Lpad,

Did your son ever file an appeal to the state criminal court of appeals?

Here is the problem trying to attack the conviction after the fact-----Appeal courts do not retry the case nor do they second guess the jury. Appeal courts only make sure the state has followed the law---the proper, legal procedure---- during the trial to obtain the conviction. They also make sure the defendant has not had his constitutional rights violated. In other words, the appeal courts do not replay the case and look at the facts of the case; instead, they look at any procedural errors which might have occurred.

Examples of procedural errors that might overturn or reverse a conviction are things like-----Was the jury given the proper jury instructions?? Was evidence admitted that should not have been admitted or did the court refuse to allow some exculpatory evidence in that might have helped your son?? Did the DA say something improper in closing arguments? These are the things that appeal courts will use to vacate a conviction.

Appeals courts do not read the transcript and determine if a witness is telling the truth, for example. They have respect for a jury’s decision and do not second guess the jury. The court feels that the jury made the decision if the witness was truthful or not and that fact was factored into the final verdict.

The problem with an appeal is that the procedural error must be egregious enough to have made a difference in the outcome of the trial. They do not overturn convictions for minor procedural errors if they do not believe the error was a big factor in the jury’s decision. The errors that are not egregious enough to have made a difference in the final verdict are called “harmless errors” and will not result in a case being overturned.

I am particularly interested if his attorney introduced evidence that he had an ironclad alibi at the time of the supposed crime.

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Yes he did file an appeal. After all said and done it was denied. The appeal was based on two things, that his attorney was incompetent, that one jury at least was bullied into making a guilty verdict and the fact that the DA had quoted things from the bible that were not challenged by our lawyer. All three things were given no merit. They did say the DA may have been on the border line quoting things from the bible but they did not feel he crossed it. Lets face it, an appeal very seldom goes in favor of the accused.

Yes the attorney did have evidence that my son was at work at the time and date that she claimed it happened. He worked for the Social Security Administration and on that day he was 37 miles away and was signed in at 7:00 am. A co worker also was there at 8:00 am and did testify. The girl claimed that it happened around 10:00 am on that day which was a Saturday. She made the complaint on Monday. She claimed it happened once before but couldn't remember when.

The thing that was bad for my son is that when he first started talking to her on the phone (and she was coached) He made a comment about being sorry and would be laid back as to how he was treating her. He was with her and her mother for over 7 years and tried to give her a good home. He also tried to be a good father to her. She had just been in trouble at school for a number of things and he had taken her pc away from her. She also had just found out that her real father had committed suicide as well as having to have a major surgery on her back. Anyway, when she later in the phone call accused him of touching her in certain ways he completely denied it. She kept saying, ok, what are you sorry for? Even though he never gave her the answer they wanted they assumed his first "I'm sorry" was it.
I have to say that my younger son who is a police officer and another part of the state had talked to their DA and he was told that if had been in any other county he would not have been charged.
You have to remember the detective did no investigation at all. The fact that this girl claimed that her mother's last boy friend tried to rape her in a woods in Alabama should have sent up a red flag. During the court proceedings asked why they never checked on this they claimed it wasn't in their jurisdiction. Of course at the trial she claimed she never said that. But it was on tape. Made no difference.
So you have a girl who lied 11 times on the stand, a mother who said from the beginning that her daughter lied a lot, the fact that he was at work and couldn't have done it. That she couldn't explain when the 1st time was suppose to have happened, at least one and maybe two were bullied into making a guilty verdict (How do you find someone guilty if you have reasonable doubt?), he is now serving a 4 1/2 year sentence.

As for his attorney, he was useless. If it weren't for the fact that we had already spent around $30,000.oo for him we would have gotten rid of him. He was from a larger city and I think he had too many things going on. He spent most of his time looking at his watch or talking on the phone. He did little as far as witness went. I don't even want to get into how stupid it all was. I get angry when I think of all the people that could have testified but he never looked into them. The three he did call, my son's mother, his brother who is a police officer and a friend of my son's who lived out of state. He had lived with them for almost a year after he got out of college. Never talked to any of them before they went up on the stand. He asked one question to his mother, "Do you love your son? That was it. He asked very little of the other two.

We are still looking for help. The innocent project here in Wisconsin can't help him because of how little time he received, but another group from a law school in Chicago may help.

You know, you never think about what goes on in this country until something like this happens to you or someone you know. My son went to college for five years, and has a number of degrees including a degree in criminal justice from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. He always had issues with our government and the justice system. All that has happened to him only confirms how he views our lack of freedoms and justice in this country.