Free Rodney K. Stanberry

Call to Action-

 Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange (334) 242-7300

Alabama Governor Robert Bentley (334) 242- 7100

Chief Investigator Timothy Furhman, Attorney General’s Office (334) 242-7300

Mobile District Attorney Ashley Rich (251) 574-6685 and Ashleyrich@mobileda.org or chadtucker@mobileda.org

Chief Investigator Mike Morgan, Mobile District Attorney’s Office (251)-574-8400

 Please call DA Rich and request that she allows the Alabama Attorney General to investigate Rodney’s case and/or that she takes the legal steps necessary toward retrying or releasing Rodney K. Stanberry.

Here is a list of her team:

Administrative Team

Ashley Rich - District Attorney - 251-574-6685 - ashleyrich@mobileda.org
Chad Tucker - Media Contact - 251-533-6414 - dchadtucker@gmail.com
Deborah Tillman - Chief Assistant - 251-574-8400 - deborahtillman@mobileda.org
Mike Morgan - Chief Investigator - 251-574-8400 - mikemorgan@mobileda.org

For more information, please contact Artemesia Stanberry at Artemesia@freerodneystanberry.com or  leave a message at the Free Rodney K. Stanberry voicemail service and someone will return your call ASAP (251) 802-5798.

If we can get hundreds, if not thousands, of calls, letters and emails to the Mobile District Attorney's Office, the Alabama Attorney General’s Office and the Alabama Governor’s Office we may be able to make a tremendous difference in bringing about justice for Rodney K. Stanberry.  The Attorney General’s Office has the ability to investigate Rodney’s case.

Mobile District Attorney Ashley Rich stated during her campaign that she would reopen a case if it is discovered that a prosecutor did not disclose exculpatory evidence. Please click on this link for additional information. 

Below are just a couple of points from the letter recently sent to Timothy Furhman, Chief Investigator for Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange:

1)     The previous Attorney General opened a Cold Case Unit because “the successful resolution of cold cases helps restore people’s faith in the justice system.” (Mobile Press Register, August 23, 2008). I think the same can be used for justification of opening a Wrongful Convictions Unit to investigate wrongful convictions.  Following reporting from Mobile Press Register reporter Robert McClendon, former Attorney General Troy King sent an investigator to Prichard Alabama. The article is entitled “Guilty Plea in Prichard Cold Case,” August 23, 2008.

1) 

a.     Prichard Police lost mask and gloves in Cold Case

In Rodney’s case, Prichard Police lost mask and gloves

b.     Prichard Police failed to fingerprint weapons in Cold Case

In Rodney’s case, Prichard Police failed to fingerprint weapons, collect fingerprints from victim's home, and, from one account, failed to gather evidence (see Sgt. Ragland's testimony)

c.      Prichard Police failed to keep bullet casings found and turned over to them by the victim’s mother in Cold Case

In Rodney’s case, Prichard Police failed to keep bullet cases found and turned over to them by the victim’s mother (see Time Served or Justice Denied in Alabama article). 

d.        A forensics report was available from material submitted to the Alabama Department of Forensics. As a result of the Cold Case investigation, this forensic report was found on file in the Department of Forensics

In Rodney’s case, material was sent to the Alabama Department of Forensics, with an investigation by the Attorney General’s Office, this file can be obtained and the contents could be revealed. And, if the Mobile District Attorney’s Office had this report and it also showed Rodney’s innocence, the Alabama Attorney’s General’s Office should ask the DA to explain the actions of her office.

e.  In the Cold Case, Defense Attorney  Joe Carl “Buzz” Jordan represented the shooter (the person shot died as a result of the shooting) getting him a sentence of 3 years in prison and 17 years on probation for the killing of the victim.

In Rodney’s case, Assistant District Attorney/prosecutor Joe Carl “Buzz” Jordan prosecuted Rodney solely based on victim eyewitness identification. After getting a lot of the evidence that existed that pointed to Rodney’s innocence kept out of view of the jury, he was able to get the jury to convict Rodney of Attempted Murder, Burglary, and Robber; and Judge Ferrill McRae sentenced Rodney to serve a 20 year sentence (to be served concurrently) on each charge.

If a guilty person could get just 3 years in prison due to mistakes made by the Prichard Police Department, shouldn’t an innocent man receive his freedom and exoneration when the same mistakes were made in his case?

