Today, Wayne County Prosecutors refused to dismiss Siwatu’s case and instead presented her with two options: go back to trial for the original charge (felonious assault and felony firearm) and risk being taken from her children again, or take the misdemeanor brandishing plea.

Even though the Freedom Team and Siwatu are unwavering in support of her innocence, Siwatu decided to accept the plea. This comes with 90 days in prison but is considered “Time served”— this essentially means: she was already in prison for much longer and so she does not need to face those horrors again.

This ends a nearly three year ordeal that was emotionally and financially devastating to Siwatu, her family, and loved ones.

Though this is not the just vision of freedom we were working toward, we cannot risk Siwatu being separated from her family and her community again.

From Siwatu: “This was an extremely difficult decision to make because I should have had the right to defend myself and my family from an attack, but instead I am now defending us from state violence. After experiencing the blatant injustice of this courthouse firsthand, there is no evidence that a just process is possible here. Therefore it is not worth going through another unfair trial and risking being separated from my babies ever again. I am a living example of how prosecutors weaponize Felony Firearm and other heightened charges in order to corner people into taking plea deals, regardless of their innocence. This vicious system must come to an end, and we have a lot of work to do.”

We will continue to fight this system and we ask you to do this with us. Siwatu is working on concrete efforts that ensure no pregnant person at Huron Valley ever lives through the kind of hardships she faced while pregnant & postpartum and imprisoned. When we are able to share more about this and ways you can continue to show up, we will.

Love Wins and so We Already Won.
#SiwatuIsFree