WHERE IS THE JUSTICE AFTER 30 YEARS OF BEING IN PRISON ON ACQUITTED CHARGES
A defendant is entitled to a presumption of innocence as to all charged conduct until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, and that presumption is supposed to do meaningful constitutional work as long as it applies. At least that's what courts tell the accused and the jury about how it works. We can think of no reason that a jury's finding the defendant not guilty of a charge undoes that guarantee. In fact, the jury's view that the state did not meet its burden of proof should cut the other way. --Bridget M. McCormack, Chief Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court
To expect justice to be blind, fair and applicable to all isn't a stretch of the imagination nor an unreasonable expectation when you are a considered a citizen of the United States of America. But in 1992, it was a painful realization to an nineteen year old black kid who stepped inside of the Wayne County Circuit Courtroom on the day of his sentence and found that justice was far from being blind, because the judge sentenced him to prison for crimes the jury found him not guilty of. The precedent he set in my life on that fateful day has been the source of constant disbelief for me when it comes to the judicial system.To know in my heart that I take full responsibility for all the wrong I have done in my life means everything to me because it shows that not only am I penitent, but that I am growing and determined to be a greater man going forward in my life. But the one question I have asked myself for what seems like eternity is: "what will happen to the judge who violated his oath of office and intentionally disregarded my constitutional rights by sentencing me to prison for 50 to 75 years for crimes the jury found me not guilty of?" And every time I ask that question, the answer is always, NOTHING WILL HAPPEN TO HIM! He will never be punished or reprimanded for taking my life away from me. He violated my constitutional rights, and yet my life doesn't matter enough for the courts to hold him accountable by overturning my erroneous sentence.
The Constitution reads: "'In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury, 6th Amendment. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protections of the laws, 14th Amendment."
In truth, what he done to me 30 years ago isn't even the saddest part! The saddest part is that I am still in prison, and at this very moment I reside in a cube surrounded by seven other men waiting to die from Covid because there's no way to social distance. There's no way to keep myself safe especially considering that I had Covid before and it broke me down whereas I almost didn't get back up. I am unvaccinated because I do not trust what the MDOC will give to me, and I have every right to distrust them considering that I am still in prison when I should have been home a long time ago. The judge sentenced me to die in prison for Armed Robbery because Covid is running rampant at this facility so my life is in jeopardy once again. I beat it once, but what happens when I cannot beat it again?
The MDOC send out emails telling us to social distance and wear mask, but for what purpose when we are stacked on top and all around each other. You cannot walk two feet in the cube without bumping into seven other guys. If Covid ends my life, who will explain this injustice to my son Gregory who has been waiting all his life to spend time with his father. A father who has been in prison since he was one. Or my mother, sister, brother and cousins who have done everything in their power to support me throughout this traumatic experience? Who will wipe their eyes and show them the compassion and correctness that should have been afforded to me in the event of my death? How can it be made right when I will no longer be present? I am afraid to catch Covid again because I have the fear that I won't make it, and that fright has me searching for answers and/or remedies to the complications and injustices I face daily.
The state of affairs regarding black men generally and black men in prison specifically, is detrimental and I can't help but to feel like the deck was stacked against me/us long before I/we came to prison. But how could I have known that one day my ethnicity, poverty, and ignorance of the law would prevent me from enjoying the protections, freedoms and guarantees of the Constitution? That the color of my skin would be the cause of me spending 50 years in prison or dying from Covid for crimes the jury found me not guilty of? This travesty is unbelievable on so many levels and it really makes me question the integrity and fabric of those responsible for perpetuating the bad actors of our judicial system who undermines intentionally the importance of fairness and right conduct as expressed in the constitution. If the consequences for lying, deceiving and blatantly disregarding the oaths that the police, prosecutors and judges took upon entering office was prison, I guarantee you that they would stop maliciously violating the constitution.
