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Greetings. Thanks for visiting this site. My name is Amos King, 48, black, 25 years on
Florida’s death row. I’m on a temporary stay of execution since January 23,
2002. I could be executed within days.
I’m innocent of the charges I’m on death row for. I’m the victim of a
frame-up, sold out by my trial attorneys who colluded with the prosecution – evidence
of which I’m going to share with you – and a biased judge who not only denied me
a fair trial and legal representation, but who denied me a last round appeal that was full
and fair, out of fear of exposure of what I’m about to share with you, and to protect
his place in Florida’s history of conducting the first televised trial in the State
that he wants to present as having been conducted without a hitch.
This is not only about my innocence and injustice, but the integrity and reputation of
the judicial system, boasted of as the best the world over. It’s about public trust
in the judicial system. It’s also about the abuse and manipulation of the death
penalty, with media collusion, fraud on the appellate courts, citizenry, and the executive
government.
It is also about something of my legacy as it pertains to this pseudo legal odyssey
over 25 years with something of my story, and defense to family, friends, and others
interested, and who might become interested.
It’s very important to point out here it took me 20 years to obtain what I thought
was a complete copy of my trial record. However, after my reprieve, I’ve receive some
2,000 additional pages of the trial record that confirm without doubt that my trial
attorneys conspired with the prosecution and court to convict me and take my life. The
bulk of this evidence was kept out of my possession for 25 years, though a church paid for
it in 1987. The people who put me here wanted me long executed – murdered by the
state – and this evidence of their vile deed buried along with me, and just another
case of politics trumping the law.
At a January 2002 court hearing, Chief Judge Susan Schaeffer, midway
through, screamed at me: "Why aren’t you dead yet? Why are you still
alive?" I’ve conclusive evidence of her performing an illegal favor for the
prosecution and an attorney against me at their specific request. I’ll share that
evidence with you at a later time.
As you read on and review the evidence you will see the most important question is:
"Why am I still locked up under a sentence of death, enduring profound suffering on
the quality of the evidence against me in a purely circumstantial case?" You be the
judge, then join me to make a noise and protest this enormous injustice.
Many of you have asked questions about my case, some of them skeptical and harsh
questions. One lawyer wrote: "I see on the website that you’ve had two trials.
What am I missing here?" That second trial, in 1985, was only to re-determine whether
a sentence of death or life in prison was the appropriate sentence. I obviously got death
again. I wasn’t allowed to challenge any of the false and perjurious evidence used to
convict me of hideous crimes. To me, it was a profanity stacked atop a mockery.
In Governor Jeb Bush’s Death Warrant, signed against me on November 19, 2001 that
led to my execution date of January 24, 2002, he recounts round after round of appeals.
See that Death Warrant with
its cover letter of November 19, 2001 to Warden Brad Carter here at Florida State Prison.
The Supreme Court of Florida, in its court decision of January 16, 2002, denying my
appeal and approving my execution, recounts my long history of appeals, and two previous
death warrants, in 1981 and 1988. See that court decision .herein
To begin answering questions and to present my case, I’ll start on pages 11 and 12
of that January 16, 2002 decision, footnote #7 with my response. Chief Judge Susan Schaeffer of the Sixth
Judicial Circuit Court for Pasco and Pinellas Counties in Florida is the trial level judge
being quoted there, as she is extensively throughout the lengthy decision. She’s
highly respected, statewide and beyond; previously nominated to the Supreme Court of
Florida. She’s also known for her regularly revised work "Conducting the Penalty
Phase of a Capital Case", in which she writes of the ‘super due process’
required in sentencings in capital cases that must be meticulously done by law on sound
evidence and legal reasoning, or the appellate courts will reverse the sentence. In one of
her recent revised works, she took out a contract on a fellow death row inmate, by using
her own written sentencing report on him as an example, pointing out that he had been a
drug informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration. Her work is in prison law
libraries.
Judge Schaeffer was a fellow public defender in 1977 with my trial attorneys, the late
Thomas A. Cole, and Anthony Rondolino, a trial judge also. I saw Mr. Rondolino the first
time on the morning of the trial. He came on the case about two days prior, if that.
