The savagery of Life Without Parole (LWOP) sentencing

by Zaharibu

Originally posted in the SF Bayview of August 2021, and on their site here, on 25th July 2021.

What specifically has been problematic about my situation is that I did not commit the crime that I am imprisoned for. I was not convicted for killing the victim in this case. I was acquitted on the charge that I personally used a weapon in the commission of the crime.

Nothing at all has been fair or just about the prison experience. I do assume responsibility for the mistakes that I have made in my life and during my incarceration. 

Rehabilitation has everything to do with a person wanting to fix himself. The tools needed to give the people who are constantly working on themselves simply do not exist in prison.

There must be a clear and firm commitment by legislators and CDCR to provide the incarcerated population with the tools that are needed to contribute to the maturation process inside. Tools that include housing people in prisons closer to their families and loved ones, an increase in pay for workers, technological training, expanding the makeup of the board of prison terms to include members of the community that the person will be paroling to as well as psychologists and psychiatrists who are not employed by the state, as many of them write incredibly biased reports.

A lot of the people who come to prison come as children, psychologically.

Along with the self-help programs that are available in only some prisons, a lot of the people who come to prison come as children, psychologically. We develop this warped sense of what manhood is – and there are no programs available in prison. There was and still is a program in Solano prison, MANUP, that focused on the development of manhood. In my opinion, it was a very effective program.

There must be a recognition that in order to know if we have learned, we must be put in positions to practice what we have learned. If prison is about rehabilitation, once we have started to engage in the life-long process of working on ourselves and fixing ourselves – becoming productive members of society – at that point and in that moment we have outgrown the prison experience. 

There is nothing left for us to learn in prison. From that point on, our being in prison is just about punishment. To the extent that we are willing to do so, politics should be removed from the equation of who is released. 

Prisoners and their families should be allowed to provide testimony.

There are people who were found to be not suitable for reasons that are highly politicized. And, as a result, legislators should not make it a discretionary choice for courts to resentence prisoners.

I was found guilty of first-degree murder, but the jury found the personal use of the weapons allegation to be not true. The jury did not find that I was the actual killer or shooter. 

In spite of this, none of the recently enacted new laws are being applied to me. I have been consistently told that I do not qualify for any of the relief offered in these new laws.

Hearings should be held and prisoners and their families should be allowed to provide testimony of their stories. That record would be valuable in crafting legislation that would remedy those injustices.

In closing, I would like to thank you for the opportunity to contribute to the efforts to create a just and humane approach for how crime and punishment is administered.

Please know that the work that you do is crucial to our fulfilling our democratic potential.

Send our brother some love and light: Michael Reed Dorrough, D83611, SATF, B3-6-4L, P.O. Box 5248, Corcoran, CA 93212. Supporters have a website for him at: Zaharibu.org.

An incredibly unfair and unjust system

Dear Mr Proctor,

Please forgive me for any inconvenience that my writing may cause. I am writing in the hope that I might contribute to changing the way that people think about the laws with regards to the draconian life without possible parole sentences, as well as other extreme sentencing.

I have a sentence of life without possible parole, of which I have served 36 years, and this sentence is the equivalent of a slow death. It completely removes from the equation that human beings are capable of redemption. It does not consider that most, if not all of the people who are subjected to it, like the country itself, has suffered severe trauma. Generational trauma. Trauma that has not taken a single day off over the past few centuries.

Life without parole permanently separates families and communities from each other. Because prison is not conducive to the maturation process, it is not possible to grow and develop into the kind of evenly balanced human being that can contribute positively to society in any kind of meaningful way.

Life without parole means that we will not be allowed to mourn the loss of our parents, sisters, brothers, children, and loved ones when they pass away. It is a contradiction to, on the one hand, say that family ties are encouraged, but purposely keep them separated for the rest of their lives as a result of the life without parole sentence. Imprisonment makes it impossible for there to be a support system to be developed that helps us mature in any meaningful ways.

Like so many of us in prison, I have lost my parents, sister, and grandson. I do know that they were heartbroken, all the way until their passing. I think it’s crucial for the families, loved ones, and communities to contribute to the discussion on how they have been and are affected by life without parole sentences. This punishment also extends to them.

The problem with extreme sentencing, and for me the starting point, is that we are supposed to be so much more enlightened than this. The United States is an outlier as it relates to what amounts to the most hateful sentencing laws on the planet And California might very well be, in spite of its reputation for being liberal, one of the most hateful states in the country. California has always been able to hide its hate behind the perception of liberalism. As a result, we have an incredibly unfair and unjust system.

There will come a time when California, like the rest of the country, will be exposed for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of wrongful convictions. With many of those persons being sentenced to life without parole and other extreme sentences, including the death penalty.

What specifically has been problematic about my situation is that I did not commit the crime that I am imprisoned for. I was not convicted for killing the victim in this case. I was acquitted on the charge that I personally used a weapon in the commission of the crime.

