Mr. Lakeith Amir-Sharif (#1505969)
Ramsey II Prison Unit
1200 FM 655
Rosharon, Texas 77583-8602

October 20, 2015

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20500-0001

RE: Wrongful Convictions in Texas; Case No. PE:11-CV-00047-RAJ, Lakeith Amir-Sharif vs. Brad Livingson, Executive Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice

Dear President Obama:
I am actually innocent yet, in April 2008, I was wrongly convicted in Dallas County, Texas based on an overreacting indictment that disingenuously turned an innocuous minor car accident—that resulted in no injuries—into a 2nd degree felony alleging aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. It is worthy to note that Dallas County has earned the disgraceful distinction as America's wrongful conviction capital as a result of all the exonerations that have occurred in our county since 2001 (see www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/pt/slideshows/2008/01/010308_exonerated).

During your first term campaign for the presidency, you made several speeches amplifying the urgent need for "The Great Writ" to be restbred in order to give those wrongfully imprisoned a fair and meaningful chance to challenge the legality of their imprisonment. Even though your speeches specifically referred to foreign detainees of Guantanamo Bay, I trust you realize that there are many women and men here in American prisons who are innocent. However, they have been convicted, imprisoned, and denied a reasonable and adequate opportunity to have their cases reviewed in a fair and thorough manner in the federal courts.

This is because of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA), which established a one-year limitation period on filing a federal petition for writ of habeas corpus. This has and continue to make habeas relief unavailable to many deserving prisoners. This situation is made more egregious because the AEDPA placed restrictions on the federal courts, requiring that they defer to the rulings of the state habeas courts—even when doing so means the federal court turning a deaf ear and blind eye to blatant travesties of justice.

Since 2008, without the assistance of any lawyer, I have tirelessly striven to prove my innocence and clear my name. Unfortunately, neither of the habeas corpus proceedings in the state court or the federal court have been done in a fair, unbiased, careful, and meaningful manner—as mandated y the Supreme Court in Harris vs. Nelson, 394 US at 292 (1969). Irrefutable evidence of the courts' slipshod review and disposition of my habeas petitions is apparent from the enclosed copies of my October 20, 2015 letter to US District Court Judge Robert A. Junell, plus my October 8, 2015 motion submitted, which points out several significant and inexplicable legal improprieties, factual record errors, omissions, and contradictions found in Judge Junell's August 21, 2015 final judgment denying me habeas corpus relief. The enclosed state habeas court petition and the findings of that court in denying me relief paints an identical picture as the federal courts.

To fully understand the inherent problems with the AEDPA's deference requirement just focuses on the allegations presented against court-appointed attorneys John Hampton Read II and Douglas Schopmeyer. Amazingly, both courts denied my ineffective assistance of counsel (IAC) claims against these particular lawyers despite the fact that neither court has ever required either attorney to respond to my allegations. Allegations, that if proven to be true, entitles me to habeas corpus relief.

Mr. President, ask yourself: how does Federal Court Judge Junell or State Counsel Judge Carter Thompson possibly make an informed, fair, and accurate decision as to the merits, or lack thereof, for these specific IAC claims when they have never been contradicted by any credible testimony or evidence from any source, namely the attorneys in question? Impossible, huh. My point exactly.

There are more red flag concerns in connection with my habeas corpus proceedings, but I won't belabor you with them here as I believe you will agree with me that the decisions of both courts in denying me habeas relief is a gross and wholly indefensible miscarriage of justice. The rulings of these two judges demolishes the integrity and credibility of the judicial system which we have come to believe is the best in the free world.

President Obama, I ask you in the name of justice and human decency to please cause my case, conviction, and the actions of Judges Junell and Thompson to be investigated. I also call upon you to take the necessary actions to repeal the one-year statue of limitations imposed by the AEDPA and to remove the deference restrictions so that miscarriages of justice, as in my case, aren't allowed to be swept under the rug of obscurity.

Most respectfully,
Lakeith Amir-Sharif

LAS/enclosures
www.angelfire.com/crazy4/texas/lawbreakslaw.html