Information and Assitance on Wrongful Convictions and False Allegations

Most of the letters I receive on my blog, Barbara's Journey Toward Justice is for information and assitance on wrongful convictions and false allegations and contact information for Dennis Fritz, author of "Journey Toward Justice", the companion book to John Grisham's book, "The Innocent Man". Today I will be adding a new website called, "Raye of Hope" on my blogroll.
About Raye of Hope:
Information and assitance on wrongful convictions and false allegations
Raye-of-hope.org is an informational site on wrongful convictions and false allegations, along with providing information on wrongful convictions and false allegation it is their goal to not only educate the public about the reality of wrongful convictions but help who have been wrongfully convicted or falsely accused.

For information and contact information for Dennis Fritz you can email me, see my profile for email address or write to doc.fritz(at)yahoo(dot)com.

Barack Obama Alienates Europeans By Favoring Death Penalty And Right To Bear Arms

In the German news magazine, Deutsche Welle, Michael Knigge blogs about Barack Obama’s stance on the death penalty and the right to bear arms.
About author, Michael Knigge.
Michael has headed up the German editorial team of DW-WORLD.DE since 2004. Previously, he worked as a reporter for the English service of Deutsche Welle Radio, as well as for various news agencies. Michael is an alumni of young professional programs with the Aspen Institute Berlin and the American Council on Germany and he was a Media Fellow at Duke University in 2006.

He studied in Germany and the U.S. and holds a Master's degree in American Studies. Michael is based in Bonn, Germany.
Michael Kniggs has a blog called,"Across the Pond".
Across the Pond is a joint German-American blog about the U.S. election campaign 2008 with a focus on international aspects of the presidential race.

Excerpt from an article titled "Barack Obama Alienates Europeans By Favoring Death Penalty And Right To Bear Arms"

"What is politically interesting is that Obama has arguably switched to the right on two key issues for conservatives in the last week: gun control and the death penalty. Which brings up the old issue of flip-flopping again. Does this make him a flip-flopper or a savvy politician? That probably depends on whether Obama can argue his switch convincingly. What do you think?"

To read full article click Here

When Will The Justice Department Take Action ?

Open letter from the Rivera Family
full page ad in USA Today with a letter from the Rivera family.
The ad is in Thursday, July 10th's edition of USA Today.
An Open Letter, from the Rivera Family.
Jose's death did not have to happen. Jose served in the United States Navy and survived two tours in Iraq. But it wasn't the war that killed him - he survived the war. We lost our son and brother on June 20, 2008 at the hands of inmate improvised weapons at the United States Penitentiary in Atwater, CA, where Jose was a Correctional Officer. And as a Federal Correctional Officer, dealing with the most violent criminals in the United States, he was not armed, nor was he provided an armored vest.

Under federal Bureau of Prisons policy, Jose could only be armed with a radio. He was taken from us because of the situation in Federal Prisons today. The Justice Department is cutting back on staff and cutting funding for programs that could prevent the kind of violence that took Jose's life. Overcrowding, underfunding and depriving our Officers of the tools they need to defend themselves will only lead to more violence and more lives lost. Just this week at the United States Penitentiary in Hazelton, WV there was another lockdown due to an assault, tragically proving that what happened at Atwater was not an isolated event-it's happening across the country.

If federal prison funding continues to decline, incidents such as these will skyrocket.
When will the Justice Department take action?
Do more Correctional Officers have to die?
Jose is gone. His death is senseless. We can't bring him Back.
Please let Congress know that this tragedy could have been prevented.
Call your Representatives and Senators at 202-225-3121 and tell them that the underfunding and overcrowding of federal Prisons is unsafe, reprehensible and will be the cause of more tragic deaths.
Sincerely,
The Rivera Family

A website I highly recommend:
prisonofficer.org
This site is primarily for Correctional Officer and Staff. All forms and members of the Law Enforcement Community are welcome. Some Public Discussions
Topics include:
Public Discussions - Information and Knowledge Base Information -Archive for Correctional and Law Enforcement - Unions and Associations - Regional Discussion - United States Local Discussion for all 50 States: State, County, and City welcome - U.S. Federal and Military forums -PO.Org Staff, Support, and Suggestions Correctional Officers and Law Enforcement ONLY - What's Going On? and Donations.

To all my friends at prisonofficer.org - I am not "60 Minutes", but I hope this helps getting your voices heard.

Kudos To Walter D. Smith Wrongfully Incarcerted 11 Years Now Motivational Speaker and Professional Body Builder

Walter D. Smith turned adversity into prosperity. "Against All Odds," diligent determination and DNA testing freed this champion. Allow Walter Smith to share his winning ways with you and your audience. Visit his website "Against All Odds,"
More on Walter Smith from The Innocence Project:
Walter D. Smith
Incident Year: 1985
Jurisdiction: OH
Charge: Rape, Kidnapping, Robbery
Conviction: Rape, Kidnapping, Robbery
Sentence: 78-190 Years
Year of Conviction: 1986
Exoneration Date: 11/8/96
Sentence Served: 10 Years
Real perpetrator found? Not Yet
Contributing Causes: Eyewitness misidentification
Compensation? Yes
In July of 1985, while awaiting trial on unrelated charges, Walter D. Smith was identified by three women who had been sexually assaulted several years earlier. Smith plead guilty to the other charges but adamantly denied the accusations of rape.
In 1986, based on the testimony of several eyewitnesses, the jury convicted Smith of rape of two of the three victims and handed down a sentence of 78 - 190 years.Smith continually maintained his innocence and became a model prisoner, completing a drug rehabilitation program and acquiring an associates degree in business from Wilmington College. According to his testimony, Smith started requesting DNA testing in 1987.
When DNA testing was completed in 1996, the results revealed that Smith could not be the perpetrator of these rapes. Independent testing by the Franklin County prosecutor's office confirmed these results and on December 6, 1996, Smith was paroled.
Following his exoneration, Smith successfully sought compensation for the additional five years that he was imprisoned due to the rape convictions. Walter D. Smith is a motivational speaker and professional body builder. Please visit WalterDSmith.com for more information.

