tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45202926991683659992024-03-13T10:46:22.049-04:00Page Two by LieStoppers"An amazing performance of journalism on the fly.” - Stuart TaylorUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger79125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4520292699168365999.post-79279420140851727702008-04-14T18:40:00.000-04:002008-04-14T18:47:17.613-04:00Eric's Smuggled Camera Blog Post<object height="355" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/TVzJ2T5PfoU&rel=0&hl=en"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/TVzJ2T5PfoU&rel=0&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object><br /><br />Eric's New Blog starts off with this video he made during his incarceration.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.friendsofericvolz.com/blog">Smuggled Camera Blog Post </a><div class="blogger-post-footer">www.liestoppers.blogspot.com</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com109tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4520292699168365999.post-11841944307285159402008-02-12T14:51:00.000-05:002008-02-12T14:52:39.029-05:00Update from EricUPDATE February 11, 2008<br /><br />Since my release seven weeks ago we have received thousands of letters from all over the world. The content ranges from celebration of the life of Doris, inquiries about my health, to the status of the case, conspiracy theories (some of which are true), cultural analysis, concern for the future of U.S.- Nicaragua relations, questions about elements of the case that remain unclear, people invested in Nicaragua who blame me for their losses, death threats, hate mail, interview requests from all over, etc. But the most common theme in the letters is refreshing - it is those who give thanks to the almighty creator for allowing this first chapter to be concluded in that way that it was.<br /><br />There are a lot of issues that I have been dealing with that have kept me from sending an update before now, but I want to keep you informed as best as I'm able. I consider each and every one of you part of this story and I am very grateful for your on-going interest and support – it has greatly aided in my recovery!<br /><br />I was really ill my first couple of weeks back on U.S. soil. I felt like the space shuttle reentering the atmosphere from another world and I had to de-tox before I came back. I'll talk more about what it has been like to re-enter society later, but like a space vehicle in reentry, after my release the case heated up before it cooled off. This didn't allow me the time I needed to rest and start the healing process as quickly as I'd hoped, but these are the steps I have to take.<br /><br />My defense effort was forced to get right back to the grind after my release to bring attention to what was happening to the Appellate magistrates, (Roberto Rodriguez and Alejandro Estrada) who overturned the lower court's decision and declared me innocent. There was a powerful backlash by the Nicaraguan press because of my release. The Nicaraguan government was trying to wash their hands of the case and find some one to place the blame on.<br /><br />These Appellate judges were under constant attack by the Sandinista magistrates (Rafael Solis and Alba Luz Ramos) of the Supreme Court who were exerting significant influence to try these men for ruling on the merits of my case and upholding the law and constitution. The Appellate magistrates received death threats, faced imprisonment, and loss of their positions.<br /><br />As a result, two weeks after I was released, I went to New York and did a series of news features with the purpose of putting the spotlight back on the corruption of the Sandinistas Supreme court justices. My visit to New York was timed to coincide with the hearing dates in which the appellate magistrates were being tried.<br /><br />I offered interviews to the New York Times, the Today Show, Anderson Cooper of CNN, and the two largest Spanish-speaking networks on the air, Telemundo and Univision. I came prepared and was very deliberate in my interviews, citing what group was fronting the efforts to undermine the justice that had been delivered. The day after the features aired, the Supreme Court magistrates Rafael Solis and Alba Luz Ramos stopped showing up to work, they were hiding from the press, and ceased attending the hearings that they had initiated. Once again, the press proved it's power.<br /><br />[Last week the results of the investigation of the Appellate magistrates were announced. There would be no sanctions against either of the Appellate magistrates – great news! The President of the Supreme Court in Nicaragua stated that, "…the Supreme Court's investigations have concluded that the Magistrates of the Court of Appeals in Granada, Robert Francisco Rodriguez and Alejandro Estrada, who ordered Volz released by revoking the original sentence, and Norman Miranda, who dissented via a vote for annulment of the original sentence, acted according to their own criteria and in accordance with the law."]<br /><br />I spent last week in Washington, D.C. where I met with members of the State Department, sharing with them some of the, so far, unpublished pieces of this story, as well as giving them the opportunity to explain the methods in which they chose to approach my case with. In addition, I visited with key members of Congress who were the most instrumental in championing my case on the Hill. It was a great opportunity for me to both thank them for their efforts as well as investigate how your letters and out reach asking for their support actually translated into action. It was a very informative visit that provided much clarity and more pieces to the puzzle.<br /><br />Many of you have asked in the letters what I'm doing now. I want to reiterate my commitment to tell the entirety of this experience. My estimation is that only 20% of the story is known to those outside my family and defense team. I have decided to write a book as it has become clear that it is the only medium that can encompass this rich journey. I promise, if you thought what you know is surreal and insane, just wait until the "real story" is published!<br /><br />I must mention that I also feel that a complete account of this piece of history could be very healing for many people and collectively for the US and Nicaragua relationship. As many of you point out in your letters, the events that followed Doris's murder have exposed and deepened a great wound between our two nations. It is my belief that a thorough account of this story will clarify many twisted misunderstandings and subsequently be a step toward bridging the gap. <br /><br />One of the great pleasures I have had since my release is bumping into people who have been part of my support network these past 16 months. It has provided me a whole new level of understanding of the magnitude and impact of this ordeal. I have been greeted with tears by new friends; people approach me in the street and just grab me and hug me, many of them speechless that I'm really standing in front of them. Believe me, it's hard for me to grasp too, but I'm honored and humbled by your words, hopes and expressions of support. The depth of the community is astounding and I thank you!!! <br /><br />Finally, we are in the process of re-designing our web site and consolidating the on-line community. One of the features we are compelled to focus on is other cases of injustice that we believe need the attention and support of this powerful and committed community. Whether you knew it or not, through your involvement in bringing attention to my story, you have in essence become what I've begun referring to as "shareholders in justice" and we will continue, with your help, to raise awareness for those in need of it!<br /><br />Thank you for your letters and continuing to be part of the story!<br /><br />With love,<br />Eric V.<div class="blogger-post-footer">www.liestoppers.blogspot.com</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4520292699168365999.post-14588122547847185802008-01-06T12:30:00.000-05:002008-01-06T14:27:25.241-05:00Letter from EricFriends & Supporters,<br /><br />I'm sorry it's taken so long to send a message, but this is the first chance I've had to get this information out. The good news is that I actually typed this update directly into a computer, instead of passing hand-written letters to my attorney which were then scanned and emailed to my support team, transcribed, typed, and blasted to the support network.<br /><br />I will to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you for your taking time out of your busy lives to follow this story. The many different ways you all showed support during the past 13 months contributed directly to my release. There is no way I could ever express my appreciation, gratitude, and wonder for this passionate community that has rallied for my freedom. I am very fortunate!!<br /><br />Unfortunately, I am not celebrating my release. In fact, this is far from over! As you will see when you read the Declaration of New Facts (in Spanish & English) now posted on the web sites, my freedom has yet to be restored. The need for your continued involvement to secure justice remains: the Sandinista government is trying to overturn my release; and in order to divert attention from the fact that some of Doris' murderers are still free, are searching for another scapegoat on which to place blame.<br /><br />I am still in hiding due to continued death threats. Though I haven't yet recovered physically, I must continue to fight! As an emerging community of ethically-motivated people who have gravitated to this story, you provide me the endurance and purpose to be fully committed to my ultimate responsibility: the pursuit of justice.<br /><br />With love,<br />Eric V.<br /><br />Friendsofericvolz.com<br /><br />Amigosdeeric.com<div class="blogger-post-footer">www.liestoppers.blogspot.com</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4520292699168365999.post-38179202218184767852007-12-21T21:57:00.000-05:002007-12-21T22:00:53.591-05:00Eric is Free!Statement from the family of Eric Volz – Friday, December 21, 2007 – 8:30pm Central<br /><br />“Eric Volz was released from a Nicaraguan prison hospital earlier today and will be in hiding, due to reports of threats against him. We have reason to believe he is being followed and are taking every precaution to assure his safety.<br /><br />Our family is overwhelmed by the incredible outpouring of support of Eric’s innocence over the past year. In the center of an impossible situation, we have experienced the most abundant love from friends and total strangers, and we thank you.<br /><br />We are grateful to the courageous individuals in the Nicaraguan government who fought for truth and justice to prevail in this case as well to those in the US government who provided assistance in securing Eric’s release.<br /><br />This ordeal has taken an incredible physical and emotional toll on all of us, especially Eric. We thank you in advance for respecting our privacy and allowing our family to recover.” <a href="http://www.friendsofericvolz.com/updates.htm">FriendsofEricVolz</a><div class="blogger-post-footer">www.liestoppers.blogspot.com</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4520292699168365999.post-12188183100237486582007-10-09T16:05:00.000-04:002007-10-09T16:09:18.034-04:00A Letter from Eric's MomWell, how should I begin? The last time that I saw Eric was on May 19… his 28th birthday.<br /><br />Based on the information that we read in the Nicaraguan media, we expected that the appellate decision would be made by now. When I left the penitentiary in May I never thought that I’d have to see Eric there again.<br /><br />He’s still so frustrated! None of us can believe that it’s been nearly a year since his arrest. His spirits remain strong, but when I’m sitting there looking at Eric in the environment of the penitentiary, it’s inconceivable that he’s still suffering this injustice nearly 11 months later…it’s so wrong to see him there.<br /><br />After five long months of expectation, and no decision by the appellate court, I returned to Nicaragua; it was time to see Eric.<br /><br />I was able to visit him several times and bring him essential items that he desperately needed…food, reading materials, letters from those of you who have written and some homemade cookies from some dear friends. It was so good to see him again. It was great for both of us to see each another.<br /><br />Many of you have inquired as to Eric’s health, safety and the status of the appellate process. Since our last communication, the prison has returned Eric’s nebulizer and asthma medicine and his breathing has improved. His overall health is somewhat better, but is still an ongoing issue.<br />As for Eric’s safety, while I was there, there was a violent riot in the penitentiary resulting in numerous injuries. Obviously, Eric’s safety continues to be of major concern.<br /><br />Regarding the appellate process; there is no news. Eric's appeal remains in the possession of the appellate court and, at this time, we have no official word on the status or movement of the case. During the appeal process it is critical and his legal right that Eric have regular meetings with his attorney. However, prison officials have continually denied access to his attorney.<br /><br />Despite the difficulties prison officials imposed, Eric and I were able to focus on the quality of our time together.<br /><br />Eric still receives and reads every email, and though he can’t respond directly continues to refer to your messages as his “lifeline”. Eric asked me tell you that he still wants to hear from you - please continue to write to him.<br /><br />I can’t begin to express the depth of pride I feel for the man that Eric’s choosing to become. He inspires me and I am honored to be his mother!<br /><br />Bendiciones,Maggie<br /><br /><a href="http://www.friendsofericvolz.com/updates.htm">Friends of Eric Web Site</a><div class="blogger-post-footer">www.liestoppers.blogspot.com</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4520292699168365999.post-33671050854060173512007-08-20T01:19:00.000-04:002007-08-20T01:39:37.778-04:00A Letter from EricDear Friends,<br /><br />Out of concern for my safety, my defense team and I have been extremely passive and gracious to those responsible for this injustice. Some might be surprised to know that despite the overwhelming evidence proving my innocence and a growing network of global support, the indicators and nuances we are getting here tell us that my freedom is not getting any closer.<br />As I enter into my 9th month in prison with no word from the appellate court and with the authorities increasingly violating my rights to defense (see <a href="http://www.friendsofericvolz.com/updates.htm#1">Appendix 1</a>), it has become obvious that an adjustment to our approach is needed. I have waited as long as I can to write this letter, but as a man fighting for his life, I’m left with no other choice.<br /><br />I’ll just get straight to the point – everyone wants to know what’s going on? “Why haven’t they ruled on your appeal?” In order for people to understand the context of the situation I need to give a short summary of some of the events that have taken place since the trial. I will share many details that have not yet been offered through the web updates as we have tried to keep the attention focused on the judicial process instead of all the hype surrounding it. This story has many branches so I have added appendices providing background information on some of the elements mentioned.<br /><br />After I was found guilty by the district court, as many of you are aware, the story was picked up by some international press groups. Up to this point the only press coverage of the case had been by Nicaraguan media that, with the exception of two reports (see <a href="http://www.friendsofericvolz.com/updates.htm#2">Appendix 2</a>), was absolutely biased and determined to convince the Nicaraguan public that I had murdered Doris. By manipulating, filtering (see <a href="http://www.friendsofericvolz.com/updates.htm#3">Appendix 3</a>), and most of all utilizing prejudiced tones in the headlines, they succeeded in their goal and their dishonest version of the story has become “gospel”.<br /><br />So when the international investigative journalists started providing coverage, it was really the first time the story had been told from an impartial perspective, even though the case was already more than three months old. And although it raised awareness around my situation, which has translated into amazing support from all over the world, the effect that it had on me here in Nicaragua was, for the most part, negative. Let me explain why…<br />The international press gathered the facts from all sides and for the first time the evidence supporting my innocence was reported. So, when contrasted to the biased version the Nicaraguan public had been fed, it was suddenly a much larger story that not only suggested that there is no way I could be guilty of what I was being accused of, but also leaves you questioning the legality of the judicial process of this case.<br /><br />The Nicaraguan news sources that had deceived the public were suddenly faced with an embarrassing problem. They were being held accountable by the international media’s non-biased version of the story and many Nicaraguans were starting to take notice. The newspaper El Nuevo Diario (see <a href="http://www.friendsofericvolz.com/updates.htm#4">Appendix 4)</a> was the first to react and, as a strategy to save face, chose to further deceive the public by questioning the integrity of the international reporters and once again leveraging resentment against me and my family as they had done before the trial.<br /><br />They started with an article called “Campana Peligrosa de Familia Volz” (Dangerous Campaign of the Volz family), in which they claimed that the international media was being directed by my family and that we were attempting to politicize the story by making reference to the political history between the U.S. and Nicaragua. In addition, they ran an article called “Derrocha de Dinero” (Squandering of Money), where they reported that my family was “spending enormous sums” to fund the international media coverage (this is of course absurd, besides the fact that we are all broke, anyone, who thinks logically, would know that a civilian family doesn’t have any influence over what is produced by CNN, NBC, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, or any other international media outlets. They report what sells). The Nicaraguan tabloid “Hoy” also attacked hard with a series of front page stories telling readers that the international news interest and web media was a result of my “power to manipulate.” Several Nicaraguan national TV news programs followed the newspaper’s lead and aired some reports on the “grand and potentially dangerous campaign of the Volz family.” (I encourage people to look these articles up and read them personally).<br /><br />In essence, what these news sources were telling the Nicaraguan public is that the corporate news brands abroad were being influenced to present me as a victim. As a move to preserve their credibility they implied that the dishonest version of the story was not their own, but rather that of the international corporate networks. In addition, they further generated dislike for me and my team by saying that the foreign press coverage was giving Nicaragua a bad name, claiming its judicial system is corrupt - that was never said in any of the international media coverage.<br /><br />The overall result of us being accused as the “directors or authors of a movement that was giving Nicaragua a bad image” generated a new wave of resentment toward me by those who had been once and again fooled by the Nicaraguan press (see <a href="http://www.friendsofericvolz.com/updates.htm#5">Appendix 5</a>). I immediately felt the consequences of that resentment in prison not only from fellow inmates, but by the authorities as well. The resentment had obviously become institutionalized because the warden stopped allowing me to do interviews and, in violation of my constitutional rights as a prisoner in the appeal process, dozens of Nicaraguan and international reporters were turned away without me even knowing. The public relations department of the penitentiary system was simply responding to inquiries by saying, “Eric doesn’t want to do anymore interviews.” CNN was even denied entrance despite the fact that they had a specific court order authorizing them to interview me. The message was clear – the authorities didn’t want the world to know the truth.<br /><br />After almost three months a couple of progressive Nicaraguan journalists who were interested in telling my side of the story to the Nicaraguan public somehow managed to get permission to interview me in prison. On the afternoon of May 9 I was interviewed by Camilo de Castro from the TV news program “Esta Semana”, Xavier Reyes Alba from La Radio Trinchera, and Elizabeth Romero from the newspaper La Prensa (that three hour block was the first and only chance I have had to defend myself in the Nicaraguan press).<br /><br />Since it was the first time the general Nicaraguan public would hear me speak and they were aware of how much slandering the press had done with me, all three journalists published the interviews in a neutral Q&A format. Due to the time and space constraints of their mediums, I only really got to scratch the surface, but I was able to share enough of my unheard story to apparently have really challenged the Nicaraguan public to reconsider what they had been told.<br />In fact, I was told by a source that 50% of San Juan del Sur believes that I’m innocent since those interviews were released, but that many are still apprehensive to acknowledge it publicly for fear of retaliation from Doris’ family. Another person told me that most of the people in Managua now believe that I’m both completely innocent and got set up, or that something mysterious went on in the judicial process.<br /><br />Unfortunately, that series of interviews also caused the authorities to react by applying even more pressure on me in prison. You see, defending me means pointing out some of the inconsistencies in the accusations against me. For example, the judge said I was scratched by Doris on my shoulder, but the police report stated that there was no skin tissue or blood found under her nails. Or the fact that the district attorney prosecutor had evidence linking Danglas to the crime scene, but withheld it knowing that they were going to free him in exchange for his testimony against me. In other words, when I defend myself certain institutions here not only look bad, it makes people question their motives.