Hello,

I am an innocent man serving a 45 year enhanced sentence for a crime that was committed by another person.

In March 1994 I entered my home and found my wife and my older brother in a compromising situation. An argument took place and my brother grabbed a pistol and ordered me out of my own home. A violent struggle ensued as I attempted to take the pistol away from my brother and during this time, he fired the pistol. Whether this was intentional or accidental I do not know, but the bullet struck a wall, ricocheted and struck and killed my wife. My brother was not charged, but I was arrested and charged with murder.

Several mongths later, my brother confessed to firing the pistol and admitted that it had never been in my possession. He signed a sworn affidavit to this effect. Both he and my parents also signed sworn statements to say that they had visited my home after the event and noticed that all the evidence of the ricocheted bullet had been removed.

My defence lawyer refused to use these affidavits which would have exonerated me of any blame; he also refused to call any witnesses to testify on my behalf. I was left with no defence and in May 1994 I was found guilty of Involuntary Manslaughter and given a 45 year sentence under PC 19.05, which had already been deleted by the Texas legislature prior to my conviction.

Finally, after 2 years, my lawyer sent me the sworn affidavits. I had copies of these documents made, which I sent to my brother with a request for him to hand them in to the authorities. To date I have received no reply from him, nor has he returned any documents to me.

I was not responsible for the death of my wife, but unless I can get some urgent legal assistance I will stand no chance of getting my case back into court. All my motions and appeals have been denied and none of my evidence has ever been seen by the courts.

All I ask is for justice to be done; I am NOT a murderer and do want to die in prison for a crime I did not commit.

Please can anyone offer me any help? I am in desperate need of a pro bono lawyer, but will gratefully accept any help or advice from anyone; paralegals, innocence projects, or anyone who may be able to help.

If you think you can help me, please contct me on the e-mail address below, which is provided by my wife Pam and she will print and forward any messages to me:

[email address removed]

Thankyou for taking the time to read my request.

Respectfully,

Danny "Hawk" Smith. (Texas)

Soraya, won't a sworn affidavit be on record somewhere? That just isn't right. Let us know what you find out.

There is no doubt that stuff like this happens on a regular basis. I personally found it strange that he was accused of killing his wife....and the end of article said the email address to contact him was provided by his wife.

Anyway, we know that justice doesn't always prevail.....and if what he is saying is true then we can probably help him in some way.

Jerry