Press Conference April 6th El Paso

A binationally represented press conference to announce and address developments in Shohn's case and related issues will be held at 11:00 AM on Wednesday, April 6, at the First Presbyterian Church of El Paso, located at 1320 Murchison Drive. Pastor Dr. Robert Reno has kindly offered to provide the church facility and will also be available for the conference. All interested are welcome to attend. Your interest and support is greatly appreciated.
More on this event will follow soon. Thank you!

I remember when Breanne and Shohn were 16 and 14 and they had a lawn mowing business. They spent their summer days doing yard work for about three different summers. Shohn employed Breanne to drive him around because she had the driver's license. He only paid her on Fridays. They have lots of fun stories to tell about their yard business. Oh the fond memories. Mom

A Word from Shohn

Hello to all. First I want to thank everyone for their interest and concern in my imprisonment. I appreciate all the help that we can get. I have been in prison in Cereso in Cuidad Juarez for almost a year and four months now. There has not been one day that I have been here that I have not wanted to be home. I miss my family greatly and couldn't have imagined ever being away from them this long. Without the opportunities to see my family, I couldn’t have made it through the time here. This prison is a ticking time bomb and ready to go off at anytime. Luckily it has only gone off one time since I have been here. Gun fire between the rival gangs rang out back and forth inside the walls of the jail. Not to mention the killing of inmates by inmates. In the time I have been here about 15 inmates have been killed by other inmates. Some were beaten, other given drugs and other hanged. This includes two that have happened fifty feet from where I sleep every night. I do not say this to scare anyone, but I just want you to know how much of a hell this place is and express my desire to leave and leave quickly. This has not just been hard for me but for my wife and family. I ask that anyone and everyone that can help will and show that we can begin to help a corrupted judicial system. With all of your help and pressure on the Mexican government, I believe I can be set free and begin to help all the people that I have met and learned their stories here. I do agree there are some guilty people here but after a year of being around these people I know that the crimes the Mexican Army has accused them of are false. I can count way over a hundred cases of people who have been picked up by the army and crimes placed on them. It all follows a very similar pattern. The people will be yanked out of their homes or cars and hauled off to the military base. Once there the torture begins. The ways of torture vary from hitting with rifle punching and electrical shocks. People have described having plastic bags over their heads until they pass out. If they bite a hole in the bag to breathe they get two more bags put over their heads. The army believes through this torture they are going to get confessions and names of more people to pick up. The army then falsifies evidence of drugs weapons and murders to show that they are working and making a difference in the city and country. While all this is going on they simply wave by the vehicles loaded with drugs or full of Secarios and guns headed to the next job. They imprison the innocent and allow the guilty to keep working. The ease of convicting the people they pick up is easy for the judicial system. From the moment you are picked up you are already guilty and from inside these walls it is difficult to prove your own innocence. The judges would rather avoid the conflict and just pass on the normal sentence and move on with their day instead of really focusing on the evidence of innocence is presented. I thank you for your support and I know with everyone’s help I can be set free and with this we can start to help this country an change the normal presumed guilty mentality this country has. Thank you and I will stay strong and hopefully this nightmare will be over soon.

A Message from His Wife

I first met Shohn in the fall of 2006. Already at 19 years old he was a young man that had his life together. As we got to know each other I began to see more and more how much family meant to him. I have to admit it was the way he loved and respected his family that first made me fall for him. About a week before Christmas I finally let my guard down and became his girlfriend. When he asked me to marry him a year and a half later, I was absolutely thrilled and I said yes with all of my heart. How could I deny the man who had helped heal my heart and show me what love really could be? I not only learned love through Shohn, but he also taught me the true meaning of God's grace and forgiveness. Shohn would give the shirt off his back to help someone. And he has proved this several times in the past when his friends ran upon tough times. When Shohn was first imprisoned, I didn't know if I could handle being away from him. His strong spirit, however, has helped me stay strong. I couldn't understand how he was keeping me strong. Wasn't it supposed to be the other way around? It's time for us to rally together, not just as friends and family, but as human beings. I of course want my husband home and safe, but we need to make sure that this never happens to another innocent human being again. Never had I thought that I would be so educated about the poverty and corruption stricken city of Juarez. All I can ask for is my husband's release and safe return, but maybe we can help heal the city of Juarez as well. *Randi*=

Mema's post

Shohn is my grandson. I have watched him grow from infancy to the fine young man he is today. Shohn always had a very tender and big heart. If anyone ever needed help or just a shoulder to cry on Shohn was always there. The Huckabee home was always a gathering place for all of the kids because the whole family was there to make them feel welcome and help them in any way they could. Since this nightmare began there have been so many people praying and doing whatever they could to help. Even perfect strangers who've heard the story have called or e-mailed to ask what they could do to help. People all over the world have continued to pray and work for Shohn's release. Please continue to pray for Shohn and his family and contact politicians and reporters and anyone else that will listen.

