#lwop

[unofficialyouthmediabrand]

[June 15] Trump takes L, Florida's 'slow death penalty'

Here’s the recap from today’s Twitch stream:

Trump took a pretty serious L on his first day in court – granted, it was something handed to most criminal defendants, but still a little surreal. Todd and Greg came through to walk us through that, and explain the MAGA rapper who showed up.

Here’s the article:

Then, Lawrence of The Marshall Project came through to explain Florida’s ‘slow death penalty’.

Here’s the doc (starts at 1:05):

These are also definitely worth reading:

And, of course, #vicebookclub.

The show is taking a break on Tuesday, and will be back on Thursday.

[the-eldritch-it-gay]

Every disabled perspn should be allowed extra PTO

[mrjasonmills]

[mus1g4]

Are there any states which print the inmates sentence onto the uniform? I've always thought it would be humiliating (and kinda hot) to look down at my uniform and see the term LWOP or 20-LIFE stencilled there so everyone knows what a loser I am.

Wow! Great idea. The only place I know that does something like that is Russia. Your cell nameplate, ID card, and uniform stencil all identify your crime.

Every convict knows your crime. Every guard knows your crime.

No where in the United States or western Europe follows that program.

[themenendezbrothers]

If they get resentenced to anything other (under) than LWOP, they are qualified for a Youth Offender Parole Hearing.

SEE Resentencing MEMO page 54-55 excerpt below.

Page One || Page Two || Page Three

THE IMPOSITION OF A NEW SENTENCE WILL ALLOW THE DEFENDANTS TO GO THROUGH THE PAROLE PROCESS

Effective January 1, 2014, Penal Code section 3051 created a youth offender parole hearing process that will apply to both Erik and Lyle Menendez if they are resentenced to a sentence "other than life without the possibility of parole. A youth offender parole hearing is a hearing by the Board of Parole Hearings for the purpose of reviewing the parole suitability of any prisoner who was 25 years of age or younger at the time of the controlling offense. Pursuant to the statute, a person who was convicted of a controlling offense that was committed when the person was 25 years of age or younger and for which the sentence is a life term of 25 years to life shall be eligible for release on parole at a youth offender parole hearing during the person's 25th year of incarceration. The youth parole eligible date for a person eligible for a youth offender parole hearing under this paragraph shall be the first day of the person’s 25th year of incarceration.

At the parole hearing, it is statutorily mandated that in assessing growth and maturity, psychological evaluations and risk assessment instruments, if used by the board, shall be administered by licensed psychologists employed by the board and shall take into consideration the diminished culpability of youth as compared to that of adults, the hallmark features of youth, and any subsequent growth and increased maturity of the individual. Family members, friends, school personnel, faith leaders, and representatives from community-based organizations with knowledge about the individual before the crime or the individual's growth and maturity since the time of the crime may submit statements for review by the board. The youthful offender The youthful offender parole hearing process is not available to inmates serving sentences of life without the possibility of parole which is why neither of the defendants has been able to previously seek this opportunity.

[canebread]

This case will always break my heart. I can empathise with basically every criminal but I will never be able to wrap my head around how you have a kid, yet you and your boyfriend abuse him as much as possible until it kills him. Why have a kid, then? It just doesn't make sense to me.

He made his mom a mother's day card. Even while he had bruises visible on his face. Even after she and her boyfriend beat him, burned him with cigarettes, heated spoons and lighters, being forced to eat cat litter and feces, eating his own vomit, expired/spoiled foods, being shot with a BB gun, pepper sprayed, cold showers, being forced to sleep bound and gagged in a little cupboard, having his teeth knocked out with a bat...he still loved her after all of that...he just wanted love. I don't like being around kids, but cases like this makes me wish I could pick them up and save them from their parents.

