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.

Old Code Lifers, Bill Macumber, and Sentencing Reform

Ever since learning about William Macumber, I've been wondering what else I can do to help. The Change.org petition seems to be going pretty well. I also made some postcards to send the Governor and the media (and to Bill) for his birthday (AUG 31 he'll be 75). Feel free to download, or get creative and make some of your own - you can still send them out after his birthday; I just thought the timing was good. Here's the photo and text I used:

State of Arizona Capitol, Executive Tower. Phoenix.
“Free William Macumber!”


August 28, 2010

Dear Governor Brewer:

William Macumber will be 75 on August 31. He is an innocent man, whose fate is in your hands. Please free him from prison and send him home to his family. It’s the right thing to do.

Thank you.

Sincerely,
Margaret Jean Plews

Arizona Prison Watch


I also found the the Freedom for Bill Macumber website - you folks really need to go there and read more on his case. There are a couple of different petitions there, one being for sentencing reform for Old Code Lifers. Check it out, sign their petitions, and send your "Free Bill Macumber" postcards and letters to the Governor, Rep. Cecil Ash (Chair of the House Study Committee on Sentencing); members of the AZ House and Senate Judiciary Committees, and your own legislators in Bill's support. Changing the Old Code Lifers law seems to be Bill's only shot at getting free, unless the Governor can be convinced to change her mind. The Arizona Justice Project that helped Bill get through the clemency process seems to be behind that.

Actually, I'd like to see some new legislation that requires the state to free people from prison in prison who the Board of Executive Clemency finds to be innocent. We also need to prohibit the courts from refusing to hear new evidence where there remains a claim of innocence, as in Courtney Bisbee's case. It's incomprehensible that either Bill or Courtney are still in prison, and that there isn't a huge public uproar over it. The lives of too many wrongfully convicted people hinge on politics, not justice, when it's up to a governor or the trial judge whether or not to take a second look at a conviction.

Here's a bit on the Old Code Lifers law (from http://freedom4bill.com):

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

What Else Can I Do?

HELP REFORM THE OLD CODE LIFER STATUTE

As of March, 2010, Bill Macumber is still in prison in Douglas, Arizona. His son Ron and family traveled to Arizona in February to preview the documentary film and visit Bill in the Douglas Prison facility. Bill remains upbeat although he is very disappointed that the petition for clemency was vetoed by the Governor.

Bill’s life sentence is considered to be defined by the “old code” (the 1956 Criminal Code). Because of this, he is not eligible for parole. In 1973, the Arizona State Legislature rewrote Arizona’s death penalty statutes, adding a minimum sentence a period of 25 years. However, in doing so, they left a group of prisoners (now 29) ineligible for parole, with only “natural life” as their guideline for time served. Each of these 29 “old code lifers” has served over 32 years, and all are over the age of 55 (the average age is 65).

Many life-sentenced inmates since that time have served at least the minimum, then applied for and received parole. In one of his case’s many heartbreaking circumstances, Bill Macumber has never been allowed this privilege. He is effectively sentenced to life without parole, even though “life without parole” was not a sentence in Arizona at that time.

A proposition is currently being drafted for the Arizona legislature which would allow these 29 “old code lifers” to be eligible for parole. It does not guarantee parole, yet provides an opportunity for those who are trapped in the situation created by the 1973 amendment.

You can help support this bill by adding your name to the petition below and reading more at www.oldcodelifer.com. You are encouraged to email or write to your legislator and let them know that you strongly support a reform proposition which would allow Bill Macumber to apply for parole.

Update: Free William Macumber

I just started a petition to Free William Macumber at Change.org. Help us out with it. Here's the New York Times article you'll find as part of the letter there to Governor Brewer, if you need a refresher. William will turn 75 on August 31. Lets try to give him and his family some encouragement. He may have been juggled around because of the escapes, but his last known address there was:

William Macumber 033867

ASPC-Douglas/Mohave
PO Box 5002
Douglas, AZ 85608

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

Governor Rebuffs Clemency Board in Murder Case

By ADAM LIPTAK

New York Times

June 14, 2010

WASHINGTON — Ronald Kempfert was a young boy in 1975 when his father was sent to prison for murder, and they had no contact for 28 years.

Then, in 2003, Mr. Kempfert heard from a lawyer who had been looking into the case. “Your father is innocent,” said the lawyer, Larry A. Hammond. “And we’re pretty sure your mother framed him.”

That would seem a lot to digest, but Mr. Kempfert, 42, said he felt no hesitation. “My reaction was that it didn’t surprise me,” he said. “She’s my mother, and I love her. But I think she’s capable of anything.”

