Post Conviction Writ Review

I got an awesome letter last week. It was from Pat Lykos’ office, the Post Conviction Review Section.

Dear Incandesio,

This office received your letters requesting an investigation into Carlos Coy’s aggravated sexual assault of a child conviction in cause number 908426.

The Post Conviction Review (PCR) Section of this office investigates claims of innocence and relies upon objectively verifiable evidence which generally involves some form of forensic or scientific testing analysis. In Mr. Coy’s case, there is no physical evidence (like a sexual assault kit) upon which forensic analysis can presently be conducted that would establish Mr. Coy’s innocence. Mr. Coy’s conviction was based on testimonial evidence from witnesses presented in trial, and the PCR Section cannot make credibility determinations on witness testimony. In light of the fact that there is no physical evidence for possible forensic testing, then the PCR cannot provide assistance concerning your request for investigation.

Nonetheless, if you believe that Mr. Coy’s aggravated sexual assault of a child conviction was improperly secured, you are free to pursue remedy through any legal means available to Mr. Coy

Regards,

Baldwin Chin

Assistant District Attorney

Harris County, Texas

Before you get all down, let me tell you that I am fucking thrilled to get this letter.

“Whuuuut? But they didn’t do shit!”

True, but allow me to explore this a little bit. Somebody has been reading our letters. Somebody realizes that there’s enough of us out there that they had better do something about this case. Somebody, probably Pat Lykos, assigned Mr. Chin to look into Coy’s case. This is a huge step because we know that they’re thinking about it! We made enough of an impression that the DA decided that we might have a point. Obviously, this being the government, the first thing they’re going to do is try to brush us off.

“No, sorry, we don’t do that.”

Baldwin Chin has been instrumental in freeing many of the men I’ve written about. I believe that if he decides to really look into Coy Vs. Texas he will be extremely diligent in his search. But as of this letter, he hasn’t done one.

Notice that he doesn’t say “There’s been a review.” He acknowledges that they received my letter, tells me what the PCRS does, and then nicely tells me to go bother someone else. It’s basically a “fuck-off” letter disguised as a “We looked into it but didn’t find anything” letter. If I were less persistent, I might take this as the final word and write the DA’s office off as a lost cause, but I know better. There has been no review, just a quick scan of the facts of Coy’s conviction.

What’s the answer to this? Of course, more letters.

I’m sending one to Mr. Chin, letting him know that I appreciate his efforts, and reminding him (politely) that just because there was no DNA evidence used in the case, doesn’t mean that none exists. I’m also going to ask him to clarify this: there is no physical evidence (like a sexual assault kit) upon which forensic analysis can presently be conducted. Does that mean that there’s no physical evidence, or that technology is not sufficiently advanced to test the physical evidence they have?

I’m also going to write a letter to Pat Lykos thanking her for initiating the search for DNA, and asking her to now take a look at another aspect of the case. I’ll try to get those letters up next week. Since exonerating DNA is not an automatic ticket out of prison anyway, we’ll leave that issue for now and go on to the next.

Monday’s Post: Why the fuck did Houston PD/CAC not follow their own evidence collection protocols?

Writing Effectively 2

Here’s the example letter I wrote last week, using my outline:

DA Pat Lykos,

This letter is about Carlos Coy, TDCJ #01110642

I want him to be given a new trial.
There is evidence that his first trial was unfair, and it’s your job to give us justice.

Incandesio

www.spmaftermath.blogspot.com

Even if they only read the first line, Coy’s name jumps out at them. It’s stuck in their brain, and next time they hear or read something about him, they will think of my letter. They will not count how many letters about him they get, but they will know whether they’ve gotten several or just a few. I say ‘they’ because odds are that Lykos herself is not reading them. Some young intern in her office is probably stuck with that job, and at the end of the day he or she turns in a list of what the letters were about. Carlos Coy’s name needs to appear frequently on that list.

I clearly say that I want him to have a new trial. They’re not going to let him out without either a new trial or some kind of new evidence , and I think a new trial is more likely. That shows that I grasp the legal system well enough to know that they won’t just ‘free SPM’, and that I’m asking for something that’s completely reasonable.

