Nothing to Worry About...Or do I? Continued

Greetings...Back again to tell you more of my story. 

Looking back I see where I stepped deeper into this trying to get myself out of it. It wasn't just my bad lawyer or the prosecutor, it was my attitude and my lack of knowledge about what I was facing. I had fell under the illusion that if you didn't do anything you didn't have anything to worry about. I mean, how can you hide evidence that is right in your face?

Leroy Head didn't just confess to the Gillis brothers and his mom, but he confessed to anyone who would listen. I had over 10 different affidavits from inmates stating Leroy confessed to them over a period of years. None of which made it in front of any court. They claimed that this evidence wasn't credible because they were inmates. Yet they themselves used inmates to convict me. Anthony Gillis was the worse of them all. At the time of him giving the statement against Leroy, this dude was giving a statement against his own brother for another murder. The police were actually going around looking for a gang of guys that were robbing the elderly in the neighborhood.Which happened to be the Gillis brothers, Leroy Head and a few others. So when Anthony Gillis was arrested for this, he gave his own brother up for a murder he had done and Leroy for the murder of Sanders Leach to help get out of the mess he was in. When Leroy decided to put his murder on me, it wasn't hard for them to convince Gillis to change what he had said at the start. He had five different cases pending himself. This was a man who was in prison when he testified against me and walked out of the county jail an hour later. Between Anthony Gillis and Leroy Head, 19 different statements were made. And that was their evidence as to who did this murder.  They didn't have any except their twisted words. These two boys with all these different statements. And somehow the prosecutor found a way to convince a jury that these two were making these stories up initially out of fear of me hurting their families.

So where were my lawyers while all this was going? I had Mr. William Chapman as an attorney at this point. So, I didn't really have an attorney. This man allowed all this to happen and then came to visit me one day and told me that they were now putting this murder on me and that I was facing the death penalty. The trial was a mess. This man was so bad the judge turned his back on the court and went to sleep. It took the jury all of 20 minutes to find me guilty and a day to sentence me to death.The courtroom was filled with lawyers and judges who just shook their heads when the verdict came in. I was the talk of the courthouse over this farce.

Everything that could have went wrong did go wrong. Even I knew this wouldn't stand. Off to death town I went. The most horrible moment in all of this was when I stepped in that cell and that door closed behind me. All the life went out of me...And the drama got deeper....But that is for another time.

As always,thank you for listening...Peace, Arthur

Chapter One-Got Nothing To Worry About...Or do I?

Greetings. I am finally in the process of writing my thoughts from over the past years. Thinking it may somehow form a book worth reading. Not really a good writer (yes, someone will be editing), but I will hope to keep to an easy form without too much change.The book will not detail the things that took place daily, but more how I happened to get here and the process that has kept me here for as long as it has. 

Some people trust the system isn't crooked, but those are people who really don't care, just do the job, and they don't want to know. You have those who know something is wrong, who care and try to do something about it. I know some of both. And then there are those who have first hand knowledge of how bad it can go being caught up in this system. That's the story I will tell. It's about bad lawyers, shady prosecutors, judges who know it should go one way but allow it to go however the prosecutor wants. Lying witnesses who don't know the truth but will give what they are told is the truth because they think they are doing the right thing. 

There were no eyewitnesses to the crime. There was no physical evidence.This case started with Anthony Gillis and Leroy Head being arrested along with others on an unrelated murder. After a conversation with the Gillis and his brothers, it was determined that Leroy Head was the person who shot and killed Mr.Sanders Leach. After this, Leroy Head confessed to his Mom and then the detective's who were on the case that he committed this murder. He said that he was with a guy named Art, a guy he really didn't know. That was his one truth and the one thing I never denied. He was with me that day and we did go all the way to the Meat Market. But everything after that was on him, not on me. My wrong in this is I didn't do the right thing with it. I thought, "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" was the code. I didn't do anything wrong so why involve myself? The second worse decision I ever made in life.

The first being my choice of lawyers. I had the worse lawyer in the history of lawyers. Mr.William Chapman, other lawyers referred to him as "two-suit Chapman." He had one dirty blue suit and one dirty black suit. He hung around the third floor courtroom hustling the cases the court paid lawyers to plea out. I didn't learn all this until later, but at the time he was my star. I didn't know any better. He was my thousand dollar lawyer who guaranteed he would win this case. How could he not? After all, I didn't do anything wrong and they had Leroy Head's confession. So I was under an illusion of freedom. I had the paid lawyer and they had Leroy's confession. What could go wrong? I had actually gotten rid of some decent attorneys to hire this man. My third worse decision. See, I realize now that I can't blame anyone but myself for being here. All they did at the beginning was get out of my way and I walked myself right into the noose.

I had the shadiest prosecutor ever, William Gerstenslager. He made one objection that resounds in my head today.The judge had made a ruling that he was not going to allow Mr. Chapman to handle my case in his courtroom.That's the first time I should have listened. The prosecutor objected and told the judge that he couldn't object to the lawyer of my choosing. I bought into that so hard that I objected to the judge telling me who I can hire. Dumb,dumb,dumb,dumb,dumb! Punches we're now being thrown. I threw the first one and hit myself in the mouth.The prosecutor never wanted me to have lawyers the court appointed. He never needed to convince me. He just tweaked my ego and let me think I was in control. And I placed the noose around my own neck. Gerstenslager just tightened it. 

That was the beginning of this nightmare. Have you ever awoken one day and just knew that the day was all wrong? That it wasn't going to go as it normally did.That it wasn't going to end as it should .I did and I couldn't do anything about it as you will see...

Be blessed everyone. This story continues...Peace, Arthur