Wrongly Convicted
" Under a government that imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just person is also a prison." Dr. M.L. King, Jr.
Speaking truth to power is perhaps the oldest and, certainly, one of the most difficult of ethical challenges because to do so entails personal danger. From the day humans descended from our ape-like ancestors until only very recently, tribal leaders, clan elders, kings, and just plain bosses were men who ruled by force. To question their decisions was to risk death. The truth that makes men free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear. --Herbert Agar, A Time for Greatness (1942) http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/focusareas/business/truth-to-power.html
The Only known case of a husband and wife being jointly framed and wrongly convicted
Virginia and George High spent over 7 years in federal prison (94-2001), after being Framed, Wrongly Convicted, The victims of Prosecutorial misconduct and of a judicial lynching, because they would not "cut-a-deal". After which the U.S.A. stole 1.2 + million from the Highs, gave it to a white snitch and caused the High Family to lose 4 businesses and 4 + million in assets. George High is now 71 years old, nearly destitute and his total income is $615.00 monthly Social Security and $79.00 monthly SSI...but, George High affirm that: He will continue this fight until Justice prevail, or hell freeze over...which ever comes first.....
The 4 Businesses We Owned/Operated & Our 4 + Million in Assets
George and Virginia High are husband and wife, having been married since 1968. When this racist investigation began in 1990, the Highs had assets in excess of 4 million dollars, and had an ownership interest in Georgia Home Improvement Company Inc., High-Five Ltd., Shareholders in Bal, Inc. and owner/operators of Highs Realty Inc. in which George Sr. was Broker and Virginia, Eric and George W. High, Jr. along with 30+ other people were all licensed real estate agents. The second superseding indictment against the Highs alleged that they used these businesses as "fronts" to structure currency transactions and laundry money that was illegally obtained through the trafficking of narcotics. George and Virginia High pled not guilty to the indictment and have maintained their innocence throughout the trial and subsequent proceedings. Disfranchised Introduction: hthttp://georgehigh.com/Disfranchised/My%20Memoirs%20Introduction.pdf
Georgia Home Improvement Company, Inc. http://corp.sos.state.ga.us/corp/soskb/Corp.asp?609545 ...The total cost of the restoration exceeded $850,000 and Georgia Home Improvement netted almost $500,000 during 80 and 81 + we made a “bundle” from real estate during that same period...After we finished the Herndon Mansion, we had a big nest egg and we started to sell houses and do owner financing which proved to be very lucrative because most of the houses in our area were non qualifying and non escalating FHA and/or VA ... excepts from Disfranchised pg. 23-33 http://georgehigh.com/Disfranchised/Ga.%20Hm.%20His..pdf
Highs Realty Inc. & The High-Family Real Estate...1971 – 1994 http://corp.sos.state.ga.us/corp/soskb/Corp.asp?794493 This list is of the properties that we owned, held 1st & 2nd mortgages on, sold Owner-financing, Real estate Notes we held and etc. On this list is also about 60 Quadplex, 40 owned by High-Five, Ltd. and 20 owned by George High. Now Bill Salinski and the "good-old-boys and gals" stole all our Real Estate and other Business records during the unjust search and seizure at our home and office so that the Highs could not mount a effective defense to prove their innocence of the “trumped-up-charges... but the records were still at the Dekalb and Fulton County Courthouses and here they are.... All 18 pages... http://georgehigh.com/Virginia/George%20%26%20Virginia%20Real%20Estate.pdf
HIGH FIVE, Ltd. http://corp.sos.state.ga.us/corp/soskb/Corp.asp?804829 The goal of the Lakewood Village Homeless Empowerment Project is to provide permanent housing, job training/referrals. education support and part time employment for Atlanta's homeless community; to serve as a social service network and referral system to provide treatment for drug/alcohol dependent and mentally ill homeless persons. http://georgehigh.com/gh/Dr.%20Marsh%20Proposal.pdf
I Won't Back Down http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVD0i7qu2o4&feature=related
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Civil Rights: President Obama recognizes that our civil rights laws and principles are at the core of our nation. He has spent much of his career fighting to strengthen civil rights – as a community organizer, civil rights lawyer, Illinois State Senator, U.S. Senator, and now as President. He knows that our country grows stronger when all Americans have access to opportunity and are able to participate fully in our economy. Lead Criminal Justice Reform The President will lead the fight to build a more fair and equitable criminal justice system. He will seek to strengthen federal hate crime legislation and will work to ensure that federal law enforcement agencies do not resort to racial profiling. http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/civil-rights
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2/25/10 Texas Observer Who Gets Wrongly Convicted and Why To mark the occasion, the Innocence Project released a report that details each of the 250 cases. —The 250 innocent people have been sent to prison in 33 states for a combined 3,160 years. That's an average of 13 years in prison. —60 percent of the 250 exonerees are African American; 29 percent are white. —17 were on death row when they were exonerated. http://www.texasobserver.org/contrarian/who-gets-wrongly-convicted
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I pledge allegiance to the Flag, of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, One Nation, under God Indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for All.
