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Mar 23, 2010

Ohio passed criminal justice reform bill, reports the Innocence Project.

http://www.innocenceproject.org/docs/IPonline/Mar2010.php

Ohio lawmakers last week passed a package of sweeping criminal justice reforms aimed at preventing injustice by addressing the leading causes of wrongful convictions. The bill, which Gov. Ted Strickland is expected to sign within days, was called by one lawmaker “one of the most important pieces of criminal justice legislation in this state in a century."

Each time DNA testing helps to free an innocent person from prison, we can study how our criminal justice system failed — and address the problem so it doesn’t happen again. Ohio is now a model in targeting reforms to help free the innocent, prevent wrongful convictions and apprehend the true perpetrators of crime.

The bill includes improvements to lineup procedures, a method for parolees to apply for DNA testing, incentives for police departments to record interrogations and a requirement that evidence in serious crimes be preserved. The Innocence Project worked closely with the Ohio Innocence Project for the last two years to pass these critical reforms.

While these reforms are badly needed from coast to coast, the urgency for systemic change became clear in Ohio after the Columbus Dispatch published the groundbreaking series "Test of Convictions," documenting flaws in the state’s system and helping to bring about two exonerations so far. The series’ two reporters, Mike Wagner and Geoff Dutton, will receive the Innocence Network’s first-annual Journalism Award next month.
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While Ohio is correcting some problems in its justice system, Texas prepares to execute Hank Skinner on March 24, 2010.  Skinner claims he is innocent, but the State of Texas refused Skinner the right to test his DNA evidence at his own expense.

Mary Neal
Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill
http://www.Care2.com/c2c/group/AIMI

Mar 14, 2010

Please note at Care2 News Network at this link. http://www.care2.com/news/member/513396753/1422188 PRISON PROFITS SKYROCKET FROM THESE AMERICAN WOES, yet we expect prison investors to fix them:

~WAR

~EXECUTIONS

~SCHOOL CLOSINGS AND TEACHER LAY-OFFS

~RECESSION

~HIGH UNEMPLOYMENT

~RISING PRISON COSTS

~WORLD'S LARGEST INCARCERATION RATE

~CRIMINALIZING MENTAL ILLNESS, INCLUDING PTSD AMONG VETS

Prison Profits vs. Freedom of Press for Mary Neal, Human Rights Advocate
http://freespeakblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/prison-profits-vs-freedom-of-press-for.html
This blog should have 26 paragraphs not counting subtitles and 17 links. I list contents because cybercensorship is used to block out parts of your blogs and mine that authorities find objectionable. Try viewing yours from a different computer often if you write about human rights, and you will see. I positioned a photo at my blog post that the censorship force of America will not allow to show. It is a photograph of Troy Davis gagged. You can see it in my Care2 album - Google "AIMI album Care2."  Troy is not the only American gagged to prevent justice.

Censoring Mary Neal is allowed or actually done by authorities in order to prevent my exposing my disabled brother's murder cover-up and expressing the viewpoint that the nation suffers a stiffling prison budget that erodes funds for education, our jobs are disappearing behind prison walls, the death penalty continues despite its loss of public support, and the war is proliferating to benefit prison profiteers, including many decision makers. Just as Troy Davis is under a gag order to prevent his protests that he is innocent, I am illegally censored and terrorized for advocating for justice. See the information below under the headings, National Health Care, The Prison Budget, The Economy and Unemployment, The War, and Cyberterror to Prevent Human Rights Activism. Specific examples of the cyberterror that is intended to intimidate me so that I relinquish the right to freedom of press are included below. As I wrote this blog, "citizens police" made innumerable trips past my home, reving their motors, and helicoptors circled over my home. God said, "Fear not." At church today, I will give video CDs to the prison missionary members that captured real-time cyberterror and cybercensorship that is used against me. I will be happy to send you a CD, also. See "PRISON LABOR PROFITS" at YouTube for a two-minute film as an example. Write to MaryLovesJustice, P.O. Box 153, Redan, Georgia 30074, and please include a donation for production and shipping along with whatever you can include to continue work to decriminalize mental illness through our organization, Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill (gifts are not tax deductible).

When I try to open this Google Docs question online, the question is replaced with my Google profile on my view.