Video - Author John Grisham discusses his book "The Innocent Man"

Video - Author John Grisham discusses his book "The Innocent Man" at the Innocence Project's Annual Benefit. The video opens with Exoneree Dennis Fritz dancing with the mother of the murder victim in the case for which he was wrongfully convicted. The evening was billed as a “Celebration of Freedom and Justice "
Music by Jonathan Batiste . YOUTUBE VIDEO Click Here.
I will adding Special Photos of the event on my blog,
" Barbara's Journey Toward Justice ". Here
Please visit again for updates.

Jeff Deskovic - An Emotional Night At The Innocence Project's Gala

My friend Jeff Deskovic wrote a great article about his attendance at The Innocence Project's Second Annual Gala Dinner. The evening was billed as a “Celebration of Justice and Freedom.”. With his permission I would like to share it with my readers.
I will be adding many great photos of the event on my blog soon.
An Emotional Night At The Innocence Project’s Second
by Jeff Deskovic
On May 7, 2008, The Innocence Project held its second annual fundraising Gala Dinner. The Innocence Project is a not-for-profit organization that works to exonerate wrongfully convicted prisoners in those Annual Gala Dinner
cases in which DNA testing can prove innocence. They also work towards bringing about legislative changes to prevent wrongful convictions in the first place. There have been 215 people across the country who have been exonerated through DNA evidence. Over 150 of those cases were personally worked on by The Innocence Project.

Such work, of course, requires money. The attorneys and other staff members must be paid a salary in order to focus full-time on the cases, as do the people who work on policy. Beyond that, there is other overhead, and other costs of litigation. Additionally, as a tactic that has sometimes worked in overcoming prosecutorial objections to the testing based on cost, The Innocence Project also offers to pay for the testing.

The focus of the evening was to show previous donors the result of their work, with the purpose of encouraging them to continue making contributions, while at the same time raising money to cover the event. Celebrated author John Grisham, who is also an attorney, was the guest of honor. The evening was billed as a “Celebration of Justice and Freedom.”

Grisham had written a book entitled “The Innocent Man”, which was the story of Ron Williamson and Dennis Fritz, who had been wrongfully convicted of murder in Oklahoma. The book has been responsible for raising the awareness of countless people across the country about wrongful convictions. In addition, Grisham serves on the board of directors of The Innocence Project, and has helped raised funds for the Mississippi Innocence Project. He has also lectured about wrongful convictions around the country.
Grisham was invited to speak. He spoke of how he came to write the book, and mentioned that he had read the following obituary in The New York Times, written by Jim Dwyer:
Ronald Williamson, Freed From Death Row, Dies at 51
Published: December 9, 2004

Ronald Keith Williamson, who left his small town in Oklahoma as a high school baseball star with hopes of a Major League career but was later sent to death row and came within five days of execution for a murder he did not commit, died on Saturday at a nursing home near Tulsa.He was 51. The cause was cirrhosis of the liver, which he learned he had six weeks ago, his sister Annette Hudson said. Mr. Williamson’s early life appeared charmed. As a pitcher and catcher in Ada, he twice led his high school teams to the championship of a state where another native son, Mickey Mantle, enjoyed the status of near deity.

The Oakland Athletics picked Mr. Williamson in the second round of the 1971 amateur draft. After six years in the minor leagues, Mr. Williamson saw his career end because of arm injuries. He returned to Oklahoma and worked at a sales job, but began to show signs of a mental illness that was eventually diagnosed as bipolar disorder. His marriage, to a former Miss Ada, broke up. He returned to his mother’s home and slept 20 hours a day on the couch, Ms. Hudson said, afraid of his old bedroom. In late 1982, a waitress, Debbie Sue Carter, 21, was found raped and killed in her apartment in Ada. The case remained open until 1987, when a woman who had been arrested for passing bad checks told the police that she had heard another prisoner discussing the killing. The man, she said, was Mr. Williamson, who had been in the jail for kiting checks.

Mr. Williamson was charged with the killing. So was a second man, Dennis Fritz, a high school science teacher who had been one of Mr. Williamson’s few friends when he returned to town a er his baseball career. The evidence, the authorities said, consisted of 17 hairs that matched those of Mr. Williamson and Mr. Fritz, and the account provided by the woman who said she had heard Mr. Williamson confess.

A second jailhouse informer later stepped forward to buttress the case against Mr. Fritz. Mr. Williamson and Mr. Fritz were tried separately and found guilty. Mr. Fritz was sentenced to life in prison, and Mr. Williamson - who had not received his psychiatric medicines for months before the trial and shouted angrily at the prosecution witnesses - was sentenced to die. Mr. Williamson later said the prison guards taunted him over an intercom about Ms. Carter’s murder. In September 1994, when all of his state appeals had been exhausted, he was taken to the warden’s office and told that he would be executed on Sept. 24. He recalled filling out a form that directed his body to be returned to his sister for burial. A team of appellate lawyers, however, sought a writ of habeas corpus from Judge Frank H. Seay of Federal District Court, arguing that Mr. Williamson had not been competent to stand trial and that his lawyer had not effectively challenged the hair evidence or sought other suspects.