Mr. Kempfert is now certain that his father, William Macumber, is innocent. Arizona’s clemency board, citing Mr. Kempfert’s “very moving testimony” and saying there had been “a miscarriage of justice,” unanimously recommended last year that Mr. Macumber be freed.

But Mr. Macumber remains in prison, and Gov. Jan Brewer has refused to explain why.

The case against Mr. Macumber began in 1974 as his marriage was disintegrating. His wife, Carol, who worked in the local sheriff’s office, went to her superiors with a surprising story. Her husband, she said, had recently confessed to the unsolved murders of a young couple shot to death a dozen years before, in 1962, in the open desert north of Scottsdale, Ariz.

Largely on the strength of his former wife’s testimony, Mr. Macumber was convicted and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

But the jury did not hear a significant piece of evidence.

In 1967, five years after the murders in the desert, a drifter named Ernesto Valenzuela was charged with a similar double homicide. He told his lawyer that he had also killed the couple in the desert.

“He was just making a point about bragging about the people he killed,” the lawyer, Thomas W. O’Toole, said. “He was a cold-blooded killer who relished committing the murders.”

Mr. O’Toole, who went on to serve 24 years as a state judge, said his client was dead serious about claiming responsibility for the 1962 murders. “There is no doubt in my mind that Ernesto Valenzuela committed those crimes,” Mr. O’Toole said.

For years, Mr. O’Toole kept his client’s secret, as he was required to do by the canons of legal ethics. But after Mr. Valenzuela was himself killed in prison in 1973, and with the permission of Mr. Valenzuela’s mother, Mr. O’Toole offered to testify at Mr. Macumber’s trial.

The judge refused to let the jury hear from Mr. O’Toole, saying his account was unreliable hearsay. The judge also excluded testimony from a second lawyer and a psychiatrist who had heard similar confessions from Mr. Valenzuela.

The jury did hear about two kinds of physical evidence — a partial palm print and bullet casings — that prosecutors said connected Mr. Macumber to the killings.

Mr. Kempfert said he believed that his mother had done more than lie.

“I can fully see how my mother could have set him up and framed him,” Mr. Kempfert said. “She had access to the evidence. She was doing fingerprint courses at the time.”

Last year, the five members of the Arizona Board of Executive Clemency unanimously recommended to Ms. Brewer that Mr. Macumber be released after 35 years in prison “to correct a miscarriage of justice.”

But Ms. Brewer rejected the board’s recommendation without explanation in November. It is possible that politics played a role in her decision; Ms. Brewer, a Republican who became governor last year, is running for a full term in November.

“She denied the application right after she announced that she was running for governor,” said Katherine Puzauskas, a lawyer with the Arizona Justice Project at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University. The project, which was founded by Mr. Hammond and works to overturn wrongful convictions, has represented Mr. Macumber since 2000.

There is little political upside to granting clemency, but there is a substantial risk, as Mike Huckabee learned when a man whose sentence he commuted as governor of Arkansas in 2000 killed four police officers last year.

P. S. Ruckman Jr., a political science professor at Rock Valley College in Rockford, Ill., has been fuming about Ms. Brewer’s handling of the Macumber case. “I have been following state clemency for 30 years,” Mr. Ruckman said, “and this is easily, easily, the most disturbing. It’s borderline despicable.”

“Common-sense notions of justice should compel a governor to provide an explanation for imprisoning a man deemed innocent by an official board created to make such judgments,” he added. “You don’t imprison a man for no reason.”

A spokesman for the governor said Ms. Brewer had reviewed the case thoroughly, but he provided only boilerplate concerning her reasoning.

“Every executive clemency case is carefully scrutinized as the governor balances the very real and important concepts of public safety, justice and mercy,” the spokesman, Paul Senseman, said in an e-mail message.

Mr. Macumber is 74 and in failing health, with heart problems and arthritis, and the threat he poses to public safety is not obvious.

But Mr. Macumber’s former wife, now known as Carol Kempfert, said he was a dangerous sociopath who deserved to die in prison. She denied making up his confession and tampering with the evidence used to convict him.

It is her former husband, she said, who is a pathological liar. “I was in law enforcement for almost 20 years, and no one came close to being able to manipulate like Bill,” she said. “This man could sell water to a drowning person.”

Mr. Macumber, she said, would have said anything to save their marriage.

For instance, she said, he once falsely claimed to have a heart condition. “He intimates that if I hang around long enough, he’ll die and I’ll get the insurance money,” she said. “Well, I hung around, and he didn’t die.”

