Support during the holidays

Dear Friends,

As we approach the holidays many people have asked how they can help Efrén during this time.

One great way you can help him is by sharing the Free Efrén Paredes, Jr. petition link on your social media pages, blogs, websites, during Zoom or other virtual meetings, etc., and ask others to sign and share it as well. If people are able to share it once a week between now and February it would be very helpful.

A shortcut link to the petition is: http://Bitly.com/FreeEfren

When signing the petition an email message is sent to Efrén's sentencing judge expressing support that Efrén receive a term-of-year sentence proportional to the sentence being given to the other 200+ similarly situated juvenile lifers who have already been resentenced. So far we've garnered over 1,400 signatures supporting Efrén's release.

Juvenile lifers are people who were originally sentenced to mandatory life without parole (LWOP) sentences when they were children. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2012 and 2016 that mandatory LWOP sentences are unconstitutional for juvenile offenders and ordered them to be resentenced.

Of the 120+ juvenile lifers who have been resentenced to a term of years in Michigan not a single one has reoffended. They have the lowest recidivism rate of any offense demographic in the state. In other words, they have proven to be among the safest group of people to rejoin society as returning citizens.

According to Efrén:

"Every juvenile lifer who has been resentenced and released has been incarcerated since they were a child. Each one has spent at least 25 years in prison, and many were incarcerated over 30 years. They know what it feels like to be deprived of their liberty for the majority of their lives and live with the perpetual belief that they would one day die in prison.

These people have since matured and changed and are now making better choices as adults. They have also liberated themselves from destructive thinking and behavior that previously governed their lives. They're no longer locked in prisons of past hurts and they have engaged in important introspective work to develop characteristics like patience, empathy, and becoming sound consequential thinkers.

These women and men have also developed a deeper appreciation for their freedom and the sanctity of life. It's their first time living in society as responsible adults. They're not going to make choices that could result in them returning to the daily horrors of prison life again."

Just three weeks ago on December 1 Efrén tested positive for COVID-19 and spent 17 days in a COVID recovery unit. He has since recovered from the virus and is now doing well. Approximately 40% of people incarcerated in Michigan prisons have contracted COVID-19. Of that number 108 of them sadly have died and many are recontracting the virus a second time.

As long as Efrén remains incarcerated he will be persistently subjected to contracting COVID-19 in prisons that are proven vectors for transmission of the deadly disease. Incarcerated people cannot social distance in crowded living conditions and they are not being provided N95 particulate respirator masks to effectively protect themselves.

Sharing the Free Efrén petition and inviting people to sign it is an important way to support Efren during the next couple of months as he awaits the Berrien County Trial Court to resentence him. His mitigation hearing was held October 6-7, 2020, and his next hearing date for oral arguments is scheduled to be held January 11, 2020.

We thank you for your continued support and we are praying for a positive outcome in Efrén's case in the coming weeks. Wishing you, your families, and friends a special Holiday Season. #FreeEfren #AbolishDBI #JLWOP #HTFL

Sincerely,

The Injustice Must End (TIME)
Committee to Free Efrén Paredes, Jr.
http://Bitly.com/FreeEfren

Download and Display the Free
Efrén Poster
http://Bitly.com/FreeEfrenPoster