Our international Committee Member Mpagi Edward Edmary is an exceptional person. Despite an appalling two decades long ordeal, he wants to help others have a chance in life that he was denied. His dream is to build a school for that purpose. They now need extra help very urgently. We ask all supporters and readers to help him deliver a chance, which comes under our Social Justice remit. To see how you can help Mpagi deliver his dream please visit Dream One World at http://dreamoneworld.org/

Derek Miller

Ordeal

I spent nearly two decades on death row for the alleged murder of my neighbour William Wandyaka, who was simply hiding. He was found very much alive seven years into my sentence, but it took Amnesty International nearly 13 more years to secure my release.

During my years on death row, I was badly affected by guards who threatened to hit my head very hard during my execution time. They would always remind prisoners about the gallows – remember that I was innocent man, as was my co-accused, my cousin Fred Masembe. He died of neglect. They refused to treat him. Weakened by malaria, he died of complications that proper treatment would have prevented.

Mpagi Edward Edmary

Peace

I began reading my bible in my early days on death row. The more I read it the more I found peace in my life. I began holding bible classes for inmates and counselled violent inmates. The authorities began consulting me about situations that arose with inmates. I became a great support to both the inmates and authorities.

I begun sharing my beliefs with the inmates about God’s love, the power of forgiveness and faith in the Lord. Many people trusted me and whenever the authorities thought about executing me, they thought about my contribution inside prison. This is one of the reasons I survived the five ʻscheduledʼ executions during my time on Death Row. 52 of my closest friends were executed by hanging while I was in Luzira Prison.

School Photographed by Scott Langley

My Dream

During my time on Ugandaʼs death row, I struggled to convince the guards and authorities that we were human beings, and not violent as they thought. I worked hard to begin a school on death row in Uganda to make inmates busy and for them to learn to read and write. Many were poor and illiterate. They had never been to school.

In 2000 when I was released from death row after two decades I embarked on my dream to build a school in my community for the children of men and women on death row in Uganda and victims of AIDS. Dream One World is making my dream a reality. It took years to begin, but now the school that I started in the prison is at university level. It has changed the lives of inmates in many ways, and continues to do so today. It is not the only school that I have started.

One of the things that caused me great pain in prison was the effect it had upon my children. They lost their education because I was not there to provide for them. They had committed no crime  – nor had  – but the children, even of the guilty are innocent. They deserved an education and the chances that would have provided for them and society too. I was determined to do something about it. I decided to start another school outside of prison to give such children the chance that they deserve.

Our Beloved Children

I thank Kathy Ozzard Chism, Founder of Dream One World, for believing in my dream and starting the school with me. I also thank all the Dream One World friends and donors for supporting the Dream One World school project in Uganda. That support is making a difference in Uganda, and the school will make a difference for many generations to come. I am honoured to be able to help transform the lives of innocent children with you. Our donors and supporters are a blessing and a Godsend.

Needs

However, now the Ugandan government is threatening to close our school, just as they have closed many others already, if we do not build a massive security wall around our entire school complex immediately and staff it with security guards. The cost of this is prohibitive, leaving us no choice but to appeal for help.

Mpagi Edward Edmary at the school

The Fitted-In Project supports my efforts as part of its Social Justice projects. We need to raise a large amount quickly in order to continue our work. Please visit our site http://dreamoneworld.org/ to see how you can help me deliver my promise and dream. We need your help to keep our dream of helping others alive. The situation is urgent. Dream One World is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organisation, based in the USA.

Although donations within the USA are tax deductible as Dream One World is based there, we hope that people all over the world will help us to provide a public benefit by giving an education to these disadvantaged people.

Please, help us keep our dream alive. Uganda does not have a public school system. Without this school, the orphaned children and children of the imprisoned we are currently helping have no hope for an education. Thank you so much.

Mpagi Edward Edmary

Wronged

Mpagi Edward Edmary

Mpagi Edward Edmary was living a nightmare not of his making. He had survived the tyrannical régimes of Milton Obote and Idi Amin only to fall victim to a despicable injustice. He was convicted of the worst type of offence – one that had not occurred. He was alleged to have murdered William Wandyaka. His cousin Fred Masembe had also been wrongly convicted in April 1982.

But this was no ordinary injustice. Wandyaka had not been murdered by Edmary or Masembe and it was no accident either. Unbelievably, Wandyaka had manipulated the law to further a dispute with Edmaryʼs family. It beggars belief that Wandyaka was in fact alive and well throughout this shameful miscarriage of justice.