I try to offer a reason for her to investigate. In this case, I state my belief that his trial was unfair. As a voter, that’s reason enough for me to complain. As an elected official, it should (in theory) be enough to prompt Pat Lykos to look into the trial.

Now that you’ve got a basic letter like this, you might want to add stuff; Decide which point it supports, and put it underneath that line. Under the ‘what I want’ line, consider writing about how Coy has affected your life; what has he done that makes you care enough to act?

Under ‘why I want it’, back up your suspicions with fact. I usually mention things I have uncovered like the possibility of Brady violations, which means that the prosecutors have illegally hidden evidence; Batson violations, which is when prosecutors dismiss jurors because of their race; the possibility of an inappropriate relationship between Coy’s Defense lawyer and the prosecutors.

I swear on the blog because I swear when I talk, but I don’t swear in my letters. I don’t know how Lykos feels about people saying ‘fuck’, and I don’t want her to discount what I’m saying because of my language.

You can start your letter with ‘dear’ or not. You can call her ‘The Honorable’ or not. There is no magical formula, no exact balance of words you have to achieve before your letter becomes ‘good’. Write sincerely and with confidence that your voice is worth hearing.

Weekend Reading 13

I try not to post things that I can't provide documentation for, but since this update comes straight from SPM I think I'll make an exception.

I received a letter written on the 15th of this month in which he says that he was formally arraigned for having a 'wireless communications device'. If you've got an account on DopeSpace, you know he got in trouble last year for a digital MP3 recorder. Now, Coy says that a device like this would not send or receive any electronic signals, but they're trying to get him 10 years under the statute that bans cell phones. I'm trying to find the arraignment paperwork.

Writing Effectively

Someone suggested, in the nicest way, that my letters to Pat Lykos are a little pretentious, and that some of you might be discouraged from writing. I welcome criticism, and it got me thinking; it really does not matter how well put together my letters are, they don’t mean shit if I’m the only one writing. Every letter, from every fan, makes a difference. The D.A. is not reading my letters and saying “Wow, that’s such a great letter; I’m going to start an investigation because of how great the spelling was!”

No. One letter, even if it was written by William fucking Shakespeare and edited by Stephen Hawking, will not result in justice. To make a political impact, we need letters written over time, consistently. There’s no need to bury them in an avalanche of paper but we want this issue to always be close to their minds…A letter from someone to remind them of Carlos Coy every few days is a good goal.

A letter from a college professor and a high school drop-out will have the same impact because each person has only one vote. Please, please, don’t excuse yourself by saying “I don’t know what to write” or “It’s not going to sound good”. You, personally, have to get involved or nothing about this fucked-up conviction will ever change. Your letter will help. It doesn’t matter if you’re a mechanic, a doctor, a dope dealer or a high school student, you have a voice and your opinion is important.

An outline is helpful. It doesn’t have to be the one your English teacher taught you; you don’t need fucking sub-points and references. My outline looks like this:

To: whoever

What’s this about?

What I want
Why I want it

From: me

That’s it. Using that outline, this is a perfectly acceptable letter:

 DA Pat Lykos,

This letter is about Carlos Coy, TDCJ #01110642

I want him to be given a new trial.

There is evidence that his first trial was unfair, and it’s your job to give us justice.

Incandesio

www.spmaftermath.blogspot.com

The letter above will be every bit as effective as any of the letters I have written because it conveys the same idea; that someone out there cared enough about Coy vs. Texas to write. In the mind of a politician, if you care enough to write then you care enough to vote, and that’s what matters.

I'm going to go over a few more things on Monday and give you some ideas to spruce up the basic letter.

Don't let your self-doubt get in the way of your voice. Making yourself heard on any issue that is important is absolutely necessary if we want to give even a half-decent world to our children.

Side Effects

We know that cops plant evidence to cover their mistakes. We know that the DA’s office conceals evidence. We know that judges and prosecutors like to fuck. Most people know that the system is corrupt…But there’s some kind of logical disconnect that happens when the public hears that someone’s been accused of attacking a child.