Then he threatened to kill himself. “If you’re going to do it, go outside” she recalled telling her husband. “I don’t want blood on the walls.”

In the course of a half-hour conversation, Ms. Kempfert accused Mr. Macumber of terrible and disturbing crimes beyond the killings in the desert. Asked if he deserved clemency, she said, “Absolutely not.”

“Actually,” she added, “I think he’s lucky. If he had been caught sooner, he would have gotten the death penalty.”

Ms. Kempfert and her son no longer speak. Ronald Kempfert, who took his stepfather’s last name when he was a child, is in the process of changing it back to Macumber.

The Governor's Reply and I: Correspondence with the ADC.

Some of you may remember that I wrote to the Governor a couple of weeks ago about Davon Acklin, William Macumber, and the other prisoners that she's leaving to die behind bars - regardless of their illnesses, crimes or innocence. Yesterday I received a reply to that letter from the Office of Constituent Services at the Arizona Department of Corrections. Below is that email, followed by my response to it. I doubt I'll be hearing from them again - I kind of hit "send" when I was trying to "save" and proof it. This gives you the update, though.

FYI: the people I cc'd my response to are Charles Ryan (the Director of the ADC) and his corporate counsel, Karyn Klausner (who was pretty cool when she was a criminal defense attorney, in my book, because she stuck up for that 8-year old St. Johns kid that prosecutors wanted to charge as an adult for killing his dad. Still, try to avoid messing with her.)

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

BETTY CASSIANO	Mon, Jul 26, 2010 at 12:23 PM
To: arizonaprisonwatch@gmail.com
Good morning Ms. Plews, Your e-mail message to the Arizona Governor's office concerning Arizona Department of Corrections inmate was forwarded to me for response. I sincerely appreciate your concern for both inmates and want to assure you that the Arizona Department of Corrections provides health care to incarcerated offenders consistent with community standards. Quality care and services responsive to the offender population include: medical services, mental health services, dental care, primary nursing care, and pharmacy services. Keeping offenders healthy is the basic platform from which the offender is prepared and supported to successfully complete basic education, work skills and experience, and recreational and leisure skills essential to building good citizenship and self-sufficiency. The Health Services Bureau also assists inmates in learning to develop and sustain personal wellness through ongoing education designed to augment healthy living while diminishing life-style habits that can lead to poor health and a decreased quality of life. As you may know, medical information is strictly confidential and not available to inquirers in accordance with federal and state statutes. Information about the Arizona Department of Corrections is available on the public website as follows: www.azcorrections.gov . I invite you to access the site for additional information about the Health Services Division and other areas of interest to you. The Constituent Services page provides access to a handbook which includes information about many areas of concern as well as a listing of applicable policies and contact numbers. Betty J. Cassiano ADC/Constituent Services Office

