“What happened to Justice in America? I have spent the past 25 years in prison for a crime that never even occurred. Almost everyone who takes the time to look at the evidence in my case say they believe me to be innocent. Yet, the courts routinely deny my appeals for some of the littlest excuses they can find. Has everyone who works in the judicial system become so cynical that they just dismiss a claim of actual innocence out of hand? Are they really so afraid to release people from prison?”
Archive for the ‘Innocents’ Category
Justice in America? A Prison Post from Shane Crum
Saturday, July 31st, 2021Documents Withheld; Help Needed — a Prison Post from Shane Crum
Friday, July 23rd, 2021“In my case, the prosecution withheld a lot of information they were supposed to give us with our discovery. The discovery is when the prosecution is supposed to give the defense everything they intend to use against the defendant. They are also supposed to provide any and all exculpatory evidence. The little trick they used was to give the documents back to the agencies that generated them during the investigation. The reason for this is to say that the prosecution did not have them in their possession, and therefore could not turn them over to the defense. An example of this was two statements we discovered around 2003 from Christopher and Mark Mowery. Apparently, my daughter said that these two individuals witness me abusing her. When the police interviewed them, they both said the events she described never occurred. The court ruled that had my original attorney done his due diligence, we would have discovered them prior to trial. Therefore, it was a harmless error. An innocent man in prison is a harmless error.”
The State Convicted Him of Child Abuse. A Medical Expert Said It Was Likely Diaper Rash
Thursday, July 1st, 2021
“Newton’s theory of the crime—the basis of the prosecution’s case—was impossible, according to Winfield’s appellate legal team.
“During the 2018 evidentiary hearing, Winfield’s attorneys presented testimony by physician and burn expert Stephen Milner. He had previously been director of the Johns Hopkins Burn Center, surgical director at the Johns Hopkins Wound Center, and director of the Michael D. Hendrix Burn Research Center. He testified that he had performed over 5,000 burn-related procedures. In the Superior Court’s ruling, the judge wrote that the ‘court infers that Milner has seen many more burns and genital burns in children and infants than [Newton].’
Read the article by Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg in The Appeal.
The Ohio Parole Board – a Prison Post from Shane Crum
Thursday, June 17th, 2021“Several years ago, as Mike Dewine just became Ohio’s governor, I sent in a “clemency application” to the Ohio Parole Board. The clemency application covers several options for the governor to consider. A pardon is just one of them. In the application, I stated that a pardon is for people who have committed a crime for which the governor could forgive them. I also mentioned that I was an innocent man and did not know if I wanted a pardon. I have committed no crime for which to be forgiven. I went on to say that he could look at the evidence himself by logging onto the website my family had set up for me. We had not yet met Bob Chatelle, and he had not set the other site up. All the evidence files are on the site.”
Another False Accusation — from Shane Crum
Tuesday, March 23rd, 2021“Many of the staff in these places act in a criminal, cruel, and negligent manner. The inmates who attempt to stand up for themselves are almost always retaliated against. Hopelessness and despair are what they learn. Imagine spending decades being treated this way? I have seen the most confident of men be reduced to a timid hand shy individual who can not make a single decision without first asking staff. I wonder what will become of such men once they are released? A caged animal without the restraints of prison staff let loose on the world. Is this what they mean by preparing inmates for their return into society?”
Justice Still Denied for Victims of Day Care Sex Abuse Witch Trials
Friday, March 12th, 2021
fongbeerredhot/Shutterstock.com
“But before human rights groups here and in Europe focus their attention far in the past and far afield, they would do well to seek apologies, restitution, and justice for the victims of witch hunts much closer in time and space: victims of the sex abuse in day care hysteria that in the 1980s and early ’90s swept the U.S. (and manifested itself to a much lesser extent in Canada, New Zealand, and Europe). One victim, Frank Fuster, remains in prison. He has now served 36 years of a sentence of six life terms and 165 years. (In 2014 the Florida Parole Commission sent him a letter telling him his initial parole interview was scheduled in 120 years.) All this for crimes that existed only in the fevered imagination of his accusers.”
Read the article by Rael Jean Isaac in The American Spectator.
Shane Crum – Prison Programs are Essential
Monday, March 8th, 2021“When I first came to Marion Correctional Institution, there were so many programs and things for inmates to do that I stayed busy throughout the day. I would get up at 5:30, get dressed, have a cup of coffee, brush my teeth and hair, and be out the door by 6:30. I would stay gone until count time around 10:30, and would leave again by about 11:30 for chow. I would stay gone until the next count time at around 3:30 and leave again at 4:30 for chow, and not come back to my lock until around 8:00. I would get a shower, grab a bite to eat, and get some sleep to start all over the next day.”
A prison post from Shane Crum – My Wounded Spirit
Sunday, February 14th, 2021“I have noticed that when you are charged with the crimes I have been, people treat you like you are less than human. Who wants to spend time getting to know a person who has committed crimes against a child? I explain I am innocent and attempt to show the evidence. They just do not want to waste their time. Especially when the grand prize is a friendship or intimate relationship with someone like that. I cannot win.
“It does not help that the whole of society acts this way. I am not found of people who harm children. Yet, my experience tells me, I cannot say who those people might be. I have been convicted of just such a crime, and there has never been any kind of evidence to suggest a crime occurred. Let alone the idea I am guilty. I have no doubt, that when you meet me, you would never guess I have been convicted of such a crime, much less being capable of committing it.”
Injustice Behind Bars — a new prison post from Shane Crum
Sunday, January 31st, 2021“My last couple of post were failed attempts to convey just how difficult it is for me to accept harsh treatment, and how O.D.R.C. staff apply their rules unequally. Try to imagine being punished for something you not only did not do, but something that obviously never occurred. Imagine being punished with individuals who have done things.”
Judge orders Austin babysitter Rosa Jimenez freed from prison, questions guilt
Wednesday, January 27th, 2021
laura skelding
State District Judge Karen Sage made the ruling after a 2½-hour hearing Tuesday afternoon in which three top pediatric airway specialists testified that 21-month-old Bryan Guttierez most likely swallowed, on his own, the compacted mass of paper towels that led to his death — and that there was no way Jimenez could have forced the wad down the boy’s throat, as prosecutors argued at her 2005 trial.
“I do not believe that Ms. Jimenez should spend another night in jail if it can be prevented,” Sage said.
Read the full article by Chuck Lindell in the Austin America-Statesman.
