Dear person that wrote this "Thank You" you need to get this to the the so called elected folk's here in California!!! The 3 strikes law is a mess!!! We need reform and change, I'm living this everyday my husband is one of these men that don't belong in prison with a life sentence. Yes, he's also a black man. Like I tell others that visit their loved ones, not everybody in prison is gulity!!! Again I say thank you and keep doing good work!!!

A life sentence withoiut possibility of parole is an alternate to the death sentence. Before this went in, too many criminals would be paroled on good behaviour then commit hideous crimes. DNA has helped to free those who were wrongfully convicted although the system hates to allow this showing the inconsistencies of the system of justice which is lacking.

There are many people in prison that do not belong there with being convicted of victimless crimes or framed by the police. Each individual case should be studied allowing home incarceration for those who are deserving with non violent convictions. Rather than having definate sentencing, judges should be carefully screened as to their ability to be judges. Some are politically motivated and others power mad and some lack wisdom.

Totally agree with the second paragraph of Melvin T's comment.  Judges SHOULD be screened better and then be allowed to decide based on the merits of the case and taking into account any and all mitigating circumstances. 

Too many people are being sent to prison for acting in self defense against one or more police officer who've invaded their homes in the middle of the night (conversely, too many innocent people and dogs are dying in these raids. too).  These "dynamic entires" must stop except in cases of a hostage/terrorist situation.  Also, too many people are being incarcerated for vices, which are NOT crimes, and too often those sentences (especially in drug cases) are far harsher/longer than the sentences for truly violent crimes like rape and murder.

I also totally agree Melvin T's comment, 2nd paragraph. Police not doing their jobs, not following established protocol, low standards set for lawyers, DA's/County Attorneys and Judges in Arizona has resulted in filling our jails and prisons. Go to the Superior Court judges and look at the bios/profiles -- especially those handling "high-profile" cases and death penalty cases. It is shocking what one will find. Add harsh mandatory minimum sentencing and the courtroom controlled by a culture of prosecutors who want a conviction or seeking the truth and as a result America is #1 jailer in the world. Who has more resources and weapons at their disposal than the government -- while using the taxpayers money to take people down.  How does a nonviolent, first offender go up against all this power? A movement is needed to expose all this and put legislation in that takes away immunity for those in power who have lost sight of due process and presumption of innocence.

Correction on above: Add harsh mandatory minimum sentencing and the courtroom controlled by a culture of prosecutors who want a conviction OVER seeking the truth and as a result America is #1 jailer in the world.

Harsh penalties needed for judges and prosecutors who wrongfully convict people by preventing information known at the time that would have changed the outcome of the trial.

It is evident that its not that we have more crime, crime has been falling since the early 1990’s. It has been the overwhelming amount of new tough on crime laws passed in knee jerk reaction to one or two cases to justify such laws. In California the tragic death of Polly Klaas lead to the passage of Three Strikes, considered the toughest recidivist law in the nation. The problem was its application was nothing like the law was sold to the public. Instead prosecutors overjoyed with this new law applied it to everyone with two prior convictions, regardless of the severities of the crimes. Soon California’s prisons began overflowing with drug users and shoplifters serving life sentences under this new law. Many superior court judges had no idea how to follow the intent of the law and most will now say quietly they sent many people to prison for far too long. To add to this mess, prison guards and law enforcement lobby saw this as a guaranteed employment act and lobbied for even tougher laws. This new industry grew leaps and bounds. The war on drugs added fuel to the fire. Now that the cost has given cause for sticker shock to the taxpayers, the public is beginning to question the need for such laws. Unfortunately the wheels of justice move slowly backwards. And it is certain it will take many years to repair the damage done. How long is too long?

Police and prosecutorial PERJURY is so commonplace, and "judges" condone it because many of them advanced their corrupt careers by perpetrating it as prosecutors.  Prisons for profit (Corrections Corporation of America) are making the problem of wrongful imprisonment worse.  Jurors are quick to convict because they don't want to admit that their cops and prosecutors are dishonest and their "judges" corrupt.  DNA evidence has freed many wrongfully convicted people on death row to the chagrin of Republican "law & order" hypocrite "judges" like Alito, Roberts, Scalia, Thomas, et. al. on the U.S. Supreme kourt who ruled that inmates have no legal right to DNA testing to prove their innocence.  Prisons are big business, and wrongful imprisonment is more prevalent than the CRIMINAL JUST US system would have the public believe.

