Contact Us Via New Google Voice Number

You can now contact us using our new Google Voice number.

If you would like to call and leave a comment, make a suggestion, request additional information about Efrén's case, or learn how you can assist our campaign to free him, you can leave us a voice mail message by calling our Google Voice number at 269-849-9056.

If you would like to speak to a member of Efrén's family, or a member of The Injustice Must End (TIME) Committee to Free Efrén Paredes, Jr., please state what you would like to discuss and leave your name, phone number, and the best time to return your call.  This will help us determine the best person to respond to your request.

Petition to Gov. Granholm Supporting Release of Efrén Paredes, Jr. on Change.Org Web Site

Please sign the new petition to Gov. Granholm supporting Efrén's release that has been created on the Change.org web site. You are welcome to edit the letter and include additional personal thoughts and feelings which is highly encouraged. It will only take you a few brief moments to complete the process.

Once you sign the letter please forward the campaign to others and ask them to do the same. You are encouraged to to share this note on your wall to help spread the word as well. The petition appears below.

According to the Change.org web site:

"Today as citizens of the world, we face a daunting array of social and environmental problems ranging from health care and education to global warming and economic inequality. For each of these issues, whether local or global in scope, there are millions of people who care passionately about working for change but lack the information and opportunities necessary to translate their interest into effective action.

Change.org aims to address this need by serving as the central platform informing and empowering movements for social change around the most important issues of our time."

We can not underscore enough the urgency of this very important call to action. Efrén's life and future are depending on our collective efforts. Thank you for your continued support, and please keep our family in your thoughts and prayers.

or, Create a Petition

Change.org

Freedom March for Wrongful Convictions

Organizers hosted the Freedom March for Wrongful Convictions ("FMWC") on the steps of the capitol in Lansing, Michigan on Saturday, June 27, 2009. It was part of a coordinated multi-state effort to raise awareness of wrongful convictions and cast a spotlight on the need for criminal justice reform.

Representatives from the Innocence Project, Amnesty International, Peace Education Center, and other organizations were in attendance. WLNS-TV 6 News, WILX-TV 10 News, and the Lansing State Journal were present to report about the gathering.

Walter Swift, a recently exonerated former prisoner who was released after serving 27 years of incarceration, spoke at the event and discussed his struggle to prove his innocence.

In November 1982, Walter was wrongly convicted of rape and sentenced to 55 years' imprisonment. Convicted at the age of 21 on the basis of evidence that has been discredited, Walter nonetheless languished behind bars for almost 27 years for a crime he did not commit.

Ten years ago his case came to the attention of the Innocence Project, a non-profit legal clinic founded in New York in 1992 by Barry C. Scheck and Peter J. Neufeld. "Evidence shows that the victim's eyewitness identification was tragically wrong", says Olga Akselrod, an Innocence Project attorney.

After a decade of investigation and campaigning by the Innocence Project, Walter was exonerated in April 2008. "Walter Swift has been fully exonerated after spending most of his adult life in prison", said Innocence Project Co-Director Barry Scheck.

After the event Efrén spoke with Walter Swift via telephone. Walter conveyed to Efrén that he will begin mentioning his campaign for freedom when he discusses wrongful convictions and the need for reform in the criminal justice system as he travels across the state.

Members of The Injustice Must End (TIME) Committee from both the Lansing and Detroit areas were also present to express support for Efrén and the event. One member of the Lansing TIME Committee spoke at the event on Efrén's behalf, and a member of the Detroit TIME Committee was interviewed by WLNX-TV 6.

The event was a success. Organizers of the event and those in attendance will work together to continue building on their efforts and plan for an even larger gathering next year. Educating the public about the facts surrounding wrongful convictions is a very important step in creating meaningful reform in a system that has ignored human rights and the rule of law for far too long.

