Help this Marine by Voting for Mary Burke

Update: The Plight of Eric Pizer and Scott Walker's Contempt for Veterans. (Simpson, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)

"Eric Pizer, a former Marine who served in Iraq, is blocked from a law enforcement career because of his felony battery conviction," (Barry, NYT) by hick prosecutors in Grant County in southwestern Wisconsin.

Eric Pizer is a decorated combat Marine (2000-2004) from southwestern Wisconsin, He chose the Marines out of idealism and a commitment to serve.

Now, Pizer lives in Madison. After completing an Associate’s Degree in Criminal Justice he wants to serve with the Madison Police Department, back home from two tours in Iraq, safe with his wife and two kids.

Pizer's dedication to his unit in combat—a commitment honed to degree most of us will never attain—makes Pizer an ideal candidate to join the City of Madison Police.

Two obstacles stand in Pizer's way: Grant County (Wisconsin) District Attorney Lisa Riniker and Assistant DA Anthony Pozorski (rogue jurists and hopeless dolts) and Gov. Scott Walker.

Tony Galli WKOW TV (Madison) interviewed Scott Walker about Pizer and Walker's response is typical Walker.

Walker said since there are 1,000s of good cases for pardons and commutations in Wisconsin, it follows that not a single pardon and commutation should be granted.

Walker's quote (from WKOW's Galli) is: "If you pick one [to be pardoned] there's thousands of other examples out there of people who may not have the media or other outlets behind them, who would be in an equal position who probably have a compelling case to be made that we don't yet know about."

Here are Pizer's words:

I guess we should expect contempt for veterans from Scott Walker; this is the same fool who uses veterans as props and then appoints people to non-profits for veterans, people who embezzle from veterans. Two longtime Walker aides and appointees—Tim Russell and Kevin Kavanaugh—were appointed to non-profit veteran organizations meant for families of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, from which Russell and Kavanaugh looted $10,000s with no Walker apology and no Walker accountability. This is the same Scott Walker who wants to desecrate the sacred and final resting place for many of our deceased veterans, an underreported story by this twerp Wisconsin calls governor.

Wisconsin Constitution [Article 5, (Section 6)] Pardoning power - "The governor shall have power to grant reprieves, commutations and pardons, after conviction, for all offenses, except treason and cases of impeachment, upon such conditions and with such restrictions and limitations as he may think proper ... He shall annually communicate to the legislature each case of reprieve, commutation or pardon granted, stating the name of the convict, the crime of which he was convicted, the sentence and its date, and the date of the commutation, pardon or reprieve, with his reasons for granting the same."

Scott Walker's Contempt for Veterans Gets NYT Coverage

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker explains
why he has granted no pardons to incarcerated
citizens with compelling cases.
"If you pick one there's thousands of other
examples out there of people who may not
have the media or other outlets behind them,
who would be in an equal position who
probably have a compelling case to be
made that we don't know about,"
said Walker in an interview with WKOW TV
(Madison, Wisconsin)

Updated--Two Madison, Wisconsin attorneys—David D. Relles and John R. Zweig—heard the story of an idealistic Wisconsin Marine just home (two days) from Kuwait and Iraq in 2004, and who late one night out at the bars reacted to a shouted death threat to his friend, saw movement to his right and threw a punch in Boscobel, Wisconsin.

Now, attorneys Relles and Zweig advocate for Marine Eric Pizer (2000-2004) [whose attorney in 2004 should have fought for a plea deal (a disorderly conduct civil citation)] from the office of current Grant County (Wisconsin) District Attorney Lisa Riniker and Asst DA Anthony Pozorski, overzealous, small-town jurists who damage the legal profession.

Instead, Pozorski insisted on a violent felony charge.

Pizer is seeking a pardon from Scott Walker.

Today, Dan Barry of the New York Times picked up the Eric Pizer story, noting Scott Walker's vow to never use the power to pardon under the Wisconsin Constitution (Article V, section 6 of the Wisconsin Constitution), a vow Scott Walker made in a sick twist of irony after Walker's aides and appointees were charged and later convicted of embezzling from veterans.

Pizer wants to become a police officer, and cannot because of this one incident, and Walker's public refusal to pardon Pizer stands in the way of a Marine who wants to continue to serve.

There are a lot of reasons to not vote for Scott Walker.

