SUPPORT MICHIGAN HOUSE BILL 4999

Currently, Michigan Law allows for a criminal conviction committed as a juvenile to be used to enhance an adult's sentence. We have an opportunity to change this systemic injustice.

If our efforts are successful in Michigan, we would like to use this example as a catalyst to propel a National Effort before Congress or our U.S. Supreme Court to do away with this institutional, systemic and social injustice across the entire United States. No one should be criminally punished a second time as an adult for a mistake made as a child.

Please sign our petition (EVEN IF YOU'RE NOT FROM MICHIGAN) and use your social media and industry influence to bring awareness and support to this issue. We need comments from great minds such as yourself and others.

ABOUT THE BILL

On June 15, 2021 Michigan legislator Jewell Jones introduced House Bill 4999. If passed, prosecutors will be prohibited from using a crime committed before the age of 18 as a factor to enhancement an adult's sentence.

In a 2012 landmark case, commonly referred to as the 'Juvenile Lifer's Law' our U.S. Supreme Court ruled (Miller v. Alabama) that juveniles could no longer receive Life Without Parole (without mitigating circumstances). These standings were largely based upon brain science research headed by Dr. Laurence Steinberg, a professor at Temple University. ''An adolescent's brain is not fully developed and thus shouldn't be held to the same standard of reasoning and culpability as an adult,'' Dr. Steinberg testified during the Miller hearings in light of all the precedent change of law (by the highest court in the land) and brain science research, that clearly states an adolescent does not have the mental capacity of an adult and thus should not be held to the same standards of culpability, how can we reasonably continue to allow the law to enhance the punishment of any person for a crime committed as child?

We are not trying to minimize crimes committed by an adolescent. We're saying it's wrong to punish a person twice for a bad decision made as a child. Nor are we saying that young people who commit crimes shouldn't go to prison. Even if the laws were to change it would still be up to the parole board to determine who gets released. What we are saying, as criminal justice reform advocates, the law is wrong!

This is an institutional and systemic injustice that we can fix. We have an opportunity to CHANGE THIS LAW. Your electronic signature is not a vote on the bill. It only means that you are in support of having this tool removed from Michigan prosecutors. Data will then be aggregated, quantified and used in a report next month during the testimony phase of the hearings.

Please sign this petition and pass the information to everyone you know who stands for criminal justice reform. 

We would like to hear your suggestions, concerns, and feedback. Please leave a comment below.

We thank you in advance. Stay tuned in. God be with us all. 

For more information about this bill visit: MICHIGAN HOUSE BILL 4999