Life sentences are bullshit. The only justification possible for a life sentence is that they cant be rehabillitated and are too dangerous to leave prison. If thats the case, than execute them instead of wasting tax dollars keeping them alive. Food, sleeping area, other facilities, and heating for life: thousands. Bullet: 25cents. I know it sounds harsh, but there are some people who just cant be helped. Reapeat offenders who spend 15 years in prison, get out, and are back within a year, pedophiles who leave prison and rape another child, ganbangers who are doing drive by shootings the very first they have freedom, they can't be helped. Sometimes rehabillitation just doesn't work.

The truth is finally trickling out as people are faced with financial disaster and states are broke and forced to cutback spending even as people need it now more than ever. The loss of income, jobs, homes, etc.  has brought Corrections to the forefront.  More and more families are speaking out against the MONSTROUS PRISON COMPLEX.  It's traded on the stock exchange for God Sakes!  Yes, it's a business and good and lucrative one.  Justice has nothing to do with it. 

Only now the public is willing to even give any thought to the Justice systems unfairness.  Very few in the general public cared enough to see what was happening or try to do anything about.  If it doesn't affect them, who cares?  We no longer care about our fellow man.  Policitians continually base their campaigns on tough on crime propaganda. 

Well, what has happened for one thing is these bad laws ARE affecting more and more families.  It affects all tax brackets, races and religions.  Of course some more than others.  It has been very difficult to get the facts out there because Victims Groups and Law Enforcement Special Interests get the media attention.  Political power, job creation and profit is the goal.  The other side is never heard.

Now that the country is in such financial chaos people are finally willing to listen and are starting to question the amount of money we pour into incarcerating and destroying lives and why.  Thousands upon thousands sit in our prisons that should not be there and a price tag is attached to each. 

In California where we have the most draconian and unfair sentencing laws in the country and biggest prison population, just CDCR the Prison system eats up $10 BILLION EVERY YEAR AND RISING.  That doesn't include the courts. Their answer to overcrowding is NOT TO REFORM SENTENCING but BUILD MORE.  The Law Enforcement Unions continue to throw out fear tinged rhetoric trying to keep the public afraid.  It has worked for a long time.  This system, SADLY will not change because it is the right thing to do, but for financial reasons.  As long as it gets done. 

No one is saying that prisons are not necessary and crime shouldn't be punished.  Just that sentences should fit the crimes and enhancement sentences should be removed from  sentences.  That one move will save BILLIONS IN CALIFORNIA ALONE!  Enhancement sentences although they sound good to many are a financial disaster and do nothing but cost taxpayers and dessimate familes.  We simply over incarcerate.

THANK YOU FOR THIS ARTICLE.

It's a very wonderful and great job that you do ! Thank you !!!

Térésa.

Our family has been impacted by the corruption of the legal system. My husband is sentenced to 25 to life in a Calif prison for crime he did not committ.I was fortunate to help co-ordinate the Freedom March in Los Angeles with Gloria Killian. To learn more about Larry Vanderberg go to www.truthcafe.net . Our voiced need to be heard

The criminal justice system, has become a profit making system, anyone whom can afford it and which to do so can operate a private prison, the system is corrupt on both the state and federal level, it's being ran by a lot of over zealous individuals, who will do whatever to get an conviction, to where they stoop as low as becoming liars and thieves, I think it's a power thing, they bring in informants and snitches, to build their case, without any real evidence, so a person can be convicted just on someone's word. I have read so many cases where the story has been changed so many times where the evidence is showing a person to be innocent, but yet the system manage to get a conviction, the system was design to work for the people, but most of the time it works against the people. Some of the judges, prosecuters, feds, and cops are some of the biggest criminals there is.

Can any of us truly believe the convicted commited the crime?

NO.

End of story.  The justice system is broken.

believe in reform come on the system it's self don't believe in rehab. I was in prison over 25 years ago and let me tell you it straightened me out and since I have done everything in my power to stay out of jail or prison the system looks through their records every 10 years and picks people to mess with why can't the system just leave us alone so we can live our lives in peace those of us that have straightened ourselves out and is trying to do right get messed with all the time.Now the LAW breaks the Law when in a support case you don't have to give me a DNA test but u can come to my home arrest me take me across 5 state lines put me in jail and charge me 3 times with the same crime which is against the constituional laws us 42,but because you are the Law its okay to break the laws and tramatize our families child support is legal extortion and thats all it is,it gives the law a way to jail people that they have never given a DNA test to and make money by means of bonds and fines when none should be allowed.you want us to have faith in reform the reform the laws that are made for the law to break

Why not give some statistics on the income and education of offenders? The reality is that poor, uneducated people are more likely to resort to crime and more likely to be locked up when caught. The gap between the rich and the poor continues to widen in this country. And unfurtunately, a person's access to a good education directly corresponds to their wealth or lack there of.

