Bobble-heads, Fundamental Truths, and the Stories we Believe
We can change. And without a doubt we are standing in one of the few nations in this world where fundamental course correction and change are possible. Which in itself is something to celebrate.
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Do you remember the way you felt the first time you saw the film Shawshank redemption?
Angry. Sad. Disgusted. Relieved. Maybe even joyful by the end of it all.
A fictional story about a man wrongfully convicted for killing his wife; a crooked warden with a god-complex and a penchant for graft; and a prison captain who acted more like a henchman than a guard.
The Constitution and the rights she affords us did not exist within the walls of Shawshank, just as they don't exist within the walls of – I dare say – most U.S. prisons.
The story of Andy Dufresne, the respectable banker turned convict, was recently brought to my attention by a well-intentioned and appreciated comment that found its way into my inbox regarding my podcast MYLIFEplus25
The more we listen to you the more sense you make. You remind us of Andy Dufresne! You should consider talking more about Eloy Montano, about where he is in his life right now so that people can see that he's on the loose.
Eloy Montano
The fictional storyline of Andy Dufresne and myself are in no way similar. I was not convicted of killing my wife or any other woman. No prison warden has enlisted me to launder his kickbacks or graft.
I have not lobbied the state legislature for funding for a library (though I have tutored many in mathematics to get them ready for their GED exams), I haven't discovered a jailhouse informant to reveal the real killer for which I am convicted..
..and it's safe to say that I will not be finding my way to freedom through a sewer line – nor will I be stealing the warden’s illicit money and disappearing down on the Mexican beaches of the Pacific.
So as you can imagine, I was confused by this comparison and comment. I've never made mention to anything even remotely similar in any of the twenty-one podcast episodes that we’ve recorded. And yet, here was a very enthusiastic message in my inbox suggesting otherwise.
I was hesitant to ask the obvious, but my curiosity eventually got the best of me.
Thank you for your support and comment, I began. Honestly, I'm honored by your comparison. Andy Dufresne was intelligent, resourceful, a loyal friend, and above all determined to his end cause – freedom.
As I wrote this, I paused. It occurred to me that maybe this was the compliment. But since I wasn't convinced, I added, Being that there are no striking similarities between his case and my own I'd like to know what brings Andy Dufresne to mind when you think of me?
Innocence! The more we listen and review the legal documents for ourselves the more apparent it becomes that the prosecutor never considered any other theory other than you…
OK, now I understood. People were beginning to listen and believe. As a friend and lawyer once told me, “There are no sides to a story. There are just different stories. People either believe yours or the other one. Usually the other one.”
And while the reality of the U.S. legal system, may in all actuality, coincide with my friend’s cynicism, in my opinion, this is undoubtably part of the problem. Moreover, it occurred to me that every time I talk about Eloy, the contradictions of his statements..
..how they relate to the discovered facts, and, the obvious slap in the face to Justice that his testimonial statements and accusations were never passed through “the greatest legal mechanism ever invented for the discovery of truth” (cross-examination).
That on top of all this, essentially, I'm still selling a story.
Something that makes me uncomfortable because I see it as part of the problem that brings us to the doorway of so many wrongful convictions.
Criminal accusations and the legal proceedings that are triggered should not be swayed by popularity, personal preference or opinion, or for that matter rhetoric.
Substantiating someone's guilt should be a clean process of presenting facts, examined through the fiscal lense of unbiased investigative scrutiny, and presented to a jury within the confines of established constitutional limitations for a decision of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt or innocence to be made.
And if it's the latter, then that's the reality we are left to swallow and accept as a nation of laws.
Part of the reason this reality is so hard to accept for prosecutors and law-enforcement is because they are only rewarded for findings of guilt, not revelations or discoveries of truth.
Because of which, prosecutors are known to play fast and loose with the facts; the police are known to hide or plant evidence or outright commit perjury under oath, all because they are supposedly so convinced of someone's guilt that they've decided that the ends justifies the means.
Well-intentioned friends and supporters often tell me that I need people to believe in me. Do I? Or, do I just need the law to be adhered to?
Perhaps it's both.
There are a few things that people who know me will always agree upon: confidence and intelligence. Those who knew me before this legal fiasco would certainly replace confidence with arrogance and probably add ambitiousness for good measure.
Many may never believe that I could be something other than than I was, but seventeen years in a box has afforded me something: self-awareness.
And awareness of one's self is problematic to a justice or political system built on corruption; precisely because a defiant cog or rogue code must either be removed or deleted before it can infect the rest of the system.
I wonder. Is believing in someone a prerequisite to helping them? Or, is helping them an entity unto itself?
These were some of the questions that pressed upon me as I considered the gravity of the message before me about Andy Dufresne.
On the one hand I suppose it is inevitable that as people review the facts, the circumstances and influences that contributed to my conviction that many will begin to believe in my innocence.
People who once read what was published about me in the inman.com will start to realize that these were always unsubstantiated claims. Because mainstream media doesn't always publish the truth, unless truth coincides with whatever sells the most advertising, and now more than ever before we understand this.
