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THE MICHIGAN CHRONICLE
June 16-22, 2010
Page A-3
Second Front A crying mother’s pain
By Steve Malik Shelton It is a haunting experience to be in the
presence of a mother who has lost her child. Lyvonne Cargill’s pain is evident in the quiet disarray of her home, which she graciously though unnecessarily apologizes for. And it speaks through the windows of her eyes that tell of restless nights, excruciating loss, burn- ing anger, and yes, retributive justice.
In the living room of her east side Detroit
home there are two large green potted plants on a coffee table that seem to dominate the room. There is also a large black vase that rests near the edge of the table close to where she sits facing me. It is the urn that contains the remains of her 17-year-old son Je’Rean Blake’s ashes.
Cargill has lived the day, the hour and the
moment when she lost her son to an incred- ible act of wanton violence when a 34-year-old man, Chauncey Owens, reportedly became en- raged with the way Je’Rean looked at him and left to return with a gun which he used to shoot Je’Rean through the heart.
This incident led to the death of 7-year-old
Aiyanna Jones by an officer’s bullet as Detroit police raided her home in search of Owens.
Aiyanna’s family has retained attorney Jef-
fery Fieger and has filed a lawsuit against the city. And although many are of the opinion that the police are solely to blame for Aiyanna’s death because of their military-style raid and apparent disregard for the lives of children and other occupants, Cargill is very clear on who she believes shoulders the brunt of the blame. Her opinion is rooted deep within the sensi- bilities of a mother who will probably never understand why she had to lose her son. It is Chauncey Owens and the adult members of the Jones family that she believes harbored him and colluded with him.
“He took my son’s life away,” she says in a
voice racked with indignation. “He’s not feel- ing me. He’s not feeling my pain. That includes Charles Jones. None of that family is feeling my
LYVONNE CARGILL, mother of Je’Rean Blake, the 17-year-old student killed by Chauncey Owens.
pain.” Charles Jones is Aiyanna’s father, and
Lavonne believes he was with Owens in the SUV that Owens used to drive back to the store on Mack and St Jean to gun down Blake. Ac- cording to a homicide investigator assigned to the case, Owens confessed that Jones and at least two other men rode along when he went to shoot Blake.
“I feel that all of the people in the SUV
should go to prison too because that’s acces- sory to murder. They knew what he was plan- ning on doing and they could have stopped it.
DMC signs
agreement with Vanguard
DETROIT – A final agree-
ment just signed paves the way for the purchase of the eight-hospital Detroit Medi- cal Center by Vanguard Health Systems based in Nashville. The acquisition originally an- nounced in March moves one step closer to completion with the final purchase and sale agreements.
The purchase plan would
guarantee that DMC’s health care facilities would see signif- icant improvement, expansion and medical and technological upgrades in the coming years. Residents of Southeast Michi- gan and beyond would also be able to rely on the contin- ued availability of world-class medical care.
The transaction now goes
to Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox for the review and approval necessary before any not-for-profit hospital can be acquired by a for-profit com- pany. The purchase must also get clearance under federal and state antitrust laws and governmental agencies that oversee certain Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement pro- grams.
Under terms of the agree-
ment, Vanguard will pur- chase DMC for approximately $417 million in cash enabling DMC to retire its debt. In ad- dition, Vanguard will commit to paying for $350 million in on-going capital needs and to spend no less than $500 mil- lion for new capital investment in the first five years after the closing of the agreement. In addition, Vanguard will assume all liabilities under the Medical Center’s defined ben- efit pension plan. The overall capital investment of at least $850 million is more than the combined investments in Ford Field, Comerica Park and Campus Martius, which have all been major economic pluses to the Detroit area.
Vanguard – with revenues
of $3.2 billion last year – has also pledged to continue the DMC’s historical commitment to providing charity medical care to the poor, uninsured and underinsured for at least ten years. During that time Vanguard will also continue operating the DMC hospitals for acute in-patient care and will not sell any of the eight hospitals to unrelated parties.
In exchange Vanguard Health Systems will take own-
ership of all assets of the De- troit Medical Center except for funds contributed by donors for restricted uses.
The agreement contem-
plates a closing not later than November 1, 2010, following satisfaction of the conditions set out in the agreement in- cluding approval of the Attor- ney General.
“This agreement represents
a new model for health care delivery. It will be the catalyst to creating world-class health excellence in Detroit,” said DMC Board Chairman Steve D’Arcy. “The DMC health care professionals will continue to deliver the first class care, but now in first class facilities.”
“This agreement will bring
jobs and improved care for our residents,” said Detroit Mayor Dave Bing. “It sends a strong message that Detroit is open for business and that this administration is attracting investment and jobs by restor- ing trust in City Hall.”