HOW TO SHARE MY CYBERTERRORISM VIA GOOGLE DOCS?
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Google+Docs/thread?tid=56924cd29a47031f&hl=en

Additionally, I discovered that when I tried to follow my Care2 Sharebook, the letter "h" would not register; therefore, people cannot actually follow my Sharebook posts. I complained on Twitter, and the "h" letters suddenly appeared at my Blogger blog settings at one link I had written in an attempt to follow my Sharebook: http://www.Care2.com/c2c/Share/Sharebook/html?pid=513396753 - Furthermore, for the blogs that I do follow in my Blogger, the data from those blogs is from six to nine months old, not current data. Cyberstalkers have been instructed to prevent me from getting current data in the fear that I will attend rallies and meetings and reveal information about my disabled brother's secret jailhouse murder and the cruel conditions under which many other Americans are imprisoned - some of whom have no criminal charges but are imprisoned long-term after lunacy arrests.

NATIONAL HEALTH CARE

Is Psychiatric Care Is Omitted to Benefit the Prison Industry?

Millions of people have a common, treatable health condition that may be omitted under current proposals for national health care. Censorship and cyberterror are intended to prevent my advocacy for passing H.R.619, a congressional bill that would make inpatient psychiatric treatment possible for middle-class and indigent mentally ill people by resuming Medicaid funding for eligible persons who cannot afford private hospital fees or $150/hour visits with a psychiatrist. Presently, people who lack the funds for inpatient treatment or private doctor's visits are left untreated in hopes that they will commit a crime and join the 1.25 million mentally ill citizens in the prison system - even if the crime is attempted suicide or mass murder. Rep. Eddie Johnson (D-TX, 30) proposed H.R.619 on January 22, 2009. I write about the bill prolifically; however, my tag lines are frequently illegally edited, and "H.R. 619" is removed to prevent the general public from knowing about the bill, and to prevent the 111th Congress from seeing the support for the bill from the community.

Prison owners and investors recognize that resuming Medicaid funding for psychiatric hospitals would prevent sick Americans in crisis from being incarcerated rather than treated for mental illness. When that funding source was deleted in the 1970's, hospitals closed across the nation, and prisons filled with sick people. They also realize that mentally ill persons who are released from hospitals and prisons should only be released under Assisted Outpatient Treatment programs (AOTs) that provide subsistence assistance and ongoing psychiatric care in their communities. The combination of Medicaid funding for inpatients and AOT programs for community care would eliminate over one-half of the nation's prison cost and give most sick people their lives back. The nation's current prison budget is $50 billion annually, and $185 billion when one adds the costs of police services, attorney fees for indigent clients, and court costs. Over half of that expense results from criminalizing mental illness. That is precisely why I am subjected to heavy censorship and have "citizens police" positioned around my home, stalkers when I leave home to use computers that were not illegally placed on an Intranet to control and impede my input, my phone is tapped - 678.531.0262 (calls go to voicemail, and I do not get the messages).

These and more crimes are done to prevent Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill, and they are permitted to continue by the government despite my asking for help, because many officials, past and present, are prison owners and investors. Because prison industry wants to keep mental patients imprisoned rather than treated in hospitals and their communities under H.R.619 and AOT programs, they attempt to block my attempts to network with people online and terrorize me when I leave home to use computers elsewhere. On one occasion, I was followed by a USDOT truck that was leading four other vehicles that waylaid me at my neighborhood Chevron station. I called 911 and waited on police response for an hour that did not come, and no police investigation of the crime ever happened, just as the DOJ refuses to investigate my mentally and physically ill brother's murder in memphis/Shelby County Jail. Mentally ill people are discriminated against on purpose by the very agencies and individuals that are in place to protect institutionalized persons and prevent discrimination in America. Their victimization extends to people like myself who say, "I Respectfully Object."

THE PRISON BUDGET
Why Prisons are Deemed More Important than Education; Why Teachers are Being Laid Off and Schools Closed?

