Detroit police handling of sex assault kits troubles Worthy
Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy wants an independent investigation into what she says may be thousands of kits holding evidence of possible sexual assaults that were found in a Detroit Police Department evidence storage facility.
In a Sept. 8 letter to Police Chief Warren Evans, Worthy said there may be more than 10,000 so-called rape kits and hundreds of other pieces of evidence warehoused, unanalyzed, in a police "overflow property room." The situation raises fears that cases could be affected if the evidence is challenged in court, Worthy said.
Police spokesman John Roach said today that Evans has an internal investigation under way, and that so far, police have found no mishandling of evidence and no cases that have been tainted. Roach also said the evidence is secure.
But Worthy contends in her letter that though the issue predates Evans' administration, the investigation should be handled by an outside agency. Worthy's letter also asks for an immediate meeting, but none has been set.
The police crime lab was shut down a year ago because of an extraordinarily high error rate in firearms cases.
William Winters III, president of the Wayne County Criminal Defense Bar Association, said it may be time for federal authorities to look into the lab and the handling of evidence. "They have the money and resources," he said.
Worthy wants an outsider to conduct police evidence probe
The discredited Detroit Police Department crime lab continues to haunt the criminal justice system a year after it was closed because of errors and mishandled evidence.
Officials have to act decisively to assess thousands of sexual-assault evidence kits found in an evidence facility, and it's going to take an outsider to do it, Worthy told Evans in an urgent letter sent this month.
The problems that closed the police lab "have already raised too many issues within the courts with how evidence has been processed and tested," Worthy wrote in the Sept. 8 letter.
She called the evidence handling "alarming." Worthy's spokesman, Jack Fennessey, said Friday that she was stunned by the reports. He did not return calls today.
But Detroit police spokesman John Roach said that, so far, the department's preliminary investigation shows the kits include ones "already processed for criminal investigations, as well as a large number of kits that never required processing because the cases were resolved without the need for DNA evidence."
Those unprocessed kits include cases in which a person didn't want to pursue the charges or the prosecutor declined to issue a warrant, he said. Other cases ended with a plea or involved assaults that would not have left DNA, Roach said.
Boxes of evidence found
Worthy's letter, however, offered a grimmer view, of an evidence room that to her "understanding," was filled with sexual-assault evidence kits, known as rape kits, and other evidence that had not yet been analyzed. The problems have been worsened by the destruction of other, unspecified evidence that needed to be retested because of "the sub par work conducted by the lab," Worthy added in her letter.
Boxes of rape kits were found in an evidence room several weeks ago during a routine inspection of police facilities by Michigan State Police.
The evidence warehouse also had hundreds of other pieces of evidence and case files, some of which, Worthy wrote, is "unmarked and not catalogued in any intelligible way."
If any of the kits are used in court, they are open to challenge "on a number of levels, and my office needs to know the clear gravity of this situation," Worthy wrote.
Roach said the internal probe was under way before Worthy's letter. "Once the internal affairs report is finalized, the chief will determine whether an outside review is necessary, and he will share our findings with the prosecutor," Roach said today.
He said judgment should be withheld until the investigation is concluded, and the department "takes sexual assaults very seriously and is committed to making sure all evidence is handled appropriately."
The lab was closed last year after an audit found an error rate of 10% in firearms cases. The entire lab was shut down out of fear the slipshod practices extended to other testing.
Detroit reported 1,264 rapes from 2006 through 2008, according to the latest FBI statistics released last week.
Bigger than just Michigan
Worthy acknowledged that any problems with the rape kits existed before Evans was tapped as police chief, but she said in her letter that an outside agency should lead any investigation. Without independent eyes, the situation "is a huge problem for us, the bench and other parties in the criminal justice system," she wrote.
State Police spokeswoman Shannon Akans said today that it's up to the Detroit Police Department to request an audit. No request has been made.
"We don't know how many of the kits were analyzed or not analyzed," Akans said.
Worthy also raised questions in her letter about the department's practices in entering information in rape and other criminal cases into a national DNA databank.
William Winters III, president of the Wayne County Criminal Defense Bar Association, said Worthy's concerns are justified, given the lab's history and the implications for the national databank. "This can affect the whole country," Winters said.
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Students with science or math majors planning to study abroad in Spring or Summer 2010, take notice - There is a new government scholarship available for you, but the priority application deadline is *October 6th, 2009*!
