Detroit, MI-Wayne County Michigan Prosecutor, Kym Worthy announced that Susan Lefevrere now known as Marie Walsh will be prosecuted for her escape more than three decades ago.Walsh now faces an additional five years in prison. As a first time offending teenager and college student Walsh was arrested in Saginaw for selling a small amount of drugs. Walsh pled guilty and got an unexpected maximum sentence of 10 to 20 years behind bars.
Walsh was placed in a Detroit area prison where the population was 90 % African-American and soon was the target of threats. Walsh fled with the assistance of her grandfather. Walsh married and raised a family of three children in Suburban San Diego. Walsh changed her ways and friends and never looked back, that is until a knock at her door by Deputy US Marshals.
Walsh was returned to that Michigan prison as her family, neighbors, friends and total strangers rallied around her begging officials for clemency. Walsh may have had the brush with the law but became a law-abiding and loved member of her community.
Walsh’s lawyer filed a motion in the original Saginaw court seeking a modification of the sentence and there was real hope that mercy, and fairness would see the original sentence vacated since it was so overly harsh when it was handed down on Walsh.
Filing an escape charge now against Walsh is both pointless and beyond cruel. Is there no decency in Michigan? What’s prosecutor Kym Worthy’s ugly agenda here?
Comments
You ask, “What’s prosecutor Kym Worthy’s ugly agenda here?” Of course we both know the answer. Any rational person knows the answer. She is black. Marie Walsh is white. Nothing more need be stated.
With all the manifest corruptions and crimes happening daily in Detroit, the prosecutor spends taxpayer time and taxpayer money on this travesty. Yes, that will certainly improve things in the city. Those souls who are unfortunate enough to still live in Detroit must surely feel safer now.
This is great,another reason to vote for Obama. When will people WAKE UP???
RON PAUL '08
Susan LeFevre was wrong to have used drugs.
Michigan police were wrong to have doggedly enticed Lefevre and a companion to sell drugs.
LeFevre was wrong to have participated in a sale in any capacity.
Michigan police were wrong to have risk the life of a young woman to make farther drug stings (LaFrvre cooperate with police by making drug buys for them), only to renege on the deal later on.
Michigan prosecutors were wrong to have lead her to believe leniency was possible if she cooperated and plead guilty, thus shutting off chances for appeal
The judge was wrong to not have looked for the sentencing report or provided the opportunity to refute the accusations of her involvement and thus violated her constitutional rights to a fair and impartial trial and sentencing.
Her own state assigned public defender was wrong not to have “pulled the chain” and stopped the conveyor belt to imprisonment and have said that his client was being taken advantage of and that critical evident was being suppressed by the state. Her rights were wantonly violated here, because she was not adequately represented.
The state of Michigan was wrong to have accepted a prison sentence so far from the norm, without some form of review.
Michigan was wrong to have imposed a ten to twenty year sentence and then not communicate to that individual that they could be out in another year with continued good behavior.
LeFevre was wrong to have escaped but felt she had no other choice. She was wrong as Marie Walsh never to have addressed the situation.
Michigan was wrong to have suddenly decided to pursue LeFevre after 33 years and is wrong to want to make an example of her now. It serves at best to display the cruelty of the corrections system and makes the Michigan judicial system look foolish and self serving. People in other parts of the country are now making jokes about the Michigan systems of justice.
It is time for something to be done that is right. Here’s how to do exactly that:
1) Immediately invalidate LeFevre’s prior sentence. Allow the conviction to stand and sentence her to time served. Michigan has already gotten way more than its pound of flesh in this instance.
2) Nolle Prosequi (the people choose not to prosecute) the escape charge. It would be in both the state’s and LeFevre’s best interest not to pursue this issue. If necessary, for the face saving, convert the remainder of her previous time served to the escape, but draw this to a quick conclusion.
It is time to do the right thing in this case. The right thing is to send Marie Walsh back home.
The punishment is supposed to fit the crime and back then the sentence she recieved was to harsh.