Innocent But Sentenced To Death

September 1, 2014; 1:30pm: Listening to: Land of Confusion By: Genesis

Hi everyone, how are you? I hope good. I was reading something in a newspaper and I'd like to know what you think. First off, in the movies all or most prisoners claim to be innocent or framed or just plain not guilty. I can assure you that is not the case here. I know of maybe 10 people who claim to be innocent and 2 of them just mights be. I don't know anyone who said they were framed by cops or set-up by law enforcement. But what I do know is that since the death penalty has been re-instated in 1976 my home state of Pennsylvania has put 3 people to death. he only one that I am aware of and know his name is Gary Hydnik from Philadelphia. I do not know the names of the men but since 1976 , 6 men who were found guilty and sentenced to death were later exonerated and found innocent. I know there are more, how many more I don't know, but even just 1 is too much. There is a new movement that I learned of and I wrote to them for more info on who they are and what they do. Feel free to check them out online @

decarceratepa.info or decarceratepa@gmail.om

There are a lot of people who belong in here but no innocent belongs in here. The system is truly stacked against prisoners. Let's just say someone is innocent but found guilty, you have 1 year to prove that before your appellate rights expire and you become time barred. Thousands of men in PA prisoners are time barred and, unless you are able to find a needle in a haystack, you're basically done. If you're able to prove you are innocent, with real live actual evidence, then you can get back into court and have the evidence reviewed even if it's 20 years down the road. There are so many stipulation, clauses, that you have to basically become an appeals lawyer in a matter of months; what takes a normal person almost a decade to do, you must do in less than 1 year. I have met just 2 men in my 16 years who might be innocent but one brags about the other 6 drug dealers he killed, while being a drug dealer himself, but got away with them. This is karma for him I guess. We're held for our punishment but what about the people who make the rules. They should be held to an even higher standard. I watched a news story yesterday on the evening news. Megan and Roland Winfrey and their father, from Texas. They were convicted of killing someone. Megan was given life, the dad was given 75 years. Both had a public defender. The son, Roland, he was able to hire a private lawyer. And if you don't have at least $30-50 for a private attorney, you can pretty much be assured that you will be found guilty. Roland was found not guilty. So that brought all the convictions into question. They had no DNA evidence, no weapon, no motive but what the cops did have was a dog. They had a bloodhound dog that did a "dog scent line up" ad that alone convicted a father and daughter for murder. After spending 6 years in prison, Megan's conviction was thrown out and she was released and the dad was released after 3 years. But because the system is corrupt and it is stacked against poorer people, this young woman wasted 6 years in prison for a crime she did not commit. How could a court system allow people to be convicted solely on the testimony from a dog? I love animals and dogs are my favorite animal but to lock someone up for life because a dog sniffed the crime scene and then stops and barks at someone, that's insane. I don't have the whole story here in front of me, if you want to learn more, go check it out. We have a growing prisoner population. There's gotta be a better way. Do Lifers ever deserve to go home again? We all agree that our victims are not going home, their families are not getting their loved one back but should there be a chance for some of us in here? That's not up to me, that's up to citizens of PA who vote. The politicians do what the voters want. I hope this isn't too boring. Between my mom's cancer, not having a clue about my daughter, this has not been a good few weeks. Right now we're are voicing our complaints to the FCC about the insane cost of phone calls. I have to work 28 hours just to be able to afford to call my mom 1 time for 15 minutes. And with her being in & out of the hospital, it gets stressful. She didn't deserve cancer the first time she had it. She definitely didn't deserve it the second time. So much on my mind I apologize for not being very interesting. Well I guess I will leave it at that. I hope everyone has a nice Labor Day, hope the weather is nice. My Justine would have been 34 on Sept. 3 and she loved picnics, BBQs, cook outs; not a day goes by that I don't pray for change. My daughter taught me something. She said, Dad, I will not let what happened to me define who I become in life. And I thought about that and I will not let my crime define who I am or who I become as grow and change. Take care, stay safe, enjoy the fall and God bless. Ciao.