During a break in a 1990 hearing I had before Judge Schaeffer, she made her way to me
as I was being escorted by bailiffs, and reminded me she and the late Thomas Cole were
fellow public defenders together. He died in a 1979 auto accident. Prior to my latest
round of appeals, I questioned Judge Schaeffer’s impartiality, but my lawyers wanted
her, claiming they could work better with her. Judge Schaeffer didn’t say it, but her
demeanor and meeting me thusly implied thusly she didn’t like allegation of racism,
incompetence, and treachery I’d made against Mr. Cole. I’d the initial
impression Mr. Cole might have been her lover or her fiancée, but word on the streets, in
and around the jail is, she’s not into men. Perhaps she was overly sensitive about
allegations of racism and scandal that were leveled at her former Public Defender’s
office, and the court system she resides over. I believe she also holds me partly
responsible for Mr. Cole’s death.
Back to footnote #7: I did not destroy the pants I had on the night of the alleged
attempted murder, murder, rape, arson, and escape. I’ve evidence detectives recovered
the shirt I had on, and in all probability recovered the pants, since the two were
together, but rejected disclosure of the pants since they were neither bloody in the
crotch, nor had the victim’s blood type on them. I’ve a picture of the shirt
I’ll be showing you. Counselor / Guard McDonough told his boss I had blood on my and
pants and shirt when he saw me outside the work-release center.
I did not lie to, nor carry Detectives Manuel Pondakos and Peter Bragdon on a
"wild goose chase in search of the pants. R. 1706-1708, 1752-1762. Please note that
all record pages referred to in this order are attached in sequence as composite exhibit
A."
The quote is from footnote #7 and Judge Schaeffer. I’m dropping those same pages
and more on you with my response. These detectives are two LIARS and I’m going to
document it on this website for the world to see. I’m presenting pages 1701-1714 of
Detective Pondakos’s trial testimony, slightly more than Judge Schaeffer.
The jury was taken out at page 1705,
and not allowed to hear Detective Pondakos, because he did not give me the Miranda
Warnings, nor could attest to them being given: That Id’ the right to an attorney; be
given one if I couldn’t afford one; right to remain silent, etc., etc. Pages 1713 and 1714 say a lot about Mr. Cole, and
the quality of representation I was getting from him, an issue I’ll deal with as I go
along – a traitor at work.
Next, Detective Pondakos’s partner, Peter Bragdon, was put on the stand to fill in
the Miranda Warning blank as the necessary predicate to admit Judge Schaeffer’s
testimony these detectives gave about the missing clothes and my having carried them on a
wild goose chase about the clothes and lying to them.
At pages 1718 and 1719 Detective Bragdon under
instruction by the prosecution is saying he alone gave me the Miranda Warning without
Pondakos present.
Next, I’m put on the witness stand to tell I wanted an attorney and contradict
Bragdon. See pages 1731-1738.
Next, Sgt. Gordon W. Cutting is called to refute my testimony. See pages 1738-1745. At the bottom of page 1739 and top of 1740, Mr. Cutting
admitted turning me over to Detectives Pondakos and Bragdon. At 1740, the extremely biased court
took over questioning and dominating Mr. Cutting. Mr. Cutting then reversed himself and
said he was never in the booking area in the presence of Coleman, Bragon and Pondakos. The
Judge, Judge Andrews, was so biased he stood in the way of any challenges to Thomas
Cole’s incompetence and treachery on my second round of appeals where I was supposed
to be afforded the right by law to expose Mr. Cole’s prejudicial incompetence and
treachery.
Judge Andrews told my collateral counsel, Baya Harrison, he would not allow us to
challenge Mr. Cole’s incompetence during the guilt – innocence part of the
trial, after a 3.850 motion was filed challenging the quality of Mr. Cole’s
representation. Instead of considering this allegation with an open mind, the trial court
– Judge Andrews – stated on the record, before hearing any evidence on the
subject: "Mr. Harrison, I will hear testimony as to any character witnesses that you
may wish to proffer, but the record should reflect that the counsel that represented Mr.
