FairPlay | Challenging Wrongful Convictions in America

Justice News.Net

FairPlay is an original discussion series on Wrongful Convictions from JustcieNews.Net where a "Fair" dialog takes place from the vantage point of the accused, and brings forward those voices that are mostly ignored by the society. Hosted by Justice News managing editor Imran Siddiqui, FairPlay sheds light on the injustices in the U.S. justice system, based on facts, data, and ground realities, without any fear to speak the truth. FairPlay, Conversations@JusticeNews, uncovers a wide variety of issues ranging from criminal justice reform to racial discrimination, bias, corruption, cruel and unusual punishment, rehabilitation, and seeking justice for the wrongly convicted. FairPlay guests come from all walks of life sharing their perspectives and real-life experiences that are directly impacted by decisions made within the U.S. judicial systems. Discover the truth and the innocent at JusticeNews.Net read less
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Episodes

Michael Smith | FairPlay EP24 S2 | The Case With No Indictment
Jun 19 2022
Michael Smith | FairPlay EP24 S2 | The Case With No Indictment
June 19, 2022 | Imran Siddiqui | Justice News | This was the first message I received on Twitter from Michael Smith of Kentucky on Jan 3 2022. QuoteLexington Kentucky fraud on the court case number 3:08-cr-31(Jmh) denied due process malicious prosecution fraud-The federal grand jury declined to indict YET WE had a five 5 week trial and spent nine years in federal prison wrongful conviction miscarriage of justice malicious fraud by Kentucky bar members Then on April 30th I received sequences of Tweets containing messages like these. QuoteAll was malicious prosecution, malicious fraud on court - malicious civil rights violation. malicious injustice. -Malicious politics by political leaders QuoteI have typed on Twitter 7000 times wrong full conviction miscarriage of justice actual innocent no crime no indictment malicious prosecution fraud-Fraud on the court case number 3:08-Cr-31(Jmh). Lexington Kentucky-malicious abusing of political power on a East Kentucky family On May 10 2022, after almost 4 months, which was wrong, but this was my response to Michael. QuoteGood morning. Typing it a million times won't do anything until you stand up and raise your voice and both your fists. I wanted to add more to the fists part, like where to take them, because the deeper I dug into his case the more nauseating it got. It is a case unlike what you see or hear about everyday. The case has never had an actual indictment, or if anyone has really seen one, and yet Michael spent over a decade in Prison for something he maintains he did not do. In fact they put him in prison, just to put him in prison, even they don't really know why they put him in prison. On the same day, May 10 2022, Michal sent a few more messages saying "it's a 1 in a 10 million case". Continue reading on The JBlog on JusticeNews.net
John Merritt | FairPlay EP22 S2 | Florida Commissioners on Offender Review Are Corrupted Vermins.
Apr 30 2022
John Merritt | FairPlay EP22 S2 | Florida Commissioners on Offender Review Are Corrupted Vermins.
When The Tsunami of Justice Comes. The Unjust Are Mowed Down and Destroyed. April 30, 2022 | Imran Siddiqui | Justice News | I have always felt that audio does not lie, audio is naked, no matter how hard you try to dress it up, you can't, you can always catch a person's true character in their audio, the sound, the spoken voice will say it all. This is one of those episodes where I don't have to say much. I chose to do audio so I can show people the reality of what we can really become, as human beings - and mostly we are worse than animals. A clear example of what I'm writing about is not just in the case of John Merritt a "Florida Shame" or any other external reference link that I will give you to source. Instead I will give you the pure audio, in it's closest raw form, and because you are reading this, then you do have a brain cell and you can think, listen and understand what's being said and then make up your own mind. This is an audio of John Merritt's parole hearing which was a public hearing that took place on April 27 2022 at the Florida Commission on Offender Review in Tallahassee, Florida. Merritt's Private Investigator Dennis Forrester of the Beacon Investigative Solutions was there along with John's attorney Gray Thomas, John's sister Darlene Roy and myself. What we heard at the end was absurd and shocking to the senses. This is what you get after 36 years of wrongful conviction. Continue reading on the JBlog -  | Imran Siddiqui is the managing editor at Justice News and the author of the JBlog. Listen to Imran's podcast FairPlay Challenging Wrongful Convictions on J107 Justice Radio
David Thorne | FairPlay EP 19 S2 | Harmless Error. A Lifelong Damage
Feb 11 2022
David Thorne | FairPlay EP 19 S2 | Harmless Error. A Lifelong Damage