A member of my legal team one shared with me why it was she believed in my innocence:
Because when I looked at the facts of your case it was clear to me that the state fucked up. There are more politically correct ways to say it, but why should I? Brandenburg, the police, you're supposed friend, your ex-wife and business partners – they fucked up!
I can see no reason, based on the selective facts of their biased investigation, and, from what we now know, for you to have committed this crime. They were the ones who benefited from this crime, not you, and the state didn't give a shit.
Again, a well-known advocate against wrongful convictions who has used her You Tube channel and presence on social media to shed light on other wrongful convictions, Casey Oliver, recently told me:
There is a certain language to understanding wrongful convictions. And once you understand this language they are pretty easy to unravel. When I look at your case I see the same indicators as I've seen before.
The state latched on to you as their suspect, early on, and were unwilling to consider any other evidence that would suggest otherwise.
[Editors note: Casey Oliver is currently investigating this case for presentation on her YouTube channel.]
Naturally, as my advocacy base grows more and more will come to believe me when I say, I am innocent. But let it be from that, from the facts, and not from how winningly or convincingly I say something that this advocacy grows.
I want people to believe in me for the right reasons. Not for charisma, sympathy, or because believing in me sells advertising. Because this cause for justice and bringing awareness to wrongful convictions does not begin or end with me.
This fight is about believing in something bigger than all of us: the nation in which we preside; the flag that countless lives have been sacrificed to defend; and the living documents of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and all the subsequent Amendments that have followed.
Because what all of this says is that we are a nation of free people, governed by the rule of law, not the charismatic personalities of the bobbleheads we elect.
There was a very good reason behind George Washington not wanting to be designated as King George. The dream of our democratic republic is not about paying homage to any one man or woman. Rather, it's about who we are as a nation and what we stand for.
For as long as I have been alive I have watched, from both sides of the southern border, one bobble after another declare itself the exclusive solution to all our collective ailments and woes.
The proferred solution is always the same: declare war on a range of vague concepts or empirical threats from communism to extremism. They shout things like build democracy, defeat poverty, build economies, defeat terrorists, build infrastructures, defeat tyranny or fascism or whatever rings of socialism.
There is always an enemy to hunt and every cause amounts to about the same: Let's point a gun at it, shoot, and see if we can't kill it.
What the bobbleheads have never stopped to consider is that the existential challenges that threaten our democracy, our freedoms, or survival are not things that can be overcome with bullets and bombs.
To address these challenges we need character attributes that can’t be conjured up with free-market theory, or purchased on Amazon, or imported from China.
We need to return to the basics of human decency, integrity, the rule of law, and above all, self-awareness. All of which is meant to lead us back to the truth.
Everyday we are bombarded with some bobblehead selling us on why we should believe in them. Big mistake!
Trust needs to be earned, and some have earned that trust. But others received our trust without ever having earned it. Take Obama for instance earned, and some have earned that trust. But others received our trust without ever having earned it. Take Obama for instance.
Surely I'm not the only one who was taken in by Obama's magnetic charisma in 2008. We read his books, felt inspired by his speeches, only to find ourselves disappointed by his actions.
But, just how inspired did we feel when we saw his administration pursue First Amendment privileges like free speech and journalism as a whole?
His administration pursued more cases involving leaks of classified information to reporters and the public than all other administrations combined. All under the Espionage Act of 1917.
Apparently, we’ve arrived at a point where our bobble heads no longer even consider telling us the truth. The only way to get the truth now is for patriots, in the name of democracy and freedom, to steal the truth so that it can be reported to us by third parties.
And we’ve arrived at a point in our evolution as a society where reporting truth to the public is now considered espionage.
Which brings us to where we are today.
The Afghanistan fiasco isn't so much a disaster at it is an opportunity to do more than just glance in the mirror as we hurry by it. It's an opportunity to stop and appreciate what we’re seeing – the good and the bad – and in doing so begin to accept a few fundamental truths about ourselves.
Afghanistan Verm
First fundamental truth: we are not better than anyone else. We have poverty, crime, corruption, mass-incarceration, systemic racism, injustices and inequalities that touch every single man, woman and child that resides in this nation.
Second fundamental truth: we have utilized our immense powers and influences – economic, political, social, and military – to pursue less than noble agendas against weaker, less stable nations. Efforts than have caused war, humanitarian and ecological disasters, crisis, and even genocide.
Third fundamental truth: we can change. It doesn't have to be this way. Now, a bobblehead would never willingly present you with these facts. In the same way that a used car salesman will not tell you that a better deal can be found down the road. Because both are sustained by the success of their pitch.
And when the pitch comes from a bobblehead, they want us to believe that only they are capable of bringing us to the desired outcome of a functioning democratic republic.
Bullshit!
It's not true! It never has been true. And, it never will be true.
The answer to our dilemmas has always been us. We are the solution. We have always been simultaneously both the problem and the solution to our existential challenges. We have never needed opportunistic, self-serving and corrupted bobbleheads to lead us into the promised land.
What we need is leadership without self-interest and a purpose higher than just blind obedience to market theories and profit schemes.
And while we can acknowledge that human weakness is inevitable and self interest leads to corruption let us also recognize that neither is definitive of who we are as a nation.
