SEAL OF SOLIDARITY

09/07/2009 - Miscarriage of Justice?

Miscarriage of Justice?
Since a few days, all international Newspapers report about Cameron Todd Willingham. He died on the 17th of February 2004 on death row at Huntsville, Texas. EXECUTED.

Was it a Miscarriage of Justice?
An innocent man who was executed?
The media claims that this was a scandal created by the American justice system. They talk about Cameron Todd Willingham being the first person since the reintroducion of the death penalty in 1976 who will be officially and factually declared innocent - ....posthumously.

Is Cameron Todd Willingham a symbol of the Abolishment Movement against the death penalty?
In my opinion, yes! And I think NOW all of us, who are fighting against the death penalty have to jump on this train of the media. We have to use it to get attention for our cases – which each of us is in contact with-. Each of us has a story and everyone of us should sit down and write a short story about their campaign and then send it out to all the media on this earth. NOW each journalist, each media station, radio stations, websites and blocks ect, are sensible for this. NOW we have a chance to come out with all these stories and to show that Cameron Todd Willingham has not been a individual case.

A qote from a German Newspaper:
„… in June the supreme court decided with 5/4 that an inmate has no right for a DNA test, even if they pay it on their own. - A defendant who has been found guilty has not the same rights as a person who is free -. written by chairman John Roberts... “

Within a fair trial??? As far as I know as well as heard of cases… I can not speak of fair trials. I can not accept this statement. We are talking about human beings… My campaign is about Tony Medina ( www.tony-medina.info ) whats the name of your campaign??? Write about it and become active.

I reach out to all activists, family members, friends and so on, who are fighting for a person on death row, react on this. I would be glad if I could bring your reactions online on this page: http://www.seal-of-solidarity.com and I would publish those cases, I could publish links to their pages. So please write to me at support@seal-of-solidarity.com .

  

IN SOLIDARITY
Ilona

09/08/2009 - REACTIONS

Hi Ilona,
got your message about cases of wrongful convictions and highlighting them on your page. Here are some links to cases the CEDP is working on:

http://nodeathpenalty.org/content/factsheets.php?category=cedp&factsheet_id=4

http://nodeathpenalty.org/content/factsheets.php?category=cedp&factsheet_id=10

http://nodeath.server269.com/downloads/4874troydavis-factsheet.pdf

I hope this helps out!
Lily Mae Hughes, Campaign to End the Death Penalty.

09/09/2009 - REACTIONS

Hello My name is Katasha Swan-LaCaze My Husband is Rogers LaCaze Sr. You can Google his name and you will get truth and lies. His web site is WWW.ROGERSLACAZE.COM Please view it and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE HELP ME FREE THIS INNOCENT MAN.
Thank you
Tasha

09/16/2009 - REACTIONS

Dear Ilona,
I came across a case at Ohio; USA and was totally shocked. I thought you might be interested into this and maybe you could also publish it on your website? I know Arthur would be very happy, I copied the text but be sure I was allowed to do so.
Chrissy

The case of Arthur Tyler

On March 12, 1983, Sander Leach was shot and killed in the van from which he was selling vegetables on Clevelands east side. Arthur Tyler has steadfastly denied shooting Mr. Leach.
Leroy Head, on the other hand, has repeatedly admitted shooting Mr. Leach.
Within minutes, he told two friends that he shot the fruit and vegetable man during a robbery, saying the old man forced his hand by trying to pull a gun.
Head told his mother he did it, too. She urged him to come clean.
So he told police he did it as well. And he signed a confession.
But it was not Head who was condemned to die.
Just before trial, Head struck a deal with prosecutors and fingered his co-defendant, Arthur Tyler, instead. Arthur has sat on Ohio's death row for 25 years for a crime he did not commit.
Head could be paroled as early as next year, even though he has acknowledged several times since that he was the triggerman after all.
On May 16, 1989, Head told attorneys Joanne Bour-Stokes and Richard Vickers that he had lied when he testified at Tylers trial and that he (Head) killed Leach. Head said the prosecutors threatened him at Tyler's second trial that if he did not testify he would be tried for capital murder or sent to a less secure prison, with the prosecutor making sure the other inmates knew he was a snitch. Time really is running out for Arthur.

Arthur's case is on http://www.torley.org/ and also

http://justiceforarthurtyler.blogspot.com/

The Trial transcripts are available, and so are other court documents.