King, both Mr. Rondolino who is present here in the court room, and Mr. Cole, Thomas Cole,
who is now deceased as a result of an automobile accident, each have been found on many,
many occasions, if not more, to be competent counsel by this court; and I just want you to
know that your burden is great. And at the time that I presided over this trial, if I had
any indication whatsoever that Mr. Cole or Mr. Rondolino were not doing their job
properly, knowing the gravity of the offense or the charge, or charges, I certainly would
have taken some steps to interrupt the proceeding.
"But I feel that your client was represented by two of the most competent
attorneys that were practicing in Pinellas County at that time, and as far as Rondolino is
concerned, I feel that he was then and is now an exceedingly competent trial counsel.
If you have had an opportunity to read the opinion that the Supreme Court, State
Supreme Court, rendered, they noted oftentimes the objections that Mr. Rondolino made, and
I think they were valid objections as to Witherspoon, as an example, and this man had the
best assistance of counsel of any man that I have ever know [sic].
Now, lets go ahead with the sentencing phase of it. [P. 117-118]"
The above quote is taken from the
1985 AFFIDAVIT of Patrick Doherty, an attorney and friend of Thomas Cole, on the bias
of Judge Andrews against me and disrespect of Mr. Cole by Judge Andrews. See Mr. Doherty’s AFFIDAVIT
designated pages 85-95 and
page 101, a Certificate of
Good Faith from Baya Harrison that accompanied it. They, along with allegations of gross
disrespect by Mr. Harrison, led to Judge Andrews’s disqualification. I believe both
Mr. Doherty and Mr. Harrison were also fellow Public Defenders with Judge Schaeffer and
Mr. Cole.
As Mr. Doherty pointed out on page 90
of his affidavit, the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit
didn’t find Mr. Cole incompetent during the penalty phase of the trial – the
only phase of the trial Judge Andrews illegally allowed Mr. Harrison to challenge –
and that with profound interference by the judge.
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Judge Andrews’s
praise of Mr. Rondolino’s "Witherspoon"-type and other questioning of
jurors and prospective jurors is immensely misplaced and nothing more than a smokescreen.
The jury was all-white, 10 females, with an average age of about 65. Mr. Cole and Mr.
Rondolino didn’t even question 6 of them – in fact, asked the same several
questions of one, as did the prosecution. In fact, very early on, a woman juror who was
hiding her face behind her hand, got the judge’s attention, said she was horrified of
me and asked for a seat change. She remained on the jury, voted for conviction and death.
Mr. Cole’s response to it was that of the traitor he was. See pages 1483 and 1484
herein.
After deliberating its verdict, all 12 jury members returned to the courtroom to
announce their guilty verdict, wearing huge, thick, dark sunglasses, though the lighting
in the courtroom was slightly dimmed. To me, they may as well have been in white sheets
with ‘KKK’ on them. Out of the corner of my left eye, I saw a perturbed
Rondolino. I wasn’t surprised. The self-appointed spokeswoman on the jury said the
sunglasses were to conceal tears shed for the victim during deliberation. Yes, and just
coincidentally all 12 of them managed to have matching sunglasses for the occasion. Yeah,
and I’m Elvis!
On the morning of the trial, Mr. Cole tried to withdraw as counsel. See pages 2075 and 2076.
Judge Andrews denied it, as he had just a few days earlier. On page 2149, Mr. Cole
strangely urged: "as an officer of the court, I cannot give Amos King a fair trial
today, or this week." Judge Andrews paid it no attention, and did not even rule on
it, yet people are supposed to have confidence in the judicial system, when its own are
treated with gross disrespect. See pages 2149-2152. Unless
one has money to afford (a) good lawyer(s) with connections, any Joe or Sue Citizen is
subject to this type of judicial railroading.