Peggy Plews	Tue, Jul 27, 2010 at 4:42 AM
To: BETTY CASSIANO Cc: CHARLES RYAN , KARYN KLAUSNER
Dear Mrs. Cassiano, Don't believe everything that Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC) health services administrators tell you - they either don't know squat, or they have a propensity for lying. In fact, their department can't even keep their medical records straight or accounted for. Davon needs a liver biopsy for anyone to be able to say how ill he really is (or isn't) from Hep C, and he needs genotyping to determine his chances of surviving this thing with early treatment. Unfortunately, resources are instead being spent trying to deflect his mother and I in our attempts to help him. These are just stalling tactics - as is being referred to you. She and I are both done with the games. I suspect it's going to cost Arizona more to fight us than it would have to competently diagnose and treat Davon early in the course of his infection, because now we're out to change the whole system. We may not be able to bust him out of there in time to prevent further damage from the virus, but he's going to end up getting options for medical care either now or later - all we need to do is to escalate this issue enough that the visibility brings other ADC families to us wondering why their mentally ill kid wasn't offered Hep C treatment, too, and we have a class action suit. In the meantime, you have a lot of highly-paid people spinning in circles doing absolutely nothing for that boy. That's a pathetic waste of precious taxpayer money, and we already spend more on you than on our schools. As for standard medical protocols - "we're just following the leader" is no excuse. You've been warned specifically that neglecting Davon's medical care because he has a serious mental illness is a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and your algorithms giving you that out are based on research that's over a decade old. Did you realize that? Did Ryan or Karyn Klausner? They'd better not be counting on their dental staff for guidance about whether or not the ADC is following good medical protocol regarding Hep C. Given the advances in the areas of diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment in recent years, that's malpractice in my book. Furthermore, the argument that he's too close to his out date to begin treatment now (because you want to assure that he completes it) is pretty flimsy. You all know full well that Julie would make sure he continued his treatment once released - especially after all this. Few prisoners have as supportive a family to go home to as Davon does. What the American Correctional Association has to say about your protocols and standards is the last thing that will impress me - they're paid off by prison profiteers and have elected as their president the man who's presided over Mississippi's DOC as their prisoner mortality rate has shot up to the second highest in the country. In any case, I think every entity that promulgates the same standards that the ADC uses to determine who and when to treat for Hep C should also be sued for violating the ADA and the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act (CRIPA). I'm sure to find a good attorney in each pertinent jurisdiction who will agree with me. So, please don't bother writing to me again if you're just going to give me the standard line of ADC BS, as you do so well. It just pisses me off, and it disrespects those dying inside. Your people don't even know how sick Davon is because they refuse to do an adequate medical evaluation - lest a specialist finds something you have to treat (or get sued over for not treating) out of your grossly inflated budget. They apparently haven't even checked him out themselves, yet - for all the communication that Julie has had with you people all this time, now she's being told that unless Davon fills out a health request himself, he doesn't have any symptoms. That's very disconcerting - and the standard MO for departments of corrections trying to keep down health care/litigation costs by denying when prisoners are sick and putting up barriers to care in the first place. All of you are treating Julie like she's some kind of idiot - she probably knows more about Hep C now than most of your "experts". And she's learning fast where the money for Hep C + prisoners comes from and goes to (not to prisoners like Davon, clearly - the mentally ill, that is. They're apparently all a bad risk). Don't bother trying to talk to Julie again either, by the way - all you seem to do is insult her. As for disseminating info about funding mandates and ADA/CRIPA obligations (we're going to make new case law. Just watch): we have more than just Facebook and my blogs for public consumption. We see a whole lot of lives at stake here and are willing to put ourselves on the line over this - and our alliances now include the crew keeping a 24/7 watch at the capitol. They came to our vigil in May and cried as Julie told them about her son, while I passed out Spanish language literature about hep C. Then they blessed us with drumming and sage. Several former prisoners with Hep C came up to Julie to give her a hug and thank her for talking about it to fight the stigma; they always got the message that they're just criminals and therefore not worth saving. It was all pretty powerful. My brother has the video and is going to try to figure out how to put it on You Tube. I've also been contacted by a journalism student who does film editing and we discussed doing a project on Hep C in prison, using AZ as an example of what prisons do wrong. Especially to the mentally ill, who clearly aren't worth the expense or hassle of even finding out if they need treatment or not... Unless you want to be the example of someone doing something right by the most vulnerable people in custody, instead. I kind of doubt Ryan will choose that route, though. As for ADC's health services educating anyone, particularly prisoners: all Davon knows about his illness is what he feels and what his mother tells him. Clearly the people paid to "educate" patients and the public about Hep C aren't doing their job, or we wouldn't end up doing all this. I've read the literature they hand out on Hep C. After describing how ill one can get, one such fact sheet sarcastically concludes: "As you can see, it's better not to get this in the first place." Why am I writing a blog about Hep C and posting the latest research, not them? What did they do to recognize World Hepatitis Day in May? We want harm reduction programs in place both in and out of prison - this is absurd for this disease to still be killing people in 2010 when we know how to stop it. Prisoner health is public health, so don't think this starts and stops with you and no one else should worry about it. Remember ACT UP? You haven't seen anything yet. This (the first two photos below) was just to cheer Julie up - I staged it during AM rush hour in front of Fox News. Saving Davon is what this comes down to, not just freeing him. Once we aren't competing with SB 1070, we're going to be out there raising hell and digging up more witnesses and claimants. We can be pretty creative; I'll escalate it as necessary to get local and national media on this, and I have a lot of friends who are sympathetic to prisoners and down for just about any kind of direct action that counters state violence - which is what I consider medical neglect of institutionalized persons to be. I have no fear left in me and very few inhibitions - I was already assaulted the night we did the candlelight vigil (hence my silence on the anniversary of Marcia's death - I was abandoning my home that day), and my car was vandalized two days later (nearly killed me on the highway when my tire went). All coincidence, I'm sure, that just knocked me off my feet for a little while - blessings in disguise to teach me that no matter what happens to me, exposing you people is the right thing to do. As is exposing the Governor's brutality, who still has to answer for leaving Macumber to die. Even the New York Times is watching him (and now Liptak knows about Davon, as well), so please try not to kill him before he gets out of there. By the way, I can see the DOJ Googling your dead prisoners. I think they're on to you already for all those murders since Brewer/Ryan took over, aren't they? Maybe for the suicides, too - including that boy on the minors unit this spring. I have a packet to send off to them anyway, just in case they hadn't heard about everyone or didn't know that others cared out here. Finally, rest assured that I know how to find everything I need on the ADC website now - I even notice what isn't there - and please don't ever refer me to your handbook of propaganda again for answers to serious questions like these. Thank you for your time. Margaret Jean Plews (this email will be forwarded to the Governor's office and posted on my websites, lest it gets lost in the ether.) Morning Rush Hour: July 19, 2010 (W. Washington St/7th Ave, Phoenix) Morning Rush Hour: July 19, 2010 (W. Washington St/7th Ave, Phoenix) Early Afternoon: July 16, 2010 (W. Jefferson St/15th Ave.; across from the ADC) “The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.” - Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881) Prison Abolitionist http://prisonabolitionist.blogspot.com Arizona Prison Watch http://arizonaprisonwatch.blogspot.com Arizona Juvenile Prison Watch http://azjuvenileprisonwatch.blogspot.com Hard Time: Hep C in AZ Jails and Prisons http://hardtimehepc.blogspot.com Free Marcia Powell http://freemarciapowell.blogspot.com ¡El pueblo unido, jamás será vencido!

