Siwatu-Salama Ra

Siwatu-Salama Ra is an American environmental and racial justice organizer. She is known for standing trial for assault and firearm felonies following an altercation where she displayed an unloaded and legally owned handgun in Michigan, a stand your ground state. Her case has been widely cited as an example of a racist justice system in the United States and highlighting the issues with mandatory minimum sentencing.

Ra claims Harvey then rammed Ra's parked car while Ra's 2-year-old daughter was playing in the vehicle.

Trial The jury focused on why the gun was in the car, an issue not presented to them during the case.

Incarceration Ra was incarcerated in Huron Valley Correctional Facility, a prison with overcrowding problems and structural issues. Ra was shackled to her bed during a vaginal exam. She was not allowed to contact her family during the birth and was not allowed to breastfeed her son. After 48 hours, her son was taken from her and temporarily put into the care of her relatives. Attorney Wade Fink replaced prior counsel and subsequently secured Ra's release from prison. Ra's attorneys raised a number of issues on appeal, including that Ra was not permitted to defend herself using a self defense theory. Ra's attorney, Wade Fink of Wade Fink Law, P.C. in Birmingham, Michigan, stated that the "Michigan Court of Appeals again showed itself to be the thoughtful, deliberative judiciary that citizens can rely upon to do justice.”

Criticism of the case The jury did not believe that Ra had an honest and reasonable belief that deadly force was necessary to defend herself or her family. This has been widely seen as racially motivated opinion and that the law sets a different standard of self defense for black people.

Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of Black Lives Matter: Prosecutors have a right to appeal the decision to their state supreme court. They should not. Ra has suffered immensely. She gave birth while imprisoned, and her child was taken from her two days later. She spent months separated from her newborn – after a conviction under the wrong legal standard. The court of appeals reached the just result. Ra’s legal ordeal needs to end.

Plea deal and release After Ra's convictions were reversed, she returned to the trial court where Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy had to decide whether or not to retry the case. Prosecutor Worthy received over 900 letters from the community, and thousands of phone calls, asking her not to retry Ra. Her attorney, Wade Fink argued that because prosecutors had told the court that Ra was not a danger and did "not belong in prison" that there was no purpose to retrying the case. Nevertheless, prosecutors insisted on a retrial, forcing Ra to plead guilty to a minor misdemeanor in exchange for dismissal of the felonies, including the felony firearm, which carried a mandatory two year minimum. Today is bittersweet. On the one hand Siwatu is free, her children have their mother, and the community has their fighter back. But on the other hand, an innocent person was forced to accept a misdemeanor conviction to avoid the risk of another wrongful imprisonment. That is becoming the norm in our country. 10% of those freed by the innocence project since 1989 were convicted because they pled guilty under some sort of plea bargain with prosecutors. Innocent people are convicted because plea bargaining in our criminal justice system is unfair and prosecutors leverage their negotiating position by threatening people with substantial prison, or multiple felonies, in order to deter trials and increase convictions. It is the heritage of our nation that our criminal justice system is to have heavy civilian participation. But when prosecutors wield their power in ways designed to facilitate convictions, then the power of the individual is eroded and so is our Constitutional system.