"You want to say that the conduct was animalistic, but that would be wrong, because even animals know how to take care of their young." - The judge after sentencing one to death and the other to LWOP

[hushedhippie]

46 hours away from being able to go on LWOP to seek treatment for my anorexia and mental health…if my tilt test for POTS comes back negative and all of what I’m experiencing is psychological, then I’ve decided to go inpatient to get the help and treatment I need. It’s a scary decision but one I feel confident in:/

[humanrightsupdates]

Kenneth Smith is scheduled to be executed in Alabama on 25 January 2024. His jury voted for life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, but the judge imposed a death sentence, under a judicial override system outlawed in Alabama in 2017. The state tried to execute Kenneth Smith in 2022, but this attempt by lethal injection failed. The state will this time deprive him of oxygen using nitrogen gas, an execution method not previously used. Twenty-two years old at the time of the crime, Kenneth Smith is now 58. His prison record is one of non-violence, self-improvement and helping others.

The crime involved the murder of a 45-year-old woman in her home in Alabama on 18 March 1988. The prosecution submitted evidence that her husband had recruited Billy Williams, who then engaged Kenneth Smith and John Parker, to kill her. The husband, a preacher who was in debt and wanted to collect life insurance, committed suicide a week after the murder; Billy Williams was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole (LWOP); John Parker, was sentenced to death, and executed in 2010. Kenneth Smith was also sentenced to death, but his 1989 conviction and death sentence were overturned on appeal because of racist prosecutorial jury selection tactics at the trial. At the 1996 retrial, Kenneth Smith was again convicted. The jury – made up of seven Black women, four Black men, and one white woman – voted 11-1 for LWOP, but the judge overrode their decision and passed a death sentence.

The judge found one aggravating factor – that the murder was committed for pecuniary gain – and decided that this outweighed the mitigating circumstances, which were Kenneth Smith’s young age at the time of the crime, his lack of significant history of prior criminal activity, good prison record, childhood deprivation and neglect, as well as his remorse and voluntary confession to his participation in the crime. The judge would later suggest in an interview that he had overridden the jury’s vote because Kenneth Smith “deserved the death penalty” and that “some people serving on juries… don’t want the responsibility to sentence someone to death”.

The state is proposing to attempt again to execute Kenneth Smith, this time by the method of “nitrogen hypoxia” during which nitrogen is fed by tube into an airtight face mask worn by the person being executed, depriving him or her of oxygen and causing eventual death. The US Supreme Court noted in 2019 that nitrogen hypoxia had “never been used to carry out an execution” and that the first state to do so would be “the first to experiment with a new untried and untested method”. Now Alabama, a state with a record of botched executions and a lack of transparency and inquiry into such failures, is the one moving ahead with this method. Kenneth Smith’s lawyers assert that he is being used as “the test subject for this novel and experimental method” and that “if not performed correctly, execution by nitrogen hypoxia can result in another botched execution that risks leaving Mr Smith with permanent injuries”.

Take action now

[idkwhattitlevsblognamemeans]

December 12th

I have been stress spaghetti about some stuff but also time to change that by being on top of it:

The frog head is too big. try 2.5x or 2.6x

Find a therapist - psychology today

Submit LWOP dates final

Buy flight

Buy yoga training

look at Vegas flights

Henry Christmas

Air tag for mom

Cognac for dad

The vibe when I go to the bank:

I'm going to go to the bank and close my current card and open up another better visa (more points)

ask to add a payee so that i have no monthly fee

communauto

spotify

electricty hydro one

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

Lifers. A growing number of lifers are accumulating in the prisons, and they constitute a social group and an active force in prisoner public affairs. Their numbers have increased because the California courts, guided by the dictates of new punitive laws, such as “three strikes, you’re out,” and the punitive spirit of the general population are sending more people to prison with life sentences. These lifers, who have sentences of 15 years to life, 25 years to life, life with possibility of parole, and life without possibility of parole (LWOP), are serving much more time than during any previous period. For example, before the current punitive era, which started in 1976, prisoners sentenced for first degree murder in California (as well as most other states) served an average of 13 years. Only one person with a life sentence for murder was released from 1999 to 2002. Many contemporary lifers have served 20 years or more. Consequently, the percentage of lifers in the prison population is steadily increasing. Short termers come and go, but lifers remain and accumulate in the prisons.