February 11 2022 | Imran Siddiqui | Justice News | When the woman you admire becomes the mother of your child, it’s just a very surreal moment. Why would anyone want to throw all that away to oblivion? And just for a couple of hundred bucks? If you are insane then I can understand it, but if you're ready to cut a check for one year of advance child support then you wouldn't want to brutally kill your child’s mother for the sake of a few hundred bucks in child support, even if it's in two months arrears, because of the red tape, not because you didn't have the money to pay, especially when you were no where near that crime scene with zero motives to kill anyone. End result - A "Harmless Error "of the State, but a "Lifelong Damage to the Innocent". And no one really knows why. In United States law, A Harmless Error is a ruling by a trial judge that, although mistaken, does not meet the burden for a losing party to reverse the original decision of the trier of fact on appeal, or to warrant a new trial. In easy language. If you end up in prison due to the mistake or negligence of others, chances are you will never get out alive. The damages caused by these kinds of unjust laws can completely devastate an innocent person's life, while the real killer remains out there. With such laws in effect how can one bring justice to the victim and the accused? What remedies are in place to correct the wrongs of the State and the Government? The story of the wrongful conviction of David Thorne is not new and sadly not rare. The end result, of one of the oldest failed methodologies to falsely convict someone, is to simply use false eyewitness testimony. Because of these archaic practices against their own fellow citizens, David Thorne has been sitting in Ohio State prison for over 20 years for a crime he says he did not commit.  | Imran Siddiqui is the managing editor at Justice News and the author of the JBlog. Email - imran@jnews.network or Catch his podcast FairPlay on j107 Justice Radio
Mahdi Ali | FairPlay EP 18 S2 | Juvenile Injustice. Growing Up Wrongfully Incarcerated.
Jan 16 2022
Mahdi Ali | FairPlay EP 18 S2 | Juvenile Injustice. Growing Up Wrongfully Incarcerated.
January 16 2022 | Imran Siddiqui | Justice News | Mahdi Ali did not grow up like a so-called typical kid, who bikes, goes to school, has fun with friends hanging out or just playing video games, nor did he go to college, he did get his GED but not in the way you might think. Because for the past 11 years, he’s been figuring out how to grow up and survive in different prisons across the state of Minnesota. He had to grow up fast. He had no choice. Mahdi Ali was convicted as a teenager, for triple murders in Minneapolis that occurred on the night of January 6 in 2010, Murders that he claims he did not commit. Mahdi says despite his numerous efforts to reach out to Minnesota attorney general Keith Ellison and his office, including the conviction review unit, no body has responded to his requests so far even when the facts are absolutely clear. The actual accomplice, Ahmed Ali, who was with another unknown person during the time of the robbery, implicated Mahdi Ali at that time, but recently, in a shocking move, Ahmed Ali recanted his statement. This happened on camera while Tom Lyden of Fox 9 Minnesota was interviewing Ahmed Ali in regards to Mahdi's case. Even in the light of such a revelation, the state is not responding to Mahdi which makes him feel that once again the justice system of his own state of Minnesota will let him down. Mahdi also says that the Somali American community in Minneapolis has been mislead by the state convincing them to believe a false narrative about the murders in a rush to solve the high profile case and now the state is ashamed knowing they had the wrong guy all this time. Those horrific murders took place at about 7.44 pm. The biggest evidence of Mahdi's innocence, is the actual time stamped video footage from his alibi, which was never used in court. It states 7.41 pm. Mahdi has maintained his innocence since the beginning because Mahdi Ali won’t admit to a crime he says he did not commit. It's been over a decade now and he has never changed his story, and it fits the facts. Who is telling the truth? Did Mahdi Ali's story change this time? Find out on this episode of FairPlay on Justice News - Where Justice Has No Color. | Imran Siddiqui is the managing editor at Justice News and the author of The JBlog. Email - imran@jnews.network or Catch his podcast FairPlay on j107 Justice Radio Discover More on JusticeForMahdiAli.Com |  FairPlay is brought to you by Justice News Warrior Patrons and Justice News Super Patrons
Paula Kensu | FairPlay EP 17 S2 | Families of The Wrongfully Incarcerated
Jan 10 2022
Paula Kensu | FairPlay EP 17 S2 | Families of The Wrongfully Incarcerated