However, let's not leave out the fact that plenty of criminals are still on the street if they happen to be financially prosperous. How many athletes, politicians, and other celebrities should be behind bars, but are not, because of money and power?

I think that people are forgetting that MOST of the people in prison ARE guilty and HAVE committed horrific crimes. Is the three strike rule ineffective? Yes, I think it is. However, knowing how ridiculous the judiciary system and the prison system can be SHOULD BE YOUR MOTIVATION FOR NOT BREAKING THE LAW! I don't want to spend the rest of my life in prison or have to sit in prison knowing that I'm innocent. You need to choose the people you associate with carefully, you need to use your head when going to places or attending functions that could turn out poorly. Don't put yourself in a situation that could lead you end up in jail or prison. Three strikes can be unfair if you're committing non-violent crimes and then have to spend your life in prison but if you live in California you're aware of this. Does it really take the courts telling you three times to stop breaking the law, no matter what the crime is, for you to get it? Peolple are not as stupid as we'd like to think. They are also not as innocent sometimes either. As far as rehabilitating people, some people cannot be rehabilitated. I don't think they deserve our time, effort or tax dollars. Get rid of them.  

Matt, thks so much for working so hard on this issue.  My husband is serving life + 20 years for a non-violent crime.  He is on his 8th year now.  Each day I wonder how this happened and why it had to be "Life" and how no one in congress gives a flip! I won't get on my soap box, just wanted to sincerely thank you for all you do.

There are hundreds of thousands of innocent people who did not commit a crime or where a crime never happened sitting in our jails and prisons in the U.S-#1 jailer in the world. 

Join the Freedom March for the Wrongfully Convicted, an innocence movement to bring awareness and to change legislation in the broken criminal justice system.

www.FreedomMarchUSA.org

Sign online Petition to nominate Gloria Killian for the Commission to reform the broken criminal justice system. 

http://www.change.org/actions/view/gloria_killian_for_the_national_prison_reform_committee

Gloria Killian for the National Prison Reform Committee

To: the President of the United States, Members of the U.S. Senate and Members of the U.S. House of Representatives, see more...Started by: ACTION COMMITTEE FOR WOMEN IN PRISON
Lead the way and begin the dialog -- being heard yesterday in the Senate subcommittee -- FAMM   Julie Stewart  Eliminate Mandatory Minimum Sentencing, which has turned America into #1 Jailer in the world and threatened our own people within -- no longer "the land of the free" as 1 in 31 Adults are in Corrections, probation or parole. This does not count many other groups. Write your Congressmen/women. Write Sen. Jim Webb and participate on his Criminal Justice Commission -- citizens are needed, and those exonerated who have spent decades as innocent people trapped in America's jails and prisons - Hell-holes that rival Abu Ghraib in it's treatment of human beings.

We are nominating Gloria Killian, wrongfully convicted, wrongfully imprisoned for 17 1/2 years for a crime she did NOT commit, and exonerated for Sen. Jim Webb's Criminal Justice Reform Commission to overhaul a broken criminal justice and prison system.  Only she has more real life experience as a result of the failed policies that no one on the commission has or anyone else nominates. The alarming rate of growth of women and girls being incarcerated is an issue since the history of prisons is they were built for men, not women who have special gender specific needs and issues. It's time to recognize this. The future of this nation depends on honestly facing this crisis.This petition ends on Oct 13.

Most police are law abidng sincere persons who want to make this a better country but some are freeloading parasites who depend on lying gossip for criminal leads or drug addicted informants who will say anything to get the freedom to use more drugs. Entrapments are used to get an otherwise intelligent person to commit a crime. This is why there is "Jury Nullification" whereas a jury may realize someone was framed or entrapped and mete out a better system of justice. Most jurors are not aware of this and will go by the opinion of the fellow juror who has the loudest voice.