Nothing at all has been fair or just about the prison experience. I do assume responsibility for the mistakes that I have made in my life and during my incarceration.
Rehabilitation has everything to do with a person wanting to fix him/herself. The tools needed to give the people who are constantly working on themselves simply do not exist in prison.

There must be a clear and firm commitment by legislatures / CDCR to provide the incarcerated population with the tools that are needed to contribute to the maturation process inside. Tools that include housing people in prisons closer to their families and loved ones, an increase in pay for workers, technological training, expanding the makeup of the board of prison terms to include members of the community that the person will be paroling to as well as psychologists / psychiatrists who are not employed by the state (many of them write incredibly biased reports).

Along with the self-help programs that are available in (some) prisons, a lot of the people who come to prison come as children, psychologically, we develop this warped sense of what manhood is-and there are no programs available in prison (there was / is a program in Solano prison, M.A.N.U.P., that focused on the development of manhood. In my opinion, it was a very effective program).

There must be a recognition that in order to know if we have learned, we must be put in positions to practice what we have learned. If prison is about rehabilitation, once we have started to engage in the (life-long) process of working on ourselves and fixing ourselves (becoming productive members of society), at that point and in that moment, we have outgrown the prison experience. There is nothing left for us to learn in prison. From that point on, our being in prison is just about punishment. To the extent that we are willing to do so, politics should be removed from the equation of who is released. There are people who were found to be not suitable for reasons that are highly politicized. And, as a result, legislators should not make it a discretionary choice for courts to resentence prisoners.

I was found guilty of first degree murder, but the jury found the personal use of the weapons allegation to be not true. The jury did not find that I was the actual killer or shooter. In spite of this, none of the recently enacted new laws are being applied to me. I have been consistently told that I do not qualify for any of the relief offered in these new laws.

Hearings should be held, and prisoners and their families should be allowed to provide testimony of their stories. That record would be valuable in crafting legislation that would remedy those injustices.

In closing, I would like to thank you for the opportunity to contribute to the efforts to create a just and humane approach for how crime and punishment is administered.

Please know that the work that you do is crucial to our fulfilling our democratic potential.

In Solidarity,

Michael Reed Dorrough D-83611
SATF, II, B3-6-4L
P.O Box 5248
Corcoran, CA 93212

Written 4-28-2021

Michael Reed Dorrough, spring 2021

This was written by Zah and also posted on the website of SV Debug on June 28th, 2021, on the website of the SF Bayview on July 25th, 2021, and on In Case of Innocence, on June 8th, 2021. I just thought I would mention these sites too.

New Fundraiser for Justice for Michael Reed Dorrough launched

Michael in October of 2018

Dear friends, supporters of Michael Reed Dorrough and Justice,

It has been nearly 35 years since Michael was falsely arrested, charged and sentenced to Life Without Parole (LWOP).

In Michael’s own words:

I was tried separately from my co-defendants.

The jury found me guilt of first degree murder, but, they found that I did not personally use a weapon in the commission of the crime.

The jury did not consider me to have been the actual shooter or killer.

The trial jury could not agree on punishment during my penalty trial, and a hung jury was declared.

A second penalty trial jury was impaneld and this jury recommended that I be sentenced to life without parole.

Some of the jurors said that they only recommended this sentence because they did not have any other choice. They said that if they could have recommended a sentence less than that, they would have.

On the day that one of the prosecution’s witnesses claims I was at her apartment in Los Angeles, I was in San Diego, CA, visiting friends, and I had been there for a few days. March 6th is the birthday of my youngest son. And March 5th, 1985, was his one year birthday. I could not be with him on this day because I could not make it back from San Diego in time. I did call his Mother to make her aware of this. And I spoke to my son on his birthday.

The people I was visiting in San Diego had a brother who was incarcerated at the time, and he called while I was at the home of his sister, whom I was visiting, on his birthday. His birthday was also on March 6th.

The mother of my youngest son, as well as the people that I was visiting in San Diego, and the brother whom I spoke to on the phone while in San Diego, were all willing to come to court to testify to this. I also have affidavits from them.

None of them were called to testify on my behalf.

We have a Legal Fund now so that we all can contribute to/donate to hire a lawyer for Michael, so that he can eventually go back to court. Michael’s own alibi’s have not been heard.

Please donate whatever you can, and share this link:

https://fundrazr.com/91arq4?ref=ab_a7DYLe

THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Michael was taken to solitary confinement!

Michael in October of 2018

We were made aware of this bad news, and want to ask you, family, friends, supporters to send him a letter or a flikshop-card to let him know he is in our thoughts.

We hope to find out more about Zaharibu’s situation. We were told that he has his medication with him.

Michael spent 26 years in solitary confinement inside California’s SHU’s. He was placed in general population in 2015, following the 2011-2013 hungerstrikes.