<br /><br />To my surprise, after the interviews there was virtually zero reaction in the press. The only rebuttal, to my knowledge, was an article in the tabloid “Hoy” refuting my explanation that the bruises on my shoulder were caused by carrying Doris’ coffin. The same article featured a side column where Doris’ mother demanded that the National Police present the “supposed declaration” in which, according to them, I admitted to the murder of Doris (see <a href="http://www.friendsofericvolz.com/updates.htm#6">Appendix 6</a>) - (as far as I know, this declaration “story” is the main reason why she was initially convince that I was guilty).<br /><br />Now the police, as a result of my interviews, had Doris’ mother breathing down their neck. And although it points out many of the inconsistencies and contradictions in the case against me, it wasn’t enough to convince Doris’ mother of my innocence, it was enough to have pissed someone else off somewhere. The next day the prison guards started handcuffing me within the prison (see <a href="http://www.friendsofericvolz.com/updates.htm#7">Appendix 7</a>), cut my access to the telephone to one call per week, and started telling anyone who wanted to see me that they needed a court order, including my attorney (see <a href="http://www.friendsofericvolz.com/updates.htm#8">Appendix 8</a>).<br />Several weeks later on May 25, El Nuevo Diario newspaper ran a small article called “Trabajan en proyecto de anular juicio Volz” (They are working on the project of annulling the case of Volz) in which the secretary of the appellate court was interviewed saying that 75% of the case file had been reviewed by the magistrates presiding over my case and that they would be ruling “in the next couple of weeks” (which would have meant the 2nd week of June). He also explained that they were leaning toward annulling the sentence and calling for a retrial, describing the various terms under which this could happen. The article also mentioned that the police were revisiting some of the clues of the investigation including the American real estate developer, Ken Ross, who they claimed has information on who killed Doris (see <a href="http://www.friendsofericvolz.com/updates.htm#9">Appendix 9</a>).<br />Overall, it just seemed as if the article was published with the purpose of testing the possible verdict to see what kind of reaction it would provoke. After all, annulling the trial would be a temporary way to diplomatically save face internally in Nicaragua. One must remember that a correct ruling declaring me innocent suggests that the national police, the district attorney prosecutor, and the trial judge all made mistakes. And that is not the only pressure that the magistrates are faced with.<br /><br />On June 1 an article called “Ruling on Volz Appeal Expected Soon” appeared in the English newspaper for ex-pats and tourists, “The Nica Times”. The author, Tim Rogers, speaks with the head of the three judge appellate panel presiding over my appeal, who again confirmed that “75% of the case file had been reviewed” and that they were “expecting to rule in the next few weeks,” (which, again, would have been the middle of June). He also said that they (the presiding magistrates) are in a tough situation and feel the pressure because if they rule in favor of Eric Volz there will be “a revolt on the part of Doris’ family and they (the judges) will be accused of being corrupt.” On the flip side he explained, “…that if they confirm the sentence, there will be a revolt by the international community.” The fact that the potential public reaction of their verdict is even mentioned is symbolic and will let those reading draw their own conclusions as to what that could mean in terms of due process.<br /><br />After realizing that indeed the appeal was being affected by the pressure of public opinion, some Nicaraguan friends of mine in Managua decided that best way to help would be to try and relieve some of the pressure by spreading more awareness about the facts by proving my innocence. They organized a grass roots campaign called “Justicia por Eric Volz” (Justice for Eric Volz). They pooled money to finance 30 large banners that were hung at the busiest intersections in the cities of Managua, Masaya and Granada. They also handed out 15,000 fliers telling people to “get to know the truth” and visit the <a href="http://amigosdeeric.com/" target="_blank">amigosdeeric.com</a> web site.<br /><br />So far, this civil campaign has been the single most impactful action yet in support of me in Nicaragua. The traffic on the Spanish web site greatly increased and Nicaraguans for the first time were able to read “The Declaration of Facts” prepared by my defense team, which speaks for itself. I started getting tons of letters from Nicaraguans apologizing for what has happened to me, on behalf of their system, offering help, and explaining how they originally thought I was guilty, but after learning more, clearly see that I was used as a scapegoat. Also, many people committed to spread around the web site and promote awareness of the truth. It was an awesome success and really helped to change more public opinion in my favor among the general public of cosmopolitan Nicaragua. But, once again, it would seem that positive energy surrounding me was upsetting someone somewhere, because, although the campaign banners were authorized with the proper municipal permits, several were prematurely taken down by the authorities. My friends, who paid for them, weren’t given an explanation why.<br /><br />Perhaps more relevant is the fact that, despite it’s size and impact, the ”Justicia por Eric Volz” campaign was not reported in any of the national newspapers, radio, or TV news, with the exception of “La Trinchera de la Noticia” (see <a href="http://www.friendsofericvolz.com/updates.htm#10">Appendix 10</a>). The fact that none of the mainstream press reported on the campaign sent yet another strong message that they were not interested in endorsing anything that was in support of Eric V. That has been the general vibe that we have been confronted with down here since the beginning – the repression and denial by the formal sector of anything that contributes to my defense.<br /><br />So, here we are in month #9 with no official news or update from the appeals court as to when they are going to make a move and people are starting to raise an eyebrow out of suspicion. The international news groups are heating up again because of what seems to be a frozen appeal, the lack of communication, and the way I’ve been treated in prison have become part of the story. Everyone is simply asking, “What is going on?”<br /><br />The summary you have just read explains some of the context surrounding my appeal while sharing some of the subtle and not so subtle messages that have been communicated. But there is an additional factor that must be considered.<br /><br />This other factor has to do with the most relevant detail of all. It has to do with the fact that I was a foreign investor and legal resident living in Nicaragua who lost virtually everything I had worked for as a result of the judicial process I was subjected to. It is also the reason my case has become very political.<br /><br />At the heart of the matter is the problem that Nicaraguan entrepreneurs don’t have the investment capacity that the country needs to create jobs and reach stable growth, which is why foreign investment is needed. At the same time, foreign investment requires a stable business climate where the rule of law is clear, an impartial judicial system is established, and equal rights are guaranteed.<br />The problem for Nicaragua is that this case is known internationally. Many who are considering investing in Nicaragua are referencing my situation as a case study in analyzing the investment horizon and many have already decided not to bring their capital here as a result. So, this case is a big deal as thousands of people in Nicaragua and perhaps millions of people abroad are watching and anxiously awaiting the resolution.<br /><br />What will the resolution be?<br /><br />The answer would seem obvious. If politicians are worried about investment and upholding the law, then let me go! They have all the evidence to prove my innocence. But with a closer look it’s not so obvious because, as I mentioned before, declaring me innocent is acknowledging that serious mistakes were made, since no new evidence is allowed to be presented in the appeal (it is the same case file, just a new court).<br /><br />In contrast, as long as I am officially stamped “guilty” the fact that I was an investor who suffered serious losses as a result of being railroaded, is not officially validated because, if one was guilty, losing assets would be part of the consequences of their actions. This second scenario is the most convenient for those trying to attract investment to Nicaragua since supporting Eric Volz and trying to sell Nicaragua as a good investment is essentially a conflict of interest (see <a href="http://www.friendsofericvolz.com/updates.htm#11">Appendix 11</a>).<br /><br />So, the answer to the question of why the court hasn’t ruled on the appeal yet has to do with these reasons that the judges are feeling the pressure surrounding my case. They are also the reasons why this has become political and, by all definitions, I am a political prisoner. This is also the reasons why this has become political and, as a result, as with all court cases that become political here, it is about waiting for a politically convenient moment to announce the verdict, whatever and whenever that will be.<br /><br />This is my reality, Free Eric V.<br /><br />p.s. it is important that you all know that I’m taking a risk publishing this simple and brief summary update. I’m expecting there will be another reaction by the authorities in response to me spreading the truth. This letter will also, most likely, be cited and taken out of context by national press to further condemn me and sell more papers along the way. But as I mentioned in the beginning, I have no choice. If I remain silent, the injustice becomes forgotten and goes unnoticed. And that my friends, is not going to happen!<br /><br />Disclosure to close the Update:<br /><br />Eric wrote this letter at the beginning of July. Since then the prison guards have allowed him two 30 minute visits with his attorneys. There are press reports that the appeals court will be announcing their verdict in the next month. Our hope is that this will be true. In the meantime, Eric is living on the edge. If people only knew the environment in which he produced this letter it would blow your mind. His daily reality is literally something most of us have read in books. He is fully aware of the love and support that has flourished around the world on his behalf and sends his appreciation every time we talk to him.<br /><br /><a id="1" name="1"></a>Appendix 1:<br /><br />Only two news events pre-trial that cannot be classified as anti-Eric:<br />The weekly news program called “Esta Semana” by Carlos Fernando Chamorro covered the story a couple of weeks before the trial. It was the first time any of the inconsistencies in the accusation against me were reported. The host, Camilo de Castro, did a thorough investigation. In reality, the 15 minute segment was only able to scratch the surface and, although it raised important questions, the response I got from most people who saw it was that it simply left them “feeling murky about the whole thing.”<br /><br /><a id="2" name="2"></a>Appendix 2:<br /><br />The first district judge that presided over my case, Peter Palma (upon receiving the results that none of the physical evidence linked me to the crime scene), ruled that due to lack of evidence, that my imprisonment was unfair and released me on house arrest. His decision caused a strong reaction by the public who had already been fooled by the local press into believing I was the murderer. The headlines read, “Dollarized Crime,” suggesting that I had paid a bribe for him to release me on house arrest. Doris’ mother, the district attorney, and the Rivas Police were repeatedly interviewed as they denounced the judge. It caused such a scene that Judge Palma’s decision was actually taken to the Supreme Corte of Justice (Nicaraguan Supreme Court) and a committee was formed to investigate. The district attorney prosecutor and Judge Palma himself were called to appear in front of the committee and a hearing was held. After several weeks, the Supreme Court ruled that Judge Palma had indeed, “acted correctly,” and that, “the case against Eric Volz has serious holes and deficiencies.” This verdict by the Supreme Court received a quick clip on the nightly news and a small corner article in the newspaper, La Prensa. It was another sign that the media was out to condemn me, but the news was so relevant that they had to report on it.<br /><br />The fact that the Supreme Court has reviewed the case file and is on public record declaring that there are “serious holes and deficiencies” in the district attorney’s case against me is something that has not been reported in any international news story to date. I have mentioned this event in every interview and still believe it be one of the most important indicators of the truth. (El Nuevo Diario, February 7, 2007, “Fijan juicio por atroz crimen de Doris Ivania”)<br /><br /><a id="3" name="3"></a>Appendix 3:<br /><br />Early on when the first newspaper articles started to come out and we saw how biased they were, we thought that the reporters must not have had all the facts. So my defense team took action and sent copies of the official case file to the newspaper editors as well as organized a radio/TV press conference. They clearly presented my defense alibi and pointed out the inconsistencies in the prosecutor’s charges against me. Despite our efforts, the prejudiced reporting continued. (do a key word search in the Archives of El Nuevo Diario and La Prensa newspapers for the actual articles)<br /><br />When Doris’ mother declared that I had offered her a million dollars to drop the charges, my mom had to fight for a week to get someone in Nicaragua to publish her response to this false accusation. When they finally did, it ran in a thin column on the inside fold of one of the back pages, compared to the half page article that had been allocated to Doris’ mother. At one point it got so bad that we had no choice but to purchase ad space in both papers to offer a rebuttal to the ridiculous allegations that were being made. Regardless of our attempts, the papers continued to sell the story of a jealous maniac boyfriend who murdered and raped out of passion, then tried to utilize his “fortune and status” as a gringo, with support from the U.S. Embassy, to try and buy his way out of the law, which of course is not true.<br /><br />At one point, an article even suggested that I was involved in money laundering and was being investigated for falsifying passports, both of which are, again, total nonsense and serve as an example of how unprofessional some of the journalism is in Nicaragua.<br /><br />Not one national journalist, with the exception of Camilo de Castro from “Esta Semana” solicited an interview with me before the trial, and although all the newspaper editors knew my work with EP Magazine, they selectively chose not to bring that into the story. They clearly didn’t want people to know who I was or hear my side of the story.<br /><br /><a id="4" name="4"></a>Appendix 4:<br /><br />El Nuevo Diario is Nicaragua’s second largest newspaper and is responsible for the majority of the propaganda against me since my arrest. Approximately 80% of the articles published nationally have been in this paper. Nearly 90% of these are articles were written by the same author, Lesber Quintero from Rivas.<br /><br /><a id="5" name="5"></a>Appendix 5:<br /><br />The irony of this is that my family and I have actually spent a lot of time and energy keeping the corporate media frenzy as low a profile as possible.<br /><br />Many of the major media groups that have covered this story outside of Nicaragua were knocking on our door pre-trial. They wanted to come to Nicaragua and do interviews. They wanted to come investigate and film me in prison. We requested that they stand down, explaining that we didn’t want to “sauce up” the already existent tension with more press. We put our faith in the Nicaraguan judicial process, believing the court would consider the facts, not public opinion.<br /><br />Despite our efforts, the local press has accused us of being the ones responsible for the international media coverage, and, subsequently Nicaragua getting a “bad image.” Even the Vice President of Nicaragua, Jamie Morales Carazo, is on record saying that, “Eric’s family has done a good job manipulating the international press” (“Morales Carazo refuta al Washington Post” – El Nuevo Diario, May 11, 2007). This is a very important article because he is the highest political figure to publicly comment on the case.<br /><br /><a id="6" name="6"></a>Appendix 6:<br /><br />Commissioner Emilio Reyes, of the Investigative unit of the Rivas Police, is the official who ordered my arrest. To justify his action he not only lied to his fellow policeman, but to Doris’ mother as well, saying that I had confessed to the murder of Doris but was given orders by the U.S. Embassy not to sign the declaration. There is, of course, no declaration (confession)! (source: HOY tabloid, February, 17, 2007, entitled: “Incidente Violent”<br />One of the most influential articles published convincing the public that I was guilty was when Doris’ mother did an interview with El Nuevo Diario claiming that she had a recording of a telephone call with commissioner Reyes in which he claims that “I had confessed to the murder but refused to sign a declaration.”<br /><br />All of these claims are false. In the interviews I was able to do nationally, my questions to the public were;<br /><br />If Doris’ mother had a recording why didn’t she present it in court?<br /><br />If the policeman said there is a declaration, where is it?, and;<br /><br />Why didn’t Commissioner Reyes testify in court if I confessed to him? (he was the arresting officer, but he didn’t even show his face during the trial)<br /><br />When I raised these questions Doris’ mother obviously realized she was lied to by the police and that is why she demanded, in the “Hoy” article, for the police to present the declaration.<br /><br /><a id="7" name="7"></a>Appendix 7:<br /><br />The penitentiary has a system in which all prisoners are categorized into one of four security regiments. Anytime a prisoner is taken outside the compound walls for a visit to the courthouse or hospital, by law they are to be cuffed. But within the prison, cuffs are only used on prisoners that are in a punishment regiment. These are dangerous and problematic inmates that are kept in confinement galleries, locked in their cells at all times. Out of the population of 2,600 prisoners, I was the only one not on a punishment regiment that was being cuffed. I have no misconduct reports and despite several formal complaints, have never been offered an explanation by the guards about why I was being cuffed.<br /><br />It was simply a means of applying pressure and attempting to demoralize me, not to mention dangerous because if some action pops off your ability to defend yourself is limited (all the prisoners were talking about the way I was being treated). The cuffs went on for two and a half months.<br /><br />The U.S. Embassy was finally able to get me a meeting with the warden in which I expressed that I have a right to an explanation for the cuffs. I asked why they started cuffing me the day my interviews were published. The warden simply told the captain of internal orders, “no more cuffs for Eric.” No explanation was ever given.<br /><br /><a id="8" name="8"></a>Appendix 8:<br /><br />I haven’t seen my attorneys in four months. The way in which the authorities have isolated me from my defense attorney is not only a grave violation of the law, but also, as they have intended, has greatly limited my legal mobility to pressure the speed of the appeal process. Formal complaints have been issued and we are hoping to get this straightened out.<br /><br /><a id="9" name="9"></a>Appendix 9:<br /><br />I thought this was symbolic because basically the police were admitting they weren’t satisfied with those who they had accused initially. Why else continue the investigation?<br />Unfortunately, the reality is another. As long as someone is in jail for Doris’ murder the case is closed. It was simply a response that was forced as a result of my national interviews that pointed out how unprofessional their investigation was. The police’s “continued investigation” has not been mentioned since.<br /><br /><a id="10" name="10"></a>Appendix 10:<br /><br />This publication is the only media outlet that has provided consistent and thorough coverage of this case. The coverage has been well-researched and documented without all the sensational headlines of the other papers or TV coverage.Xavier Reyes Alba, 51 yrs. old, Chief Editor and partner of Trinchera de la Noticia, since September 1999; Editor-Owner of the news radio talk program "60 Minutos con Xavier Reyes Alba" (Radio El Pensamiento, Managua, founded, November 1991).Xavier began to work in the radio journalism field when he was 15 - an internship with his oldest brother Alan Tefel Alba, a journalist, too.He was the deputy editor of Barricada, the official newspaper of the Sandinistas during the 80`s, from July 1979 until Feb. 1987. He then joined the Radio Sandino Press Staff as the Chief Editor of the News Department (1987-1988).1988-1990- Deputy Director of the Sandinista Television System.1990- 2002 - Teacher at the Communication Department at UCA, (Universidad Centroamericana, Managua).1991-2007 - Partner of JART Comunicaciones, S.A., a family business (Communications Consultant).Xavier has also served as a correspondent for several magazines, Press Agencies, and has worked as the Director of Public Relations of the Electoral Supreme Council in Nicaragua.<br /><br /><a id="11" name="11"></a>Appendix 11:<br /><br />Many people I know and some who I consider friends who are investing or doing business in Nicaragua (both Nationals and ex-pats) know in their heart that I am innocent, but have convinced themselves that I’m guilty for the sake of business. There are a few who even adopted a response that, “Eric could be innocent, but he didn’t do a good job defending himself in trial.”<br /><br />Supporters have sent me letters including the responses of investment consultants and real estate developers when asked what they think about the Volz case. Let’s just say I have learned who my true friends are and who are not.<br /><br />Permission to print is granted by Eric Volz. Any unauthorized use or duplication of this material is prohibited unless permission is granted by the copyright owner.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.friendsofericvolz.com/updates.htm">Friends of Eric Volz Web Site</a><div class="blogger-post-footer">www.liestoppers.blogspot.com</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4520292699168365999.post-62441098893091157652007-08-04T16:02:00.000-04:002007-08-04T16:50:07.360-04:00Eric Volz Podcast from Prison & Appeal Status<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_8fUCfAeoLXo/RrTdRTx52_I/AAAAAAAAAhE/Lm03GqOjsm4/s1600-h/eric.