Just like trust, credibility must be earned. If more people are coming to believe in my story that can only be because more people are looking at the facts. Which is why I often tell people, don't believe in me or my innocence just because you like me or just because I say so. Because we are a nation of laws.
In this nation, In the state of New Mexico, under one of the most corrupt politicians to ever touch law enforcement in the state, the state has formally accused me of murder.
Per the law I am innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in accordance with said law. And, as any first year law student can tell you, my trial was not done in accordance with the Constitution or the law. Therefore, my conviction and current confinement is unconstitutional and illegal.
Which brings us back around to the film Shawshank Redemption.
In the film we get a bird’s-eye view of the protagonist Andy Dufresne’s predicament. We see his innocence, the wrongful accusation, conviction, and the horrific predicament in which he finds himself: the repeated rape; the beatings; and, both the depravity and magnanimity of the humanity that surrounded him.
From the opening scene to the rolling of the credits we’re taken by the hand and walked through the story guided by Morgan Freeman's integral and soothing voice as narrator.
It even upsets us that they don't see Andy for what he is: an innocent man doing someone else's time. In the end he emerges victorious – though, per the law, still a fugitive and a criminal – and we allow ourselves to feel and share in his happiness.
Yes, the story of Andy Dufresne is fiction. But the lesson to be drawn from it is very real: the criminal justice system is broken primarily because the operators are not living up to their higher selves. And the injustices that come from this truth are horrific.
But real life doesn't afford us a narrator like Morgan Freeman to explain things to us. The raw truth, if we want it, is something that we have to seek out for ourselves.
The argument I often hear is that the system itself is the best there is. The problem is human error or weakness, things that can't be killed or locked in boxes. Prosecutors, police, even judges are often times overzealous or corrupt and this behavior needs to be weeded out and held accountable.
Agreed.
But we don't see this happening. And, as it stands right now, the system itself is structured to reward their behaviors, and so long as this proves to be the reality of our justice system, nothing will change.
Which brings us to the base and cause of this newsletter, the podcast, and all the other diversified efforts on my behalf: It's all because not only does the system not work – it's broken!
And while I’m thrilled to see and know that my audience is growing, and that so many of you have taken the time to review my case file and come to believe in my innocence, as I’ve said, there are much bigger issues at play here other than just the question of my guilt or innocence.
I was convicted because of systemic corruption, malfeasance, and the general ineptitude of law-enforcement. Realities that can't be addressed with stimulus spending or infrastructure bills. Because the problem is what it has always been: bobbleheads don't have morals and there is zero accountability.
There is no accountability because the public isn't demanding it. Every week, on average, we hear about maybe three men and women being exonerated and released from wrongful convictions after having lost decades of their lives..
..and rarely are there any consequences meted out to the law-enforcement agencies, prosecutors, or courts that perpetrate these crimes against innocent lives. There are no apologies, and even less recource, if any.
When it comes to wrongful convictions and the real lives they touch perhaps my friend was right: the stories we have chosen to believe say more about who we are than the credibility of the facts they represent.
But we shouldn't discount the humiliation factor of what we face when confronted with having been duped by a false narrative. And elected bobbleheads, such as Attorney Generals and District Attorneys are no exception to this human tendency.
Even moreso because most behave as though to admit fault in one case would diminish their credibility in proving guilt in other cases. It would also lead to huge cash settlements, not to mention public cries for reform.
As it is prosecutors are granted immense power and leeway to prosecute. Powers that are exercised with little to no oversight. Which explains why they almost never admit fault.
And yet, it doesn't have to be this way. The people of Philadelphia elected Larry Krasner as District Attorney, a man who has exonerated more innocent men in three years than any other office in the history of the country. His policies have reduced the number of years people will spend in prison by nearly 20,000.
Men and women with moral integrity, guided by principles other than self-interest can be elected in place of bobbleheads. And when this happens the best of who we are shines through.
I am honored to be compared to Andy Dufresne. But the truth of the matter is that Dufresne’s story will continue to repeat itself thousands upon thousands of times in our lifetimes, with protagonist who will almost never be seen or heard from, and almost nothing will ever be done for them, legally speaking.
As a nation we need to do more than just shake our heads in disbelief and disgust every time our bobbleheads disappoint us.
We don't need politicians to show us the way, what we need are leaders who have internalized our challenges and thereby know what it means to be an immigrant, a minority, poor, uneducated, discriminated against, mentally or physically challenged, incarcerated, and wrongfully convicted among other things.
To understand any of these truths our leaders have to be willing to step into them. Taste them. Smell them. Allow the misery of it all to inundate their pores. Then, dismiss everything they think they know about it and just be.
Then from there, one at a time, start to examine the stimuli that are the facts. This process will lead them to what I call the Fourth fundamental truth: Being self-aware demands of us a willingness to rewrite our beliefs when confronted with new truths.
And the new truth before us now is this:
We are both the cause and solution of and to our ailments and existential challenges. But rather than hear this and despair instead, let us be reminded of our Third fundamental truth: we can change.
And without a doubt we are standing in one of the few nations in this world where fundamental course correction and change are possible. Which in itself is something to celebrate.
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