My name is Leonard R. Scaggs. I am 49yrs old and I am currently Incarcerated at Atwater Federal Prison to a life sentence of Aiding and Abetting a crime I had no parts of.
Now I know the saying "they all say that they are Innocent and did not do the crime that they are accused of" but I am not one of those prisoners.
See I never have a problem with accepting responsibility for anything that I have ever done and I would never blame anyone else for it. It's the "me being not guilty part and the lies" that bother me.
I don't know if anyone recalls, about 3 to 4 yrs ago, Oprah Winfrey did a show which involved Identical twin brothers. One of them was in prison for a crime that the other placed the blame on. Well mine is kind of similar but different. Instead of my brother placing the blame on me he sat in the court room and let his shipmate place the blame on me.
Upon the Initial arrest, he told the detectives that I had nothing to do with the crime. I tried to get my case severed from this but the judge said no so we were tried together. Even though he accepted responsibility for what he did during his arrest and told them how it all happened, he still took it to trial with me with no defense. My lawyer told me that my brother was going to take me down with him, I didn't believe it until they found us both guilty after a week of deliberating. Then and only then my lawyer asked me "What are we going to do about him lying on you". I told him "you should have thought about that while he was on the stand."
See my brother sat there the whole trial and let his friend, his navy shipmate, sit on the stand and lie throughout his whole testimony. Now my lawyer did a lot of arguing but he didn't pay attention to the big details that I was pointing out to him which makes me think that he was not really to concerned about proving my innocence. Reason why I say that is because he asked my ex-wife would she come and testify on my behalf she told him yes if he sent her a plane ticket. He never did even though she was only 8hrs away. My trail was in southern California she lived in northern California. I told him about two witnesses who could prove my innocence. His Investigator only talked to one that I can recall and the investigator said that one told him that he's not helping anyone. There are statements from two of the governments witnesses that contradicts everything the star witness testified to but my lawyer wouldn't listen when I was trying to point them out.
There was a statement by a government witness that I wrote in a letter that I sent to him before sentencing to try for a judgment of acquittal which the witness stated that there was two guys wrestling with the victim both were taller than the victim. I told the lawyer how could that be me If I'm shorter than all of them even the VICTIM. He turned it around and said to the judge "there is this thing where one of the perpetrators was taller and one was shorter" and he left it at that. That goes back to why I said I don't think that my lawyer was really on my side, mistake or intentional you be the judge of that.
After that trial I had to go fight another case, against the state this time behind something else my brother did. It all happened in that one night and they wanted to blame me for his actions. From what I learned during the federal trial, they were trying to use the fact that we are brothers and that one would always help the other in everything.
I sat in the county jail for 15 months. During that time not once did my federal lawyer ever come to see about my appeal, bring me his arguments on my appeal or the governments arguments against my appeal. After my state case I was sent here where I set out to put things into motion in preparations for my 2255 motion so I called my federal lawyers secretary for my trial transcripts and anything else pertaining to my case. In that process I asked about my appeal she told me that they have not heard anything yet. I believed her because after my conviction my lawyer told me that my case was going to be one for the books, meaning law books so I figured they were still arguing my case. She told me to try back in a couple of months which I did for the next 13 months. Around the fifth month she tried to connect me with the woman who did my appeal with no success every time that I called my lawyer was never in. I just happened to have an issue that I needed some paperwork from my state lawyer, he asked me have I heard anything on my appeal, I told him what the secretary keeps telling me and he says that he could look it up on Lexis-Nexus if I wanted and I said yes.
Low and behold he was sad to tell me that they denied my appeal and he would send me a copy if Id like. When I got the copy, that's timed stamped and dated, not only did they rule against me they came to a decision over a year from the first month that I started calling my lawyers secretary about it, which left me timed barred on filing my motion to vacate with no other avenue to proceed.
I do not feel comfortable enough to trust a jail house lawyer with my freedom. I sent out numerous letters trying to find a pro bono lawyer with no success. I've tried the innocence project in New York, Chicago Northwestern, and California only to be told that they only deal with DNA cases.
I have an Actual Innocence case that I need help with.
I've read many stories of people being locked up for years for crimes they did not commit only to be proven innocent 20 to 30 years later. Never in my life did I ever think that I would be one of those guys fighting for my freedom as things around me collapse.
My wife left me, my mom is in the hospital with a type of cancer, I don't know of what type of cancer until they finish tests on the cancer cell samples they took from her.
I don't know what to do.
I need a lawyer who wants to help me prove my Innocence.
Please me help me raise money so that I can once and for all prove my innocence and get back to my family before it is too late. I have grandkids who I've never met and my kids are getting older as am I.
No comments:
Post a Comment