What we need more than anything is to be able to defend ourselves against criminals.  The criminal on the block that killed a 72 year old man in 1989 while robbing his home (he stole his laptop and cell phone) was let out of his 72 year sentence by the Illinois Supreme Court in 2002 on a technicality.  The perp confessed, never denied it, and was proud of the fact that he beat the system.  He was charged with 18 violent felonies (different events completely) between 2002 and 2009.  The five burglaries and one attempted home invasion upon myself did not result in charges against him.  He was charged with a very small percentage of actual armed robberies and such that he committed.  What bothers me more than anything is that when I am sitting in my living room watching TV and my door gets broken by two hard kicks and I am suddenly feeling in fear for my life that I have to worry about defending myself.  If a home invader doesn't actually hold up a weapon to me and I were to use a weapon to defend myself then all of a sudden I'm the criminal . . . and being the only honest one in the room will be the only one who admits to their only crime (defending yourself) and consequently the only one convicted.  I'm holding the broken door as shut as I can get it while on the phone to the police and holding a kitchen knife (the only thing handy to defend myself with) and am told by the dispatcher that if I use the knife on a home invader that I could be charged.  What??????  I don't get it. 

It would also be nice if some of these people who are referring to non-violent criminals are talking about residential burgalars?  I consider residential burglary violent.  Break the window, throw every thing around, take what ever you want (laptop with all your pictures and music, your memories) and if the home owner happens to be there or walk in on you then assault them or kill them . . . I'm tire of hearing that burglary is non-violent.  As far as I'm concerned, if you break into someones house then your own death (homeowner self defence) is one of the possible outcomes and that any sentence less than death is merciful.

Now these adult consensual crimes they keep coming up with and give people crazy sentences for . . . I just can't figure it out . . . Armed robbers and burglars are unleashed on our neighborhoods and someone gets a 20 year sentence for marijuana?  I don't care if you had a football stadium filled with it.  I only care if your interactions were consensual. 

I have to agree with Mary-Ann in whatever she said. The "Tough on Crime" is not working.  Our judicial system now locks you up without even trying to find the truth, and then throws away the key.  Our judicial system has become "Guilty" until proven innocent and many innocent men and women are in prison for crimes they never committed.  It is a game, it's a numbers game and who wins the most convictions.  Where is justice? Sentencing reform is only 1 small piece to the puzzle.  Imprisoning innocent people has become so common that the incarceration rate has sky rocketed because of it.  The Freedom March for the Wrongfully Convicted is the beginning to what we all hope is an end to this travesty. Go to www.FreedomMarchUSA.org and check out the site and then volunteer and support your state you live in.

Juveniles, mentally ill and Innocent human being's  are just found guilty, locked away and some of them are  being given life sentences.

Until it will happen to someone you know, you may not think this is the real truth about the Justice System, but believe me when it happened to you and when it does, will you then wake up and speak up?  I bet you will.

It's real sad when the justice system give a person life for a drug offense, such as marijuana I'm not saying that the use of drugs or the selling of drugs is right,but individuals uses drugs on their own free will no one is forcing them to use drugs, unless a drug dealer sales drugs to a minor I don't think they deserve life in prison, when the system is allowing murders, child molesters, and people who commit a crime against a person or their property walk the street after serving a few months or years in prison, please tell me where the justice is.

After reading all of these posts, I feel that we all agree that the system is BROKEN!!! I am a law abiding citizen, but when I pass a police car or have one behind me, I can't help but hold my breath and hope he'll leave me alone. When did this start? We've all seen the stories about police arresting innocent people,busting into the wrong house,beatings, killing unnecessarily. And what about the broken judicial system? Even if you're innocent, you're given a choice by your public pretender:take it to trial and you'll most likely be found guilty and you'll have to pay court costs, or take a plea bargain!When did we become guilty until proven innocent? Either way you loose!Yes, there are guilty people in prison, but there are also many who don't belong there, could get help without going to prison,have done their time and are still in prison(parole eligible),children,elderly,terminally ill,the list goes on!What kind of people are we when we allow our system to put 12 year old children in adult prison with child molesters and murderers?When did you ever hear of a child molester trying to escape prison?NEVER! Why?Because we are feeding them the children,OUR CHILDREN which they pray on!These child molesters will line up(running a soul train,it's called) and take turns molesting a helpless child,sometimes for days!Continuous non stop rape!And we turn our heads and pretend it doesn't happen!Maybe it doesn't matter unless it's YOUR child!I could go on and on, but what I'm trying to say is where did we go wrong?This is supposed to be AMERICA!Once upon a time we looked at other Nations in disbelief as to what they did to their citizens.Now they look at US in disbelief!When did we become afraid to speak up?When did we loose our common sense and decency?When did we loose everything that America is supposed to be and our constitutional rights?We have become a prison nation,a nation run by corrupt politicians and law makers,NOT THE PEOPLE.It's time for us, the PEOPLE to take our heads out of the dirt and give our great Nation back to the people!

