Monday, November 12, 2007

Thalia and the MDOC

Well, finally got property returned to Thalia. I had to throw a fit and send e-mail to Governor Barbour, Senator Trent Lott, Sentor Thad Cochran and Representative Chip Pickering, as well as Commissioner Chrisopher Epps, Deputy Commissioner Emmit Sparkman, Superintendant Margaret Bingham, Warden Holman and the folks in internal affairs with MDOC but it got handled FINALLY. I probably haven't posted the information out here on that but it all boils down to harrassment by one officer and Thalia's personal property being taken. Property she is allowed to have, none the less. Anyway, it was 2 pair of earring studs (one of them very sentimental to her as they were her mother's) and the officers out there wanted to keep them for themselves.

I am here to tell you, those are some of the rudest most unprofessional people I have ever had to deal with in my life but I can also tell you they know I am not going to put up with it. We have another potential attorney looking into the matter about getting her back into court. She has received her application from the Mississippi Innocence Project and we are working on getting that filled out. We are also trying to get statements from people who know what happened and can tell the truth about it now!

North Carolina has a law that was recently passed called the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission and I was talking to one of our House members who, of course, before the election was all ears but told me to contact him after the election because he couldn't do anything unless he was re-elected. Well, he had asked me to call him back on election day but I thought better of it and waited to give him some down time and I called him today. Well, imagine his not wanting to hear about it. He said he would NOT introduce a Bill that would allow a murderer to go free.

First of all, that just shows me he wasn't listening to me the first time I talked to him and he didn't listen today.

Secondly, it's not like it's a Bill that automatically releases people; it's a bill that has a committee of 8 people that reviews cases of people who pled not guilty to the crime, were convicted and have exhausted all their appeals or done everything they know to do that will review their case to see if it merits being returned to Court. The statistics are actually shocking from a similar Bill in the United Kingdom where there were several thousand cases reviewed. 300 of those cases were referred back to Court and 220 were overturned. That's almost 75%. But, as usual Mississippi isn't interested in doing anything like that. No, our State would much rather spend more money to build more prisons and keep the ones who shouldn't be in prison locked up FOREVER and have the citizens foot that bill and let the ones out who should be there that did, in fact, pre-mediate and kill someone get out on parole or a slap on the wrist. See, this really sux too because depending on when you are sentenced, determines your time served. Example, a lady out there, very young, drugs involved, killed an ex, assaulted current girlfriend, robbed them first and was actually sentenced to death. Well, death sentence was overturned or commuted in 1984 (which I am thankful for) and she got life and two 25 year sentences. She is eligible for parole in February of '08. Thalia, however, who was only protecting herself and her unborn child is sentenced to life. And because her sentence occured in 1999, that means life. Only eligible for conditional release when she is 65. So we are talking two totally different situations, one out and out killing and stealing from someone, planned, etc. and the other self defense in a domestic situation with an unborn child being threatened. It just makes no sense whatsoever to me! And all the lawyers and PEOPLE who could do something say "she is out of time to do anything". I am sickkkk of hearing that. Because I will not give up until somebody hears me. Somebody is going to want to know about this. I am going to mail John Grisham a copy of her transcript from her trial. It will make an awesome book (full of mystery, corruption and coverup within the legal system). Right up his alley!

If I can figure out how to scan her transcript and put it out on here as a PDF file, I am going to. I think I will go work on that now. Have a great evening all and thanks for reading!