Nineteen Years of Torture and Counting

When I was illiterate to corruption in our Judicial System, I believed that malicious prosecutions of Innocent people only existed in movies and fiction books. That was until a crooked cop would change my life forever. My nightmare began when I was charged with murder for being present when a murder took place. The crazy part is, I was not in the state when the murder took place. At every stage of my proceedings, I believed hat it was all a mistake and our Judicial System would correct my wrong.

Once I became literate to the law, I became aware that I was drowning in corruption and suffering from a bad case of Ineffective Assistance of Counsel. Every step in my case, evidence of my Innocence or corruption was being hidden from me. My trial and direct appeal attorney did nothing to help me to everything to help the prosecutor. It took sixteen and a half (16½) years for me to obtain an attorney who believed in Freedom, Justice and Equality. At this point of time, a solid appeal of mine was pending in the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. Little did I know but two (2) of the three (3) Judges saw my injustice and ordered my release barring a Retrial.

Less than six (6) months of being reunited with my family, the U.S. Supreme Court heard a late filed appeal by the prosecution and Reinstated my Wrongful Conviction based on a technicality. Their decision was Per Curiam and did not allow my attorneys to file an opposing brief or orally argue, which is normal procedure. Once again, I entered a nightmare I lived for over sixteen (16) years. Only this time, my legal team would uncover the evidence of my Innocence and corruption. After filing my New Appeal, the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office prosecuting my case agreed to Investigate my Innocence and Corruption claims. That’s what they lead society to believe.

A stall tactic that’s commonly used in Wrongful Convictions was in full effect. After four (4) ninety (90) day, two (2) sixty (60) day, three (3) thirty (30) day, one (1) four (4) day and two (2) two day continuances, on Christmas Eve the Attorney General’s Office replied to my claims by denying ANY WRONG DOING. This comes as no surprise, what do you expect from the culprits of a Wrongful Conviction? Once again my fate resides in the hands of the same Judge who found me guilty. Will the Judicial System work this time? Until it does, nineteen (19) years of torture, and counting …