From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Dr. Andreas van Almsick) To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Once again Michael Pardue Date sent: Mon, 3 Jul 2000 20:05:39 +0200 Dear Mr. Webre, Thank you for your fast answer. i will attach a translation of an article about Michael Pardue published on 20.12.99 from the national available "Frankfurter Rundschau". This shoulf give you an impression how Michael's case is seen here in Germany. Best regards A. van Almsick ---------------- 26 years innocent behind bars? Michael Pardue was sentenced to life in the US state of Alabama for homicides he never committed. By Jörg-Michael Dettmer (Fort Worth) For the past 26 years the 43-year old Michael Pardue has been in prison in the US federal state of Alabama. His case is like a nightmare: Pardue was sentenced to life in 1973 when he was 17-years old because of a triple homicide. Although the Supreme Court of Alabama set aside this controversial verdict in 1997 due to a lack of proof, Pardue is still behind bars for life without the possibility of pardon. This is because he has escaped three times from prison. In Alabama there is a strict law, "Three strikes and you are out", in German: three crimes means life. A controversial law enacted to fight against the spreading crime in the country. Therefore Michael Pardue must remain in prison for his three escape attempts even though he was trying to escape detention for a crime of which he was in all likelihood innocent. This is the history of his case: In the early morning of May 22nd , 1973 the owners of two gas stations, located 25 kilometers from each other in the south of Alabama, were brutally murdered. On the same night Michael Pardue had partied and behaved foolishly with a friend and a girlfriend at a Motel in Saraland. The 17-year old boy stole a pickup-truck to drive to Mobile with the girl and, when this later got stuck in mud, a Volkswagen. The motel was only three kilometers away from one of the scenes of the crime. According to Pardue the police became aware of him because of the stolen cars. He was summoned the next day and had prepared himself to be arrested for car theft. But it all turned out differently. The local police force of the city of Saraland apparently stood under immense media and public pressure to clear up the brutal homicides. In Michael Pardue they believed they had found the ideal perpetrator. After 78 hours interrogation by a total of ten police officials and prosecutors Michael Pardue confessed to three homicides. This was because in the meantime a further victim of homicide had been found. During the marathon interrogation the 17-year old was threatened and beaten, received hardly anything to eat and was prevented from sleeping. Pardue was not allowed to talk to an attorney not to call his family. The officials threatened him with the death penalty even though it wasn't being implemented at that time in USA. Michael Pardue's complete murder trial lasted only one and a half hours. His attorney made absolutely no efforts to help him in anyway. The 17-year old was sentenced to life imprisonment. "I was not exactly a good boy at that time but I am not a murderer ", Michael Pardue writes in a letter from prison. "My confession was extorted in a most brutal way. I was only 17 years old at that time, I was quite alone, I was poor, without any influence and couldn't defend myself". Not a single piece of evidence was presented by the Office of the District Attorney during the trial that convicted Pardue as a murderer. The only proof linking him to the three homicides was his verbal confession which one of the officials that had been involved in the interrogation - once more verbally - summarized in front of the court. There never was a written confession. In a second trial in the year 1995 Michael Pardue was again convicted of homicide and sentenced to 100 years custody. For inexplicable reasons an audio tape suddenly appeared containing the confession of 1973. At this stage the Supreme Court of Alabama interfered. It didn't allow the tape to be used as evidence because the confession had been illegally coerced. The conviction was overturned and all charges of homicide against Pardue were dropped. Pardue and his attorneys have listed a whole kaleidoscope of faults, inconsistencies, fraud and others shocking facts associated with his case. For example, as the interrogation proceeded, Pardue identified weapon used in the crime as a shotgun, which belonged to relatives. When the police found the weapon in the cupboard of Pardues aunt, there were according to the attending officers spider's webs and rust in the barrel. The same shotgun appeared newly polished in the trial. And: It had been recently fired. Criminologists said, that the bullet wounds of the gas station attendants pointed to a pistol or a rifle rather than a shotgun. Neither blood nor gun powder residues were found on Michael Pardues clothes. Moreover, he was never charged with taking the red Volkswagen. According to the testimonies of witnesses this theft occurred at