Walker's contempt for veterans is among them.

As for Grant County (Wisconsin) District Attorney Lisa Riniker and Asst DA Anthony Pozorski, this is the same office that charged a six-year-old boy with a felony for playing doctor with a five-year-old girl in 2011.

Not the brightest jurists in Wisconsin.

Walker said one of the reasons he will not consider a pardon for Pizer is because he does not want to undermine the legal system.

Writes the NYT's Barry:

Mr. Pizer was two days back from Iraq. A straight-up Marine, he had committed to the corps even before his high school graduation in 2000, and was at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina a year later when an officer interrupted a class on sexually transmitted diseases to share the latest from Lower Manhattan.

We got bombed, boys, the officer announced. We’re going to war.

Pizer didn't know it, and won't say it now, but his most obstinate enemy was to become the current Wisconsin governor, Scott Walker, after Pizer came home from serving his country he still loves.

Walker should listen to his betters, Eric Pizer for starters.

Harry Belafonte: We Must Stop Throwing People Away

In Wisconsin, Scott Walker drew derision when he declared he couldn't pardon a Marine.

Eric Pizer was convicted on a trumped-up charge and wants become a police officer to continue serving his country. Scott Walker won't pardon Pizer because in Walker's words, "if you pick one [to be pardoned] there's thousands of other examples out there of people who may not have the media or other outlets behind them, who would be in an equal position who probably have a compelling case to be made that we don't yet know about."

There are 1,000s in Wisconsin prisons, innocent and with compelling cases to be freed, even if Walker doesn't "pick one." Walker is a moron, lightweight human garbage.

Mr. Belafonte is not.

Here's Belafonte sounding the alarm, Scott Walker should listen to his betters.

By Harry Belafonte

There is a crisis that demands our urgent attention. For the last four decades, this country has been obsessed with expanding the number of people we throw behind bars and the length of time we hold them there. Crime rates have been falling for the last 20 years, but still we have a massive and unsustainable prison population, particularly targeting the poor and powerless. We're not strengthening communities, we're using our criminal justice system to throw away certain people's lives – disproportionately the lives of Black and brown men, women, and children. This has decimated communities around the nation and it's gone on for far too long.

But we're not stuck with a criminal justice system that is hurting us. Solutions exist, and the ACLU's Smart Justice Fair Justice Campaign is already working to put them into practice. Bad laws and policies are created by the politicians who are supposed to represent us. Police departments choose how to enforce these bad laws.  Bad policies are made, and bad policies can be changed.

Here's what we can do. Over a million people are sitting in a cell for a non-violent offense. These people pose no threat to public safety, but many will be locked away for years because of extreme sentencing laws and selective prosecution. We can get rid of mandatory minimums and extreme sentencing laws.

We can end the War on Drugs, which has really been a war on communities of color. This is one of the main ways we can cut down the unbridled racial bias in our criminal justice system.

We can remake our policies so that they're smart. Studies have shown that prison does not deter crime. In a lot of cases, it creates many more problems than it solves. Locking up huge swathes of our population makes communities less safe by because huge numbers of people are torn away from their families and from the ability to hold down a job, because we're warehousing people in overcrowded jails and prisons, and because having a record can cut away at someone's ability to vote or seek employment after they get out. We must do better.

We spend $80 billion dollars a year incarcerating people, which is 400% more than we spent twenty years ago. Some of the money could be better spent on raising healthy kids, not feeding a morally corrupt network that connects our children in their classrooms to the prison industrial complex.

Get Involved
Stop Extreme Sentencing from Destroying Families

Act Now
 

We do not have the luxury of waiting decades to undo the failed policies that have caused so much damage. It's time for Smart Justice. It's time for Fair Justice.  And we need your help.

Please visit www.aclu.org/smartandfair to learn more about solutions to mass incarceration and how you can get involved.

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Scott Walker Dishonors Marine; Betrays 1,000s of Imprisoned Innocents in Dereliction of Duty

Update II: Scott Walker's Contempt for Veterans Gets NYT Coverage

Update: Help to Pardon Eric Pizer.

Actively seeking out the Wrongfully Convicted should be the norm.

The governor's refusal to grant reprieves, commutations and pardons is disgraceful.

Scott Walker is tough. He won't be intimidated, ask him. Even Walker has admitted 1,000s of Wisconsin citizens with compelling cases of innocence remain behind bars, and Walker does nothing.

