My dear friend of over 20 years was sentenced to 40 years in Texas prison for self-defense. After being jumped several times and having his face kicked in with steel toe boots, by the same group of men, he decided to carry a pocketknife for his own protection. Ultimately, the day came where he was facing them again and this time he protected himself. No one was seriously hurt or killed. He was arrested and charged. Did he make the right choices? Who knows? However, it is not right or fair that he is in jail.
It seems that the only way you have a chance of justice in the American judicial system is if you have money. Unfortunately, he had none and was represented by a public defender with no time to dedicate to the case. The public defender urged him to plead guilty and take 25 years in prison and my friend decided against that. After all if you were innocent of a crime would you agree to 25 years in prison?? According to my friend, the public defender had no idea what he was doing and even incriminated my friend at times. The verdict came back and he was sentenced to 40 years!!!
I started this because I felt like I had to at least try to do something. I am so tired of seeing how broken our system is. A child rapist like Jared Fogle gets 15 years. There are plenty of people who murder people that get less than 40 years. Yet my friend is rotting away, his daughter is growing up without her daddy and his friends and family miss him dearly all because he didn't have money to hire a lawyer.
We have the most people incarcerated than any other country!! Most of these people are serving sentences that do not fit the crime, or lack of crime. People are pleading guilty for crimes they are innocent of because they can't afford lawyers and are afraid they may be convicted and receive a harsher punishment. This is madness!!! An innocent man should not be in prison for 40 years period, but even if he wasn't innocent 40 years is a ridiculous sentence.
My goal is to raise money to hire a lawyer and get an appeal case going. I am going to be using my own money to help fund this but being a single mother I need all the help I can get. I have donated to crowdfunding pages in the past so maybe my karma from that will swing around to this fundraiser. Any amount will be appreciated, even 1 dollar. If you can donate, please share the post as well. If everyone gives at least 1 dollar and shares the post, I may be able to make my goal. It is for a good cause so let it be your good deed of the day.
For more information please visit Funded Justice or click here
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