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5094940367899974642" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_8fUCfAeoLXo/RrTdRTx52_I/AAAAAAAAAhE/Lm03GqOjsm4/s400/eric.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div align="center"><a href="http://www.friendsofericvolz.com/mp3/Eric_7_31_07_podcast.mp3">Eric sends a Podcast message from prison to his supporters.</a><br /><br /></div><div></div><div align="center">(We suggest you use <a href="http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/">Mozilla Firefox</a> if you have problems listening with IE) </div><div align="center"><br /></div><div align="center"></div><div>It was also was reported on the <a href="http://www.friendsofericvolz.com/updates.htm">Friends of Eric Volz web site</a> , that there was an article in El Nuevo Diario July 31st saying that the decision on his appeal would be made in the next 2 weeks.</div><div></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.friendsofericvolz.com/updates.htm"></a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">www.liestoppers.blogspot.com</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4520292699168365999.post-78553830852556018352007-07-18T07:41:00.000-04:002007-07-18T07:57:13.073-04:00Eric Volz Nashville Benefit Concert<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Eric Volz Nashville Benefit Concert </span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Thursday, July 26 at City Hall - Nashville - 7pm</span><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;">Thursday July 26, 2007<br />City Hall Nashville<br />7:00PM<br />$15.00 donation at door<br /><br />Artists performing:<br /><br />Tyler James<br />Kate York<br />Sam Ashworth<br />The Bees (US)<br />Katie Herzig<br />Jeremy Lister<br />Griffin House</div><div class="blogger-post-footer">www.liestoppers.blogspot.com</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com26tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4520292699168365999.post-45625641454473114882007-07-13T08:17:00.000-04:002007-07-13T08:37:06.340-04:00Nifonged in Fort Collins: "Was this justice real?"<div style="text-align: justify;">The <span style="font-style: italic;">Rocky Mountain News</span> follows <a href="http://liestoppers2.blogspot.com/2007/07/nifonged-in-fort-collins-timothy.html">The Fort Collins Weekly's lead</a> with a 2,600 word examination of the nifonging of Timothy Masters entitled "<a href="http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5627468,00.html">Was this justice real?</a>" Written by Kevin Vaughan, the article cast further doubt on the legitimacy of the police investigation and the prosecutorial tactics employed in convicting Masters for the murder of Peggy Lee Hettrick, who was stabbed to death in 1987.<br /><br />"<a href="http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5627468,00.html">Was this justice real?</a>" - Kevin Vaughan, <span style="font-style: italic;">The Rocky Mountain News</span><br /><blockquote>Lawyers for Timothy Lee Masters, convicted of the 1987 stabbing death of Peggy Lee Hettrick, continue to press for a new trial, claiming alleged gross irregularities by prosecutors. <p>A fight to win a new trial for a man convicted in one of the city's most notorious killings has spawned allegations that evidence was lost and destroyed and assertions that police officers and prosecutors colluded to hide information from defense attorneys. </p><p>The controversy revolves around the 1999 conviction of Timothy Lee Masters in the murder of Peggy Lee Hettrick, who was stabbed to death in 1987 as she walked home on a moonlit night in south Fort Collins. Masters was 15 at the time, and though he was a prime focus of the investigation from its first hours, it took detectives more than a decade to assemble a circumstantial case against him and file charges. </p><p>And when they took the case to a jury, they did not have a single piece of physical evidence tying him to the killing - no murder weapon, no blood, no hair, no fingerprints, no DNA. What they had was circumstantial evidence - he owned knives like the one that killed her, he talked about the difficulty of stabbing someone and he produced hundreds of pages of writings, drawings and doodles, many of them containing disturbing images. </p><p>After the trial, one of the officers who helped build the case against him came to believe that she might have sent an innocent man to prison and began work to get Masters a new trial. That effort has led to a flurry of court filings by attorneys working for Masters, laying out a series of allegations: </p><p><b>•</b> That prosecutors and police deliberately tried to destroy evidence in 2006 so that it would be useless for highly specialized DNA testing. </p><p><b>•</b> That investigators ignored evidence that a Fort Collins doctor, arrested in a sexual exploitation case, could be a potential suspect in Hettrick's death and "burned" all the evidence in that case. </p><p><b>•</b> That prosecutors at Masters' trial committed professional misconduct by failing to disclose information about the doctor to the defense. </p><p><b>•</b> That prosecutors and police lost evidence - including two hairs found at the crime scene and a bracelet Hettrick was wearing when she was killed.</p></blockquote><a href="http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5627468,00.html">Click here to read the rest of Vaughan's article</a> which includes a timeline, an outline of the skimpy case presented against Masters, additional details on the alleged prosecutorial misconduct and more.<br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">www.liestoppers.blogspot.com</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4520292699168365999.post-9697980666479703302007-07-13T07:38:00.000-04:002007-07-13T08:37:49.363-04:00Nifonged in California: Arthur Caromona<div style="text-align: justify;">The <span style="font-style: italic;">Los Angeles Times</span> features an Op-Ed today that was written by <a href="http://www.facesofwrongfulconviction.org/learnexonerees.htm">Arthur Caromona</a> whose wrongful conviction was set aside by a an Orange County (CA) Superior Court judge only after the teenager agreed not to sue the police or District Attorney's office. Recently, Carmona appeared before the California General Assembly to offer support for several bills aimed at preventing wrongful convictions. His editorial entitled "Doing time for no crime" echoes his <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/scotus/la-me-wrongful27jun27,1,3700254.story?coll=la-news-politics-supreme_court">testimony to State legislators</a>.<br /><br />"<a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-carmona13jul13,1,4388959.story?coll=la-news-comment&ctrack=3&cset=true">Doing time for no crime</a>" - Arthur Caromona, <span style="font-style: italic;">Los Angeles Times</span><br /><blockquote>ONE WEEK after my 16th birthday, I was arrested and charged with crimes I did not commit. I remained behind bars in a life unsuitable for any innocent person. After I served nearly three years of a 17-year sentence, the real facts of my case began to emerge and a judge let me go free. My life, however, will never be the same, and I am determined to change the laws that make it so easy for innocent people to be convicted.<br /> <div class="storybody"><br />On Feb. 12, 1998, I decided to visit a friend. While I was walking down a residential street, a Costa Mesa police officer stopped me at gunpoint. I was handcuffed and surrounded by other police officers with guns drawn. One officer forced a baseball cap onto my head and made me stand on the curb. I did not know it at the time, but witnesses from a robbery had been brought to identify me in what is known as an "in-field show-up," a procedure that is highly likely to produce mistaken identifications. I was arrested in connection with 13 strong-arm robberies.<br /><br />My mother was able to gather evidence proving that her 15-year-old son was in school during 11 of the robberies. But we had no evidence to prove that, at 2 a.m. on a school night, I was home asleep while someone robbed a Denny's restaurant, and we had no proof that I was home baby-sitting my 11-year-old sister during the time a juice bar in another city was being robbed.<br /><br />The getaway driver, a parolee with a long criminal record, admitted being involved in the robberies. He first told police he did not know me and that I was not involved. Then the Orange County district attorney offered him a sentence of two years if he would say I was. He took the plea bargain and his story changed; he was freed from prison before I was.<br /><br />The court found me guilty of two strong-arm robberies, and I was facing 35 years for crimes I took no part in. The judge sentenced me to 12 years in state prison. I was 16, with no criminal record. I would have been eligible for parole in nine years, with two strikes to my name, one strike away from a life term.<br /><br />Two and a half years later, just before my hearing on getting a new trial based on a writ of habeas corpus, the Orange County district attorney offered me a deal, and after three years of suffering beatings, threats and degradation in a series of juvenile and state prisons, I accepted it. I signed a "stipulation" — a piece of paper stating that I would not sue any city, county or state prosecutors. Orange County Superior Court Judge Everett Dickey ordered me released and my felonies vacated.<br /><br />Although I could finally go home, I could not go back to my old life. While I was behind bars, my high school class graduated without me. I was no longer the fun-loving teenager I once was. The criminal justice system took my innocence from me. I have not received any compensation, or even an apology. And the two felonies remain on my record, despite the judge's order and the intervention last year of then-Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer.<br /><br />Now, I am fighting to prevent wrongful convictions and to help innocent people still in prison. I am also supporting a series of state bills that would make it harder for what happened to me to happen to other people. I have traveled to Sacramento in the last two years to urge the Legislature to pass legislation that would help prevent wrongful convictions. Two of these bills passed last year, only to be vetoed by the governor. This year, three bills are being considered.<br /><br /><a href="http://info.sen.ca.gov/pub/07-08/bill/sen/sb_0751-0800/sb_756_bill_20070223_introduced.pdf">Senate Bill 756</a>, sponsored by Mark Ridley-Thomas (D-Los Angeles), would require the state Department of Justice to develop new guidelines for eyewitness identification procedures. For example, guidelines in other states limit the use of in-field show-ups like the one that led to my wrongful conviction.<br /><br /><a href="http://info.sen.ca.gov/pub/07-08/bill/sen/sb_0501-0550/sb_511_bill_20070705_amended_asm_v97.html">Senate Bill 511</a>, sponsored by Elaine Alquist (D-Santa Clara), would require recording of the entire interrogation, including the Miranda warning, in cases of violent felonies. Electronic recording of interrogations would not only help end false confessions but also discourage police detectives from lying during interrogations — as they did in my case by claiming to have videotaped evidence of me.<br /><br /><a href="http://info.sen.ca.gov/pub/07-08/bill/sen/sb_0601-0650/sb_609_bill_20070620_amended_asm_v98.html">Senate Bill 609</a>, sponsored by Majority Leader Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles), would prevent convictions based on uncorroborated testimony by jailhouse snitches.<br /><br />The Legislature should pass all three bills, and the governor should sign them. These reforms are urgently needed to prevent wrongful and unjust incarcerations.<br /><br />Prison is no place for an innocent man, let alone an innocent kid.</div> </blockquote> </div><div style="text-align: justify;" class="storybody"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> Click here to view <a href="http://164.67.141.39:8080/ramgen/law/fowc/media/fowc-story4-04-v256.rm">Video Wrongfully Convicted: Arthur Carmona</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">www.liestoppers.blogspot.com</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4520292699168365999.post-2754974350074744972007-07-12T02:29:00.000-04:002007-07-12T03:40:43.490-04:00DNA Exoneration #205: Byron Halsey<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >"Mr. Hirsch also mentions the “Innocence Project, whose DNA testing has “exonerated” 180 wrongly convicted people in the last 15 years. Terms used by experts are important, and the term “exonerated” does not mean “factually innocent.” ... Additionally, the actual number of people taken off death row by DNA is less than 10 people."<br />- </span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" ><a href="http://www.ndaa.org/pdf/p_logli_la_times_6_26_06.pdf">Letter to the Editor – LA Times – June 26, 2006</a>, </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Paul A. Logli [former] Preside</span>nt, National District Attorneys Association & State’s Attorney, Winnebago County, IL</span><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><h5><a href="http://www.northcountrygazette.org/news/2007/07/11/dna_exonerates/" rel="bookmark">DNA Proves Halsey Innocent Of 1985 Murder, Sex Assault </a>- North County Gazette</h5><blockquote><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" >Byron Halsey, who narrowly escaped the death penalty when he was convicted in 1988 of the brutal sexual assault and murders of two young children in New Jersey, was fully exonerated earlier this week based on DNA evidence that proves his innocence. Halsey’s conviction was vacated on May 15, and at a hearing Monday the Union County District Attorney’s Office dismissed pending indictments against Halsey because he is innocent. Halsey is the 205th person nationwide – and the fifth in New Jersey – exonerated based on DNA evidence, according to the Innocence Project, which represents Halsey.</span> <p style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;">“Byron Halsey has waited 22 years for this day. For 22 years, he has waited to walk into court and have prosecutors and the judge acknowledge what he always knew but what nobody would believe – that he is innocent,” said Vanessa Potkin, staff attorney at the Innocence Project, which is affiliated with Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University. “Byron can now begin the long, slow, difficult process of rebuilding his life. We hope the community will continue to embrace and support him, and we hope the state compensates him promptly and appropriately for the unimaginable ordeal he has endured.”</span></p> <p style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Halsey’s conviction was overturned in May after DNA testing on several key pieces of evidence used to convict Halsey actually indicated the guilt of another man, Cliff Hall, who is already in prison for several other sex crimes in New Jersey and who testified against Halsey during his trial. In March 1988, Halsey was convicted of several charges stemming from the November 1985 murders of a seven-year-old girl and an eight-year-old boy he was raising with his girlfriend; Hall, who lived next door to the family, had dropped Halsey off across town and then returned home on the night the children were brutally killed.</span></p> <p style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;">DNA testing over the last 16 months links every critical piece of physical evidence from the crime to Cliff Hall, not Byron Halsey, the Innocence Project said. The District Attorney’s office consented to the DNA testing, which was conducted in state labs and at Orchid Cellmark, one of the nation’s leading private labs, which provided some of the testing pro bono. The physical evidence that was subjected to DNA testing includes semen on the seven-year-old girl’s underwear, semen elsewhere at the crime scene and a cigarette butt at the crime scene. The cigarette butt was central in the initial police investigation of the crimes, and the semen was linked to Halsey (through blood typing, since DNA testing was not available) and used to convict him. DNA testing on both semen samples and the cigarette butt matches Cliff Hall, according to papers filed jointly by the Innocence Project and the Union County District Attorney’s Office. Hall has now been charged with the crimes for which Halsey was wrongfully convicted.</span></p><p style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;">...</span></p><h4 style="font-weight: normal;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:georgia;">From his behavior and other evidence, police suspected Cliff Hall from the beginning. But as the lengthy interrogation of Halsey progressed, leading to a supposed confession, police stoppe</span>d investigating Hall. The supposed confession was the result of 30 hours of interrogation over a 40-hour period of time during which Halsey (who has a sixth-grade education and severe learning disabilities) had little sleep. Even the detective handling the interrogation characterized Halsey’s statements as “gibberish.” On every key fact of the crimes, Halsey gave incorrect answers during the interrogation and had to guess several times before giving police accurate answers (on everything from the location of the bodies to how they were killed). Halsey “confessed” to things that DNA now proves did not happen.</span></h4></blockquote><p><span style="font-size:85%;"></span></p><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/nj/20070710_Exonerated_by_DNA_tests__cleared_of_2_child_murders.html">Exonerated by DNA tests, cleared of 2 child murders</a> - <span style="font-size:100%;">Janet Frankston Lorin, </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Associated Press</span><br /><blockquote style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;">All charges against a man who served 22 years in prison for the murder and rape of two children were dropped yesterday after prosecutors cited DNA testing they said links another man to the crime.</span><p><span style="font-size:100%;"> Prosecutor Theodore J. Romankow declined to pursue charges after "careful re-evaluation of the case" against Byron Halsey.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:100%;"> Halsey, 46, was released from prison May 15 after a judge threw out his convictions. DNA testing, not available when he was convicted, linked a neighbor to the crime. Until yesterday, however, Halsey legally still faced charges of aggravated sexual assault, aggravated manslaughter, felony murder, child abuse, and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:100%;"> Prosecutors yesterday recommended that Superior Court Judge Stuart L. Peim drop all charges.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:100%;"> Halsey thanked prosecutors for "acknowledging the truth." Halsey, whose electronic ankle bracelet was removed yesterday, also thanked his grandmother, who stood behind him in a crowd of supporters.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:100%;">...</span></p><p> Halsey confessed after 30 hours of interrogation in a 40-hour span, said Barry Scheck, who is codirector of the Innocence Project.</p><p> "As a result, the only evidence against Byron Halsey is his uncorroborated confession, significant portions of which have been refuted by DNA evidence," said prosecutor Albert Cernadas Jr.</p><p> Cernadas said he could not say "with certainty" whether Halsey is innocent, but the state could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Halsey was guilty. "We just didn't have sufficient evidence," Cernadas said.</p><p> Halsey is the 205th person nationwide exonerated and the fifth in New Jersey through DNA evidence, Ferrero said.</p><p> "I'm going to church, going to work, pay my bills," said Halsey, who thanked God for his freedom.</p></blockquote><p></p></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">www.liestoppers.blogspot.com</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4520292699168365999.post-69807777152063414912007-07-11T08:34:00.000-04:002007-07-11T08:46:00.574-04:00Nifonged in Fort Collins: Timothy Masters<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" >Today's <a href="http://www.fortcollinsweekly.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=772&Itemid=35"><span style="font-style: italic;">Fort Collins (CO) Weekly</span> features a compelling story</a> detailing Timothy Masters' quest for a new trial after discovering that </span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" >Eighth Judicial District Court Judges Terrence Gilmore and Jolene Blair, two of the prosecutors in his case, pulled a Nifong and willfully withheld exculpatory evidence that police suspected three other men, including one who confessed to the crime and another whose home overlooked the crime scene and committed suicide after his arrest, had committed the murder Master's was convicted of.<br /><br />Armed with little more than graphic but unrelated pictures drawn by the then 15 year old Masters and a willingness to withhold evidence and commit perjury, Gilmore and Blair convinced a jury that </span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" >“no one else” but Masters could have been the murderer. Masters conviction, upheld by the Colorado Appellate Court and Supreme Court <span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" >when </span></span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" >other evidentiary rules and the introduction of character evidence were reviewed and found to be sound</span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" >, is currently under post-conviction review which began in 2003 <span style="font-family:georgia;">based on </span></span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" >the allegations of prosecutorial misconduct.</span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.fortcollinsweekly.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=772&Itemid=35">Greg Campbell writes</a>:<br /><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" ></span><blockquote><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" >When a jury unanimously found Timothy Masters guilty in 1999 of murdering a 36-year-old woman and mutilating her dead body, Fort Collins closed the only murder case on its books that had remained frustratingly unsolved for more than a decade.<br /><br />But the case may not stay closed for long. Although his conviction has been upheld by both the Court of Appeals and the Colorado Supreme Court, and he’s currently serving a life sentence, Masters is making a compelling case for a new trial, arguing not only that his previous attorneys were incompetent in defending him, but that the prosecution withheld critical information that would have either exonerated him or cast doubt on him as a viable suspect.<br /><br />The allegation is a serious one: if a prosecutor is found to have intentionally withheld relevant or exculpatory information from the defense or the jury, he or she can be disbarred by the state Supreme Court and possibly face criminal charges.