Friday, October 31, 2014

"Circumstantial evidence can be almost the same as direct evidence"


Berrien County Judge Sterling Shrock: "Circumstantial evidence can be almost the same as direct evidence." This statement was advice to the jury at the end of Pinkney's trial this morning. One of our readers suggested the statement should be sent to Saturday Night Live writers.

The jury then deliberated for the rest of the day and will continue on Monday.

County prosecutor Mike Sepic and Judge Sterling Shrock worked closely together throughout the trial. Their effort was focused on attempting to make the activism of Rev. Pinkney seem illegal.

They know there is no evidence against Pinkney.

Pinkney's attorney, Tat Parish, gave Sepic a run for his money, endeavoring to teach him about law.  

Your support is needed on Monday. Pinkney and the attorneys will be in court, ready to assist the jury if needed. Please consider attending. 8:30am or whenever you can.

Friday, October 24, 2014

The Jury has been selected for Pinkney's trial and it's ALL white


The Berrien County trial beginning this Monday at 8:30am now has a jury and it's all white. Rev. Pinkney is from Benton Harbor, 96% African-American, but the jurors are from the surrounding white towns.

Here are some other glaring irregularities:

--Prosecutor Mike Sepic on 3 or 4 occasions asked the jury pool, "Could you convict someone without evidence?" Right after he asked this question each time he nodded his head - indicating that they should answer in the affirmative.

--Prosecutor Sepic also told the jury pool several times that evidence was not necessary in order to convict someone. Only in Berrien County...

--Judge Schrock did everything he could to help Prosecutor Sepic.

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Trial is this coming Monday, Oct. 27, 8:30am

Rev. Edward Pinkney, the community activist from Benton Harbor, has been bound over 
for trial on false charges. Rev. Pinkney is facing prosecution on five counts of election 
fraud which are felonies, as well as six misdemeanors. If found guilty he could be 
sentenced up to twenty-five years in prison. It's Berrien county's 3rd try to imprison the 
Rev.

There is absolutely no evidence that Pinkney did anything wrong. The petition dates could have been changed by election clerk Carolyn Toliver, Mayor James Hightower (Lowtower), or Berrien county sheriff deputies.

Rev. Pinkney did not change a date.

The fight continues. Rev. Pinkney is just one man, who, like many others, will not fall under pressure;  it will only strengthen him.

The battle in Berrien County continues against the corrupt politicians, local government, and Whirlpool Corporation who have staged a complete takeover of Benton Harbor.
    
The tug of war continues.


Rev. Edward Pinkney
Pinkney to Pinkney show
Every Sunday at 5pm ET
Burn Baby Burn
Burn all NAACP membership cards

Sunday, October 19, 2014

B A N C O: B A N C O: Petition: We Demand Justice in Benton ...

B A N C O: B A N C O: Petition: We Demand Justice in Benton ...: B A N C O: Petition: We Demand Justice in Benton ... sign my... : B A N C O: Petition: We Demand Justice in Benton Harbor : We demand the ...

Friday, October 17, 2014

Cynthia McKinney on the Persecution of Rev. Pinkney

Former congresswoman Cynthia McKinney wrote: 

Why is the Congressional Black Caucus silent on the persecution of Benton Harbor leader, Rev Edward Pinkney, who is being maliciously prosecuted AGAIN?  What has happened up there in DC to eliminate all heart, backbone, and guts? What's left without that???

REV. PINKNEY'S TRIAL OCTOBER 27, 2014 
http://hreventsbymlj.blogspot.com/2014/10/rev-pinkneys-trial-oct-27-2014.html

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Pinkney's trial, Mon. Oct. 27. No victims, no evidence.


Rev. Pinkney's trial begins on October 27, 8:30am. The charges are voter fraud - five felonies of forgery of a recall petition with no victims and no evidence. The judge and the prosecutor stated tha in Michigan evidence is not required in order to go to trial. The prosecutor presented no direct evidence or indirect evidence.  Pinkney is potentially facing many years in prison when there has not been a crime committed by him.

The attack on democracy and justice in Benton Harbor shows that the corporate power structure is determined to crush anyone who stand in it's way. It is part of a process under way across America in various forms. Democracy has been stolen from the people. Water rights have been stolen.  Poverty is growing. We the people have nothing in common with
the billionaires, their corporations, or government. We must stand together for a new America.     

Our challenge today must be to create discomfort in the house of the powerful around the nation, with or without violence, with an appeal for freedom, justice, equality and understanding. There are too many poor people in a nation so wealthy.  Today we are not free and we are not equal. We have expanded the disparity gap between those who live in surplus and those who live in poverty.