We are also looking for a lawyer to help challenge Michael’s wrongful conviction. He has been inside since 1985, on false charges.

Michael’s current address is:

Michael Reed Dorrough, D83611
CSP-Sol B 10-127 Level iii
P.O. Box 4000
Vacaville, CA 95696-4000

Thank you for caring!

By suspending the Death Penalty, Gov. Newsome shows he is governor even to the least

Michael Reed Dorrough’s article written in Feb-March of 2019, was published in the SF Bayview newspaper of June 2019:

By suspending the Death Penalty, Gov. Newsome shows he is governor even to the least

Michael was interviewed on Uncuffed!

Today the interview that Bryan Mazza conducted with Michael Dorrough was aired on KALW’s Uncuffed (91.7FM in the Bay Area, or online at kalw.org. He speaks about his time in the newly built SHU in Pelican Bay prison, where he started the 26 years he was locked in solitary confinement.

You can listen to it here: https://www.kalw.org/post/twenty-six-years-isolation-story-michael-dorrough

The interiew with Michael is announced on the website of KALW as part of the program Crosscurrents

Bryan Mazza who interviewed Michael for Uncuffed

Autumn Update on Michael Reed Zaharibu Dorrough

Lifers With Optimistic Progress

Zaharibu let us know in a letter that he has completed a mentorship class called M.A.N.U.P. He will now be able to conduct a class, and he is doing so on Tuesdays.

Zaharibu’s custody level has also been reduced, and therefore he can stay out on the yard until 8:45 PM.

Zaharibu is now also working as a clerk for the educational department. He is looking forward to that experience.

For the rest, Zah keeps working on his case for innocence, and on educating the people about the sentence of Life Without Parole in California dropped as an inhumane sentence, as part of the Lifers With Optimistic Progress (LWOP)-group.

Michael Zaharibu Dorrough finally out of solitary!

We received the joyful news that as of November 2015 Zah is out of solitary confinement! He is still being held at a Level iii which means he is not allowed out of his cell after 3 PM. But overall he sounded much better in his letter.

Although he writes it is cold up there (no heating in the cells), the food is usually hot, and not bad, and he has spent time out in the yard, which has helped his health too. He can also see the mountains when he leaves his cell. Also, he has been able to call regulary, something which still is very special, because for most of the 26 years Zah spent in solitary, he was not allowed to call.

The prison is about 6 hours from his family in Compton, which is too far for his elderly mother to travel, so we hope that he can one day be moved closer to her, but best would be if his case was overturned…

You can write Zah at this address:

Michael Reed Dorrough D83611

CSP-Solano B-7-131L

P.O. Box 4000

Vacaville, CA 95696-4000

Michael Reed Dorrough: 30 years in prison while innocent

Since April 2015 Michael Reed (Zaharibu) Dorrough has been in prison for 30 years while innocent. Zaharibu is now 61. He is being kept in solitary confinement since 26+ years, due to his political views (New Afrikan), and his health is failing because of this stressful and highly unhealthy situation he is forced to live in.

Please read Michael’s story here, and please spread the word. We need Michael to go home, so that he can look after his mother and be with his family. Here you can download a flyer summarizing his case for innocence.

Michael was moved to an adjoining unit in April, because of being moved up to “step 3” in the “Step Down Program.”

We would like to know if there are attorneys or legal helpers or innocence organizations out there who could help us get Michael back into court. Thank you for your consideration.

Annabelle for Zaharibu’s Support team

Zaharibu [@] gmail.com

Flyer for Supporting Zaharibu Dorrough (2016)

I am no closer to going to general population than i was 26 years ago

It is very obvious here that they have no intention of releasing certain people to general population – they are issuing rules violation reports and finding [certain] people guilty for things that make it obvious that it’s politics. I mentioned in a previous letter that we were issued “rules violations reports.”

I believe that the closer certain people get to being considered for release, these “Rules Violations Reports” will be used to justify retaining those people in SHU.

I am no closer to a general population than i was 26 years ago. And the same thing can be said for a number of prisoners. And because so many of us are being issued “Rules Violations Reports” that have absolutely nothing at all to do with gang activity (except in the warped thinking of the i.g.i. [institutional gang investigators] no one is interested in engaging in any of what the Cdcr proposes – and no one should expect us to subordinate ourselves to things like this.

The Cdcr should be willing to admit that certain people will not be released for whatever reason – and then commit themselves to developing programs for those prisoners.

The state would love to have us – still – fighting this battle years from now – while they continue to subject us to torture – and deprive us the opportunities to re-connect with our families and loved ones, and really, nothing has changed. There are no programs at all in place – and, the policies as to the privileges that were available in SDP [Step Down Program] have been reduced.

People here want to program, they look for light at the end of the tunnel, but only see darkness.

Written Dec. 28, 2014, received Jan. 13th, 2015.