A Loving Sister

“I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. (Jeremiah 29:11)”

For those of you that do not know me my name is Breanne Kennedy and I am Shohn's oldest sister. This verse has been the source of my strength and prayers for my brother over the last year. Since I was a young girl I have known that my brother was meant for great things. I know that God has great plans for him and it is my belief that through this trial and hardship he will prevail and great things will come of his imprisonment. My brother over the past year has touched many lives behind the walls of the prison and I know he will continue when he is set free. Growing up I never knew that my family would be so intricately involved in this community that over the past 5 years has become a very dismal place. It is my desire through this situation to bring light and peace to Juarez and I think that through my brother's wrongful imprisonment and my family's hardship we are equipped to do just that. I would like to challenge each and every member of this web site, to join not only in the race to free my brother, but to bring light to a horribly dark community. I would challenge all to use the strength my brother has shown in this situation to spearhead a movement. Shohn has persevered in the most heart-wrenching situations and I would challenge you to do the same. Please join with me and my family to free Shohn and help a community that has so many innocent and helpless people trapped behind a wall of drugs and murder.

Message from Kevin and Tammy Huckabee

As Shohn's parents and family, we need your support and help now to gain his release from the horrible ordeal that has been like a really bad dream for well over a year now. No family should ever have to go through having a loved one mercilessly ripped from their lives the way Shohn has been from ours. We spend our time these days with the constant thought of how to gain justice and restore his freedom and good name, and get him home where he belongs. He is only 23, and a hardworking, family and sports loving young man.
Mexico has no regard for their own justice system, or the rights of the people it affects. Once you have seen the system from the inside as we have, you understand the plight of the Mexican people, and anyone that winds up in the system's grasp. We want to gain Shohn's release foremost, but ultimately we hope to expose, as the important documentary Presunto Culpable (Presumed Guilty) has recently portrayed, the corruption, cynicism, and impunity that reign within the Mexican legal and justice system.
Please join us, and help us show the world that democratically established individual guarantees and Human Rights must be observed for our world to be a place where we can have hope for the future of our children.

Legal defense anywhere is costly. For now, we'll just say that the cast of characters and official fees in Cd. Juarez have been astounding. Additionaly, we travel to Cd. Juarez various times per week to visit Shohn, keep his spirits up, and provide for many basic needs. We have to take him food, and we do his laundry, and provide any of the other items he needs to have some little bit of home in his cell. Shohn is a talented carpenter and had kept busy doing wood working and carpentry there, but the prison carpentry workshop was destroyed by fire recently and has not been restored yet.
Due to the ever present danger in Cd. Juarez, we have to take precautions when going over, that include arranging for a trustworthy and reliable driver from the point of entry, as we must travel through to the southern edge of the city to arrive at the prison. Juarez is statistically identified as the most dangerous city on earth. That fact that is down played by all of the government figures, and they would like for the world to ignore the dozens of executions and torture victims found or killed daily in their city.
We ask you to join us in any of the events and grass roots activities we will post on this site. Please join in the signing of petitions to the Mexican judiciary to call for them to make the right decision as this case makes it's way before them. Many have asked if they could help financially, so we have provided a PayPal button to securely donate to this cause. In kind donations and volunteer donations of time, goods, or services to help us bring about gatherings and events would be great help, too. We appreciate your support by taking part actively, or financially to help bring Shohn home to his family and back to the work he loves. Please continue to keep our family in your prayers at this critical time.

Greetings Friends!

Shohn's freedom and safety depends on all of us. It is time to come together openly to bring him home.
We're getting some technical issues resolved today, and look forward to hearing more from you all, you're comments are greatly appreciated. We are redirecting the domain from WordPress to Blogger, so bear with us. The freeshohn.com URL will redirect and continue to function.
We'll be posting an online petition open to any and all to sign for the immediate reversal of Shohn's sentence. We will also post details about his ordeal and current legal situation.
If you have photos or videos you think would be good to share here, please send them.
The lead picture you see now was taken about three years ago.
Thank you all for your support.