In the early American days, there were different forms of punishment which would be more economical than long years in prisons. Stockades were used where a person was strapped with his face out and rotten eggs or fruit was thrown at his head. Then there were public whippings which were a determent to crime and very swift and just. That way, the person was punished and could go back to work and to his family after a few days of recovery. A thief had a tatoo on his hand or forehead showing he was a thief which is the same thing now as a police blotter although I'm not so sure about amputating a thief's hand or legs as punishment. False accusers were severely punished; now they are given amnesty so as to continue their crime spree.

Please sign our petition to support the commutation request of a wrongly convicted Latino former high school honor student named Efrén Paredes, Jr. who was arrested at age 15 for a crime he did not commit.  Efrén is 36-years-old now and has been in prison over 20 years.  This is a very important story we hope you will help us generate support for. You can sign the petition on Change.org site at http://tinyurl.com/FreeEPJ.

I came to this discussion a bit late, but a few thoughts:

California's three strikes system is a travesty because any third strike can result in life. If such a system is used, the third strike should be a fairly serious felony to qualify.

Not, only are people of color the victims of the criminal "justice" system, so are the poor, uneducated, mentally disabled and unconnected.

Punishment doesn't work with animals, so it won't work with people. Rather than eliminating the behavior, it just changes the circumstances where that behavior occurs. This is basic Psych 101. Instead there needs to be a focus on early interventions with at risk young people to help them meet their economic and other needs in a socially acceptable manner. The average NY State prison inmate has a fifth grade education. Level of education negatively correlates with recidivism. Let's be proactive instead of reactive.

Yet, the college programs that were funded by such things as PELL grants were eliminated, because people complained about prisoners getting free college educations because they were prisoners and that they should be punished instead. But, the reason why prisoners qualified for these grants is because they were indigent. Most poor people on the outside don't realize that they qualify for such programs, or how to apply for them.

The vice laws (drugs, prostitution, gambling) need to be eliminated. These activities should be regulated and taxed. The tax revenues from these activities combined with the reduced cost of the criminal justice system would probably balance the budget.

But, a lot of lawyers, cops, prison guards and related support staff would be out of jobs. Almost all politicians are lawyers. The people in power benefit from the status quo and sell us a bill of goods, which many buy, not seeing the hypocrisy of the people waging the war on drugs, etc.

One example of the hypocrisy is that the same people who want the government out of our lives in terms of "socialized" medicine and the other better benefits that the citizens of the western European nations enjoy push the governement involvement with the vice laws and laws against gay marriage. The same people who are against choice regarding abortion are usually pro NRA, anti-environment, and push for us to engage in more wars, so we protect the unborn and then kill them off after they're born.

For those of you that realize that the current criminal "justice" system is a travesty, realize that you're up against big money and power and that most of the same poor fools who voted for Bush believe the poisonous claptrap that the military-industrial-prison complex is selling...

Mandatory minimum sentencing is a failed policy. It's time to give judges discretionary power in the court room.

Please sign the Petition to Sign “Ramos-Compean Justice Act of 2009.” H.R. 3327
http://www.change.org/actions/view/sign_ramos-compean_justice_act_of_2009_hr_3327

Two glaring examples of how mandatory minimum sentencing policies are failures are New York's Rockefeller drug laws and California's three strikes and you're out law. Both of these states are going bankrupt from these bankrupt policies.

It would make far more sense for these and other states to legalize, regulate and tax the currently illegal drugs. As for these drugs being dangerous, tobacco and alcohol are the numbers 1 and 2 killers respectively.

