ACTIONS FOR KING BROTHERS
What it took to keep Alex and Derek out of the adult system.

There is nothing right about expecting children to act like, think like, nor be little adults.  We also cannot rightly judge them nor punish them the same as we do adults.

We fight so hard to bring them into this world, even to making laws to 'protect' them before they are born.  After their birth, we use them as an excuse for every action we take to 'make society safer', to 'make it better for the children'.  We use them as the reason for every harsh punishment we give adults.  From peace to war, we claim we do it 'for the children'. Yet at the first sign of trouble, we are willing to throw them to the wolves, to destroy the rest of their young lives.

There is something dangerously hypocritical about the same people that fighta woman's right to have an abortion, fighting to put children in adult prison.

And so, I enclose the struggle these particular people put up to protect these particular children from the prosecutors and judges who would have destroyed them as they've done to so many other troubled children in the system.  Read and remember, for it is not beyond possibility that you, too, will have to fight for a child you love someday!
Kay Lee

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FOR ALEX AND DEREK KING
derekandalexking@yahoo.com

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Conference Scheduled for Child Rights
UNDER OUR WINGS CONFERENCE
December 6-7, 2002

Barry University, Orlando FloridaTomorrow morning the "Justice for Juveniles" - Conference Sponsored by http://www.underourwings.org/  'Under Our Wings' will take place at Barry University of Law in Orlando, Florida

Mission Statement Under Our Wings is a grass roots coalition dedicated to ending the prosecution and adjudication of children as adults and to eradicating the juvenile death penalty in the United States.

The goal of the organization is to inform, empower, and inspire others to get involved in the effort to bring about these changes -- always keeping in mind that the child offenders must be treated as the children that they are rather than as the adults that they are not.

We will use a global, national, and local approach to bringing American juvenile justice into line with the Convention of the Rights of the Child, and other international child rights standards. Community support, education, prevention, re-direction, diversion, and treatment will be the foundation of our policy goals – adhering to the wise old theory that "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

Conference Details The Under Our Wings Conference is being organized in order to allow the general public to learn more about the details of US policies which treat child offenders as adults and support the death penalty for crimes committed by persons under the age of 18.

The program will cover: background information (current status of the juvenile death penalty, etc.); psychological considerations; inconsistencies between the treatment of juveniles in the criminal justice system and child protection laws; and current anti-death penalty initiatives. The conference goal is to develop a grassroots plan of action which seeks to change US law.

 Confirmed speakers include:

Professor Victor Streib, Ohio Northern University School of Law. Professor Streib is the acknowledged national expert on the juvenile death penalty.

Professor Stephen Harper, currently a professor at the Miami School of Law and on leave from his job in the Capital Litigation Unit of the Miami-Dade Public Defender's Office

Professor Irvin Waller, Criminology Department, University of Ottawa. Professor Waller is a well known Canadian expert who was involved in debates that led to Canada's abolition of the death penalty and brings an economic approach to his analysis of the futility of treating juveniles as adult criminals.

Professor Stuart N. Hart, Emeritus Professor and Founding Director of the Office for the Study of the Psychological Rights of the Child at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. Professor Hart is an expert on child psychological development and children's rights.

Professor Bernardine Dohrn, Founder of the Children and Family Justice Center at Northwestern University School of Law. Professor Dorhn is one of the founders of the Juvenile Death Penalty Initiative.

Mark Schindler, Youth Law Center in Washington DC. Mr Schindler is a well known juvenile law attorney who is at the center of the movement that is pressing for change in the US juvenile justice process.

Dr. Cynthia Price Cohen, Executive Director of ChildRights International Research Institute. Dr Cohen is a world recognized authority on the international law of children's rights and an adjunct professor at the University of Tulsa College of Law who teaches a summer course on "International Law and the Rights of the Child."

Professor Gertrud Lenzer, Founder of the Children's Studies Program at the City University of New York. Professor Lenzer is a sociologist who has recently been focusing some of her work on juvenile justice and the death penalty. She will bring a sociological analysis to the conference proceedings.

Reverend Thomas Masters, founder of "Under Our Wings" and leader of a new grass roots movement to end the treatment of juveniles as adults and to do away with the juvenile death penalty. Reverend Masters work was the inspiration for this conference.

Professor James Garbarino, Cornell University. Author of "Lost Boys".

Catherine Latimer, Canadian Department of Justice will speak about new Canadia legislation eliminating the transter of juveniles to adult courts.

Susan Magestro, works with a variety of agencies in the field of juvenile crime in Anchorage Alaska. Her primary focus is at risk teens, juveniles waived into the adult system, and teaching graduate classes in the area of juvenile crime.

Sue Gunawardena-Vaughn, Director - Program to Abolish the Death Penalty (PADP), Amnesty International USA, oversees the strategy, development, planning, coordination, and implementation of AIUSA’s national and international efforts against the death penalty.

Joan Jacobs Brumberg, Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellow and Professor History, Human Development, and Gender Studies, Cornell University. Professor Brumberg teaches about the history of American childhood at Cornell University.

Lynn Grindall, Managing Attorney, Southern Juvenile Defender Center, Emory University School of Law. SJDC’s efforts are targeted toward keeping young people out of the adult system. For more information, contact Rev. Thomas Masters: 561-662-7421

If you are unable to attend, but would like to view a Live Webcast of the Under Our Wings Conference go to http://weblaw.barry.edu/uow.asx or Barry University Orlando Campus at http://weblaw.barry.edu/.

For more Information and to join the cause visit http://www.underourwings.org

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Concerned Citizens worldwide are taking a stand against trying children as adults in the state of Florida, websites and petitions have been started by those who feel Governor Bush has not responded to their concerns. Citizens that live in Florida are suggesting that perhaps they should move their children elsewhere. Vacationers are expressing fear that their children may in someway get caught up in the messed up Justice System. Parents are leary to pay for college for their teens in the State of Florida and are looking elsewhere. A Florida Boycott could not come at a worse time for the State of Florida, still feeling the pinch from the 9-11 tragedy and now with the State trying to find millions to comply with the smaller classroom sizes that voters approved during the last election, excessive rise in tax's may also cause citizens to re-locate. A Petition can be viewed and signed as well as viewing alternatives for vacations on the websites below.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/844031638
http://home.triad.rr.com/seekjustice/boycott.html