Clarence Moses-El
27 Years of Injustice and Counting

"The greatest crime of all in a civilized society is an unjust conviction. It is truly a scandal which reflects unfavorable on all participants in the criminal justice system."
—New York Chief Judge John Collins, 1992

As I sit here writing this, Clarence Moses-El, who is imprisoned at Bend Country Correctional Facility in Las Animas, Colorado, is going about his day for the twenty-seventh year of his wrongful imprisonment caused by police and prosecutorial misconduct. At some point in 1996, Attorney Barry Scheck of the New York based Innocence Project became involved in the case to prove Moses-El's innocence.

Amazingly, after having obtained a court order that required DNA testing of the alleged victim's clothing and the bed sheets and a sexual assault kit, the Denver Police Department and district attorney colluded to keep Moses-El in prison. Instead of being tested, these items of evidence—which were marked in a box with the words "DO NOT DESTROY—were tossed into the trash. After this incident, which was a violation of Denver Police Department's policies and procedures, and circumvented the purpose of the court order, Moses-El filed an appeal challenging his conviction. A judge denied Moses-El's appeal which sought a new trial and based the decision to deny a new trial on Moses-El's failure to prove "bad faith" on the part of the police/prosecution in failing to preserve the potentially exonerating evidence.

The Denver Post shed some much needed light on the subject in a series of articles on destruction of evidence in July 2007. The newspaper uncovered at least 125 criminal cases of persons who had compelling evidence destroyed that could have exonerated them of the crimes and who currently languish in various Colorado prisons.

In response to the Innocent Project's request that Moses-El's case be reopened, the district attorney Mitch Morrissey has refused, stating, "The defendant has had his day in court." While it may be true that Moses-El had his day in court, that doesn't mean that it was a fair day as required by the Constitution of the United States.

A few facts that make this case even more troubling is that LC Jackson, who was one of the three people identified as an assailant, recently gave a confession that Moses-El is innocent. Another thing: the victim never mentioned Moses-El initially following the rape. As to why the victim would eventually accuse Moses-El, the original investigator cites an ongoing dispute between the victim and Moses-El's spouse, the last of which ended with the victim telling his spouse that she would "get even with her."

In 2005, the now deceased detective who investigated the crime, James Huff, stated in 2005 in a sworn statement: "Due to the fighting and bickering, the jealousy, the pettiness, all of that, I always have had doubts about this [case]. I could never prove it either way, and this is one of those cases where I really wish there was DNA."

Share this story with others and join the people in demanding justice for Clarence Moses-El.

Mr. Lakeith Amir-Sharif
Ramsey II Prison Unit
1200 FM 655
Rosharon, TX 77583-8602

Additional sources of information:
1.) Coloradoindependent.com
2.) DenverPost.com
3.) Innocent Project New York