Usama “Sam” Hamama and Melissa Chapman.
Melissa Chapman and Usama “Sam” Hamama
Forget the holiday gifts like jewelry and scarves and sweaters. Gov. Rick Snyder is handing out real gifts: Freedom.
On Friday, the governor announced he was granting commutations and pardons for 61 people. A commutation is a shortening of a sentence and a pardon gets rid of a conviction.
Beneficiaries of the breaks include an Iraqi who the federal government has been trying to deport for a 1988 conviction, and a woman serving a life sentence for murder.
A pardon was granted to Usama “Sam” Hamama of West Bloomfield, the lead plaintiff in the class action lawsuit Hamama v. Adducci, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, Mark Hicks, Sarah Rahal and Beth LeBlanc of The Detroit News report. The suit sought to end the detention of some 1,400 Iraqis nationally, including 114 initially from Metro Detroit, who had been swept up in Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids for deportation in June 2017.
A U.S. resident since age 11, the 56-year-old has 1988 convictions for felony assault, felony firearm and carrying a pistol in a motor vehicle. He flashed an unloaded gun at a driver during a confrontation and served two years. Eventually, the government issued a removal order, but because of the dangers Chaldeans, Iraqi Christians, faced returrning to Iraq, he was not deported. When Trump came into office, that changed and he was rounded up for deportation.
Gov. Rick Sndyer
He spent eight months in jail until posting a $100,000 bond in February.
"This gives me a 51 percent chance of staying in this country and at least I can explain to ICE, authorities and others that I'm a decent person and get another chance," Hamama told The News late Friday. "This means a fresh start for me... a true blessing and the fight is not over."
Another prominent case involves Melissa Chapman, who is serving a life sentence without parole for a first-degree, premeditated murder charge in October 1988 for her role in the Dec. 20, 1987, fatal shooting of Michael Keith Gaines, Kristen Jordan Shamus of the Detroit Free Press writes.
Chapman is granted a commutation, which means her sentence can be reduced or she could get time served and be released.
She didn't pull the trigger, but helped her abusive boyfriend, Robert Goodyear, drag Gaines' body into a field, the paper reports. Together, they cleaned out the blood-soaked truck, stole items from Gaines' apartment to pawn, and set his remains on fire.
The commutation on her life sentence now make her eligible for parole. She must now get the nod from the parole board for a release.
Snyder's press release on Friday did not mention specific cases.