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.

An Atrocity of Justice: Imprisoning the Innocent.

Just received this from a friend in the innocence movement. The New York Times published this over a month ago, too. We have way too many innocent people imprisoned in Arizona:

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

Governor Rebuffs Clemency Board in Murder Case

June 14, 2010
Adam Liptak
New York Times

WASHINGTON — Ronald Kempfert was a young boy in 1975 when his father was sent to prison for murder, and they had no contact for 28 years. Then, in 2003, Mr. Kempfert heard from a lawyer who had been looking into the case. “Your father is innocent,” said the lawyer, Larry A. Hammond. “And we’re pretty sure your mother framed him.”

That would seem a lot to digest, but Mr. Kempfert, 42, said he felt no hesitation. “My reaction was that it didn’t surprise me,” he said. “She’s my mother, and I love her. But I think she’s capable of anything.”

Mr. Kempfert is now certain that his father, William Macumber, is innocent. Arizona’s clemency board, citing Mr. Kempfert’s “very moving testimony” and saying there had been “a miscarriage of justice,” unanimously recommended last year that Mr. Macumber be freed.

But Mr. Macumber remains in prison, and Gov. Jan Brewer has refused to explain why.

The case against Mr. Macumber began in 1974 as his marriage was disintegrating. His wife, Carol, who worked in the local sheriff’s office, went to her superiors with a surprising story. Her husband, she said, had recently confessed to the unsolved murders of a young couple shot to death a dozen years before, in 1962, in the open desert north of Scottsdale, Ariz.

Largely on the strength of his former wife’s testimony, Mr. Macumber was convicted and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

But the jury did not hear a significant piece of evidence.

In 1967, five years after the murders in the desert, a drifter named Ernesto Valenzuela was charged with a similar double homicide. He told his lawyer that he had also killed the couple in the desert.

“He was just making a point about bragging about the people he killed,” the lawyer, Thomas W. O’Toole, said. “He was a cold-blooded killer who relished committing the murders.”

Mr. O’Toole, who went on to serve 24 years as a state judge, said his client was dead serious about claiming responsibility for the 1962 murders. “There is no doubt in my mind that Ernesto Valenzuela committed those crimes,” Mr. O’Toole said.

For years, Mr. O’Toole kept his client’s secret, as he was required to do by the canons of legal ethics. But after Mr. Valenzuela was himself killed in prison in 1973, and with the permission of Mr. Valenzuela’s mother, Mr. O’Toole offered to testify at Mr. Macumber’s trial.

The judge refused to let the jury hear from Mr. O’Toole, saying his account was unreliable hearsay. The judge also excluded testimony from a second lawyer and a psychiatrist who had heard similar confessions from Mr. Valenzuela.

The jury did hear about two kinds of physical evidence — a partial palm print and bullet casings — that prosecutors said connected Mr. Macumber to the killings.

Mr. Kempfert said he believed that his mother had done more than lie.

“I can fully see how my mother could have set him up and framed him,” Mr. Kempfert said. “She had access to the evidence. She was doing fingerprint courses at the time.”

Last year, the five members of the Arizona Board of Executive Clemency unanimously recommended to Ms. Brewer that Mr. Macumber be released after 35 years in prison “to correct a miscarriage of justice.”

