Michigan Legal Help Self-Help Center of Wayne County holds stakeholders meeting
The Michigan Legal Help Self-Help Center of Wayne County held its third annual stakeholders meeting Jan. 22 in the Smart Detroit Seminar Room in the Penobscot Building. The mission of the Michigan Legal Help Self-Help Center of Wayne County (SHC) is to help Michigan residents who cannot afford an attorney solve their civil legal problems. SHC offers free and accurate legal information. Pamela Copeland, the Center’s navigator, shared impressive statistics with the attendees:
• 2,868 individuals visited the SHC in 2015;
• More than 1,800 people came in with divorce issues;
• 423 people came in with custody issues;
• 287 people came in with child support issues;
• More than 1,000 individuals completed automated online interviews at the SHC in 2015.
The SCH offers help with Family, Protection from Abuse (PPO), Housing, Consumer, Expungement, Employment, Estates and Guardianships. Third Circuit Court, the Wayne County Clerk’s Office, the Salvation Army’s William Booth Legal Aid Clinic, and the Detroit Metropolitan Bar Association are stakeholders who have played a key role in the success of the SHC. The SHC is funded in part by a State Bar of Michigan Foundation’s grant to ensure access to justice for all and is open Monday–Thursday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and is housed in Smart Detroit on the 13th floor of the Penobscot Building at 645 Griswold in Detroit. Services are also offered at www.michiganlegalhelp.com, and the Michigan Legal Help (MLH) Legal Self-Help Center of Southwest Detroit, located at the Family Alliance for Change, 3627 W. Vernor, Detroit offers services in English and Spanish.
U.S. high court extends bar on automatic life terms for teenagers
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court ruled Monday that people serving life terms for murders they committed as teenagers must have a chance to seek their freedom, a decision that could affect more than 1,000 inmates.
The justices voted 6-3 to extend a ruling from 2012 that struck down automatic life terms with no chance of parole for teenage killers. Now, even those who were convicted long ago must be considered for parole or given a new sentence.
The court ruled in the case of Henry Montgomery, who has been in prison more than 50 years, since he killed a sheriff’s deputy as a 17-year-old in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in 1963.
Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing the majority opinion, said that states do not have to go so far as to resentence people serving life terms. Instead, the states can offer parole hearings with no guarantee of release.
Louisiana, Michigan and Pennsylvania have more than 1,000 people serving life sentences for murders they committed before their 18th birthday, according to Michigan’s Supreme Court filing in Montgomery’s case. They are among the few states that have refused to extend the Supreme Court's ruling from 2012.
Monday's decision does not expressly foreclose judges from sentencing teenagers to a lifetime in prison. But the Supreme Court has previously said such sentences should be rare, and only for the most heinous crimes.
––––––––––––––––––––
Subscribe to the Legal News!
http://www.legalnews.com/Home/Subscription
Full access to public notices, articles, columns, archives, statistics, calendar and more
Day Pass Only $4.95!
One-County $80/year
Three-County & Full Pass also available