The scholarship may be used for ANY credit-bearing Spring/Summer 2010 program abroad, but you must be majoring in a STEM field, which stands for Science, Technology, Engineering or Math.
Other requirements:
*US Citizen
*Undergraduate student attending a U.S. institution of higher education
*Receiving a Federal Pell Grant at the time of application, or able to provide proof that you will be receiving a Pell Grant during the term of study abroad
*Currently applying or accepted to a study abroad program for which you will receive academic credit at EMU
*Studying abroad for at least four weeks and no more than one academic year in one country
*Studying abroad in a country not currently under a US Department of State Travel Warning or in Cuba
The online application is available at
During the 2009-2010 academic year Gilman will award over 1,700 scholarships. The Gilman website notes that applications for the Spring/Summer 2010 awards will be available during both the current semester and next semester application cycles. However, students are strongly encouraged to submit their applications during the first application cycle (by the October 6, 2009 deadline) to ensure timely notification of their award. Applicants who miss the October 6, 2009 deadline can apply during the second award cycle, but they will not be notified of their award status until the first week of May.
For more information regarding eligible study abroad applications, please visit the Academic Programs Abroad website and contact our office as soon as possible!
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Guaranteed to Work!
1. Don't put drugs in people's drinks in order to control their behavior.
2. When you see someone walking by themselves, leave them alone!
3. If you pull over to help someone with car problems, remember not to assault them!
4. NEVER open an unlocked door or window uninvited.
5. If you are in an elevator and someone else gets in, DON'T ASSAULT THEM!
6. Remember, people go to laundry to do their laundry, do not attempt to molest someone who is alone in a laundry room.
7. USE THE BUDDY SYSTEM! If you are not able to stop yourself from assaulting people, ask a friend to stay with you while you are in public.
8. Always be honest with people! Don't pretend to be a caring friend in order to gain the trust of someone you want to assault. Consider telling them you plan to assault them. If you don't communicate your intentions, the other person may take that as a sign that you do not plan to rape them.
9. Don't forget: you can't have sex with someone unless they are awake!
10. Carry a whistle! If you are worried you might assault someone "on accident" you can hand it to the person you are with, so they can blow it if you do.
And, ALWAYS REMEMBER: if you didn't ask permission and then respect the answer the first time, you are committing a crime- no matter how "into it" others appear to be.
Source: Femin Ally
HOPE Hospitality and Warming Center, Inc. was founded in 1998 as a community response to an individual freezing to death in downtown Pontiac, Michigan. The organization began with the mission to create a place where people struggling with homelessness would be welcomed, find warmth, and have access to support services. Since this time, the center has provided seasonal emergency shelter for individuals in northern Oakland County, turning no one away.
WE ARE HIRING! Click here for job descriptions, requirements, and qualifications.
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NAIROBI, Kenya — This is not about pants, Lubna Hussein insists. It is about principles. A woman should be able to wear what she wants and not be publicly whipped for it, says Mrs. Hussein, a defiant Sudanese journalist, and on Monday her belief will be put to the test. Mrs. Hussein has been charged in Khartoum, Sudan’s capital, with indecent dress, a crime that carries a $100 fine and 40 lashings. She was arrested in July, along with 12 other women, who were caught at a cafe wearing trousers.
Sudan is partially ruled by Islamic law, which emphasizes modest dress for women. Mrs. Hussein, 34, has pleaded not guilty and is daring the Sudanese authorities to punish her.
“I am Muslim; I understand Muslim law,” Mrs. Hussein said in an interview. “But I ask: what passage in the Koran says women can’t wear pants? This is not nice.”
Mrs. Hussein even printed up invitation cards for her initial court date in July and sent out e-mail messages asking people to witness her whipping, if it came to that. She said she wanted the world to see how Sudan treated women.
Hundreds of Sudanese women — many wearing pants — swarmed in front of the court where the trial was supposed to take place, protesting that the law was unfair. Twice now, the trial has been postponed. Some of the other women arrested with Mrs. Hussein have pleaded guilty and were lashed as a result. Past floggings have been carried out with plastic whips that leave permanent scars.
“The flogging, yes, it causes pain,” Mrs. Hussein said. “But more important, it is an insult. This is why I want to change the law.”