Before I deviated to give you a taste of Judge Andrews’s bias, I was in the midst
of the Miranda / Suppression Hearing, and the proper predicate for the admission of the
testimonies of Detectives Pondakos and Bragdon about my alleged having carried them on a
wild goose chase about the clothes I had on when I left the work-release center after the
fight with Counselor McDonough. Sgt. Gordon W. Cutting had testified he turned me over to
Detectives Pondakos and Bragdon. See pages 1738-1740. Judge Andrews
intervened on the side of the prosecution and made him reverse himself so that Mr. Cutting
testified he was never in the booking area of the jail with me, Detectives Bragdon,
Pondakos, and Coleman. See pages 1740-1742.
To show you Mr. Cutting lied, and Judge Andrews condoned and abetted perjury, as did
Mr. Cole and the prosecution, pre-trial
testimony / deposition of Mr. Gordon Cutting herein, dated June 27, 1977 – a mere
8 days before trial. Focus in on page
508, lines 7-9: Pondukis [sic] and Bragdon were together. He lied!
The court found, based on Mr. Cutting’s testimony – as you see, is a lie -
that I requested
no attorney till the interrogation into the murder began later in the day. See the bottom of page 1746 and 1746.
Through collusion and active participation in perjury Judge Andrews found the predicate
laid to talk about the alleged wild goose chase for the clothes.
Back came Detective Peter Bragdon to the witness stand. Page 1747. He testified he awaited
Detective Pondakos’s arrival before he made contact with me confirming what I’d
testified to earlier, and what Gordon Cutting initially also testified to before Judge
Andrews got a hold of him. See pages
1749 and 1750.
At this point, Judge Andrews should have said: "Wait a minute, that isn’t
what you testified to earlier, nor is it what Detective Pondakos said earlier, when he was
on the witness stand?" It’s pretty clear why Judge Andrews looked the other way;
equally clear where Mr. Cole’s loyalty rested. Bear in mind, that in 25 years, the
evidence that I’m showing you hasn’t been presented to the various courts in all
the appeals delineated in the Governor’s death warrant and opinion of the Supreme
Court of Florida.
Don’t believe for a second that Chief Judge Susan Schaeffer, when extracting the
excerpts from the detectives’ testimonies about the alleged wild goose chase,
didn’t notice the perjury and collusion by both her former colleagues in the Public
Defender’s Office and on the bench. She just picked her way around it. She’s
fond of saying Mr. Cole wasn’t found incompetent for my 6 convictions – Judge
Andrews made sure of that, or that the so-called evidence was never challenged at trial
nor on appeal.
While hustling me out of jail illegally – it usually takes a court order to remove
a prisoner from jail – detectives boasted it was alright I didn’t want to talk,
and their not giving me the Miranda Warning, and honoring it. That they’d just say I
said this & that, and the courts would believe them over me. The crucial part of their
so-called wild goose testimony is worthless hearsay a fair judge would’ve never
allowed.
The Grand Jury indicted me for felony murder, rape, burglary, and arson on April 7,
1977. Detectives Pondakos, Bragdon, and Evans had me pulled out of my cell, and putting an
attorney visiting room under pretense a lawyer was visiting me, but they entered, and
tauntingly informed me of the indictment, since I had refused to talk and assist them.
They were also praising themselves. I had not talked, as Detectives Pondakos and Bragdon
testified. See Supplemental Report
of Detective Manuel B. Pondakos, dated April 7, 1977 herewith, bearing his payroll
number 443. They documented my not talking, which is a blunder and contradictory to all
the words they put n my mouth.
At the Sheriff Administration Building where they carried me detectives showed and kept
before me pictures of the outside and inside of a white van they wanted me to admit a
connection with. I got the impression they thought it was connected with the work-release
center, but it had no yellow tag to identify it as a state vehicle, nor long radio
antenna, nor multiple rows of seats. It had blood all over the floor and two knives on the
floor in the blood. It could’ve been authentic, or something to get me to talk. The
pictures and talk of the van vanished and ceased.
I believe I could have a certain degree of remorse, even if secretly so, and a
respectful sense of eventual finality, and agreements with these in my soul, were I
guilty, and the evidence competent. But I’m not guilty and the evidence is BS.