<br /><br />In Masters’ case, two of the prosecutors are now Eighth Judicial District judges: Terrence Gilmore and Jolene Blair.<br /><br /></span> <span style="font-size:85%;"><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" >But they are hardly the only ones who would face questions of impropriety should this old and presumably solved murder once again go before a jury—if Masters is found to have been sent to jail because prosecutors and police investigators improperly withheld information from the court, it would be an indictment of some of the most well-known names in local law enforcement and politics. If his murder conviction is actually overturned, which his new defense team indicates in dozens of recently filed motions is not only possible but likely, it will be a major crack in the foundation of Larimer County’s justice system.<br /><br />“If there’s a new trial because there’s evidence that is exculpatory, evidence of an alternative suspect, that evidence clearly could change the course of the trial in terms of reasonable doubt that he’s not guilty of what he’s accused of,” says Fort Collins attorney Andy Gavaldon, who is not involved in the case. “Clearly this is information that should have been disclosed the first time, and if it is of the type and nature that’s being described in the (recent court) filings it would have had a tremendous effect on the first verdict.”<br /><br /></span> <span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" ><span style="font-family:georgia;">At the very least, it’s clear that if Masters is granted a new trial, he’s not the only one who will be defending himself.<br /><br />...<br /><br /></span></span></span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" >What’s not in dispute is that 36-year-old Fort Collins resident Peggy Hettrick was stabbed once in the back sometime in the early morning hours on Feb. 11, 1987. The blow was forceful enough that it broke a rib, and the blade lacerated her left lung and left pulmonary artery. She bled to death within minutes.<br /><br />Her body was found later that morning in a field off of Landings Drive in south Fort Collins by a bicyclist. On the curb was a large blood pool, and a bloody drag trail led more than 100 feet to Hettrick’s body, which was positioned on her back with her hands stretched over her head. Her jeans and underwear were pushed down and bunched around her knees, her shirt and bra pushed up over her breasts. Police would soon discover that her left nipple and skin around her vagina had been excised with a very sharp instrument.<br /><br />It didn’t take long for police to establish a timeline of Hettrick’s activities shortly before her death. Police believe she finished work at clothing retailer The Fashion Bar, which was then located in The Square on College Avenue, around 9 p.m. She spent much of the night wandering from place to place looking for her roommate, who had the keys to their shared apartment, ending up after midnight at the Prime Minister bar and restaurant (located where The Olive Garden restaurant is today on South College Avenue). There, she met and had drinks with her sometimes-boyfriend Matt Zoellner, who was there to meet another woman. Zoellner left Hettrick at the bar to sit with his date. Around 1 a.m. he offered Hettrick a ride home; she initially accepted, but Zoellner told police that she left the bar alone.<br /><br />That was the last time she was known to be seen alive.<br /><br />Within hours of the discovery of Hettrick’s body, Tim Masters quickly became the prime suspect in her murder. Masters lived with his father in a trailer that overlooked the field, and during a canvassing of the neighborhood, police learned from Masters’ father that the boy had veered from his normal path on his way across the field to catch his school bus. His father told police that it seemed Masters had spent a moment or two looking at something before hurrying on his way.<br /><br />Detective Francis Gonzales—who is now a sergeant assigned to the downtown District One police substation—found Masters at school. Masters told Gonzales he’d seen Hettrick’s body, but assumed it was a mannequin put in the field by friends trying to trick him. Indeed, even the bicyclist who reported the body told police that he too thought it was a mannequin, according to court documents. But because Masters didn’t report the body to police—and because he’d told Gonzales that what he’d seen had been “bothering” him—investigators became suspicious and asked to search Masters’ bedroom. He agreed.<br /><br />What they found quickly placed the young man at the top of their list of suspects—in Masters’ bedroom, they found six survival-style knives made popular a few years earlier by the film First Blood starring Sylvester Stallone. In the hollow hilt of one knife, they found a sharp scalpel.<br /><br />But it was in a suitcase where they found what would become the most damning of the prosecution’s evidence a decade later, when he was put on trial for Hettrick’s murder: hundreds of extremely violent drawings and stories. Many of the pictures showed stabbings with knives and swords, and much of the violence was directed at women. A sketch that would be particularly damning showed a figure that had been shot with arrows being dragged by another figure in the same manner police believe Hettrick’s killer dragged his victim.<br /><br />In Masters’ school backpack, officers found a map of the crime scene with an X marking the location of Hettrick’s body. Masters told police he drew it when telling a classmate of what he’d seen that morning.<br /><br />While Masters’ volume of drawings raised questions and suspicions, they did not trigger his arrest—at least not yet—because the bedroom and its contents were equally notable for what officers did not find. Officers found no blood and no body parts anywhere in the house. There was no fiber, hair, skin or other physical evidence that linked Masters to Hettrick. The knives would be tested at the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and found to have no trace of the victim’s blood or DNA.<br /><br />And despite Masters’ apparent fascination with violent death, as his pictures demonstrated, the suspect himself raised some doubts. At the time of the murder, he stood 5 feet 10 inches tall and yet weighted just 115 pounds, roughly the same weight as the victim. The theory that would evolve over the next several years was that this waif of a teen, who was so skinny that classmates called him “Toothpick,” laid in wait for the victim and ambushed her in a blitz-style attack while she stood or walked near the curb smoking a cigarette, stabbing her with enough force to break a rib. He then dragged her dead weight 103 feet into the field and, on a moonless night in a part of Fort Collins that did not have street lights at the time, used a scalpel to excise body parts he’d never seen before except in pornographic magazines, which were also found in his bedroom. He committed this crime without leaving any physical evidence on the body or at the scene, and without contaminating his clothing, body or property with the victim’s blood or DNA.<br /><br />For his part, Masters steadfastly denied murdering Hettrick in several interviews conducted by Gonzales; by Sgt. Ray Martinez, who would later serve three terms as mayor of Fort Collins; and by Detective Jim Broderick, who is today a lieutenant with the police department’s Professional Standards Unit.<br /><br />...<br /><br /></span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" >In 1992, Fort Collins police detectives Linda Wheeler-Holloway and Jim Broderick arrived in Philadelphia with an arrest warrant for Tim Masters. The two had been reviewing evidence and re-interviewing witnesses when one of Masters’ classmates mentioned that Masters told him Hettrick’s killer had removed some of her body parts, a detail that was intentionally withheld from the public. By then, Masters was in the U.S. Navy and stationed in Philadelphia; Wheeler-Holloway and Broderick intended to arrest him and return him to Fort Collins to face charges in Hettrick’s murder.<br /><br />But Masters had a good reason to know about the body mutilation—one of his classmates had been in the police department’s Explorer Scout program, in which young men and women learn about law enforcement through hands-on experience, and she had helped search the crime scene. She later told classmates, including Masters, that they were told scour the field for a “nipple.”<br /><br />The visit to Philadelphia did not go as the detectives planned. Wheeler-Holloway and Broderick interviewed Masters for two days in what was called a “tag-team” interrogation in court documents. The interviews were witnessed by members of Naval Intelligence and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. According to court records, Wheeler-Holloway later wrote in a police report, “The FBI agents here believe Tim Masters is innocent and so do I.”<br /><br />The detectives returned to Fort Collins without executing the arrest warrant.<br /><br />Broderick was less convinced of Masters’ innocence, and he sought the opinion of San Diego forensic psychiatrist Dr. Reid Meloy, who was given details of the case along with more than 2,000 of Masters’ drawings and stories in order to see if there was a relationship between Masters and the murder. Meloy’s resulting report remains the source of much controversy, and constitutes the only new evidence developed since the crime occurred. The conclusions he drew after reviewing the artwork and the stories were the basis for Masters’ arrest in 1998.<br /><br />Although Meloy was barred from giving his opinion about whether or not he believed Masters’ pictures and stories implicated him in Hettrick’s murder, Meloy drew a very clear correlation between the circumstances of her death and Masters’ artwork. He testified about the characteristics of a sexual homicide and went into detail about how Masters’ productions could be considered a “fantasy rehearsal” for such a homicide. He showed how specific pictures could be interpreted to reflect the crime—several showed “blitz attacks,” depicted stabbings which Meloy interpreted as sexual in nature and depicted women as murder victims.<br /><br />Prosecutors argued that the murder was a “displaced matricide” in which Hettrick was killed as a surrogate for Masters’ mother, Margaret, who died of an illness one day short of four years before the murder occurred. Prosecutors said Hettrick looked like Masters’ mother, which is why she was targeted (there are similarities between the women, but Masters’ mother had brown hair while Hettrick had red hair, according to information from a color photo of Margaret Masters’ driver’s license filed with the court).<br /><br />More than 1,000 pages of Masters’ pictures and stories were entered into evidence and it’s not hard to imagine that, combined with Meloy’s testimony, they had quite an impact on the jury. One picture seems to show a knife stabbing a vagina; in another, a woman is being threatened with a sword by a figure holding a decapitated head behind his back.<br /><br />“The defendant’s writings and drawings are graphic and often repulsive,” wrote the Colorado Supreme Court in its motion upholding Masters’ murder conviction. “They indicate defendant was deeply fascinated with death, particularly with death by stabbing or slicing.”<br /><br />But the same opinion made an argument Masters’ original defense team had tried to make: If his pictures and stories were in fact a form of “fantasy rehearsal” for a sexual homicide then why, in all of his voluminous productions, wasn’t there a depiction of the crime as it happened?<br /><br />“There is not a single image or passage that duplicates the crime,” the opinion continues. “There is not a picture of or story about a woman being stabbed in the back or having her nipple excised.”<br /><br />Nevertheless, the prosecution, which included then-assistant district attorneys Terrence Gilmore and Jolene Blair—who have both since been appointed as judges in the Eighth Judicial District—hammered home the relevance of Masters’ disturbing artwork as evidence of his guilt.<br /><br />“The evidence is there,” Gilmore said in his closing remarks. “Sometimes it’s hard to find. Sometimes you have to do a little thinking as to how the defendant could draw something like that unless he knew how it happened. Please look and read, study, dig into the paper bags (of evidence). The evidence is there.”<br /><br />Prosecutors concluded that “no one else” but Tim Masters could have killed Peggy Hettrick.<br /><br />With their unanimous verdict of guilt, the jury apparently had little trouble agreeing with him.<br /><br />...<br /><br /></span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" >Masters’ current bid for a new trial hinges on the belief that not only could someone else have committed the murder, but that the jury would have agreed if only they’d been given information by the prosecution about other people who defense lawyers believe should have been considered as suspects in Hettrick’s death. One of them was a confessed murderer who killed two women the same year Hettrick was murdered by stabbing them in the back; another confessed specifically to killing Hettrick.<br /><br />While either of these individuals may have cast doubt on Masters’ guilt in the eyes of the jury, none offered as compelling—or complicated—a case as that of Dr. Richard Hammond, a prominent Fort Collins eye surgeon who was arrested in 1995 for surreptitiously videotaping girls and women in his guest bathroom. Hammond had set up his video equipment to film extreme close-ups of his victims’ genitals, and when police searched his house, they found hundreds of videotapes labeled with victims’ names.<br /><br />Some of the victims were family members of those in the District Attorney’s office, creating a conflict of interest that required the office to disqualify itself from prosecuting the crime. However, the Hammond case never got to the prosecution stage.<br /><br />After his arrest, Hammond was placed on a 72-hour mental health hold but shortly after he was released from protective custody, he checked into a Denver hotel and committed suicide.<br /><br />According to court documents, several police detectives believe Hammond should have been thoroughly investigated for Hettrick’s murder. Not only did he have an obvious morbid fascination with female genit</span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" >alia, he also had the medical skill and biological knowledge to perform the precise and delicate excisions that were performed on Hettrick’s body. Finally, Hammond’s home—like Masters’—overlooked the field where Hettrick’s body was discovered.<br /><br />But rather than expand their investigation of Hammond, police instead closed the case after his suicide—in fact, investigators didn’t even look at all the videotapes to see if Hettrick appeared on one. Instead, they burned the evidence to spare Hammond’s victims—including family members of those in the DA’s office—further embarrassment and humiliation.<br /><br />The defense knew nothing of this investigation, or that some members of the police department thought Hammond should have been investigated as a suspect in Hettrick’s murder.<br /><br />“The evidence appears extremely strong and incontrovertible that we weren’t given the information we needed,” says Erik Fischer, who along with Nathan Chambers—who also served on Oklahoma City bomber Tim McVeigh’s defense team—represented Masters during his trial and appeals. “We were hampered by their failure to overturn exculpatory evidence.”<br /><br />Fischer adds that he believes Gilmore “perjured himself” during Masters’ trial when he told the jury that law enforcement had cleared all other suspects in Hettrick’s murder.<br /><br />“I believe … we should have gotten Hammond as an alternate suspect,” he says. “I think Tim would have walked in 10 minutes.”<br /><br />...<br /><br /></span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" >But Stuart Van Meveren, the district attorney at the time of Masters’ trial, says it was up to the judgment of investigators and prosecutors to decide what information to turn over to the defense.<br /><br />“Those decisions were left to the investigating agency,” he says, “and if they knew about (the cases), they obviously thought they weren’t significant.”<br /><br />He says he doesn’t believe Gilmore or Blair did anything wrong.<br /><br />“They’re both outstanding prosecutors and very ethical individuals,” he says, “and that’s evident in that they both were appointed to the bench.”<br /><br />Other observers aren’t as certain. Daniel Coyne, an associate professor of clinical law at the Chicago-Kent College of Law, says that it’s not up to the prosecution to decide what is relevant for the defense.<br /><br />“The case law is really clear that that’s not the prosecutor’s right to make that determination,” he says. “If it’s useful to the defendant, then a prudent prosecutor will turn over (the evidence) or make it available for inspection.<br /><br />“If there was a decision to withhold information,” Coyne continues, “and the response as to why the information was withheld was that, ‘we didn’t determine it to be important,’ that may call into question the competency of the people who made that decision.”<br /><br />It could also call into question their motives, says Richard Moran, a professor of sociology and criminology at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts. Moran recently completed a study of wrongful convictions in death penalty cases. He found that since the death penalty was reinstituted in the late 1970s, 81 of 123 exonerations were the result of what he calls “illegal prosecutions.”<br /><br />“When there is a wrongful conviction, if that’s what the court ends up deciding, they’re not usually the result of good faith efforts,” he says, “but the result of a criminal or malicious act committed by one of the members of the court, either the police, the prosecutors or sometimes the judges. …<br /><br />“You put a guy in jail for life because you’re convinced that he did it,” Moran continues. “You don’t want to share evidence that he might not have done it with the defense because you think he’s going to walk, so you misbehave so that he gets convicted. It’s the notion of framing; you can frame a guilty man, though you can also frame an innocent one. Most prosecutors who do this think that they are furthering justice by nailing the guy who they believe committed the crime. In terms of prosecutors you also have their won/lost records, so you have personal interest there, but the real outrageous notion is that people who are appointed by the court to uphold the law broke it to get convictions, and that’s not how it’s supposed to work.”<br /><br />Gavaldon, the Fort Collins attorney, says it’s up to the courts to decide whether information in the Masters case was improperly withheld—“That’s why we have retrials,” he says—but he agrees with Moran’s sentiments.<br /><br />“The criminal justice system is not an arena for hide and seek,” Gavaldon says. “What ensures that justice is served is that there is full disclosure on both sides, of all the evidence, so that those issues are decided by a jury on something as serious as a life sentence. That cannot happen when one side is hiding what could be evidence that someone did this other than this young man.”<br /><br />...<br /><br /></span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" >It remains to be seen if Masters will get a new trial, but defense attorneys Maria Liu and David Wymore are gaining momentum in that direction since beginning in 2003 a so-called 35 (c) proceeding, which seeks a post-conviction review of the trial. This is different than the appeals in which matters of evidentiary rules and the introduction of character evidence were reviewed and found to be sound; the hearings now being prepared for will determine if Masters deserves a new trial based on the allegations of prosecutorial misconduct and defense inadequacy.<br /><br />Since 2003, his attorneys have succeeded in having the entire Eighth Judicial District removed from the case. Likewise, the Larimer County District Attorney’s Office has turned the case over to special prosecutors from Adams County after the defense filed a motion in January alleging a conflict of interest. Although a hearing on whether or not to grant a new trial will be held in Fort Collins, the case is now in the hands of the special prosecutors and a retired judge under special contract to hear motions in the case.<br /><br />Recent allegations point to why the defense doesn’t want the locals involved in the case any further—in court documents filed in January, Masters’ lawyers claim that evidence from the victim was illegally sent by the District Attorney’s office to the CBI lab in Denver where they were subjected to destructive DNA testing. Masters had been granted a motion allowing his own DNA testing to look for evidence that someone else killed Hettrick, but before the evidence was turned over, the DA’s office sent the material to the lab for its own testing. This, Masters’ lawyers argue, amounts to theft and destruction of evidence.<br /><br />“On or about November 20, 2006, the district attorney went to the courthouse and illegally took a number of trial exhibits from the court files for the purpose of trying (to) destroy or minimize any exculpatory evidence which might be obtained by the defense DNA testing scheduled to occur in the immediate future,” they wrote in a motion seeking to disqualify the DA’s office from the case. “The district attorney then took the evidence to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation where … CBI agents, at the direction of the district attorney, undertook to destroy any exculpatory DNA evidence by performing ‘procedures’ which they knew would be likely to have that effect.<br /><br />“The district attorney did all of this without a single piece of paper being generated, contrary to all normal procedures of law enforcement and judicial agencies. … The district attorney thus demonstrated that it is infinitely more important to the district attorney to preserve the conviction of Tim Masters than it is to obey the rule of law, court orders, the Constitutions or its ethical obligations.”<br /><br />The DNA evidence is crucial to the defense’s contention that Masters deserves a new trial. In an affidavit filed with the court, forensic investigator Barie Goetz—who worked for the CBI from 1981 to 2004 and is now employed by Masters’ defense team—outlined an entirely new scenario explaining Hettrick’s death that he believes can be proven by DNA. He believes the evidence will show that Hettrick was not murdered or mutilated where her body was found, but stabbed in the back while seated in a car. He says the evidence will also show that her mutilations were surgical in nature and occurred at “a suitably equipped location other than the scene at Landings” and that two people carried her body into the field and left in a vehicle.