News & Commentary

Another busy week in the offices of the ACLU of Michigan!

I recently had a conversation with an extraordinary woman who raised 15 children, both her own and those of other parents.

On this date in 1964, President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act into law to address gender-based discrimination in the workplace.

Having battled sinus cancer and an inoperable brain tumor for more than a decade, cancer patient Joseph Casias is used to fighting for his life. But now the War on Drugs has forced him to fight for his livelihood, too.

Frederick Mardlin is a 32-year old married father of three who spent three years in jail for a crime that he did not commit.He was wrongfully convicted of burning down his house to collect the insurance. His court-appointed public defense attorney was unable to obtain the funds to retain an electrical expert to testify at his trial. That expert could have testified that the fire was not set intentionally but caused by faulty wiring.So Fred sat in jail for three years before he was paroled. Because he insists on clearing his name, he is appealing his conviction. Although he is entitled as a matter of law to a court-appointed appellate attorney, the State of Michigan refuses to pay that attorney’s bills. Fortunately, the attorney has agreed to work on Fred’s case free of charge. The attorney has also located a pro-bono electrical expert who is willing to help Fred overturn his conviction.Fred’s story illustrates how Michigan's public defense system is often unable to effectively represent its clients and how, despite constitutional guarantees, a court hearing does not ensure a fair or just decision. Too often, innocent people go to jail, or those who have broken the law receive sentences that are harsher than the facts of their crime warrant.Faces of Failing Public Defense Systems, a new report issued by the ACLU, ACLU of Michigan and the Campaign For Justice, shows how Michigan’s crumbling public defense system allows innocent individuals to become collateral damage as a result of inadequate legal representation. The report tells the stories of men who were charged with crimes, were inadequately represented by public defense attorneys and consequently incarcerated for years.The American judicial system incarcerates people at a rate that is eight times higher than other industrialized nations. Sadly, we appear to have grown accustomed to it.Have Americans also grown accustomed and hardened to a system in which our valued legal right to a fair trial is ignored (or at least overlooked)?In a February 2010 speech on the systemic problems in the judicial system, Attorney General Eric Holder said: “As Americans [come to] understand how some of their fellow citizens experience the criminal justice system, they will be shocked and angered….”Our public defender system derives from the Constitution’s Sixth Amendment and the Supreme Court decision in Gideon v. Wainwright. That 1963 decision ensures that any criminal defendant facing imprisonment has the right to an attorney, even if he cannot afford to retain one.The decision is premised on the notion that only an adversarial criminal justice system can produce accurate and fair results. In such a system, the prosecution and the defense should be equally matched, with each side capable of investigating, questioning and disputing the facts. But the systems that evolved out of that foundation were never robust, and today many are broken and function erratically.This isn’t news to Michigan attorneys. A state Bar Task Force said in January 2011, “by almost every measure, indigent criminal defense as a whole in Michigan falls far short of accepted standards, undermining the quality of justice, jeopardizing public safety, and creating large and avoidable costs. Michigan’s public defense system has fallen far short of acceptable standards for decades and is worsening…The cost of properly fixing the system is great; the cost of not fixing it is greater.”Effective defense of a client requires that an attorney be assigned the case more than a day before trial, that she have adequate training and supervision, that appropriate standards are met, that case loads be of a reasonable size and that resources for investigating or calling upon experts are comparable to those of the prosecution.The American Bar Association has established 10 principles, including these, for achieving a well functioning indigent defense system. These principles must not only be endorsed but also enforced.Attorney General Holder also said that day that “…problems in our criminal defense system aren’t just morally untenable. They’re also economically unsustainable…When the justice system fails to get it right the first time, we all pay, often for years, for new filings, retrials and appeals.”He might have added that lawsuits filed by wrongfully imprisoned people result in million dollar penalties as well. The overall cost of the 13 cases profiled in the ACLU report is estimated to have been $13 million dollars.Few people wrongly charged and incarcerated are exonerated. And while innocent people sit in jail, the real perpetrators remain free and continue to threaten the safety of the community. Michigan cannot afford to continue carelessly locking up individuals for crimes they did not commit.This piece was originally posted on the ACLU Blog of Rights.By Arlene Gilbert, ACLU Racial Justice ProgramFaces of Failing Public Defense Systems: Portraits of Michigan’s Constitutional Crisis (pdf)

Summer seems to have finally settled in just in time to soak up some sun in downtown Detroit's Hart Plaza.

DETROIT – The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan filed a Freedom of Information Act request today seeking records from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) regarding the illegal detention of a U.S. citizen and his mother who is a legal permanent resident. The Grand Rapids residents, who are Latino, were handcuffed and assaulted by ICE agents even though they produced driver’s licenses to prove their identities. “Fairness and equality are the most fundamental values we share as Americans. There's nothing fair or equal about arresting citizens because of the color of their skin,” said Miriam Aukerman, ACLU of Michigan staff attorney. “We are deeply concerned that this mother and son were victims of racial profiling. It’s imperative that we understand what led to this abuse of power and what policies are in place to protect Michigan residents.” In February, Telma Valdez, who has lived in the United States for almost 22 years, and her son, Luis Valdez, a college student at Grand Rapids Community College who was born in the U.S., drove to the home of relatives to allow their 6-year-old cousin to play with Luis’s new puppy. As they pulled the car into the driveway, unidentified ICE agents ran toward them. An agent pointed a gun at Luis and ordered him to show ID. Both Luis and Telma produced their valid driver’s license and ICE agents demanded that they get out of the car. Telma was handcuffed and escorted to the back of the car where an agent held a gun to her back and repeatedly banged her head into the trunk of the car yelling at her to admit she was “Irma.” Telma screamed out in pain and fear. Luis was handcuffed, and both Luis and Telma were escorted into an apartment. Inside the apartment, Luis again tried to explain that he was a U.S. citizen and Telma told agents that she had her green card with her. Soon after retrieving the card, agents realized that they had arrested a U.S. citizen and legal permanent resident. Agents released the two, but not before one agent threatened Telma that she risked losing her legal status if she told her story to anyone. “ICE agents take an oath to uphold the law, not violate people's rights,” said Kary L. Moss, ACLU of Michigan executive director. “It’s not a crime to be Latino in this country. However, from Arizona to Michigan, the stories of racial profiling, intimidation and illegal detention are proof that what happened to Luis and Telma is not unique.” Today’s FOIA request asks ICE to hand over all records relating to the coordination and execution of the February raid. In addition, the ACLU requested all supervision and training materials, as well as all policies and protocols related to racial profiling, and the procedures and standards for interrogating individuals or verifying their identity and immigration status. Key News and Documents Read our Freedom of Information Act Request to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Know Your Rights When Encountering the Police, Immigration or the FBI

Broken laws, broken lives, and a broken system. In this week's Rights Review, we hear what the former Mayor of Detroit thinks of our work. Also, are you mad about Michigan's law allowing discrimination against people based on sexual orientation and gender identity? 

The American Civil Liberties Union and Yale University have teamed up to defend students right to access information as part of their Don’t Filter Me Project. Schools across the country have been using web filters to block educational websites supportive of LGBT issues, including schools right here in Michigan. These illegal filters essentially silence LGBT voices from schools.