"White Boy Rick" Wershe [To be Released July 20]

[DaveyM]

"Informant America has argued for months that Richard J. Wershe, Jr. remains in prison 27 years after a non-violent drug conviction because of a law enforcement vendetta that has continued to this day. Wershe helped the FBI prosecute politically-connected drug dealers and corrupt cops. This post looks back at police corruption in Detroit during the time Wershe was on the streets as an FBI confidential informant."

http://www.thedimedroppers.com/2015/...t-in-rick.html

[Meddle]

Police lying under oath, planting evidence, corrupt prosecutors and judges ARE all well know facts across the country. We're seeing more and more wrongfully convicted people fully exonerated after have spent decades in prison.

It IS extremely common.

[Jimaz]

... We're seeing more and more wrongfully convicted people fully exonerated after have spent decades in prison....

I don't know much about this particular case, but it's worth checking out the good work being done at The Innocence Project.

Any of us could get tangled up in our imperfect judicial system. This is a good reason to take jury duty seriously.

[Richard]

Police lying under oath, planting evidence, corrupt prosecutors and judges ARE all well know facts across the country. We're seeing more and more wrongfully convicted people fully exonerated after have spent decades in prison.

It IS extremely common.

Which is true and has been from the start of time,but considering all of the fed eyes on the city if this is as presented it would have been under the microscope long ago.

You are talking about a conspiracy implemented on a city,state,and federal level,image the metrics surrounding that and the hundreds of personal that it would take to pull it off?

For a low level drug dealer?

It seems more to me anyways that it is more of a case of keep screwing with the system and it will keep you down,every case where it is brought before the commission it becomes everybody's else fault and they are corrupt for not siding with me.

It is easy to read countless case reports of appeals across the country of those incarcerated under the life act,this is the only one in the country that keeps on with this line,many of the other ones have actual proof where the officers and judges are imprisoned for their actions on previous cases and they still are behind bars.

Be realistic no matter what the injustice is,it is hard to gain reformed convict points when you are a part of a stolen car ring from behind bars.It may be viewed as if one is released they will be tempted to not keep their nose clean.

With all of the players that are supposed to be keeping him there in their self interest,what is their self interest?

Keep him in there so he keeps quiet? as a personal vendetta? I would think it would be way less energy to let him out and wrap some concrete and dump him in the river if that was the fear and reason as presented.If the power that is being presented is keeping him in there then they would have had the power to remove him permanently long ago.

Either we are not getting the whole story and and being fed what we want to hear or there is no story.To many things just do not add up.

[DaveyM]

"Rick Wershe’s struggle to win his freedom after 27 years in prison for a non-violent drug offense committed when he was 17 has moved to the Michigan Supreme Court. In September, the Wayne County, Michigan judge assigned to his case agreed he deserved to be re-sentenced in light of significant changes over the years to Michigan’s drug laws and sentencing guidelines related to similar convictions. The Wayne County prosecutor is vigorously fighting Wershe’s re-sentencing, insisting he was sentenced to life and should stay in prison for life. Thus the case is now before Michigan highest court. Here’s what the lawyers are arguing about." - http://www.thedimedroppers.com/2015/...-michigan.html


Information, documents, links, etc related to Rick Wershe and his case:
https://www.facebook.com/freewhiteboyrickwershe
https://read.atavist.com/white-boy-r...verlay&preview
http://www.thedimedroppers.com/
http://www.change.org/petitions/free...oy-rick-wershe

[ct_alum]

Did it ever occur to you that keeping him locked up is a pretty good warning to other people contemplating becomming an informant against the local power structure? He would be forgotten in a few years if he was killed, but keeping him alive, locked up and in the spotlight is a far more powerful deterrent.

[DaveyM]

On Monday, we dropped off 32 turkeys and 32 bags of fries to Emmanuel Lutheran Church on Detroit's east side. The church is in our old neighborhood [[Dickerson/I-94). Detroit is the poorest major city in the U.S. and that area in Detroit is one of it's poorest. Prior to Christmas we'll be dropping a lot more food to the churches pantry so that more don't have to go hungry this holiday season. Rick just wants to just help give back.

"Serving a life prison term, as Rick Wershe is doing, is hard time. But Wershe knows there are people on the outside who are going through hard times, too. For several years Rick has organized a holiday food drive for the needy. He hopes people who support him will support his food drive, which is through a well-known food-for-the-needy charity and his former church." read more: http://www.thedimedroppers.com/2015/...-with-his.html

[DaveyM]

Did it ever occur to you that keeping him locked up is a pretty good warning to other people contemplating becomming an informant against the local power structure? He would be forgotten in a few years if he was killed, but keeping him alive, locked up and in the spotlight is a far more powerful deterrent.