Recall, that at the beginning of the Miranda-Suppression Hearing on page 1720, Detective Bragdon
testified after I requested an attorney I was shown the phone, but made no phone calls.
In his sworn pre-trial
testimony / deposition of June 27, 1977 before Mr. Cole and the prosecution, Detective
Bragdon’s partner Pondakos testified I made phone calls, that I’d requested an
attorney earlier than Bragdon testified. See his Deposition, Pages 537, 538, 539, 540, 553, and 554. Contrary to Detective Bragdon
that I stopped talking after being asked about Mrs. Brady’s murder, except the guard
must’ve done it, Detective Pondakos said we talked about it; that eventually, I
didn’t like the questioning and requested an attorney; they then threw me in the car
and took me back to the jail without further questioning, at which point Pondakos
testified I got further pissed at being deprived of a cheeseburger. These two lying
detectives cancel one another out. They simply are not credible. They couldn’t agree
on their lies.
Again Mr. Cole had this impeaching testimony of Detective Pondakos against his partner
Bragdon and for his client, but again did nothing.
There are lies like these by the detectives surrounding just about every piece of
allege evidence and circumstance in this case made up wholly of circumstantial evidence.
The police got more than a little creative about the wrong man. I’ve my suspicions
about who murdered Mrs. Brady I’ll get into much later.
Mr. Thomas A. Cole and his Public Defender Office didn’t like me, specifically Mr.
Cole. For a brief spell, Mr. Cole had been my lawyer in 1975 on the larceny of a firearm
charge I was then in prison and at the work-release center for. Mr. Cole tried to sell out
Richard Green, my crime partner on that charge, even though I’d told Mr. Cole Richard
had nothing to do with it and I took full responsibility for it. It just so happened
Richard overheard Mr. Cole and my talking. Hopefully, I’ll present a statement from
Richard on this soon.
I was in jail in Clearwater, Florida in 1975 with another client of Mr. Cole, one
Willie Tasco, a black man from Safety Harbor, Florida, in the same county. Willie was
charged with rape of a white woman, burglary, and theft. Mr. Cole told Willie more than
once the victim identified him plus his fingerprint had been found at the victim’s
home. In the cell with us was Wade, an alleged Miami drug dealer with charges in other
counties he was being moved back and forth between and in the process had accumulated a
stack of pre-trial motions. Because Willie told everyone who’d listen he was innocent
it was suggested he file something called a ‘Motion for Statement of
Particulars’, for the prosecution to produce its evidence.
I copied this motion for Willie, and he filed it. In about two days, in stomped Mr.
Cole with a copy of the motion in his hand, demanding of Willie who’d filed it –
written it for him. Willie was illiterate. It seems it came to Mr. Cole’s realization
he was looking like an ass in front of 18 persons, he calmed down and went out. Less than
two hours later, Willie was called to go home because there were neither identification,
nor fingerprint.
Mr. Cole helped to plant a fingerprint on the planted knife against me that wasn’t
sufficient enough for a positive identification, and the prosecution wasn’t going to
bring it up for that very reason, so Mr. Cole himself moved to get it on the record. See pages 1623-1644 but
specifically pages 1638-1644.
Mr. Cole knew about the fingerprint and that it had insufficient points for
identification. See page 542
of Detective Pondakos’s aforementioned Deposition. Plus, Mr. Cole submitted FBI Agent
R.E. Neill’s name as a defense witness 4 days prior to trial. See page 599 herein, the
defense’s "Reciprocal Witness List", signed by Mr. Cole, July 1, 1977.
I believe the FBI saw some evidence the alleged print wasn’t genuine.
There’s also the possibility Mr. Cole was preparing a defense till he learned it
was me who’d written that motion that had gotten his client Willie Tasco released,
and Mr. Cole greatly embarrassed, and his insidious dealings revealed. I filed both
motions and letters to dismiss Mr. Cole to the extent he called them a nuisance in the
written motion he filed to withdraw from the cases prior to them being consolidated on the
morning of trial. All Mr. Cole had to do was compare the handwriting. Perhaps the
prosecution, too, had this same cause for revenge against me – maybe the judge, too?
