On Sunday, June 28 at 4pm EST, seven well-known and respected minority community leaders, all Michigan residents or natives, will combine their ministry, media, and professional platforms for a virtual Townhall meeting designed solely to reveal the truth behind police misconduct and the mass incarceration of black men in Michigan. This discussion will delve deep into the history of systematic racism in the American criminal justice system and assist in expanding the national conversation around protest against police misconduct and killings to include the untold narratives of thousands of black men who have been sentenced to die in prison due to the broad scope of police misconduct. The goal is to create a greater sense of awareness and to issue a call to action to demand that Michigan police and prosecutors be held accountable for their choices. The Townhall’s featured panelists are Ericka Taylor, PhD, Executive Director of Early Childhood for Saginaw Intermediate School District; Jimmy Greene, CEO of Associated Builders & Contractors, Greater Michigan Chapter in Flint; Reverend Dennis Laffoon, African American Lectionary with Vanderbilt University and Pastor of Bethel A.M.E. Church in Saginaw; Bryanne Standifer, MD, Department of Internal Medicine, Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit; Breannah Alexander Oppenhuizen, Disability & Racial Justice Organizer of Michigan Disability Rights Coalition in Lansing; and Attorney Janey Lamar of The Lamar Law Firm in Saginaw. Media personality and motivational speaker, Dwan Bryant, PhD, of DBryant Enterprises in Dallas, Texas will be the moderator.
The Townhall is sponsored by A Life for A Life Urban Initiative, a grassroots organization founded in 2013 and currently overseen by the friends and family of juvenile lifer and Detroit native Robert Hinds. Charged with first-degree premeditated murder and possession of a felony firearm at the age of 17, Hinds was convicted of both charges and sentenced to life in prison without parole. After maintaining his innocence for years (specifically that he had no involvement with the crimes he was convicted of) and with the assistance of supporters, Hinds discovered a miscellaneous case file maintained by the Detroit Police Department. This case file contained exculpatory evidence that was wrongfully withheld from his state-appointed defense attorney during his trial in 2001. Within this miscellaneous case file, Hinds discovered the existence of an overwhelming amount of evidence supporting his claims of actual innocence including witness statements, DNA evidence, and usable fingerprints.
After losing over 19 years of his life in prison while painstakingly pursuing every investigative lead to help gather enough evidence to prove his innocence, in April 2020, Hinds was finally able to file an exoneration application with the Wayne County Conviction Integrity Unit that alleges to the police misconduct in his case. This event will highlight Hinds’ case and the thousands of other incarcerated black men like him who have fallen prey to police misconduct in Michigan and throughout the U.S.
The virtual Townhall meeting will be streamed via Facebook Live from the business page of A Life for a Life Urban Initiative at www.facebook.com/growingboys2men
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