FIFTY BILLION DOLLARS A YEAR IS A SUBSTANTIAL SUM. ONE-HUNDRED EIGHTY FIVE BILLION A YEAR IS EVEN MORE IMPRESSIVE. THAT IS WHAT OUR CRIMINAL JUSTICE BUDGET COSTS. PRISON LABOR PROJECTS GENERATES BILLIONS MORE IN REVENUE. Representative Johnson was courageous to put forth a bill proposing resumption of Medicaid funding for inpatient care. Let us all support H.R. 619, the bill that would help decriminalize mental illness, relieve our prison budget, promote community safety, and save and enrich lives of mentally ill Americans (1 in 5 people) and their families. Ask your candidates whre they stand on continuing to wrongly imprison sick people as opposed to treating them, which would save money and lives. While national health care is the leading topic of debate in Washington, demand that our officials stop discriminating against mental illness and include treatment for psychitric conditions in any health care plan they pass. See the portfolios of your candidates and elected officials to determine which of them has a vested interest in prison labor profits increasing and the prison population having sustained growth. Decriminalizing mental illness would eliminate the need for private prisons, because 1.25 million sick people would be treated in hospitals and their communities rather than relagated to prison in solitary confinemnt cells, tasered, gassed, and put in often-deadly restraint chars to die like musician Sean LeVert and Tim Souders, the subect of a 60-Minutes documentary.

Acute mental patients are imprisoned rather than hospitalized in order that prison profiteers can charge taxpayers significantly more money for "special" arrangements those inmates must have, although most of them actually get no care - only a solitary prison cell where they are kept naked and many are abused and/or killed like Larry Neal was.

Unfortunately, the DOJ was headed during the time Larry was secretly arrested and died in 2003 by former Attorney General Antonio Gonzales, who was indicted in 2008 as a prison profiteer for withholding federal investigations regarding prison abuse for kickbacks. He never went to trial. Larry's family hoped that his secret arrest and wrongful death investigation that was denied when Gonzales was the nation's attorney general would happen under the present administration. Instead, the DOJ refuses to honor the president's executive order to strengthen the Freedom of Information Act by responding to FOIA requests promptly. In fact, Eric Holder's DOJ told Larry Neal's family the DOJ will not answer how and why Larry Neal was killed. Prison profiteering is a vast enterprise with many officials being paid your tax money to keep sick people and non-violent offenders behind bars, unprotected by minimum wage laws, normal worker protections, mental and physical health care, and even protection from murder. Americans behind bars have the same DOJ making decisions that issued torture orders for the offshore prison camps and that now prohibits full disclosure on those human rights abuses. Larry Neal's denial of open disclosure indicates that American citizens can be secretly arrested and murdered, and their deaths are also covered up just like people who are labeled "suspected terrorists" from other countries.

Pray for Rep. Johnson's safety and help to promote H.R.619. I do not know whether the former psychiatric nurse fully understands the powerful foes her bill has and how far they will go to keep sick Americans behind bars. I am surprised every day at the criminal lenghts to which they go to intimidate me, prevent my family from learning how they murdered my disabled brother, Larry Neal, whose death was covered up by The (Johnnie) Cochran Firm, the DOJ, Shelby County Jail, and deprived of due process of law by judges. I am not permitted to have Net Freedom to bring injustices against mentally ill Americans before the public, especially to Christian organizations, African American online groups and prisoner activists groups. http://wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/

THE ECONOMY AND UNEMPLOYMENT
Where Did the Jobs Go? Who Profits by a Bad Economy?

CYBERTERRORISM AND IN-PERSON STALKING are employed against Mary Neal to prevent my publishing the fact that many of the jobs Americans believe went to third world contries actually disappeared behind prison walls along with 2.3 million Americans, two-thirds of whom are non-violent offenders who were enslaved for that purpose. Recognize that a bad economy improves prison growth as desperate people do desperate things. It is a conflict of interest for some officials to improve the economy, as it would interfere with the proliferation of the prison industrial complex. It would be a conflict of interest to return jobs to the private sector by decriminalizing mental illness and eliminating excessive sentencing, three-strikes laws, mandatory sentencing, wrongful convictions, and the death penalty, which costs taxpayers around $90,000 more per year for each condemned man.