Judge Seay granted a stay five days before Mr. Williamson was scheduled to die. In 1998, lawyers from the Innocence Project at the Benjamin C. Cardozo School of Law in New York arranged DNA tests for Mr. Williamson and Mr. Fritz. They showed that neither man had been the source of the semen or hair collected from the victim’s body. Another man, Glen D. Gore, has since been convicted of the killing and sentenced to die for it. Mr. Williamson and Mr. Fritz were freed in April 1999. On a visit that spring to New York, they took a tour of Yankee Stadium, and Mr. Williamson wandered along the sparkling outfield grass. “I just got a taste of how much fun they were having up here,” he said. Besides Ms. Hudson, another sister, Renee Simmons of Allen, Tex., survives.

The two men later won settlements for their convictions. But Mr. Williamson continued to be troubled by his psychiatric problems, Ms. Hudson said. Last year, however, he participated in a one-mile march, making an appeal to the governor of Illinois to commute the sentences of death row prisoners in that state. That obituary led Grisham to learn more and more about Williamson and Fritz’s case, and eventually he decided to write the book.

Grisham recounted how Williamson had suffered on death row: struggling with mental illness and being given improper medication, pulling his own hair out as well as his teeth. He mentioned how the guards had tortured him as well, speaking to him through an intercom, pretending to be the victim and how he would pay for the crime. Further, the author stated that Williamson, who died from cirrhosis of the liver, which went untreated in prison.

He then spoke a little bit about the death penalty, and how it poses the danger of executing innocent people, and why that was a reason to do away with it. He said that one day DNA testing would prove that an innocent person had been executed; though he was unsure of the ultimate impact of that on the whole death penalty debate, however he seemed to be saying that that element was probably the best shot attending the death penalty, and that he would want to write a book on that case if and when it occurred.

Of course, the late Ron Williamson, and his surviving co-defendant Dennis Fritz, who was, in fact, in attendance at the Gala, were not the only people horrifically impacted by their wrongful convictions. I cannot imagine what Renee Simmons and Annette Hudson, Ron Williamson’s sisters, went through. Grisham mentioned that when Williamson was within days of being executed, the family was called by the prison and asked what they wanted to do with the body. Both Simmons and Hudson were in attendance.

Christy Sheppard, the sister of Debra Sue Carter, the murder victim that Williamson and Fritz were wrongfully convicted for killing, also had her life changed forever. She was only eight years old when the crime happened, and she grew up believing that Williamson and Fritz were guilty. Grisham mentioned that it had shattered their family. Carter’s family believed they could finally move forward knowing that the perpetrators were brought to justice.

Trying to triumph over the tragedy, Sheppard became part of a growing and critical component of the innocence movement: crime victims and their families who want to address and prevent wrongful convictions. Working with the Innocence Project and local advocates for the past two years, Sheppard has campaigned for an Oklahoma innocence commission, an independent entity with members from all areas of the criminal justice system that investigates previous wrongful convictions and suggests reforms to prevent them. Sheppard has talked with legislators and the public about wrongful convictions and the need for a state commission. “When I learned about this innocence commission, all the stars aligned, and I knew that’s what needed to be done,” Sheppard said. When Curtis McCarty of Oklahoma was exonerated in May, Sheppard’s family joined McCarty’s parents and others at a press conference to renew the call for an innocence commission.

The gala dinner was a very emotional experience for me. As I watched each exoneree mention their name along with the amount of time that they served, I understood, as no one, other than an exoneree, could, the suffering that wrongful incarceration wreaks on a person. I realized that in some ways each person’s traumatic time in prison was different, and that the particular horrors may differ, along with the types of mistreatment. Yet there are a lot of similarities that are true across the spectrum, and certainly the experience of being wrongfully imprisoned puts people in a much better vantage point from which to understand the havoc that it wreaks.

With each mention of a name, along with the amount of time served, thoughts raced through my mind of just what that incarceration and all of its effects entailed. Then, I tried to imagine going through it with that length of time. I kept in mind as well that many had experiences worse than mine. Some had been on death row, while others were housed in prisons in other states that were much worse than the horrible ones in New York.

I heard the names of Alan Newton, who served 21 years in New York for rape; Barry Gibbs, who served 19 years for murder in New York; Scott Fappiano, who served 21 years in New York for rape, sodomy, burglary, and sexual abuse; Roy Brown, who served 15 years for murder in New York; David Shephard, who served 9 ½ years in New Jersey for rape, robbery, weapons violations, and terrorist threats; Chris Conover, who served 18 years in North Carolina; Kennedy Brewer, who had been sentenced to death and served 15 years in Mississippi; Dennis Fritz, who served 12 years for murder in Oklahoma; Jerry Miller, who served 24 ½ years in Illinois for kidnapping, rape, and robbery; James Tillman, who served 16 ½ years for sexual assault, kidnapping, robbery, assault, and larceny in Connecticut; Calvin Johnson, who served 15 ½ years for rape, aggravated sodomy, and burglary in Georgia.

The sight of Fritz on stage, with Williamson’s sisters, along with Sheppard, all in solidarity, was so powerful that I teared up a bit. When it was my turn to speak, I quickly mentioned that from 17-years of age, I served 16 years in New York for a murder and rape which DNA cleared me of. I also mentioned obtaining my B.A. in Behavioral Science, and of my dream of becoming an attorney and working to exonerate others who have been wrongfully convicted. The exonerees had all been allotted 30 seconds in which to speak, yet I felt that this was an opportunity to try to bring awareness to a problem that is very often overlooked amidst all of the justifiable attention paid to wrongful convictions and exonerations: the financial difficulties in being able to reintegrate.