precisely the same time as one of the gas stations homicides and this could have exonerated Pardue. No wonder, that the convict speaks about conspiracy. Lastly: The leading district attorney of Baldwin County, Jim Hendrix, and the detective Bobby Stewart, who interrogated Pardue in 1973, were later themselves imprisoned for drug associated crimes. William Travis, at that time Chief investigator of Mobile County was later dismissed because of brutality and corruption.. The assistant district attorney of Mobile, Willis Holloway, was taken into custody because of extortion and forgery. The three failed escape attempts of Michael Pardue are offences. If one believes in his innocence, one can't really justify these offences, but one can at least understand. The case would be more difficult and morally more complicated if Pardue had injured or even killed people during his jailbreaks. "I have hurt nobody during my escapes", Pardue writes from prison. "With the first escape it was a matter of me being forced to smuggle drugs in prison. If I had refused, I might have had to defend myself with violence. Therefore I escaped." According to Pardue´s own words, in his second escape he also wanted to get away from the brutal and violent live within the notorious Holman Prison. The third escape, this time from a prison farm, he obviously made because of frustration and despair. His petition of parole had been rejected once more and he knew that he would have to go back to Holman Prison. An important break in the life of this evidently wrongly convicted American occurred in the beginning of the eighties. In prison he met Becky Pouyardou, who later married him in 1988 in Holman Prison. Becky became Michael Pardue´s mental supporter, his adviser and not last his mouthpiece. She set up a webpage about this case on the internet and helped him in his fight against the courts. The fact that Michael Pardue has survived 26 years in American prisons isn't simply a matter of course. US penitentiaries are dangerous places where groups and gangs are involved in power struggles and where violence, extortion, intimidation and murder all occur. "The passage of time favors the courts", Pardue writes from cell. "If I should die, they would have nor more problems with me. I live in violent surroundings. Every day I have to be extremely careful, that I don't by a mistake get involved in a violent situation. My only protection is to stay in my cell when I am not working". A lot of prisoners who survive, become brutalized. In comparison to this, Michael Pardue, as shown by his correspondence, has continued his studies and worked on himself. He teaches general education and computer courses to other prisoners. Pardue has obviously tried to preserve his individuality and dignity. How much effort day of day this has cost and costs can only poorly be estimated by an outsider. At the moment Pardues fight for justice concentrates on a civil suit with which he wants to prove his innocence in court. He has sued the City of Saraland, the two concerned district counties, the officials involved in his interrogation and his 1973 trial attorney. The grounds are conspiracy, assault and battery, various violations of a number of laws and regulations, fraud and malicious criminal prosecution and a row of other offenses. In addition two different courts are reviewing anew the convictions relating to Pardues escape attempts, because of which he sits in prison today. The reversal of just one of these sentences could mean a mitigation of punishment for Pardue. He is currently serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. A mitigation of punishment does not automatically mean freedom. The justice system of Alabama is in a defensive position. To international inquiries this means most laconically, that Michael Pardue is lawfully in detention. That's right, according to the law of the State Alabama he was convicted lawfully for the three escape attempts. "Doesn't the State also have a duty to correct injustices and to try and make recompense?", critics ask. In the meantime, Michael Pardue has sat in prison in Alabama, since he was 17 years old. He is 43 years old today. 26 years behind bars, that is an inconceivably long time. In addition, if one just supposes that Michael Pardue is in fact innocent: What a gruesome and unimaginable thought, 26 years spent behind bars in the knowledge that one is innocent. What kind of man is able to endure this without simply going mad? "My wife, who has shown me what honest and pure love is and my unshakable belief in the truth give me the hope to survive", writes Pardue from his cell. _________ earthradioTV.com - Alternative News Portal for ecology, politics & consciousness. mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] earthradioTV.com MIRROR SITES: USA http://www.earthradioTV.com/index2.html CZECH http://mujweb.cz/www/ecologynews/ UK http://members.tripod.co.uk/ecologynews/ Canada http://www.ecologynews.com/index2.html <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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