Daily Archives: July 19, 2017

Angolas Constitutional Court has ruled that a presidential decree that imposed severe restrictions on civil society groups violates the constitution. The ruling provides a big boost to nongovernmental organizations that operate in a politically contentious environment in which the courts typically side with the government.

Angolan President and MPLA leader, Jose Eduardo dos Santos attends a party central committee at a meeting in Luanda, Angola, December 2 ,2016.

Decree 74/15, signed by President Jos Eduardo dos Santos, required nongovernmental organizations to register with multiple authorities, including the Foreign Ministry, before they could operate and obtain a declaration of suitability. It also allowed authorities to determine the programs and projects that the organizations implemented.

To justify the restrictions, the government argued that it needed a strong tool to fight nongovernmental organizations that were involved in criminal acts, such as money laundering, or other activities that threatened Angolas sovereignty.

After the decree took effect in March 2015, several human rights groups faced difficulties accessing their bank accounts, as some banks demanded to see the required approvals, even though the government was not issuing such documents.

The Angola Bar Association challenged the decree before the Constitutional Court, arguing that it allowed excessive and unlawful interference by the government in the work of civil society.

In a ruling dated July 5, 2017, made public on July 14, the court found that the president lacked the competence to regulate nongovernmental organizations. The ruling acknowledged the governments concerns over the need to regulate organizations, but held that such regulation must come from the parliament.

The Constitutional Courts decision sends a strong a message to the government that the courts will step in to protect fundamental rights such as freedom of association. Its a breath of fresh air in a country where civil society struggles every day to operate free from political interference.

See more here:

Angola's Constitutional Court Upholds Freedom of Association - Human Rights Watch

A four-run first-inning rally and a Jordan Brower home run in the early innings proved to be just enough for the Florence Freedom, presented by Titan Mechanical Solutions, in a 5-4 win over the Schaumburg Boomers Tuesday night at Boomers Stadium.

Jose Brizuela drew a two-out walk from Boomers (36-18) starter Kagen Hopkins (6-3) in the first inning, and Andre Mercurio followed by doubling just over the head of right fielder David Harris to score the games first run. Collins Cuthrell walked and then advanced to third as Jordan Brower doubled Mercurio home for a 2-0 Freedom (35-20) lead. Andrew Godbold capped the rally by lining a single to center, scoring both Cuthrell and Brower.

Schaumburg got two runs back against Jordan Kraus (8-3) in the bottom half, as Kyle Ruchim led off by reaching second base on a Taylor Oldham throwing error and later scoring from third on a wild pitch. Ryan OMalley later hit a RBI-single, diminishing Florences lead to two runs before Brower homered in the top of the third to re-extend the Freedom lead to three.

Jordan Kraus (8-3) labored with a high pitch count through six innings but allowed just two unearned runs, striking out five and walking two before Keivan Berges and newly-signed Jamal Wilson pitched perfect seventh and eighth innings, respectively.

With newcomer Pete Perez on the mound in the bottom of the ninth, however, Ruchim doubled to the warning track in left field with one out. After a strikeout, Zach Weigel delivered a RBI-single to score Ruchim, and after an infield single by Harris, Josh Gardiner lined a base hit to left field, scoring Weigel and putting the tying and winning runs on base. But Perez then got OMalley to ground out to shortstop, ending the game.

The two teams will play the middle game of the series Wednesday with first pitch scheduled for 11 a.m. at Boomers Stadium.

The Florence Freedom are members of the independent Frontier League and play all home games at UC Health Stadium located at 7950 Freedom Way in Florence, KY.The Freedom can be found online at FlorenceFreedom.com, or by phone at 859-594-4487.

Florence Freedom

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Freedom score early, hang on for road win against Boomers Tuesday; move to 15 games over .500 - User-generated content (press release) (registration)

Henry Erb, Target 8 investigator Published: July 18, 2017, 11:11 pm Updated: July 18, 2017, 11:32 pm

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) James Hicks says he's one of the most hated inmates in the Michigan prison system.

It's because of all the help he's given to federal, state and local cops while he's been behind bars for the last 31 years. The list of his exploits is long and some lawmen he's worked with believe he's earned his freedom because of the risks he's taken and the value of what he's done.

According to letters written by top law enforcement officials, Hicks has helped convict a corrupt deputy warden for selling prison transfers to inmates. He helped make cases on other crooked prison employees 22 of them, Hicks says. He helped save a phone company $5 million with the breakup of an inmate-run credit card scam. He has worked to bust a major car theft ring.

