patrick swiney - an injustice in alabama

I think we must have hope but even hope can sometimes become illusive. They say that history repeats itself. It repeats itself because people forget what it was that made us free. The people are suppose to hold the power. Our freedom has been sold out by the power of the system. The system now governs the people when the people should be governing the system. How many trees can they remove from the forest before it becomes barren. I see to much clear cutting and no planting. The ground that was put in place under our rights has become unstable. Erosion has been taking place for a long time. Yet they continue to cut. I feel our tears are like rain that falls on barren land. They evaporate by the heat before they are absorbed by the earth.

Justice is a thing of the past. Now it is important for the courts to get convictions at any cost. Truth and justice now has no place in the court system. This country was great once. There were laws and a system to protect people and provide justice.

The new leagal system is like a cancer, one that
Has moved in and taken over our courts. As with all cancers it must be treated or soon the body will be eaten up by it with certain death to fallow
This cancer has been growing for a long time now. The body has long been Dead. Now we use a dead system to extract the truth. The truth will also
Surly die. I have watched it take place for many years. How do we find a
Vaccine that will cure the dead?

If you dare to speak out in Alabama then you become a target. Prison is big business here. The phone lines make millions of dollars in Alabama. We are warehousing men and women in Alabama. The only time anything has gotten done is when we all stood up and made some noise. Yes, they retaliated but they still had to do something. It is because we spoke out that thw women in Tutwiler filed and won their lawsuit for inhumane conditions. They retaliated by sending many of them away to Lousiana, far away from their families. Many of the women were non-violent offenders and could have gone home. The health care is awful. Thousands are sick and dying from TB, Infecgtions and so much more. We cannot talk about other countries being barbaric. No one is worst thatn we are at mistreating people. Patrick Swiney is only guilty of exposing corruption in Alabama. For that he has been gioven a death sentence. It breaks my heart to know he is sick and in prison for a crime the evidence cl;early shows he did not commit. I personally know how that feels. Many have seen the so-called evidence in my own case and know it was only because of my views that I was targeted. I pray it is not too late for Patrick.
R. Franklin

Patrick Swiney sits ailing in an Alabama Prison simply because he had the courage to speak out about Police corruption. Thuis case is filled with so many wrongs that we can never count them all. The prosecutor dated the wife(deceased)and should never have handled the case himself. THe Judge should be locked up himself. It saddens me when proof is right in front of everyone's eyes but they intentionally overlook the evidence that would set Patrick free. They know or are afraid that Patrick will sue them for all the years they have stolen from him and his family. Patrick has lost loved ones and his mother is old. It is a shame that she has to go through this as well as the rest of his family. I am hoping and praying that some BRAVE news source will take this case and investigate it and then expose it to the world. Hang in there Sherry. You have been a wonderful supportive wife but you have also been a friend to me and so many others. You are always there when we need you and I hope people step up to the plate when you need them. It will take the public outcry to free Patrick or a PARDON from the Governor. We should also ask the Governor to give him a Pardon.Riley shopuld have enough copmpassion in him to grant atrick a Compassionate Pardon. Patrick has already served many many years, so even the Victims Rights groups could not have a lot to say. It is time to bring Patrick home where he belongs.

I feel compelled to add another aspect into the necessary discussion on justice re Patrick’s innocence. While Jeremy Rifkin, Washington, DC, recognized the economic aspects on United States high prisoner rate, Harvard’s honourable colleague Samuel P. Huntington missed reality so far in his book WHO ARE WE (2004). He emphasized instead American’s were a religious folk. In fact: Injustice and high prisoner rate don’t fit together with religious education.

In the case of Patrick Swiney, he has enough evidence to prove his innocence so why is this case being quashed by the state of Alabama? Why are they afraid of the truth coming out to set an innocent man free? In the ancient scriptures it is written: "Consider carefully what you do, because you are not judging for man, but for the Lord, who is with you whenever you give a verdict. Now let the fear of the Lord be upon you. Judge carefully, for with the Lord our God there is no injustice or partiality or bribery.(2 Chronicles 19:6-7")

Apart from “a religious folk“ to which justice officials also subscribe, they would have probably heard of John 1,17:“God gave the Law through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ”. Permit me to invite them to read John 8, when assembled for decision:“Whichever one of you has committed no sin may throw the first stone… Where are they? Is there no one left to condemn you?– No one, sir, she answered.– Well, then, Jesus said, I do not condemn you either. Go, but do not sin again.”

Can we conclude then that Government consultant Huntington lied (or just blanked out) in favour of his folk’s judges? If so then it is high time for correction.

How many people will have to serve a portion or their whole life in jail before our local, state, and federal government will figure out how to make a just and fair legal system! I guess in the mean time all we can hope for is that the juries who convict these people listen to the evidence and start seeing what is really going on in these cases. The next time one sits on a jury really listen to the evidence before you convict someone!