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George W. Bush during his six years as governor of Texas presided over 152 executions, more than any other governor in the recent history of the United States. According to statistics, George Bush has executed 9 INNOCENT PEOPLE..! http://www.texecutions.com/
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- The Execution Photos by J.J. Maloney 7/20/09 Texas reporter, Mike Graczyk has seen 315 of the state's 439 executions - and no records were kept for another 80 http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/07/20/texas.execution.witness/index.html
June 15, 2010 Texas judge orders DNA test decade after execution… "This is a DNA test that could prove someone was wrongly executed," said Barry Scheck, the co-director of the Innocence Project, a New York-based legal center that helped ensure the preservation of the strand of hair. Jones, a career criminal and paroled murderer, always insisted he was innocent. He died in 2000, the last of 40 inmates executed in Texas that year and the last of 152 inmates put to death during former President George W. Bush's time as governor. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100615/ap_on_re_us/us_texas_execution_dna 
Texas executes 400th inmate since 1982: August 25, 2007 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20398934/from/ET/
Houston Riot of 1917 - 19 Black soldiers hanged and 63 Sentenced to life Between November 1, 1917, and March 26, 1918, the army held three separate courts-martial in the chapel at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio. The military tribunals indicted 118 enlisted men of I Company for participating in the mutiny and riot, and found 110 guilty. It was wartime, and the sentences were harsh. Nineteen mutinous soldiers were hanged and sixty-three received life sentences in federal prison. One was judged incompetent to stand trial. Two white officers faced courts-martial, but they were released. No white civilians were brought to trial. http://www.mmbolding.com/Porter/Bud_Porter_and_the_Houston_Riot_1917.htm
executions in the U.S. fell to a 14-year low of 37 in 2008: 12/18/08Texas is in a death penalty league of its own with 423 executions since
1976, when the U.S. Supreme Court lifted a temporary ban...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081211/us_nm/us_usa_executions_3
- 12/18/09 Report: Death sentences on the decline: Even in Texas, which leads all states in executions, fewer are on death row. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34470417/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/
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- The total population of the U.S. corrections system now exceeds 7.3 million: 3/2/09 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29469360/from/ET/
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- "Remember the Alamo,'' and do Y'all Remember James Byrd Jr.?