Mr. Cole knew I knew about him and his racist dealings. His racist dealings are what
compelled me in 1975 to file a motion in court that got him removed from the larceny of a
firearm charge I was then in prison and at the work-release center for. A private attorney
was assigned to replace him.
As soon as I learned it was Mr. Cole who would represent me, I started filing motions
and writing letters to dismiss him – became a nuisance, as Cole put it. Mr. Cole told
me on the way to a hearing on his motion to withdraw that he would get off my case. This
is why he told the court, same as I, we weren’t communicating. Even in 1977, while my
life rested in Mr. Cole’s racist and treacherous hands, he was still screwing black
clients. I saw and heard him promise a guy who had snatched a purse 3 years in prison that
would be probation if his pre-sentencing report returned clean. The report came back
clean. The guy went to court expecting probation, but got 7 years instead in prison and
saw Mr. Cole no more. I recall this guy because he and I went out with two sisters, he the
older one. They visited us in jail.
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Cole was just one of many racists in the area judicial system. See The Florida Bar News / November 15,
2000 article "St. Petersburg Makes Amends for Past Injustices", herein.
Mr. Cole was just one racist fish in a local, racist lake of fish. How else could he have
thrived for so long? A black judge though he’d been as conservative as US Supreme
Court Justice Clarence Thomas would not have been allowed to preside over my trial, nor a
black prosecutor, nor a black Public Defender. If the unthinkable had happened, and Mr.
Cole had fought and won my acquittal, his behind would’ve been out of there –
looking for another job. In one sense, Mr. Cole was between a mountain and an iron wall.
Mr. Cole was also an alcoholic. I read of his death by auto accident in 1979 I believe
it was and wondered was it a suicide.
I’m going to put an email address on this
website so that others who were legally maltreated as former clients of Mr. Cole can
share their experiences of abuse by him. This sordid business is so scandalous that prison
guards in the northern region of the state and jitterbugs from Miami, Florida are very
familiar with the stories – Clearwater and St. Petersburg are in the central region
of Florida.
While on death watch in January 2002, and nearing execution on my third death warrant
after having been denied any relief or reprieve by both the trial court and the Supreme
Court of Florida, I refused to sign paperwork to carry on the appeal to the US Circuit
Court of Appeals and the US Supreme Court, nearly missing filing deadline and getting
myself executed.
Why? My state-provided attorneys had promised me requested pictures and measurements of
the 3 knives in evidence against me: A paring knife, a steak knife, and I filet knife.
I got the pictures and measurements, then signed the paperwork that got me the reprieve
I’m yet enjoying with some 28 hours to go. I wasn’t being a jerk. At trial in
1977 I wasn’t allowed to see any of the evidence, except hat I could see or catch
glimpses of from the other side of the court. On the morning of trial I wasn’t
allowed to attend my own pre-trial conferences, which is illegal. The trial – if you
can call it that – was about me, but I wasn’t allowed to participate. I wanted
to testify, but even that was cancelled behind my back! It was like I was dreaming, or
dead, like Bruce Willis in ‘The Sixth Sense’.
I’d also requested pictures, days earlier, of the two infamous knitting needles,
one of which was allegedly jabbed up the victim’s vagina prior to the rape.
I’d challenged my lawyers that there were no 4 hole in back of the shirt of the
counselor / guard of the work-release center attesting to his story I’d crept up on
him and stabbed him 4 times in the back, and that I’d plead guilty to everything if
there were. In response to that challenge, I received 9 photos of his blue jacket, with
arrows pointing to alleged knife-holes and bloodstains in same. See the photos of the blue jacket herein.
I’ve a huge problem with these blue
jacket photos – during our scuffle, Counselor McDonough did not have on a
blue jacket, as he admitted. In his pre-trial testimony / Deposition of June 10, 1977,
again before Thomas Cole and Prosecutor Doug Prior, on page 12, starting at line #11, Cole
asked Counselor McDonough :
"Okay. Do you remember what you were wearing?" Counselor McDonough responded:
"Yes, Sir, I had a blue windbreaker jacket hanging on the halltree next to the filing
cabinet. That was splattered with blood from the fight, a maroon pair of trousers, pair of
tan Chuka boots, maroon belt." Mr. Cole: "Um-hm." Counsel McDonough:
"And I believe a green and white shirt or a maroon and white short-sleeved
shirt."