“We are thrilled to add one
of the nation’s finest aca- demic medical centers to the Vanguard family,” said Keith Pitts, vice chairman of Van- guard Health Systems. “We believe in these hospitals. We believe in their mission. We believe in their management team and extraordinary staff. And we believe in the future of Detroit.”
“This is a tremendous in-
vestment in Detroit, our entire community and across our region and state,” said Mike Duggan, DMC’s CEO. “Detroit will no longer take a back seat to anyone in the quality of our hospital facilities.”
Vanguard Health Systems
founder and chairman Charles Martin credited the manage- ment of the Detroit Medi- cal Center for sparking Van- guard’s interest in the system and in the city.
“This team has done a re-
markable job of meeting the dual challenges of an econom- ic crisis and a crippling credit shortage,” said Martin. “They have managed to do more than survive and with the capital that Vanguard and its partners can bring, this Medical Center can grow and prosper along with the great American city that is its home.”
They could’ve got out of the car and called the police or something, but they didn’t do that.”
Cargill says that her son, Je’Rean, is still
with her in spirit. That he sometimes talks to her and inspires and encourages her beyond the awesome barrier that separates the living from the dead. It was Je’Rean she swears that came to her in a vision and told her that Owens had been arrested. “I was asleep on that Sunday morning when the police raided the Jones house,” she said. “Je’Rean came to me and said ‘Mama, let’s go!’ I said ‘OK, Je’Rean,’ and I got up and jumped in my car and he said, ‘Ride down Lillibridge!’ I did that and when I
got to the area I saw a man and a woman out there and they told me that the police got the guy that shot the boy on Mack and St Jean. I asked them what is the guy’s name, they said ‘Chauncey’ and I said ‘That’s the man that killed my son’ and I just pulled off.”
Cargill is speaking out of a place that most
people have never had to reach into. Is it her imagination fueled by insurmountable loss that allows her to hear, to see and to talk to Je’Rean beyond the grave? Whatever it is, she speaks with the conviction of the true believer.
“Sometimes he visits me,” she said. “He
will stand outside and say, ‘Ma, open the door, Ma. Where you at, Ma? Who got your car, Ma?’ When I’m at work he calls me to see how I’m doing or asks me to bring him something. And whatever it is he asks for, I bring it home.”
And yet the violence in Detroit and in cities
across America continues to erupt in frighten- ing and incomprehensible episodes. The miti- gating factors almost as numerous and elusive as the quality and quantity of the vehement outrages that are sadly a part of our society and our psyche.
“The constant increase in Black-on-Black
violence and criminality reflects the constant incremental generation by prevailing socioeco- nomic conditions of Black hostility and anxiety fueled by a constantly increasing sense of futil- ity,” writes Professor Amos N. Wilson. “Thus Black-on-Black violence and criminality are danger signals, flashing red indicators of ex- plosive social inequalities, dysfunctionalities, dislocations and conflicts. They are alarming reminders that the White American-dominated body politic is diseased, in danger of cardiac arrest, and in need of radical surgery and inten- sive care.”
Even so, parents like Lyvonne Cargill no
longer need reminders. What has happened to them and their loved ones they will never forget.
Steven Malik Shelton is a writer and human
rights advocate. He can reached atmalikshel-
ton19@aol.com
Racial discrimination in jury selection remains widespread
Nearly 135 years after Congress passed
the 1875 Civil Rights Act to eliminate racial discrimination in jury selection, the practice continues, most glaringly in serious criminal trials and death penalty cases, according to a new report released by Equal Justice Initiative, a non-profit organization that provides legal repre- sentation to indigent defendants and prisoners who have been denied fair and just treatment in the legal system. “Ille- gal Racial Discrimination in Jury Selec- tion: A Continuing Legacy” is the most comprehensive study of the issue since the U.S. Supreme Court tried to limit the practice in Batson v. Kentucky in 1986.
“The under-representation and exclu-
sion of people of color from juries has seriously undermined the credibility and reliability of the criminal justice system, and there is an urgent need to end this practice,” said Bryan A. Stevenson, ex- ecutive director of the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) and the report’s author. “While courts sometimes have attempted to remedy the problem of discriminatory jury selection, in too many cases today we continue to see indifference to racial bias.”
In the course of two years of research
in eight southern states (Alabama, Arkan- sas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Missis- sippi, South Carolina, and Tennessee), EJI interviewed over 100 African-Ameri- can citizens who were excluded from jury service based on race and reviewed hun- dreds of court documents and records. EJI uncovered shocking, present-day evidence of racial discrimination in jury selection, including:
• Racially biased use of peremptory strikes and illegal racial discrimination
in jury selection remains widespread, particularly in serious criminal cases and capital cases. Hundreds of people of color called for jury service have been illegally excluded from juries after prosecutors as- serted pretextual reasons to justify their removal.