Christina wrote:

How many people will have to serve a portion or their whole life in jail before our local, state, and federal government will figure out how to make a just and fair legal system! I guess in the mean time all we can hope for is that the juries who convict these people listen to the evidence and start seeing what is really going on in these cases. The next time one sits on a jury really listen to the evidence before you convict someone!

Christina,

I recently attended my husband's FIFTH trial in Missouri, so can tell you first hand the impressions I was left with. The Jury can only go with what they're told, and the immediate first response seems to be -'no smoke without fire'. You always have to remember that most of these people attain jury qualification status because they've never been in trouble with the law, themselves. They may have knowledge of family members and friends who've got into trouble, but the general condition is they believe the law is 'just and true'.

Trials are rushed. My husband's fifth trial, took the grand sum of two days. The jury heard that the DNA evidence was not his, they saw his clothes had so very little on them and they heard the story of how he got that small amount on his clothes - and it went right over their heads. The main prosecution witness, when describing they're finding the body - actually came across as if she found it amusing. If trials were allowed to be Q & A sessions I'd have had to have medical treatment for a locked shoulder, for the amount of times my hand would have hit the air.

And with juries, it's all about personalities, as well. The prosecutors spent 3/4 of their closing statement telling the jury how wonderful they were, and I wondered at the time if I was the only one sitting there thinking -'do they realise you're crawling up their backsides to use up time on the closing statement because you've got so very little to close on?'- seemingly not.

Juries are also startingly under-informed. The jurors asked at the end of the trial ''will the defendant know our names and addresses?' and were told No. As the defendant has the right to their own transcripts which will contain the juror's names, shouldn;t they have been advised of this fact? I've put a link on the next post you mnight find interesting.

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Sherry Swiney wrote:

<quoted text>
You are so right. Finality of judgment is more important to the State than due process and the rule of law.
www.patrickswiney.com

My son is in the same prediciment. I hope it doesnt'ta take long for people to see his innocence. He was sentenced to two life terms for something he didn't do.

In my humble opinion it is next to impossible to get anything approaching justice out of the state of Alabama.
I'd also add that the 'corrections' dept. there has nothing to do with decency and could be a model for how a corrections system should NOT be run.
M. Derringer - Moderator for IIPPI's forum

Paula

I'm sorry to hear about your son. I hope that someday he gets proper attention and Justice. Does he have a website, petition, or anything? If he has could you post it here, because I'd very much like to see it. My husband has gone through FIVE trials and looks set for possibly a sixth, and they wonder why they're having problems. They're convicting an Innocent man and Innocence issues keep cropping up, as a consequence. If they opened their eyes and stopped trying to change statements, facts and Lord knows what else to make the facts fit around him, they'd see the facts staring them in the face. Hopefully, the facts are now staring them in the face, but it's whether they'll do anything about them, that's the worry.

Walter Barton - Please Re-investigate or Dismiss - Red Flags Flying!
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/WalterBart...

http://www.topix.net/forum/city/springfield-m...
Springfield Missouri Forum -'Walter Barton - Incomplete Investigation'- The 'Fight Site' where undisclosed information came to light on May 29th.

Good luck Paula, and may God go with you and your family.

This is crazy, Something needs to be done so that Patrick can be home where he belongs! it's just messed up that you really do not know how messed up the justice system is until you or someone you love gets caught up in it! Alot of the systems way have got to change or before we know it we will all be sitting in behind bars, it seems thats the way things are going anyway.

I still wonder this:
Why don't American citizens stand up against this so called legal system?
Why are they silent, even when something happens to themself most of them try to let someone else speak for them; this is what I noticed during the years I am informed about the US legal system.
Don't mean to offend anyone, just want to give them a kick in the ass, might be people wake up and realize what's happening.
Sherry Swiney is one of the people I really admire, this is a lady with balls !

It is very sad and scary that a human being is locked up for that many years obvious innocent and cannot get justice because of a technicality and laws that are outdated and need to be outlawed! My prayers are with Sherry Swiney and her husband. God has promised that he will judge people by their deeds and the judicial system in whole is so totally corrupt and bias that it does not take a lot of knowing about these laws and regulations to see that nobody should be kept in prison because they did not file the motion "on time" or did not use the "correct form". That is why drug dealers (the big ones) get off free all the time because they can afford to pay corrupt lawyers enough money to beat the system. I am surprised that not more people in the state of Alabama have come forward yet. I hear them complaining all the time about this corrupt state, but maybe it is not bad enough until it happens to any of them!

