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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)
