DETROIT (WWJ) - A Detroit mom and activist who gave birth in prison is free thanks to a plea agreement.
Siwatu-Salama Ra pleaded guilty to a charge of brandishing a firearm in public — a 90 day misdemeanor — about six months after a Michigan Court of Appeals dropped felony firearm and assault charges against her because of improper jury instructions.
Sentenced to time served and now free, an emotional Ra on Friday offered thanks to those who supported her: "Thank you for holding me up and fighting against this crazy system."
Ra, an environmental and racial justice activist, convicted after she pointed an unloaded, licensed gun at someone when they allegedly were trying to ram her, her daughter and her mother with a car in 2017.
"They chose to fight me and punish me to the highest extent," she told WWJ's Jon Hewett and other reporters. "And that's when they capped on the mandatory sentence for felony firearm, which is a mandatory two years in prison if I chose to fight. And everyone should have the choice to fight, to free their name and not make false confessions."
She served about nine months in prison.
"The prosecutors here had the opportunity to listen to the people they say they represent. Nine-hundred letters to the prosecutor's office asking them to dismiss this case, and they chose not to," Ra said. "And the only way out of it, the only way out of it, was to plead today; which was a very difficult decision. But I made that decision to stay with my family, my children."
Zakai, the baby she had behind bars, is now one-and-a-half years old.