Much as I had done in prior interviews with the media, I decided to sacrifice personal privacy by using myself as an example of a problem, in order to call attention to it, with the hope that there would be changes, or at the very least that I would get the conversation started. I mentioned that The Innocence Project has a program by which they collect donations, and spend them on the exonerees on an emergency basis. These funds had been paying the costs of my phone, mental health services, my car insurance, as well as my internet connection, but that these funds would be cut off in a few months, due to my reaching the cap of what they will allocate to each wrongfully convicted person.

Despite making money by speaking and writing articles, I would be unable to absorb these additional costs, yet I would need these services just as much as before. Elaborating further, I mentioned that when I had tried to get consistent work in addition to these, not having the work experience, I have been unable to compete with others my age group, due to what happened to me, and thus financial offers have been dead end jobs paying next to nothing. I also referenced other exonerees who would be facing similar issues. Many came up to me afterwards and said that they had been moved. Whether or not that translates into donors making more contributions to the emergency fund or not, remains to be seen. But despite feeling inadequate and somewhat embarrassed at not being able to thus far be on an even par with others my age who had never been wrongfully convicted, I felt that I had to at least try.
Article Reprinted With The Permission Of The Westchester Guardian
Click HERE - For the video that opens with Exoneree Dennis Fritz dancing with the mother of the murder victim in the case for which he was wrongfully convicted.
The Video - Author John Grisham discusses his book "The Innocent Man" at the Innocence Project's Annual Benefit.
Please also visit Jeff Deskovic wonderful website at www.jeffreydeskovicspeaks.org

Midwest Innocence Project Has A New Website

The Midwestern Innocence Project is a 501(c)(3), non-profit organization dedicated to providing pro bono legal and investigative services to the innocent in prison.
The Staff
Pat Doak, Legal Secretary
Tiffany Murphy, Legal Director
Jay Swearingen, Executive Director

Below is information from their New Website
Their Vision
We have about 100,000 inmates in our six-state region of Arkansas, Oklahoma,Missouri, Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska. A recent university study estimates a 5%failure rate of our criminal justice system, but even if that rate is only 1%, that indicates there are 1,000 people; 1,000 moms and dads and sons and daughters in our region sitting in a jail cell away from their families and completely innocent of the crime for which they are incarcerated. We want them out and we want them out soon.

It is our vision to be a working non-profit law firm with five full time attorneys and a support staff of an additional five. It is our vision to consistently be in litigation on behalf of our innocent inmates. It is our vision to enjoy several exonerations each year for the next decade. It is our vision that every state in our region embraces the reforms necessary to end these travesties.
It is our vision that no one in our region EVER goes to prison again for a crime they did not commit.

More Information from The Midwestern Innocence Project New Website:
We have a New Website
It's been a long time coming, but our new website is officially up and running. We'd like you to be one of the first to give it a test run. Please take a moment to visit The link on the right - and tell us what you think.
Keeping our organization tech savvy is difficult and expensive. We're also asking that you help us fund these enhancements by contributing a small gift to the Midwestern Innocence Project.
Your contribution today of $25, $50, $100, $250 or whatever you can afford will be used to fund these upgrades and will be greatly appreciated (See below)* Consider a monthly pledge; they help us plan our resources more efficiently. We can't be successful without the financial help of people just like you.

"Thank You" Gifts: Special gifts for our supporters (you will make your selection on the donation page)

Ticket to the 2008 Chad Lowe Innocence Gala On September 25, actor and director Chad Lowe will headline our 2008 Innocence Gala at the InterContinental Hotel on the Plaza. Chad portrayed exoneree Kerry Max Cook in the Broadway play "The Exonerated". Kerry will also be joining us at the gala.(donate at least $125.00 to be eligible for this gift)

Table at the 2008 Chad Lowe Innocence Gala On September 25, actor and director Chad Lowe will headline our 2008 Innocence Gala at the InterContinental Hotel on the Plaza. Chad portrayed exoneree Kerry Max Cook in the Broadway play "The Exonerated". Kerry will also be joining us at the gala.(donate at least $1250.00 to be eligible for this gift)

Personalized copy of "The Innocent Man"This hardcover John Grisham book will be personally autographed for you by one of the books main characters and exoneree Dennis Fritz. (donate at least $250.00 to be eligible for this gift)

Autographed Edition of "Journey Toward Justice"An autographed copy of exoneree Dennis Fritz's book "Journey Toward Justice".(donate at least $100.00 to be eligible for this gift)

The Innocents Coffee Table Book An autographed edition of The Innocents, a book of portraits of former inmates accompanying a traveling exhibit by the same name. (donate at least $100.00 to be eligible for this gift)

2XONR8 Missouri T-Shirt Wear our colors proudly and let others know that you are committed "to exonerate"the innocent. Green ink on a tan shirt. (donate at least $35.00 to be eligible for this gift)

Please go to their website if you would like to make a donation
HERE

SISTER HELEN PREJEAN AND DENNIS FRITZ MEET IN CHICAGO

On Thursday, May 22, noted authors’ Dennis Fritz and Sister Helen Prejean, teamed up together in Chicago, Illinois, to speak at the Saint Vincent Catholic Church at DePaul University—against the arbitrary use of the death penalty.

This long-awaited event represented a powerful combination of these two people (along with other key, death penalty abolitionists), whose sole objective(s) are to bring about the much-needed, greater awareness against the use of the death penalty.

Sister Helen Prejean is the author of Dead Man Walking, which was turned into a major motion picture in the middle 90’s. Her later released book, The Death of Innocents, is a powerful and poignant masterpiece, that exposes the in-depth atrocities of the death penalty.