He has also helped solve a couple of murders. The most recent resulted in the 2010 conviction of another inmate, initially imprisoned for another crime, for killing his girlfriend in Flint.

"I don't think there would have been a conviction without his involvement in the case," said Reymundo Mascorro, a now-retired Michigan Department of Corrections inspector who worked with Hicks on that last murder case. "He went above and beyond anything I've ever encountered in my 30 years."

In his youth, Hicks was one of the bad guys. He has convictions going back to 1972 for manslaughter, robbery and larceny. In 1986, he was sentenced to between 50 and 200 years in prison for the armed robbery of an illegal gambling house in Muskegon in which a man was shot and killed by one of the other bandits.

"I wasn't responsible for it, but I'm still responsible because I could have stepped up and stopped" it, Hicks, now in his 60s, said.

He said he has helped law enforcement from the inside to prove "to my father and mother that I am not that person that brought me to prison."

"I did it all because I know it was the right thing to do," he said.

It may have been right, but it put Hicks in serious danger.

Former prison inspector Mascorro said Hicks' "safety was jeopardized and he fully recognized it."

Hicks said he has been poisoned, beaten and stabbed. He said he has been cut seven times, but MDOC officials have records of only three stabbings. Hicks said that's because four of the incidents didn't require him to be sent outside prison walls to a hospital.

The MDOC says it tries to keep Hicks safe. You won't find his name or picture on the prison system's online inmate lookup, and Hicks has often been put in what prisons call 'protective custody.' But an MDOC spokesman says Hicks "often requests to be taken out of protective custody and returned to the general population."

That might be because even though protective custody may help to keep an inmate safe, it looks a lot like punishment.

"Basically, he's doing a maximum security sentence, limited movement," Mascorro explained.

It shows the difficulty the system has in dealing with inmates like Hicks. Protective custody isn't much of a reward for inmates who do the right thing.

"Exactly," Mascorro agreed, "that's the outcome of having helped."

Hicks won't be eligible for parole until 2030, when he'll be 77.

Members of law enforcement who Hicks has helped have written letters encouraging the parole board and governor to commute his sentence that is, shorten it and set him free. Commutation is sometimes used to reward good behavior. It's different from a pardon, which essentially forgives the crime.

Hicks has had the backing of the former head of the FBI in Michigan, state police detectives, MDOC employees and a former state legislator.

He even won the support of the man who got him convicted in 1986. Muskegon County's former chief trial prosecutor Les Bowen wrote in 2011 to the parole board that "Hicks is the only person I can think of who I believe has actually earned a sentence commutation."

Bowen wrote that he had never before written a letter supporting a prisoner's commutation, but backs Hicks because "the public good in this extraordinary case would be well served by commutation."

Hicks applied for commutation in 2005, 2012 and 2015. Despite the high-powered law enforcement support, the parole board and Govs. Jennifer Granholm and Rick Snyder said no.

It's hard to know why. Target 8 investigators used the public records law to get what little paperwork there is on MDOC's response to those applications, but the documents don't reveal any information about parole board discussions or provide any insight into the rejections. The letters Hicks got back say only that they found no merit to his requests.

"He's done this for years on major cases," former U.S. Attorney for Western Michigan John Smietanka said. "Why do they turn him down, I have no idea."

Smietanka, who has been voluntarily helping Hicks, said keeping him in prison "does not make any sense."

Hicks contacted Target 8 investigators through Smietanka because of his frustration with the system, even though it could put him in even more danger.

"I know the risks," Hicks said in a phone call.

The fact is, Hicks is up against a system that commutes and pardons very few. Since 2011, more than 3,000 Michigan inmates have applied to have their sentences commuted; only five were granted. Out of 689 pardon requests, just 11 were approved.

MDOC didn't respond to questions that Target 8 investigators hoped would reveal parole board's thinking about how and when sentences should be commuted.

Longtime Michigan prison reform organizer Kay Perry says the few inmates who actually get executive clemency are the sick and dying.

"That's a pretty narrow group of people to look at and I think there are a lot more people in the system who deserve a careful look to see if they aren't good candidates for commutation," she said.

Perry, who runs a reform group called MI-CURE, says the reason the parole board and governor grant commutations and pardons so rarely is based on fear that they might make a mistake and release someone who will commit a major crime. She thinks such decisions should be given to professionals who should start looking at inmates who have been inside the longest and who might have aged out of their prime crime years.

She says keeping some people in prison for long sentences "doesn't make sense to me."