In February, Jose Torres was charged with breaking into a home and raping a 14 year old girl. The victim identified him because he had been at her door two days before the rape, selling cable. People said that he was a monster; that he shouldn’t be allowed to roam the streets. He was in jail for two months, he lost his apartment and two jobs; he was unable to find anyone to hire him because of the charges against him.

Finally, in August, Harris County dropped the case because of ‘insufficient evidence’. So what now? Well, his life’s pretty much ruined. A simple background check will reveal that he was charged with aggravated sex assault of a child. Why would any employer take the legal risk of hiring him? Who’s going to rent him another apartment? He’s branded for life.

The public hears about these accusations and immediately decides guilt. People will line up to denounce men accused of these crimes; maybe it’s a way of putting distance between ourselves and the very idea of child molestation. We accept the fact that the justice system will lie and cheat in any other case, but we cling to our faith that, at least in the cases where children are victimized, their motives and actions are pure. In order to question the legitimacy of these cases we would have to admit to ourselves that the police and the prosecutors are willing to use children to further their careers; since we just can’t stand that thought, we insult and revile the ones who should be allowed the presumption of innocence.

I would say that Jose Torres is one lucky bastard, although he may not agree with me. He was charged using the same type of evidence that was used against Carlos Coy; that is, victim testimony. In fact, the accuser in this case is quite a bit more credible than the one in Coy vs. Texas, because she’s 14, not 9.  Torres could easily have ended up with 45 years or even longer since he was accused of rape and of threatening the girl’s life with a knife and a screwdriver, while Coy was never accused of violence.

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/local&id=7957577

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Rape-charge-dropped-but-man-says-whole-life-2081414.php

Weekend Reading 12

Via GritsForBreakfast:

Aransas-
Freeman and five other witnesses signed sworn affidavits saying police officers planted drugs on Staley after they cuffed him..."They had already searched him and they announced to everyone in the room that he was clean; that he was clear," Kayla Staley said.
Full story here.

My question is, are the cops getting cockier, or are people just getting tired of this shit?

Letter to Pat Lykos 4

Time for another letter to DA Pat Lykos. Please, feel free to change it around a little and send it, or write your own; a big part of this campaign for a fair trial is keeping Coy’s name in front of those in power. If you don’t feel like sending a letter, print out one of those forms to your right and send it to the address below. Let Pat Lykos know that we’re here and we demand justice!

The Honorable Pat Lykos                                                                              

1201 Franklin
Houston, TX 77002

                                               

Madame District Attorney,

I’m writing to you today about the case of Carlos Coy, TDCJ #01110642.

While reading about the newly-restored & re-dedicated Houston courthouse, I was absolutely floored by how beautiful it is. How amazing that something so abused and unappreciated could be so spectacular once proper attention is paid to it.

Similarly abused and unappreciated was the citizen’s trust in the courts under DA Chuck Rosenthal. As you know, abuses of power were common and innocent men were sent to prison on false evidence, or because exculpatory evidence was withheld.

With a little attention and hard work, you have begun restoring citizen’s faith in the judicial system. Please, extend some of that to the case of Carlos Coy. As far as we know there is no DNA evidence involved in his case, so a review would not tax the already stretched resources of the Houston Crime Lab.

At least a comparison of the discovery file with the medical & police reports would be much appreciated; rumors of undisclosed evidence that might have benefited Coy’s case are persistent. A case like this will generate a great deal of publicity when it is finally made public, wouldn’t it be better for the Houston DA to proactively deal with it?

Please, help us get the ball rolling. Review Carlos Coy’s case, examine the evidence, and tell us what you think about it.

Me, my address, blah blah blah.

Case update

If you’re on our Facebook page, you probably saw this video, a very recent interview with Baby Bash by www.camcaponenews.com. He mentions that Carlos Coy’s appeal will by going to the high court, and also that they’re going to try for a reduction of sentence. While I’m not entirely sure whether he means the Supreme court, fifth circuit, or the TCCA, I’d guess he’s talking about the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court hears very few cases, but maybe he got his Writ of Cert (permission to appeal) approved, finally.

If that doesn't happen, and Coy decides to try for a reduction of sentence (commutation), what does that mean?

