SPM Responds (Part 5)

Friends,

Incandesio wrote me with two questions that were voted on:

1)      Will there be another appeal soon?

2)      Do you believe your conviction may have been the result of a conspiracy?

As to your first question, there’s only one “real” appeal from what I understand. It goes to four or five places before it dies. I’m not too sure about the process because I trusted lawyers to handle it, but this is how I think it goes.

You go to prison and file an appeal. First, the appeal goes to the judge in your trial. The judge in my trial sent it back denied. Then I think it goes to Austin, Texas. Well, the state of Texas just spent a bunch of money getting me convicted so, of course, they deny it, too.

The first two or three places the appeal goes to is in Texas, and almost no one gets relief from state-level appeals.

Then, it goes to federal courts. I believe its next stop was Louisiana’s 5^th Circuit Court of Appeals. They denied it. Then, I believe, it makes its last stop at the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. They denied it.

The whole process took about seven years.

I believe my grounds for appeal were good, but probably could have been better. After my first two denials, I fired my appeals lawyers and hired some new guys. Obviously, they failed too. After spending about 140,000 dollars on my new appeals lawyers, and after losing in the appeals process, (which ends at Supreme Court), this is the letter my appeals lawyer sent:

Dear Mr. Coy:

Enclosed please find a copy of the Fifth Circuit denying a certificate of appealability.

You have 90 days to file a petition for a writ of certiorari in the United States Supreme Court. I do not believe there is any likelihood that the Supreme Court will grant certiorari in view of the fact that the Fifth Circuit did not write an opinion. If you want to hire counsel to file a certiorari petition, please advise, and I will make recommendations.

It goes without saying that I vigorously disagree with this decision. For what it is worth, I think your celebrity status worked against you.

I would like Arthur to call me to arrange to pick up the boxes of records that I was given when I was hired.

Please contact me if you have any questions.

You know what’s crazy? I’m just now realizing that my appeal didn’t even make it to the Supreme Court. This letter is three years old. That’s sad. Anyway, I kept this letter because, well, I payed 140,000 dollars for this damn letter. I did hire someone to file the certiorari petition but it was denied, too.

I do agree with what the lawyer said about my celebrity status. Well, not so much that but because I was South Park Mexican, a man who publicly displayed hatred towards authority, who rose from selling dope to running Dope House Records, who was the fastest growing rap artist in the nation. When they get one like me caught in their net, my chances aren’t the best.

So, what’s next? From what I understand, we must find “new evidence” to be able to get a new trial. That’s all I ask. Just a chance to prove my innocence. We hired an investigator to work on finding new evidence.

I’m sure there’s all kinds of stuff we can do, I’m just not sure what it is. I know the power of the people moves mountains and so I’m thankful for citizens like Incandesio, who I just learned about a few months ago.

http://www.spmaftermath.blogspot.com/2012/02/spm-responds-part-4a.html