Less than a year and a half after they were convicted of the crime they had not committed – they had believed that these things did not happen – the pair had lost their appeal too. The death sentence – a mandatory one – had been confirmed. They applied for the prerogative of mercy, but no mercy was displayed either. And to make matters worse malaria had considerably weakened Masembe. Denied medication he died in August 1985.

Harsh Realities

Edmary faced a huge fight on his own. Edmary had to take on and beat the utterly corrupt system that had wronged him, but he had some hope. The régime that had dispensed rotten justice had failed again. Obote II, was if anything, more brutal and corrupt than his first government.

A month before Masembeʼs tragic death Obote was once again overthrown by a military coup led by Brigadier Bazilio Olara-Okello and General Tito Okello. They established a Military Council which lasted a few months before Yoweri Museveniʼs National Resistance Army swept it from power. The Military Council did nothing to address the injustice suffered by Edmary and Masembe, even though they were victims of a corrupt judicial process.

Mpagi Edward Edmary at the school

Obote had already fled to Tanzania and then to Zambia. Meanwhile, Oboteʼs Vice President, Paulo Muwanga, would soon taste the harsh realities of prison life. After the coup he was arrested. Museveni came to power in 1986. He has been in power in Uganda ever since. Muwanga died in 1991. His fall from power had been catastrophic.

After Museveni came to power Muwangaʼs victims voiced their discontent. It resulted in Muwangaʼs arrest and later convictions. Muwanga was the star witness before the Uganda Human Rights Commission under Justice Arthur Oder in 1988. He defended his record. Sadly, Justice Oderʼs Commission did not consider the appalling abuse of the human rights of Fred Masembe and the ongoing injustice that Edmary had to fight without his cousin by his side any longer.

A Lone Furrow

Nobody had committed the ʻmurderʼ that Masembe had died over and Edmary was enduring a living death, wondering when the executioners would come for him. They were both innocent and the case was no accident either. Edmaryʼs amazing story that not only were he and Masembe innocent, but that there had been no crime, was proved true.

Edmary was adamant that Wandyakaʼs family had taken a callous revenge on his for the dispute by framing him and his cousin for a murder that never happened. Wandyaka, he insisted, was in fact alive and well, savouring this inhuman revenge. Edmary claims that he even saw Wandyaka attend the trial, relishing their ordeal.

Mpagi Edward Edmary

It took many years and considerable luck, but eventually a Presidential Commission established that Edmary was innocent. There was no means to adequately right the wrong. Wandyaka was alive and well. It was clearly unconscionable to keep Edmary in jail, so on July 20th 2000 – over 19 years after his ordeal began – Mpagi Edward Edmary was released by Presidential Pardon.

A Change is Gonna Come

It remains an egregious miscarriage of justice that shames Uganda despite Museveniʼs government belatedly putting it right. Oboteʼs criminal justice system had proved itself to be venal, corrupt and vicious. It also allowed itself to be used in a dispute. It allowed two innocent men to have their lives wrecked or taken when their ʻvictimʼ was in fact alive and well throughout.

This is Ugandaʼs difference-making injustice – the case from which a competent and just criminal justice system can emerge through its own Truth and Justice Commission. Uganda must seize that chance and shame those jurisdictions that talk about truth and justice, but fail to deliver, despite a plethora of worthy cases.

It must do so in the best interests of the Ugandan people. They deserve to know that the ordeals suffered by Fred Masembe and Mpagi Edward Edmary were not in vain and that from the entrails of this abominable injustice a fair and just system system will emerge. The Fitted-In Project is committed to playing its part in facilitating that process in Uganda.

For more information on the school that is Mpagiʼs passion and how to help him keep his dream alive see http://dreamoneworld.org/

Mpagi Edward Edmary

by Satish Sekar © Satish Sekar (April 30th 2015)
Turbulent Times
It began as any other summerʼs day, but Mpagi Edward Edmary and his cousin Fred Masembe were about to have their lives ripped apart. They had lived through the turbulent rule of Milton Oboteʼs first rule. They had seen Obote overthrown by the vicious tyrant Idi Amin. They thought the political instability and tyranny were but memories of a horrid past.
Little did they know that Paulo Muwangaʼs decision to declare Obote the winner of disputed elections would have consequences for them. The family dispute between Edmaryʼs family and that of neighbour and Obote supporters, William Wandyaka, would destroy their lives in an unexpected fashion – a case that had it been a film script would have been rejected as far too implausible.
Things like this simply do not happen – they canʼt happen. It was just too absurd for words.
Outrage
In early June 1981 – probably the 5th – Edmary and Masembe were arrested at their homes in the Masaka district of Butenge, Uganda – about 130 kilometres from the nationʼs capital, Kampala. Their ʻcrimeʼ was the murder of Wandyaka. But this was no ordinary case. Edmary and Masembe told an incredible story – one that simply could not be true, except it was. They pleaded not guilty at Masaka High Court.