Sister Helen is a true-to-heart abolitionist, and is speaking all over the county about her unyielding convictions against the unfair use of the death penalty. Sister Helen so eloquently combines her powerful presence with a witty sense of humor and directness that radiates her southern charm and intelligence. Her determination, dedication, and fortitude are deeply embedded in her plight to abolish the death penalty.

Dennis Fritz, who is the author of Journey Toward Justice—the co-companion book to John Grisham’s The Innocent Man— has been touring the country and speaking out about wrongful convictions, and the unfair administration of the death penalty. A major motion picture under the direction of George Clooney, is now underway about Dennis and Ronnie Williamson’ case. Both men were falsely convicted of 1st Degree Capital Murder, and spent 12 years behind bars before DNA testing finally freed them.

To meet Dennis, you would never think that he had suffered through a 12 year, never-ending nightmare, as such. His strength, fortitude, and courage are Dennis’ blessings to everyone around him. Today, his zest for life and liberty is greater than it has ever been. Dennis lives each and everyday of his life to the fullest, with a positive attitude and caring for other people—that is very rare in today’s society. Now, he finally gets to meet Sister Helen Prejean!

After Sister Helen and Dennis were picked up at the O’Hare International Airport by Elliot Slosar and Jennifer Bishop ( bulldog abolitionist’s for the State of Illinois ), they immediately had lunch at Giordano’s Pizza.

The excitement could be felt throughout the restaurant, as each of the dynamos for justice conversed and celebrated their long-awaited meeting. After lunch, the group traveled to the historic site of the St. Vincent DePaul Catholic Church, where Sister Helen and Dennis would speak that evening to an overwhelming crowd of supporters.

While Sister Helen was speaking to a group of DePaul University students, Dennis got a wonderful tour of Chicago by the one-and-only, Jennifer Bishop. Afterwards, everyone met for dinner at a local nearby restaurant.

Dennis got to meet other powerful abolitionists such as Andrea Lyon and her son, Will, Jennifer’s sister, Jeanne, Private Detective, Mort Smith, Dominick Fortunato, and Bill Bishop—Jennifer’s husband.

The speaking event was a total success. Dennis spoke first, describing the horrifying events of his false incarceration. His very vivid accounts of the very painful experiences that he received in prison captured everyone’s attention—bringing tears to everyone’s eyes.

First and foremost, Dennis gave special credit to the Lord, and then (to his family ---- Mother, Aunt, and Daughter ) for giving him back his precious freedom that had been so unjustly stripped from him. Dennis said, “I am a happy man who has grown so much in the past year or so. I feel a renewed confidence and composure when I share my story with everyone.

Life is short, but we must live every day as if it were our last.” With that said, Dennis introduced Sister Helen Prejean, who immediately touched everyone’s heart through her powerful presence and speaking abilities.
Sister Helen described her monumental efforts in working as an author, abolitionist, and speaker, to abolish the horrid death penalty around the country. She spoke of the countless death row inmates that she had counseled shortly before their executions. Her strength of mind and courage came across to the audience loud and clear. Her years of first hand experiences in fighting the many battles within the legal system ( to abolish the death penalty ) greatly accentuated and fortified everyone’s feelings and hopes that the cruel punishment of death would be outlawed—forever!

Her mannerisms, gestures, and outright determination, brought forth feelings of admiration and love for her. May God bless you, forever, Sister Helen.

The following day, Dennis participated in a book singing at the DePaul, Barnes and Noble bookstore. Dennis met and talked with a great number of people while selling his books.

He learned that even the store manager, Debra, had worked for 6 years as an attorney with the capital death penalty division. Her presence added greatly to Dennis’ spiritual inspiration to personally share his story with every customer within the bookstore. Dennis said that he has fond memories of the wonderful people that he had met, and, so enjoyed the magnificent city of Chicago.

He said, “it is very emotionally draining and somewhat stressful, to go back and re-live the accounts of his nightmare conviction out-of- hell. But, it is worth every ounce of energy that I have to give, to help bring forth the change and education that everyone needs and deserves to learn about.”

PHOTOS OF TOUR HERE

Innocence Project Benefit, A Celebration of Freedom and Justice

Photo left to right: Dennis Fritz - John Grisham - Barry Scheck - Janet Difiore - Peter Neufeld
Exonerated man and victim’s family are reunited at the Innocence Project second annual benefit.


Here is a great story from the Innocence Project about the event:
PHOTOS AND SLIDESHOW CLICK HERE

While jazz pianist Jonathan Batiste played “What a Wonderful World,” at the Innocence Project benefit, “A Celebration of Freedom and Justice,” on May 7 in New York City, exoneree Dennis Fritz asked 65-year-old Peggy Carter Sanders to take the stage with him and dance. Fritz was sentenced to life in prison and was wrongfully incarcerated for 11 years for the murder of Sanders’ daughter, Debra Sue Carter of Ada, Oklahoma. Fritz and his co-defendant Ron Williamson developed a relationship with Carter’s family after their exoneration in 1999. Both men were exonerated through DNA testing and with the help of the Innocence Project.
Williamson passed away in 2004, but his sisters Renee Simmons and Annette Hudson also attended the benefit. Williamson’s family, Carter’s family, and Fritz came to New York from all around the country to join the Innocence Project in honoring John Grisham for his best selling book, The Innocent Man, which tells the story of Williamson’s wrongful conviction. Fritz shared a table at the benefit with two of Carter’s relatives—her cousin, Christy Sheppard, and he mother Peggy Carter Sanders.

