Hey, I don't have a tip right now, but a question. I've been working on the legal papers of one of my friend/pen pals. He's in prison for murder, got 30 years + 15 years. But when I was typing up his legal papers, I've seen how many mistakes there have been made in his trial, how his lawyer lost his file during the trial, how important witnesses never have been heard, how certain statements of 'specialists'can not be correct and how the eye witness has changed her story up to 5 times, first claiming that she was in the house during the shooting, and finally claimed that she saw my friend actually pull the trigger. We're working hard to get his case in the court again, but it's been almost 7 years. the reason why it took so long,is because my friend, at the age of 17, had no clue about his rights, and about the law and legal system. plus he could read nor write. he has taught himself this in prison and that is why it took 7 years.

My question is, is there any change that we get his case back in court, you think? and what are his changes? there is also a statement of a guy who witnessed against my friend. now this guy has signed a statement that he lied under oath, because he has been treatened by other people. the thing is, this guy was in prison himself when he signed the statement. will the court find this believable?

hope anyone can help me with this...

If there is enough evidence you can request an appeal. When it is a murder case there are special appeals and he would need an experienced attorney or the advice from on to really go forward and get some one to accept and listen to him new appeal.

When ever a case has hole exspecially in a murder case they just want to shut the door and believe that they got it right, they are hard to re-try but it can be done.

I would seek some help and then go from there. I would also request the court transcripts to make sure that those issues were not raised and or addressed and then you can go from there

hey shortie, thanks a lot for this quick reply. The thing is, I want to get a lawyer for Darrell, but I live in Europe and he's in the US. And his family has no money to afford one. I write the judge that sentenced him now and then to help him keep Darrell in mind :D But to be honest, I want to do a hole lot more for him, but it's so hard being on the other side of the world, you know?

That is what we are working on. He really needs to get into the Law library and figure out the appeals he is entitled to. I agree with shortie about needing a lawyer but good luck in finding one that will do much more than take your money. I know some of the terms to give him an idea where to start his search. I'll look them up and e-mail them to you if you want. Something to do with Filing a habeous corpus. He has very important legal appeals that could help him if he didn't let the time line run out.

Richard is all the way to the Supreme court right now with his appeals. He is a self taught lawyer. Very intelligent on genious level. He plans on taking the bar as soon as he gets out.

I don't know if you want to correspond with him about this or not but please feel free to. I'm not sure about his time availabliltiy because he files appeals for the inmates in his prison that he feels are innocent and could use his help. He is working on a couple that I know of. He takes pity on the old timers in ill health. He doesn't want to see them die in prison.

I can understand very well about him not wanting to see old people die in prison. and being busy. Maybe I could just send him the papers I typed up for Darrell, so he can take a look at them, when he has time and tell me if we have a case?

Thanks for all your help,Torrey!
I know Darrell's appeal is kinda late (8years), but this is mainly because he was 17 at the time of the conviction and couldn't read nor right. so he had to teach himself that first, then learn about the law and all that...

That sounds like a good idea. Like I said I don't know what he can do or not I'm not speaking for him because of course I don't know. Just a suggestion. You have his address on your Pen/pal site.

well, I wrote Darrell yesterday to ask him if he wants to do this. If he wants to go ahead with it, I'll first write Richard to ask him if he has time and wants to have a look at it...thanks again for the suggestion!