See the introductory pages of the June 10, 1977 Deposition of James Dennis McDonough
and page 29, lines 11-18 herein.
Because neither could Counselor
McDonough keep his lies organized he was allowed to testify with assistance his
deposition on the witness stand. Counselor McDonough had a
long, fruitful, and troublesome relation with law enforcement, and undoubtedly his
connection with my case has operated as something of a get-out-of-jail-free card for him.
See the May 10, 1991 articles entitled "Ex-Staffer Says He Alleged
Tampering" and "Polygraph
Operator Had Earlier Job Troubles". The May 15 1991 article "Pasco’s
Polygraph Tests May Have Been on Faulty Equipment", and undated article "Sheriff’s
Friend in Doubt". It struck me enough tampering was alleged against
him to add up to several hundred years in prison. All of this occurred years after my case
but it shows Counselor
McDonough has a deceitful and conveniently untruthful nature, and a very most favored
person status with police and the State Attorney’s Office. I’m not slandering
him with after-the-fact criminal behavior. I’m taking him, his traits, and his very
special relations back to my case with the evidence. The Teflon Don wishes he were so
coated. When I get to the TIME LINES in this case, his traits will become absolutely
clear. By the way, as a courtesy, the state has given former Counselor McDonough an invitation to my
execution.
Back to the blue jacket, the holes, apparent blood and what Mr. Cole, prosecution, and
detectives knew of it and what was done about it. Go back to the portions of the
Deposition of Detective Manuel Pondakos, starting at pages 546-548. Pondakos, on
the top of page 547 told Messrs.
Cole and Prior, again, Counselor McDonough’s jacket was either on the coat rack or on
the file cabinet. On page 1411
of the trial record, Prosecutor Prior showed Counselor McDonough the jacket, along
with 3 other items of clothing, all of which he identified as clothes he had on when I
allegedly stabbed him in the back 4 times. Mr. Prior then moved they be put into evidence,
at which time Public Defender Rondolino said: "No, objection, Judge." So the
blue jacket and other clothing Counselor McDonough allegedly had on
went into evidence. I need not tell you sat there, did nothing, and later did one of his
mocking cross-examinations that was a zero in light of what he knew. There were neither
rhyme nor reason to any of his few cross-examinations, which is crystal clear when what
Cole knew is known. His loyalty wasn’t to me. Had all the evidence been allowed to be
presented against Mr. Cole’s incompetence, contrary to Judge Andrews’s rantings,
it would’ve shown that just as I feared – I didn’t have an attorney at all.
Judge Andrews’s history-making TV-trial was a farce and my execution an act of
unjustified homicide. My appeals have been a joke based on that farce, sold to the world
as a fair trial with legal representation.
As an exhibit, herein is a six-page letter from the County Sheriff Wm. T. "Bill" Roberts,
dated March 23, 1977, to then Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Clarence M.
Kelly, with the sheriff’s synopsis of the crimes, and his submission of 36 items of
evidence for examination. Item #32 is Counselor McDonough ’s
blue jacket. On page 5, at #13 is
the type examination requested upon the jacket. Also as an exhibit is the 4-page May 24, 1977 FBI Report to
Sheriff William T. Roberts on the 36 items requested. The FBI used both the sheriff’s
and its own designations of the evidence. On page 4 of this report, paragraph 4,
you’ll see the FBI couldn’t get a conclusive blood grouping on the alleged blood
on the jacket.
Another exhibit herein is another report from the FBI to the Sheriff, dated April 5, 1977 of one page
concerning item #13, the paring knife allegedly taken from the victim’s home, used on
her and Counselor McDonough .
Detective Bragdon alleged he discovered this knife along a route I took departing the
work-release center. The knife is a plant.