Mpagi Edward Edmary at the school

They met their state-appointed lawyer just twice before the trial. Edmary could understand some English – the language of their trial – and Masembe could not. They were not provided with translators. The State called many witnesses – it would later be shown that those witnesses were a veritable roguesʼ gallery of perjurers, but that would take years and wrecked lives to establish.
On April 29th 1982 Edmary and Masembe were found guilty. They were sentenced to death and sent to the condemned section of the notorious Luzira Prison. The State had apparently proved that they had murdered Wandyaka. Their appeal was dismissed on October 18th 1983.
Mercy
After their appeal was dismissed and the mandatory death penalty upheld, they had little option but to ask for the prerogative of mercy to be extended to them – an abomination in its own right for clearly innocent men. That was refused. Instead, callous indifference resulted in a murder, that of an innocent man through negligence and lack of care.
Masembe was laid low by malaria. He and Edmary begged the prison to provide medication. That did not happen. The pleas for help for Masembe were met with a callous response from the prison authorities. He was denied medical treatment. They told him that as he was a prisoner condemned to death, they would not waste resources, attention and medicines on him.
On August 28th 1985 Masembe died of asthma, stomach pains, depreciation, physical and mental anguish. This illustrated the lack of concern for the welfare of the prisoners – innocence made no difference. If Masembe had been treated he would have lived. It is approaching 30 years since Masembe was judicially murdered.

Mpagi Edward Edmary

Rotten
The prerogative of mercy was denied. It was now a lottery if Edmary would be hanged for a crime that he did not commit. There was little time for goodbyes to family and friends. The lottery was the whim of the guards. Edmary came close to being hanged five times, but guards interceded on his behalf. During his ordeal over 50 people he had known and helped were hanged.
Despite his ordeal he was a calming influence. He helped other prisoners, teaching some of them – a right denied to his own family. He dreamed of one day proving his innocence, being vindicated and then fulfilling his mission. He wanted to build a school to give the poor an education and chances in life they would not otherwise have had (for more information on the school including their urgent needs this week see http://dreamoneworld.org/). But first he had to scale a mountain – one higher than Kilimanjaro.

Tragedy and Farce

Milton Obote had regained power as a result of the Commission headed by Paulo Muwanga declaring him the winner of the December 1980 elections. Many believed that the poll was rigged. Yoweri Museveni returned to guerrilla warfare to bring down Obote’s government. Muwanga’s decision to join Obote’s cabinet as Vice-President justified Museveni’s decision.

In his first term Obote was intolerant of opposition. Dissent was seen as a personal betrayal. His policies and actions isolated him, making him vulnerable for overthrow. His protégé Idi Amin, proved to be one of the continent’s most brutal dictators. That paved the way for Obote’s return, but Obote’s flaws had not deserted him. They had become worse in some ways.

Obote had been betrayed once – he feared treachery. The notorious Luzira Prison and others were filled with opponents. Torture was rife. It appeared that Obote had learned nothing from his previous overthrow. Nor had his régime. Muwanga’s Nile Mansion Office was notorious. A summons to it was to be feared, but Muwanga sometimes interceded for those about to be arrested if asked to. Nevertheless, he was feared.

Injustice

Opposing Obote or even Muwanga came at a price and there was the corruption that had overtaken the criminal justice system too.

No case illustrates that pervasive corruption better than the appalling miscarriage of justice suffered by Mpagi Edward Edmary and his cousin Fred Masembe. Police and a pathologist conspired to allow William Wandyaka and his family to pervert the course of justice. Edmary and Masembe were wrongfully convicted in 1982 of the murder of Wandyaka – a crime that had not occurred.

A year later their appeal was dismissed. Masembe fell victim to malaria. He was denied medication by the prison authorities – why waste resources and medicine on a man they were going to execute anyway? Edmary and Masembe appealed for clemency which was denied.

