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Wrongful Convictions - Stealing Lives One
Person at a Time
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma - May 23, 2008 - The recent release of wrongfully
convicted Cynthia Sommer has brought awareness to the imprisonment of the
innocent. The trend of crime lab mistakes, judicial errors, and incorrect
eyewitness accounts is spreading nationwide. These contribute to years being
stripped away from those who are mistakenly confined in a system that
promises "Justice for all." Together, www.FreeKelseysMom.com and
Raye-of-Hope.org is hoping to educate the public about wrongful convictions
by holding a rally on June 21, 2008 in Harrah, Oklahoma at Heritage Park.
Oklahoma's own "Innocent Man" Dennis Fritz and Tabitha Pollock who was
exonerated in an Illinois Supreme Court after six years in prison are among
scheduled guest speakers. Ultimately, we want to educate the public of this
very real epidemic of wrongful convictions.
To quote Sommer's website, "Putting an innocent person in jail is the legal
equivalent of a plane crash." Unfortunately, these "plane crashes" are part
of a trend that is being seen across the country. With high profile cases
such as Sommer's making the nightly news, the public is now opening its eyes
to the reality that wrongful imprisonment can happen to anyone. In Oklahoma,
awareness of our "injustice" system has gone virtual with the websites
www.FreeKelseysMom.com and www.TheTruthAboutKelsey.com. These sites are in
support of a woman named Raye Dawn Smith. Free Kelsey's Mom members believe
Smith has been wrongfully convicted by a one-sided media blitz that altered
public opinion and led to an unfair trial. During the trial, Richard
Smothermon, District Attorney for Lincoln County, Oklahoma, stated that he
believed Smith's daughter, Kelsey Smith-Briggs, was sexually assaulted and
murdered by Mike Porter, Smith's ex-husband and Kelsey's step-father.
According to Smothermon, Smith "should have known" Porter abused Kelsey.
(Oklahoma Case(s) CF-06-00033 & CF-07-00134)Smith now sits in an Oklahoma
prison waiting for her appeal to the 27-year sentence she received for
"should have known." Evidence of perjury, jury tainting, juror misconduct,
timelines, the conspiratorial emails, and other documentation can be found
on Smith's sites at www.TheTruthAboutKelsey.com.
Like Sommer's case, Smith's has gained local and now worldwide attention due
to the YouTube videos and media blitz launched by Kelsey's paternal
grandmother. Smith's site has members from as far away as Denmark,
Australia, Canada, South Africa, and the UK. These members believe that it
was the media and Smith's silence that convicted Smith before her case went
to trial on July 9, 2007. Oklahoma City based news channels reported 910
times on this case from October, 2005 to April, 2007. During that same time
period, the Daily Oklahoman published 59 articles and the Shawnee News-Star
published 62. With the media, billboards, buttons, bumper stickers, and
Smith's side of the story silenced and ignored, Free Kelsey's Mom members
believe Smith did not receive a fair trial.
On Tuesday, May 20, 2008, Smith's family members gathered at the State
Capitol to deliver a letter from Smith to Oklahoma lawmakers. They also
delivered evidence of Smith's alleged innocence, and two petitions; 664
signatures and sentiments have been gathered in support of a fair trial for
Smith, and 505 signatures have been collected to release the records of
Kelsey Smith-Briggs as Oklahoma's Title Ten calls for in the death of a
child. Smith's family members were met by a local television crew that
"scooped" the letter from a House of Representative's office after the
family refused to turn over a copy of the letter. Before the family left the
Capital, the letter was posted on the paternal family's website along with
plenty of bashing of Smith.
Nationwide coverage is needed to bring attention to this the injustice that
Raye Dawn Smith and her supporters allege. Read the evidence at
www.TheTruthAboutKelsey.com and ask yourself - as a society, are we to stand
by, quietly thinking "someone else" will bring awareness to wrongful
convictions and report Raye Dawn's side of the story? Give Raye Dawn a
voice. Tell her story so others will not suffer her fate. Visit
www.TheTruthAboutKelsey.com and bring awareness to the truth and raise much
needed funds for Smith's defense. (Oklahoma Appeals Case #: F-2007-1196)
