ReleaseWire Connect

According to the November 16, 2016 edition of Bloomberg's BNA Criminal Law Reporter, the Georgia Supreme Court reversed a murder conviction because there was no way for the appellate judges to satisfactorily evaluate the appeal without key portions of the transcript related to closing arguments and jury charges. "Where the missing transcript prevents adequate review of the trial...a new trial is warranted said the Georgia Supreme Court (Sheard v. State, 2016 BL 370419, Ga. no. S16A1291, 11/7/2016).

In a letter to members of Congress (bit.ly/2f637lE), A Just Cause asks them to take an active role in advocating for the freeing of six wrongly-convicted Colorado software executives of the IRP Solutions Corporation who are known on the Internet as the IRP6. The men were wrongly-convicted and have spent over 4 years at a federal prison camp in Florence, Colorado. "This was more than destruction of a small, promising software company...This is a human issue that deserves compassion for the plight of children who have unfairly lost their fathers, mothers who have unfairly lost their sons, wives who have unfairly lost their husbands and siblings who have unfairly lost their brothers," Lamont Banks, Executive Director of A Just Cause, said in the letter.

According to an April 1, 2016 nextgov.com article, President Obama's Chief Information Officer Tony Scott has called the government's reliance on outdated technology a "crisis" that rivals Y2k/Year-2000 computer glitch. The congressional 9/11 commission found that the FBI's antiquated case management system and processes contributed to information sharing failures that led to the 9/11 attacks (govinfo.library.unt.edu/911/report/index.htm). It is no secret, especially in DC that both the Department of Homeland Security and FBI have yet to modernize their case management systems that are used by tens of thousands of federal agents to conduct criminal and terrorism investigations. Since 9/11 two large defense contractors, SAIC & Lockheed Martin, have wasted over a billion dollars of taxpayer money on failed case management projects. SAIC's $458 million Virtual Case File (VCF) was declared "unfit for use" in 2004 and according to FBI Chief Technology Officer Jack Israel's interview with Fierce Government IT in 2012, Lockheed Martin's $800 million-dollar Sentinel project's "demise" occurred when trying to "build an independent electronic case management system."

Advocacy group, A Just Cause, announces this Thursday, September 22, 2016 AJC Radio's "Spotlight on Capitol Hill" will shine the spotlight on the First Lady of the United States, Mrs. Michelle Obama (www.AJCRadio.com, 8-10 PM ET).

Advocacy group, A Just Cause, announces Thursday, August 25, 2016 segment of AJC Radio's, "Spotlight on Capitol Hill" will shine the spotlight on Senator Harry Reid (D - NV) (www.AJCRadio.com, 8-10 PM ET).

A Just Cause continues to fight for families and friends to be treated with respect and decency as they visit their loved ones in federal prisons. AJC has contacted numerous members of Congress and Federal Bureau of Prisons Director Thomas Kane to intervene in continuing harassment and disrespect by prison staff to inmates and their families in the visiting room at the minimum security federal prison camp in Florence, Colorado. "Florence prison officials told me that the inmates greeting loved ones from the Colorado Springs Fellowship Church group is considered 'special treatment' and will not be tolerated because it is a threat to security and presents an opportunity to pass contraband," says Lamont Banks, Executive Director of A Just Cause. "The church group has been visiting for four years without incident under two Wardens, but when Warden Stancil took over in March 2015 the church group were viewed as potential criminals and have been treated poorly by staff ever since," adds Banks.

In an August 15, 2015 letter to Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, advocacy organization A Just Cause, citing bias, asks that an appeal for a 10th Circuit judicial complaint by the IRP6 defendants be transferred to another circuit (bit.ly/2b06RpM). A Just Cause says in the letter that 10th Circuit Chief Judge Timothy Tymkovich's claims that the complaint does not provide "sufficient evidence to raise an inference that misconduct has occurred" defies reality. There is "irrefutable evidence" that the trial judge and 3-judge appellate panel appear to arbitrarily and intentionally depart from prevailing law, use prosecutorial conjecture in the place of actual facts from the printed record and were "willfully indifferent" to constitutional violations that occurred at trial. AJC further states in the letter that there is a "high probability" that 10th Circuit judges may "harbor a deep-rooted bias" against the IRP6 defendants and their organization due to harsh public criticism about the judges' handling of the case.

Advocacy group, A Just Cause, announces this Thursday's, August 11, 2016 segment of AJC Radio's, "Spotlight on Capitol Hill" will shine the spotlight on Congressman Jason Chaffetz (R - UT) (www.AJCRadio.com, 8-10 PM ET).

On July 21, 2016, A Just Cause issued a press release concerning the Warden allegedly engaging in a campaign of bullying families and a church group that visits the men known as the IRP6. On July 22, 2016, the men were called into the office of Camp Administrator Segovia where Acting Warden Garrido, Associate Warden Johns and the captain were present. Reliable sources claim that, "They were told their visiting privileges were suspended until further notice. Later that evening, the men were called to the Counselor's office and given official written a notice from Warden Stancil stating: "effective immediately, and pursuant to the authority in Bureau of Prisons Program Statement 5267.09, your social visiting privileges have been temporarily suspended pending the outcome of an investigation into possible threats to the good order or security of the institution," says A Just Cause.

Sources tell A Just Cause that on Friday July 15, 2016 that Acting Warden Garrido accompanied by Associate Warden Johns, a captain, lieutenant, Camp Administrator Segovia and two correctional officers allegedly flooded the small visiting room at the Federal Prison Camp in Florence, CO and intimidated visiting families into not speaking to anyone except the inmate they were visiting. "The prison camp visiting room is usually overseen by a single officer," say Lamont Banks, Executive Director of A Just Cause. "The presence of virtually the entire senior management team seemed to be an attempt to strike fear into the hearts of families and use an iron-hand approach to enforce a misguided, frivolous rule called cross-visiting that was created by Warden Stancil and sanctioned by BOP Director Thomas Kane," adds Banks.