An economic system that doesn't feed, clothe, and house its people must be and will be overturned and replaced with a system that meets the needs of the people. The unfinished business will require both courage and risk.  It will require sacrifice.  We must dream above the clouds of doubt and fear. We must continue to fight until discrimination and poverty no longer exist.

Nobody in the world, nobody in history, has ever gotten anything by appealing to the moral sense of the oppressor.  

The struggle that has taken place in recent years in Benton Harbor is a case in point, and one that holds a number of lessons for the American people. The fight in Benton Harbor is a war, not a conflict;  it is a war over whether Americans will have prosperity and democracy or live in poverty under the heel of open corporate rule.

Let's make this struggle a victory for all who are victims of the economic crisis in every city, town, and state in America.
   
Rev Edward Pinkney
  
Pinkney to Pinkney show
Every Sunday at 5pm ET
Burn Baby Burn
Burn all NAACP Membership Cardss

Monday, October 13, 2014

Standing Together for a New America

The USA proclaims itself the " land of freedom," but the reality is we live under the world
most corrupt legal system. It has rigged courts, bribed judges, phony trial, extortion by
lawyers, and over two million prisoners.

You can be sent to prison and even put to death with absolutely no evidence. The truth is
hidden by America's corporate owned media, and by Berrien County's media. They are afraid
to tell the truth about Michigan's Emergency Manager system where rule is without the consent of the governed.

Benton Harbor now has four Emergency Managers. They are called a Transitional Team. Appointed by the governor, they are direct representative of the corporate giant, Whirlpool, that runs Benton Harbor.

This team can overrule decisions from the democratically elected city council. They can sell off public assets private to interests. The team includes two former Whirlpool employees, one county treasure, and a member of the State Treasury Department. This is what fascism in Michigan looks like-the merger of government and the corporations.

Within this dictatorial political environment, the Benton Harbor community exercised their democratic right to recall  corporate Whirlpool) allied mayor, with absolutely no evidence, I was charged with voter fraud and bound over for trial.

This attack was intended to stop the community's recall election from going forward. In a hearing to determine if there was evidence to take me to trial. Mark Goff, a forensic document examiner with the Michigan State Police (who is nothing but a hired gun) testified that changes to the election petitions were made with different ink, but he could not determine who made the changes, when they were made, or whether the person who signed the petition changed it.

His testimony provided no evidence against me, however Judge Sterling Schrock, Judge Charlie LaSata and Prosecutor Mike Sepic all stated that you do not need evidence  to go to trial in Michigan. The government is counting on an all white jury that may be motivated by something other than the truth to convict me.

Soon after, in a momentary victory for the people, Judge John DeWane ruled that the contested mayoral recall election should be placed on the November ballot upon the first Amendment's political core Freedom of Speech.  The issue boiled down to admitting 21 duplicate signatures that had been invalidated based upon a faulty practice by the Berrien County Clerk's Office.

Attorney John LaPietra said the Berrien County clerk armed with $20,000.00 in funding from the County Board, appealed (that ruling) with support from two major law firms and the Attorney Generals office, representing the Secretary of State and the Board of Elections. The court of Appeals reversed Judge John DeWane's favorable ruling, and it was essentially upheld by the state's Supreme Court. This scenario once again shows the unity
of the government and the corporations.

Democracy has been stolen from the people. Water rights have been stolen. poverty is growing. we the people have nothing in common with the billionaire's,their corporations and government. We must stand together.  

Nobody in the world , Nobody in history has ever gotten anything by appealing to the moral sense of the people who were oppressing them.  We must stand together and fight back.                  
   
Rev Edward Pinkney
 
BHBanco.org
 
Pinkney to Pinkney show
Every Sunday at 5 pm eastern time
Burn Baby Burn
Burn all NAACP MEMBERSHIPS CARDS
 

RISE OF THE POLICE STATE! The transformation of our Public Police Forces

Friday, October 10, 2014

Attorney and Candidate J.A. La Pietra Fights for Benton Harbor Residents' Constitutional Rights

John Anthony La Pietra
   Attorney General
    For the People

386 Boyer Court  *  Marshall, MI  49068
    jalp5dai@att.net
    (269) 781-9478
    Facebook:  jalp4thePeople


For Immediate Release
=====================
October 8, 2014


Green Candidate for Attorney General Continues Fight
for Constitutional Rights in Benton Harbor Recall Case
======================================================
La Pietra Renews Invitation to Michigan Supreme Court
to Let Voters Be Counted as Signing Political Petitions

Stands Alone Against Incumbent, Major Law Firms
to Defend Core First Amendment Speech Rights



    John Anthony La Pietra, Green Party of Michigan candidate for 
Attorney General, today filed a motion asking the state Supreme Court to 
reconsider its earlier "no-decision" order and recognize the 
Constitutional rights of Michigan voters to sign political petitions and 
be counted.

