 Dear Reader,
All too often we've sat and listened to many, many inmates claims of innocence, or their lamentations of an unfair trial. Most times, these cries are regulated to some slot in our minds designated: Epluribus Unum (one-out-of-many). On this page, and against these odds, I reveal to you the story of one so innocent, and so unfairly convicted, it would shock the conscious of even the most zealous prosecuting attorney.
I am a Black Man from the New Orleans area of Louisiana. As of this writing I have been incarcerated in the Oklahoma prison system for a total of 27½ years for a crime I did NOT commit. My story is one where the facts of my innocence is so clear it seems to become lost by it's very own simplicity.
In 1975 I was tried and convicted in Oklahoma County for the murder of a Ms. Carolyn S. Rogers. Upon conviction I was sentenced to die by electrocution. (At that time Oklahoma statues included a mandatory death penalty statue for those convicted of First Degree Murder.) In 1976, due to the unconstitutionality of such statues, my sentence was subsequently modified to LIFE in prison. Since then, I have sought redress through various legal appeals. I have also written many, many letters to different organizations, news agencies, and law makers, hoping to draw attention to the miscarriage of justice. Admittedly, my case is absent of those issues concerning the now popular DNA evidence. Rather, my case concerns one of simple mistaken identification!
The state case against me consisted of one so-called eyewitness testimony. The State presented absolutely no other testimony, or evidence to support the so-called eyewitness identification testimony. The witness testimony was/is totally unreliable and full of discrepancies -- discrepancies easily demonstrated by review of trial transcripts and other court documents filed in my case.
I am actually innocent of the crime, and this fact has been attested to by the very prosecuting attorney himself.
Mr. Robert Mildfelt, the prosecutor against me in 1975 have since written TWO LETTERS on my behalf. In one letter, Mr. Mildfelt states, among other things, "I remember your case very well -- your case has troubled me these many years because of the many questions unanswered by the evidence we had . . . " In another letter, written by Mr. Mildfelt to the Pardon & Parole Board on my behalf, he clearly and freely demonstrates how I was mistakenly identified as the suspect.
Newly discovered police reports (suppressed evidence) demonstrates gross misconduct by the Oklahoma City Police Department; wherein conducted a lineup, the witness responded, "I pick the same two I picked the day before." What is amazing is the fact I was NOT in the lineup the day before!
Added to all this is the report of the initial description of the suspect given to police by the very same eyewitness, along with a composite of the individual that was supposed to be me. The witness initial description listed the suspect as being 6 feet something, and 200 pounds -- a physical description greatly different from my statue at the time.
Dear reader, I have suffered, and continue to suffer a very serious miscarriage of justice, but I shall not burden
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