Although his conviction would still be considered correct, the sentence will be cut down, sometimes to equal time already served. These are not easy to get, but it could happen. To even apply for it, Coy would have to get two of the three ‘Trial Officers’ to agree that 45 years was too much time for the crime he was convicted of.

Those three Trial Officers are the District Attorney, the Harris County Sheriff, and the Judge of the court he was convicted in. In 2002, that would have been DA Chuck Rosenthal, Sheriff Tommy Thomas, and Judge Mark Kent Ellis. We already know what kind of man the DA was; Thomas instituted a policy of deleting departmental E-mails in January 2008, the same month Rosenthal got in such trouble for deleting thousands of subpoenaed emails. There will probably be another post about him later. After obtaining two or three of these recommendations, it goes to the Parole Board; if they approve it, it still has to get past the Governor's desk.

Anyway, in cases where the original people are no longer in their positions, you go with whoever is currently in power. I think that changes things a bit. SPM would have to get the approval of DA Pat Lykos, Sheriff Adrian Garcia, and once again, Judge Mark Kent Ellis.

We know that Pat Lykos has an interest in seeing justice done, even in post-conviction cases. Sheriff Garcia seems to have been pretty decent while in office. Judge Ellis is definitely a hard-ass, but some say he’s fair. So a commutation would be unusual, but not impossible.  

I have to admit, I have extremely mixed feelings about the idea of a commuted sentence. On the one hand, this is not justice. This is not exoneration. Coy would still feel the effects of his mishandled trial. He would still have to register as a sex offender. The state would not have to admit they made a mistake.

On the other hand, he would be home with his family, able to continue his life, and presumably still fight his wrongful conviction from the outside. This is his choice to make. Hopefully the Dope House will let us know if we can support their efforts.

http://www.paroletexas.com/articles/CommutationFull2.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Thomas_(sheriff)

Weekend Reading 11

This is a blog written by a Corrections Officer (CO) at Allred Unit!
There's no specific information about prisoners but he does provide a very vivid picture of what it's like to live and work there. He's working on a book as well.

http://www.maynardhawkins.com/category/wichita-falls-allred-unit/

The Circus

Kevin Byrd was convicted of raping a woman in 1985. Although at the time of the assault she told police that a white man with unusual, honey-colored skin raped her, four months later while shopping she identified Kevin Byrd as her attacker…A black man. He served 12 years of a life sentence before it came out that Houston Crime Lab’s DNA testimony was false, and re-testing cleared him. He was exonerated in 1997.

I didn’t take more time to tell his story because, well, fuck, we know how it goes. Over and over and over again Harris County convicts, incarcerates, and is finally forced to release these men it has branded as sex offenders. The names change, but never the circumstances.

If you think it couldn’t happen to you, you’re fucking crazy. These men are being plucked off the streets because of the hats they wear, or because they live near the location of the crime, or because they just chose the wrong damn day to go to the grocery store. What the fuck, Texas? Why are we so eager to sacrifice our young men for some false feeling of security? The police, the DA, the government, they can’t protect you or your family from violence.

They’ll care for the victim as well as they can, and try to make it look like they’re catching the bad guys, but they know they can’t actually stop a crime from occurring. They’ll grab some random guy, charge him & convict him, then pack him away to prison; they’ve removed a generation of men from their families, their support systems, their lives.

They must have wet their pants the day they got a shot at South Park Mexican. Finally, a well known figure in the community! Finally, some publicity and wide-spread acclaim! He was just scary enough to get the voters to pay attention, just rich enough to make people hate him, just screwed-up enough that they could build a circumstantial case before the jury was even chosen. It’s not every day the DA gets to run his own little media circus.

And run it they did, with scientific acrobatics, psychologists clowning for the cameras, and a fat, fancy ring master cracking the whip. The audience ate it up and paid for it all with a guilty verdict. Now that’s entertainment!

This mess took a lot of people to put together, and there is nothing that any one person can do to fix it. Even if the little girl, now a young woman, came forward and said it didn't happen, that's not a get-out-of-jail free ticket. The DA's office would fight it, because they've done it in the past. For Carlos Coy to recieve justice, it's going to take a massive amount of people standing up and making their voices heard by those in power. As we spread information about SPM's case we need to understand that we're laying the foundation for that to happen. That's why I have that little blurb in the side bar about God's timing. Everything will come together smoothly, but not until that moment when it will be perfect.