They could have been judicially murdered at any time, but there was a problem – a huge one. Not only were Edmary and Masembe innocent, but the supposed murder victim William Wandyaka was in fact alive and well throughout their ordeal. They were victims of a corrupt judicial and political system. It cost Masembe his life – a crime Edmary had to watch, but was powerless to prevent.

Photo of Mpagi Edward Edmary courtesy of Scott Langley.

The Sudan Problem

Obote quickly faced rebellion. Museveni had returned to the armed struggle – this time against his former ally – and two years into his term Civil War broke out in Sudan again. Sudan had played a role in his downfall, as some took advantage of Amin’s ties to southern-Sudan to join the Ugandan army.

They were involved in Amin’s atrocities against Ugandan citizens. Obote never forgot nor forgave it. Inevitably the Sudanese conflict affected the north of Uganda as well. It continued despite changes in government, especially in Sudan. Gafaar Nimeiry was overthrown in a military coup. The governments that followed were unable to resolve the issues. Uganda echoed Sudan’s experience too as both countries militarily affected each other’s affairs. That continued until further coups in both contries brought Omar al-Bashir and Yoweri Museveni to power in 1989. A year later both signed non-aggression pact in Kampala.

The Seeds of Discontent

Muwanga was an influential and powerful man behind Obote’s throne. He had powers of life and death. Muwanga wasn’t all bad. Even the opposition say that he occasionally interceded and secured the release of prisoners that they [the opposition] were concerned about. Nevertheless, Muwanga wielded considerable power and an accusation of helping Museveni from him came at high price.

Obote’s second term left many victims, dead, maimed, falsely imprisoned, fearing when the security forces would come for them. Suffice to say, the human rights abuses were legion. Having been overthrown by his former protégé, Idi Amin, Obote was slow to trust and very quick to see plots against him. Some were genuine, others not, but Obote had learned little from his first overthrow. Indeed, he sewed the seeds of his second overthrow. After the brutality of Amin, this was inexcusable.

The Sudan Problem

The disputes between the government of Sudanʼs President Gafaar Nimeiry and the Sudan Peopleʼs Liberation Army (SPLA) impacted upon its neighbours too. Milton Oboteʼs involvement in the war spilled over as Uganda was fighting its own Civil War due to Yoweri Museveniʼs refusal to accept Paulo Muwangaʼs decision to declare Obote the winner of the 1980 election.

Both Nimeiry and Obote were ousted from power in military coups in 1985. The Ugandan War was approaching its close, but Sudanʼs dragged on for the best part of another twenty years and it had serious ramifications for Uganda, both during Oboteʼs second term and afterwards. Sudanʼs problems had spilled over into Uganda (see Obote II – History Repeats at http://fittedin.org/fittedin/?p=1073).

Museveniʼs support for SPLA leader John Garang, whose politics veered from ʻleft to rightʼ, came at high price. Sudanʼs leader Omar al-Bashir retaliated by funding the vicious and depraved Joseph Kony and his Lordʼs Resistance Army, but that was still a long way off and came after both leaders signed a non-aggression pact in Kampala in 1990.

Oboteʼs Second Government

Obote soon showed that he had learned little from his first term as President of Uganda. He still could not brook dissent. Opponents were subject to arbitrary arrest, imprisonment in the notorious Luzira Prison among others. Torture was rife.

Oboteʼs government was tainted, especially Muwanga, as after declaring Obote the winner in elections that Museveni and others contested to the point of resuming the armed struggle, Muwanga joined Oboteʼs government as his Vice-President. Muwanga was later captured and accused of several offences ranging from kidnap to corruption.

An Extraordinary Story

The death toll will never be known, but victims piled up and not just political opponents. Among the victims of Oboteʼs second term were two young men with an extraordinary story. What started as a dispute between two families those of Mpagi Edward Edmary and William Wandyaka escalated into one of the most egregious miscarriages of justice of all time. Wandyaka was allegedly murdered in 1981 by Edmary and his cousin Fred Masembe.

Wandyakaʼs body had supposedly been subjected to a post-mortem examination. Edmary and Masembe stood trial for Wandyakaʼs murder. They told a strange story – an outrageous one. They were not only innocent, but there had been no crime. Wandyaka, they insisted was alive and well. Edmary even claimed that Wandyaka had attended the trial.

