and Illinois (with 29).

- 76% of the wrongful convictions involved eyewitness misidentification.

- 50% involved unvalidated or improper forensic science.

- 27% relied on a false confession, admission or guilty plea.

- 70% of the 250 people exonerated are people of color (60% are black; nearly 9% are Latino; 29% are white).

Source: The Innocence Project 

Wrongful Convictions Conference, Courtney Bisbee

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Time:

5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.: Meet and greet reception

6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.: Program on Wrongful Conviction

Speakers:

Dennis Fritz: Dennis Fritz was exonerated in 1999 after spending 11 years in prison as an innocent man. He has published his own book titled Journey Toward Justice, which tells the story of his wrongful conviction and his fight for freedom. Dennis Fritz was also featured in John Grisham's book, The Innocent Man.

Darryl Burton: Darryl Burton was exonerated in 2008 after spending 24 years in prison as an innocent man.

Gary Stuart: Senior Policy Advisor to the Dean of the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. Gary Stuart will speak about false confessions.

Place:

NHI2 Auditorium

Arizona State University
500 North 3rd Street
Phoenix, AZ 85004
View Map

Continuing Legal Education Credit: This special event may qualify for 2.0 hours of CLE Credit.

Order Form All regstrations will be verified. Be sure to choose the correct option.
Select Ticket Type:
Student: No Charge
Justice Fellow: No Charge
General Admission: $25.00
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On the issue of wrongful convictions in Maricopa County, help free Courtney Bisbee. Check out www.justice4courtney.com. Her Mom's behind the site, the Phoenix New Times has a couple of articles out, Courtney's innocent, and Andrew Thomas knows it.