Please, continue spreading the word; we'll get there.

http://www.innocenceproject.org/Content/Kevin_Byrd.php

More 'Free SPM' shirts

Check out Quota's face book page for more shirts...20 bucks and a kick-ass logo, you can't say no!

Shirts

For those of you having problems with ordering a 'Free SPM' shirt, the site's moved and everything should be fixed. Show your support!

http://www.canttrustthesystem.com/

Judicial Election 2012

Here's a list of the appeals courts in Texas; the appeals that Carlos Coy has filed are listed under each as the case number. This is a tentative list; I'm not familiar with the judicial system at all, so consider this worth everything you paid for it. If you have the number of an appeal that I don't have, please leave it in the comments or shoot me an E-mail so I can list it here and take a look at it.

Fourth Court of Appeals
04-02-00272-CR denied-2002

First Court of Appeals
01-02-00593-CR denied-2003

Texas Court of Criminal Appeals
Petition for discretionary review refused-2004
Writ of habeas corpus denied-2007
WR-65,301-01 Habeas Corpus (not an appeal, a request for evidence) granted-2007

Supreme Court of Texas
08-659 petition for Writ of Certiorari denied-2009

I've been writing under the assumption that Coy's appeals have been exhausted, but I'm not sure now. I don't see any record of his case at the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which is the next-to-last court of appeals, although the very last, the Supreme Court of Texas, doesn't hear that many cases. The 'Writ of Certiorari' is a request to have the Supreme Court review the information about his case from the lower courts. It also suggests that he's been through the TCCA, but I can't find anything about it. He's been fighting for the right to evidence (Habeas Corpus, which means 'produce the body') since at least 2007.

There’s a judicial election coming up in 2012. Three seats on the Texas Criminal Court of Appeals will be up for grabs, including the top seat, that of Presiding Judge Sharon Keller. Also known as ‘Sharon Killer’. Infamous for some of their controversial rulings, they should be calling it the Texas Court of You are SO Fucking Fucked.

They denied a new trial to a man who confessed only because Juarez police claimed that they would torture his parents if he didn't. They overturned the successful appeal of a man who was tried for rape with no evidence to link him to the crime. After the court continued to fight to uphold the 'finality of conviction', President Bush eventually had to pardon the guy to keep the Texas judicial system from becoming a complete laughingstock. Keller closed the court to the last appeal of a man on Death Row.

All in all, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has gained a reputation as more of a hurdle than a path to justice. Carlos Coy has filed at least one Write of Habeus Corpus to the TCCA, but I can not find a record of an appeal. If he's already been through the TCCA, they can overturn themselves; they've done it before.  He might have one left, but does anyone believe that this court will give fair consideration to a convict's plea for justice?

 When the President of the United States has to step in and fix their shit to avoid national embarassment, how can we trust their judgement? I hope that the only problem here is Keller, and that it can be fixed by electing someone else. A fellow TCCA judge, Larry Meyers, has announced his intention to run against her in next November's election. It appears his campaign has not kicked off yet, but I will be keeping an eye out for information that will tell us how he intends to be different from her.

Every election I have ever voted in, I voted a straight party ticket. I think a lot of us probably do. That needs to stop now. These are the people that decide our future, set us on paths from which there is no turning back, and we barely even know who we're electing. If you believe that the TCCA should exist to give justice when it has been denied, please consider voting in next year's election, and throwing Keller out on her ass. I'm not an expert in how these elections are run, so bear with me as I try to figure out what the process is. If it's possible to send letters of support for a particular case, I will let you know. I'll provide the address, and an outline or example letter. If the time comes, please be willing to get involved.  

I want to let the judges know that we're out here, that we're paying attention. It should not be this damn hard to get a fair hearing.

http://www.judgelawrencemeyers.org/

http://judgepedia.org/index.php/Sharon_Keller

http://www.cca.courts.state.tx.us/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharon_Keller

http://www.cca.courts.state.tx.us/

http://www.1stcoa.courts.state.tx.us/