<br /><br />If any of this turns out to be true, or even possible in the minds of jurors, it could lead to Masters’ acquittal. And an overturned murder conviction could wreak havoc in the Eighth Judicial District and those who tried the case the first time.<br /><br />“If in fact he is innocent or he did not get a fair trial, that obviously reflects badly on the justice system,” says Pat Furman, who was a defense attorney for 20 years before his current position as professor of clinical law at the University of Colorado-Boulder. “If there was prosecutorial misconduct, it might rise to the level of something that the (state) Supreme Court looks at in terms of unethical behavior. A failure by the prosecution to provide exculpatory evidence is a significant violation. It’s a Constitutional violation, and it could result in sanctions against the prosecutors who violated that duty, personal sanctions by the Supreme Court. Prosecutors are held to the highest standard of all lawyers because they represent the government.”<br /><br />Furman says sanctions could involve disbarment, which, in the case of Gilmore and Blair, would mean they could no longer serve as judges since district judges are required to be lawyers. There could also be criminal penalties, he says.<br /><br />Repercussions could also be felt more widely, since an overturned verdict could lead to other appeals on the same grounds in different cases.<br /><br />“I think that if the prosecutors are shown to have conspired against this guy or to have broken the law, any other defendants who were convicted by these guys will at least try to reopen their cases,” says Moran, the professor from Mount Holyoke College. “If you question the credibility of the judges when they were prosecutors, people might try to question their credibility when they were judges.<br /><br />“Yes, it could lead to a lot of trouble and it could lead to a wholesale investigation of the justice system.”</span><br /></blockquote><a href="http://www.fortcollinsweekly.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&amp;amp;amp;id=772&Itemid=35"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" >Click here to read more from the Fort Collins weekly including additional information on the people involved in the nifonging of Masters and a preview of what's ahead in Master's quest for a new trial.</span></span></span></a><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">www.liestoppers.blogspot.com</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4520292699168365999.post-52268157496937937562007-07-06T03:51:00.000-04:002007-07-06T03:55:33.614-04:00Nifonged in Nicaragua: What You Can Do Now<p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://www.friendsofericvolz.com/"><b>FREE ERIC VOLZ</b></a></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;">What you can do now...</p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;">For the past almost eight months as people have heard the story of Eric Volz's arrest and imprisonment, after the look of disbelief, there comes a question: "what can we do?" We struggle to believe, still, that this situation is as dire as it appears, that the chance for Eric to be freed hangs by such thin threads. After all, we understand justice to mean that if mistakes are made, they will ultimately be made right.</p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;">We wait together for this to become true. There have been and are still available opportunities to communicate with Eric, and to contribute to the costs of his defense. (go to <a href="http://www.friendsofericvolz.com/">http://www.friendsofericvolz.com/</a>)</p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;">But now as we wait, we have another timely and important answer to the question, "what can we do?"</p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;">Between the dates of July 21st and 29th (the week that marks the beginning of the 9th month since Eric's arrest) the friends of Eric Volz are calling for all concerned persons and groups to gather together in whatever way your group practices prayer. </p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;">We will join together during this week to gather the powers of grace, mercy, forgiveness, justice and love. We believe these powers to be stronger than any of the systemic brokenness and evil that keeps innocent persons imprisoned. This is a time for faithful persons to lean toward the changing of processes and persons who have the power to decide to protect Eric's safety and to set him free.</p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;">If you are reading this, and as a group or individual wish to add your energy to hoping with many others, please let us know that you'll be setting aside time as an individual or with a group for a hour, a day, or spread out across this week of response.</p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;">Please email the name, email and physical address of the person who will coordinate the effort for your group to: <a href="mailto:skeenj@mail.belmont.edu">skeenj@mail.belmont.edu</a>. As is possible we will provide materials electronically that can be reproduced as you choose for use with your group. We will also mail additional support materials to share with those who participate. (Please include an estimate of how many are needed in your response).</p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;">Thank you for your ongoing concern for Eric and his family.</p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://www.friendsofericvolz.com/"> Team Free Eric V</a></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">www.liestoppers.blogspot.com</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4520292699168365999.post-14044246916026910512007-07-03T22:35:00.000-04:002007-07-04T00:19:43.627-04:00Nifonged in New York: Report on the Conviction of Jeffrey Deskovic<div align="justify">After serving nearly sixteen years in prison for a crime he did not commit, Jeffrey Deskovic was released on September 20, 2006 when his wrongful convictions for first degree rape, second degree rape, and possession of a weapon were finally overturned at the request of Westchester County (NY) District Attorney Janet DiFiore. In an affirmation in support of Deskovic's motion to vacate the convictions, DiFiore wrote:</div><div align="justify"><blockquote><p>On and between November 15-17, 1989, 16-year-old Angela Correa was sexually assaulted and murdered in Hillcrest Park in Peekskill, New York. </p><p>During the subsequent investigation conducted by members of the Peekskill Police Department, Jeffrey Deskovic made an oral confession to the crimes committed against Ms. Correa. A Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (RFLP) analysis conducted by the FBI laboratory of a vaginal swab secured from the deceased victim developed a DNA profile which excluded Deskovic as the donor. Because the present DNA identification system had not been established at the time the DNA profile was not place in Combined DNA Index System. Until September 2006, the identity of the source of the DNA has never been determined. During defendant’s jury trial in 1990, this exculpatory DNA evidence was fully explored before the trier of fact. </p><p>In December of 1990, at the conclusion of the evidence, Jeffrey Deskovic was convicted upon a jury verdict of the crimes of murder in the second degree (two counts), rape in the first degree and criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree. On January 18, 1991, he was sentenced to fifteen years to life for the crime of murder, eight and one third to twenty-five years for the crime of rape and one year for the crime of criminal possession of the weapon. The sentences were ordered to run concurrently. The defendant’s judgment of conviction was unanimously affirmed on appeal by the Appellate Division, Second Department (People v Deskovic 201 AD2d 579). Leave to appeal to the Court of Appeals was denied (83 NY2d 1003).</p><p>In June 2006 I was contacted by Barry Scheck, Esq. of the Innocence Project, who requested, on behalf of his client Jeffrey Deskovic, my consent to a CPL 440.30 (1-a) motion for a Short Tandem Repeat (STR) analysis of the DNA recovered from the victim and then a CODIS upload of the STR DNA profile obtained in the case of People v Jeffrey Deskovic, Indictment # 90-0192. I agreed that a CODIS upload was most appropriate under the circumstances of the case as the source of the DNA profile was never identified.</p><p>On June 28, 2006, Nina Morrison, Esq. of the Innocence Project submitted a proposed motion to my office seeking post-conviction DNA testing pursuant to CPL 440.30 (1-a) (copy attached), However, as evidence establishing that the defendant had been excluded as the donor of the DNA obtained from the vaginal swabs had been admitted at the 1990 trial, the CPL 440.30 (1-a) motion did not provide a legal mechanism to allow for the retesting of the crime scene DNA using STR and entering a search in CODIS. </p><p>More particularly, in 1994, CPL 440.30 (1-a) was enacted to establish a procedure whereby defendants convicted prior to 1996 could request post-conviction DNA testing of specified evidence collected in connection with their criminal case. Upon this motion, the court must determine whether any evidence containing DNA was secured in connection with the trial and, further the court must grant the defendant's application if it determines that had "a DNA test been conducted on (the) evidence and (had) the results (of that evidence been) admitted at trial, there exists a reasonable probability that the verdict would have been more favorable to the defendant." (CPL 440.30(1-a) (a), People Pitts, 4 NY2d 303). Since at the trial a DNA profile excluding the defendant was admitted into evidence before the triers of fact, CPL 440.30 (1-a) motion did not lie on the known facts of the case.</p><p>Thereafter, members of my staff met with members of the Westchester County Department of Laboratories to discuss a course of action in light of the troubling limitations presented under the Criminal Procedure Law in addressing the specific circumstances of this case. It was unanimously agreed that a new analysis of all of the evidence secured at the scene of the crime by the Westchester County Forensic Laboratory was the only course of action consistent with maintaining the fundamental tenets of justice and the integrity of the criminal justice system. </p><p>Since 1999-2000, the Westchester County Forensic Lab routinely performs STR DNA analysis on evidence collected in homicide investigations. All of us agreed that this case should not be treated differently, notwithstanding the duly affirmed judgment of conviction. </p><p>By letter dated August 8, 2006 I officially requested Frederick C. Drummond, Chief of the Forensic Science Services, conduct an expeditious STR analysis of the extant forensic evidence in this matter pursuant to the Laboratory’s established protocols for a cold case investigation. Mr. Drummond, who attended the meetings with members of my staff and who was in full accord with the practical resolution of the obstacles presented to a CODIS analysis in this case, immediately agreed. With the cooperation of the Peekskill Police Department all available evidence was submitted to the lab for retesting. </p><p>On September 15, 2006, my Office received a written confirmation dated September 13, 2006, from Linda E. Duffy, CODIS Administrator of the Forensic Science Laboratory, that a CODIS match was made with the DNA evidence from the Deskovic case (copy attached). The matched DNA was identified as that of a man who is presently a convicted inmate being held in the New State Department of Corrections. A criminal history of the inmate revealed that upon entry of a guilty plea for a murder committed in the Westchester County he is serving a life sentence and was prosecuted by the Westchester County District Attorney's Office. At this time the identity of the inmate is being withheld as he is now the prime suspect in this investigation into the rape and murder of Angela Correa. </p><p>Criminal Investigators from my office with the full cooperation of the Peekskill Police Department, reviewed the file maintained in this matter, interviewed members of the victim’s family and visited the crime scene. On September 18, 2006 my investigators were dispatched to the state prison facility at which the inmate is being housed. During that visit the inmate confessed to the rape and murder of Angela Correa. </p><p>On September 18, 2006 I contacted Barry Scheck and informed him of the newly discovered evidence and my intention to consent to a CPL 440.10 motion to vacate Mr. Deskovic’s conviction. There can be doubt upon all of this newly discovered evidence obtained within the last week, the defendant's motion to vacate the conviction must be granted as there is more than reasonable probability that had the jury heard this evidence, the conviction would not have been obtained. The People unequivocally consent to this motion.</p></blockquote></div><div align="justify">On November 2, 2006, the indictment against Deskovic was formally dismissed on the grounds of actual innocence at the request of prosecutors. In apologizing to the wrongfully convicted man who had spent half his life in prison, <a href="http://www.nlada.org/DMS/Documents/1162565876.22/NEWS07">Acting State Supreme Court Justice Richard Molea stated</a>:</div><div align="justify"><blockquote>"There is no relief for your unmeasurable loss that I may offer you, Mr. Deskovic, beyond granting the People's motion to dismiss this indictment"</blockquote></div><div align="justify">Today, Westchester County (NY) District Attorney Janet DiFiore has released a 38 page report condemning the “prosecutorial tunnel vision” which led to Mr. Deskovic's wrongful conviction. Citing errors on the part of former DA Jeanine Pirro and others, the "<a href="http://hometown.aol.com/VIP%20PASSES/JeffreyDeskovicCommRpt.pdf">Report on the Conviction of Jeffrey Deskovic</a>" offers scathing criticism for the prosecutors, police, and defense attorneys involved in the case. The report was prepared at the request of DA DiFiore and reflects the conclusions of the special, four person commission empaneled to investigate the wrongful conviction. The Deskovic Commission consisted of retired Judge Leslie Crocker Snyder, retired Judge Peter J. McQuillen, former Richmond County (NY) District Attorney William L. Murphy, and attorney Richard Joselson of the Legal Aid Society of New York City.</div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span></div><div align="justify">The Deskovic report <a href="http://www.nyjournalnews.com/assets/pdf/BH7834572.PDF">outlines the police and prosecutor failures as follows</a>:</div><ul><li><div align="justify">Police and prosecutorial tunnel vision</div></li><li><div align="justify">Police over-reliance on NYPD profile</div></li><li><div align="justify">Selective reading of Deskovic's statements</div></li><li><div align="justify">Troubling police tactics in dealing with Deskovic</div></li><li><div align="justify">Carelessness or misconduct in police investigation</div></li><li><div align="justify">Prosecution decision to proceed with Grand Jury prosecution before receiving DNA evidence</div></li><li><div align="justify">Prosecution's questionable presentation of scientific evidence</div></li></ul><p align="justify"><a href="http://www.nyjournalnews.com/assets/pdf/BH7834572.PDF">Defense failures were delineated as</a>:</p><ul><li><div align="justify">Defense failure to use evidence of Deskovic's physcological vulnerabilities</div></li><li><div align="justify">Defense failure to maximize the exculpatory value of the scientific evidence</div></li><li><div align="justify">Defense conflict of interest in representing Freddy Claxton</div></li></ul><p align="justify">In addition to the above failures, the report also cites the Court's midtrial loss of evidence as another contributing factor.</p><p align="justify">The <a href="http://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/Deskovic_report-03Jul07.html">Mid-Hudson News detailed the report's conclusions as follows</a>:</p><blockquote><p>The report calls Deskovic’s case a “textbook illustration of tunnel vision in action”.</p><p align="justify">“Once Deskovic was arrested, tunnel vision also distorted the prosecution’s behavior. Convinced that its man was in custody, the District Attorney’s office successfully pressed for an indictment, rather than await the results of potentially exculpatory scientific testing.”</p><p align="justify">The report is critical of Peekskill police tactics on January 25, 1990, when Deskovic was subjected, for eight hours, to what is described as “an arduous series of interviews, the avowed purpose of which was to elicit a confession”. The procedure produced what amounted to a false confession.</p><p align="justify">Even Deskovic’s legal defense came under fire. The report faults the public defender defense for not adequately addressing the circumstances that led to the defendant’s false confession. “The Defense was scattered, unfocused and confusing” found the report.</p><p align="justify">The most scathing part of the report deals with the them District Attorney’s office handling of DNA evidence and its resolve to move ahead with a grand jury presentation before DNA test results were released. As things turned out, the DNA test did not provide a match between Deskovic and Correra.</p></blockquote><p align="justify">Interviewed by the <a href="http://www.nyjournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070703/NEWS02/707030375">Journal News</a>, Jeffrey Deskovic expressed surprise at the comprehensive findings and noted that the report confirmed his worst fears.</p><blockquote><p align="justify">"I was surprised because the report was more thorough and critical than what I thought it was going to be," he said from the Mercy College campus in Dobbs Ferry, where he now studies and lives.</p><p align="justify">"But at the same time, it kind of confirmed my worst fears," he said, that "they were not going to interview any live witnesses and that they were only going to go by a cold record and that they had in fact proceeded without even offering me the opportunity of participating."</p></blockquote><p align="justify">Not surprisingly, former DA Jeanine Pirro, who thankfully failed in a recent bid to become New York's Attorney General, responded to the report's findings by denying, through her attorney, recollection of the failures ascribed to her. Absent this recollection, the "raw deal" had by Mr. Deskovic is apparently not Ms. Pirro's fault, according to her lawyer, William Aronwald.</p><blockquote><p align="justify">A lawyer for former District Attorney Jeanine Pirro said Tuesday that Pirro does not recall denying or even receiving any requests for DNA tests from a man who had been wrongly convicted of murder. </p><p align="justify">The convicted man, Jeffrey Deskovic, was freed last year, after 16 years in prison, when Pirro's successor, Janet DiFiore, had the crime scene DNA retested and it implicated another man.</p><p align="justify">Deskovic has claimed Pirro turned down his request several times. And a report on the case, requested by DiFiore and released Monday, stated that Pirro "consistently rejected" requests to run the crime scene DNA through state and federal databases. But Pirro's attorney, William Aronwald, said Tuesday that if the report's authors had asked her about it, "She would have told them that in fact she has no recollection of ever receiving any correspondence from Deskovic and certainly has no recollection of ever writing back to him or rebuffing any requests that he made for additional DNA testing." </p><p align="justify">Deskovic "did get a raw deal, but if he got a raw deal it wasn't at the hands of Jeanine Pirro," Aronwald said. [ <a href="http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--convictionquestio0703jul03,0,3951947.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork">Newsday</a> ]</p></blockquote><p align="justify"><a href="http://hometown.aol.com/VIP%20PASSES/JeffreyDeskovicCommRpt.pdf">Click here to read the entire Report on the Conviction of Jeffrey Deskovic</a>.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer">www.liestoppers.blogspot.com</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4520292699168365999.post-40659389355315775612007-07-01T05:15:00.000-04:002007-07-01T06:43:15.200-04:00Nifonged in Wilson: James Johnson's Not So Speedy Trial<div align="justify">On the eve of the <a href="http://liestoppers2.blogspot.com/search/label/Nifonged%20in%20Wilson">third anniversary of the arrest of James Johnson</a>, the News & Observer turns its attention to the apparent nifonging of the twenty-one year old Wilson, North Carolina man who has been jailed since July 2, 2004 on charges that he abducted, robbed, raped, and murdered Brittany Tyler Willis. Held on an impossible $1,000,000.00 bond at the Wilson County Detention Center, Mr. Johnson awaits a trial scheduled for July 23, three years after helping police identify the actual perpetrator of the crime, and despite an absence of physical evidence connecting him to the crime; polygraph testing and DNA evidence that appear to confirm his actual innocence; and an admission from Kenneth Meeks, the convicted author of the crime who confessed to acting alone. </div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span></div><div align="justify">Initially suspected because he “<a href="http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=local&id=5375951">knew too much</a>” about the crime, Johnson was implicated by the convicted killer after police informed him that it was Johnson who turned him in. In addition to the recanted statement from Meeks, who admitted that he falsely implicated Johnson as retribution for his arrest, the only other evidence against Johnson, until recently, had been the disallowed statements of a deceased woman who claimed to have witnessed two men kidnapping the victim two hours before the crime occurred and at a time when Johnson was proven to have been elsewhere. In the spirit of Mike Nifong and Linwood Wilson, prosecutors have recently produced two new eyewitnesses, one of whom is a retired Wilson police officer, as the trial approaches.</div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span></div><div align="justify"><a href="http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/623143.html">Andrea Weigl of the News & Observer writes</a>:</div><div align="justify"><blockquote><p align="justify">Three years ago, the rape and murder of a 17-year-old girl abducted from a shopping center frightened the city of Wilson and grabbed headlines beyond it. </p><p align="justify">One man has pleaded guilty to the murder and is serving a life sentence. </p><p align="justify">But the informant who helped police solve the crime also ended up facing rape and murder charges and has waited three years in jail for a chance to clear his name. </p><p align="justify">Now, James Arthur Johnson's claims of innocence, his trial July 23 and the prosecution's case against him are in the spotlight. </p><p align="justify">Johnson's case has been divisive for the city of 47,000, an hour east of Raleigh. </p><p align="justify">Wilson's mayor won't talk about the crime. Other city leaders defend the police department's investigation.