January 9 2022 | Imran Siddiqui | Justice News | If you are reading this while married, and if you have a spouse, a husband or a wife, and they are next to you, then immediately thank God. Because things can turn around for worse, any second, and all that you are taking for granted everyday, could be gone in the blink of an eye. I thank God for all that and more - Half of Americans have family members who are incarcerated. And that is from the data in 2018. Probably half of the incarcerated are innocent. And there is no real clear data on this. No one has it. What about those who are married and would do anything to be together but just cannot. Like the women who visit their innocent husbands incarcerated in prisons across America. They go through a lot of trouble, and embarrassing searches just to be able to meet and hug and see each other and spend some time together, until it's time to go. And then you turn around to have that one last look, holding on to that last hug and the beautiful smell that it left in your mind and your memories. Irreplaceable!. What kind of a toll does it take on a spouse when she knows her husband is innocent but in prison for something he did not do, and has been there for over three decades and she really doesn't know when he's coming back? What kind of an emotional and psychological impact does it leave on spouses who have innocent loved ones incarcerated? For many it's heart breaking. To help us understand the human side of the equation to wrongful convictions, and speak about what Imprisoned Families go through, joining us on this episode of FairPlay is Paula Kensu, the wife of Temujin Kensu, who is serving life in prison for the alleged shooting death of a Port Huron college student Scott Macklem in 1986. Mr. Kensu has maintained his innocence for over 3 decades now and is currently fighting for his freedom from inside the prison in Michigan. But the Governor of Michigan is not listening to the truth. Yet. | Imran Siddiqui is the managing editor at Justice News and the author of the JBlog. Email - imran@jnews.network or Catch his podcast on wrongful convictions FairPlay on j107 Justice Radio
Bruce Smith | FairPlay EP 16 S2 | How To Wreck the Lives of the Poor in America.
Dec 28 2021
Bruce Smith | FairPlay EP 16 S2 | How To Wreck the Lives of the Poor in America.
December 29 2021 | Imran Siddiqui | Justice News | Bruce Smith has spent over 20 years in a Florida state prison as part of his conviction of Life without parole plus 15 years for allegedly killing a 4 year old boy Cameron in 2000, who was also the son of his girlfriend at that time. Bruce has maintained his innocence all these years and he says he has never hit a child let alone killed one, particularly when he has helped raise 6 of his own kids. It’s a bizarre case of a bad mother, a good boy and a scapegoat which is obvious after going through the facts and the available evidence as you will hear in the show. What is also crazy is that you can't find much about his case on the internet, it’s like the data has been wiped out, except a lousy, one sided, police fed article from the Orlando Sentinel that I don't even want to mention here, but you can read it for yourself. It’s like no one even bothered to check the facts of this case? Nor follow up on what really occurred. Joining me from Clermont State Prison in Florida on this episode of FairPlay is Bruce Smith who despite being wrongfully convicted for a crime he says he did not commit, and with so many Brady Violations in his case, has no recourse left, after all his appeals and motions have been denied so far. What I fail to understand is after listening to Bruce and going through the facts, with what face can a judge deny him a fair hearing? According to the medical records, Bruce was pronounced deceased in 2008, but then he woke up, while some nurses were being trained using his body. Bruce has some unfinished business to take care of. His final push is to get his hands on the evidence box that's sitting somewhere in a Florida state prison or a crime lab that can potentially help to exonerate him. The question is, who will get to it first? | Imran Siddiqui is the managing editor at Justice News and the author of the JBlog. Catch his podcast FairPlay on j107 Justice Radio
FairPlay EP14 S2 | VAMJ and Michael Krawitz. Marijuana Justice Reform.
Dec 6 2021
FairPlay EP14 S2 | VAMJ and Michael Krawitz. Marijuana Justice Reform.
VAMJ with DCMJ Helped Legalize Cannabis in Virginia on July 1 2021.  Now they want the non-violent marijuana convictions thrown out so people can finally go home. December 6 2021 | Imran Siddiqui | Justice News. Once there was a time, long long time ago, when people didn't have to look shocked or dumbfounded if someone mentioned the word, Marijuana or Cannabis. In fact, no one even bothered, they used it in many different ways and extracts of it were available over the counter, like Aspirin today, but just better. It's been a long time coming for Marijuana Justice in America. Decades of locking people up just because they were consuming a plant that God created, while allowing all the harmful chemicals, actually poison in your food, to be a part of our daily diet. Look at the consequences on your own health because of the garbage that we eat or put in our bodies. Michael Krawitz cofounder of VAMJ Virginia Marijuana Justice and executive director of VMCA, Veterans for Medical Cannabis Access, after legalizing Cannabis in Virginia, a southern state where tobacco was monopolized, he wants to do more. Michael says, together with VAMJ cofounders Rachel Ramone Donlan from DCMJ and Lennice Werth from the Virginians Against Drug Violence, they are now focusing on criminal justice reform and working towards releasing all non-violent Cannabis offenders suffering long jail terms in prisons across Virginia. Read the full post on The JBlog. Listen to this episode on FairPlay. Justice Has No Color.