(From Left) James Byrd Jr. , Shawn Berry, Lawrence Brewer and John King. - Dragging Death in Jasper Texas: On June 7, 1998, Byrd, 49, accepted a ride from three men named Shawn Allen Berry, Lawrence Russell Brewer, and John William King . He had already known one of them. Instead of taking him home, the three men beat Byrd behind a convenience store, chained him by the ankles to their pickup truck, stripped the man naked, and dragged him for three miles. Although Lawrence Russell Brewer said that Byrd's throat had been slashed before he was dragged, forensic evidence suggests that Byrd had been attempting to keep his head up, and an autopsy suggested that Byrd was alive for much of the dragging and died after his right arm and head were severed when his body hit a culvert. His body had caught a sewage drain on the side of the road resulting in Byrd's decapitation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Byrd_Jr. Sept. 6, 2000…Juries in Jasper and Bryan sentenced Bill King, 25, and Russell Brewer Jr., 32, to death. On Thursday, a third jury in Jasper sentenced Berry to life in prison… http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/special/jasper/byrd/387258.html
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- Wed Dec 23, 2009 - Texas man freed by DNA sues over 'excessive' fees ttp://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091223/ap_on_re_us/us_dna_exoneration_lawyer_fees
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- September 22, 2003 Thirty-five victims of racist frame-up pardoned in Texas:
- HOUSTON—In response to a four-year battle against the arrest and jailing of more than a tenth of the Black population of the western Texas town of Tulia, Governor Richard Perry granted full pardons on August 22 for 35 of the 38 men and women convicted on frame-up drug charges. http://www.themilitant.com/2003/6732/673255.html
.10/1/09 Texas pardons inmate freed by DNA - A Texas man who spent more time in prison than any other inmate before being exonerated by DNA evidence has been pardoned by the governor of Texas.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33117021/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/from/ET
3/19/09 New Mexico governor abolishes capital punishment: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090319/ap_on_re_us/death_penalty_new_mexico
3/24/09 Death penalty coming under new scrutiny in states: http://my.att.net/s/editorial.dll?eeid=6464928&eetype=article&render=y&ck=
3/27.09 Va. gov vetoes death penalty expansion
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29921138/from/ET/
Texas pardons longest-serving inmate (22 yrs.) freed by DNA 9/30/09 http://blog.taragana.com/n/nations-longest-serving-inmate-to-be-cleared-by-dna-evidence-is-pardoned-by-texas-governor-183219/
.2/7/09 A man who died in prison while serving time for a rape he didn't commit was cleared Friday by a judge who called the state's first posthumous DNA exoneration "the saddest case" he'd ever seen. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29065906/from/ET
After Dallas DA's death, 19 convictions undone : 7/29/08
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25917791/from/ET/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26797020/from/ET/
DNA test clears man of rape 26 years later: 1/4/08http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22493315/from/ET/
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William Patterson 1891-1980...William Patterson was born in San Francisco on 27th August, 1891. His mother had been a slave and spent her childhood on a Virginia plantation. In 1923 Patterson and two friends opened a law office in Harlem. Patterson was involved in several campaigns to free people wrongly convicted of criminal acts. This included the defence of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, the Scottsboro Case, where nine young black men were falsely charged with the rape of two white women on a train. Patterson was also involved in the defence of Angela Davis and Black Panthers leaders arrested during the 1960s. (And there was no DNA) http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USApattersonW.htm
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Ferdinando Nicola Sacco (April 22, 1891) and Bartolomeo Vanzetti (June 11, 1888) both executed August 23, 1927, were two Italian-born laborers and anarchists who were tried, convicted and executed via electrocution on August 23, 1927 in Massachusetts for the 1920 armed robbery and murder of a pay-clerk and a security guard in Braintree, Massachusetts. - - Today, the case continues to incite controversy based on questions regarding culpability, the question of the innocence or guilt of Sacco and Vanzetti, and conformance, the question of whether the trials were fair to Sacco and Vanzetti. - - On August 23, 1977, Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis signed a proclamation declaring, "Any stigma and disgrace should be forever removed from the names of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti. We are not here to say whether these men are guilty or innocent. We are here to say that the high standards of justice, which we in Massachusetts take such pride in, failed Sacco and Vanzetti." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicola_Sacco