Unfortunately for one Eric Pizer, Scott Walker does not know the difference between obtuse and tough.

"Marine Corps combat veteran Eric Pizer of Madison has commendations and medals, but feels his professional future hinges on something that's out of his grasp, so far: a pardon from Governor Walker," notes WKOW.

Scott Walker said he will not issue pardons or commutations.

Maybe that's because Walker secretly doesn't like veterans.

Two longtime Walker aides and appointees—Tim Russell and Kevin  Kavanaugh—were appointed to non-profit veteran organizations meant for families of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, from which Russell and Kavanaugh looted $10,000s, took two tropical vacations and a trip to help organize the presidential campaign of Republican Herman Cain, veterans and their families be damned. (Hall. Wisconsin State Journal; January 22, 2013)

All the while the John Doe Probe I was conducted Walker denied wrongdoing, his surrogates attacked the probe, and Walker refused to issue a public call for cooperation. So Walker is showing his toughness by not granting pardons? And this guy wants to be president?

Eric Pizer needs a pardon from Walker for an after-bar fight that occurred in 2004 on military leave, in order to join the Madison Police Force nine years later.

Pizer, an actual, honorable Marine veteran, got into a fight and the responding cop decided not to just break it up and tell everyone to take a taxi home, but rather hand out battery arrests like they were X-mas presents.

Tony Galli WKOW TV (Madison) interviewed Walker and Walker's response is unbelievable.

Walker said since there are 1,000s of cases for pardons and commutations, it follows that not a single pardon and commutation should be granted.

Galli has a scoop here on Walker's foolish and unjust intransigence. Innocent people sitting in prison are losing their lives, and their families and friends suffer.

Walker's quote (from Galli) is: "If you pick one [to be pardoned] there's thousands of other examples out there of people who may not have the media or other outlets behind them, who would be in an equal position who probably have a compelling case to be made that we don't yet know about."

If people have compelling cases, and the Wisconsin Innocence Project, Innocence Consultants and other Innocence groups confirm this, then pardons and commutations should be granted.

But this should also be the business of government, in the interest of justice.

I can confirm compelling cases of innocents in Wisconsin prisons and jails that Walker doesn't yet know about:

• Innocent ex-Green Bay cop, John Maloney,
• Penny Brummer 
• Keith Roberts (veteran)
• Eric Pizer (veteran)
• Don Miller - " I want to single out the Innocence Project for what they did; they never gave up."
• Here's some reading for Scott Walker to bone up on the topic.

Funny, but I thought government is supposed to act in the interest of justice.

Scott Walker has shown his true colors, and he is not fit to breathe the same air as Marine, Pizer from whom Scott Walker should learn something about justice.

Wrongfully Convicted Get Backing in Wisconsin Legislature

Rep. Garey Bies, (R-Sister Bay, Wisconsin), at right at a
bill-signing ceremony, shakes hands with Scott Walker. Bies is
coauthoring a bill to help the wrongfully convicted in Wisconsin

"There is no more cruel tyranny than that which is exercised under cover of the law, and with the colors of justice." [UNITED STATES v. JANNOTTI (nos. 81-1020), UNITED STATES v. SCHWARTZ (nos. 81-1021)]

I came across the above quote at the Innocence Consultants site, an enterprise dedicated "to advise and assist the wrongfully convicted and those who have been victims" of the 'criminal justice system.'

Not a popular pastime in American culture.

Attempting to compensate innocents prosecuted and convicted in Wisconsin is one issue (I cannot think of two issues) gathering bipartisan support.

Most Americans maintain an unthinking animus toward lawyers, politicians, and various party hacks.

Yet, when these same lawyers and hacks assume the power of the prosecutor and don the robes of the judge, critical thinking and healthy animus dissipate—displaying again the human inability in far too many to question 'authority' and challenge the players in the judicial system, just as corrupt and eminently more damaging than the other two branches of American representative government.

People appear to naturally adopt "passive compliance" as liberty and human decency are lost, to borrow from Norman Cohn and Noam Chomsky.

Dee Hall notes this morning in the Wisconsin State Journal a bipartisan memo (precursor to a legislative bill) gathering support to enhance the compensation and procedural capacity of the wrongfully convicted. [Now, if we can just get innocents not arrested and prosecuted in the first place, but that's a different story.]