<br />…<br />Johnson's attorneys say there is no physical evidence to connect him to the rape or murder. And the man who first implicated Johnson and is serving a life sentence for the murder now says he acted alone. </p><p align="justify">Kenneth Meeks, 19, whom DNA connected to the crimes, said he lied about Johnson's role because he was angry that Johnson went to the police. </p><p align="justify">Johnson said he was home with his father at the time of the murder, which his father<br />confirms. "This shouldn't even go to trial," said Arthur Johnson, the father. "There's nothing to try." </p><p align="justify">Neither District Attorney Howard S. Boney Jr. nor the assistant prosecutor handling the case returned messages seeking comment. </p><p align="justify">Wilson Police Chief Harry Tyson defends Johnson's arrest. "The evidence that we got supported probable cause," he said. "A jury needs to decide his guilt or innocence." </p><p align="justify">Terry Alford, Meeks' attorney, questions prosecutors' tactics. </p><p align="justify">"This is an unusual situation," he said. "We have a person who pleaded guilty and maintained he did it alone, and the state is proceeding against someone else." </p><p align="justify">Prosecutors, who won't talk publicly, have tried to bolster their case against Johnson with statements taken recently from two eyewitnesses, including a retired Wilson police officer.<br />…<br />Johnson was arrested July 2, 2004. He initially faced the death penalty but now faces only life in prison. His three-year wait for trial is more than twice the average. Prosecutors in North Carolina typically dispose of murder cases in 14 1/2 months. </p><p align="justify">"There's not a single bit of evidence that he's guilty," said Richard A. Rosen, a law professor at the University of North Carolina who has handled innocence cases. "I want to know why the prosecutors are still pursuing it." </p><p align="justify">Part of the initial evidence that created probable cause for Johnson's arrest was Meeks' statement to police that Johnson killed Willis. Meeks' account appeared to be<br />corroborated by a now deceased 75-year-old woman who told police that she saw two black men and a young woman walking in the field where Willis' body was found on the day of the murder. However, the women said she saw those people between 2 and 3 p.m., which conflicts with evidence that proves Willis was shopping at that time. </p><p align="justify">From the start, Alford, Meeks' attorney, suspected that his client lied about Johnson's having a role in the murder. </p><p align="justify">"When I started investigating, things just didn't add up that way," he said. "There was more evidence that he did it alone." </p><p align="justify">Eventually, Alford said, Meeks admitted lying about Johnson. Last year, Meeks testified on Johnson's behalf at a pretrial hearing. </p><p align="justify">One of Johnson's attorneys, Johnny Gaskins of Raleigh, questioned Meeks about his statement implicating Johnson. </p><p align="justify">"You later told police officers that James Johnson and you had been together and that he killed Brittany Willis. Do you recall that?" Gaskins asked. </p><p align="justify">"Yes, sir," Meeks said. </p><p align="justify">"Was that true?" </p><p align="justify">"No, sir." </p><p align="justify">"Why did you tell them that?" </p><p align="justify">"Because I knew he was the one that tell the police what happened." </p><p align="justify">"You were mad at him?" </p><p align="justify">"Yes, sir."</p></blockquote>In addition to testifying on behalf of James Johnson at last year's hearing, Meeks also sent a <a href="http://www.wral.com/asset/news/local/2007/05/07/1391676/letter.swf">letter to Tim Rogers of the Wilson Daily Times</a> confessing to acting alone and crediting Johnson's turning him in for changing the destructive path he followed.</div><blockquote><div align="justify">Dear Sir:</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">This is Kenneth Meeks. I plead guilty to 1st degree murder in '06. I committed the crime alone. James Johnson is innocent. For them to keep holding him is a crime in itself. I gave my life (a life sentence) admitting my guilt. I was wrong. It took James turning to realize my road was going one way - towards destruction. I also gave them the murder weapon what else do they need? I've apologized time and time again. Why are they making James suffer?</div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">Sincerely,</div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">Kenneth M. Meeks Jr.</div></blockquote><div align="justify">Not surprisingly, the local NAACP, who had echoed Wilson Police Chief Harry Tyson's "A jury needs to decide his guilt or innocence" in championing the railroading of the Duke Innocents, have come to the defense of James Johnson.</div><blockquote><div align="justify">Meanwhile, state NAACP leaders portray Johnson as another innocent black man being railroaded by the system. </div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span><br />Outrage over Johnson's case has revived membership in the Wilson County chapter of the NAACP. At a recent rally for Johnson, the speakers included Darryl Hunt of Winston-Salem, who spent 19 years in prison for a rape and murder he didn't commit, and the Rev. William Barber II, president of the state NAACP. </div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span><br />"We're here because there's something wrong when a man like James Johnson spends three years in jail without trial," Barber told the crowd of more than 100 people. "... We're here today because it's wrong for the system to keep people locked down and locked up when the truth is already out." <a href="http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/623143.html">N&O</a></div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">"Meeks said he falsely accused James [Johnson] of being involved in the crimes because he was angry James had reported Meeks to the police," explained Al McSurely, a lawyer for the NAACP. <a href="http://news14.com/content/top_stories/583431/naacp-helping-man-accused-in-murder-of-wilson-teen/Default.aspx">News 14</a></div></blockquote><div align="justify">In addition to the NAACP, Johnson has found support from his family, local leaders, and Darryl Hunt whose wrongful conviction landed him on death row.</div><div align="justify"><blockquote><div align="justify">People in Wilson [NC] are calling for justice in the case of a man accused of murdering a young girl – and they support the suspect.<br />...<br />They organized a rally downtown, led by Johnson’s father, Arthur Johnson. James has waited nearly three years for his day in court.</div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span><br />“We want justice not just for James, but for everyone,” Arthur said. “But how can you have it when people that are supposed to impose it are not abiding by it?”</div><div align="justify">...</div><div align="justify">The rally got a little help from a man who has become a symbol for the wrongly accused: Darryl Hunt of Winston-Salem. He won his freedom after spending 18 years in prison for crimes he didn't commit.</div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span><br />“We’re tired of our young men and women getting locked up and their lives taken away from them,” Hunt said. <a href="http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/1447873/">WRAL</a></div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span></div><div align="justify">Jimmy Harris of Rocky Mount, is also expected to attend, Arthur Johnson said. Harris was convicted in 1984 of first-degree murder and robbery in Rocky Mount, according to the Rev. Elton Powell, a local teacher who has taken interest in Harris' case and James Johnson's case.</div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span></div><div align="justify">Harris served 22 years in prison and was released on probation in October 2006. Powell said he and other people supporting Harris are working to prove he was wrongfully convicted.</div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span></div><div align="justify">Wilson County Commissioner Bobbie Jones will introduce Arthur Johnson at the rally. Then, Johnson said he would read a letter sent by Congressman G.K. Butterfield on May 16 to District Attorney Howard Boney, Judge Frank Brown and Judge Milton "Toby" Fitch.</div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span></div><div align="justify">The letter calls for James Johnson to be given a trial, a release on "reasonable conditions" or a dismissal of charges, noting "he is being denied a speedy trial as guaranteed by the Constitution and being punished while he is entitled to the presumption of innocence."</div><div align="justify">...</div><div align="justify">"My concentration is not just for James but for the community as a whole," Arthur Johnson said Wednesday. "This will happen to someone else's husband, brother, mother, daughter; and it doesn't need to." <a href="http://www.wilsondaily.com/Wil_region/Local_News/311350096743048.php">Wilson Daily Times</a></div></blockquote></div><div align="justify">Initially, Johnson had been held without bond as the State pursued the death penalty against him. Near the end of last year, prosecutors abandoned the effort to execute the young man.</div><div align="justify"><blockquote><p>In December 2006, Assistant District Attorney Bill Wolfe announced he would not seek the death penalty against Johnson, making him eligible for bond. In January, his bond was set at $1 million, but Johnson's family calls the bond an empty gesture.</p><p>"If we had $1 million, we would have had our son home by now," said his father. <a href="http://www.wilsontimes.com/Wil_region/Local_News/301331673204815.php">WDT</a></p></blockquote></div><div align="justify">Although Johnson has received support from many in the community, prosecutors and police are not alone in pushing the case to trial. A recent letter to the editor and an editorial in the Wilson Daily Times reveal that others advocate the continued prosecution despite the evidence of Johnson's innocence.</div><div align="justify"><blockquote><div align="justify">I would like to see someone stand up for Brittany Willis. The victim, the 17 years old was brutally raped and murdered in Wilson June 2004. One of the accused, Mr. Meeks, was sentenced to life in prison. He now says that he acted alone, that the accused's friend, James Johnson is innocent. What could he possibly lose by saying that? We now have the NAACP in town playing the race card before Johnson stands trial. </div><div align="justify"><br />Please let us not forget that Brittany Willis was the victim, not James Johnson. </div><div align="justify"><br /><a href="http://archive.wilsontimes.com/archive_detail.php?archiveFile=./pubfiles/wil/archive/2007/June/02/Opinion/49805.xml&start=0&numPer=20&keyword=%5Cjames+Johnson%5C+murder&sectionSearch=&begindate=1%2F1%2F1987&enddate=12%2F31%2F2007&authorSearch=&IncludeStories=1&pubsection=&page=&IncludePages=&IncludeImages=&mode=allwords&archive_pubname=The+Wilson+Daily+Times%0A%09%09%09">Bill Sutton</a><br />Elm City</div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">Next month will mark the third anniversary of the murder of Brittany Willis, and the case is still not settled. It's time to bring this matter to closure by either bringing the last remaining suspects to trial or settling the charges against them...If Johnson is innocent, he should be freed. If he is guilty, he should be sent to state prison for life...The Willis family and the Wilson community need closure. Three years is long enough. <a href="http://archive.wilsontimes.com/archive_detail.php?archiveFile=./pubfiles/wil/archive/2007/May/07/Opinion/47742.xml&start=0&numPer=20&keyword=%5Cjames+Johnson%5C+murder&sectionSearch=&begindate=1%2F1%2F1987&enddate=12%2F31%2F2007&authorSearch=&IncludeStories=1&pubsection=&page=&IncludePages=&IncludeImages=&mode=allwords&archive_pubname=The+Wilson+Daily+Times%0A%09%09%09">WDT</a></div></blockquote></div><div align="justify">Certainly, Brittany Willis is the victim of this horrible crime, as Mr. Sutton indicates, and her family, as well as the community, deserves closure, as the Wilson Daily Times suggests. It is difficult, however, to accept that three years imprisonment for a crime that evidence suggests he did not commit doesn't make Johnson a victim. Likewise, it's troubling to accept that closure should ever entail the prolonged nifonging of an innocent man.</div><div class="blogger-post-footer">www.liestoppers.blogspot.com</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4520292699168365999.post-86850248648509812902007-06-29T21:12:00.000-04:002007-06-29T21:16:06.400-04:00Nifonged in Nicaragua: Latest Letter from Eric Volz<div align="justify"><a href="http://www.goodwillhinton.com/free_eric_volz_day_200">Latest letter from Eric Volz</a>:</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">This seems to be a topic of great interest to most people. Almost every letter says something like, "I can't imagine what it's like in that prison." I will share what I can, but I also need people to know that it is a very delicate and sensitive situation.</div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span><br />I will start by saying that the conditions here are really shitty!! The authorities lack sufficient resources and subsequently face a wide variety of problems and we, the prisoners, pay the price.</div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span><br />We have had no water pressure from the artesian wells for about 10 days. Water is brought in by buckets filled in the yard from hose faucets. There are less than 10 slow faucets to provide water for over 2,500 inmates. Do the math and shake your head in disbelief as I am. The water shortage has been caused by the well pump burning up due to power outages (an issue in and of itself). The authorities have informed us that the pump should be repaired in the next couple of days, but in the meantime it isn't pretty.</div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span><br />No one gets good sleep here. The noise is traumatic. Its like being in an industrial factory with metal doors slamming, 5 or more different kinds of music at full blast at the same time, and crazy inmates screaming at 4:30am just to be jerks and wake people up. At times it drives you nuts. I have been driven to the point where I have to sit down in my cell, cover my ears, and focus on my breathing just to keep it together.</div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span><br />There is also the heat which makes you constantly sweaty and sticky. I fall asleep and wake up in pools of sweat. Most prisoners have insomnia and can't sleep without pills. I have resisted the temptation.</div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span><br />The food is not enough. The prison provides a cup of beans, a cup of rice, coffee, sometimes green bananas or a small bread bun. The food comes at lunch and sometimes again in the afternoon. It is not uncommon to find cockroaches and fingernails in the rice. My eating schedule has been very abnormal and extremely stressful on my body. When the courts delayed my appeal I got really sick. I spent two weeks in bed. Yesterday the doctor diagnosed me with gastritis and intestinal parasites for which I'm taking meds. My whole abdominal area aches - it's freaky being ill like this in prison.</div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span><br />I experience tension with many prisoners here. The Nicaraguan press has created an image of me as a privileged gringo from the elite who thought he was above the law and could get out by paying bribes, which of course is not true. Many make reference to Doris' mother's absurd allegation that I offered her $1 million to drop the charges - which again is not true.</div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span><br />In addition, the majority of the prison population has a very negative image of the US and associates me accordingly. My cell is referred to as the US Embassy and prisoners joke by coming to the door asking for a Visa. I can't help but laugh. The other day I was being escorted down the hall and a kid shouted from his gallery door, "Hey Bush!" It wasn't a directly negative comment to me, but it speaks to the underlying story of our unfortunate reputation in the international consciousness. I walked on thinking, "If only he knew that he's got me all wrong. I am more than a gringo. If only he knew that my grandparents were Mexican and their first language was Spanish. If only he knew that I'm proud of my Latino heritage and I love his country. If only he knew so many other things . . . maybe he would have said, 'What's up, bro!' instead."</div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span><br />Encounters like this happen frequently and I'm aware that most of the people who surround me here don't understand me; or likely will they ever. There will always be tension. I have learned the only way to stay out of trouble is become completely independent.</div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span><br />My cell has become my castle. In it I study, read, write, stretch and rest. I have decided that I don't have time for anything else. A rumor going around is that I read each of my books six times before I move on to the next - where do these guys come up with this stuff?</div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span><br />Another related question I'm asked is about the danger in my present situation. I will say that all prisons are dangerous. I would be lying if I said that the relevance of my case has not generated enemies; it has. The warden is concerned for my safety and has made certain exceptions with the security regiment that reflect that. I will say that I am as safe as I can be in the given situation - but there is no guarantee.</div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span><br />I have come to terms with my reality and feel it is reasonable for everyone to prepare for the worst. I know that is heavy, trust me I can't believe I'm actually writing it, but it is an accurate reflection of my situation. I share this because people want to know what I'm going through and I want to be honest. I don't want to be an alarmist, nor do I want people to dwell in fear for me. I believe I will be okay no matter what because I know myself and I know who my God is, and because of that no one can touch me. No matter what, I walk away victorious.</div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span><br />With love,<br />Eric V.</div><div class="blogger-post-footer">www.liestoppers.blogspot.com</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4520292699168365999.post-46213523617905412942007-06-23T01:46:00.000-04:002007-06-23T09:52:25.080-04:00Nifonged in Nicaragua: Judge in Volz Case Under Fire Again By Nica Media<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">Earlier this month, Nicaraguan daily El Nuevo Diario reported that Judge <a href="http://liestoppers2.blogspot.com/2007/04/nifonged-in-nicaragua-soul-mates.html">Ivette Toruño Blanco</a>, who presided over the <a href="http://www.friendsofericvolz.com/index.htm">farcical trial of Eric Volz</a> in February, was <a href="http://liestoppers2.blogspot.com/2007/06/nifonged-in-nicaragua-volz-judge-under.html">under investigation by the country's Supreme Court</a> for her role in the release of a convicted drug trafficker.<br /><br /><span class="email"><a href="http://www.elnuevodiario.com.ni/2007/06/01/nacionales/50208">Citing the article written by Eloisa Ibarra of El Nuevo Diario</a>, <a href="http://liestoppers2.blogspot.com/2007/06/nifonged-in-nicaragua-volz-judge-under.html">we commented</a>:<br /></span><blockquote>An <a href="http://www.elnuevodiario.com.ni/2007/06/01/nacionales/50208">article published yesterday</a> in a Managua daily newspaper, El Nuevo Diario, questions the integrity of Jud<span style="font-size:100%;">ge </span><span style="font-size:+0;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Ivette Toruño Blanco, the judge who sentenced American Eric Volz to 30 years in prison for the rape and murder of </span></span>Doris Ivania Jiménez <span style="font-size:+0;"><span style="font-size:100%;">despite overwhelming evidence of his factual innocence. </span></span><span style="font-size:+0;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Toruño</span></span><span style="font-size:+0;"><span style="font-size:100%;">, whose blatant disregard for Nicaraguan law in the Volz case has fueled outrage in the US and growing skepticism from more reputable media outlets in Nicaragua, is currently under investigation by the Nicaraguan Supreme Court for her role in an unrelated case, according to El Nuevo Diario. Not surprisingly, El Nuevo Diario, which has been at the forefront of the local tabloid propaganda campaign against Volz, fails to note the connection of the current scandal involving Judge </span></span><span style="font-size:+0;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Toruño</span></span><span style="font-size:+0;"><span style="font-size:100%;"> to her equally corrupt decisions at Volz's trial.<br /><br /></span></span>In announcing the investigation of Judge Blanco, Armengol Cuadra, president of the Supreme Court of Nicaragua, labeled the decision by Judge Blanco to suspend the three year jail sentence of José Ernesto Pineda Salvador "strange and abnormal" while noting that her decision is in defiance of the high court's mandate to treat drug trafficking cases involving high sums of money (Pineda Salvador was captured with $1.4 million secreted in the rear doors of his Honda Civic) with extreme care.<br /><blockquote>“We are going to investigate the circumstances in which the judge granted that benefit to him, because we have stressed that judges must act with extreme caution in the cases of drug trafficking when there is very high sums of money involved,” said Armengol Cuadra.</blockquote></blockquote></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">This week, El Nuevo Diario again takes aim at the ethically challenged Judge in an article entitled "<a href="http://www.elnuevodiario.com.ni/2007/06/21/nacionales/51875">Nepotism itches and extends in Rivenses Courts</a>." Written by <span class="email">Lesber Quintero, who ironically wrote the most inflammatory of all the Nicaraguan attacks against Eric Volz and championed the appointment of Judge </span><a href="http://liestoppers2.blogspot.com/2007/04/nifonged-in-nicaragua-soul-mates.html">Toruño</a> when she was appointed to replace the judge who freed Volz to house arrest when his life was threatened by the mob incited by Quintero's propaganda campaign<span class="email">, the END offering accuses the suspect judge of corruption and nepotism.