Wrongful Convictions Facts

There have been 240 post-conviction DNA exonerations in the United States.
• The first DNA exoneration took place in 1989. Exonerations have been won in 34 states; since 2000, there have been 171 exonerations.
• 17 of the 240 people exonerated through DNA served time on death row.
• The average length of time served by exonerees is 12 years. The total number of years served is approximately 2,982.
Facts Source: http://www.innocenceproject.org/Content/351.php

Efrén Appears on Thousand Kites National Radio Broadcast

Efrén appeared on the Thousand Kites national radio broadcast June 4, 2009 to discuss his wrongful conviction and the subject of juvenile life without parole sentencing in the USA. He spoke to Thousand Kites six months to the day after his December 4, 2008 public hearing.

Efrén discussed the issue of juvenile life without parole (JLWOP) sentences, the state legislation pending in Michigan to abolish these sentences, and the upcoming U.S. House Judiciary Committee hearing in Congress to consider legislation to abolish the practice as well.

Click on the following link to visit the page where you can hear Efrén's interview: http://tinyurl.com/nffawq.

Thousand Kites is a national dialogue project addressing the criminal justice system. By being involved with Kites you will become part of a national movement to use the power of art to reform our criminal justice system and to talk about human rights in the United States. Using video, theater, radio, and the web as tools, you can bring people together to support organizing efforts and share experiences with the criminal justice system.

To learn more about Thousand Kites and how you can support its mission, please visit http://www.thousandkites.org. A special thanks to Julia Taylor for arranging the interview.

Efrén Appears on Ebling and You Radio Show

Yesterday afternoon, Monday, June 1, 2009, Jack Ebling, AM 1320 WILS Lansing radio show host, interviewed Efrén on his show, Ebling and You.

Jack and Efrén discussed the six months he has endured since his public hearing awaiting a decision about his commutation request, his wrongful conviction, and the issue of juvenile life without parole sentences.

Click the play button on the left side of the flash player below to listen to Jack's exclusive interview with Efrén.



A special thanks to our friend Jack Ebling for his continued support, and for helping us keep the injustice surrounding Efrén's wrongful incarceration in the public eye.

Biographical Information

Jack Ebling, host of "Ebling and You" and co-host of "Jack and Tom" on WILS, is a broadcaster and writer who has covered high school, college, and pro sports for nearly 30 years. He has been named Michigan Sportswriter of the Year three times and was inducted into the Greater Lansing Sports Hall of Fame in 2006.

Jack spent more than 24 years at the Lansing State Journal as a beat writer and columnist before moving to talk radio, television, and freelance writing. He has also been a contributor to Sports Illustrated, The Sporting News, Basketball Times, and Street & Smith’s College Football and College Basketball.

While Jack's background has been largely sports, on Ebling and You, Jack tackles an array of topics and talks with daily with political, business, entertainment and sports newsmakers in Lansing, in Michigan and around the nation.

University of Southern Califonia (USC) Holds Forum on Life Sentences for Youth

Tuesday, April 28, 2009 at 6:00 PM the University of Southern California (USC) will host a forum focused on the use of life sentences without the possibility of parole on people under the age of 18-years-old.

Panelists include Professor Heidi Rummel of the USC School of Law; Elizabeth Calvin of Human Rights Watch, a researcher and advocate with Human Rights Watch will discuss SB399 and California specific issues regarding juvenile justice; and Efrén Paredes, Jr. who is serving sentences of life without parole in Michigan (present by phone); and students from USC Gould School of Law's Post Conviction Justice Project who are currently working on cases in which juveniles have been sentenced to life without parole.

Panelists will discuss several questions, including: Should juveniles be sentenced to life in prison? Are our youth incorrigible? Why is the U.S. the only nation in the world to not ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child?

There is a statewide campaign to end juvenile life without parole in California, where more than 250 youth have been sentenced to die in prison. A bill has just been introduced in the California state legislature that would provide review and possible re-sentencing of all life without parole cases cases in which the offender was under the age of 18 when the crime occurred. Students at USC could play an important role in helping to get SB 399, the Fair Sentences for Youth Act, passed.