A recent New York Times column by Jim Dwyer looks at the poignant moment last week when Fritz and Sanders danced as 600 Innocence Project supporters looked on. The column discusses the friendship forged between the two wrongfully convicted men and the mother of the victim—despite some people’s unwillingness to accept that a mistake had been made in the case:

“Ms. Sanders saw it plain. All around her, though, people refused to rewrite the ending to her daughter’s murder, clinging to the belief that Mr. Fritz and Mr. Williamson somehow had been part of the killing, a spurning of reality so common that it has practically become an epidemic as DNA tests, year in and out, clear the wrongfully convicted.”

Read the full story here.
Fritz was one of a dozen exonerees who attended the benefit. Also honored was the law firm Mayer Brown, for its collaboration with the Innocence Project in reforming eyewitness identification procedures.
Learn more about Dennis Fritz and Ron Williamson's . cases.
Learn more about how the Innocence Project is working with victims and their families, including Christy Sheppard and Peggy Carter Sanders, to improve the criminal justice system. (See page 10 of this PDF for “Common Interests.”)
PHOTOS AND SLIDESHOW CLICK HERE

Dennis Fritz Dances with Debra Sue Carter's Mother Fritz was exonerated for Carter's murder

At an Innocence Project dinner, Peggy Sanders danced with Dennis Fritz, who was sent to prison for her daughter’s murder.


In the Face of Great Loss, Embracing Innocence


By JIM DWYER
Published:New York Times May 10, 2008
The woman was seated just two chairs away at the table, but the man had to speak over music that filled the room.

At an Innocence Project dinner, Peggy Sanders danced with Dennis Fritz, who was sent to prison for her daughter’s murder.
“Peggy,” he said.

For a minute, Peggy Sanders did not hear her name being called. She is 65 and was visiting New York this week for the first time from a small town in Oklahoma to attend a big benefit dinner.

As a young virtuoso played piano, Ms. Sanders swayed slightly in her chair.

“Peggy,” the man said.

She glanced up.

“Want to dance?” he asked.

She giggled, the way an aunt might at a rambunctious nephew who tries to coax her onto the dance floor at a wedding. But she did not take his question seriously. Of the 600 people at the dinner, no one else made a move to dance: The chair backs had just inches of clearance.

Even so, the man who asked the question, Dennis Fritz, needed no more encouragement. He edged around the table and took her hand. The floor may have been crowded, but the stage was wide open. He led her to the stairs. She climbed up, a crown of white hair over her smile. Mr. Fritz wore jeans and a sport coat.

She lifted her hands and put them on his back and shoulder. They drifted together and gently twirled, a dance salvaged from a trail of wreckage that stretches back to 1982.

Peggy Sanders first saw Dennis Fritz 21 years ago, wearing an orange jail jumpsuit as he was brought into the courthouse in Ada, Okla., to face charges that he had murdered Ms. Sanders’s daughter Debbie Carter. She was 21, a waitress who had just gotten her own apartment, when she was killed in December 1982.

“I hated him so bad,” Ms. Sanders said. “Why did they do that to my little girl?”

Mr. Fritz, a high school science teacher, was spared the death penalty by one vote and got life without parole. A co-defendant, Ron Williamson, once a star pitching prospect, was sentenced to die. He came within five days of execution.

Neither man had anything to do with the crime: They were convicted on the word of jailhouse snitches who bartered their stories for sweetheart plea deals and by pseudoscientific testimony that falsely linked them to 17 hairs found at the crime scene. In 1999, lawyers in Oklahoma and with the Innocence Project in New York arranged DNA tests that cleared Mr. Fritz and Mr. Williamson. The tests implicated another man, whose DNA was matched to the hair and semen found on the victim’s body.

“They were railroaded,” Ms. Sanders said. The other man is now serving a life sentence for the murder.

Ms. Sanders saw it plain. All around her, though, people refused to rewrite the ending to her daughter’s murder, clinging to the belief that Mr. Fritz and Mr. Williamson somehow had been part of the killing, a spurning of reality so common that it has practically become an epidemic as DNA tests, year in and out, clear the wrongfully convicted.

The elders of Mr. Williamson’s family church refused to let the two men use the hall for a press conference after their release. The Williamson family received threatening calls. Their pastor pointedly did not acknowledge Mr. Williamson from the pulpit when he came for his first church service after leaving prison.

Then Mr. Williamson, a high school baseball star drafted in the second round in 1971 by the Oakland Athletics, made a call to Ms. Sanders.

“He said, ‘This is Ron Williamson; I did not kill your daughter,’ ” Ms. Sanders recalled. “I said, ‘I know, hon.’ ”

Ms. Sanders, who married as a teenager and quickly had three children, struggled for years after the murder of Debbie. Yet she embraced Mr. Williamson, Mr. Fritz and their families after the men were exonerated.

“I had to do it for my daughter,” she said. “They had become victims of this, too. People still don’t believe they’re innocent. I was just at a funeral, and a woman come up to me and said, ‘I know them two done it.’ I said, ‘No, they didn’t.’ ”

Mr. Williamson, who suffered from psychiatric problems, died in 2004. He is the subject of John Grisham’s book “The Innocent Man.” Mr. Fritz, 58, now lives in Missouri, and has also written a book, “Journey Toward Justice.” Christy Sheppard, a cousin of the murder victim, has become an advocate for the establishment of commissions to look into wrongful convictions.

All of them — the family of Debbie Carter, the family of Mr. Williamson, Mr. Grisham and Mr. Fritz — sat at one table Thursday evening for a dinner benefiting the Innocence Project.

Until an impulse hit Dennis Fritz, and he led his friend Peggy Sanders onto the stage, and they danced where everyone could see them.

Tabitha Pollock Wrongfully Convicted For Murder For Not Being A Mind Reader

Tabitha Pollock wrongfully convicted based on what she should have known. Tabitha Pollock was sleeping when her live-in boyfriend, Scott English, killed her 3-year-old daughter, Jami Sue, in the early morning hours of October 10, 1995, at their home in Kewanee, Illinois.