• Prosecutors have struck African
Americans from jury service because they appeared to have “low intelligence,” wore eyeglasses, walked in a certain way, dyed their hair, and countless other reasons that the courts have rubber-stamped as “race neutral.”
• Some district attorney’s offices ex-
plicitly train prosecutors to exclude racial minorities from jury service and teach them how to mask racial bias to avoid a finding that anti-discrimination laws have been violated.
• In some communities, the exclusion
of African Americans from juries is ex- treme. For example, in Houston County, Alabama, 8 out of 10 African Americans qualified for jury service have been struck by prosecutors from death penalty cases. In Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, there is no effective African-American representa- tion on the jury in 80 percent of criminal trials.
• Many defense lawyers fail to ade-
quately challenge racially discriminatory jury selection because they are uncom- fortable, unwilling, unprepared or not trained to assert claims of racial bias. There is wide variation among states and counties concerning enforcement of anti- discrimination laws that protect racial minorities from illegal exclusion.
EJI offers detailed recommendations
for ensuring full representation of people of color on juries throughout the United
States within five years. These recommendations include: • Dedicated and thorough enforcement
of anti-discrimination laws designed to prevent racially biased jury selection must be undertaken by courts, judges and lawyers involved in criminal and civil trials, especially in serious criminal cases and capital cases.
• Prosecutors who repeatedly exclude
people of color should be subject to fines, penalties, suspension, and other conse- quences to deter the practice. Communi- ty groups can hold their district attorneys accountable through court monitoring, requesting regular reporting on the use of peremptory strikes, and their voting power.
• The criminal defense bar should re-
ceive greater support, training and assis- tance in ensuring that state officials do not exclude people of color from serving on juries on the basis of race.
• States should strengthen policies and
procedures to ensure that racial minori- ties are fully represented in jury pools. State and local governments should expand their jury lists and use computer models that weight groups appropriately.
• The rule banning racially discrimina-
tory use of peremptory strikes announced in Batson v. Kentucky should be applied retroactively to death row prisoners and others with lengthy sentences whose convictions or death sentences are the product of illegal, racially biased jury se- lection but whose claims have not been reviewed because they were tried before 1986.
The report can be viewed at http://www.
eji.org/eji/.
Michigan healthcare trailblazers to answer key questions at ‘Pancakes and Politics’
By Minehaha Forman Back in March when Congress once
and for all voted the historic healthcare reform bill into law, we all scrambled to answer a basic question: “What’s next?”
Whether in excitement or with skepti-
cism, the entire spectrum of the U.S. pop- ulation—Grandma and healthcare execu- tives alike—sought to decode this lofty, hefty new law of the land into something meaningful: What would this reform look like, feel like, or shape up to be?
Today, three months later, if you’re
still reeling in the wake of the reform storm, don’t feel left out. Truth is, many of us are still as curious about the future of healthcare as we were on March 21, the day the bill passed.
According to Dr. Patricia Maryland,
president and CEO of St. John Providence Health System, healthcare leaders should be at the table when the future of the region is being discussed. Maryland also cited estimates placing the total value added by the Wayne County healthcare sector alone at $10.4 billion.
This Friday, Maryland joins a remark-
able panel of top healthcare industry exec- utives including Mike Duggan, president and CEO of the Detroit Medical Center, Kevin Klobucar, president and CEO of the Blue Care Network of Michigan, Dr. Ora Pescovitz, EVP of medical affairs and CEO of the University of Michigan Health System, and Nancy Schlichting, presi- dent and CEO of the Henry Ford Health System.
Pescovitz estimates that by 2014-2015,
the state will assume an incremental 450,000-600,000 Medicaid recipients. But the upside is that the economic benefits to health care growth may be an oppor- tunity to rev the state out of a financial ditch.
According to Klobucar, the Blue Care
Network is already a player in the state economy. While he noted that the reform bill might pose fiscal issues as millions of new patients attain coverage, it’s nothing a cooperative effort among regional and state leaders can’t fix. In fact, Klobucar believes that the Blue Care network is “well positioned moving forward” under
the new reform law. Still, healthcare reform is not for the
weak of heart. Strong leadership is a must for healthcare changes take shape effectively. Actually, passing bill was only than half the battle in making healthcare work beneficially for all Americans. It’s the work that is done now, among leaders and community alike that really counts. Plus, at a time when the economy’s health looms in the balance, any industry growth is welcome. Healthcare reform, executed well, is a social and an economic oppor- tunity.
It’s also a work in progress. Friday morning’s innovative breakfast
discussion at the Detroit Athletic Club will explore possible new horizons for healthcare in Michigan, a much-antici- pated conversation.
The fourth and final installment of the
2010 annual Pancakes and Politics series will be held at the Detroit Athletic Club, Friday, June 18 at 7:30 a.m. Tickets are $65 and can be purchased at the door or in advance at
shop.realtimesmedia.com.
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