I listened to Brian Stephenson's recent TED talk. He is a lawyer who defends children who are accused of a crime. Judges apparently feel free to charge children 14 and 15 years old as adults in their courtrooms. This is a dreadful distortion of justice and damages these children for life. They are even given life imprisonment. Children are just learning responsibility in their teenage years and their brains are developing. In no way should they be held responsible for crimes as adults.

www.gavenwilson.com

63 year-old Mr. Henderson is suffering from a laundry list of medical conditions including HIV, hepatitis C and internal bleeding. The Parole Board believes that Mr. Henderson turned his life around and would be a great asset to his community. However, Gov. Beebe refused to commute Mr. Henderson’s sentence contrary to the Parole Board’s unanimous recommendation. Mr. Henderson should not die in prison. Gov. Hutchinson should right this wrong.

cps wrongfully seperating my family. eight months into this battle and loads of severe trauma due to this ordeal later and we still have not been reunited as a family. 3 children, 3 different homes. how can this be happening?

In a country that cherishes freedom, rights, liberty, and the Constitution, to say that our justice system "is not perfect" is an insult to the Founding Fathers who left us so much to build upon. The truth is our judicial system has been broken by decades of unfair public policies and unjust laws aimed at targeting certain segments of our population, criminalizing poverty and mental illness, using the courts to collect revenue to fund government budget, filling the bank accounts of prison corporations, and tube-feeding the failed war on drugs, which has turned our law enforcement personnel into military police, and our country into an occupied territory. This bill was first introduced in the Massachusetts Legislature in 2006. It has been re-filed in the 189th Legislative Session, and will be scheduled for a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee before the end of the legislative session in July 2015. After I accompanied someone in the Lawrence District Court in Massachusetts and observed various abuses and misuse of the judicial process, misapplication of the law, improper and unethical conduct by court personnel, and flagrant violations of defendants' rights, I decided to investigate these problems further, and it was not without some personal costs. When I wrote a letter to the editor of the local newspaper, he contacted me and indicated that the average grade level in reading for the area was grade 6. Over the years, I also discovered that, in addition to being uneducated, a rather large number of the people who are ensnared by this broken system are primarily of minority backgrounds, Caucasians living in poverty, and the mentally-ill. Finally, those who are involved with substance abuse are disproportionately represented within the criminal justice system. In reality, our judicial system has become predatory. Over the years, government officials have relied on the Court to handle a multitude of societal ills that have been left to fester by political malpractice and official neglect, leading to the absence of sound social policies to address these very solvable problems. In many instances, the criminal justice system is used as a mill to feed the prison pipeline with non-violent offenders, even with people who are accused of crimes--real, made up, or imagined, and yet are coerced into accepting guilty pleas and probation resulting in hundreds of dollars in Court fees, many times as a result of being ignorant of the law, unaware of their rights, as well as incompetent representation by overworked and overwhelmed public defenders. We are better than this as a people and can do better as a country. The time to correct this course is now. And it can only be accomplished through a vigilant legislative body with the help of an executive branch that is willing to bring about change to improve life for the people. This level of accountability can only be achieved through an independent body made of citizens of the State. Let Massachusetts become, yet again, a model of citizenry and public confidence in government by signing this petition to the Massachusetts Senate Judiciary Committee and Governor Charlie Baker in support of this bill. AS OF 2:00 PM TODAY MAY 12, 2015, THIS BILL HAS MOVED TO THE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE WHERE A PUBLIC HEARING WILL BE HELD BEFORE THE 9-MEMBER PANEL. THE BILL IS NOW ONLINE AND CAN BE VIEWED AND TRACKED AT: MALEGISLATURE.GOV. YOU CAN HELP BY SIGNING THE PETITION AND BY CALLING: MA Senate President Stan Rosenberg at 617-722-1532 or the Chair of the Judiciary Committee Senator William Brownsberger at 617-722-1280 or email: [email protected], or call Gov. Charlie Baker at 617-725-4005. THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR SUPPORT AND PLEASE FORWARD AND SHARE THIS PETITION ON SOCIAL MEDIA AMONG YOUR NETWORK. WE NEED ALL HANDS ON DECK!

The Problem: In New York State it is legal to withhold information pertinent to criminal cases from a defendant and his/her defense attorney until the very moment of trial. This is not because the information is unavailable; it is because the prosecution is not required to turn over information earlier. For example, prosecutors are not required under current law to submit police reports, prior testimony, witness statements, and any other evidence to the defendant until trial begins, and in some cases, not until the first witness testifies. A prosecutor has discretion to decide whether or not evidence might help a defendant or cast doubt on his guilt and can choose to withhold it. Not only does this deprive the defendant of a fair chance to prepare a defense at trial, but it costs taxpayers and the judicial system a great deal of time and money on unnecessary hearings, trials, and post-conviction lawsuits when pertinent evidence is withheld. The Solution: We request that the New York City Council pass resolution 0430-2014 which calls on the New York State Legislature to pass, and the Governor to sign, legislation to repeal Criminal Procedure Law Article 240 and replace it with a law mandating early, open, and automatic pre-trial discovery.

Please sign this petition now!! Your signature can make a difference. Chief Hite has publicly stated there will be transparency concerning the justice system's handling of the Mack Long killing. Transparency means : 1. The police report will be completed and released to the public. IMPD's literature says it takes at the most 7 days to release the report. We are now more than a month after Mack's killing. How can this delay be interpreted as transparent? 2. Release the videos. If IMPD has nothing to hide then release the videos so the people can see what the cameras saw. 3. Instead of putting evidence out in secrecy have a public coroner inquest instead of a grand jury.

The people of Baltimore have had enough. Over just the last 4 years, police have killed 109 people in the city. And in 2014, 100% of the people killed by Baltimore police were Black. Baltimore — like most cities in America — has a long and ongoing history of violent, discriminatory and illegal policing. Following the tragic police killing of 25-year-old Freddie Gray the people of Baltimore rose up and moved State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby to charge all 6 officers who killed Freddie Gray. But while the police who killed Gray are out of jail, hundreds of protesters languish in overcrowded, inhumane jail conditions facing unjust criminal charges and outrageous bail. Urge State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby to drop the charges against all protesters.

My husband has been incarcerated for 5 years . Within this time my husband has grown into a more responsible , loving , caring and greater man . He has used his time to grow and to make sure that his life as well as mine Is better once he's released . My husband deserves the opportunity to come home , be a husband and show the community the wonderful man he has become .

We are wasting too much talent in our nation by keeping low-income and people of color kids on the cradle to prison pipeline. Please sign this petition to encourage Sen. Hillary Clinton to keep speaking out about this issue during her campaign for President.

I am a 68-year-old physician in Maryland. In 1976 as a Johns Hopkins neurology resident at Baltimore City Hospitals, we heard rumors about police arresting uncooperative and usually inebriated persons, handcuffing their hands behind their backs and then playing "Watch Out For The Dog". I did nothing about it then. Now 38 years later after at least 3 deaths, including that of Freddie Gray 2 weeks ago, we should take steps nationwide to assure that ALL State and Local Police secure those they take into custody to avoid potentially fatal injury during transport. "Cops: Click It or Ticket!" References: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-gray-rough-rides-20150423-story.html#page=1 http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/01/us/freddie-grays-injury-and-the-police-rough-ride.html?http://eeditioncp.capitalgazette.com/Olive/Tablet/TheCapital/SharedArticle.aspx?href=BCAP%2F2015%2F05%2F11&id=Ar00403

Yes very much so and it not right