<br /><br />Quintero writes:<br /></span><blockquote>To speak of nepotism in the rivenses courts apparently is thing never to finish, and while it is investigated “more”, more extensive it is the list of workers of this institution who have familiar bonds with those who distribute justice in this department, and until with magistrate of the Supreme Court of Alba Luz Ramos Vanegas.<br /><br />...<br /><br />In order to facilitate, according to Lydia Marbely, the journalist, until one occurred to the task of leaving a quite defective letter with the names of the employees of the Judicial Power who could not be presented in the first publication, but that enjoys the nepotism, and in this sense the only excellent name that it indicates and that had not been part of our investigation is the one of the judge of the Penal District of Judgment, Ivette Toruño, to that indicates of being relative Mardin Alberto Rodríguez, who is employed as bailiff of that same judicial disctrict.</blockquote>Charges of corruption and questionable rulings are not new for Judge Toruño Blanco. In 2001, Nicaraguan human rights organization <a href="http://www.codeni.org.ni/">CODENI</a> accused the embattled judge of violating the rights of a young sexual abuse victim after an extensive investigation into Nicaraguan child sex trafficking.<br /><blockquote>In April we investigated the case of a girl of 11 years, abused sexually in Rivas, that was in pregnancy state. The man to whom this girl indicated like the author of the crime was sobreseído definitively by the Judicial one of District of the Crime of that locality, <a href="http://liestoppers2.blogspot.com/2007/04/nifonged-in-nicaragua-soul-mates.html">Ivette Toruño Blanco</a>, in a judicial process which we considered totally irregular and in violation of the guarantees of process and the rights of the girl.<br /><br />The CENIDH reviewed the judicial file that it was transacted in the Court of District of the Crime of Rivas and stated that Judge <a href="http://liestoppers2.blogspot.com/2007/04/nifonged-in-nicaragua-soul-mates.html">Ivette Toruño Blanco</a> dictated the sentence of definitive nonsuit without taking in consideration the declaration from the girl and without making all the diligences necessary to clarify the facts. The CENIDH directed communication to the Magistrates of the Court of Appeals of IV the Region in Granada, where the case was been by the Resource of Appeal that the mother of the girl promoted through her lawyer. To the closing of this Report it had not been solved.<br /><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: right"><a href="http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://www.guiagenero.com/GuiaGeneroCache%255CPagina_DerechNina_000027.html&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=5&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3DIvette%2BToru%25C3%25B1o%26start%3D50%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DN%26pwst%3D1">Human rights of the Childhood and the Adolescence</a><br /></div></blockquote>Codeni's description of Judge <a href="http://liestoppers2.blogspot.com/2007/04/nifonged-in-nicaragua-soul-mates.html">Toruño</a>'s willingness to disregard evidence is eerily reminiscent of her actions in the trial of Eric Volz.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17868992">MSNBC described</a> some of the suspect rulings of Judge <a href="http://liestoppers2.blogspot.com/2007/04/nifonged-in-nicaragua-soul-mates.html">Toruño</a> as follows:<br /><blockquote>At least 10 witnesses placed Volz in Managua, a more than two hours’ drive, and there are transcripts of lengthy Internet instant message conversations he had with a friend in Atlanta throughout the day. Still, the judge dismissed the evidence as not credible and relied on the testimony of Nelson Lopez Dangla that Volz was at the crime scene on the day Jiménez was hogtied, raped and killed.<span id="byLine"></span><br /><br />Dangla was originally charged with being an accomplice but was released in exchange for his testimony and was never tried.</blockquote>Covering the case for <a href="http://outside.away.com/outside/destinations/200706/eric-volz-nicaragua-1.html">Outside Magazine</a>, novelist <span class="CenterCreditText"></span><b><a class="InLineLink" href="http://outside.away.com/outside/destinations/200706/eric-volz-nicaragua-1.html#bio">Tony D'Souza</a> <span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold"></span></b><a href="http://outside.away.com/outside/destinations/200706/eric-volz-nicaragua-1.html">outlined the ignored alibi evidence in detail</a>:<b><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold"><br /></span></span></b><p></p><blockquote><p>And then I read the evidence regarding Volz's alibi: cell-phone records, a time-stamped instant-messaging log, page after page of statements by the ten people—most of whom I would later interview myself—supporting Volz's account. Shortly after 9:00 a.m., Volz maintained, he walked into the <em>EP</em> offices from his living quarters—the building also served as his home—and was seen by the security guard, the housekeeper, and various <em>EP</em> staff. From 10:30 to 11:00, model Maria Mercedes and a friend said they met with him. At noon, Ricardo Castillo, a Nicaraguan journalist who has contributed to the BBC and other news outlets, arrived; he and Volz then initiated a teleconference to Virginia with consultant Nick Purdy, a cofounding publisher of the music magazine <em>Paste</em>. As the conference progressed, Purdy and Volz exchanged instant messages on their impressions of Castillo, a potential contributor to <em>EP</em>. The call lasted nearly an hour. Following it, at roughly 1:15 p.m., Volz, Castillo, and Adam Paredes, <em>EP</em>'s art director, sat down to a lunch of curried fish served by the housekeeper, Martha Carolina Aguirre Corea. Castillo left at 2:00. At roughly 2:45, Volz received a call informing him of Jiménez's death; more calls would quickly come in confirming it. Meanwhile, a local hairstylist, Rossy Elena Estrada López, had arrived to cut Volz's and another employee's hair; she found him talking on a cell phone, she said, "afflicted and crying." According to these witnesses, Volz left the office at roughly 4:30.</p><p>Volz's cell-phone records precisely match his account of what happened next: that he left Managua and drove to San Juan. At 4:38 p.m. the first call outside Managua appears on the log, the following 11 calls tracing the trajectory of someone driving quickly, arriving in the San Juan cellular area at 6:34. (I've since done this drive twice in the same amount of time. It requires driving fast but not inordinately so.)</p><p>Only one document cast suspicion on his alibi: a rental agreement from Hertz. Volz had called Hertz to rent a car to go to San Juan. (His, he said, was unreliable.) The agreement was printed at 3:11 p.m. at the Hertz office. But when the vehicle was delivered, <em>EP</em> assistant Leidy de los Santos, not Volz, signed the agreement. She went inside and returned with a credit-card slip bearing what appeared to be his signature, but the delivery driver never saw Volz himself. </p><p>The case for Volz's innocence seemed obvious, irrefutable.</p></blockquote><p></p>In an update on the status of Volz's appeal, <a href="http://www.nicatimes.net/nicaarchive/060107.htm">Tim Rogers of the Nica Times noted</a> that Appellate Court Judge Roberto Rodríguez Baltodano was bewildered by Judge <a href="http://liestoppers2.blogspot.com/2007/04/nifonged-in-nicaragua-soul-mates.html">Toruño</a>'s rulings at Volz's trial.<br /><blockquote>Though Rodríguez stressed that the law prohibits him from opining on the case before officially handing down his verdict, there are parts of the case that admittedly have left him scratching his head.</blockquote>Hopefully, Judge Rodríguez has noticed the mounting accusations against Judge <a href="http://liestoppers2.blogspot.com/2007/04/nifonged-in-nicaragua-soul-mates.html">Toruño</a> as he continues to evaluate the pending appeal.</div><div class="blogger-post-footer">www.liestoppers.blogspot.com</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4520292699168365999.post-72147198632632494612007-06-23T01:19:00.000-04:002007-06-23T01:45:52.418-04:00Nifonged in Nicaragua: Friends of Eric Volz Tribute to Doris Jimenez<a href="http://www.friendsofericvolz.com/updates.htm">From the Friends of Eric Volz Website:</a><br /><p></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote><p>We send this tribute out on June 21st in memory of Doris, 7 months after she was killed on November 21st. </p> <p>It has been very hard for <span class="" id="st" name="st">Eric</span> to deal with the way Doris has been lost in all this and he has asked us to pay homage to her in this update. He writes: "What should have been the Doris Jimenez case quickly became known as the <span class="" id="st" name="st">Eric</span> <span class="" id="st" name="st">Volz</span> case. The horror of her murder, as well as the violence and abuse that women face in this region, has been eclipsed by my trial and fight for freedom. I have made a point to mention this in every interview, but have yet to see it published. I will not let people forget the injustice of Doris' murder and once I am free I will make sure that it receives the attention it deserves." </p> <p>At the end of his first letter from prison, <span class="" id="st" name="st">Eric</span> wrote: "Lastly, I would like to remind everyone that all the pain and hardship I've faced...is nothing in comparison to the loss of Doris. She was an amazing person that was loved by everyone. She is deeply missed." <span class="" id="st" name="st">Eric</span> continues to grieve the loss of this lovely woman, as do all her friends and family. </p> <p>The image below is one you may have seen published in various media stories about this tragedy; here is where it originated. This is Doris, as she appeared on page 59 in the 1st issue of EP Magazine in 2006. The caption to the right reads: <em>"We are rising in the ranks of power, breaking new ground. Women of Central America"</em></p></blockquote></div><p><em></em></p><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.friendsofericvolz.com/images/doris_pg_59.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://www.friendsofericvolz.com/images/doris_pg_59.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Part of the mission of EP Magazine, along with promoting conscious living and cultural awareness, was to profile Central American/Caribbean people who are succeeding. In the 1st issue of EP a campaign was launched to encourage the rising strength and influence of Central American women. Doris was a prime example of this NEW WOMAN; putting herself through school, opening her own store, seeking to break the glass ceiling and follow her dreams. In this, we honor her memory.<br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">www.liestoppers.blogspot.com</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4520292699168365999.post-13444654074615128872007-06-22T05:53:00.000-04:002007-06-22T06:34:41.987-04:00Nifonged in Nicaragua: Murder by the Sea (MSNBC Documentary)<div style="text-align: justify;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_8fUCfAeoLXo/RnudThXdtAI/AAAAAAAAAbE/tUtTPxsaI9Q/s1600-h/.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_8fUCfAeoLXo/RnudThXdtAI/AAAAAAAAAbE/tUtTPxsaI9Q/s400/.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5078825963490227202" border="0" /></a>MSNBC debuted an hour long documentary entitled "<a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036750/">Murder by the Sea</a>" last night. The preview at their website described the feature as:<br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote>Eric Volz was an ambitious young man from San Diego trying to run a business in a surfing town in Nicaragua. But when a local girl is murdered, Eric is pinned as a suspect and his whole life is turned upside down.<br /></blockquote>We are working to upload segments from the video and hope to have video excerpts available here soon. In the meantime, please follow the links below to previous MSNBC features on the Volz case, some of which were incorporated into the new documentary.<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://video.msn.com/v/us/msnbc.htm?f=00&g=11195440-174b-41d2-8c9d-ae1bf1a6c5e4&p=Source_Dateline%20NBC&t=s52&rf=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18264642/&fg="><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_8fUCfAeoLXo/RnuiGxXdtDI/AAAAAAAAAbc/pkPRctIT69Q/s400/sea.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5078831242005034034" border="0" /></a><a href="http://video.msn.com/v/us/msnbc.htm?f=00&g=ba79a63b-152c-4520-a846-be4213cc82f7&p=Source_Dateline%20NBC&t=s52&rf=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18264642/&fg="><span style="font-weight: bold;"><blockquote>Death by the Sea</blockquote></span></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://video.msn.com/v/us/msnbc.htm?f=00&g=ba79a63b-152c-4520-a846-be4213cc82f7&p=Source_Dateline%20NBC&t=s52&rf=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18264642/&fg="><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_8fUCfAeoLXo/Rnug7RXdtBI/AAAAAAAAAbM/gprQfIrxhlM/s400/085.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5078829944924910610" border="0" /></a><blockquote style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://video.msn.com/v/us/msnbc.htm?f=00&g=11195440-174b-41d2-8c9d-ae1bf1a6c5e4&p=Source_Dateline%20NBC&t=s52&rf=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18264642/&fg=">An ex-girlfriend’s murder</a><br /><br /></blockquote> </div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://video.msn.com/v/us/msnbc.htm?f=00&g=3637d6c5-4e71-4374-9770-f9a5682fa22e&p=Source_Dateline%20NBC&t=s52&rf=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18264642/&fg="><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_8fUCfAeoLXo/Rnuk7hXdtGI/AAAAAAAAAb0/W_t1D36CrNE/s400/106.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5078834347266389090" border="0" /></a><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://video.msn.com/v/us/msnbc.htm?f=00&g=3637d6c5-4e71-4374-9770-f9a5682fa22e&p=Source_Dateline%20NBC&t=s52&rf=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18264642/&fg="><blockquote>Angry mobs outside the courthouse<br /></blockquote></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://video.msn.com/v/us/msnbc.htm?f=00&g=94a7c69f-1298-44e3-8eeb-dee16e92f1ee&p=Source_Dateline%20NBC&t=s52&rf=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18264642/&fg="><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_8fUCfAeoLXo/RnuhoBXdtCI/AAAAAAAAAbU/qxmHHDICYi4/s400/122.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5078830713724056610" border="0" /></a><a href="http://video.msn.com/v/us/msnbc.htm?f=00&g=94a7c69f-1298-44e3-8eeb-dee16e92f1ee&p=Source_Dateline%20NBC&t=s52&rf=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18264642/&fg="><span style="font-weight: bold;"><blockquote>‘An unbeatable defense’</blockquote></span></a><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://video.msn.com/v/us/msnbc.htm?f=00&g=94a7c69f-1298-44e3-8eeb-dee16e92f1ee&p=Source_Dateline%20NBC&t=s52&rf=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18264642/&fg="><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_8fUCfAeoLXo/RnujfxXdtEI/AAAAAAAAAbk/GOOlyD2h3GI/s400/blanco.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5078832771013391426" border="0" /></a><a href="http://video.msn.com/v/us/msnbc.htm?f=00&g=94a7c69f-1298-44e3-8eeb-dee16e92f1ee&p=Source_Dateline%20NBC&t=s52&rf=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18264642/&fg="></a><div style="text-align: center; font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://video.msn.com/v/us/msnbc.htm?f=00&g=94a7c69f-1298-44e3-8eeb-dee16e92f1ee&p=Source_Dateline%20NBC&t=s52&rf=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18264642/&fg="><blockquote>A Guilty Verdict</blockquote></a></div><a href="http://video.msn.com/v/us/msnbc.htm?f=00&g=94a7c69f-1298-44e3-8eeb-dee16e92f1ee&p=Source_Dateline%20NBC&t=s52&rf=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18264642/&fg="></a><div style="text-align: center;"><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://video.msn.com/v/us/msnbc.htm?f=00&g=94a7c69f-1298-44e3-8eeb-dee16e92f1ee&p=Source_Dateline%20NBC&t=s52&rf=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18264642/&fg="></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://video.msn.com/v/us/msnbc.htm?f=00&g=9adbc38a-6d40-437c-b27b-4da20fc995e4&p=Source_Dateline%20NBC&t=s52&rf=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18264642/&fg="><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_8fUCfAeoLXo/Rnuj7RXdtFI/AAAAAAAAAbs/QmYxujB_KPc/s400/131.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5078833243459794002" border="0" /></a><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://video.msn.com/v/us/msnbc.htm?f=00&g=9adbc38a-6d40-437c-b27b-4da20fc995e4&p=Source_Dateline%20NBC&t=s52&rf=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18264642/&fg="><blockquote>The fight continues</blockquote></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">www.liestoppers.blogspot.com</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4520292699168365999.post-82995026798967252112007-06-21T01:38:00.000-04:002007-06-21T01:40:12.728-04:00Nifonged in NIcaragua: Note From Father of Eric Volz<p style="text-align: justify;" class="blogSubject">FATHER'S DAY - JUNE 17, 2007 </p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;"><em><a href="http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=165126112&blogID=278458344">A note from Jan, Eric's father</a>.</em></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;">Father's Day for me has become a day for Eric and his sister. Historically, it has been a day when children honor fathers, but in my present state and emotional economy, Father's Day is the day I, as a father, want to honor my children. </p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;">Eric carries my father's name, Stanley, as his middle name and my middle name is his first. It is in Eric that I find my greatest pride. </p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;">My daughter's middle name is 'Joy' and it has been befitting since the day she was born. She has been the joy of my life from the moment the doctor allowed me to help with her delivery, and I held her in my arms. She is my greatest Joy. </p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;">As the events of this year continue to unfold, I see Father's Day differently. In many ways the last 200+ days have been Eric's days. As I wake each morning and thank God for sparing his life another day and pray for Eric's continued safety and freedom, the days have been about justice and freedom for him. Last year, on Father's Day, I was in San Juan del Sur spending it with Eric. That was the first time I met Doris, the lovely young lady whose loss has changed the world for all of us. </p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;">I am blessed to have had many fond memories of times with my father. I remember when I was a kid, bumping along the dusty roads of Northern California, learning to drive in his old pickup truck. When I was 8 he taught me how to drive on those old back roads. I remember doing some of the same with both Eric and his sister. When Eric was very young I would sit him on my lap in my old Nissan pickup and let him shift the gears as I depressed the clutch and taught him to steer the car down some of the back roads of Tennessee. Hopefully, his memory of those times is as pleasant as mine. </p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;">As Eric faces the possibility of spending 30 years in prison, I'm certain he is wondering if he'll ever be a father. It breaks my heart for him, considering the joy he brought to me when he was a little guy, the pride he brings to me as a young man, and the strength he shares with all of us as a man facing some of the hardest days a human being could imagine. He continues to endure and embrace this test with continued grace and humility. I admire him more than I will ever be able to express. </p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;">My prayer is that as we seek his freedom and as the success of that battle finds him back home one day, I will be able to play with Eric's children and celebrate Father's Day with him as his children run and jump into his loving arms. Eric will be the best; he's always had such a tender spirit toward little ones. He has a special place in his heart for children; his own children will be the luckiest of all. </p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;">My dad's love and dedication toward me was solid as a rock. My dad provided me with life's greatest gift: unconditional love. And he made sure I knew how much he loved me as he displayed it in action and deed. I hope and pray that Eric will again experience those sentiments from me when we reunite in freedom. </p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;">Recently, we posted a piece written by Eric regarding his hope for a brotherhood among people of all nationalities and creeds, a "one-world" view where he expressed with idealism the hope that people everywhere would begin to recognize the fact that we are all alike in so many ways. For years now I have heard him express his desire to bridge the gap and bring people together. Eric has always been a bridge builder, a peacemaker. </p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;">As a father I find Eric's ideals refreshing and exhilarating to my soul. Without ideals we'd never be able to change the world. I only hope he has the chance. Eric currently is spending periods of time in deep thought and inner soul examination. That search, when coupled with his connection to others, will make him a much stronger bridge builder than he ever was before. </p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;">For me, Eric's incarceration has made clearer, some of the differences we citizens of this one planet must learn to overcome. I find myself continuously thankful that I live here and have been blessed by the ideals (albeit imperfect), which abound here. Bridging any divide is never without struggle and Eric's initial entrance into this world was no less difficult. </p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;">I remember holding Eric moments after he was delivered. He was born with some difficulty and he wasn't breathing properly. The doctors in the delivery room were quite worried and quickly called in a specialist. For a short while I thought we were going to lose Eric. I remember silently praying for him, asking God to spare his life. </p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;">Here I am 28 years later asking God the same thing, praying the same prayer. I know that the breath of life is but a vapor and only the loving hand of God sustains it. Now that Eric has grown into a fine man of whom I am so proud, I am still humbled by the thought that the only thing between this moment and eternity is life...the frailest thing in the world. </p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;">May we fathers, and those who are yet to be, daily live our lives with unconditional love for each of you: our sons, daughters, wives, sisters, and brothers. Happy Father's Day... </p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;">Jan Eric Volz</p><div class="blogger-post-footer">www.liestoppers.blogspot.com</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4520292699168365999.post-45860611890680697782007-06-18T10:57:00.000-04:002007-06-18T11:17:02.703-04:00Nifong Clone Campaigns To Be Montana Chief Justice<div align="justify">Following last week’s trial of Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong on ethics charges brought by the North Carolina State Bar, it would be absurd to envision the disgraced prosecutor seeking to become the Chief Justice of the NC Supreme Court. In announcing the disbarment ruling of the Disciplinary Hearing Committee, Chair F. Lane Williamson cited Mr. Nifong’s refusal to acknowledge the factual innocence of his wronged victims as evidence of the DA’s lapse in character, fueled by "self deception arising out of self interest." The description of Mr. Nifong offered by DHC Chair Williamson is diametrically opposed to what one would expect from a candidate for any state's most esteemed judicial position. </div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span></div><div align="justify">While in the case of newly disbarred D.A. Mike Nifong, the suggestion of election to Supreme Court Chief Justice is ludicrous, the State of Montana is faced with the prospect that a prosecutor, who has exhibited some of the same flawed characteristics denounced by Chair Williamson, may soon sit in judgment over the State’s most critical cases. Despite demonstrating a Nifongesque inability to maintain consistency in character while avoiding self deception and selfish motives, Montana Attorney General Mike McGrath recently announced his intention to become the Chief Justice of the Montana Supreme Court. McGrath recently offered an alarming sworn deposition in response to a lawsuit from an innocent man wrongfully convicted by the State of Montana. In it, A.G. McGrath attested to his continued belief in the guilt of the wrongly convicted man, who was finally exonerated when DNA evidence unequivocally demonstrated his factual innocence.