In 2001, approximately 20 percent of Solano prisoners were lifers. Most lifers have an indeterminate sentence, seven to life, 15 to life, or 25 to life. A minority are LWOPs. Those with the possibility of parole are serving time for first and second degree murder, kidnapping with bodily injury or robbery, and a “third strike,” that is, a third felony conviction after two convictions for “serious felonies.”

As their numbers have increased, lifers have become an important force in the informal social organization of prisoners. Lifers have always been relatively less troublesome for management. In earlier periods, when the number of lifers was smaller, most other prisoners, who were serving much shorter sentences, usually respected lifers, left them alone but shoved them aside as unimportant actors in the prison social order. However, now that they constitute one-fifth of the prison population, they are too prominent to ignore.

Lifers know the law, the prison rules, and the ropes better than anyone else. Some of them have become convict legal experts— “writ writers”—who file petitions and lawsuits for themselves and help other prisoners with theirs. They know and are known by many of the staff, particularly the sergeants, lieutenants, and even the wardens, some of whom they have been around for years. In regard to prisoner relationships to individual staff members, lifers, compared with other prisoners, have a better idea of what to watch out for, what they can get away with, and what special considerations they can obtain.

In addition, as the years go by, lifers become more acquainted with each other and increasingly pull together, forming a social network. This friendship network extends across racial and age boundaries. Lifers don’t necessarily hang together like cars of homeboys. But they do know, respect, and to some extent cooperate with each other. Consequently, they are an important presence in the convict world and constitute a body of elder statesmen. They are sought out for advice and relied upon as go-betweens in conflicts between prisoners and between prisoners and staff.

- John Irwin, The Warehouse Prison: Disposal of the New Dangerous Class. Afterword by Barbara Owen. Los Angeles: Roxbury Publishing Company, 2005. p. 99-100

[vircareris]

An interesting gift would be handling them their plea of guilty offers. Maybe one realizing he got the big prize. Four letters: LWOP.

I wonder what Santa brought them. “A piece of coal”

[mrjasonmills]

[the-italian-pasta]

Putting in LWOP cuz my tire exploded yesterday so I couldn’t go to work, feeling very meh about it :/

[themenendezbrothers]

Hochman recently said in the deadline interview: HOCHMAN: Knowing the Geragos narrative is absolutely wrong, the issues that we’ll be looking at for the trial will be whether or not these two young men faced an immediate threat to their life? 

The "immediate threat to their life" was the crux of the 2nd trial. Because the courts determined the brothers may have had a legitimate fear, but there was no "immediate threat to their life". This is why Weisberg didn't allow imperfect self-defense which took Manslaughter off the table. So now, Hochman is asking the same question.

Why did the courts allow imperfect self-defense in the 1st trial but not in the 2nd trial? The courts cited the law in the 2nd trial saying the defense couldn't use that. 👀

Resentencing

Former D.A. Gascon believed that the murder was premeditated and said they received the right sentence. But now, with the new resentencing laws, he would recommend Life With Parole. The new D.A. might agree with Gascon or he may disagree they should be resentenced at all and their current LWOP should stand. Also, the opposition to the resentencing from the family member carries some weight.

The Judge will ultimately decide. I'm not sure but, even if the prosecutors argue their original sentence should be upheld, the Judge might rule that it is not in the best interest of Justice to keep them incarcerated. The brothers have been beyond rehabilitated, they pose no threat to society. resentencing memo.

HOCHMAN: And you do this with a fairly vague standard that doesn’t give judges particular guidance on how to evaluate all these factors only to figure out whether or not someone is a threat to society, poses a danger to society, and otherwise has been rehabilitated, so and it’s somewhat California unique in that respect. "So, we’re going to go through all that evidence and weigh all the factors and ultimately come to the judge and say, to the judge, here’s all the records. Here are your options. And make sure that whatever decision is ultimately made is the best-informed decision possible."

Habeas

In 2005, the Menendez brothers appealed their convictions to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which denied their petition for habeas corpus. (The courts didn't find anything wrong with the outcome of the 2nd trial).

Hochman is already saying that the jurors in the second trial heard about the sexual abuse and even with that, they found the brothers guilty.