FairPlay EP12 | John Merritt. An Indictment of America.
Oct 24 2021
FairPlay EP12 | John Merritt. An Indictment of America.
October 24 2021 | Imran Siddiqui | Justice News. Reader Discretion is Advised. Full article on The JBlog. There is a reason why they call it "Systemic Corruption" and the more it gets ignored it has morphed into a "Systemic Disease" that's slow gouging on its own self and people either become a part of it, sucked in as the final meal to the systems' self destruction, or there are those who resist oppression in all forms who still have some sanity left in their souls, they fight against this unnatural flow, they fight with their words, they fight with their voice and then they fight with their hands when they are forced to. But when they do, they fight so hard that either it ends in complete submission or the total annihilation of any unjust government. John Merritt is one of those last remaining Americans who still hold that sanity despite being wrongly imprisoned for more then 36 years for a crime he says he did not commit. God knows the truth and what happened, we wont know everything, but if you read the facts before you make your judgment on this then you might be in for another shock of your life. Then listen to John's sister Darlene Roy speak. His case will ring a bell to those who are familiar with "Prosecutorial Misconduct" the disease that's eating up America's sense of "Justice" while the "Unjust" remain in charge of it. Those who still don't know about this kind of a misconduct then they should get their heads out of their asses pretty soon before they become the victims of it. The cognitive dissonance of the nation, the people and the rigid elements of this archaic machine will not see this. Simply because you choose not to see it, they will not allow you to see the truth in this case. Which is why the lead Pied Piper entices the mice, and convinces them, to go over the edge of the cliff. Read the full article on The JBlog | Imran Siddiqui is the managing editor at Justice News and the author of The JBlog. Catch his podcast FairPlay on Justice Radio
FairPlay EP10 | Justice For Leonard Coleman - Not Done Yet
Sep 8 2021
FairPlay EP10 | Justice For Leonard Coleman - Not Done Yet
Explicit Content Warning | 18 + | For Mature Audience September 8 2021 | Imran Siddiqui | Justice News Isn't it the responsibility of the prosecutors, the judges and the police officers to seek the truth, to seek justice? Or are they in it just to seek convictions? Many argue that now in America, you are first presumed guilty rather than innocent, and after getting wrongfully convicted, you can spend the rest of your remaining life, fighting for your freedom. They call it, The Prison Industrial Complex, a state of the art human algorithm of banking on other peoples misery. It’s an industry that needs to be fed, so they say, so it can feed them. But what they don't understand is they are only feeding a false narrative that will eventually come to bite them as it comes to a collapse because it’s fundamental foundation is based on injustice. You can call it, The Justice Industrial Complex, in the guise of pretending to be just, where everyone is mostly after making some money while some are after freedom and justice. Take a Deep Dive in to the case of Leonard Coleman, he’s serving a life sentence at the St Clair Correctional facility in Alabama. For the past decade, he’s been trying to fight what he calls, his unjust conviction of the murder of Kimberly Mixon who was found dead in December 2010 with a gunshot wound to her eye. Kimberly is also the mother of Leonard’s son, Xayvion who was 4 when his mother died, and they allege it all happened in front of him. But what you or I say or think is the truth doesn't really stand in front of the facts, the ground realities, and no matter how much you would hate it or how hard you try to accept it, or not, the truth does not have your or my versions, nor does it need any of our permissions, the truth is simply just the truth. In the case of Leonard Coleman, the biggest element that is missing is the whole truth. It’s a story riddled with holes that would make you want to gasp for air. If you have the patience to go through a conversation of over 2 hours, which I highly doubt that you would do, not because you would rather want to watch or listen to the latest flick on your chosen streaming platform to kill time, but because you don't want to know what is actually going on in your own country, in your own backyard. And if you don't know it, and if it comes to you too, then you won’t know what to do and would fall victim to this joke being played upon us. Leonard Coleman has been fighting back attacks all his life and he even fought another case from inside the prison and actually won and was acquitted. Can he do it once again? This is the first time in over 10 years Leonard has spoken about what really happened in great detail and after listening to this, to me it feels like this may not be the last time you hear from him. How can you accuse anyone of murder and send him to a life in prison, and get away with it, when that person was in reality not even there? Did Kimberly Mixon get Justice? Did anyone else involved in that case do Justice? Find out on this episode of FairPlay on Justice News.Net. Peace. The JBlog