President Barack Obama who has openly expressed his dissatisfaction with the fact that the United States has not, like the country of Somalia, yet ratified the Convention On the Rights of the Child which prohibits the imposition of life without parole sentences on juveniles. The United States and Somalia are the only countries in the world who have not ratified the treaty.

In October 2008, President Obama responded to this at the Walden University Presidential Youth Debate by saying, "It is embarrassing to find ourselves in the company of Somalia, a lawless land." He continued, "I will review this and other treaties and ensure that the United States resum es its global leadership in human rights."

Location: USC Campus WPH102 Sponsored by M.E.Ch.A. de USC .

Source: http://tinyurl.com/c2c368

Local Leaders Rally to Support Efren Paredes, Jr.

Local Leaders Rally to Support Efren Paredes, Jr.

by Juliana Birnbaum Fox

The Bay Area has become an active center of support for Michigan inmate Efren Paredes, Jr., convicted in 1989 and sentenced to life at the age of 15 for a murder he still maintains he did not commit. There was no physical evidence linking Efren to the crime, nor any eyewitnesses, and his family maintains that he was home with them when the murder occurred.

Over the past decades, Paredes, now 35, has become a symbol for prison system reform in cases involving juveniles. His parole appeal is currently being considered by a state commission.

“Paredes’ sentence as a juvenile to life in prison without parole (JLWOP) violates human rights legal standards,” reads a letter from the Berkeley City Council to Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm. The letter mentions the questionable circumstances that led to Paredes’ conviction, and his leadership and positive contribution to society despite his 20 years of incarceration. “For this country to be the lone holdout on the issue of JLWOP weakens our moral and legal standing in the international community,” the letter continues, urging a ban on the practice. The city council adopted a resolution condemning Paredes’ sentence as a human rights violation in February of this year.

Despite being an honor student and having no prior convictions, the judge in Paredes’ case exercised his option to sentence him as an adult because of his apparent lack of remorse for the crime, which involved an armed robbery and murder at a store where Paredes worked. All of the other defendants in the case pleaded guilty in exchange for plea bargains, and have since been released from prison.

Local activist Elizabeth “Betita” Martínez, director of the Institute for Multi-Racial Justice, wrote in her support letter for Paredes, points out the larger systemic issue of injustice imposed upon the Latino community in the court system.

“Mr. Paredes’ trial attorney had advised him to show no emotion during his trial, which had a very negative effect on the sentencing phase,” Martinez writes. “Until recently the attorney always denied giving this advice. However, he has now admitted it, a fact that is included in Mr. Paredes’ current appeal.”

Michigan has sentenced more juveniles to life in prison without parole than any other state except Pennsylvania, according to a 2007 UCSF study, "Sentencing Our Children to Die in Prison." Currently local Paredes supporters are also calling attention to the fact that California has ­277 such individuals are serving these sentences in the state. The United States is the only nation that imprisons juveniles for life.

“For many children, [life without parole] is an effective death sentence carried out by the state slowly over a long period of time,” said Michelle Leighton, chief author of the study. Life terms also fall disproportionately on youths of color, with blacks 20 times more likely to receive such a sentence in California.

The UCSF report asserts that trying children and teenagers in adult courts does not take into account several important factors: the bigger potential for rehabilitation and reintegration into society; their ineptness at navigating the criminal justice system, and their lessened culpability as compared with adult offenders.

“It’s a local issue to us,” said Wendy Kenin of the Berkeley Peace and Justice Commission. “This gives us an opportunity to weigh in­to take a stand on the issue of juvenile sentences of life without parole.”

The board will be making a recommendation to the Governor’s Office about Paredes’s release in the coming weeks. The Governor will render the final decision. Generally these decisions are made within a few months, but there is no official timetable.

Source: http://www.elreporterosf.com/editions/?q=node/3217

This article appeared on the front page of El Reportero, Vol. 19, No. 6. The original article included Israel as a nation that imprisons juveniles to life in prison. That statement has been removed from this re-post becuase it is inaccurate. The US is the only country in the world imposing the sentence. Click here to view the PDF version of this file as it originally appeared in print.