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"The Scottsboro Boys" Trials 1931 – 1937 No crime in American history-- let alone a crime that never occurred-- produced as many trials, convictions, reversals, and retrials as did an alleged gang rape of two white girls by nine black teenagers on a Southern Railroad freight run on March 25, 1931. Over the course of the two decades that followed, the struggle for justice of the "Scottsboro Boys," as the black teens were called, made celebrities out of anonymities, launched and ended careers, wasted lives, produced heroes, opened southern juries to blacks, exacerbated sectional strife, and divided America's political left… http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/FTrials/scottsboro/scottsb.htm
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Feb. 12, 2010 - SCOTTSBORO, Ala. - Ala. town marks infamous case 8 decades later Museum acknowledges painful past of ‘The Scottsboro Boys’ - The very name of this Alabama city has stood for racial injustice for almost 80 years. Nine young black men went on trial in Scottsboro in 1931 on charges of raping two white women in a case that made headlines worldwide. The defendants — eight of whom were sentenced to die — came to be known as "The Scottsboro Boys" and the charges were revealed as a sham. Now, four generations later, Scottsboro is acknowledging its painful past. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35367474/ns/travel-destinations/
Angela Y. Davis: In August 1970 Angela Yvonne Davis was catapulted into the national spotlight when she was put on the list of the ten most wanted criminals in the United States. An armed black man, Jonathan Jackson, entered the Marin County, California, Civic Center on August 7, 1970, with a weapon owned by Davis and attempted, along with three San Quentin prisoners, to take hostages. Jackson's intention was to hold the hostages until several inmates of Soledad Prison, including Jackson's brother, George, were released. During the attempt three of the assailants and the presiding judge were killed and three others wounded. A warrant was issued for Davis's arrest. She fled, eluding the police until October 1970. After a total of 16 months in prison in New York - where she was apprehended - and in California, Davis's trial began. The prosecutor alleged that Davis engineered the plan to kidnap the judge and jurors because of her love for George Jackson. The prosecution presented witnesses who testified that they had seen Davis with Jonathan Jackson in the days preceding the August 7 incident. Davis and her defense attorneys argued that Davis was a political activist concerned with prison reforms and the oppression of the poor in general and was not moved to a crime of passion because of her feeling for Jackson. The all-white jury, composed of eight women and four men, acquitted Davis on all counts in June 1972. http://www.answers.com/topic/angela-davis
Angela Davis - From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angela_Davis
On June 10, 1997, Judge Dickey ordered Pratt to be released on $25,000 bail. He had spent 27 years behind bars. Pratt was released in time to watch his son, Hiroji, go through his eighth-grade graduation ceremony. Later, he returned to Louisiana to see his 94-year-old mother, Eunice Petty Pratt, whom he had not seen since 1974. Pratt's stood completely vindicated when in 2000 the city of Los Angeles agreed to pay $2.75 million and the U.S. Department of Justice $1.75 million to settle a lawsuit for false imprisonment and violations of his civil rights. http://www.answers.com/topic/geronimo-pratt .
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1992: Four hundred armed federal agents conducted a siege of the Weavers' mountain home, first killing Randy Weaver's dog, then his son, then his wife. http://www.boogieonline.com/revolution/firearms/enforce/rubyridge/ After Ruby Ridge St. Louis Post/May 1, 2001 - In the settlement of the civil suit Weaver brought against the government, each of his three daughters received $1 million, and Weaver received $100,000. Weaver, with his two youngest daughters, returned to Iowa, where relatives rented him a house in a small town next to Jefferson. http://www.rickross.com/reference/mcveigh/mcveigh10.html
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" These wrongful convictions are a not only a miscarriage of justice but also a disgrace to our American Justice System. There is a lot of money made from the corruption in our justice system and our prison system. A full scale investigation of the system is not only warranted but it is imperative to make the system truly a justice system instead of an injustice system."