</div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span></div><div align="justify">The <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-mcgrath_28may28,0,4408195.story?coll=chi-ent_arts-hed">Chicago Tribune addressed McGrath’s high court ambitions</a> and Nifong-like tendencies in a recent article.</div><blockquote><div align="justify"><strong>Exonerated by DNA, guilty in official's eyes</strong></div><div align="justify"><em>High court hopeful's view troubles critics</em></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">In the fall of 2002, DNA tests exonerated Jimmy Ray Bromgard in the 1987 rape of an 8-year-old girl in Billings, Mont. His case was dismissed and he was freed from prison."</div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span></div><div align="justify">Mr. Bromgard has spent 15 years in prison for a crime that the state is now convinced beyond a reasonable doubt he did not commit," Yellowstone County Atty. Dennis Paxinos declared. "The DNA from the room where the attack took place simply does not match his. He simply could not have committed this crime."</div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span></div><div align="justify">Nearly five years later, Montana Atty. Gen. Mike McGrath -- a recently announced candidate for chief justice of the state's Supreme Court -- has stated under oath that he still believes Bromgard is guilty.</div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span></div><div align="justify">In most of the cases where prosecutors have refused to believe in an exoneration, they have cited evidence that more than one person was involved in the crime to argue that the DNA was left by a second, unidentified offender. It is rare for a prosecutor to dispute a DNA exoneration when there is no evidence -- as in Bromgard's case -- that more than one person committed the crime.</div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span></div><div align="justify">McGrath, testifying in a deposition taken in a lawsuit brought by Bromgard, cited several possibilities, including that the victim was sexually active with someone else or that her 11-year-old sister was sexually active while wearing her younger sister's underwear.</div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span></div><div align="justify">The veteran prosecutor also suggested that the DNA could have been from the child's father and that the girl's parents had sex on their daughter's bed and left DNA, or that the father assaulted the girl.</div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span></div><div align="justify"><strong>A question of 'far-fetched'</strong></div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span></div><div align="justify">"In my experience as a prosecutor, none of those theories is far-fetched," said McGrath, who has spent 25 years in the criminal justice system in Montana. "All of those are possible."</div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span></div><div align="justify">Paxinos, informed of McGrath's views, said, "I had [Bromgard] cut loose because his DNA did not match the DNA in the case. He could not be the perpetrator unless you believed the 8-year-old was having sex with multiple men. That would be far-fetched."</div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span></div><div align="justify">The DNA from the case did not match any of the victim's family. It was run through the FBI's database of convicted felons without finding a match.</div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span></div><div align="justify">Edward Blake, a top DNA scientist who performed the testing that freed Bromgard, said, "Any college-educated individual who has had a high school biology class should be able to look at my report and see ... that it is scientifically not possible for that sperm to be from the father of that girl."</div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span></div><div align="justify">That a prosecutor would believe a defendant guilty despite DNA evidence is not unusual. What makes McGrath's position unusual is his bid to become chief justice of the Montana Supreme Court, where he would sit in judgment over many criminal cases.</div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span></div><div align="justify">Steven Lubet, professor of law at Northwestern University and an expert on judicial ethics, called McGrath's testimony "a hyperextreme form of advocacy that would be inconsistent with the obligations of a judge once someone was on the bench."</div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span></div><div align="justify">Peter Neufeld, a lawyer for Bromgard who questioned McGrath at the deposition, characterized McGrath's answers as "the most remote, absurd, speculative theories to explain evidence that otherwise ... exonerates Mr. Bromgard."…</div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span></div><div align="justify">The victim's father, whose identity is being withheld to protect the identity of the victim, accused McGrath of making "reckless statements that will cause more harm to the victim and her family. ... Needless to say, we are deeply offended by his remarks. Deeply offended."</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">Ronald Singer, director of the Tarrant County, Texas, medical examiner's crime lab and former president of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, said, "To even insinuate that an 8-year-old is sexually active is kind of extreme. ... I find it amazing."</div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span></div><div align="justify">Chuck Watson, a criminal defense lawyer from Bozeman, Mont., and head of the Montana state bar association's criminal section, said McGrath's testimony is "troubling because it suggests something as compelling as DNA should be disregarded in favor of mere possibilities."</div></blockquote><p align="justify">DHC Chair Williamson offered some advice aimed at preventing future prosecutorial "fiascos" like those overseen by Mr. Nifong and championed by Mr. McGrath. The citizens of Montana might keep his words in mind when evaluating Mr. McGrath's candidacy, in light of his continued belief in an innocent man's guilt despite clear evidence to the contrary: </p><blockquote><p align="justify">"You have to carefully consider the facts and the evidence before you make a conclusion about something and not just trust someone who tells you it is so because that is someone who's in a position 'to know.'"</p></blockquote><p align="justify">Click here to read the deposition of Montana Attorney General, and Supreme Court Chief Justice hopeful, Mike McGrath:<strong> </strong><a href="http://redeye.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-mcgrath,0,3717079.htmlstory?coll=red-home-columnists"><strong>Deposition</strong></a>.</p><p>Click here to view McGrath’s election website: <a href="http://www.mikemcgrath.com/">Mike McGrath for Supreme Court Chief Justice</a>. </p><p>Click below to submit letters to Montana newspapers expressing your opinion on the candidacy of a Nifong clone for Chief Justice of the Supreme Court: </p><ul><li><a href="http://billingsgazette.net/info/?h/letters">Billings Gazette</a>. </li><li><a href="mailto:oped@missoulian.com">Missoulian</a> </li><li><a href="http://www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=CUSTOMERSERVICE03">Great Falls Tribune</a> </li><li><a href="mailto:irstaff@helenair.com">Helena Independent Record </a><br /></li></ul><div class="blogger-post-footer">www.liestoppers.blogspot.com</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4520292699168365999.post-56648441539798024032007-06-11T14:17:00.000-04:002007-06-11T14:37:58.846-04:00Nifonged in Nicaragua: Volz Appeal Update<div align="justify"><a href="http://www.nicatimes.net/nicaarchive/060107.htm">Tim Rogers of the Nica Times</a>, an English language Nicaraguan newspaper, is reporting that the initial review of Eric Volz's appeal was expected to conclude last week. Based on an interview with Appellate Court Judge Roberto Rodríguez Baltodano, who has been conducting the preliminary review, Rogers indicates that a hearing for the defense attorneys and prosecutors to offer final arguments will follow shortly unless the remaining two Appellate Court Judges on the Volz panel disagree with Baltodano's conclusions. While a previous report in El Nuevo Diario indicated that Judge Baltadano was leaning toward annuling the trial court's verdict and ordering a new trial for Volz, the Nica Times article offers no direct indication of what the Appellate Court may decide other than a cryptic hint that Judge Baltodano appears to have acquired reasonable doubts about Volz's guilt.</div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><a href="http://www.nicatimes.net/nicaarchive/060107.htm">Rogers writes:</a></div><blockquote><div align="justify">Rodríguez, a veteran magistrate of the Granada Appeals Court, is heading the three-judge panel presiding over the high-profile appeal of U.S. citizen Eric Volz, who last February was found guilty of murdering his Nicaraguan ex-girlfriend and sentenced to 30 years in jail (NT, Feb. 23). </div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">As of late May, the judge said he was 75% done reviewing the case and thinks he will finish with it completely by the first week in June. </div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span><br />At that point he will prepare his notes to be presented to the other two appellate judges. If there is no serious dissention among the other judges, the Appeals Court will then call upon the prosecution and defense to come before the appellate court for an oral audience to present final arguments. </div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span><br />The oral audience before the Appeals Court could be of the utmost importance to the Volz defense team, which will be allowed to present again their key witnesses whose testimony was dismissed by the first judge. </div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span><br />Those witnesses, the defense team argues, prove that Volz was in Managua at the time of the murder in San Juan del Sur, more than two hours away by car. </div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span><br />After hearing the final arguments, the three judges will then deliberate for five more days before handing down their final verdict, which Rodríguez expects will be ready sometime in June. The judges' verdict can be decided by a 2:1 split vote. </div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span><br />The Appeals Court could rule one of four ways, according to the judge. It could either confirm the sentence, in which case Volz and Chamorro would serve their 30-year prison sentences. It could revoke the sentence, in which case Volz and Chamorro would be let free. It could reform the sentence, in which case one of the two men could be let free, or one or both of the sentences reduced. Or, it could annul the entire case, in which case both men would be let free and another judge would be assigned to retry the murder. </div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span><br />Though Rodríguez stressed that the law prohibits him from opining on the case before officially handing down his verdict, there are parts of the case that admittedly have left him scratching his head. </div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.<br /></span>That situation of doubt could ultimately favor Volz in a judicial system that, according to Article 2 of the Penal Processing Code, establishes that individuals are presumed innocent unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. </div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span><br />“In dubio pro reo,” Rodríguez said, remembering the phrase in Latin.</div></blockquote><a href="http://www.nicatimes.net/nicaarchive/060107.htm">Click here to read the balance of the Nica Times article</a>.<div class="blogger-post-footer">www.liestoppers.blogspot.com</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4520292699168365999.post-49929257173063571782007-06-08T19:28:00.000-04:002007-06-08T19:35:33.765-04:00Nifonged in Nicaragua: New Eric Volz Letter Addresses Media Coverage<div align="justify"><strong><a href="http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=165126112&blogID=273888729&MyToken=faa24be2-4091-42dc-a9f9-3481cb2ebe98">The US & International Media</a></strong></div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span><br />I have been informed that my case has "officially hit mainstream international media" as one email mentioned. I have mixed feelings about this and had hoped that things would not grow to this level. Regardless of how the press is telling the story, they are telling it and it is bringing awareness to the case. For that I'm grateful because I know that it is helping to reveal the truth. I would like to thank those who have reported with integrity and professionalism. </div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span><br />I have limited comprehension of what the media has done with this story so I can only comment on the articles that I have read and the briefings I have received from my team. I have not seen any TV segments or heard radio segments. I have only read a few of the main periodicals and transcripts.</div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span><br />I must say it is very strange for me to sit alone in my cell and read how total strangers interpret who Doris Jimenez was and who I am. At first, I had this naïve idea that once the international press started to investigate the story they would contrast the way the local Nicaraguan media had been manipulating and filtering the facts to shift the agenda. After the first articles came out I realized I was wrong. The international media had all the facts but chose to present the story in a way that did little to exonerate me. That said, there are journalists and news programs that have a done a decent job, and some have done a great job. </div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span><br />I was told recently that reporting on my case has become much more focused on the facts of the case and on my innocence. I'm happy to report that even here there seems to be a slight turn in the press in that media here is starting to question the initial assumptions about my case and investigate the holes in the accusations against me. </div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span><br />In some of the letters there has been some anger and dislike expressed towards Nicaragua for what has happened. Although I'm grateful for the support, this is not the right approach and I would like to challenge these people to reconsider their perspective. From my perspective, Nicaragua remains a beautiful and unique country. This hasn't changed because of what has happened to me. Just like any country, there remain social and economic challenges and needed improvement in other areas. The miscarriage of justice in my case is not the fault of the Nicaraguan people. </div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span><br />Again, my situation has created a bit of a Catch 22. We need the media, but are, to a point, at the mercy of all the issues that drive the media business. Ultimately though, the story is reaching a collective audience that is learning and thinking, not just about my case, but, about injustice everywhere and for that I'm grateful. </div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span><br />Thank you for continuing to follow the story, support our efforts to inform those who can make a difference and keep hope alive.</div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span><br />With love,</div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span><br /> Eric V.</div><div class="blogger-post-footer">www.liestoppers.blogspot.com</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4520292699168365999.post-63738109674503462632007-06-08T04:39:00.000-04:002007-06-08T05:05:45.116-04:00Nifonged in Nicaragua: KC "Free Eric Volz" Benefit<div align="justify"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_8fUCfAeoLXo/RmkXtBXdr6I/AAAAAAAAASA/zS8vvuEP3w4/s1600-h/EricVolzposter.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5073612517437976482" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_8fUCfAeoLXo/RmkXtBXdr6I/AAAAAAAAASA/zS8vvuEP3w4/s400/EricVolzposter.jpg" border="0" /></a> A benefit to support the Eric Volz Legal Defense Fund will be held on Thursday June 14, 2006 at Sheri Parr’s <a href="http://www.thebrickkcmo.com/default.asp">The Brick</a> in Kanas City, MO. <a href="http://www.myspace.com/actorsactresses">Actors & Actresses</a> headlines the show with <a href="http://www.myspace.com/thedarkcircles">The Dark Circles</a> and <a href="http://www.myspace.com/lifeafterlaserdisque">Life After Laserdisque</a> also performing. Admission is $7 and the show will start at 10:00 PM.<br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">www.liestoppers.blogspot.com</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4520292699168365999.post-79005316120972151242007-06-08T04:16:00.000-04:002007-06-08T04:38:52.790-04:00Nifonged in Nicaragua: "Justice for Eric Volz" Banners on Front Page of Trinchera<div align="center"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_8fUCfAeoLXo/RmkRGxXdr2I/AAAAAAAAARg/cv03pcL0Zmk/s1600-h/foto_1854.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5073605263238213474" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_8fUCfAeoLXo/RmkRGxXdr2I/AAAAAAAAARg/cv03pcL0Zmk/s400/foto_1854.jpg" border="0" /></a> <em><span style="font-size:85%;">Photograph of "Justice for Eric Volz" banner </span></em></div><div align="center"><em><span style="font-size:85%;">from the front page of Managua daily <a href="http://www.trinchera.com.ni/">Trinchera de la Noticia</a></span></em></div><div align="center"><em><span style="font-size:85%;color:#ffffff;">.</span></em></div><div align="center"><em><span style="font-size:85%;"></span></em></div><div align="justify"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_8fUCfAeoLXo/RmkQlBXdr1I/AAAAAAAAARY/kogxCXwJV08/s1600-h/portada_1854.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5073604683417628498" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_8fUCfAeoLXo/RmkQlBXdr1I/AAAAAAAAARY/kogxCXwJV08/s400/portada_1854.jpg" border="0" /></a> </div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span></div><div align="justify">Managua daily newspaper <a href="http://www.trinchera.com.ni/">Trinchera de la Noticia </a>has prominently placed a photograph of one the "Justice for Eric Volz" banners that have begun appearing throughout Managua in a demonstration of local support for the falsely imprisoned American. <a href="http://www.trinchera.com.ni/">Trinchera</a> has been one of the leading Nicaraguan media advocates for Volz over the past several weeks and continues to link to the Friends of Eric Volz website from the homepage of its online edition. The caption below Trinchera's photo reads:</div><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify">"Managua banners request justice for the young American Eric Volz, sentenced to 30 years [in prison] for the murder of his ex-fiancèe, in November of last year. Volz has denied that he committed the crime. The case is in the hands of the Granada Court of Appeals."<br /></div><a href="http://www.trinchera.com.ni/portada_1854.jpg"></a><br />Additional, enlarged photographs of the banner pictured on the cover of Trinchera:<br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_8fUCfAeoLXo/RmkUGRXdr5I/AAAAAAAAAR4/FA2TY5eh1_o/s1600-h/Manta_Eric_Volz_3.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5073608553183162258" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_8fUCfAeoLXo/RmkUGRXdr5I/AAAAAAAAAR4/FA2TY5eh1_o/s400/Manta_Eric_Volz_3.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_8fUCfAeoLXo/RmkT4BXdr4I/AAAAAAAAARw/9nH3zidi0QQ/s1600-h/manta_Eric_Volz_2.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5073608308370026370" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_8fUCfAeoLXo/RmkT4BXdr4I/AAAAAAAAARw/9nH3zidi0QQ/s400/manta_Eric_Volz_2.JPG" border="0" /></a><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_8fUCfAeoLXo/RmkTshXdr3I/AAAAAAAAARo/QgQu-Uf5wJs/s1600-h/Foto_manta_Eric_Volz_1.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5073608110801530738" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_8fUCfAeoLXo/RmkTshXdr3I/AAAAAAAAARo/QgQu-Uf5wJs/s400/Foto_manta_Eric_Volz_1.JPG" border="0" /></a><div class="blogger-post-footer">www.liestoppers.blogspot.com</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0