In the county jail prior to my going to trial in 1977, a guy appeared in the catwalk
surrounding the cell and told me word from the crime scene was evidence was being
fabricated to convict me, that the victim wasn’t raped. This stranger told me I
needed a good lawyer. He wouldn’t tell me his name. I never saw him again, yet I know
a total, unconnected stranger just doesn’t waltz into the jail and stroll around. I
suspected evidence was being fabricated. A few days later, a policeman came into that same
catwalk with what appeared to be a warrant and fresh charges in hand. He unfolded it and
was just about to announce new charges against me when something seemed wrong. He asked me
when I was arrested. Apparently, I was in jail when that crime, or crimes, occurred. He
wouldn’t tell me the charge(s). I’ve always wondered whether it was another
rape, or burglary. That stranger in the catwalk has made me curious all these years o
familiarize myself with all the evidence and the circumstances surrounding each piece
– 25 years later, I’m still trying to learn, thanks to the lack of legal
representation I’ve had and interference by the powers that be. There are guys who
arrive on death row for their first day, already in possession of their trial records,
pictures of evidence, and reports of circumstances surrounding the evidence. I’ve
been maltreated by design. The system couldn’t stomach a fair fight from me with true
adversarial testing of the prosecution’s evidence and theories, nor honest appeals.
Then, judges and politicians have the audacity to be hostile at me for trying to fight and
telling me I’ve had my days in court, and numerous judges and courts have reviewed
the evidence and ruled I had a fair trial. Yeah, those courts, politicians, and public
have been sold a LIE. My appeals were all frauds, and I’m showing it.
Most of the pictures I’m showing you, I received within days of my January 24,
2002, execution date. The pictures and measurements of the 3 knives were given to me about
two days prior to my execution, at which time I was in a cell with a guard sitting in
front of it 24 hours a day, watching everything I did. I was making my funeral plans,
arranging to send my belongings out, writing a promised letter to Henri, preparing for a
visit and interview by a reporter, a news conference, family, religious, and attorney
visits, so that in this atmosphere I did not carefully scrutinize all the pictures of
evidence. Then I got separated from the pictures for a spell.
In one of the pictures is the T-shirt
I had on when Counselor McDonough
and I fought and I left the work-release center. It’s the flowered shirt in the
picture above the yellow gym shorts. I turned the shirt, along with my allegedly destroyed
pants, over to Mr. Wm. Brown whose daughter was my so-called common-law wife. I recall one
of the realtors in the real estate office with Mrs. Doris DuBrian seeing it, coming over
to me and saying: "What happened to you?" He thought it was bloody all over and
I thought he was half drunk.
Wm. Brown arranged my surrender. In their police reports, Detectives Bragdon and
Pondakos mentioned getting a certain detective who apparently had dealings with Brown to
go to Brown’s residence with them for information. I now believe they put pressure on
Brown, obtained my clothes, but didn’t disclose the pants because they didn’t
have a bloody crotch! The picture of the blue shirt with 4
stripes, and one with the blue
jeans are Mr. Brown’s clothes I turned myself in wearing.
There are 3 pictures of the clothes I worked in at the Nellie Kelly’s Restaurant
that previous evening of March 17, 1977 till 1:00 AM of the 18th. You’ll
see the green Nellie
Kelly’s T-shirt in two pictures on a table. In one picture, the shirt is spread out; folded in the other
between two other items. In another picture are the green pants I worked
in. It was mandatory I wear the shirt at work. The pants were mine.
The detectives said they obtained my clothes off the floor of my room at the
work-release center.
I folded the clothes and put them on a chair in the room as I always did then washed
them in the laundry room the following morning. Upon return from work I always took a
shower, which I did.
None of my clothes were destroyed by me! The prosecution and detectives should be
ashamed of themselves! Counselor McDonough told his boss
I’d blood in both my pants and my shirt when he discovered me outside the
work-release center. He told police and the jury I’d blood in my pants. Herein are 3 pages of Road Prison Escape Log,
dated 3/18/77. At the top of the
one page with 3/18/77 in the lower left "Time" area, it says I had
"blood all over his pants and shirt."
CONTINUES :
