{"id":192,"date":"2013-04-28T06:39:57","date_gmt":"2013-04-28T06:39:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/freerodneystanberry.com\/blog\/?p=192"},"modified":"2014-04-23T11:58:57","modified_gmt":"2014-04-23T11:58:57","slug":"44-an-innocent-man-celebrates-his-44th-birthday-in-prison-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/freerodneystanberry.com\/blog\/?p=192","title":{"rendered":"44- An innocent man celebrates his 44th birthday in prison. Why?"},"content":{"rendered":"

April 27, 2013<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

44- An innocent man celebrates his 44<\/span>th<\/span><\/sup> birthday in prison. Why?<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=cEVURKsGoMI<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span><\/strong>Integrity is something that is so important because when you are a prosecutor, you not only have the duty to prosecute people and to put\u00a0people in jail, but you also have a duty to uphold the law. You have the duty to do that with integrity and with the ethical standards in place…\u00a0You must disclose exculpatory evidence because if you don’t, nothing good comes from it and\u00a0essentially you have prosecuted someone who may\u00a0not have committed the\u00a0crimes because you didn’t disclose exculpatory evidence. Candidate Ashley Rich (September 16, 2010 ) Ashley Rich is now the Mobile County District Attorney after winning the election to replace former DA John Tyson, Jr. <\/span><\/em><\/strong>http:\/\/freerodneystanberry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/u7am0916AshleyRich1.mp3<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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Dr. Wilmer Leon (a slight paraphrase): Rodney, after talking to you and after speaking with your cousin over the course of many years, you believed in the system and still have faith in the system.<\/span>It is interesting to hear you now, you still seem to have faith in the system. <\/span>Rodney, yes, yes I do, maybe it is a character defect\u2026. The system has not only engaged in a miscarriage of justice for me, but also carried out an injustice to the victim. You can hear the full interview here; you can hear Rodney towards the end of this show that features his former supervisor, an eyewitness on the scene, his father (Earsell), sister(Toni), and cousin (Artemesia) <\/span><\/em>: http:\/\/freerodneystanberry.com\/blog\/?attachment_id=78<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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The best birthday gift that could be given to Rodney K. Stanberry is the gift of freedom and the gift of justice.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Rodney K. Stanberry- Innocent and Incarcerated <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Imagine spending half your life dealing with being wrongfully accused, arrested, convicted, and in prison for crimes you did not commit. That is Rodney’s daily reality. From his arrest in April 1992, his conviction in 1995, his first day of prison in March 1997 and his 44th birthday, which April 27<\/span>th<\/span><\/sup>, 2013, this has been his reality. It is a very sad commentary on the judicial system that this injustice has yet to be corrected. It took 25 years for it to be corrected in Michael Morton’s case, the Mobile District Attorney’s Office is more concerned with the conviction than with justice in Rodney’s case. No one wins, no one receives closure when the wrong person is convicted (except for the prosecutors). As I state in a previous blog, DA Ashley Rich fired a prosecutor who did not close enough cases, but look at the prosecutors still in her office involved in wrongful convictions who will not suffer from the same fate (http:\/\/freerodneystanberry.com\/blog\/2013\/04\/22\/when-texas-gets-it-right-former-prosecutor-held-criminally-responsible-for-putting-innocent-man-in-prison\/<\/a>) . I don’t advocate firing people, I advocate acknowledgement of the wrongful convictions and reforms. You can contact DA Rich today- (251) 574-5000, (251) 574-8400 or ashleyrich@mobileda.org. If you’ve contacted her before, let’s make some calls in honor of Rodney’s birthday.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Compelling Reasons for District Attorney Ashley Rich to Free Rodney K. Stanberry<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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I\u2019m sure you\u2019ve read or heard about a former Texas prosecutor, now judge, arrested for withholding evidence that led to Michael Morton spending 25 years of his life in prison for crimes he did not commit (http:\/\/online.wsj.com\/article\/SB10001424127887323309604578433032759359460.html<\/a>).<\/span><\/p>\n

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In Rodney K. Stanberry\u2019s case<\/span><\/span>, the prosecutor in his case, Joe Carl Buzz Jordan, said, under oath, that he went to Rikers Island prison while visiting family in New York to see if the person they state claims was the shooter existed. On vacation so no notes were taken <\/span><\/p>\n

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(http:\/\/freerodneystanberry.com\/yahoo_site_admin\/assets\/docs\/20100914155013.256151941.pdf<\/span><\/a><\/span>).<\/span>Understand, the District Attorney\u2019s office had this statement from that person in 1992- (http:\/\/freerodneystanberry.com\/yahoo_site_admin\/assets\/docs\/Rene_Whitecloud.26225239.pdf<\/a>)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

so it is hard to imagine that this was an \u201cI\u2019m on vacation, why don\u2019t I just visit Rikers Prison\u201d visit. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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John Tyson, Jr. (Mobile DA- 1994-2010)<\/span><\/span> says in this letter that Jordan travelled to New York in an effort to interview the person his office said was the shooter. Specifically, he says in this letter: \u201c\u2026.and Mr. Jordan actually visited Mr. Barbosa in Rykers (sic) Island Prison in New York as he was trying to discover the truth about the case: http:\/\/freerodneystanberry.com\/yahoo_site_admin\/assets\/docs\/09-07-2010_121703PM.24992718.BMP<\/a>)<\/span><\/p>\n