A Preposterous Injustice

It sounded preposterous, but time would eventually prove that Edmary and Masembe were indeed innocent and for the reason Edmary had claimed all along. Wandyaka was indeed alive and well throughout the judicial process – one that had claimed Masembeʼs life. Both Edmary and Masembe were sentenced to death.

Masembe died from complications after being weakened by malaria. He was denied medication, callously told that as he was going to be executed anyway, there was no point wasting medication on him. They were both jailed by a corrupt judicial system that facilitated and maintained an appalling injustice.

Vindicated

Masembe lived just long enough to see Obote deposed again, but it was scant consolation. It was already far too late for Fred Masembe. He died in prison for a crime that never occurred.

It took a change in government and 18 years on Death Row for a Presidential Commission to recognise the awful truth – Mpagi Edward Edmary and Fred Masembe were the victims of one of the most shameful miscarriages of justice ever.

Edmary was freed from Death Row. He is a valued member of The Fitted-In Project and is active opposing the death penalty as well as building a school to give the disadvantaged of Uganda a chance of a future.

Appalling

This is not the only vindication case involving Gilchrist. Even now, after her appalling practices were exposed at the cost of her job and others their liberty – possibly lives even – Gilchrist sees herself as the victim, outrageously claiming that she is being punished for alleging sexual discrimination, rather than her practices, which were hopeless at best and more likely corrupt.

Even the vindication of people like Pierce did nothing to chasten Gilchrist, let alone convince her that she was wrong. As with Michael Heath in Britain, the investigation into her practices slammed the lid shut on a scandal of epidemic proportions, especially regarding those who had already been executed.
Gilchrist could not have thrived in the grey areas of disclosure had there been an integrated approach between the forensic sciences and the judicial processes. Oklahoma put funds aside for DNA testing in the wake of the Gilchrist Affair, but the fallout was controlled, meaning a perfect opportunity to deliver important changes to the system that could have prevented repetition was needlessly lost.
The use of Police Laboratories is a case in point. There is no doubt whose side scientists working in those labs were on and were meant to be on. And that creates the conditions where ʻscientistsʼ like Gilchrist can operate, but Gilchrist did not function in a vacuum.