Exonerated Tabitha Pollock was charged with first-degree murder because prosecutors believed she should have known of the danger, Pollock spent more than six years in prison before the Illinois Supreme Court threw out the conviction. The state of Illinois and many other states accept the notion that parents may be held legally accountable for the deaths of their children when they have witnessed or otherwise know of grave threats to their safety. Ms. Pollock's case differed in that she was held responsible on what lawyers call a negligence theory — that Tabitha Pollock should have known of the potential danger, even if she did not.
A negligence standard is seldom used in the criminal law. "Should have known," the high court ruled, was not nearly enough to keep Pollock behind bars.

At her trial, the prosecution produced no witness who had suspected her boyfriend of prior abuse. "How could I have known he would murder my precious baby girl?" Ms. Pollock wrote. "I did not know, yet I received 36 years in prison for not being a mind reader."

With a felony record, she cannot become a teacher, as she wants. She cannot collect damages from the Illinois government.
In Illinois, to regain a certifiably clean record and collect compensation - a lump payment of $60,150 for five years or less in prison, or $120,300 for six to 14 years - an exonerated inmate must obtain a "pardon based on innocence" from the governor. A 15-member state review board interviews the petitioners and makes a recommendation, but the governor is not obligated to make a decision.

To fully clear her name, Pollock needs an official pardon,which only the governor can give. Please let's help Tabitha Pollock with her official pardon and email Gov. Rod Blagojevich, click on link HERE.

She applied in 2002 but has received no word.
Please email Gov. Rod Blagojevich requesting an official pardon for Tabitha Pollock so she can become a teacher.
Gov. Rod Blagojevich has this on his website:
"The Governor certainly appreciates your issues and concerns. Please know that your matter will be promptly forwarded to his office for review." http://www.illinois.gov/gov/contactthegovernor.cfm

A spokesman for Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) said last month that the governor is flooded with petitions and has not had time to focus on Pollock's case.
More:
Tabitha Pollock was sleeping when her live-in boyfriend, Scott English, killed her 3-year-old daughter, Jami Sue, in the early morning hours of October 10, 1995, at their home in Kewanee, Illinois.
The following year, a Henry County jury convicted Pollock of first-degree murder and aggravated battery based on the prosecution's contention that she “should have known” English posed a danger to Jami Sue's life. The judge sentenced Pollock to 36 years in prison.
The Third District Illinois Appellate Court affirmed the conviction in 1999, even though the trial judge had observed during a post-trial proceeding that Pollock “did not commit the act of killing, nor did she intend to kill the child, nor was she present in the room when her boyfriend killed the child.” Click here to Read Appellate Court Opinion.
You can read more about the case on University School of Law Bluhm Legal Clinic Website.

John Grisham Focuses on Falsely Condemned

An obituary in The New York Times changed the way attorney-turned-best-selling author John Grisham looked at the law.
On Dec. 9, 2004, he was skimming the Times and came across the headline, “Ronald Williamson, Freed from Death Row, Dies at 51.”

After reading the story, he knew it would be his next book and his first foray into nonfiction. It also was the beginning of his work with innocence projects attempting to correct flaws in America’s legal system.

“There are thousands of innocent people in prison in this country,” Grisham said yesterday at University of Richmond’s T.C. Williams School of Law.
“I had never really thought about wrongful conviction. I didn’t really think about it until ‘The Innocent Man’ was researched and written,” said the author of “The Firm” and other legal thrillers.

Grisham spoke to dozens of students and faculty associated with UR’s newly established Institute for Actual Innocence. The program, which involves students, faculty and practicing lawyers, works to identify and exonerate wrongfully convicted individuals in Virginia. It is part of a national group of similar innocence projects.

Mary Kelly Tate, the institute’s director, said overturning convictions in Virginia can be difficult. “We have some of the most challenging procedural hurdles and underfunding,” she said. At her request, Grisham came to UR from his home in Charlottesville to speak to participants in the project.
“The Innocent Man,” published in 2006, examines Ron Williamson’s wrongful conviction stemming from a brutal murder in Oklahoma in 1982.
“Based on hair analysis, snitches and a couple of bogus confessions, Ron was given the death penalty,” Grisham said. Williamson stayed on death row for years until a team of appellate lawyers sought a writ of habeas corpus and he was granted a stay five days before he was to be executed.

DNA tests ultimately cleared Williamson and a co-defendant.
“Life after exoneration is not pleasant,” Grisham said. “He was set free without an apology. No one has the courage to say they were wrong. The state wants you to go away and not make any noise.”
Grisham cited a number or reasons for wrongful convictions, including sloppy police work, courthouse snitches, junk science, false confessions and bad lawyering. Of the 130 death-row cases that have been overturned in the U.S., he said, two-thirds of them involved willful, malicious misconduct by authorities.
“The challenge now is to convince a lot of comfortable white people that there are a lot of innocent people in prison.
“This system, if we think it’s so great — how can this system send 130 men to death row and later have them exonerated?”
Grisham urged law students to consider some reforms to current judicial procedure, including increasing video interrogations, clamping down on informants, and changing perceptions that police and prosecutors are infallible.
“We should be able to design a system that guarantees everyone basic constitutional rights,” he said.

Date and Source April 25, 2008 Lisa Crutchfield Lynchburg News and Advance-Lynchburg, VA

Suing The DA

Should prosecutors be immune from civil lawsuits?