The law in contention here is Article 152 of Sudan’s penal code. Concisely stated, the law says that up to 40 lashes and a fine should be assessed anyone “who commits an indecent act which violates public morality or wears indecent clothing.”
The question is: what exactly is indecent clothing?
In Sudan, some women wear veils and loose fitting dresses; others do not. Northern Sudanese, who are mostly Muslim, are supposed to obey Islamic law, while southern Sudanese, who are mostly Christian, are not. Mrs. Hussein argues that Article 152 is intentionally vague, in part to punish women.
Rabie A. Atti, a Sudanese government spokesman, said the law was meant for the opposite reason, to “protect the people.”
“We have an act controlling the behavior of women and men so the behavior doesn’t harm others, whether it’s speech or dress or et cetera,” he said.
But, he insisted, Mrs. Hussein must have done something else to run afoul of the authorities, besides wearing pants.
“You come to Khartoum and you will see for yourself,” he said. “Many women, in offices and wedding ceremonies, wear trousers.”
“Thousands of girls wear the trousers,” he added.
Asked what other offenses Mrs. Hussein may have committed, Mr. Atti said that the case file was secret and that he did not know.
Mrs. Hussein countered that she did not do anything else that might have violated the law, and that countless people from inside and outside Sudan are supporting her.
“It’s well known that Sudanese women are pioneers in the history of women’s rights in this region, and that we won our rights a long time ago because of our awareness, open mind, good culture and struggle,” she said.
The last time Sudan’s courts handled a case that attracted such international attention, they found a compromise solution. A British schoolteacher faced up to 40 lashes and six months in prison for allowing her students to name a class teddy bear Muhammad, which was perceived as an insult to Islam. But after being sentenced to 15 days in jail, she was soon pardoned by the Sudanese president.
A widow with no children, Mrs. Hussein is a career journalist who recently worked as a public information assistant for the United Nations in Sudan. She quit, she said, because she did not want to get the United Nations embroiled in her case. But Sudan, given its renewed interest in normalizing relations with the United States, might be reluctant to draw much international ire by harshly punishing her.
Protesters are expected to come out on her behalf again when Mrs. Hussein returns to court Monday morning. She says her family is also behind her.
“My mother supports me,” she said, “but she is worried for me and prays for me.”
Source: The New York Times
The Iranian Parliament approved President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's nominee for Health Minister,Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi, yesterday. Dastjerdi is the country's first woman to be appointed to the cabinet since Iran's Islamic Revolution in 1979. The nominations of two other women,
Fatemeh Ajorlou for the welfare and social security minister and Susan Keshavarz for the education minister position were blocked, reported the BBC.
After her nomination was approved, Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi reportedly said, "I think today women reached their long-standing dream of having a woman in the cabinet to pursue their demands...This is an important step for women and I hold my head high." During the confirmation process, she also said, "Women must have a greater role in the country's affairs...Where there are women and men working together, miracles take place," according to the Guardian UK.
Dastjerdi is reportedly a hardline conservative who has previously proposed gender segregated healthcare. She is a gynecologist and currently teaches at the Tehran University
of Medical Sciences, where she is also a member of the Medical Ethics Board Committee,reported Bloomberg.
Ahmadinejad was sworn in to his second term in office August 5, following widespread massive protests both in Iran and internationally after June's disputed presidential election. Women played a major role in the public uprising that followed the election and were particularly visible during the election campaigns.
There was strong support among women for reformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi whose wife, Zahra Rahnavard, played an especially visible role in her husband's campaign and continued to speak out during post-election protests. There is widespread speculation that Ahmadinejad's move to appoint women to the cabinet is a means of courting women's support after the post-election turmoil.
Source: Feminist Majority Foundation
The Women's Resource Center has been on a long journey that started in the early 90's. We were first recognized as a student organization called Womyn's Space and we have definitely come a long way since then. For the last few years we have been recognized as a department, and we have been running strictly on the hard work and dedication of students ONLY.
We are fortunate to announce that we now have a full-time Program Coordinator! While this position will be temporary for one full school year, we are working hard to find grants and other sources that will help us extend this position further into the future! At this time, however, we are incredibly grateful to all the people who have made this uphill battle possible. We are so thankful that we have this position at this time, even if it's for one year.
We ask all of YOU to continue to support the WRC and all of our programs, events and our growth. THANK YOU!
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