By Kenneth Anderson
On April 16, 2019 Ms. Valerie Newman director of the conviction integerity unit (CIU) for Wayne County, visited the men here at Lakeland Correctional Facility in Cold water Michigan. Ms. Newmen was kind enough to accept an invitation from Kenneth L. Anderson chairmen of the wardens forum committee and Mr. Robert Hinds on behalf of the men at Lakeland correctional facility, to come do a work shop on the conviction integrity unit. Ms. Newmen worked for the state appellate defenders office (SADO) for 23 years before leaving to head up Wayne counties first conviction integrity unit. While at SADO she represented thousands of men and women, fighting and winning some of the most high profile cases in Michigan. Going head to head with Kym Worthy and the prosecutors office to win the release of her clients. Earning the moniker SADO's pit bull of the office. She's argued twice in front of the united States Supreme Court, which is the highest court in the land. She's argued in both the state and federal courts. It was because of her dedication and brilliant legal mind, along with her own high integrity that she was picked by Kym Worthy to head Wayne counties CIU in the first place. Ms.Valerie Newmen informed the men exactly what her unit does and who they can help. She's headed the CIU for a year to date, in that time her unit has been able to win the release of eight men. Her unit is small consisting of herself one other full time attorney, two part time attorneys, and a detective who investigates her clients claims of innocence. Presently her unit has roughly 900 claims of innocence. At all times her unit has 25 to 30 active working cases open at a time. Once they close one they'll open a new one. She sets a high standard of honesty and integrity for the clients as well as those working under her. When her office is contacted about a claim of innocence they do their own thorough investigation and if there's a proven injustice she fights for their release. Although the decision to leave SADO was a hard one and a number of men and women lost one of the best attorney's in Michigan, the wrongfully convicted men and women gained their best hope of ever being released with Ms. Valerie Newmen heading the CIU.
Ms.Newmen answered any question asked of her by the men and gave great sound advice about how to contact her office. Unfortunately her office only handles cases out of Wayne county, however she did inform the men that the Michigan attorney generals office has recently started their own conviction integrity unit that will take everyone else's cases not in Wayne county. She informed us that she'd be willing to come back again in the future to speak to us. We the men of Lakeland correctional facility would like to thank her once again for taking time out of her day and travelling over two hours to hold this very insightful workshop. Not many in her position would have done something like this for free, yet alone for hundreds of convicted men. A special thanks goes out to warden Noah Nagy, and special acts director Dennis Birch, who helped put this event together and was a very important part of making sure everything went smoothly.