SLAVERY is so lucrative that while support for H.R. 619 is stifled, another bill, H.R.645 to build six concntration camps in America, is picking up co-sponsors in the House of Representatives. Under H.R. 645, millions more Americans will be given full employment in FEMA centers with uniforms provided. The Massachusetts Martial Law bill provides that Americans may be interned in the FEMA camps for such "offenses" as refusing to accept an H1N1 vaccine should an "emergency" be called. According to the Left Business Observer, the federal prison industry produces 100% of all military helmets, ammunition belts, bullet-proof vests, ID tags, shirts, pants, tents, bags, and canteens. Along with war supplies, prison workers supply 98% of the entire market for equipment assembly services; 93% of paints and paintbrushes; 92% of stove assembly; 46% of body armor; 36% of home appliances; 30% of headphones, microphones, and speakers; and 21% of office furniture. Airplane parts, medical supplies, and much more: prisoners are even raising seeing-eye dogs for blind people. http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8289

THE WAR
Ending the War Would Negatively Impact the Prison Industry

Prison laborers make 100% of uniforms soldiers wear and the products they carry, including canteens. It would be a conflict of interest for prison investors to end the war. High unemployment is good for the war industry and the prison industry. The nation's recssion helps to induces thousands of young job-seekers to enter the military, which in turn creates a growing need for military uniforms and products. Read this again: According to the Left Business Observer, the federal prison industry produces 100% of all military helmets, ammunition belts, bullet-proof vests, ID tags, shirts, pants, tents, bags, and canteens. Along with war supplies, prison workers supply 98% of the entire market for equipment assembly services; 93% of paints and paintbrushes; 92% of stove assembly; 46% of body armor; 36% of home appliances; 30% of headphones/microphones/speakers; and 21% of office furniture. Airplane parts, medical supplies, and much more: prisoners are even raising seeing-eye dogs for blind people. http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8289

CYBERTERROR TO PREVENT HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISM
Examples of Crimes Officials Allow/Facilitate Against Mary Neal and Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill Organization

I made a request at Google Forums for help sharing my cyberterror, which the government allows to continue in order to keep people ignorant of terrorism against my family for asking WHAT HAPPENED TO LARRY NEAL and discrimination against...10 million mentally ill people and their family members ... by criminalizing mental illness in America. A modified version of my help request is below.

HOW TO SHARE MY CYBERTERRORISM VIA GOOGLE DOCS?http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Google+Docs/thread?tid=56924cd29a47031f&hl=en?

Hello. I tried to share some of my cyberterrorism via Google Docs. My Google Docs all are labeled "not shared." Everything I put online is published to share with the entire universe, especially since mainstream media will not publish anything about the secret arrest and wrongful death of Larry Neal and The Cochran Firm fraud that followed to cover-up his murder in Memphis/Shelby County Jail in 2003. I tried to send the Google Doc page named "DOG JUSTICE" to my blog at http://freespeakblog.blogspot.com/ , but it keeps saying "timed out."

The "Dog Justice" Google Doc is a screen shot of the sick, possibly abused dog I was forced look at whenever I sent emails from Yahoo to thousands of people about Larry's murder and the need to decriminalize mental illness in America. Later, when I was prevented from communicating with African American groups and prisoner activists using my Yahoo Mail account, it was almost a relief not to have to look at that sick dog any longer. The sick dog ad mocked my family's justice quest. We call our justice quest "Dog Justice" because Larry's murder is deprived of the investigative and prosecutorial justice that dog abuse cases get in America.

I also want to share the screen shot of the big, black gorilla that Internet links to some of my Care2 shares led. The "www" in those links was exchanged for the word "primate." When people selected the links, they led to a photo of a large, black ape instead of to my posts. Most of my Care2 shares, NowPublic.com articles, and FreeSpeakBlog blogs expose victimization of helpless people like Larry was, i.e., videos of an elderly woman being tasered at a traffic stop in Texas, a mentally challenged student being assaulted by his school police officer because his shirt tail was out, and a legless elderly African American man who police tasered in his wheelchair. My Internet posts are objectionable to some people. I do not share news to embarrass people in authority, but to enlist support improving human and civil rights.