Radley Balko April 24, 2008

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the case of Thomas Goldstein, an ex-marine who was convicted of murdering his neighbor.
Goldstein served 24 years before his conviction was thrown out when the main witness against him was shown to have lied. That witness was a lifelong criminal who was given a deal on his own charges in exchange for testimony that Goldstein confessed to him in a jail cell. Goldstein alleges that the district attorney's office that prosecuted the case routinely used the testimony of so-called "jailhouse snitches" prosecutors knew or should have known weren't reliable.

Goldstein's case is unusual because he's not suing the prosecutor who convicted him, but John Van de Camp, the district attorney who supervised that prosecutor. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has allowed Goldstein's case to go forward, causing the U.S. Supreme Court to agree to hear it.
Goldstein's lawsuit stems from federal law 42 U.S.C. 1983, which states that
"…[e]very person" who acts under color of state law to deprive another of a
constitutional rights shall be answerable to that person in a suit for damages," and provides a means for those wronged by government officials to file suit in federal court.

But there are exceptions to Section 1983 suits. In the 1976 case Imbler v.Pachtman, the U.S. Supreme Court carved out a wide exception to the law to exempt prosecutors.

The Court said common law tradition grants prosecutors have what's known as
"absolute immunity" from civil rights suits, meaning that they can't be sued,
provided they're acting in their capacity as prosecutors.
Few people enjoy such protections in their own line of work (judges have absolute immunity as well).

But this complete shield from accountability is especially problematic when we're talking about prosecutors. It's a job that's already plagued by incentive problems.
We tend to measure a prosecutor's performance based on how many people he's able to throw in jail, not necessarily by how well he metes out justice.

Rarely, for example, does a prosecutor get public recognition for the cases he doesn't take. So we have people in a position where they have the enormous power to take away someone's freedom, incentives nudging them to err on the side of prosecuting aggressively, and absolute immunity from lawsuits should they overstep their bounds.

It's a recipe for abuse.. . . .Read More Here
Radley Balko is a senior editor for reasononline.
About Reason Online
Reason is the monthly print magazine of “free minds and free markets.” It covers politics, culture, and ideas through a provocative mix of news, analysis, commentary, and reviews. Reason provides a refreshing alternative to right-wing and left-wing opinion magazines by making a principled case for liberty and individual choice in all areas of human activity. Reason Online is entirely free.
Reason and Reason Online are editorially independent publications of the Reason Foundation, a national, non-profit research and educational organization.
A version of this article originally appeared at FoxNews.com.

SOUTH DAKOTA UNIVERSITY HONORS DENNIS FRITZ AS GUEST, KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Dennis Fritz, Author of Journey Toward Justice,arrived in Vermillion, South Dakota, to share his nightmare-out-of-hell story, of the unjust and wrongful conviction for 1st Degree Capital Murder— that he had to suffer for 12 grueling years before justice finally prevailed.
April 7, 2008,

Upon entering the South Dakota Law School, Dennis was warmly greeted with open arms by the entirely of the Innocence Project staff members, and students. After refreshments and pictures, Dennis was escorted to the Courtroom forum, where a crowd of over 200 people awaited his presence. The air was filled with anticipation and electricity as Mr. Fritz took his seat, before being introduced by the President, Emily Sippel, of the South Dakota, Innocence Project.

In his casual style and deliberate manner, Dennis quickly gained everyone’s attention as he started describing the horrifying events of his crucifying, wrongful conviction. You could not hear a pin drop, as Dennis talked about those very painful years in prison, and how he mentally and emotionally overcame all obstacles— to achieve his long, sought-after freedom.

Dennis spoke of his daughter, mother, and aunt, who stood by him throughout the on-going nightmare. While pointing upward, Dennis gave full credit to the Lord for pulling him out of the gates of hell. With a big smile, and tears in his eyes, Dennis loudly announced, “I am a free man!
Every day when I wake up and open my eyes, I fully realize that the most precious gift in life, itself, is our FREEDOM.” Throughout the entirely of Dennis’ presentation, the audience sat on the edge of their seats, listening to his sad, and tragic story.
At times, you could hear a restrained, muffled cough from someone in the awe-struck audience, who was trying to hold back their tears and utter sorrow— for Mr. Fritz’s painful plight in regaining his freedom.

At the end of his presentation, Dennis revealed how the real killer, Glen Gore, was brought to justice through the same DNA testing that freed him and his co-defendant, Ronnie Williamson.

Both Dennis’ and Ronnie’s story was also told by John Grisham, in his book, ‘The Innocent Man’—which is now being produced into a major motion picture. Dennis’ Journey Toward Justice, is still unfolding itself, in the form of his efforts to unite with Innocence Projects and law schools, in bringing about the much-needed greater awareness, of preventing and rectifying wrongful convictions.
Dennis is now a certified board member with the Midwestern Innocence Project, in Kansas City, Missouri, and the Western Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.

In his own words, Dennis said that, “I have such fond memories of the people— and their cause— at the South Dakota Innocence Project, where I will always feel welcome, and a true part of
their motivation and dedication. Thank you, so much for your constant efforts in seeking the truth!”

Click Here For More Photos For Slideshow click on top of photos to view slideshow

Canada's Last Hanging 1962 TV and Radio Clips

"You shall be hanged by the neck until you are dead."
A judge has uttered these words to 1,300 Canadians.
More than 700 of them actually went to the gallows before Canada abolished capital punishment in 1976.
But opinions on the noose have tended to shift over time.
Protests in the 1960's were met with questions about preventing the murder of police officers and prison guards.
Today, the debate is ongoing, especially for multiple murderers like Clifford Olson and Paul Bernardo

Death Penalty Debate 8 television clips - 9 radio clips
Topic spans: 1962 - 1987 Click Here
Canada's last hanging.
The CBC Digital Archives Website.
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.