Friends of Justice

Yesterday we sent out a link to a GoFundMe appeal to raise funds for Frank Fuster, an innocent man who has been behind bars for 37 years.

We received a number of donations. This afternoon I received an email from GoFundMe, telling me that the appeal had been taken down. According to them, we had violated their terms of service by engaging in “prohibited activity.”

We are saddened and angered by GoFundMe’s attitude and action. But we hope you will not be deterred and donate anyway. Please use the button below.

Thank you for your support of justice!

“A few days ago, JPay sent out a mass e-mail to all the inmates here at M.C.I. I do not know if this e-mail was sent to all O.D.R.C. inmates in the state of Ohio. The e-mail was a threat. It stated something to the effect that inmates are not allowed to send messages of any kind that end up on social media platforms like Tiktok, Facebook, or YouTube. That doing so violates O.D.R.C. policies pertaining to outgoing mail. They went on to say something like we could get kicked off JPay and face disciplinary sanctions from our perspective institutions.”

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“Approximately about a week ago, I received an envelope with no return address at mail call. I took the missive back to my cell to open it, and found a single piece of paper inside. I first noticed a picture of an attractive woman and some words on the page. My eyes went straight to the picture, and I was thinking, “Well, whoever she is, she is good looking.”. As I continued to look at the photo, some sense of familiarity kept creeping in. It hit me, I know her. I began to scan the page for a familiar name and the words that struck me were,” Obituary, Elizabeth Anne Smothers, and Passed”. I thought is this my Elizabeth? Then I seen her parents names John and Sue. I knew then this was my Elizabeth.”

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“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.”

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“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?”

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