FairPlay EP9 | Trinity Milford Matthisen - Time and Circumstance
Aug 19 2021
FairPlay EP9 | Trinity Milford Matthisen - Time and Circumstance
At the Wrong Place. At the Wrong Time. Explicit Content Warning | 18 + | For Mature Audience August 19 2021 | Imran Siddiqui | Justice News Trinity Matthisen has spent the last two decades of his life inside a prison. Right now he is somewhere in Michigan, behind bars, in a small, very uncomfortable cage, for something, he says, he did not do, for a crime, evidence may prove, he did not commit. Can you imagine what I just said, does it sound so repetitive that it has become acceptable to hear this? Have we become accustomed to this, so used to it by now, is it something normal? We have been desensitized to the fact that we love to incarcerate people who probably are innocent of the crime for which they have been punished for, and punitively, unjustly, wrongly, wickedly punished and for what? Prison as Rehabilitation, Matthisen says, is a lie. Trinity Milford Matthisen, originally from Colorado, is at Chippewa Correctional Facility in Kincheloe, Michigan doing time for convictions of assault with intent to murder, felon in possession of a firearm and three counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. He was sentenced as a third habitual offender to 40 to 70 years imprisonment for his assault conviction, 57 months to 120 years imprisonment for his felon in possession of a firearm conviction, and two years’ imprisonment for each felony-firearm conviction. The felony-firearm sentences run concurrently to each other, but consecutively to his other sentences. That sounds terrifying, in many ways, and especially when you hear the word felon, but you need to hold the judgements until you know both sides of the story and especially coming from someone who is actually living that kind of a reality. Matthisen is in for “at least 40 to 70 years”. In his own simple words, they have destroyed his life and he was railroaded by a few friends, the prosecutors and lies from false witness testimony. But Trinity Matthisen is not giving up that easily, he argues that the obliteration of his rights, just because he had a prior record, is evident in his court records and you don't need much to find out how he was denied his basic constitutional rights even before his trial began and during it. He says, to get to that conclusion, all you have to do is go through his entire case files, and probe the police reports that are not publicly available, along with more than 30 eyewitness accounts that are missing or have been lost or hidden. He is also stunned at the jaw dropping denial of his FOIA requests. Trinity argues that evidence is being kept away from him, evidence that can potentially exonerate him and that he has enough material to push for a retrial of his case, as long as an attorney has the courage to seek the truth, without prejudice. But what is there to hide? And how much truth is there in the online docs? Late in the evening on March 7, 2003, Quincy Olds and his cousin, Deandro Sweet, went to Pablo’s Bar in Battle Creek. Mr. Olds met his friend, Paul Heise, at the bar, who invited Mr. Olds and Mr. Sweet to an after-hours party at his home. Mr. Olds and Mr. Sweet arrived shortly after 2:00 a.m. on March 8, and joined a party of twenty-five to thirty people in Mr. Heise’s living room. At some point, a fight erupted in which Trinity, a friend of the owner of the house, became involved to help his friend. And the rest is history. Could this be a case of mistaken identity, screwed up eyewitness testimony resulting from actions that came about as an unconscious act of defence. This situation is complex and it cannot be understood just by going through the court documents or by listening to what the media says, judgements on scenarios like these can only be made when the entire case is reconstructed from the very beginning in order to understand what exactly occured. Here, out of the Who, What, When, Where and Why, we have answers to none except one, and that is where we begin as we unload the facts in this episode of FairPlay on Justice News. Peace.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        The JBlog
FairPlay EP8 | John Ortiz Kehoe. 25 Years and Counting
Aug 14 2021
FairPlay EP8 | John Ortiz Kehoe. 25 Years and Counting