But Ms. Brewer rejected the board’s recommendation without explanation in November. It is possible that politics played a role in her decision; Ms. Brewer, a Republican who became governor last year, is running for a full term in November.

“She denied the application right after she announced that she was running for governor,” said Katherine Puzauskas, a lawyer with the Arizona Justice Project at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University. The project, which was founded by Mr. Hammond and works to overturn wrongful convictions, has represented Mr. Macumber since 2000.

There is little political upside to granting clemency, but there is a substantial risk, as Mike Huckabee learned when a man whose sentence he commuted as governor of Arkansas in 2000 killed four police officers last year.

P. S. Ruckman Jr., a political science professor at Rock Valley College in Rockford, Ill., has been fuming about Ms. Brewer’s handling of the Macumber case. “I have been following state clemency for 30 years,” Mr. Ruckman said, “and this is easily, easily, the most disturbing. It’s borderline despicable.”

“Common-sense notions of justice should compel a governor to provide an explanation for imprisoning a man deemed innocent by an official board created to make such judgments,” he added. “You don’t imprison a man for no reason.”

A spokesman for the governor said Ms. Brewer had reviewed the case thoroughly, but he provided only boilerplate concerning her reasoning.

“Every executive clemency case is carefully scrutinized as the governor balances the very real and important concepts of public safety, justice and mercy,” the spokesman, Paul Senseman, said in an e-mail message.

Mr. Macumber is 74 and in failing health, with heart problems and arthritis, and the threat he poses to public safety is not obvious.

But Mr. Macumber’s former wife, now known as Carol Kempfert, said he was a dangerous sociopath who deserved to die in prison. She denied making up his confession and tampering with the evidence used to convict him.

It is her former husband, she said, who is a pathological liar. “I was in law enforcement for almost 20 years, and no one came close to being able to manipulate like Bill,” she said. “This man could sell water to a drowning person.”

Mr. Macumber, she said, would have said anything to save their marriage.

For instance, she said, he once falsely claimed to have a heart condition. “He intimates that if I hang around long enough, he’ll die and I’ll get the insurance money,” she said. “Well, I hung around, and he didn’t die.”

Then he threatened to kill himself. “If you’re going to do it, go outside” she recalled telling her husband. “I don’t want blood on the walls.”

In the course of a half-hour conversation, Ms. Kempfert accused Mr. Macumber of terrible and disturbing crimes beyond the killings in the desert. Asked if he deserved clemency, she said, “Absolutely not.”

“Actually,” she added, “I think he’s lucky. If he had been caught sooner, he would have gotten the death penalty.”

Ms. Kempfert and her son no longer speak. Ronald Kempfert, who took his stepfather’s last name when he was a child, is in the process of changing it back to Macumber.

Brewer leaves innocent man to die.

This is so wrong. This man will be 75 years old on August 31st; he's been in prison since he was 40. He could easily be my father - or anyone of us - and will die there for the governor's "personal reasons" if we don't step up and act. There's nothing personal about it - she's supposed to be a professional serving the public when making decisions about pardons and compassionate release. That's why she gets paid. This article came out a month ago, and William sits there still today.

Putting this into context: imagine what a court would say if I kidnapped someone, held them hostage for 35 years, and left them to die in a hole in the desert? They'd send a SWAT team to the rescue if he was still alive, and say that what I did was criminal, not "personal", then send me to prison for life - or even order my execution if he died.

And what else could they do? If I admitted my crime with no explanation, and was allowed to go free, instead, the judge or jury responsible would not only be raked over the coals, they may well be lynched. Arizonans don't like that kind of impudence - be it from a cold-blooded killer or an indifferent, self-interested career politician. Is there really any difference?

Don't be mistaken: whether perpetrated by a private citizen or an agent of the state, incarceration is violence, and false imprisonment is a serious crime. William was recommended for release by the AZ Board of Executive Clemency on May 8, 2009. This innocent man has already spent almost half of his life doing hard time - he shouldn't do another day. It isn't costing Brewer a dime to leave him there - we pick up the tab, but William's the one who really pays the price.

Whatever your political persuasion (the more Republicans the better), please show some support to the family: take just 10 minutes and write to Governor Brewer's office asking for a public explanation to the voters and taxpayers of AZ, then save and send a copy to WREX, either snail mail or email. Cc it to the Capitol Times, the Arizona Republic, and the Phoenix New Times, while you're at it. We need to do a full court press, so you might as well send one to the Goddard campaign HQ - he may well be the next governor this falls to.

The address to the tv station is:

WREX (NBC Channel 13)
PO Box 530
Rockford, IL 61105

Their newsroom phone number is 815-335-2710. The email there is news@wrex.com.

