Free Rodney K. Stanberry
Sign the Petition to the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles: http://www.change.org/petitions/the-alabama-board-of-pardons-and-paroles-grant-parole-to-rodney-k-stanberry July 2013
: http://www.change.org/petitions/mobile-district-attorney-ashley-rich-reopen-and-reinvestigate-rodney-k-stanberry-s-case#. NEW PETITION REGARDING RODNEY's Upcoming Parole Hearing: http://www.change.org/petitions/the-alabama-board-of-pardons-and-paroles-grant-parole-to-rodney-k-stanberry July 2013
A Gun Enthusiast Tries to Keep Guns Out of the Wrong Hands, the result? He is wrongfully convicted. Rodney begins his 17th year in prison on March 25th, 2013: http://freerodneystanberry.com/blog/2013/02/20/gun-control-what-happened-when-a-gun-enthusiast-tried-to-stop-the-sale-of-weapons-the-case-of-rodney-k-stanberry/
Radio Shows featuring Rodney K. Stanberry
Guilty Until Proven Innocent
Bill Riales and Producer Shawn Kirkpatrick
News 5 at 10pm
Thursday, February 12, 2004
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It's not unusual for convicted criminals to claim they are innocent. The News 5 Investigative Team has uncovered new information that some say may help prove an innocent man is behind bars in an Alabama prison. Rodney Stanberry is serving a 20 year sentence for the 1992 attempted murder of a Mobile County woman. His conviction came despite the fact that another man confessed to the crime, a confession kept secret from the jury.
Valerie Finley was shot during a home invasion robber in March 1992. Her husband Mike was at work. Police say the two men who entered the Finley home were planning to steal Mike Finley's gun collection. Valerie Finley survived the gunshot wound to the head. When she awoke from a coma weeks later, she told police that Rodney Stanberry, her husband's best friend, was one of the men responsible.
"She knew Mr. Stanberry, and she positively, absolutely identified him as being present at the time that his friend shot her on top of the head." Buzz Jordan was the assistant District Attorney who prosecuted Stanberry.
More than three years after the crime, Stanberry was convicted based almost exclusively on Valerie Finley's testimony. There was no physical evidence that placed Stanberry at the home on that Monday morning. Twelve years after the shooting, Rodney Stanberry has served seven years of a twenty year sentence at the Easterling Correctional Facility in Barbour County. He still maintains he was at work at the time of the shooting. Records at the waste management company BFI back up his story.
"Stanberry said, "The dispatcher punches in at 9:02 (AM), working on the truck. I'm in the break room with several mechanics, welders, while the mechanic's working on my truck. When he gets done, he punches out at 9:45."
But that's not all. Stanberry's attorney says the jury was not allowed to hear the most compelling evidence of all--a taped confession from Terrell Moore. Private investigator Ryan Russell interviewed Moore months after the shooting. On the tape, Moore explained how he and another man went to the Finley house--the other man shot Valerie Finley.
(Tape excerpt)
Russell: "You and wish were there, right?"
Moore: "Yeah, just me and Wish."
Russell: "Was Rodney Stanberry there?"
Moore: "no, he wasn't."
Russell: "You never saw Rodney at all that morning?"
Moore: Right.
Russell: "You never saw him at all that day?"
Moore: "Right."
'Wish' is a nickname for Angel Melendez. In 1992, Melendez traveled from New York to visit Stanberry during Mardi Gras. In the taped confession, Moore said after seeing Mike Finley's gun collection, Melendez decided to steal it, and shot Valerie Finley during the robbery.
Stanberry's attorney, Ken Nixon, said, "I think he (Moore) had details about the scene that no one could have known unless they were there."
For example, Moore, who had never met the Finley's, described taking the guns from a steel gun safe.
Moore: "she gave him the keys to a cabinet she had in the hallway--a steel type cabinet in the closet like--"
An eyewitness who was working on a car near the Finley home, also placed Moore at the scene and even described Moore's car.
Moore: "I noticed that it was a man working on his car in the circle."
Stanberry told us, "He confessed two and a half years before my trial."
But here's the problem. On the advice of an attorney, Terrell Moore refused to testify at Stanberry's trial, instead invoking the fifth amendment, which protects citizens from testifying against themselves. Because of that, the judge ruled Moore's prior statements were hearsay, and inadmissible in court. So the Stanberry jury heard only Valerie Finley's accusation, not Terrell Moore's confession.
Ryan Russell admits that was a tough obstacle to overcome in the case. "The woman said Rodney did it, he came by the house that morning. But I know for a fact the woman took a nine millimeter bullet to the brain."
"What a brilliant defense!" Counters Prosecutor Jordan. "You go and shoot somebody in the head and after she survives you say she can't identify me because I shot her in the head. The jury heard that argument and they heard how they tried to criticize Mrs. Finley's memory."
Moore: "I proceeded to go into the cabinet and getting the guns--I was putting them in a pillow case."
Russell: "Off their bed?"
Moore: "Yeah, off their bed."
Even with Moore describing in detail how he took the guns from the Finley home, Prichard Police never checked the recovered guns for fingerprints. The question remains, why would Terrell Moore confess in the first place, knowing he might be prosecuted.
"Because its true. "says defense attorney Nixon. "I don't think Terrell Moore had any idea that 'Wish" was going to shoot Valerie Finley. And I think when 'Wish' Shot the lady, I think he got scared and I think it bothered him."
Jordan responds, "That's a story--no credibility whatsoever."
Moore: "That's the biggest of it, my conscience was bothering me and I knew I had this hanging over my head--"
Russell: "And you know for a fact Rodney Stanberry is innocent of this, right?"
Moore: "Right--He is innocent."
Moore's confession was not made only to the private investigator. News 5 obtained transcripts of an interview Moore did with Prosecutor Buzz Jordan and Prichard investigators prior to the trial. Moore told them the same thing he said in the taped confession.
If Rodney Stanberry is indeed innocent, proving that gets more difficult as the years go by. We wanted to know if Terrell Moore still stands by his 1992 confession, but we couldn't locate him. Star witness Valerie Finley died of an illness unrelated to the shooting four months after the Stanberry trial. Angel Melendez was shot to death in New York City during a botched drug deal.
District Attorney John Tyson tells us the only way the case might be reconsidered is if some new information were to come forward about the testimony of eye witness Valerie Finley. At this point, that doesn't seem very likely.
This story can be found at: http://www.wkrg.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WKRG/MGArticle/KRG_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031773660045&path=!frontpage
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