FairPlay EP 8 | John Ortiz Kehoe | Justice for an Accuser a Defendant and a Missing Girl -  Explicit Content Warning | 18 + | For Mature Audience Only. August 14 2021 | Imran Siddiqui | Justice News.Net What do you do when out of three the people you have, the only one who can tell you exactly what happened, is dead? How much truth can you find in the remaining two people, one of whom is an accuser and the other one, a defendant. Michigan resident Rose Larner was killed, or overdosed on cocaine or murdered somewhere between the late afternoon and evening of a December day in 1993 and all this occurred between three friends. Bill Brown, Rose’s childhood friend, accused another friend John Ortiz Kehoe of the murder, three years after it allegedly occurred. Bill’s account given to the prosecutors was the only eyewitness testimony used to convict John Ortiz Kehoe and it sent him to life behind bars without any possibility of parole. But a new hearing on John’s case raises many questions about what really occurred on that day in December of 1993. Since the past 25 years while incarcerated John has maintained his innocence, and according to him, it was Bill Brown who was the last person left with Rose because John left the two together and went to Mcdonalds to get some food and upon his return found a highly nervous Bill Brown and the dead body of Rose in the bathroom. Too much has been said about this case in the past two decades. I accidentally stumbled upon John’s case while listening to the FreeMe Podcast hosted by Thomas Herold. In the case of John Ortiz Kehoe not a single witness was presented from his side. The more you read some of the actual case files the more bizarre the case looks, not because of what the actual accusations were, nor by what the prosecutors were trying to do and not by what was being reported by the media, it looked bizarre because it has so many holes in it that it is now impossible for it to hold any water. This could probably come out as one of the most erroneously reported cases in the history of journalism in the United States of America, and if and when that occurs, it can help address the allegations being made in this case that big media took spoon fed information from the prosecutor's office and ran with it without even taking an independent look at the facts and then made a business out of that lie for decades. More digging may even show, how some of the media companies, thinking they might have fucked up big time, are trying to now carefully inject, that final argument from the sidelines, that oh, maybe this guy didn't do it after all, and maybe they played a huge role in sending the wrong man to prison for life. Prosecutors caught lying is nothing new, it's just people don't give a damn anymore and thus corrupt officials mostly get away with it. If you are a human being, and you are reading this, then you understand, that when a person accuses the other of harming someone, especially of things like murder, incineration, dismemberment and cannibalism, they have to show some kind of an evidence to prove that in a court of law and they must also provide the other side the right to freely present their case, their witnesses, their alibis and their testimony impartially and without any fear of bias,  harassment, lying, coercion and intimidation. If this is missing then understand that it's unfair from the start, and there is no other moral way to look at it. This is the first time John Ortiz Kehoe is speaking with Justice News and freely describing what really happened on that dreadful day in December of 1993. This conversation intends to seek the truth and justice for all parties involved, especially for Rose Larner, who is no longer here to defend herself. There are 3 core elements to this case, Bill Brown, Rose Larner and John Kehoe. A lot has been said about the three in a very chaotic and psychotic manner, most of which was actually based on hearsay, prosecution fed material and rumors. What we are trying to do in this episode of FairPlay is shed light on the facts of what has not been said or done about this case, so far. Peace. The JBlog
FairPlay EP7 | Luke Wirkkala, Acquitted
Jul 23 2021
FairPlay EP7 | Luke Wirkkala, Acquitted
FairPlay EP 7 | Luke Wirkkala, Acquitted The Right To Defend Myself July 22, 2021 | Imran Siddiqui | JusticeNews.Net You have got to seriously pause for a few seconds and put yourself in this situation, after I ask you this question... What do you do in a moment when you are under assault?... Should you give in. Should you run? Or Should you fight… There’s not much time left for other questions here. But what if the attack is also a sexual assault A man to another man... Someone in your home... Would that make you think twice about what to do next? Are you thinking that this is something that cannot happen to you? If you do, then you live in a dreamworld, like most of us do. But if you think that you can also be a victim, under assault by a person who was known to have a record and history of aggressive assaults, but you didn’t know about it, then you are not alone. Luke Wirkkala was also asking himself the same questions, when he was under a sexual assault by someone he had trusted and had invited him to his home after a day of super bowl drinking, but after Luke passed out on his couch, he was awoken at 2 am while David Ryder was assaulting him. It was a moment of reckoning, thus activating the instinct to defend himself. Luke was wrongfully convicted of murder in 2013 and after a long, exhausting and cruel battle, he was acquitted of that murder in 2021. In this episode of FairPlay Luke Wirkkala takes you through a weird reality that can turn anybody’s dream into a nightmare and then witness the power of principles, persistence and faith. Read more at The JBlog on Justice News.Net Peace.