    La Pietra's motion to reconsider comes in the case of a mayoral 
recall petition in Benton Harbor -- a case he has carried to the Supreme 
Court, charging no fee and standing alone against the incumbent Attorney 
General's office as well as two major law firms.

    The core issue in the case is whether a registered voter who 
happened to sign a petition validly twice is entitled to be counted 
once.  If so, the Benton Harbor petition had enough valid signatures to 
put the recall on the ballot.

    John won at the Berrien County Trial Court by pointing out that the 
practice applied by County Clerk Sharon Tyler -- of invalidating all 
signatures of such duplicate signers, regardless of whether they 
knowingly tried to get counted twice -- totally denied signers their 
core rights to political speech.

    He also refuted the clerk's legal arguments, showing that

        * there is no state law requiring the "invalidate-all" counting 
practice;

        * a 1940 state court case doesn't support the practice as the 
clerk had argued it did; and

        * a 1993 Federal case allowing (though not requiring) the 
practice under the weakest possible Constitutional scrutiny has been 
superseded by the same court and by several US Supreme Court decisions 
since then.

    In an opinion and order issued August 12, Judge John Dewane agreed 
with John that the "invalidate-all" practice was an undue burden on the 
First Amendment rights of petition signers and circulators, and put the 
recall back on the ballot for this November's election.

    The clerk appealed, armed with $20,000 in funding from the County 
Board and support from two major law firms -- one working for the 
Michigan Association of County Clerks -- and the Attorney General's 
office, representing the Secretary of State and the Bureau of Elections.

    After hearing from all those parties, as well as reading John's 
brief and one from the ACLU Fund of Michigan, a three-judge Court of 
Appeals panel issued a literally unexplained and unjustified order 
September 4 reversing Judge Dewane's balanced and reasoned opinion.

    John, working alone, assembled an appeal to the state Supreme Court 
and filed it the next day.  But after almost two weeks of emergency 
consideration, the Court released a one-page order September 17 saying 
they wouldn't decide the matter.  In the standard formal language, the 
order says a majority of the Justices was "not persuaded that the 
question presented should be reviewed by this Court."

    Court rules allowed La Pietra 21 days to move for reconsideration, 
but a recent change requires him to convince the Justices that 
reconsideration is necessary to reverse a palpable error.

    His motion starts by pointing out that the Michigan Supreme Court 
has held since 1913 that even a law enacted by the Legislature to 
preserve the purity of elections may not destroy elective rights.  The 
"invalidate-all" practice is not required by any law, so it may not do 
something a law can't.

    But the practice does destroy voters' rights to sign petitions and 
be counted -- and needlessly, too, since a practice of counting one 
valid signature for any qualified voter and striking any others does as 
much to prevent fraud.

    The motion also reminds the Justices that the Court Clerk's 
Elections Administrator Carolyn Toliver and Sheriff's Detective David 
Zizkovsky admitted at the Trial Court hearing August 7 to criminal 
mishandling of the original petition sheets.

    That violates Michigan court precedent saying purity of elections 
requires "fairness and evenhandedness" in election laws.  And the 
"invalidate-all" practice is even more weakened without fairness, notes 
La Pietra, since it does not have "a statute or even a promulgated rule 
to give it a shield of due process."  The misbehavior of the Court 
Clerk's office should strip the practice of any presumption of 
Constitutionality, he concludes.

    La Pietra concedes that it is too late now to put the Benton Harbor 
recall on next month's ballot.  But the case is not moot; the Supreme 
Court can order the recall it onto the ballot next May, for city voters 
to decide on it then.

    "There is still time for our state's highest court to reconsider 
this case in light of the highest law of the land, and decide it *For 
the People*."

    John's motion for reconsideration can be seen here:

        http://jalp5dai.wordpress.com/?attachment_id=58

    John also posted the Michigan Supreme Court's previous one-page 
order at

        http://jalp5dai.wordpress.com/?attachment_id=50

The earlier Court of Appeals non-decision is here:

        http://jalp5dai.wordpress.com/?attachment_id=49

And the six pages of Judge Dewane's original decision are at

        http://jalp5dai.wordpress.com/?attachment_id=48

These links and more, plus comments from John, are on his campaign 
Facebook page:

        https://www.facebook.com/jalp4thePeople

    You can also see developments on the case -- about a day behind 
time -- at the Court's “Case Search” page:

http://courts.mi.gov/opinions_orders/case_search/pages/default.aspx?SearchType=1&CaseNumber=150019&CourtType_CaseNumber=1 


The Supreme Court's file number for the case is 150019.