Well hopefully the spotlight is shined brighter on those who have gone out of their way to keep Rick locked up for the last 27 years. Whatever the reason this needs to be exposed because it's not just about Rick and his case. Rick is paying for other people's crimes and mistakes.

[DaveyM]

"Richard John Wershe Jr. is a political prisoner in America. The political component of his ordeal is local, it’s harsh and it’s vindictive.
Wershe, who grew up in Detroit, was sentenced to life in prison without parole for a non-violent drug crime committed when he was 17. The law was eventually changed to allow parole but that hasn’t made a difference for Wershe. He is Michigan’s last remaining juvenile non-violent drug offender, still behind bars after 27 years. Wershe, who has been described by a prison official as a near-model prisoner, was never charged with any drug-related violence, he was never charged with ordering any drug violence, he never operated crack houses, he was never charged with conspiracy because he never had a gang, he was never named as an unindicted co-conspirator in any narcotics case and he was never called as a witness in any drug trials. Yet, he’s been labeled a drug lord and kingpin." - http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...oked-cops.html

[DaveyM]

"The Michigan Legislature is currently battling over something called “presumptive parole.”
The state house has passed a bill to make it harder to deny parole to eligible low-risk inmates who have served their minimum sentence.
There’s plenty of data showing this would make a lot of sense and eventually save our cash-strapped state millions of dollars.
The governor is a strong supporter of the bill. But it is in trouble in the state senate. Attorney General Bill Schuette is crusading against it.

There are few issues more tailor-made for any grandstanding politician than the chance to demand we keep the bad guys locked up forever.
There are few issues more tailor-made for any grandstanding politician than the chance to demand we keep the bad guys locked up forever.
Recently I was talking to a federal judge about this.
He told me that if I wanted to see rank injustice, I should look at the case of “White Boy Rick” Wershe, now 46, who has been in state prison since he was 18, and who may be there for the rest of his life.
That would make sense if he were a serial killer, but he was nothing of the kind.
He wasn’t the mythical teenage “drug lord” that he was called in lurid headlines.
Nor was he ever called “White Boy Rick” on the street; that was evidently a nickname popularized by narcotics cops and the media. Instead, he seems to have been a kid in his early teens who was recruited to be an FBI informant.
Eventually, when the feds had no further use for him, Wershe decided to become a drug dealer on his own.
He was soon arrested with about 20 pounds of cocaine and a large amount of cash. He was barely 18 when convicted and sentenced to life without parole.
That law was later changed, but after a single parole hearing a dozen years ago, Wershe has been unable to get another.
Vince Wade spent years as an award-winning investigative reporter for Detroit TV stations. Now living in California, he has started a blog called Informant America, which is dedicated to getting justice for Rick Wershe. Wade doesn’t pretend that Wershe was a saint; he liked the high life, and fathered three children before he was 18 years old. More importantly, he did, in fact, set out to become a drug dealer.
But he did so, Vince Wade contends, only after he was recruited as a child by the FBI, who used him as an informant and abandoned him. Wade, who covered the case for years, is especially scornful of the media, whose frequently misleading portrayals of Wershe have contributed to a hugely distorted view of who he was.
Michigan’s Supreme Court may finally be about to weigh in.
Last summer, Wayne County Circuit Judge Dana Hathaway ruled that Wershe should be resentenced, “with consideration given to his youth and the circumstances surrounding the crime.”
But an appeals court panel reversed her ruling.
Attorneys appealed, and the state’s highest court is now expected to decide. For me, all this has little to do with Rick Wershe.
The real question is this: Should we take a kid in his early teens who was recruited as an FBI informant, copied the behavior they wanted him to learn, and lock him up and throw the key away?
I think simple justice provides the answer." - http://michiganradio.org/post/rank-i...-rick#stream/0

[DaveyM]

"Is a teenage FBI informant behind bars because of what he knows? Drug dealer imprisoned in 1988 aged just 17 is STILL in jail after he exposed crooked police officers and the Mayor of Detroit's brother-in-law

• Richard Wershe Jr has been in prison since 1988 for a non-violent crime
• Was sentenced to life without parole at just 17 for possessing cocaine
• He was convicted under a draconian law that has since been repealed
• Wesrhe has been eligible for parole since 2002, but he is still locked up
• Some suggest the targets he took down as an informant may have influenced the parole board's decision to keep him behind bars "

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz3to2Ic26X

[DaveyM]

"Even from his prison cell, Richard Wershe, Jr., the man law enforcement and the media dubbed White Boy Rick, is trying to help his community by having a holiday turkey drive. The goal is to provide meals for some of the residents in Rick's old neighborhood on Detroit's east side. The holidays can be tough on families who already struggle throughout the year. Rick is aware that there are others who are in need and could use a helping hand. He's trying to spread the giving spirit of the holidays and give something back to the community where he was raised." - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/seth-f...b_8735158.html