"Rep. Garey Bies, R-Sister Bay, chairman of the Assembly Committee on Corrections, and Rep. Gary Hebl, D-Sun Prairie, last week began seeking co-sponsors for a bill to greatly boost compensation to the wrongfully convicted. Similar bills have failed to advance in the previous two legislative sessions," writes Hall.

The Wrongly Convicted Re-entry Act is picking up numerous co-sponsors across partisan lines.

In the state senate the co-sponsors are Senators Lena Taylor (D-Milwaukee), Glenn Grothman (R-West Bend), and Dave Hansen (D-Green Bay).

Bies' office said this morning that the legislative memo notes the deadline for sponsorship is October 9.

The memo reads in part:

Co-sponsorship of LRB-2091/2 – Wrongly Convicted Re-entry Act (relating to: resolution of claims against the state for wrongful imprisonment of innocent persons, exempting from taxation certain amounts an individual receives from the claims board or legislature, and making an appropriation).

Most wrongfully convicted individuals serve decades-long prison sentences and face great hardships upon release. Apart from the horrors of prison life, the wrongfully convicted have few resources to draw upon when set free, and their families have often incurred enormous attorneys’ fees related to their cases.  While in prison, they miss out on educational opportunities, job training, and career advancement opportunities.   

Bies' office sent the following biography of the case of Robert Lee Stinson: "An innocent man awarded just $25,000 for 23 years in prison Incarcerated for a Crime He Did Not Commit":

In 1985 Robert Lee Stinson was convicted of the murder of his 62-year-old neighbor. The victim, Ione Cychosz was found dead on Nov. 3^rd, 1984. She had been beaten, stabbed and bitten. The police employed a forensic dentist who drew a sketch of the bite marks found on the body. He determined, based on the bite marks, that the suspect was missing an upper front tooth. The police interviewed several suspects missing teeth consistent with the sketch, and quickly focused their investigation on 21-year old Robert Lee Stinson, whose backyard connected to the lot where the victim’s body was found. While interviewing Mr. Stinson, they noticed that he was missing a tooth, although not the same tooth that the dentist had thought the perpetrator was missing.

After a 3-day jury trial Mr. Stinson was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life without parole. The trial centered largely on the testimony of two bite-mark experts who claimed that Mr. Stinson’s teeth matched bite marks left on the body of the victim. In 2009, after serving 23 years in prison Mr. Stinson was exonerated using both DNA found on the victim’s sweater, and the testimony of forensic experts who re-evaluated the bite-mark evidence and found that Mr. Stinson’s bite did not match the marks on the victim. Eventually the DNA found on the victim not only excluded Mr. Stinson, but also implicated another man, who later confessed to the crime. After he was released Mr. Stinson said that it was “a long ride for me. I’m finally out, and I’m going to enjoy my life.”

The Quest for Compensation

Robert Lee Stinson’s story exemplifies how woefully insufficient Wisconsin’s current wrongful conviction compensation scheme is. After serving 23 years in prison for a crime he did not commit, Mr. Stinson applied to the Claims Board for compensation under the current statute, Wis. Stat. §775.05. The current statute only allows an exonerated person to receive $5,000 per year of incarceration up to $25,000. Even though Mr. Stinson was incarcerated for 23 years, he was only able to claim $25,000—just over $1,000 for each year he was imprisoned for a crime he did not commit. Mr. Stinson was able to meet the high burden of proof required by the current statute, something that many innocent exonerees are not able to do (especially if, for example, they were coerced into confessing), and the Claims Board awarded him the maximum amount available under current law. Noting the inadequacy of the amount, the Claims Board recommended that the Legislature make a separate appropriation for Mr. Stinson in excess of the statutory cap for wrongful imprisonment.

A Better Way

Under the proposed bill individuals like Mr. Stinson would be entitled to up to $50,000 for each year of wrongful imprisonment. They would also have immediate access to social services, health care and transitional assistance as soon as they leave prison, to help ensure a smooth transition back into the community.

Help for Exonerated Individuals in Wisconsin Needed

A District Attorney destroys exculpatory evidence; a presiding judge
has an affair with the alleged victim, and an innocent Don Miller
draws a 42-sentence in a clear abuse of office. The Wisconsin
Innocence Project is on the case as the Miller family endures.