People retaliate [my using my "freedom" of press by sending me cyberterror for asking about my murdered brother and advocating for justice for other victims. In fact, I saved screen shots (using print-screen function on my computer) of most of the cyberterror I receive. I put the coffin ad cyberterror on my Google profile at http://google.com/profiles/MaryLovesJustice - The cyberterrorism is done to make Larry Neal's family join mainstream news in censoring the fact that Larry was a lifelong mental patient who was kept under secret arrest in Memphis Shelby County Jail for 18 days until he died under yet undisclosed circumstances. Authorities refuse to say whether he was Tasered, died in a restraint chair, or expired from deprivation of his heart drugs while my family and Larry's social worker were continually told that neither Larry nor a John Doe meeting his description was incarcerated in the jail. http://wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/

We keep trying to get authorities to tell Larry's survivors how they killed him and why, but the jail refuses to answer federal subpoenas and the USDOJ refuses to respond to our Freedom of Information Act Request, which is also online.Now I use Larry as my "poster child" to help promote a bill by Rep. Johnson (D-TX 30) to make inpatient psychiatric care more accessible by resuming Medicaid funding under H.R. 619. Rep. Johnson is a former psychiatric nurse who knows that acute mental patients belong in the hospitals, not behind bars like 1.25 million of America's mentally ill citizens are right now. Mentally challenged offenders who are nonviolent like Larry should be released from jails and hospitals only under Assisted Outpatient Treatment programs, providing subsistence assistance and treatment that is mandated by the court.

I have numerous screen shots of my cyberterror that should be uploaded to Google Docs, including the one showing a large dried-up ant that I was forced to view for many weeks at YahooMail and the coffin ad that is at my Google profile as well as the six men holding rifles that greeted me for weeks whenever I tried to communicate with members of my group at Care2 - Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill - http://www.Care2.com/c2c/group/AIMI

At one point, whenever I tried to update my Care2 profile page, a lethal injection bed with my name underneath it would pop out of nowhere. A family friend saw it one night and gave me an affidavit that I filed in our USDC case against The Johnnie Cochran Firm (suit for defrauding my family - working for the jail behind our backs to prevent our wrongful death lawsuit regarding Larry's murder). Unfortunately, the young woman, my witness, was stopped by police and beaten soundly last fall on the day I had rented DeKalb Community Center to give youths an opportunity to showcase their talent. Apparently, authorities believed I would use the opportunity to tell the community about Larry's secret arrest and murder, The Cochran Firm's fraud (having a judge issue a court order that there is no Cochran Firm office in Georgia as an excuse to dismiss our lawsuit for the firm's fraud as Larry's wrongful death attorneys), and the terrorism we endure, being followed by gangstalkers and a USDOT truck.

I also want to publish on Google Docs the "NO RESULTS FOR TROY DAVIS" print screen I captured when I searched for Troy Davis' name at Twitter's "real time tweets" field. I noticed this week that NONE of my tweets about Troy Davis and Hank Skinner, two death row inmates, came up when I viewed the tweets that posted under searches for real-time tweets about those men at Twitter. Today, I was astounded to get the "NO RESULTS FOR TROY DAVIS" response at Twitter. There is much cybercensorship surrounding prison issues like the death penalty, criminalizing mental illness, and America's high prison rate.

One example of online censorship is my video "PRISON LABOR PROFITS" at YouTube. Unfortunately, the video is captured by those who can get around Google's security and control the hits counter as they also did regarding my COCHRAN FIRM FRAUD videos 1 and 2. As was the case with those Cochran Firm Fraud videos, people have trouble commenting at my "PRISON LABOR PROFITS" cybercensorship video. See a conversation about that at this link (not actually a conversation, since my first response to AIMI member, Danielle, about her DoS at YouTube was not allowed to post): Comment 6 at this link by Danielle S. http://www.care2.com/c2c/groups/disc.html?gpp=17280&pst=903647

Try to comment at PRISON LABOR PROFITS at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icRD77mugaI or at the Cochran Firm Fraud videos at YouTube and you might be able to see for yourself that most comments are disallowed. Also, notice the hits counter - get with a group of people using laptops and each of you access the videos. The hits counter may not add a single view. I welcome suggestions on how to get around the powerful cybercensorship force despite the wealth and resoucefulness of their employers. They are assigned to prevent my advocacy for H.R.619 and work against me when I try to use Google Docs to post examples of cyberterror via web pages and on my blog at http://freespeakblog.blogspot.com/ -

I hope that any national health care reform bill that passes incorporates provisions for psychiatric care instead of prisons for Americans who have mental illness. It is time for our country to come out of the Dark Ages when mentally ill people were kept in dungeons, abused, and killed, like they continue to be while behind bars and during lunacy arrests in 21st Century America. AIMI is not alone in promoting H.R. 619. NAMI, which has 250,000 members across the nation, announced its support of H.R. 619 in January 2010, Treatment Advocacy Center promotes the bill, and most other mental health orgs also support resuming Medicaid funding for middle-class and indigent mental patients instead of remanding sick people to prison. Sick inmates like Larry Neal was and their family members are citizens, too, and they number around 10 million. Your help getting Net Freedom regarding decriminalizing mental illness will be appreciated. I really need my Google Docs sharing feature to work. Thanks in advance.

