Good afternoon, Petition Supporters,

I met briefly with Zaiden’s mother last week. She wants me to tell you that Zaiden is doing well, that he knows about this petition effort, and that they are grateful for all of your support.

Last week, I told you that I have sent the prosecutor, Scott Hunt, my first email about the petition. He has had that email for about nine days, and so far, he has not responded. This is not uncommon; I remain hopeful that we can influence how he charges Zaiden.

However, he may need to hear from more of us directly. Mr. Hunt’s office email address, available publicly online, is shunt@grantcounty.net. Would you please consider writing a short email message to Mr. Hunt in support of the petition? What you may want to say is that you are concerned about the prosecution of Zaiden Guy as an adult and about the duplication in the number of charges. Include in your message a link to this petition: https://chng.it/SDwyTSdbzN

That is all an email would need to have an effect. The more emails Mr. Hunt receives, the better. By the way, this is not doxxing. We are using a publicized email address for its intended purpose. Please do write respectfully if you send an email; respect helps this effort.

The petition has stalled in the number of signatures it has gotten at 241. Please give the petition another share on your social media accounts and perhaps on pages where you think it may gain supporters.

I think the primary challenge this petition faces is that every state allows some prosecution of juveniles as adults. How they do this varies from state to state; some states choose an age below which they won’t charge a juvenile as an adult. Indiana’s bottom age for charging a juvenile as a adult is 12, and it used to be 10. Indiana has a bad history with juvenile justice, in contradiction, I would assert, to the state’s constitution. I have been thinking about writing a series of occasional opinion essays that I can share here and in my social media accounts. My topics for these essays will be on juvenile justice generally and within Indiana. I want to present these essays in this way because newspapers have severely reduced the space they have to editorials and to letters to the editor. I hope that what I write will be helpful.

Since I’ve shared the prosecutor’s email address, I will also share mine. I’m willing to take questions, comments, suggestions, and even complaints and criticisms (if they are not harassment). jack.heller62@gmail.com 

I am sending this on Juneteenth. Please enjoy the day, and remember those who are not free today.

Sincerely,

Jack Heller