    For more information about John's campaign -- including his answers 
to every candidate survey he's received, as well as some "Opinions" and 
other proposals to make sure the job of Attorney General gets done the 
most effective way *For the People* -- contact him via phone, e-mail, or 
USPS mail, or visit his campaign Facebook page:

        John Anthony La Pietra -- Attorney General For the People
        386 Boyer Court
        Marshall, MI  49068
            phone:     (269) 781-9478
            e-mail:    jalp5dai@att.net
            Facebook:  jalp4thePeople

    For more information on the Green Party of Michigan, its Ten Key 
Values, its platform, and its other candidates, contact:

        Green Party of Michigan
        PO Box 504
        Warren, MI  48090-0504
            313-815-2025
        http://www.MIGreenParty.org
        Facebook:  migreens
        Twitter:   @migreenparty


#    #    #


prepared using donated labor by:
    JALP -- Attorney General For the People
    386 Boyer Ct; Marshall, MI  49068
        phone:     (269) 781-9478
        e-mail:    jalp5dai@att.net
        Facebook:  jalp4thePeople

Wednesday, October 08, 2014

Why I'm charged with election fraud -- Please attend my trial on Monday Oct. 27 8:30am Berrien County Courthouse, MI

(Trial time has been corrected above - 8:30, not 10am)



"With absolutely no evidence, I was charged with voter fraud and bound over for trial."


The USA proclaims itself the "land of freedom," but the reality is we live under the world's
most corrupt legal system.  It has rigged courts, bribed judges, phony trials, extortion by 
lawyers, and over two million prisoners.  More prisoners than any other country, in real numbers and proportionately.

You can be sent to prison and even put to death with absolutely no evidence. The truth is
hidden by America's corporate owned media, and by Berrien County media. They are afraid to tell the truth about Michigan's Emergency Manager system where rule is without the consent of the governed.

Benton Harbor now has four Emergency Managers. They are called a Transitional Team.  Appointed by the governor, they are direct representatives of the corporate giant, Whirlpool, that runs Benton Harbor. This team can overrule decisions made by the democratically elected city council. They can sell off public assets to private interests. The team includes two former Whirlpool employees, one county treasurer, and a member of the State Treasury Department. This is what fascism in Michigan looks like-the merger of government with private corporations.

Within this dictatorial political environment, the Benton Harbor community exercised their democratic right to recall the Whirlpool-allied mayor.  With absolutely no evidence, I was charged with voter fraud and bound over for trial.

This attack was intended to stop the community's recall election from going forward. In a hearing to determine if there was evidence to take me to trial, Mark Goff, a forensic document examiner with the Michigan State Police testified that changes to the election petitions were made with different ink, but he could not determine who made the changes, when they were made, or whether the person who signed the petition changed it.

His testimony provided no evidence against me, however Judge Sterling Schrock, Judge Charlie LaSata  and Prosecutor Mike Sepic all stated that you do not need evidence  to go to trial in Michigan. The government is counting on an all-white jury, that may be motivated by something other than the truth, to convict me.

Soon after, in a momentary victory for the people, Judge John DeWane ruled that the contested mayoral recall election should be placed on the November ballot -- upon the first Amendment's political core Freedom of Speech. The issue boiled down to admitting 21 duplicate signatures that had been invalidated based upon faulty practice by the Berrien County Clerk's Office.

Attorney John LaPietra stated that the Berrien County clerk, armed with $20,000.00 in funding from the County Board, appealed (that ruling) with support from two major law firms and the Attorney Generals office, representing the Secretary of State and the Board of Elections. 

The court of Appeals reversed Judge John DeWane's favorable ruling, and it was essentially upheld by the state's Supreme Court. This scenario once again shows the unity
of government and corporations.

Democracy has been stolen from the people. Water rights have been stolen. Poverty is growing. We the people have nothing in common with the billionaire's, their corporations, and their government. We must stand together.  

Nobody in the world has ever gotten anything by appealing to the moral sense of the people who were oppressing them.  We must stand together and fight back.                  
   
Rev. Edward Pinkney
Pinkney to Pinkney show
Every Sunday 5pm ET
Burn Baby Burn  
Burn all NAACP Membership Cards

Monday, October 06, 2014

B A N C O: Pinkney trial October 27, 2014 - mark your calende...

B A N C O: Pinkney trial October 27, 2014 - mark your calende...: Michael Sepic of Berrien County is a corrupt prosecutor who does not work for the people,  but works to please Whirlpool. For my current p...