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If you follow my podcast or have read any of my publications on sub- stack , or listened to the interview I did on Crime & Justice Radio earlier this year, then you understand that for over the last 17 years I have been wrongfully convicted and incarcerated for a crime I didn't commit.
These platforms are extensions of my First Amendment right to free speech, and they make certain complicit individuals uncomfortable. As they should.
President Obama repeatedly made reference throughout his campaign and presidency to something Martin Luther King Jr. said, “The ark of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”
Source: Smithsonian Channel, MLK Jr
I wasn't aware of these words before Obama spoke them, but they spoke to me, to my plight of sitting in a prison cell wrongfully. These words encouraged me to study the law, they encouraged me to speak truth to power, and most importantly they convinced me of the moral obligation that we all have to do the right thing in accordance with our highest ideals of justice.
I’m the first to admit that justice wasn't something I thought about as a business owner or corporate executive in New Mexico and Arizona. It wasn't something I thought about until I was arrested and convicted – wrongfully. And without a doubt I’m ashamed that when I had the resources to contribute to causes and organizations that defend civil liberties and constitutional rights, I didn't, and now here I am in desperate need of the very assistance that I was so reluctant to give others.
Yes, there is a level of irony to the situation.
Eduard, Victoria, Nancy, and Mario celebrating Christmas, 2003, 8 months prior to Mario’s arrest
I doubt it occurs to anyone that they could be in a position to be accused, charged, convicted and sentenced for a crime they didn't commit. In the state of Sonora, Mexico, I was once taken into custody for failing to pay a bribe to a local official for a business permit that I had already attained legally. I was advised by my legal counsel to pay the bribe, which I did, and was released immediately. But in the U.S., there are certain assumptions we make about equity, fairness, the rule of law, and the righteousness of our judicial system. Though it is not perfect we consider it to be perfectible. Which is another way of saying that we expect our imperfect system to error on the side of fairness. And when it doesn't we expect the complacency of bureaucracy to take a backseat to the exigencies of justice.
Honestly, I can't say with any level of certainty what I would've done or how I would've reacted had a case like my own been presented to me as a potentially worthy cause deserving of my attention and resources. I just don't know.
In my life I have fallen victim to countless false narratives. Some proffered by politicians, professors, parents, charismatic salesman, and the occasional person in need. These were experiences that lead to skepticism and an inability or unwillingness to look too deeply beyond the surface area of my initial perceptions. But like most things empathy comes from experience, it comes from having walked a mile in someone else's shoes. And perhaps this is why it's so difficult to give our undivided attention, whether that be through resources or time, to causes that beg us for our help.
Empathy comes from having experienced injustice, or at the very least from having opened our intellects and perceptions to what it would be like to be trapped in a frightening, horrendous situation that defies logic for the level of injustice it imparts. And, as is often the case, our preconceived notions on the role that personal responsibility plays in the outcomes of our fates makes it difficult to imagine ourselves in other people’s shoes.
Prior to being wrongfully convicted, if I saw someone standing at an intersection with a sign asking for food, money or assistance my notions on personal responsibility would say, here’s someone whose choices have brought him to this point. Instead of gainful employment he chooses to stand here asking for charity at my expense. On the other hand, I have worked my ass off to be where I am and therefore deserve what I have. To give him what I have would be self-defeating and detrimental to all, as it would encourage this sort of behavior from him and others.
Source: Alamy.com
Does this sound familiar? Have you yourself made similar arguments or justifications?
I was raised to believe that victims of circumstance deserve our help only if they didn't have a hand in their own misfortune. A convenient argument used to placate our consciences into supporting inaction for injustice. It goes hand-in-hand with the hubris that strives to convince me that I alone am responsible for the income, wealth, power and prestige I possess. What I possess is my due as it's an obvious extension of my virtue, yada- yada-yada.
Yes, hubris often needs a dose of humility, something that life has been generous in affording me. But, as is often the case, hubris needs a reality check, a reassessment of the external circumstances we take for granted.
When it comes to matters of justice in our justice system the evidence before us reveals the systemic flaws. The inequities of wealth distribution and race make confronting a criminal accusation in this nation more dependent upon resources than evidence. Theoretically, this is not what we support, but the trench that exist between our stated ideals and the reality of our collective actions is immense.
The challenge confronting us is the virtue we've been taught to perceive. The more we see ourselves as self-made and independent, the less likely we are to move or act to help those less fortunate than ourselves. Because if I alone am responsible for my success, then they alone are responsible for their failure.
The problem with this the ideology of self-justification is it doesn't leave room for human error, or, in some instances, human malice, greed, unbridled ambition, and ego. It overlooks all this with the overly simplistic maxim that those who act badly get what they deserve, in this world or the next. So, whatever bad luck or evil they are experiencing is not injustice, it's divine retribution for their transgressions – whatever they may be. This, in a way, imparts a sort of halo over the heads of the law-enforcement and prosecutors who, evidence shows, repeatedly make intentional decisions that lead to wrongful convictions.
