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Coalition organizes to ‘Restore Justice in Michigan’

“Restore Justice in Michigan” is the theme of a demonstration set for Sept. 10 in Detroit. Called by a coalition of civil rights and progressive legal organizations, it will express support for Judge Deborah Thomas, an African-American judge in Wayne County Circuit Court who is under unprecedented attack by Wayne County Chief Judge Mary Beth Kelly, acting on behalf of the reactionary Michigan Supreme Court.

The attack began in 2004, when Judge Thomas challenged the lack of African-American representation on Wayne County juries. After a jury panel that appeared in front of her contained only one African American out of 30 individuals, she ordered an investigation. The results showed that African Americans made up only 27 percent of jury panels in Wayne County Circuit Court, while the county’s population is 42 percent African-American. A further study by the National Center for State Courts found systematic exclusion of Blacks, including permanent removal from the eligible list of anyone who fails to return a jury questionnaire, a factor that tended to impact poor people most.

The vast majority of those tried in Wayne County Circuit Court are from Detroit, which has an 85 percent African-American population. Up until 10 years ago, Detroit had its own felony criminal court, the Detroit Recorders Court. Jury pools were based on panels selected from Detroit residents. As a result, Detroit was one of the few cities where African Americans facing felony charges had juries of their peers. However, in a racist maneuver the court was abolished by the Michigan state legislature and merged into Wayne County Circuit Court.

After Judge Thomas accepted a motion to challenge jury composition and ordered the studies noted above, Chief Judge Kelly ordered that Judge Thomas could no longer hear motions dealing with jury composition.

Recently Chief Judge Kelly ordered that Judge Thomas could no longer hear pretrial motions. This is supposedly because Judge Thomas’s docket is backed up. In fact, because prosecutors see her as being not totally pro-police and anti-defendant, they ask for jury trials in her cases and refuse bench trials. This slows down the processing of cases. Judge Thomas also faces judicial tenure commission sanctions before the all-white conservative commission, on charges that too many of her rulings are anti-police and anti-prosecution.

In response to these attacks, the Coalition to Restore Justice in Michigan formed to defend her and fight the further erosion of justice in Michigan. The first meeting was called by Detroit City Councilmember Joanne Watson and attended by about 50 individuals representing organizations such as the National Conference of Black Lawyers, the National Political Congress of Black Woman, Women Empowered, National Action Network, Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, National Lawyers Guild, Detroit Association of Black Organizations, Wayne County Criminal Defense Bar Association, Michigan Emergency Committee Against War and Injustice (MECAWI) and AFSCME Council 25. A demonstration at the Judicial Tenure Commission is planned for Sept. 10 at 11 a.m., followed by a hearing in the City Council chambers at noon.

The demonstration will also protest the total erosion of justice for poor and working people in Michigan. At the meeting people discussed how this attack is not limited to the criminal courts. They pointed out that the Michigan Supreme Court is dominated by members of the Federalist Society, an ultra-reactionary pro-business and pro-cop organization. As a result, the Michigan Supreme Court has become the most right-wing in the country.

Attorneys working in juvenile court noted how juvenile defenders from small firms with ties to the community have been eliminated. As a result, juvenile criminal defense is being contracted out to large silk-stocking firms, separate from the community and out of touch with the problems of the city’s youth. Chief Judge Kelly is also privatizing the Friend of the Court division, eliminating union jobs as a result.

Civil justice is being systematically denied to poor and working people. Michigan Supreme Court decisions have made employment discrimination suits virtually impossible. Slip-and-fall cases, automobile negligence and suits for police chases have all been essentially eliminated or saddled with onerous conditions. The Supreme Court has enforced a one-year statute of limitation for disputes by parents of infants with automobile insurance companies; traditionally these cases were held in abeyance until the child reached adulthood to see what medical conditions had developed. Damage caps have limited the bringing of medical negligence cases and done away with products liability.

At a recent meeting hosted by the Committee for Corrections and Judicial Reform of MECAWI, Judge Thomas gave further insight into the erosion of constitutional rights in Michigan and in Wayne County Circuit Court particularly. Along with the lack of juries of one’s peers, the constitutional right to habeas corpus—the doctrine under which defendants must be brought in front of a court to be charged within a short time after being detained—is being eroded.

Under the Michigan Constitution and state law, any judge can and must sign a writ of habeas corpus. However, Chief Judge Kelly has enacted a policy where only one judge per week signs habeas corpus writs. As a result, the rule whereby all defendants must be brought to arraignment within 72 hours of being jailed is being eliminated.

Judge Thomas noted that while formerly it was up to the criminal defendant or civil plaintiff to decide whether to waive their right to a jury trial, in Michigan the courts now allow the prosecution (and defendants in civil cases) to demand jury trials as well. That is what has led to the so-called backup in her court, where the prosecution always demands a jury trial rather than trying a case in front of a fair African-American woman judge who won’t automatically side with the cops.

Judge Thomas criticized a rule that penalizes impoverished defendants by mandating that all trials must be held within 91 days. Attorneys for the poor are forced to hold back spending on a case until it’s going to trial due to scarce resources. As a result, they can’t produce the needed evidence within the short time frame. Thomas noted that lawyers appointed to represent indigent defendants in Wayne County Circuit Court are among the lowest-paid in the country.

Judge Thomas also explained that in recent years a bill was passed excluding anyone who ever had a felony conviction from serving on a jury. This is yet another factor in diminishing African-American participation, since Blacks are disproportionately jailed in this racist society.

At the coalition organizing meeting, Jerry Goldberg, a local progressive attorney and activist with MECAWI, noted that almost 40 years ago it was mass demonstrations led by the Black Liberation Movement that first won the right to representative juries in the Detroit Recorders Court. When Judge George Crockett released members of the Republic of New Africa who were rounded up and held without charges after a shootout with police in the late 1960s, it was mass protest that defended Judge Crockett against a recall campaign, and with it the right to habeas corpus.

The Coalition to Restore Justice in Michigan has the potential to revive this kind of civil rights movement. For more information call 313-393-6005.