I have a bf in jail awaiting sentencing August 27th and I had to ask his friends and the company he worked for which was also friends. The goggled my bf name and I so know who our true friends are. Some are scared and don''t know what to think. I would say just ask and see who his true friends are. Best of luck.

I was in the same position as you, I sent 2 emails to his employer and got no response . He had a previous
employer that he became friends with that is coming to the sentencing to speak on his behalf. I didn't ask anyone else after the no response from his employer because he was friends with his employer. And I'm not sure how to approach anyone else. My mother wants to come to sentencing but they are going to have him in shackles and I don't think she will be able to handle.

You can just private messages them on facebook (unless you have their personal email address, then I would do it through email) and say that he got into some legal trouble and can use some character witness letters. If they are true friends they wont ask questions and just start writing letters. If they do ask just tell them it's not your place to be telling them and your just doing him the favor of contacting them because he's unavailable. If they say they can't write if they don't know what the charges are, let them know the letters have to be ONLY about his character and they can't mention the charges, so they really don't need to know. One thing I do know is that letters from family weighs less then letters from friends and coworkers.

Good luck and I'll keep you all in my prayers.

A lot of people don't know how to write a character letter, so I actually googled "Character letter" and forwarded a sample one to my friends just so they had something to go by. I would send a regular e-mail rather than an I-Chat through Facebook. Like alike said, just tell them he got in some legal trouble and these letters would help. Hope it works out...

Thanks, Alik76, that does help. mtbfan, I'll have to google it too. I wrote part of a letter (although I plan to go to sentencing) but not sure how to end it.

I can begin by telling what you DON'T want in any letters to the court. Do not mention that the charges were not fair, that he should get a light sentence or that he was in way not totally responsible for his crime.

The letter must convey a 1000% degree of contriteness and total apology for doing something so stupid.

One thing have found that sometimes makes a difference is when a good friend---preferably a lifelong friend--- writes a letter which mentions an incident in your son's life where he showed tremendous compassion or did things that showed what a great person he was. Specific examples. Like the time he missed his Thanksgiving dinner to work at a kitchen to feed the homeless or how he worked two jobs to help his parents at home.

You have to give the judge a reason---sort of give him permission----to hand out a lenient sentence. People can make generalized statements such as "he is a nice guy" or "he is a family man" and those kind of generic statements will not even phase a judge. But specific instances have a better chance of impressing a judge.

Good luck,

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Another cautionary note - although I don't think this will apply in your situation since you are asking for letters and not in person witnesses. We were allowed character witnesses to testify on behalf of the defense. It was a mixture of family members, friends and colleagues. They all knew of the charges against him. One family friend that had known him and his family for over 30 years was asked (by the prosecution) if she had ever seen him around kids. She answered innocently that sure, when their kids were little, they were part of a group of young parents that met for the children to play or were in various groups at church and school. Absolutely nothing out of the ordinary for young parents. But you can bet that when it was time for the closing argents that the prosecutor took that statement and ran with it; said it was obvious that he had spent the majority of his life surrounding himself with young children! That was literally a jaw dropping moment - I found myself sitting there with my mouth open. Seriously?!?
Anyway, I agree, focus on altruistic moments in his life but take the focus off of time spent around children. It's sad but some of these people will take anything you say and twist it for their purpose.