William's contact information is:

William Macumber (#033867)
ASPC-Douglas, Mohave Unit
PO Box 5002
Douglas, AZ 85608

Anyone is free to write him a letter to tell him that you're working on this, too.

Help free prisoner Macumber. Please don't let him die inside.

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

Rockford man fights to get his brother out of Arizona prison

Jun 15, 2010 5:08 PM

By Katie Nilsson

ROCKFORD (WREX) - An Arizona man with Rockford ties is still in prison for a crime the Clemency Review Board there says he didn't commit. William Macumber was sent to prison in 1975, part of his family lives in Rockford now and is fighting for his release.

Macumber's brother Robert and his wife have lived in Rockford for the last four years. They're trying to figure out why Arizona Governor Jan Brewer denied the recommendation from the Clemency Board for William's release. They say she's never given them a reason for it. "She was quoted as saying it was a personal reason that she had no comment and to this day we have no idea what the personal reason is."

William Macumber was convicted of killing two people in an Arizona desert back in 1975. He was sent to prison for life without the possibility of parole. Macumber's denied involvement in the killings and his family thinks William's ex-wife set him up. "My father and I both looked at all the evidence in the trial first hand at the sheriff's office and there was nothing in there that really could have convicted Bill. It was basically on his wife's testimony."

She worked for an Arizona Sheriff's Department and testified William told her he killed the couple. But according to the Clemency Board who reviewed the case last year, another man Ernesto Valenzuela told his lawyer he did it. In a letter Clemency Board Chairman and Executive Director Duane Belcher wrote to Governor Brewer, the board also agreed some of the testimony wasn't reliable and neither was the evidence presented at his trial. That's why the board unanimously recommended Macumber be released because they say he's innocent. "It's a very rare thing for them to recommend clemency, and it's even more rare, it's freakishly rare for them to recommend clemency on the grounds of innocence," says Rock Valley College Professor and clemency expert P.S. Ruckman, Jr. He thinks the governor owes the Macumber family an explanation for her denial.

Ruckman thinks Brewer's lack of response to the case may be political as she's running for re-election. "We just had that Mike Huckabee scenario a couple months back and Huckabee took a big beating for that, I think unfairly. But he did commute a sentence on the base of a recommendation by a parole board and the person 10 or 15 years later murdered some police officers. I wouldn't identify that as a cause of Brewer's hesitancy, but I would say it's a factor."

I tried calling Governor Brewer's office for comment, but no one called back.

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

Hang in there, William and Robert. You aren't alone.

Brewer's sick, dying, and innocent prisoners: Letter to the Governor.

My note to the Governor today via her website; posting it here, too, just to make sure it isn't lost:

First Name: * Margaret J
Last Name: * Plews
Phone: 480-580-6807
Email: * arizonaprisonwatch@gmail.com
Street: PO Box 20494
City: Phoenix
County: Maricopa
State: AZ
Zip: * 85036
Subject: legal/law *
Topic: Sick, dying, and innocent prisoners, and the Board of Executive Clemency

My friends and I at Arizona Prison Watch are gravely concerned about the number of state prisoners who are dying inside from medical neglect, from homicide, and from their own hand due to the despair of mental illness and incarceration - as well as those succumbing to terminal illness while awaiting compassionate release petitions which we suspect she has no intention of approving, just as Janet didn't. We find that totally unacceptable.

We are particularly concerned right now about the fates of prisoners William Macumber and Davon Acklin. The Board of Executive Clemency recommended Macumber for immediate release last year because they believed him to be innocent: the governor denied his petition, giving no reason. This is incomprehensible, and we'll be initiating a public campaign for his freedom if the governor doesn't take responsibility for acting on the Board of Clemency's recommendations in his case.

You may already be quite familiar with Davon Acklin's mom Julie, who has been trying to save her son's life - also going through the Board of Executive Clemency now. He's sick from hepatitis C and the ADC is refusing to treat him, we believe largely because of his serious mental illness, which appears to be the standard MO. This despite the stipulations of the Americans With Disabilities Act, which we intend to file a complaint about if appropriate care isn't provided to that child, or if he isn't sent home so his mother can get it for him.

We will also be seeking a new CRIPA investigation into the ADC - and possibly the AZDJC - if the other concerns we've raised aren't promptly addressed, and prisoners continue to die at present rates from neglect, abuse, and despair. The one poor child at Adobe Mountain appears to have been bullied to death; there's no excuse for that. Director Branham has, however, been quite gracious in trying to work with us given the limitations of confidentiality laws, so he may have bought some time. The ADC is out of time, however. As far as we're concerned, all of Chuck Ryan's prisoners are her prisoners too, and she bears a great deal of responsibility for their welfare. Criminalized or not, they are still real human beings with loved ones, hopes, and dreams. The state has a duty to protect them while they are in your care.