FairPlay EP6 | Lydell Grant Is Exonerated
Jun 10 2021
FairPlay EP6 | Lydell Grant Is Exonerated
FairPlay EP 6 | Lydell Grant Is Exonerated How to convict an innocent man in America, but not get away with it, this time. June 10, 2021 | Imran Siddiqui | JusticeNews.Net Justice for Lydell has finally been achieved but not without a hard fight. In our previous episode of FairPlay we spoke to Mike Ware the defense attorney for Lydell Grant and we discussed Lydell's extraordinary case of wrongful imprisonment and its following consequences. In this week's episode we speak to Lydell Grant himself as he unloads some facts about his case and lays bare the injustices within the U.S. criminal justice system that can completely decimate an innocent man's life forever. God is in control, says Lydell, and the truth is always enough to stand on its own. And that he is not looking for apologies, though he deserves it, from all parties involved that wrongfully convicted and incarcerated him for life, only if they could, because he got exonerated within a decade. According to Grant, there was a higher power watching over him. "It was God", says Lydell Grant, "Who took him out of the clutches of an unjust criminal justice system". The question is, how can you proceed to charge an innocent man in a court of law for a crime he did not commit and when there is no evidence proving that he committed that crime? Shouldn't this be outlawed. What happened to the "innocent until proven guilty" part? Currently Grant is working on his music career and he also plans to launch his own non profit organization that will seek to exonerate other individuals who are innocent but incarcerated and still left behind, but not for long. The times have changed, so the system must change as well, says Lydell. Lydell wants a law enacted that can hold those prosecutors and investigators and judges accountable who act maliciously against a defendant. Grant talked about something he says he never mentioned before, how he had to fight major conflicts of interests in his case and how he endured his decade long nightmare in prison where the odds were already stacked up against him from the beginning. He says the truth is not biased and DNA does not lie. Humans lie. Find out how they can so easily convict an innocent man in America, but not get away with it, this time. Listen to the full episode of FairPlay on Justice News.net or check out FairPlay.show for more. Peace.
FairPlay EP5 | Mike Ware. Fighting for Lydell Grant
Jun 1 2021
FairPlay EP5 | Mike Ware. Fighting for Lydell Grant
June 1, 2021 | Imran Siddiqui | JusticeNews.Net Lydell Grant spent more than 9 years in prison for a murder he did not commit, but being free now, safe in the comfort of his home in Houston Texas, didn't come without a fight. It took him a decade to break free from the chains of a Cruel Prison-System where he was unjustly incarcerated for almost a decade. On this journey Lydell didn't fight alone. His attorney Mike Ware was there to pull some hard punches, and some of them, landed right on their opponents faces and bled and broke a few noses and bones. Mike Ware is a seasoned criminal defense Lawyer based out of Fort Worth in Texas. Mike is also an adjunct professor at the Texas A&M School of Law and is the Executive Director of the Innocence Project of Texas. You can read more about his work on Mike Ware Law. Lydell Grant was arrested for the 2010 murder of Aaron Scheerhoorn outside a nightclub in Houston’s Montrose district. Six eyewitnesses, looking at a photo lineup, identified Grant as the killer. And in the words of Michael Hall, a reporter at TexasMonthly.com, Grant swore he was innocent. “We have six eyewitnesses that can positively identify you as the killer,” Grant remembers a detective telling him. “I don’t care if you have six hundred witnesses,” he said. “I didn’t kill him.” Six eyewitnesses testified against Grant at trial and he was convicted in 2012. According to the Harris County District Attorney's Office, Lydell Grant was wrongfully accused in the 2010 stabbing death of Aaron Scheerhoorn outside a Montrose bar in downtown Houston. Jermarico Carter, turned out to be the real killer, with DNA evidence, and who confessed to the murder almost a decade later. Lydell was out on bail in 2019 and then in 2021 Texas board of appeals declared Grant innocent and finally exonerated. Mike touched on many critical issues related to the bitter realities of the U.S. justice system. From the role of a spoon-fed media, or the corruption of judges and prosecutors and a widespread sickness called "Evidence Tampering". I asked Mike that knowing Grant is not his first and hopefully won't be his last exoneree, why is it so tough to get an innocent man out? Check out The JBlog. Listen to the discussion on FairPlay at JusticeNews.Net/FairPlay or visit FairPlay.Show. Peace.