The spotlight shines on guest Lisa Antonini, the “Criminal Justice Reform Advocate” of “Concrete Pillow,” who earned both her Bachelor of Science Degree in Criminal Justice and her Master’s Degree in Criminal Justice from Everest University. Her journey in reform began when a family member became incarcerated under the “Felony Murder Rule,” more commonly known as the “FMR.” She explained that under the “FMR,” it states that if you are present during the commission of a crime, and in the commission of that crime someone were to lose their life, you, as well as everyone else there, will be charged with first-degree felony murder. (Florida statutes and several other states). She then went on to become a “Criminal Justice Reform Advocate” with “Concrete Pillow” and utilizes her production company “Beach Bum Productions, LLC” to further offer education and an experience, but not legal advice, as there are no attorneys there, to those who experience a loved one incarcerated for a crime they did not commit.
Here are a couple of excerpts from the show:
Lisa shared- “So, while all this was going, on I’m going to call libraries and I’m trying to absorb as much as I can about the felony murder rule… and learn what I can …and find out if there’s a way that I could count that I can, got to be able to do something. And I ended up going back to college and I ended up with associate’s degree, bachelor’s degree, and then a master’s degree in “Criminal Justice” so that I could really understand this.”
Lisa talked about her family member- “he was 18 years old at the time and he was with some friends. A friend had called asking for a favor and he got a group of other friends together to help this other friend out, and I wasn’t there, I can’t tell you exactly everything that took place during that meeting but, I can tell you that someone was there who was armed, he had a gun and one of the many ended up shot.” Rebecca asked, “Okay, let’s just stop right there so that we can make sure this is really clear. So here’s a situation where you have a family member that is in an area, he himself did not have a weapon but, somebody else did.”
The situation Lisa describes becomes more clear during the show and there is a lot of information that may be new to you. Often times, we go about our lives without enough knowledge about various things and use information passed onto us from what we hear. You may have heard the term “ignorance is no excuse of the law.” Meaning just because you did not know, does not mean you are excused from it. Therefore, what we can and cannot do and how it will affect us is important to know. In the event we find there is something that is unjust, then we have the knowledge and choice to decide if we want to take the steps to make a specific law change or “become just.” Though in the meantime, we still must abide by the law. We cannot sit and complain about something we do not know accurate information about or do not want to put the effort in to learn and expect to understand or have changes made. We have to become educated and use the legal process to make a change. We may not necessarily always like the way the justice system works, but this is our system and we are the best nation in the world.
Lisa is an example of one who made the decision to become educated on the legal system and laws, began taking steps to make a change, and offer support to educate others. Check out the show! This is very informative!
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