I do expect a response on these matters by Friday afternoon - our campaign to address them with the community and media will otherwise begin first thing Monday morning. We hear from these families and prisoners all the time - often we receive copies of letters sent to Governor Brewer pleading for assistance. We'll have them crying on the news every night and we'll be coming to her campaign events until the governor either steps in and steps up, or gets voted out. We can be extremely creative about these kinds of things, as can our friends - thousands of whom are already pretty outraged by SB 1070.

I will be looking forward to a reply from your office.

Thank you.


Margaret J Plews,
Arizona Prison Watch
Arizona Juvenile Prison Watch
Hard Time Alliance (Hep C in AZ Prisons)

Free Davon Acklin. Free William Macumber, too.

This took about ten minutes. Do it, please, every week from now until Davon is home.
And check out this fellow, William Macumber, too, and take a minute to sign his petition. We have to give the Governor reason to free all those folks the Board of Executive Clemency has already said should be free, or Davon doesn't have a chance. People signing these petitions and calling or writing her office (the phone lines were jammed today) will probably be more effective than me breaking out my chalk right now.

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

Contact the Governor

http://azgovernor.gov/contact.asp

Topic: Free Davon Acklin. Please.

I'm sure you folks already know his story - Davon is a 23 year old state prisoner who needs treatment for Hep C, and since the ADC won't give it to him (probably because he has a serious mental illness, which raises ADA issues), his mother is seeking a pardon so she can bring him home; he's getting very ill.

Please get on Ryan at the ADC to give Davon the best medical care there is, and consider him seriously for a pardon as he makes his way through the process. I know that too many people seeking compassionate release died in prison despite the Board ruling in their favor because Governor Napolitano lacked the courage to let them go home. Davon's a good kid - please don't let him fall victim to the same kind of politics.

Thank you.

Margaret Jean Plews

Arizona Prison Watch

http://arizonaprisonwatch.blogspot.com

Hard Time Alliance - AZ

http://hardtimehepc.blogspot.com

(Friday, June 24, 3:50pm)

Thank you for filling out the Governor's Contact form. We appreciate your contacting the Governor's Office.
We will review your form submission and contact you if requested.

You are now being redirected to the Governor's home page
http://www.azgovernor.gov/

----Now help this guy out, too. From Change.org's blogs, comes this:-------

Demand Arizona Governor Jan Brewer Free An Innocent Man

by Elizabeth Renter

June 25, 2010 06:56 AM (PT)
641 Views

Thirty-five years is a long time. It's particularly long if you spend it in prison. However, 35 years is an eternity when you spend it locked up for a horrendous crime you didn't commit. Just ask William Macumber, who's been locked up for the last 35 years for a crime the Arizona Board of Executive Clemency says he never participated in.

That's what the Board told Arizona Governor Jan Brewer last year, in a letter recommending the state release Macumber from prison. And yet Governor Brewer rejected their recommendation without reason, leaving many to question Brewer's motives for keeping an innocent man behind bars.

William Macumber was convicted of a double murder in 1975. According to the testimony of his then-wife Carol, Macumber confessed to killing a couple in the desert 12 years earlier, a crime that had remained unsolved until that time. The Clemency Board found Carol's testimony to be unreliable, while Macumber's attorney and their own son have suggested that she actually used her position with an Arizona Sheriff's Department to fabricate some of the evidence used at the trial. As if that weren't enough, another man has actually confessed to the desert killing. Despite these facts, Macumber remains in prison — a 74-year-old man with heart problems and arthritis, a man who should be enjoying time with his grandchildren, not watching his days pass behind razor wire.

Why would Brewer keep Macumber behind bars? Some speculate that her reasons are linked to the fact that she's running for reelection this year, and needs all the help she can get. Brewer — who's built a national reputation, thanks to her support of Arizona's highly controversial anti-immigration law — appears to be playing it safe with this case, preferring to avoid any political risk involved in pardoning a man, such as seeming soft on crime.

It's extremely rare for a Clemency Board to make such a recommendation on a case as old as this and even more unusual for them to claim an inmates innocence. However, it's unheard of for a governor to basically ignore their request with no official reason.

Join us at Change in urging Governor Brewer to reconsider her position. Let her know that the nation is watching — and knows that she's preventing an innocent man from being freed.