2)     Rodney was convicted solely on eyewitness identification.

a. The Mobile District Attorney’s Office made sure that the jury never heard the confession

b. The District Attorney’s Office never attempted to try anyone else for the crimes committed against the victim. This includes the person who confessed and the person the DA’s office claims to be the shooter.

c. Work documents and testimony from Rodney’s supervisor placed him at work when the crimes were said to take place

3)     Consider what is written below taken from Lagniappe a local paper in Mobile Alabama about Rodney’s case. Below is a direct quote from an article in Lagniappe entitled “Time Served, or Justice Denied inAlabama” dated June 16, 2009. The article was written by Bill Riales. 

Lagniappe (http://classic.lagniappemobile.com/article.asp?articleID=2332&sid=1)

“….Yet questions remained throughout Stanberry’s ordeal - his original trial, a Rule 32 hearing (a post-trial hearing to determine if the defendant received adequate legal counsel), and an appeal - Valerie Finley’s testimony is the only thing that has stuck to his conviction. Nowhere in the transcripts of any of the proceedings is the question: "Who, in fact, shot Valerie Finley?" As the prosecution focused on Stanberry, that question, plus the fact that no other evidence that placed Stanberry at the scene of the crime on that March morning in 1992 was ever introduced. In fact, the victim’s mother, Eugenia Patrick, openly criticized Prichard Police investigators in the days following the crime while her daughter recovered in the hospital. She said while the stolen guns were recovered, police never bothered to get fingerprints from them.

In a Mobile Press-Register article two days after the shooting, Patrick said, "The guns belonged to my son-in-law (Malthaus Finley), and he’s recovered them. The police have never...never laid a finger on these guns, nor have they had them in their possession." Mrs. Patrick said her son-in-law, Mike Finley, as he was known, phoned a friend while waiting for his wife to come out of surgery. That friend, reportedly was Stanberry, who at that time had already determined that Taco was holding the weapons.

And that’s not all. Apparently, Mike Finley also found a nine millimeter bullet -ostensibly the one fired at Valerie - as he was cleaning up the house following the shooting. Eugenia Patrick says family members took that piece of evidence to Prichard Police but there is no documentation of it in court records.

"They are not checking anything out themselves, only listening to hearsay," said Patrick, in the same Mobile Press Register article.”

Also from the same Lagniappe article

“What is different about Stanberry and many other inmates is his attitude toward parole. In the Alabamaprison system, parole boards tend to lean more favorably toward inmates who admit to their crimes and express remorse. Over the past 17 years, Stanberry has refused to admit anything other than that he is sorry Valerie Finley was shot and almost died. After all, he knew Valerie and had for some time. But would he ever admit to being in her home when she was shot, just to satisfy the parole board and possibly get out of jail early? "No." Says Stanberry.

With no other suspects within reach, Rodney and others associated with his case believe prosecutors focused on the only real suspect they had. Barbosa and Angel "Wish" Melendez had already traveled back to New York and by the time Stanberry’s trial date arrived "Wish" had been killed in a botched drug deal. That left Rene to help fill in the blanks of the case. Court documents from Rodney Stanberry’s Rule 32 hearing revealed that prosecutor Buzz Jordan traveled to New York in order to interview Barbosa who was incarcerated at Rikers Island for another crime. Details of that interview have so far remained unavailable and Jordan did not respond to a recent list of e-mail questions regarding this case.” End Quote

Finally, please refer to this link to the website devoted to Rodney’s case: http://www.freerodneystanberry.com/the_shooter-_what_they_want_to_wish_away

Please call the Alabama Attorney General’s Office and/or the other offices listed above. You can make a difference. 

 Change.org Free Rodney Stanberry petition

Open Letter to President Obama to Address Wrongful Convictions

Call to Action Letter

Time Served,or Justice Denied in Alabama. Lagniappe Mobile



Guilty Plea in Prichard Cold Case Mobile Press Register

 For more than 13 years I've asked Mobile Press Register Reporters to investigate Rodney's case, but to no avail. Here is a letter to Mobile Press Reporters written in 1998.

Mr. Rickey Mathews is the publisher of the Mobile Press Register. He has a new mission for his newspaper.  He invites people to contact him. Please ask him to do an investigative report on Rodney's case. His contact information is: rmathews@press-register.com or (251) 219-5673

October 11, 2011 letter to District Attorney Ashley Rich asking about her campaign talk about the importance of exculpatory evidence being turned over to the defense. I've received no response. Please read and call her office.