10/13/2009 - PERSONAL WORDS FROM TONY MEDINA

I sit here writing this thinking about the fact that earlier tonight a man I considered a Brother was MURDERED by the STATE of TEXAS. A little over a week ago my 13 year anniversary of being on Death Row past. It’s true what people say, that "our lives rarely follow the path we wish them to ".

On December 31, 1995 when I left my parent’s house to party with my cousin and some old friends I had not seen in a while I never in my life imagined the path that my life was about to take. I had not planed on coming to death row. I had not planned on befriending several guys who would later become Brothers to me. I had not planned on watching soo many of those Brothers get carried away to their state-sanctioned Murders. I HAD planned on celebrating the coming of a new year. 1996 was going to be a good year for me, I WAS SURE OF IT !!!!!

But the forces that direct our fate and lay out our destiny had a different view.

I guess I should introduce myself right? My name is Tony Medina, something I am sure you know since you are reading my site, but I know it is good to introduce myself anyway.. I’ll be 35 years old soon, and I have spent over 13 years of my life incarcerated for a crime I did not commit. I try not to well on that, but that is a long time to be trapped in a cage, more often then not treated worse then animals at zoo..

I was born and raised in Houston, Texas. On that fateful December night so long ago I was 21, I had a job with a real future, I had 2 children that needed me in their lives, I had a wonderful girl beside me, and after 9 years spent in and out of the gang life I had finally broke the chains.

A lot of people ask why it took me so long to leave the gang. Unfortunate there is not a simple answer. I got involved with the gang when I was 12 years old. I wanted to be accepted, and here was this "instant family" that I could belong to. I ended up falling into the same trap too many of our young kids have fallen into. In later years I did try to get away from this lifestyle that I could see was leading me down the wrong path, but until I was 21 I had never made the break stick, I always fell back into old habits, hearing the street’s seductive call.

But I knew I needed to change! While I was incarcerated for 11 months in 1994 - 1995 I’d had 2 gorgeous children, a son and a daughter. They needed me to be there as a father for them, as my father had been there for me. So I followed my heart and made good on the decision to leave the gang behind for good.

That December night I had not changed my mind. My car was not working, and my sister’s car had broke down, so I didn’t have transport-station of my own. I figured that ONE NIGHT of drinking and partying with old friends who were still in the gang would not hurt me, I wasn’t getting involved with their lifestyle again, just going to have a few beers...

I have regretted that decision the last 13-plus years.

When the judge sat up there in his black robe, separated from the rest of the world by a huge wooden barrier and announced that I was "SENTENCED TO DIE BY LETHAL INJECTION" I was struck dumb. I mean, I was innocent! I didn’t do what they had accused me of doing, so HOW the hell was I being sentenced to die?? How fair is that?

The ugly truth is that, in Texas especially, the U.S. justice system is not worried about being fair or just, they only care about numbers and politics. The judges and District Attorney’s want to be appear "tough on crime " so they can be elected over and over and over. To do this, they have to produce high numbers of convictions.. so what if a few innocent lives are ruined or taken in the process.

They don’t care if they put a innocent man on death row, they don’t even care if they commit murder by executing him. The "new Yorker" magazine article about Todd Willingham proves this. Todd was not the first or last innocent man executed by Texas; he was just the first to be proven innocent with scientific evidence. Texas knows he was not the first innocent man put to death at their hands, but have they even tried to take a step to prevent anymore from being killed? NO!

My trial lawyers, men who have had their paycheks signed by the same people who were trying to send me to death row, did not even try to prove I was innocent. This IS NOT just my opinion. Every attorney who has ever looked over my case has said the same thing. My trial lawyers did not even do the bare minimum to help me. The lawyers who prepared and filed my current appeal found several witnesses and pieces of evidence that prove I am not guilty. Evidence and witnesses my trial attorney could have easily presented themselves if they had been truly working for ME, and not just puppets for the state.

Yet here I still sit on death row, over 8 years after my appeal lawyers found evidence that proves another man is guilty of this crime. The Texas "justice" system hates to admit they are wrong or have made a mistake, so once they have a person on death row; they make it almost impossible, thru little technicalities, to prove you are innocent with new evidence. They don’t care about innocence! BUT, the impossible CAN and has been done before, and right now I need your help if I am going to avoid being made a victim of Texas well oiled Murder machine...

I need people to please step forward and help me keep from being murdered by Texas for someone else’s crime.

All I want is a second chance at life. A chance to be a father to my (now) 3 children. A chance to have a life. A chance to find that someone special to share life with, to be treated as a human being again and not like a animal, as I am treated everyday in this concrete hell. TONY MEDINA
www.seal-of-solidarity.com


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