HOCHMAN: As I said, Erik Menendez was able to testify in great detail about all the sexual abuse he experienced. He was even able to testify about sexual abuse that Lyle experienced. He was even able to testify about the fact that Lyle purportedly confronted his father, their father, about this whole issue, which is why they had some level of fear that the father was going to kill them. All that was presented to the jury, and the jury still convicted them both of first-degree murder.

But now there is new evidence that the courts are required to consider. This new evidence supports that the brothers were not lying and it was not an abuse excuse as Prosecutor Conn repeatedly told the jurors. The jurors in the first trial heard about the sexual abuse. Some jurors believed the brothers were absolutely in fear of their lives at that moment. They wanted to vote for manslaughter. And they stood their ground which is why there was a mistrial. So had the jury in the 2nd trial heard testimony about the sexual abuse, why wouldn't it have made a difference like it did in the first trial?

As noted, the second trial began in October 1995. At this trial, much of the defense evidence, including Diane Vandermolen’s testimony, was excluded. So the prosecutor’s emphasis changed as well. Based on the evidence presented at the second trial, there was no longer any need to hedge bets; the prosecutor told jurors that the sexual “abuse [allegations] in this case [were] a total fabrication.” (RT 50869.) There was “no way of corroborating” these allegations. (RT 50868.) “The abuse never happened.” (RT 51088.) “There is no corroboration of sexual abuse.” (RT 51378.) The “allegation[s] of physical and sexual abuse are not corroborated.” (RT 51469.) Jose Menendez was not the “kind of man that would be abusing his sons.” (RT 50991.) He was “restrained and forgiving. [He was] not a violent and brutal man.” (RT 51472.) Both petitioners were convicted of first degree murder. But now new evidence has surfaced in two areas...

[the-final-straw-blog]

Don Bosco Park Defense in Bologna + Bernard Jemison on Conditions & Resistance in AL Prisons

This week, two segments plus Sean Swain

Don Bosco Park Defense in Bologna

First up, an interview submitted by audio comrades in Italy about the struggle against the cementization of the city of Bologna and the defense of Don Bosco park from the expansion of a university, highways… the whole urban landscape without the input of the residents so the city can move a school rather than renovate it. This struggle, including the occupation and defense of the park, represents an innovation in urban struggles in Italy which consciously takes inspiration from the struggle to Stop Cop City in so-called Atlanta and the activities of the park defenders has forced the left-leaning municipal government and mayor to temporarily suspend the cutting of trees. [00:02:04 - 00:27:10]

Bernard Jemison on Conditions and Resistance in AL Prisons

Then, you’ll hear Bernard Jemison, an incarcerated activist held in Holman prison in Alabama talking about conditions inside the ADOC recent calls for prisoner strikes in the state by the Free Alabama Movement and their outside supporters, as well as his views on the demands being made. [00:27:57 - 01:05:10]

The demands that we mention are the following:

BILL TO REPEAL THE HABITUAL OFFENDER ACT ON THE TABLE

CIVIL CLASS ACTION LITIGATION FOR PAROLE ALREADY FILED. EVERYONE NEEDS TO SIGN UP.

PAROLE BILL ON THE TABLE

WE NEED TO ABOLISH LWOP AND CREATE AN AVENUE FOR JUVENILE OFFENDERS.

NO MORE NITROGEN GAS EXECUTIONS..

STOP SELLING OUR ORGANS.

A few articles on the subjects worth reading include:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/death-rate-alabama-prisons-five-091450767.html

https://www.alabamasmartjustice.org/reports/hfoa

https://www.al.com/news/montgomery/2024/03/alabama-legislature-seeks-to-solve-missing-organ-issue.html

https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/crime/2024/03/15/death-rate-in-alabama-prisons-is-five-times-the-us-average/72936145007/

Statement of support by CCR for a strike called for by Free Alabama Movement: https://ccrjustice.org/home/press-center/press-releases/center-constitutional-rights-stands-solidarity-mass-prison-strike

Social media accounts Bernard thinks are doing a good job covering these issues:

@Hopedealersprisonreform is Bernard on TikTok

@truthbehindbars is a private facebook Bernard contributes to

@prison_toks on TikTok

. ... . ..

Featured Track:

On Point (instrumental) by House of Pain

Check out this episode!