Transcript
The Cost of Innocence By Alan Sorensen "Facts Not In Dispute" Exonerations used to be the unusual, now they are commonplace yet the pure number of exonerations we now see and hear about have not made a dent in the number of innocent defendants who have been wrongfully convicted and punished. Perhaps this is due to what is often called, “Rules of the justice game”, but this is no game, real lives and freedom’s are lost. All that said, once you see the world the way it truly is you cant unsee it, and for some who never give in to their false accusations, doing the right thing is not one of choice but one of conscious. Rule 1. All criminal defendants are in fact guilty/right! Rule 2. All criminal defense lawyers, prosecutors, and judges understand and believe Rule 1. Rule 3. It is generally easier to convict what is believed are guilty defendants by violating the constitution than by complying with it, and in many cases it is impossible to convict so called guilty defendants without violating the constitution. Rule 4. In order to convict so called guilty defendants, many police, witnesses, lie about whether they violated the basic rights set in the constitution, judges no longer even ask, they dont want to know. Rule 5. All prosecutors, judges, and defense attorneys are aware of Rule 4. In order to convict defendants, many prosecutors implicitly encourage the police to lie about whether they violated the defendants rights and or the constitution, and all judges are fully aware of this. Rule 6. Many, not all trial judges pretend to believe police officers they know to be lying. Rule 7. Many appellate judges are fully aware of Rule 6, yet many pretend to believe the trial judges who pretend to believe the lying police officers and alleged victims. 1 Rule 8. Many judges claim to disbelieve defendants about whether their constitutional rights have been violated, even if they are telling the truth and can prove it. Rule 9. Most judges and prosecutors will tell you that they would not knowingly convict a defendant they believe to be innocent of the crime charged, or a closely related crime. Rule 10. Such rules don’t apply to members or organized crime, drug dealers, career criminals, terrorists or potential informers as we are told always tell the truth. Rule 11. Almost nobody really wants justice, or true criminal justice reform, for that you would have to first get the truly innocent out of prison, not a politically correct idea with todays idea of talking points. "Not real justice." What does it say about us as a people of what once was a great country, that we are so eager to throw away our mothers, fathers, sisters , brothers, and childern! How then can we be called "The home of the free," when so many dont know, have never known life to be that way. Some of us are locked in a violent hell of the body, soul and mind, we live in economic oppression, poverty for us has become the new weapon. How is it that even with the police, prosecutors, and judges they condone murder of our brothers and sisters in these hell holes, as long as they can sleep at night with a so called clean conscious. It has been my personal experience that the more we care about the world and all its people, the world finds new ways to hurt us. Here is a fact, "Anger is not the path to truth" as long as I have lived, people have been looking for ways to hate and blame others for station in life. But here is a hard truth, hearsay, gossip, and blaming others without real physical facts is not evidence! How do I know this, I've been locked in a living hell for more than 30 years, and I have seen such pain in the eyes and voices of those around me. "This is not just my story" Look about you, people have spent more than 20 or 30 years in such places, who is really paying the cost. So I ask you what is truly the meaning of life? Cant we now abolish stacking sentences, life sentences? I've said it so many times before and I will say it again, I have not hurt, wronged, or corrupted any man, woman or child, but told the absolute truth regardless of every lie, falsehood spoken against me. Now I no longer know if I will ever make it out of this man made Hell on earth, and you know what, I don't know if I even care any longer. I've lived this nightmame since the summer of 1988 when I opened my heart and home to others only to be used. What better way to destry a persons good name and character than by a unsubstantiated allegation that in the age of hearsay exceptions, gossip and rumor, "Political Correctness" has become evidence. I may of been illiterate when this nightmare started, an uneducated, ignorant farm boy, but as I learned on the farm, "Even a Blind Pig" can find a acorn if given enough time. So call this my dying declaration! When I first came to prison I found myself wanting to change who I was and wanting to repair all the damage from my past. It all seemed to stem from my absence of education in so many meaningful ways, so I pushed myself to learn, but it was too little too late. I have this idea that morality is the reality of doing what is right. Doing so regardless if you are seen in person or just a name and number on a page. Such is my responsibility to the future, my children an and great granndchildren, the truth is that which persuades us to do what is right. Any damn fool can take a deal, only if I was guilty, then I too could of done so and gone on with my life, but one thing about morals is you come to the point when you must stand in the light! Thank You Alan sorensen SCF Unit 1-B-107 PO Box 6000 Sterling Co. 80751
