Facing 25 Years in Prison for Circulating a Petition

June 26, 2014

Sandy Perry, Secretary of Housing

Green Party member and 2008 Congressional candidate Rev. Edward Pinkney of Benton Harbor, Michigan is once again battling political persecution. On July 21, he will stand trial for circulating recall petitions against Benton Harbor’s pro-corporate Mayor James Hightower.

The state is charging him with five felony counts and threatening him with up to twenty-five years in prison. Benton Harbor has 70% unemployment and 90% of its people living
below the poverty line, and is also home to one of the richest companies in the world, the $19 billion Whirlpool Corporation.

Rev. Pinkney has led residents in a relentless battle against racism in the criminal justice system, for jobs, for education, for a better life, and against the state-appointed “Emergency Financial Manager” (EFM) that took over Benton Harbor in 2011. EFMs are a threat to democracy everywhere, as proven when an EFM declared the bankruptcy of
Detroit in 2013. A federal judge subsequently ruled that its workers had no right to keep their pensions despite explicit protection in the Michigan State Constitution, a decision that impacts the fate of workers as far away as California.

The specific charges against Rev. Pinkney in the recall of Mayor Hightower are that he altered some of the dates on the petitions. However, the evidence against him introduced at his preliminary hearing was flimsy and contradictory, as pointed out in a June 3 article in Voice of Detroit:

· Another Benton Harbor resident turned in the recall petitions on January 8, not Rev. Pinkney.

· Rev. Pinkney was formally charged and a warrant issued for his arrest on that same day, January 8, but the petitions were not turned over to the Michigan State Police Forensics Lab for examination until February 26.

· In March, Berrien County Sheriff Deputies conducted a massive campaign to interrogate and intimidate petition signers throughout Benton Harbor.

· Sgt. James Goff, who examined the petitions, is not a certified Forensics Document Examiner.

· Sgt. Goff testified that, “I can’t say who altered them or when.”

· No original petitions were admitted into evidence, only copies, and the Berrien County Sheriff’s Department, Elections Commission, and Michigan State Police disagree on where the originals are located.

· Three witnesses who had circulated petitions testified that they saw petition signers themselves change the dates on their signatures due to errors, and one circulator testified that she changed a date she herself entered due to an error.

· County Sheriff Sgt. David Zizkovsky stated that he himself asked the Forensics Lab to change five dates on the petitions.

· There was no confession, no certified handwriting expert testimony, no eye witnesses, no evidence that Rev. Pinkney had exclusive access to the petitions, and lots of evidence that lots of other people had access to them.

The charges against Rev. Pinkney are an attack on our right to petition for redress of grievances and our right to take political action independently of the corporate agenda and the two-party system. The fight to defend Rev. Pinkney is the fight for democracy and for the future of America.

~ Sandy Perry serves as Secretary of Housing on the General Welfare Branch of the Green Shadow Cabinet.

Prior article on Rev. Pinkney: Democracy Campaigner, Rev. Pinkney, Arrested

Publicize this case. Write letters of support for Rev. Pinkney to BANCO (Black Autonomous Network of Community Organizations) at banco9342@sbcglobal.net Donations for legal defense may be sent to BANCO, 1940 Union Street, Benton Harbor, MI 49022.