"There is no more cruel tyranny than that which is exercised under cover of the law, and with the colors of justice." [UNITED STATES v. JANNOTTI (No. 81-1020), UNITED STATES v. SCHWARTZ  (No. 81-1021)]

A long over-due discussion is needed on innocence and what we as a society can do about the criminal justice system herding innocent people into prisons in a manner right out of the dark ages.

This phenomenon is not caused solely by corrupt prosecutors, though they play a prominent role.

Very few institutions exist to address this atrocity of an innocent person, unjustly arrested, falsely accused and unjustly convicted.

Ask Penny Brummer; hey, she's a lesbian so in a more bigoted time she was an instant suspect, and ultimately convicted because of her sexuality in Madison, Wisconsin.

Sheila and Doug Berry document Ms. Brummer's case in their Who Killed Sarah?

In the book, readers are treated to "a twilight zone where evidence is ignored or manipulated, innocence is disbelieved and justice is denied to both Penny Brummer and Sarah Gonstead (who was murdered with a gun)."

Writes David Protess in The Huffington Post, "In light of the progress that's been made by the LGBT movement, it's hard to imagine that not too long ago an innocent woman could be convicted of murder because she was a lesbian. And, it's harder still to believe that it could happen in a progressive city like Madison, Wis."

This twilight zone is the reality when innocents are systemically fed into the Police-Prison meat grinder; liberty and dignity prevented, human spirit assaulted and any type of human kindness systemically prevented, and life destroyed.

There are journalists, Dee Hall of the Wisconsin State Journal and Bill Lueders of the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism are examples; institutions such the Milwaukee-based Innocence Consultants and the University of Wisconsin Law School's Innocence Project, all of whom do tremendous work.

Facing the power of the prosecutor's office, the mindlessness of politicians, the unthinking actions of law enforcement and the apathy of the public, an innocent man or woman convicted of a crime is up against what author Glenn C. Loury terms an "American ... leviathan unmatched in human history."

A leviathan today is defined as a totalitarian state with a vast bureaucracy. 

And a leviathan is an uneven match in our nation of by-standers, as politicians posture as tough-on-crime, and the prison-for-profit industry soars and one company is actually publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange, as it too lobbies for harsher sentencing laws.

Keith Findley, faculty director of the Wisconsin Innocence Project, discusses in this linked video an effort to help exonerated innocents in Wisconsin.

It would of course be better that innocents never be convicted. 

The putative nature of American culture and the careerism of American jurists and law enforcement in the system make the incarceration of innocents almost a fait accompli.

The English jurist William Blackstone in his 18th century Commentaries on the Laws of England famously declares, "It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer."

One can only reference Blackstone today with dark irony

Too many American jurists delude themselves into thinking Blackstone's tenet guides the criminal justice system. 

Denying liberty is the go-to move today, it's convenient for police, prosecutors and judges.

Most of us—untouched by the cruel tyranny of the criminal justice system—view a common effort with the unjustly incarcerated (done in our names) as relevant to our lives as the passing appearance of the moon.

One person who can be helped now is Penny Brummer. She gets a DNA test, she'll get cleared.

Writes Protess:

Penny Brummer - Arrested and convicted of murder
because of absurd, atavistic bigotry towards lesbians.
No evidence, no eyewitness, just ignorance and hate

The best hope at this point, Sheila (Berry) says, is DNA from the bullet that pierced Sarah's brain. Funds are needed to conduct Y-STR testing, which produced results in another infamous Wisconsin murder case involving Laurencia "Bambi" Bembenek. The testing costs $10-15,000, and the Berrys are offering copies of Who Killed Sarah? to anyone who makes a donation.

Will the justice system ever admit its mistake? Penny herself thinks so. "Something's got to happen," she told investigative reporter Bill Lueders, who first exposed the injustice. "God's not going to let me sit here for something I didn't do. I feel he's guiding somebody out there to help me."

But without the DNA testing or other new evidence, Penny's chances are slim. Now 43, she will not be eligible for parole until she turns 70. Unless something does happen, Penny will die in a Wisconsin prison, damned for a relationship once forbidden in an era of intolerance.

An online contribution, or a check can be sent to:

Penny Brummer Defense Fund
The People's Community Bank
P. O. Box 369
Spring Green, WI  53588