If an innocent man/woman was freed from prison after 20 or 30 years, and it was discovered that the police, prosecutor, judge, or defense attorney deceived and violated the constitutional rights of the wrongly accused, then that person should equally spend the same amount of time in prison. This is what justice should look like to prevent anyone, especially those entrusted with the public's confidence to arbitrarily write their own rules and enforce their own laws and retribution that's in contradiction to the constitution and jurisprudence.
The state of affairs regarding black men generally and black men in prison specifically, is detrimental and I can't help but to feel like the deck was stacked against me/us long before I/we came to prison. But how could I have known that one day my ethnicity, poverty, and ignorance of the law would prevent me from enjoying the protections, freedoms and guarantees of the Constitution? That the color of my skin would be the cause of me spending 50 years in prison or dying from Covid for crimes the jury found me not guilty of? This travesty is unbelievable on so many levels and it really makes me question the integrity and fabric of those responsible for perpetuating the bad actors of our judicial system who undermines intentionally the importance of fairness and right conduct as expressed in the constitution. If the consequences for lying, deceiving and blatantly disregarding the oaths that the police, prosecutors and judges took upon entering office was prison, I guarantee you that they would stop maliciously violating the constitution.
If an innocent man/woman was freed from prison after 20 or 30 years, and it was discovered that the police, prosecutor, judge, or defense attorney deceived and violated the constitutional rights of the wrongly accused, then that person should equally spend the same amount of time in prison. This is what justice should look like to prevent anyone, especially those entrusted with the public's confidence to arbitrarily write their own rules and enforce their own laws and retribution that's in contradiction to the constitution and jurisprudence.
Qualified immunity is a shield that protects bad actors from prosecution and make good ones suffer because of it. Why would you protect someone who intentionally killed or sent an innocent person to prison? That's nonsense and its discouraging to those who believes that fairness should be extended to everyone even those we feel don't deserve mercy or fair treatment.
Why does status, influence, and ethnicity, blur the lines of justice? Why must the unjust suffer at the hands of those claiming supreme rectitude? How can the message be: "do as I say and not as I does" when our actions fall short of right behavior? Where are the checks and balances that this great nation was interwoven in? Why have we allowed the difference of ideology and opinion to lead us down this darken path of catastrophic division whereas we are not motivated or encouraged to do the right thing? Where we don't listen or even care about someone that doesn't think or look like us! What has happened to the UNITED STATES of AMERICA that came together inclusively for the sole purpose of uniting each state under the banner of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? Why has our inherent differences divided us in a way that is killing the growth and the principles in which this country was founded upon? Where is the solution for the many men and women that have been frozen in cages for crimes they/we are innocent of? We must do better at holding ourselves and others accountable for wrongdoing, so that not only will the hurt we've caused be healed and forgiven, but the fabric of fairness will be distributed to everyone.
I am deeply remorseful for the hurt and pain I've caused to the victims of my crimes, and as a responsible man, I make no excuses for the bad choices I made in my life. But for the record, my involvement in crime was not just the result of poverty and desirability to do wrong, but a byproduct of mental and physical abuse which was the root cause of my greatest pain and deepest dissatisfaction. Abuse that I wasn't equipped to handle or deal with ruined me on so many levels. My choice to drop out of school in the seventh grade and pursue crime was my way of showing my family that I was hurting internally, but all they could see was my bad actions and not the abundance of pain those actions derived from.
My tragedies laid hidden behind the makeup of my exterior, but no one was willing to wipe it off so they could see the real me. I was a kid that lived through some very rough and tragic times in my life, but those mitigating factors were never revealed in the courtroom. No one ever asked me why I dropped out of school, or why I couldn't find peace in my life as a kid or teenager. At 18, I was in prison before I held my son for the first time, had a driver's license, fell in love with a woman, or grew out of my destructive behavior and became a man of principle. My societal life was placed on hold because I had to pay for my crimes, problem is, I have been paying for crimes I wasn't found guilty of by the jury of my peers!