[DaveyM]

"Rick Wershe’s latest shot at getting out of prison hinges on the Michigan Supreme Court applying one of its own recent rulings to the Wershe case, as it did recently with 50 other cases. Based on the court’s actions thus far, it would be odd indeed if the high court doesn’t send his case back to the trial judge for consideration of re-sentencing; something she has indicated she has every intention of doing once the top court sends it back to her."

http://www.thedimedroppers.com/2015/...idge-case.html

[DaveyM]

"Regular readers of this blog are encouraged to do some extra reading this week at The Daily Beast. The influential online news site has run a substantial piece I wrote about the apparent vendetta that has kept Richard J. Wershe in prison for all of his adult life for helping the FBI bust corrupt cops in Detroit. In addition, this week’s post focuses on what a real drug kingpin had to say about Rick Wershe.

[Dan Wesson]

"Regular readers of this blog are encouraged to do some extra reading this week at The Daily Beast. The influential online news site has run a substantial piece I wrote about the apparent vendetta that has kept Richard J. Wershe in prison for all of his adult life for helping the FBI bust corrupt cops in Detroit. In addition, this week’s post focuses on what a real drug kingpin had to say about Rick Wershe.

Link.......?

[Honky Tonk]

Link.......?

This one?

http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...oked-cops.html

[night-timer]

I remember Django took a particular interest in Rick Wershe. He wrote to Wershe in prison and got a hand-written response. I remember Django showed me the letter. from memory, I think I even read it. Wershe was no choir boy, but nor were the people he did business with, many of whom pretended to be respectable people in public/career life.

[DaveyM]

Yeah Rick and Django exchanged some letters. He also sent Rick a copy of his book which he received just before his passing. Rick's honest about what he did but he can't change the past. He made a lot of mistakes when he was a dumb kid but nothing that deserves the 28 years he's already been locked up in prison.

https://www.facebook.com/freewhiteboyrickwershe

https://read.atavist.com/white-boy-r...verlay&preview
http://www.thedimedroppers.com/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dean-d...b_7754828.html
https://www.change.org/p/free-richard-wershe-jr

[Meddle]

You back again shilling for your little junkie punk?

[HowardC]

The poor boy will probably never get out. There are still fingers that he can point and those who would be on the receiving end of that finger [[that sounds odd) are probably doing everything they can to keep him locked up. There have been rumors on the east side about some major names which would go down if White Boy ever got out. Oddly, I am sure that those names would have come to light by this point.

[DaveyM]

"Dershowitz can't see any reason Wershe should still be behind bars.
This is a terrible, terrible injustice," he said.
Wershe was 17 when he was convicted of selling cocaine, but has no record of violence. Dershowitz said Michigan is treating him worse than killers." - http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/d...-boy-rick-case



"Legal scholar and super attorney Alan Dershowitz tells WDIV's Kevin Dietz that he's going to help Richard Wershe Jr.'s attorney in the painstaking effort to try and set Wershe free.
"This is a case that cries out for re-sentencing and time served for release. He's served far, far, far too much time already for what he was convicted of doing as a very young man," Dershowitz tells Dietz who traveled to New York to conduct an interview."" - http://www.deadlinedetroit.com/artic...e#.V0SFFenmrIV

[DaveyM]

You back again shilling for your little junkie punk?

Rick never really cared for or liked drugs 30 years ago and he certainly doesn't now.

p.s. Yes I will continue to spread the word about the plight of his friend Rick Wershe just as I have done for many years.

[DaveyM]

"Her [[Kym Worthy) office is currently fighting a ruling by Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Dana M. Hathaway, who agreed last September to resentence Wershe, who is serving life in prison. Worthy challenged that ruling, and the case is now before the state Supreme Court, which could rule any time now. A ruling in favor Judge Hathaway, would likely result in her resentencing Wershe to time served. That would be justice." - http://www.deadlinedetroit.com/artic...h#.VyKf4enmrIV

[DaveyM]

"[[Alan) Dershowitz can't see any reason Wershe should still be behind bars.
This is a terrible, terrible injustice," he said.
Wershe was 17 when he was convicted of selling cocaine, but has no record of violence. Dershowitz said Michigan is treating him worse than killers." - http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/d...-boy-rick-case

[DaveyM]

"Just when it seemed all the stench surrounding the case of former FBI informant and current life prison-term inmate Richard J. Wershe, Jr. was out in the open, along comes the Detroit Police Department with a fresh pile of manure that stinks really bad. Read on but you may want to hold your nose."..
read more: http://www.thedimedroppers.com/2016/...rshe-case.html