 
 
Monday, October 12, 2009 
 "Justice for Jared" (Find on Facebook & Twitter)
Current mood:  determined
Category: Life

Tell you about Jared... hmmmm. Let's see, Habitual Offender for stealing to support
cocaine habit (1985-1988) with life sentence but up for Parole in 1998. World stopped
spinning for Jared when he was charged for murder, after he readily and without pause
admitted to stealing a pistol included in his 11 counts of burglary. He was visibly
in shock when resented with the accusation. He was devestated. People in high
positions, knew the gun was used as a murder weapon, and that it passed through
several hands (from Jared's and back again). He never tried o "bury the pistol"
or even hide it for that matter. A police identified murder suspect fled to California,
 prior to police interrogation, on motorcyle and was killed in accident in route to
California. Habitual thief Jared was going up the river for 10 years and it seems that
the system tht sent him figured he had room for one more lose ended case in the boat.
I know him. I am not blindly defending him. Due process denied, jury member's
connection to the case was self disclosed and she was not removed after making this
known, etc. Jared's lawyer wrote him a letter, still in Jared's possession which
reads... "Your case still keeps me up at night. I hope it keeps the Judge up, too".
Post 2 Tracie Swann wrote at 20:35 on 28 September 2009
I KNOW THAT JARED DUKE DID NOT MURDER ANYONE. I HAVE READ THE CASE. THERE WAS NO
EVIDENCE, NO FINGERPRINTS ON THE KEY THAT OPENED THE BUILDING, NO WITNESSES, AND
EVEN FAMILY MEMBERS OF THE SUGGESTED KILLER ADMITTED THAT JARED DIDN'T DO IT, THE
GUY THAT FLED TO CA DID. A relative of the victim was on the jury - Jared took the
fall because he had been a rebellious kid with a bad record.
What I do know is that Jared is a man after God's heart. What makes a man cry says
a lot about that person, whether they are self-centered or GOD centered. He cries!
He's a lot like Jeremiah in that he has a great love and devotion for God! It tortures
Jared for someone to sin against God, he hates all evil, and knows what it means to
love under the worst circumstances. Right now I figure he is sending a note down to
another cell witnessing to someone...Or he is reading his Bible, or possibly reading
one of his favorite books, "End Time Delusions". If you contact Jared by mail, I
assure you that you will be blessed. I know I was. There is hope for Jared and God
is on his side. For many years Jared was a rebellious teen, went to prison and became
outraged over his sentence, he did some really bad things.....but a miraculous thing
occured - THE CROSS. Through the cross, we are 100 % righteous. God waited until
Jared was on his knees. God gave him what he had been searching for his whole life -
PEACE! Now God has given him HOPE. I assure anyone who is in doubt - the "LORD" is
his portion!!! He knows that "men are not cast off forever." And he waits faithfully
on his LORD. The Lord has now taken up Jared's case. He has redeemed his life and HE
will uphold this cause!!!! I am urging everyone to pray for Jared and pray that the
wrongful sentence will somehow be reversed....Also pray that people that know what
happened that night will step up to the plate and speak the truth. This case keeps
me up too!!!!!
_____________
The authorities believe a key was used by themurderer(s) in the commission of
crime. It was found still in the outside of the door where entry was gained to the
murder scene Fingerprints were on that key. To this day authorities refuse to run
those prints against those of one Nathan Claude Johnson, despite the fact that he
lived less than a mile from the murder scene; moved to California right after the
murder (under Alabama law there's an inference of "guilt" when one takes flight);
and was the only person in the investigation named as one having boasted of
committing the murder. [He promptly turned up dead from what was termed a
"motorcycle accident'.] How to force Tuscaloosa into running those potentially
exonerating and politically-incorrect fingerprints? After all, how can the
APPEARANCE of Justice be administered to a corpse? How to force Alabama into
acknowledging that my Constitutional right to a fair and impartial jury supersedes
"procedural bars"? More on that later. Thank you for your time and bless you for
your love, cards, and letters.
_____________
PETTIFOG JUNCTION
Upon reading Attorney Joel Sogol's gumption to hurl a moral dart at Alabama
Supreme Court Justice, Tom Parker's "ethics standards", bones rattled in a closet.
A perusal of Sogol's past begs the question of how he'd be provided so public a
forum from which to blow even an ethical spitball at someone.
A single skeleton crowns and defines Sogol's career in an ethical context. In
scouring the annals of jurisprudence, those corridors so full of bizarre
obliquities, a better (or more Machiavellian) example of a Defense Attorney's
