Urgent Email regarding Shohn's final Appeal

Please print the Spanish translation posted below, sign with name and place of residence (city/state) and email it to confianza_ciudadana@hotmail.com
This in English can be emailed to elected officials here in the US. I"ll post email addresses here in following post.



Fax:
Tel: From US- 011 52 667 846 5757
Attn: Magistrado Eucebio Avila Lopez
Primer Tribunal Colegiado de Circuito del Centro Auxiliar de la Quinta Región (Culiacán)

Honorable Judge EUCEBIO ÁVILA LÓPEZ:

We write in support of Shohn Huckabee, now 24, a young, self employed small business owner whose life has been dramatically and irrevocably impacted by a conviction and imprisonment for a crime that neither he, nor his employee Carlos Guillermo Quijas, in fact committed.

At the outset, we feel that your cool reflection and proper exercise of judicial discretion will restore not only Shohn's freedom, but also that of his unfortunate employee after some 17 months of unjust imprisonment without cause and with great prejudice.

It is a given that in any penal proceeding in the civilized world, a conviction can be had only on legal evidence that has been properly obtained by the charging authority. This was not done in the case that awaits your decision. There was a time when it was said that it was better that ten guilty men go free rather than to incarcerate one who is innocent. Given that over time our world has become more brutalized by the violence that seems to be sweeping the globe, it bears mention that a society is measured by how it treats the least fortunate and by the fairness of its penal system. To take one's freedom has been authorized across the world only on a showing of due process. The presumption of innocence is the basis of a fair trial and of a democratic society.

The case in bar is a singular example of a system gone grievously and unacceptably wrong. We are aware of the evidence, or lack thereof, that you will find on a close examination of the file before you. We will not belabor it, for we believe in our hearts and minds that the evidence speaks for itself - res ipsa loquitor, as some would say.

Why? Because there is no showing of a proper chain of custodial evidence, the prosecution's witnesses contradicted themselves, the trial itself was conducted in a seemingly lackadaisical manner, in short - because for reasons not known to us, there was a rush to judgment and justice in Mexico was in this instance not served. We urge you to examine the file with great care. We urge you that in an act of great humanity, you act in the name of freedom, justice, and moral authority.

Respectfully,