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Please Sign Our Petition to Investigate Wrong Doing That Leads to the Wrongful Convictions" http://www.petitiononline.com/tis10001/
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The Innocents Database...2,880 People Currently Listed. as of 4/12/10 http://forejustice.org/search_idb.htm
.192 Innocents freed in the United States as of 1/22/2007
http://innocenceproject.org/know/Browse-Profiles.php
138 Innocence Freed From Death Row as of 11/8/09 http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/innocence-list-those-freed-death-row
.In 2000, Ryan, as governor, declared a moratorium on executions in Illinois after 13 death row inmates were found to have been wrongly convicted. Then, days before he left office in 2003, he emptied out death row, commuting the sentences of all 167 inmates to life in prison. He declared that the state's criminal justice system was "haunted by the demon of error." http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14703115/from/ET/
.Report: Thousands wrongly convicted each year: 2/11/2005
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-02-11-wrongly-convicted_x.htm
A FEW OF THE WOMEN WHO HAVE BEEN WRONGLY CONVICTED The first 7 women on this list were all victims of “frontier justice” dispensed by groups of white vigilantes, aka KKK.
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Woman, 92, dies in shootout with cops: 11/22/06 Three Atlanta officers serving warrants hurt By Jeffry Scott, S.A. Reid The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Published on: http://georgehigh.com/George%20News/Woman%2092.pdf Police lied, informant says: 11/28/06 Man alleges officers asked him to go along with a false version of events surrounding a drug raid that ended in the shooting death of an elderly woman. Atlanta's chief calls for a multi-agency review. http://georgehigh.com/George%20News/Woman%2092%20%20%26%20Snitch.pdf
The Nov. 21, 2006, killing of 92 year old Kathryn Johnston, shocked the nation and rocked Atlanta’s police force. It laid bare the corruption of an out-of-control narcotics squad that lied to get search warrants and planted drugs on suspects....Fulton County prosecutors were forced to review scores of pending cases and ultimately dismissed or reduced the charges in 69, meaning several likely criminals went free. http://georgehigh.com/George%20News/Kathryne%20Johnson%202-22-09.pdf
On February 24, 2009, U.S. District Judge Julie Carnes sentenced former officer Gregg Junnier to six years in prison, Jason Smith to 10 years in prison and Arthur Tesler to five years in prison.[3] Junnier and Tesler had faced recommended 10 years in prison under sentencing guidelines, while Smith faced 12 years and seven months.[31] According to US Attorney David Nahmias, the sentences of Junnier and Smith were reduced after they provided information to assist in the prosecutions of the other ex-officers.[3] Carnes also ordered Smith, Junnier and Tesler to reimburse Johnston's estate the cost of her burial, $8,180... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathryn_Johnston#Sentencing .
A Follow-Up to Ms. Kathryn Johnston 6/9/10 Two Atlanta officers fired after internal investigation into shooting By Ernie Suggs The Atlanta Journal-Constitution http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/two-atl
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On June 19, 1953, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg became the first civilians to be executed for espionage in U.S. history. http://www.truveo.com/the-rosenbergs-execution/id/404973506 
9/12/2008 Evidence of false testimony in released Rosenberg transcripts: WASHINGTON (AP) - Newly released grand jury transcripts add strong evidence to the argument that the conviction and execution of Ethel Rosenberg in the Cold War's biggest espionage case (1951) were based on perjured testimony. In recent years, one of the two key witnesses against Rosenberg recanted his testimony. It now appears that the other witness made up her testimony too. The witnesses were Ethel's brother and sister-in-law, David and Ruth Greenglass. Thanks to the work of a team of lawyers and historians, the government released the grand jury testimony that formed the basis for the charges against Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-09-12-rosenbergs-perjury_N.htm?csp=34 .
Lena Baker Case - (1945 mugshot) Lena Baker was the first and only woman to be executed in Georgia's electric chair. She was executed in 1945, after she was convicted of murdering a man who had imprisoned her. At the time of Baker's execution, the Georgia prison system was under scrutiny for reform. http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-2917