Culpable
The criminal justice system of Oklahoma is culpable too. Colleagues that opposed her were marginalised and accused of professional jealousy. Meanwhile, prosecutors loved her and senior jurists defended her tooth and nail. She flourished through this dark alliance of injustice.
She wrecked many lives with impunity and the system tolerated it and encouraged it even by failing to heed the warning signs repeatedly. At least eleven sentenced to death in her cases were executed.
Some were freed from Death Row, but the Gilchrist Scandal demonstrates the need for eternal vigilance throughout the forensic science and legal communities. Sadly, there are some experts who not only cannot be relied on to tell the truth, but are also not deterred from shoddy practices even with lives at stake.
Despicable
The death penalty has gone in Britain, but powers of life and death remain. Nothing illustrates this better than cases where there is no doubt about innocence because no crime occurred, or the real perpetrator was caught and convicted, or identified if dead. It does not even require a trial to ruin lives. For example the tragic story of Jaycee Lee Dugard claimed another victim.
Her step-father Carl Probyn witnessed the then 11-year-old girl being kidnapped by two people near her home in Lake Tahoe, California on June 10th 1991. Nancy Garrido bundled Jaycee into the car that Probyn described, while her husband Phillip, a registered sex offender, drove the car.
School-children witnessed the kidnapping too. Probyn gave chase on a bicycle, but could not keep up with the kidnappers. After an eighteen year ordeal Jaycee was found alive on August 26th 2009, having been kept captive by the fiendish couple for almost two decades. Her eighteen year disappearance had been resolved, but the girlʼs childhood had been stolen.
Garrido had repeatedly raped her and Nancy was culpable too. Jaycee had two daughters by him, both the result of the rape of a minor. The girls were told that Jaycee was their sister. They know the appalling truth now. The Garridos pleaded guilty to kidnapping and sexually assaulting Dugard on April 28th 2011.
Investigative opportunities were missed and vital time was wasted, investigating Probyn, whose marriage to Jayceeʼs mother Terry was destroyed by the kidnap and suspicion directed at Probyn, who was not only innocent, but had provided solid investigative leads.
Consequently, Probyn is a victim of this disgraceful case too – nowhere near the same extent as Jaycee and her daughters – but a victim nevertheless. He was never charged, let alone wrongfully convicted or charged, but such accusations are soul-destroying.
There was smoke – hot air actually – but no fire there, although the suspicion still managed to burn Probyn, who lost his marriage and family to it.
The State of California let them all, especially Jaycee, down appallingly. She has been compensated and is trying to rebuild her life, but nothing can ever compensate her for that ordeal, or for the failed opportunities to rescue her.
Garrido was a convicted rapist and subject to probation visits and from police over the eighteen years. He had pleaded guilty to several counts of kidnap and rape and was jailed for 431 years on June 2nd 2011. His wife got 36 years to life, agreeing to waive appeal rights.
While the overwhelming measure of sympathy and support must go to Jaycee, her mother, daughters, biological father and Probyn are victims too.
Vindicated
Horrid as it undoubtedly was to be wrongly suspected of involvement in such an offence as the kidnap of Jaycee Lee Dugard, it doesnʼt and cannot compare to actual incarceration for crimes committed by others. There are, according to the Innocence Project, over a hundred cases in the USA where the real perpetrator has been identified after a miscarriage of justice.
The American definition is however inadequate in our opinion as it does not include people like Probyn, but we have clearer examples that illustrate the point. There is no doubt about the vindication cases, yet there are no investigations of what went wrong – no attempt to understand how justice miscarried and why.
Not even attempts to establish if forensic science could have prevented it with one exception in Britain. But the USA is not alone. It has happened in Canada; it has occurred in Australia and New Zealand too and even in the Netherlands. Spain has suffered it too. Even China, Hungary, Belarus, Russia and a strange one in South Africa too have experienced them. And let us not forget the bizarre ones in  Pakistan and Uganda  – miscarriages of justice where the supposed murder victim turned up alive and well.
Absurd
This does not mention jurisdictions where the supposedly deceased people turned up alive and well later. Mpagi Edward Edmary spent eighteen long years on Death Row in Uganda for a murder he not only did not commit, but for a crime that did not happen. His cousin, Fred Masembe died on Death Row awaiting execution for this non-crime, untreated as he was there to be killed – an innocent man!
Meanwhile, George William Wandyake was alive and well, and even thought to have attended their trial. Why did the Ugandan authorities not demand proof that Wandyake was dead before trying, let alone convicting, innocent men of murder? Where was the compelling medical evidence justifying this prosecution?
It disgraces every concept of justice that this shambolic prosecution was allowed to pollute a court of law. It is also interesting that in all the discussion of human rights abuses in China, not a word is spent on vindication, despite a few cases where cases were solved by confessions secured by beating suspects until they confessed.
Notorious
A notorious double murder of police officers – they were executed – was solved in this manner. The defendant showed his injuries to the judge. He was sentenced to death, but it was suspended later.
Du Peiwu could easily have rotted in a Chinese prison for a crime he did not commit, but for sheer luck. The real perpetrators were arrested on other matters and confessed to the crime that Du had been convicted of.
It was a shocking miscarriage of justice in every way, especially regarding its victim. The man police officers tortured into confessing to a crime he did not commit was no ordinary victim of injustice. Du Peiwu was a fellow police officer, but that didnʼt save him.
Tolerating Injustice
There are other extraordinary cases of vindication in that jurisdiction too. If ever a criminal justice system cried out for an integrated approach between forensic sciences, investigative methods and court procedures, surely it was China.
These injustices were secured through torture, but let us not cast the first stone against China until we address the glaring flaws in our own system. We have tolerated rendition and the abuse of our citizens in the name of the ʻWar on Terrorʼ, while condemning other governments over their records.
By what right can we condemn other governments while tolerating these abuses and others that are ignored, undiagnosed even – abuses that shame and disgrace our society? We permit undeniably innocent people who have been wronged in our name to be treated shamefully.
Let us remember Jaycee Lee Dugard and her family. They were betrayed by their own criminal justice system. No compensation can ever make amends. $20m does not return her stolen life and innocence to her.
It does not justify the failure to protect them – rights they had every right to expect and demand. Compensation does not, or at least should not, cater for their care needs. The psychological damage that has been done to them all needs to be addressed at state expense.
They were failed by the system that had a duty to protect them, so it owes each of them restitution to the lives that were stolen from them. And that duty extends to other innocent victims of injustice, especially the vindicated and that should begin here.

by Satish Sekar © Satish Sekar (June 1st 2011)

Cyclone of Injustice – Joyce Gilchrist

Joyce Gilchrist was once fêted – the go to analyst, but there was a hidden story. Gilchrist swept through Oklahomaʼs criminal justice system – a cyclone of injustice – leaving a trail of devastated lives in her wake. This included victims of miscarriages of justice and the original crimes too as well as the people of Oklahoma whose interests were betrayed by Gilchristʼs failures.

