Imagine being condemned to
death for a crime you did not commit, and then finding yourself under
an active death warrant, facing imminent execution - and having to
basically defend yourself against the relatively infinate resources of
the state...not even Hollywood can come up with such a bizarre plot.
But
that's the reality I've found myself in these past months. It's now
over 9 months (November 30, 2015) since Florida Governor Rick Scott
signed a death warrant scheduling my execution for February 11, 2016 and
over 6 months since, only days before my scheduled execution, the
Florida Supreme Court granted a temporary stay of execution as they
decide whether the January 2016 US Supreme Court decision in Hurst v
Florida (which declared that Florida's practise of having the judge
ultimately determine whether to impose death sentence rather than the
jury renders Florida's death penalty unconstitutional) effectively makes
my death sentence illegal... a decision will most likely be delayed
until after the November elections as when it comes down to it, the
death penalty is about politics, not justice.
During
this period of time as I remained under this still-active death
warrant, I've begged and pleaded with my state assigned legal counsel to
work on developping new appeals, but when it comes down to it, they've
refused to do anything. Maybe they are so confident that the Florida
Supreme Court will throw out my death sentence that they just don't see
any point in doing anymore work... but what if they are wrong and the
Florida Supreme Court rules against me, as id that is the case then
under Florida law the governor is mandted to to reschedule my execution
within 10 days of when the court rules against me and I'd again be
facing imminent execution.
If
there's one thing I'm absolutely certain of after all these years, it's
that if I were to sit back and let my life depend on the state assigned
lawyers to fight this fight on their own, I would had undoubtedly been
dead many years ago and it almost killed me in 1988 when I came within
hours of being executed and so I make it a point to become personally
involved with my own appeals - and if that means bumping heads with the
lawyers assigned to represend me, then so be it! - I already know how
hard-headed I am, so I can take it!
So,
for 7 months now I've done all I could to try to get my assigned
lawyers to do something, but all I get is a lot of talk. They do cover
their own butt, though - almost every week they'll communicate with me
and always in a manner that leaves no written record so that if I claim
that they've effectively abandoned me, they can show that they did a 30
minute legal phone call or whatever each week.
My
problem is that unlike my lawyer, I am not waiting on the Florida
Supreme Court to rule on whether the Florida death penalty is
unconstitutional. Even assuming they did rule favorably on that issue,
the most it would do is reduce my death sentence to life in prison, and
as Pope Francis put it so well, a "life" sentence is effectively a slow
death sentence.
Rather,
from the day I was arrested on that crime I have always and
unequivocally maintained my innocence, adamantly insisting that the key
witness and the prosecutor deliberately fabricated this wholly
circumstantial ( i.e., no eyewitnesses, no physical or forensic
evidense, no confessions, etc) theory of alleged premeditated murder -
the key witness (Frances Smith) was desperate to do anything to get
immunity and the local small-town prosecutor was as equally desperate to
make a name for himself....it's not merely a coincidence that this same
prosecutor has already had two others in unrelated cases subsequently
exonorated and released from Florida's death row after the Florida
Supreme Court recognized that this prosecutor crossed the line with
overzealous prosecution (John Ballard and Bradley Scott were both set
free due to prosecutional misconduct)
I
am, and always have been, fighting for my freedom and so even if the
florida Supreme Court did reduce my current death sentence to life, that
would be a "hollow" victory. My state assigned lawyers would celebrate
that "victory", but I would not...only my freedom is a real victory.
But
of the state assigned lawyers controlling my case have effectively
given up, then what am I to do? The vast majority of those sentenced to
death simply do not have the intellectual capacity to understand the
complexities of the law and are basically helpless. But I'm not your
average death sentenced prisoner, and I'm not going to just lay down and
give up....I didn't fight this fight for 33 years to quit now.
So, I did the only thing I could do....I wrote up my own appeal and
recently filed it in the US Supreme Court, explaining to the court that
both the State of Florida and lower courts have unfairly stacked the
deck not only against me, but against many of Florida's death sentenced
prisoners, by assigning US state agency lawyers who under Florida law
are strictly prohibited from pursueing any form of "civil" action
challenging our conviction and sentence of death...and I am asking the
Supreme Court to exercise their jurisdiction by expeditiously ordering the appointment of new legal counsel that can represent me in what must be pursued.
Specifically,
for over 25 years the prosecutor deliberately concealed forensic
evidence in my case that conclusively shows that the Florida (FDLE) crime
lab found several hairs on the alleged murder weapon that they
determined in 1983 did not match me or either of the victims.
These only recently exposed crime lab records also conclusively show
that when the crime lab told the prosecutor about this unexpected
discovery, the prosecutor instructed the crime lab to return all this
evidence to his office - and he then hid the evidence until it was
accidently revealed in 2009.
But
when my state assigned lawyers filed a new appeal in 2009 argueing that
this blatant act of deliberate prosecutional misconduct required the
court to throw out my conviction and allow a new trial, suddenly my case
was reassigned to Judge Christine Greider - a local former prosecutor
who previously worked with prosecutor Randall McGruther and in fact,
was appointed to the bench while McGruther himself was on the 20th
Circuit Judicial nominating committee.
Not
surprisingly, Judge Greider summarily denied the appeal even after the
Asst Attorney General representing the state conceded that the
previously undisclosed hairs most likely were the key witnesses hair and
that they never did disclose this evidence.
A
motion to have this previously undisclosed forensic evidence subjected
to DNA testing was filed - by me, but was also summarily denied by Judge
Greider. The Florida Supreme Court subsequently affirmed the summary
denial, rejecting our arguements that under well established law it was per se reversible
error to deny this "new evidence/actual innocence" appeal and request
for DNA testing without providing any form of evidentiary process
necessary to establish the materiality of this deliberately concealed
evidence.
My
only recourse at that point would be to file a federal civil action
under Skinner v. Switzer S.Ct. 1289 (2011) as a means to challenge the
denial of DNA testing necessary to establish
my actual innocence as "arbitrary and unfair" but under Florida law my
assigned state counsel is categorically prohibited from representing
death sentenced prisoners in civil actions.
So,
last year (before my death warrant was signed) I asked the Federal
court to appoint Federal counsel to my case as is statutorily mandated
under applicable Federal law (18 U.S.C. 3599), only to have the Federal
Court refuse to do so, leaving me with only the state assigned counsel. I
appealed this to the Eleventh Circuit court of appeals in January,
while facing imminent execution, but Chief Judge Edward Cornes has
refused to allow the case to be docketed - as he has done in other
similar capital cases (Judge Cornes and his Alabama cronies are knwon
for their fanatical support for the death penalty and overzealous
pursuit of executions)
With
few remaining options - obviously I simply don't have the ability to
hire a lawyer to represent me and contrary to popular myth there are no
lawyers willing to volunteer to help an innocent man avoid execution -
my only remanining option was to write up the appeal myself and file it
with the Supreme Court, which I did on August 17, 2016.
If
you like to read this 32 page appeal asking the Supreme Court for help
in getting legal representation so I can prove my innocence, you can
read it in HERE . You can follow the
progress of this appeal on the Supreme Court's website at https://www.supremecourtus.gov/ and pull up the case, docketed as In re: Cary Michael Lambrix, Case No. 16-5715 (https://www.supremecourt.gov/search.aspx?filename=/docketfiles/16-5715.htm )
What
does it say about our legal system that a poor and uneducated man
facing imminent execution for a crime he did not commit must write up
and file hos won appeals? The reality of it is that in capital cases,
the appointment of legal representation is most often a total pretene
intended to project the appearance of fairness in an inherently unfair
process. - Mike Lambrix
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