Susan Lefevre is on a prisoner bus traveling to a state that felt she needed 10 to 20 years imprisonment to turn her into a productive and law-abiding citizen. Michigan was dead wrong as today the stellar wife and mother, now know as Marie Walsh has become today serves as solid evidence of their misjudgment.I’m asking along with the hundreds of the fugitive’s friends and supporters for Governor Jennifer Granholm to use her commutation power in an unprecedented way in this unparalleled case.
Governor has sole commutation power to set Lefevre free under Article 5 & 14 of the Michigan Constitution. That’s despite a bureaucracy that was set up to include all ten politically appointed members of the Michigan Parole Board.
Usually parole boards are expected to be clairvoyant and predict which offenders are worth the risk of parole or commutation. They investigate and take a long hard look at each case before them and they nearly always vote on the side of caution against disturbing sentences imposed by courts.
Despite clear powers to do so, Michigan governors have never bypassed the parole board process or given a commutation where the board has not recommended mercy. Nobody can recall a similar case like Marie Walsh’s either.
The governor can and should sidestep the parole board’s fortune tellers because she is empowered to do so. Granholm can begin her own investigation and act reasonably and prudently before any clemency application begins its journey.
This is not to slight the members of the parole board or their important work, this rare case does not need to waste their time and limited resources.
The governor can save a family, save taxpayers a small fortune and bring a fair resolution to this woman’s case by just being a courageous governor.
The cost to taxpayers of keeping Marie Walsh for five and a half years in prison is well over $172,000.00. I know there are more important uses for that money than protecting Michigan from a middle aged, reformed soccer mom who lives 2,000 miles away from the place where she offended so long ago.
Here is the contact information for Governor Granholm:
Governor Jennifer M. Granholm
P.O. Box 30013
Lansing, Michigan 48909
PHONE: (517) 373-3400
PHONE: (517) 335-7858 - Constituent Services
FAX:(517) 335-6863
Please help support susan Lefevre and sign a petition at
ReplyDeleteWWW.freesusanlefevre.com
Any politician who is really a leader could care less about what other politicians do. Followers simply do what others have done before them.
ReplyDeleteGovernor Granholm should take charge and do the right thing and send the woman back to California to her family.
We will soon see what this governor is made from.