Among the cases that she got horribly wrong was that of Jeffrey Todd Pierce. He was convicted of rape, largely due to evidence manipulated by Gilchrist. Pierce had a strong alibi and no previous convictions. He lost fifteen years of his life for a rape he did not commit. There is no doubt that he is innocent as the real rapist Omer May Jnr. was identified by DNA testing, but May has not and never will be charged with the vicious offence that he committed.

Why? Because the statute of limitations ran out while Pierce was wrongly incarcerated. That is obscene. There should be no statute of limitations on justice, especially when it expired due the criminal justice system persecuting an innocent man. Whether it takes days, years, decades, or even centuries, there should never be a statute of limitations of any kind on the search for justice.

This is not the only vindication case involving Gilchrist. Even now, after her appalling practices were exposed at the cost of her job and others their liberty – possibly lives even – Gilchrist sees herself as the victim, outrageously claiming that she is being punished for alleging sexual discrimination, rather than her practices, which were hopeless at best and more likely corrupt.

Even the vindication of people like Pierce did nothing to chasten Gilchrist, let alone convince her that she was wrong. As with Michael Heath in Britain, the investigation into her practices slammed the lid shut on a scandal of epidemic proportions, especially regarding those who had already been executed.

Gilchrist could not have thrived in the grey areas of disclosure had there been an integrated approach between the forensic sciences and the judicial processes. Oklahoma put funds aside for DNA testing in the wake of the Gilchrist Affair, but the fallout was controlled, meaning a perfect opportunity to deliver important changes to the system that could have prevented repetition was needlessly lost.

The use of Police Laboratories is a case in point. There is no doubt whose side scientists working in those labs were on and were meant to be on. And that creates the conditions where ʻscientistsʼ like Gilchrist can operate, but Gilchrist did not function in a vacuum.[2]

The criminal justice system of Oklahoma is culpable too. Colleagues that opposed her were marginalised and accused of professional jealousy. Meanwhile, prosecutors loved her and senior jurists defended her tooth and nail. She flourished through this dark alliance of injustice.

She wrecked many lives with impunity and the system tolerated it and encouraged it even by failing to heed the warning signs repeatedly. At least eleven sentenced to death in her cases were executed.

Some were freed from Death Row, but the Gilchrist Scandal demonstrates the need for eternal vigilance throughout the forensic science and legal communities. Sadly, there are some experts who not only cannot be relied on to tell the truth, but are also not deterred from shoddy practices even with lives at stake.

Despicable

The death penalty has gone in Britain, but powers of life and death remain. Nothing illustrates this better than cases where there is no doubt about innocence because no crime occurred, or the real perpetrator was caught and convicted, or identified if dead. It does not even require a trial to ruin lives. For example the tragic story of Jaycee Lee Dugard claimed another victim.

Her step-father Carl Probyn witnessed the then 11-year-old girl being kidnapped by two people near her home in Lake Tahoe, California on June 10^th 1991. Nancy Garrido bundled Jaycee into the car that Probyn described, while her husband Phillip, a registered sex offender, drove the car.

School-children witnessed the kidnapping too. Probyn gave chase on a bicycle, but could not keep up with the kidnappers. After an eighteen year ordeal Jaycee was found alive on August 26^th 2009, having been kept captive by the fiendish couple for almost two decades. Her eighteen year disappearance had been resolved, but the girlʼs childhood had been stolen.

Garrido had repeatedly raped her and Nancy was culpable too. Jaycee had two daughters by him, both the result of the rape of a minor. The girls were told that Jaycee was their sister. They know the appalling truth now. The Garridos pleaded guilty to kidnapping and sexually assaulting Dugard on April 28^th 2011.

Investigative opportunities were missed and vital time was wasted, investigating Probyn, whose marriage to Jayceeʼs mother Terry was destroyed by the kidnap and suspicion directed at Probyn, who was not only innocent, but had provided solid investigative leads.

Consequently, Probyn is a victim of this disgraceful case too – nowhere near the same extent as Jaycee and her daughters – but a victim nevertheless. He was never charged, let alone wrongfully convicted or charged, but such accusations are soul-destroying.