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Former ADA and now head of the Criminal<\/span><\/em> division of the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office, Southern District of Alabama John Cherry in this letter said there are boxes of material about Rodney\u2019s case (http:\/\/freerodneystanberry.com\/yahoo_site_admin\/assets\/docs\/20100914154832.256154014.pdf. And according to a recent article written by Brendan Kirby in the <\/span>Mobile Register<\/span><\/em> about whether prosecutors improperly struck potential African American jurors in a 1994 case, U.S. Attorney Cherry, who was the lead prosecutor on the case written about by Kirby, read from notes he had from 1994, thus notes from Jordan\u2019s visit from New York must be available, if Tyson is correct in saying that Jordan travelled there to visit Rene. Here is a link to Kirby\u2019s article published on April 22, 2013 (http:\/\/blog.al.com\/live\/2013\/04\/prosecutors_improperly_struck.html#incart_m-rpt-2<\/a>)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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I asked John Tyson<\/span><\/span>, Jr. to be sure that all material relating to Rodney\u2019s case is preserved as he is leaving office.<\/span>His one line response was \u201cDear M. Stanberry, We will not destroy any records in this office. Never have, never will. Sincerely, John M. Tyson, Jr. District Attorney.\u201d Date Tuesday, December 7, 2010. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Current Mobile County District Attorney Ashley Rich<\/span><\/span> (2011-) was on a radio show campaigning as she was running for office. As I state on our webpage: <\/span>\u201c<\/span>Ashley Rich, a Mobile Assistant DA for 14 years and current candidate to replace John Tyson, Jr. said on a radio show in Mobile, AL on September 16, 2010 during the 7am (cst) hour in response to a question about the Duke LaCrosse case and prosecutors withholding exculpatory evidence: “If as a prosecutor you do not disclose exculpatory evidence, your career is over. <\/span>Integrity is something that is so important because when you are a prosecutor, you not only have the duty to prosecute people and to put\u00a0people in jail, but you also have a duty to uphold the law. You have the duty to do that with integrity and with the ethical standards in place…\u00a0You must disclose exculpatory evidence because if you don’t, nothing good comes from it and\u00a0essentially you have prosecuted someone who may\u00a0not have committed the\u00a0crimes because you didn’t disclose exculpatory evidence<\/span><\/em>.\u00a0 It is good that we have the Duke LaCrosse case as an example of what not to do.”\u00a0 She went on to say that\u00a0she would reopen a case and evidence should\u00a0be reviewed (http:\/\/www.freerodneystanberry.com\/key_documents_in_rodneys_case)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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When one has exhausted appeals in Alabama<\/span><\/span>, how does an innocent man get justice? The DA\u2019s Office has shown that truth and justice isn\u2019t as important as the conviction. The Mobile District Attorney\u2019s Office stated in response to a question by a journalist (Kirsten West Savali)\u00a0about Rodney\u2019s case the following<\/span>: \u201c<\/span>In an exclusive interview with NewsOne, District Attorney\u2019s Office Chief Investigator Mike Morgan<\/span>, brushes those facts aside, stating that there is still no reason for Rodney Stanberry to be granted another trial:<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cAll the evidence was heard by the judge during the trial. A decision was made not to allow the jury to hear Terrell Moore\u2019s testimony. A jury found Mr. Stanberry guilty after a trial; that\u2019s why we have a jury system. I will agree with your statement that eye-witness testimony is the most unreliable testimony, but not in this case. Valerie Finley identified Stanberry; she knew him.<\/p>\n

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For there to be a new trial, \u201cnew and compelling\u201d testimony would have to be presented. Even if the jury was not allowed to hear Moore\u2019s testimony, that was a decision made by the judge.\u201d (http:\/\/newsone.com\/1809115\/rodney-k-stanberry-is-alabama-still-the-land-of-jim-crow\/<\/a>)<\/p>\n

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I ask you, what can be more compelling than a prosecutor withholding evidence that further proves that the defendant is innocent? In the State of Texas, it was enough to arrest a prosecutor.<\/span>District Attorney Ashley Rich said this was a very serious matter to her-when she was running for office.<\/span>She should personally review Rodney\u2019s case and do what is in her power to release Rodney K. Stanberry, who is in his 17<\/span>th<\/span><\/sup> year of a wrongful conviction.<\/span>You can ask her about it.<\/span>The numbers to her office are (251) 574-5000, 574-6685 and 574-8400 (Mike Morgan). She can also be reached at <\/span>ashleyrich@mobileda.org<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Sincerely,<\/p>\n

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Artemesia Stanberry<\/p>\n

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artemesia@freerodneystanberry.com<\/p>\n

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Other compelling evidence- here is the link to the confession made by one of the two people ACTUALLY involved in the brutal crimes against the victim: http:\/\/freerodneystanberry.com\/yahoo_site_admin\/assets\/docs\/20100914155256.256155350.pdf<\/p>\n

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Terrell Moore was given testimonial Immunity by Assistant District Attorney Buzz Jordan under one condition- that he tells the truth. As you see by clicking on the agreement above,\u00a0the Agreement was approved and signed by Joe C. Jordan, Terrell Moore, and Robert F. Clark on April 2, 1993. Rodney’s Trial was in March 1995. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Here is a thorough investigative piece about Rodney\u2019s case: http:\/\/www.bostonreview.net\/BR38.2\/beth_schwartzapfel_valerie_finley_innocent_convictions.php<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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http:\/\/freerodneystanberry.com\/blog\/2013\/04\/22\/when-texas-gets-it-right-former-prosecutor-held-criminally-responsible-for-putting-innocent-man-in-prison\/<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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