This is not what America stands for.
Obama’s Speech 2014, Source: Presidency. usb,edu
Despite Obama's shortcomings as a leader, he is one of the most inspirational speakers of our time. And there was something he said in 2014 at the White House College Opportunity Summit that rang true to what we are as a nation:
Now, as a nation, we don't promise equal outcomes, but we were founded on the idea [that] everybody should have an equal opportunity to succeed. No matter who you are, what you look like, where you come from, you can make it. That's an essential promise of America. Where you start should not determine where you end up.
Obama had a particular audience before him but he was still speaking to the nation. He was reminding us that we are better than we may appear.
True. We are better.
The challenge, however, is that the meritocratic system or promise we hold up to the world as the American dream is no longer a reality and we've known this for a while. We don't often repeat this amongst ourselves because we prefer the “noble lie” to the truth. But when confronted with facts such as wage stagnation for the middle and lower classes, the widening divide between rich and poor, and alarming studies like that of the Pew Charitable Trust, showing that only 4 percent of Americans born in the bottom quintile rise to the top quintile as adults, well, it appears that validating Obama's words can't be done with the facts.
The reality before us is that despite how hard we work or how vigilantly we play by the rules the majority of us will not advance. I was one of those who did work hard, graduated from a University and did advance. But I'm not going to perpetuate the lie that my hard work led to my success or upward mobility. The truth is, I was lucky. Yes, I worked long hours, took risks, was willing to fail repeatedly, but by the end of it all it was ephemeral at best. All it took to unravel my success was a few unsavory actors, both inside and outside of law-enforcement, to secure an illegal and wrongful conviction against me for a crime I did not commit. The gavel banged and my life and the accumulation of my efforts were no more.
The circumstances of my situation are not unique. This cause of justice I fight for is infinitely bigger than me. There are literally thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, incarcerated at this very moment who are completely innocent of their crimes. And this isn't hyperbole, it's fact. As Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan once said in a debate, “You are entitled to your own opinion, but you are not entitled to your own facts.”
The fact is, official misconduct by law-enforcement and prosecutors is so prevalent that the very legitimacy of our justice system is being called into question. The National Registry of Exonerations estimates between 2 and 10 percent of the nations incarcerated or actually innocent. There are currently 2.3 million people incarcerated in the U.S., do the math.
I advocate for myself because for years my letters and pleas for help were ignored. In 2019, when before our very eyes my family and I witnessed how easy it was for corruption to deny us justice, the decision before us was simple. Either lay down and die or get up and fight; either remain silent or scream from the rooftops.
The predicament in which we find ourselves is a desperate one. Bringing someone who is wrongfully convicted from a prison cell to being exonerated and free requires a village of financial resources and legal expertise, not to mention public awareness and activism.
The lawyer who works tirelessly to defend me from the state’s malice is donating more work than he gets paid for. He never met or even heard of me prior to last year, but when he reviewed my case and began to understand the injustice that my family and I have been living he chose to help. He was the one who lowered his window at the intersection and asked the crucial question of the soul holding the sign that reads, “I need help!”
Tell me about your circumstances, and, how can I help you?
This is the necessary question not being asked frequently enough by most. This is why I have taken up this cause, because when we have the opportunity to improve someone's life and we don't, our inaction says far more than our action ever could.
We need to confront that our justice system isn't sustained by equality before the law in fairness. As Obama said on numerous occasions, “Those who stand up for justice are always on the right side of history.”
Protesting, Source: Daily Mail.com
I agree. I also believe that together we can change and create new facts about our justice system. All we need is a collective willingness to act, do the right thing, and confront new truths.
What I am asking is for you and others to support this fight because it's the right thing to do. If you can't afford to subscribe to my newsletter on Substack, then donate a dollar, or any amount just to say “keep going, don't give up!”
Your donations give my attorney, Jason Bowles, the tools and resources he needs to follow investigative leads and pay his qualified staff to help him combat the malice the state brings forth in attempting to uphold and infirm conviction. Your donations will help pay for the documentary that will show the world just how easy it is for bureaucratic convenience, groupthink, and investigative ineptitude to wrongfully convict someone; and just how nearly impossible it is for this to be undone. Your donations speak truth to power. They tell judges, prosecutors and police that we will not stand for anything less than righteousness, fairness, and equality before the law.
Please sign our petition to help bring Conviction Integrity Unit to New Mexico and other states across the nation so as to prevent future wrongful convictions. Please subscribe or donate to our cause for the simple reason that we are up against daunting circumstances and unfavourable odds. The state has unlimited resources, is not guided by conscience, and if we permit even one wrongful conviction to knowingly stand then we are complicit. Today it's me, but tomorrow it could be someone you love. Please help.
Source: Dreamtime.com
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