There was smoke – hot air actually – but no fire there, although the suspicion still managed to burn Probyn, who lost his marriage and family to it.

The State of California let them all, especially Jaycee, down appallingly. She has been compensated and is trying to rebuild her life, but nothing can ever compensate her for that ordeal, or for the failed opportunities to rescue her.

Garrido was a convicted rapist and subject to probation visits and from police over the eighteen years. He had pleaded guilty to several counts of kidnap and rape and was jailed for 431 years on June 2^nd 2011. His wife got 36 years to life, agreeing to waive appeal rights.

While the overwhelming measure of sympathy and support must go to Jaycee, her mother, daughters, biological father and Probyn are victims too.

Vindicated

Horrid as it undoubtedly was to be wrongly suspected of involvement in such an offence as the kidnap of Jaycee Lee Dugard, it doesnʼt and cannot compare to actual incarceration for crimes committed by others. There are, according to the Innocence Project, over a hundred cases in the USA where the real perpetrator has been identified after a miscarriage of justice.

The American definition is however inadequate in our opinion as it does not include people like Probyn, but we have clearer examples that illustrate the point. There is no doubt about the vindication cases, yet there are no investigations of what went wrong – no attempt to understand how justice miscarried and why.

Not even attempts to establish if forensic science could have prevented it with one exception in Britain. But the USA is not alone. It has happened in Canada; it has occurred in Australia and New Zealand too and even in the Netherlands. Spain has suffered it too. Even China, Hungary, Belarus, Russia and a strange one in South Africa too have experienced them.

Absurd

This does not mention jurisdictions where the supposedly deceased people turned up alive and well later. Mpagi Edward Edmary spent eighteen long years on Death Row in Uganda for a murder he not only did not commit, but for a crime that did not happen. His cousin, Fred Masembe died on Death Row awaiting execution for this non-crime, untreated as he was there to be killed – an innocent man!

Meanwhile, George William Wandyake was alive and well, and even thought to have attended their trial. Why did the Ugandan authorities not demand proof that Wandyake was dead before trying, let alone convicting, innocent men of murder? Where was the compelling medical evidence justifying this prosecution?

It disgraces every concept of justice that this shambolic prosecution was allowed to pollute a court of law. It is also interesting that in all the discussion of human rights abuses in China, not a word is spent on vindication, despite a few cases where cases were solved by confessions secured by beating suspects until they confessed.

Notorious

A notorious double murder of police officers – they were executed – was solved in this manner. The defendant showed his injuries to the judge. He was sentenced to death, but it was suspended later.

Du Peiwu could easily have rotted in a Chinese prison for a crime he did not commit, but for sheer luck. The real perpetrators were arrested on other matters and confessed to the crime that Du had been convicted of.

It was a shocking miscarriage of justice in every way, especially regarding its victim. The man police officers tortured into confessing to a crime he did not commit was no ordinary victim of injustice. Du Peiwu was a fellow police officer, but that didnʼt save him.

Tolerating Injustice

There are other extraordinary cases of vindication in that jurisdiction too. If ever a criminal justice system cried out for an integrated approach between forensic sciences, investigative methods and court procedures, surely it was China.

These injustices were secured through torture, but let us not cast the first stone against China until we address the glaring flaws in our own system. We have tolerated rendition and the abuse of our citizens in the name of the ʻWar on Terrorʼ, while condemning other governments over their records.

By what right can we condemn other governments while tolerating these abuses and others that are ignored, undiagnosed even – abuses that shame and disgrace our society? We permit undeniably innocent people who have been wronged in our name to be treated shamefully.[3]

Let us remember Jaycee Lee Dugard and her family. They were betrayed by their own criminal justice system. No compensation can ever make amends. $20m does not return her stolen life and innocence to her.

It does not justify the failure to protect them – rights they had every right to expect and demand. Compensation does not, or at least should not, cater for their care needs. The psychological damage that has been done to them all needs to be addressed at state expense.

They were failed by the system that had a duty to protect them, so it owes each of them restitution to the lives that were stolen from them. And that duty extends to other innocent victims of injustice, especially the vindicated and that should begin here.

[1] An indication of the importance of an integrated approach can be seen in Equality of Arms, at http://fittedin.org/fittedin/?p=690  for more on this case and others too.

[2] I intend to highlight the effect of Oklahomaʼs cyclone of injustice in a forthcoming book.

[3] I am currently researching a book on these cases and others like them, which I hope will be published next year.