Meanwhile, Hicks and his attorney say they will try again to convince the parole board and governor to release him.

"If the DOC's intent is to release people as law-abiding citizens, I think that's been accomplished with Mr. Hicks," Mascorro, the former MDOC investigator, said. "If he moved down the street from me, I wouldn't have a problem with him. I'd welcome him to the neighborhood."

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Inmate denied freedom despite years aiding authorities - WOODTV.com

Many Provo community members have been waiting for answers as to why Provos Encircle LGBTQ Family and Youth Resource Center was removed at the last minute from the Americas Freedom Festival parade lineup July 4.

According to Maxwell Eddington, program director for Encircle, the nonprofit organizations application was originally approved not for the parade itself, but for the group to march in the pre-parade. The pre-parade is not part of the official parade, and those marching in that portion are authorized to walk the entire route ahead of the parades beginning, but are not announced.

Eddington said the prospect of participating in the pre-parade was very important to all involved with Encircle. Clients, volunteers and community members spent many hours organizing and learning choreography for the parade. Eddington himself left a family gathering in Arizona a day early to march in the parade.

Late July 3, Encircle leaders received communication saying their application had been revoked.

I was in the car on my way to Utah when I was told it wasnt going to happen, Eddington said. Its been very tough for a lot of people and these are the people that need answers about why this has happened.

Eddington said there are two questions Encircle and its community wants answers to: First, why was Encircle not allowed to be in the parade? Second, will Encircle be able to participate in the pre-parade in the future?

Eddington and Encircle leaders may not ever get complete answers. Though Paul Warner, executive director of Americas Freedom Festival, met with the 11-member Festival board committee multiple times last week, the committee chose not to answer those questions directly.

Warner explained that according to Parade Guideline No. 3, The Executive Committee reserves the right to refuse an entry into the parade if, in its sole judgment, it determines that the entry is controversial, unlawful, political or otherwise considered to be inconsistent with the standards, theme, quality or purposes of the Freedom Festival.

According to its website, Americas Freedom Festival at Provo is a private, nonprofit, non-political foundation whose mission is to celebrate, teach, honor, and strengthen the traditional American values of God, family, freedom, and country.

Warner said a United States Supreme Court decision also backs up the organizations legal right to choose who fits that description and participates in the parade. The 1995 ruling, Hurley v. Irish American Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Group of Boston, held that private organizations, even if they are holding a public demonstration, were permitted to exclude groups if those groups presented a message contrary to the one the organizing group wanted to convey.

Warner explained the committee does not allow political or advocacy groups to participate in the parade. The committee allows politicians who currently hold office, but regularly turns down applications from political candidates, Warner said.

When asked by the Daily Herald about the inconsistent inclusion of groups like The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints missionaries who many see as an advocacy group Warner referred back to Parade Guideline No. 3.

As for an official statement from the committee on its decision regarding Encircle, Warner offered the following: Leaders of Americas Freedom Festival at Provo met recently with the executive director of Encircle House to discuss the misunderstanding related to the entry process for the July 4th Parade. They met to better understand each others mission and vision, and the meeting ended with a shared spirit of appreciation.

Other meeting discussion points centered on the unique contributions each organization makes to those it serves in Provo City and Utah County. Encircle House and Freedom Festival representatives have pledged to move forward as each continues to pursue their respective mission statements, Warner said in an emailed statement.

According to the Freedom Festival in earlier reporting, there were more than 100 planned entries in 2017s Grand Parade.

Encircle is not the only local nonprofit group to be denied entry to the parade. Warner said over the past three years, there have been more than 60 entries denied permission to participate. A number of other organizations also reached out to the Daily Herald to share their own stories of denials for parade applications. Some of these have applied for multiple years, and while a few have been cleared to walk in the pre-parade, there is still a feeling of frustration in being excluded from the parade itself.

One Provo nonprofit explained that because it participates in other parts of the festival, and wants that participation to continue, it accepts the committees decision on parade participation. But the nonprofit reapplies each year in hopes of walking in the parade.

Warner and Eddington said both groups are now focused on trying to put the entire experience behind them.

We want to focus all our energy and all our time on the youth and the families we serve, Eddington said. Having to spend so much time on this Freedom Parade experience, answering calls, etc. it has been hours of my time I couldve spent on youth programs.

Every minute of this weve taken from that goal, was a minute we could have used to make a family or youths life better.

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Weeks later, Freedom Festival cites legal rights in defense of 11th-hour decision to nix LGBT group from parade - Daily Herald