Roberta wrote:

If you dare to speak out in Alabama then you become a target. Prison is big business here. The phone lines make millions of dollars in Alabama. We are warehousing men and women in Alabama. The only time anything has gotten done is when we all stood up and made some noise. Yes, they retaliated but they still had to do something. It is because we spoke out that thw women in Tutwiler filed and won their lawsuit for inhumane conditions. They retaliated by sending many of them away to Lousiana, far away from their families. Many of the women were non-violent offenders and could have gone home. The health care is awful. Thousands are sick and dying from TB, Infecgtions and so much more. We cannot talk about other countries being barbaric. No one is worst thatn we are at mistreating people. Patrick Swiney is only guilty of exposing corruption in Alabama. For that he has been gioven a death sentence. It breaks my heart to know he is sick and in prison for a crime the evidence cl;early shows he did not commit. I personally know how that feels. Many have seen the so-called evidence in my own case and know it was only because of my views that I was targeted. I pray it is not too late for Patrick.
R. Franklin

You are so right with the moneymaking practices pertaining to jails and prisons in Alabama and the retaliations. My son and numerous other inmates at Russell County Jail, AL were victims of abuse and because he reported the wrongdoing of jail and sherrif's personnel, he is getting punished for it now. He is being set up and I fear for is life and the lives of the other inmates that got abused here in Russell County Jail on Nov. 9, 2005. One young man, Lamar Benton, committed suicide in that jail just a few weeks ago. He did not even had his trial yet, tried to escape this jail in January 2006 with another inmate, got captured and put right back in the same jail. He is dead now and the DA wants to stop the DNA testing (he feels that it would be just a waste of resources to continue the DNA testing since Benton is dead now. Well, Benton's lawyer feels that his client would be convicted of a crime that he might not even have done. Something is seriously wrong here! I have tried since November 14, 2005 to alert the authorities and other organizations of the "shakedown" that happened in that jail that night (Nov. 9, 2005) and got only empty promises and a bunch of lies from people that are supposed to uphold the law. A lot of people knew what was going on but did not speak out. I wonder how they can sleep at night!!! I am ashamed to be a citizen of a county where law enforcement and jail personnel can do whatever they want to with people who are locked up and who cannot even walk away from their abusers. Why does it seem that nobody cares about this incident when so many people know about it?!

Patrick Swiney is INNOCENT! the only thing keeping him from living the life he should be living is the corrupt justice system in this country. It is appalling and againts ALL of the citizens of this country. None of us are immune to this treatment. Patrick is my son's grandfather. He is a dear man, and does not deserve any of this! he has suffered enough already and should be allowed the opportunity to prove his innocence so that he may live out his life on a farm, with His beautiful, loving wife. All my love and support and prayers go with you two throught your fight!

If you take the definition of 'justice' that was given to Patrick to it's logical conclusion, then you can only be left with 'contempt'. And that's the biggest crime of them all.

i have read many storys of injustice and this is noe of them. DAs and judges trying to make a name for thereselves they dont care if you are innocent as long as they get a conviction this country is going to hell

Roberta wrote:

Patrick Swiney is only guilty of exposing corruption in Alabama. For that he has been gioven a death sentence. It breaks my heart to know he is sick and in prison for a crime the evidence cl;early shows he did not commit. I personally know how that feels. Many have seen the so-called evidence in my own case and know it was only because of my views that I was targeted. I pray it is not too late for Patrick.
R. Franklin

I know what Alabama has put you through Roberta and I wish everyone knew the truth about this. Our battle to keep Patrick alive all these years so that he may see his freedom has been a super-human effort. The battle to get the courts to hear the evidence of innocence in his case has been met with only Procedural Barriers so far. The courts could not get away with this in a healthy judiciary. Today it does so with impunity. This is not the America I learned about when I was a child. Realizing that the judicial system is totally broken is a tough lesson for anyone who does not know how it is. Once enough people know how it is, maybe things will change and DUE PROCESS will have meaning again in the American society.

Actually, this is still the America we learned about when we were kids because we were taught lies. Most Americans don't listen to people who scream "injustice"; they think people like that are wacko. That's the first mistake. Anyone can go to the Alabama AG's website and read a libelous article published by Troy King's office regarding Roberta. Does King's office know that they have published libel? Yes, they certainly do, however government officals do what they please with impunity (usually under cover of immunity).

Folks, you have to realize that this injustice is about class war and it's been going on for a long time but its covered up with propaganda. I could cite case after case of citizens in Alabama being arrested, tried, imprisoned or charges dropped by prosecutors. To prosecutors they seem to actually think they're being heros and protecting people. They are anything but! They are working for the elite and carry out injustice for 30 pieces of silver.

Bill Gallagher Hachita NM wrote:

The Post above with my name on it is supposed to read HACHITA NM as location, do not know where the AZ thing came from. I would like to see the judges explain the yellow fringe around the flags in the courtroom! Thanks!
Bill Gallagher
Hachita NM

Bill, yellow flag fringe certainly is a dead give away, isn't it?:-) <---smily face for Bill's comment but certainly not for the situation in this country.