Mary Neal
Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill
http://www.Care2.com/c2c/group/AIMI
P.O. Box 153, Redan, GA  30074

-- Mary Neal's Google Profile - http://www.google.com/profiles/MaryLovesJustice - Get the RSS feed for my Care2 Sharebook at: http://www.care2.com/c2c/share/rss.html/513396753/0/ - Get the RSS feed for my Twitter KOFFIETIME at http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/59790083.rss - Current, urgent justice issues from a laywoman's viewpoint at my primary blog http://freespeakblog.blogspot.com/ (the name is a joke, believe me) Recommended articles - http://topsy.com/site/freespeakblog.blogspot.com - Address: MaryLovesJustice, P.O. Box 153, Redan, GA 30074-0153
Mar 8, 2010

I disagree that Americans are the worst people the world has ever known.  That is what our prison rate indicates.  America incarcerates more people than any nation in the history of the world - 2.3 million.  Furthermore, it appears that our public servants think we are so bad that our tax money must be used to erect six (6) FEMA centers under H.R. 645 to hold millions more.  The new criminals will be interned for such crimes as refusing to accept H1N1 vaccines should an "emergency" be called, according to the Massachusetts Martial Law bill that passed in that state's legislature on October 13, 2009. 

I disagree with cyberstalkers being allowed to control my browsing and Internet input.  They prevented me from being able to open any web pages regarding Texas' last execution victim a couple of weeks ago, and it is already time to object to another one in the same state.

I disagree with Hank Skinner's execution, scheduled for March 24.  It is particularly objectionable that Skinner has not been allowed to take a DNA test to prove his innocence. I disagree that innocence does not matter.

HOW MUCH DOES INNOCENCE MATTER IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE? by Mary Neal
http://freespeakblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/how-important-is-innocence-in-criminal.html

I disagree with Georgia's new law that passed in 2006 and allows judges to dismiss murder cases without jury trials if the defendant pleads self-defense.  Most police officers claim self-defense when they kill citizens.  If they are indicted, they should face a jury of their peers or have to bargain with the prosecutor like everyone else who is indicted by a grand jury for capital crimes.

I disagree with Troy Davis being kept on death row under a gag order. Every prisoner should have the right to say, "I didn't do it."  Some of them are telling the truth.  In any case, lies are rampant regarding justice in America.  Even inmates who are lying cannot top the justice system's officials. Browse for COCHRAN FIRM FRAUD, for example.

I disagree with criminalizing mental illness and relegating 1.25 million sick Americans to prisons instead of hospitals.  I further disagree with cybercensorship preventing "H.R.619" from appearing among the taglines for articles I wrote to promote that congressional bill.  H.R.619 proposes resuming Medicaid funding for inpatient psychiatric care, which might cost rich prison investors some profits.

I disagree that it should go without investigation or accountability that my mentally and physically disabled brother was secretly arrested and exterminated like a roach in Memphis/Shelby County Jail in 2003 because his loud singing and occasional panhandling irritated police.

I disagree with Care2 member Danielle's brother Nick being imprisoned since June 2009 and deprived of psychiatric treatment in order that he might break some prison rule and have time added to his sentence.  In fact, I disagree that mental illness is a punishable offense.

Don't be like people in Nazi Germany who failed to speak up about atrocities happening there.  Please call or write your representatives and say, "I respectfully disagree."

111th Congress:  www.house.gov/writerep/
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Your Governor: www.usa.gov/Contact/Governors.shtml
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Please use your back arrow to return to this Sharebook to read about specific cases involving victims who need your voice.

I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides . . . Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim.  Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. To remain silent and indifferent is the greatest sin of all. ~Elie Wiesel, Nobel Prize for Peace, 1986

Mary Neal
http://wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/
Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill
http://www.care2.com/c2c/group/AIMI

Mar 2, 2010

 

This post centers on the Troy Davis case, which is important to all of us.