Why does status, influence, and ethnicity, blur the lines of justice? Why must the unjust suffer at the hands of those claiming supreme rectitude? How can the message be: "do as I say and not as I does" when our actions fall short of right behavior? Where are the checks and balances that this great nation was interwoven in? Why have we allowed the difference of ideology and opinion to lead us down this darken path of catastrophic division whereas we are not motivated or encouraged to do the right thing? Where we don't listen or even care about someone that doesn't think or look like us! What has happened to the UNITED STATES of AMERICA that came together inclusively for the sole purpose of uniting each state under the banner of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? Why has our inherent differences divided us in a way that is killing the growth and the principles in which this country was founded upon? Where is the solution for the many men and women that have been frozen in cages for crimes they/we are innocent of? We must do better at holding ourselves and others accountable for wrongdoing, so that not only will the hurt we've caused be healed and forgiven, but the fabric of fairness will be distributed to everyone.
I am deeply remorseful for the hurt and pain I've caused to the victims of my crimes, and as a responsible man, I make no excuses for the bad choices I made in my life. But for the record, my involvement in crime was not just the result of poverty and desirability to do wrong, but a byproduct of mental and physical abuse which was the root cause of my greatest pain and deepest dissatisfaction. Abuse that I wasn't equipped to handle or deal with ruined me on so many levels. My choice to drop out of school in the seventh grade and pursue crime was my way of showing my family that I was hurting internally, but all they could see was my bad actions and not the abundance of pain those actions derived from.
My tragedies laid hidden behind the makeup of my exterior, but no one was willing to wipe it off so they could see the real me. I was a kid that lived through some very rough and tragic times in my life, but those mitigating factors were never revealed in the courtroom. No one ever asked me why I dropped out of school, or why I couldn't find peace in my life as a kid or teenager. At 18, I was in prison before I held my son for the first time, had a driver's license, fell in love with a woman, or grew out of my destructive behavior and became a man of principle. My societal life was placed on hold because I had to pay for my crimes, problem is, I have been paying for crimes I wasn't found guilty of by the jury of my peers!
As an adolescent, I was without the conscientious understanding of who I was and what was really going on around me. My education or lack thereof did not prepare me with the necessary tools to deal with a system that inherently felt like my life didn't matter. I grew up in a very poor community and watched so many black people, including my family, pull and scrap to make ends meet so that their children could have a roof over their heads and food on the table. And although it was admirable to see my mother do whatever she had to for her children, I suffered from the lack of pertinent information which could of led me down a different path. My mental and physical abuse as a child created the kind of difference in me whereas I sought to express my pain and dissatisfaction in unhealthy and detrimental ways.
So today as I work to gain my freedom, maintain my sanity and be constructive in action and deed, I am mindful that justice has escaped me for 30 years, but I continue to be vigilant. My hopes in writing this post is to enlighten you on the injustice that has robbed me of my freedom for a great number of years. Today, I am literally fighting for my life due to the pandemic of Covid and I am very afraid. I do not want to be insensitive to those on death row, but I feel like a death row inmate waiting to die for something I didn't do. What is hope when the process of my life has known so much pain? It is the belief that one day those who got it wrong, will get it right and set me free. Without that hope, I would have withered and died a long time ago. Thank you for reading.
Sincerely
Carlos
So today as I work to gain my freedom, maintain my sanity and be constructive in action and deed, I am mindful that justice has escaped me for 30 years, but I continue to be vigilant. My hopes in writing this post is to enlighten you on the injustice that has robbed me of my freedom for a great number of years. Today, I am literally fighting for my life due to the pandemic of Covid and I am very afraid. I do not want to be insensitive to those on death row, but I feel like a death row inmate waiting to die for something I didn't do. What is hope when the process of my life has known so much pain? It is the belief that one day those who got it wrong, will get it right and set me free. Without that hope, I would have withered and died a long time ago. Thank you for reading.
Sincerely
Carlos
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