lapse into moral apostasy cannot be found. Though obscured by time, well
obfuscated by duplicitous grime, it reeks to high heaven still in the noses of
all who came, who saw, and who considered. The table was set nearly two decades
ago as a Tuscaloosa hoodlum facing a laundry list of property crimes hired Sogol
to represent him. Roundly despised by the local law enforcement community, rightly
deserving of a hiatus behind bars for his sticky fingers, the boy in no-wise deserved
what he got. . Justice is one thing. Being served up and roasted on an altar
catering to the combined appetites of political expediency and a brooding assemblage
of Organized Crime shadows is quite another. When the menu calls for parboiled "patsy",
it's not Sogol's to question why ...hut to fire up the old' grill and rustle up the
fixn's for a down-home BBQ. Marinating things right along, Sogol's inspired
guides the boy into pleading guilty to eight assorted thefts and burglaries in
return for 8 Life sentences. (Sounds severe, but nothing fancy. Just meat and
potatoes in a town The Guinness Book of World Records accredited with having
sentenced a man to the longest prison term in recorded history.) As a direct
consequence of one of those guilty pleas, involving a purloined pistol, the boy
was promptly indicted for Murder. Not just any Murder, mind you, but that of the
live-in "Caretaker" of the Am-Vet's Supper Club. Arguably Alabama's most
well-heeled and hands-off conclave of organized gambling. Nine years later under
oath Attorney Sogol recalls he was PRIVY to the pistol's murder weapon status,
but has no memory of ever sharing that tid-bit with the boy while showing him
where to sign the dotted line pleading him guilty to stealing the thing.
[See article: Prosecutor, Defense Attorney Deny Any Trickery in Guilty Plea,
August 12, 1997, THE TUSCALOOSA NEWS.] . Of course the boy re-hires Sogol to
defend him against the Murder charge that resulted from the guilty plea on
stealing the pistol, being unaware at the time that his own lawyer knew about
the pistol's Murder weapon status and thereby had facilitated the State in
procuring the Indictment against him to begin with. In so doing, he's on his
way to a cookout ••• His own. At trial, Sogol adopts a fairly novel stratagem,
considering every other Criminal Defense Attorney the world over, views it as
ANATHEMA. Sogol allowed, uncontested, one of the "Caretaker's" kinfolk to sit
on the jury, even after she declined to answer a direct question posed to her
asking whether or not being related to the Murder victim in this case would
impair her ability to remain a fair & impartial juror. [Transcript reflects:
NO RESPONSE to query.] The D.A. certainly didn't object, and was observed mincing
around the Courtroom as though he couldn't be happier. And Sogol didn't object ...
too preoccupied picking lint off his sheep's clothing. What about the Judge?
That he didn't intervene at this juncture, in the interests of preserving the
Constitutional right to a fair and impartial jury is tell-tale of ... What?
That THAT Constitution gets "amended" in T-Town when the wrong shadows hover
over the right shoulders. Smoked-to-a-crisp by circumstantial evidence, found
guilty by ten jurors, (two being removed for taint mid-trial) Sogol's client
was sentenced to Life without Parole without further ado. The trial judge
appoints Sogol to file the crucial direct appeal after conviction, wherein he
delivers the coup de grace of "Due Process" by omitting to object to a single
issue, preserving none for future appellate review, and thereby procedurally
barring legal avenues of recourse for his client. Of all the debris left in
the wake of this picnic, the only thing not found littering the ground (or
found anywhere else for that matter) was the one piece of physical exculpatory
evidence the defendant had to use in trying to meet the burden of proving his
innocence in a court of "flaw". A Defense Exhibit proving the lead detective
on the case received a tip that another man, with an avenue of access to the
pistol immediately prior to the murder, had boasted of having killed the
"Caretaker". This detective subsequently stated under oath, at an Evidentiary
Hearing, that he never followed up on that lead. But, alas! THAT piece of paper
was the only thing that vanished into thin air while in the trial court's
possession, remaining unfound and unexplained. In Sogol's "appeal" that wasn't
worth bringing up either. (At least he's consistent.) The upshot is after it
was all over but the boy's (and his family's), crying, Sogol sends him a letter
on his professional-looking office stationary, talking about this case keeping
him up at night ... Said he hoped it kept the Judge up too. The boy, now middle
aged and fluent in the language of sleepless nights, still serves a L.W.O.P.
sentence for another man's doing. He's kept Sogol's letter to ponder on over
the years. A memento to commemorate that once-upon-a-time ... Sogol may actually
have experienced a scruple. For what good it was.