DISALLOWED TWEETS 3-2-10

 

HELP Texas Moratorium Network, 3616 Far West Blvd, Austin, TX 78731 phone (512) 961-6389 -working to end capital punishment in Texas #prison

 

@Twitter Can U check yo security? I am disallowed from posting contact info for an anti-death penalty org in TX-50% of Americans want repeal

 

Anti-death penalty news and views are attacked online. At least 50% of Americans want the death penalty repealed. Hopefully, 100% of Americans want to use every means available to ensure that condemned persons are really guilty before execution, including post-conviction DNA testing. Irrefutable evidence of guilt before execution is not as important as it should be to some of our Supreme Court justices, prosecutors, governors, and members of pardon and parole boards. Before further tweets were disallowed at Twitter and I was bumped offline, I was able to post the following death penalty news:

 

  1. TEXAS 449 executions since 70's. 210 executions under Gov Perry. Michael Sigala dies today. Please call Gov Perry at (512) 463-1782 #prison

  2. TEXAS EXECUTION DATES: Mar 2 – Michael Sigala; Mar 24 – Hank Skinner (DNA test denied)

  3. TEXAS EXECUTION TODAY: Michael Sigala

  4. Troy Davis Lawyers Cry Foul – link was provided to access Savannah news article reporting that prosecutors claim witness retractions in Troy Davis' case were inappropriately obtained by Davis' attorneys. Apparently, prosecutors want to ignore the fact that witnesses wish to withdraw their testimony against Davis. Davis was condemned for the murder of a Savannah police officer by witness testimony alone. Some witnesses later recanted their testimony, saying they were coerced by police into giving false testimony against Davis in his initial trial. Other witnesses tainted their testimony with conflicting stories. The only two witnesses left are a man that some people believe is the real killer and his friend.

    Wikipedia reports that one dark night in the Deep South, 1) A man was at the crime scene with a gun. He chased a homeless man from a diner where Troy Davis and some other young men were eating. He was teasing the homeless man. Troy Davis and other young men went to see what was happening when the homeless man was chased from the diner. The homeless man cried for help. Officer McPhail responded to the homeless man's distress call, and the off-duty police officer was shot.

    2) The man hired an attorney and went to the police to give a report. He reported that Troy Davis shot Officer McPhail. He denied having a weapon

    3) Troy Davis' home was searched for a weapon, and no pistol was found.

    4) The man later admitted to police that he did have a weapon, but claimed to have lost it. Therefore, his pistol was not available for ballistic testing. Read the full account at Wikipedia. Also, visit Troy Davis' website or Amnesty International online for more details about the wrongful conviction of Troy Davis.

America has experienced a record number of foreclosures within the last five years. Most people who find themselves without a home reside with relatives or friends until they recuperate financially and are able to shelter themselves. Chronically homeless people who live on the street long-term because they are not welcomed into the homes of family members and friends are usually mentally ill and/or substance abusers. Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill (“AIMI&rdquo members advocate for the mentally ill. We appreciate Officer McPhail, who sacrificed his life in service to his community. Officer McPhail was not guarding the diner but another business when he hurried to respond to a disadvantaged citizen who was being harassed and threatened. If Officer McPhail had ignored the homeless man's distress call, he might be alive today. It is therefore very important to grant Troy Davis a new trial to ensure that Officer McPhail's death is attributed to the real murderer. Every murder victim and his survivors deserve justice. Justice can only be served by punishing the right party for the crime. I agree with other abolitionists that even then, capital punishment should not be used.

It seems strange that Savannah police officers and prosecutors are not as anxious as Troy Davis' supporters are to re-examine the merits of this case in a new trial where Davis could prove his innocence or allegations against Davis could be validated. But although Davis was arrested and condemned based on scant evidence, questionable witness testimony that has largely been withdrawn, the condemned man's quest for a new trial based on substantial new evidence has continually been denied. In fact, it is a miracle Davis is still alive. He has had three close calls with the lethal injection table but was granted a stay of execution each time. Despite the lack of surety that Georgia convicted the right man, at no point has Davis been given a new trial to air his proof of innocence. Furthermore, Davis is under a gag order to prevent his divulging new information about his case to the public. The truth is the light – let it shine! Troy Davis and Officer McPhail deserve justice, and that cannot be achieved for either man without a Davis being granted a “fair day in a just court,” as he repeatedly requested.

The truth is the State has no proof against Davis. After years of public outcry against his execution by millions of Americans and world citizens, including dignitaries like former President Jimmy Carter and the Pope, as well as major civil and human rights organizations like Amnesty International and the NAACP, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in July 2009 that Troy Davis' case will be reviewed by a Georgia USDC judge who will determine if Davis will have another trial. Davis was prosecuted and convicted of Officer McPhail's murder off witness testimony alone. Witnesses later withdrew or tainted their testimony (except for two people discussed above). Therefore, the witnesses' admissions that they lied on Troy Davis should be considered in determining whether Davis will get a new trial. Nothing is new about prosecutors trying to keep Davis from finally having a “fair day in a just court,” as he pleads. It is standard procedure for prosecutors to do everything they can, sometimes illegal things, to get a conviction and to keep people in jail once they are sentenced. However, I thank God that some prosecutors agree with U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, who said true justice must take precedence over procedure. I will pray for the Georgia prosecutors who wish to discount the witnesses' admissions that they lied by saying their recantations were wrongly derived by Davis' attorneys. Prosecutors, police officers, and all people who love truth and justice should want to know WHAT HAPPENED TO OFFICER MCPHAIL, a peace officer who died as a savior for a homeless and probably mentally challenged man.

PLEASE PRAY WITH ME:

May God bless Officer McPhail's soul and shed light on how he died. Please give Davis a fair day in a just court and eliminate censorship that prevented the wrongly convicted man and his lawyers from presenting evidence of his innocence for many years. Move on the hearts of every man and woman in a decision-making capacity regarding this case to want justice over procedure. Your Word says the heart of the king is in Your hands, and You turn it the way that You will. Please give Savannah police officers, Georgia prosecutors, and Troy Davis' judge clean hearts and a strong desire to reveal the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Help them, God. Lead them into righteousness, Father, for Your name's sake. Save a poor, innocent, black man from suffering and dying without even getting to defend himself. Strengthen Davis' lawyers. Surround them with angels and send your Holy Spirit to guide them every step along this perilous journey toward justice. Please, Lord, let there be light. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

If you are not a Christian, please meditate on truth, justice, and light for the sake of Officer McPhail and the homeless man he protected as well as Troy Davis. Even if you believe Davis is guilty, please agree that no one should be executed based on beliefs that are not substantiated by proof. Execution is irreversible, and the damage that could be done to our confidence in the justice system could be irreversible, also, if millions of people who believe Troy is or might be innocent never get to hear his evidence. Truth and justice and peace deserve all of our support.

I have long feared that those who want to strip Americans of our constitutional rights might kill Troy Davis without a new trial hoping to spark civil unrest as an excuse to institute Martial Law. If Davis is denied a new trial, please stay home and pray for wrongdoers. Do not leave your homes. Stay home for peace and safety, as I mostly do since my introduction to “justice” in Georgia courts. Jesus is the Prince of Peace. People who wish to support Davis should do so now by writing letters, making phone calls, and attending rallies. Send donations to Amnesty International to help with Davis' defense and justice for other condemned people. Voice your opinions and support for justice now before the decision is made one way or another whether Davis will be granted a new trial. If things do not go the way you hope in this or any other matter (no matter which way you hope things go), please adopt the attitude of peace and non-violence that won great victories during the Civil Rights Movement. If Davis is denied a new trial, join me in begging Governor Purdue or President Obama for a pardon for him. Stay home and write emails and letters. PLEASE KEEP THE PEACE FOR THE SAKE OF US ALL. God bless America, all of our home. Unite around this one truth: Martial Law is dangerous for all of us and our way of life. Regarding that truth, we must either stand together as brothers or perish together as fools. (MLK) Remember that Troy Davis enjoys tremendous support from both Caucasians and Africans within America and around the world. Many people denounce racism and love justice. As my grandma used to say, “Don't be nobody's fool.” Please.

Blessed is the peacemaker.

Mary Neal, a/k/a MaryLovesJustice
Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill
http://www.Care2.com/c2c/group/AIMI


 

 
 
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Mary Neal
female, age 57, divorced, 2 children
Stone Mountain, GA, USA
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