Bob Shell: Virginia Enters the Dark Ages

Old Antique shop and old pick up truck radford virginia
Antiques. Radford, Virginia. Photo: Anthony Colagreco, Copyright 2022

Last November, Virginia elected a new conservative Republican administration. The new Attorney General is Jason Miyares.

Last year, the AG at that time, Mark Herring, set up a new unit in the AG’s office called the Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU), because the administration finally realized that Virginia had far too many innocent people in prison.

The new unit went to work immediately on questionable convictions.
According to a study by the Richmond Times Dispatch newspaper, about 15 – 18% of Virginia convictions are false. The Virginia Department of Corrections (VDOC) admits to 5%. With approximately 30,000 people in Virginia prisons, that’s from 1,500 to 5,400 innocent people locked up in Virginia prisons, their lives destroyed.

The creation of the CIU gave us falsely convicted people a hope that the state wanted to redress its wrongs and set us free. I spent considerable time and money getting copies made of important documents in my case, and submitted it all to the CIU last year.

One of Miyares first acts upon taking office was to fire the whole staff of the CIU! This left cases in progress there hanging.  I wrote a letter complaining about this that was published on March 6 in The Roanoke Times newspaper. A communications officer from the AG’s office contacted the paper to demand a correction and say that the new AG had, in fact, expanded the CIU, renaming it the Investigations, Cold Cases, and Actual Innocence Project with all new staff under the direction of Theo Stamos, a prosecutor from Arlington, VA. Isn’t putting a prosecutor in charge of this new unit, which will now handle cold cases and investigations, like putting the fox in charge of the henhouse?

Why didn’t The Roanoke Times already know about this? Wouldn’t the AG normally send out a press release about such important news?
I recently got a letter from the Coalition for Justice in Blacksburg, Virginia. The situation is worse than I could have thought.
The Conviction Integrity Unit filed a petition for a Writ of Actual Innocence last year with the Virginia Court of Appeals for Terrance Richardson, a man serving a life sentence for the murder of a policeman, championed byAG Mark Herring.

After taking office new AG Miyares notified the court that the state had changed its position and asked the court to dismiss Richardson’s petition! Shouldn’t judging the merits of the 57 page petition prepared by the CIU and endorsed by the former AG be up to the court to decide?

Seth Shelley, one of the fired CIU attorneys, said, “My unit alone had 20 cases that were pending before the Court of Appeals and Supreme Court of Virginia. All of us are now gone.”

What will happen to those cases? Will Miyares ask the courts to dismiss them all, or just leave these people hanging with no attorneys anymore?
Should the AG, whose staff’s job is to oppose these cases, be able to fire the lawyers representing the petitioners?

Another fired attorney, Emilee Hasbrouck said, over the past year the CIU has helped two people get absolute pardons, as well as filing Richardson’s petition. She said these cases are thousands of pages long, with evidence spanning decades. She emphasized just how difficult it would be for new people to take over these cases.

Theo Stamos, appointed to take over the new unit, is a prosecutor from Arlington, and a woman. She has been criticized for her stances on bail and voting rights restoration. Miyares appointed her, so they must share common views. No one knows what she will do with cases already being worked on by the fired CIU lawyers. There have been no comments from Ms Stamos at all, and no further word from the AG’s office.

Somebody needs to do something about this! I knew we’d gotten a dictatorial didact in the AG’s office, but this is worse than we could have possibly imagined. The fired lawyers should sue to get their jobs back and continue to represent those people. Maybe they will lose some of those cases in court, but that is how the system is supposed to work. Our adversarial system of justice fails when attorneys on both sides of cases represent the same interests.

It is long past time that those of us who have been falsely convicted are given the opportunity to go before the high courts and be set free.

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 About The Author: Bob Shell is a professional photographer, author, former editor in chief of Shutterbug Magazine and veteran contributor to this blog. He is currently serving a 35 year sentence for involuntary manslaughter for the death of Marion Franklin, one of his former models.  He is serving the 13th year of his sentence at Pocahontas State Correctional Facility, Virginia. To read additional articles by Bob Shell, click here: https://tonywardstudio.com/blog/hypnosis-good-or-evil/

Editor’s Note: If you like Bob Shell’s blog posts, you’re sure to like his new book, COSMIC DANCE by Bob Shell (ISBN: 9781799224747, $ 12.95 book, $ 5.99 eBook) available now on Amazon.com . The book, his 26th, is a collection of essays written over the last twelve years in prison, none published anywhere before. It is subtitled, “A biologist’s reflections on space, time, reality, evolution, and the nature of consciousness,” which describes it pretty well. You can read a sample section and reviews on Amazon.com. Here’s the link:  

Mikel Elam: Our Collective Consciousness

 

Text and Art by Mikel Elam, Copyright 2022

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Our Collective Consciousness

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Life seems to be a mixed bag of joy and sorrow . Triumph and failure . Life and Death . Many of us have asked the question; Why are we here? Well I think we are here just for the experience. I know many of you might say I would prefer not to have some of these moments . Think about it almost everything pleasurable has another side to it . Everything in excess becomes a burden . I think life was meant to be simple . Everything now has been over complicated. Technology has brought us to this place of both information and too much information. Do we really need to know what The Khardasians are having for breakfast?😊Let ‘s begin to reconnect to ourselves? Get out in nature . Read a book . Take a long walk without your phone . Can anyone remember once the only way to make a call while out was at a phone booth? Most of us fared well with that . Business was conducted . People were happy .We went to the library or the book store for knowledge. The noise in our lives is deafening.Drama has escalated. Some of us imitate the very shows we watch . Remember everything we will ever need is within us . We are the masters of our domain . Unfortunately injustice will probably always exist in some form . Our collective consciousness is the only way to stay on top of it . Reach out to someone you care about . Sit with them and just have a long chat .

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About The Artist: Mikel Elam was born in Philadelphia. He attended the University of the Arts receiving his BFA in painting. He also attended the School of the Visual Arts in New York. He has been showing his paintings in numerous gallery spaces nationally and internationally for the last 25 years.

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To see more of Mikel Elam’s artwork, link here: https://tonywardstudio.com/gallery/mikel-elam-painter/

Harvey Finkle: A Legend Amongst Us

Portrait of photojournalist Harvey Finkle of Philadelphia
Harvey Finkle. Photo: Tony Ward, Copyright 2022

Photography and Text by Tony Ward,  Copyright 2022

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Harvey Finkle: A Legend Amongst Us

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I first met Harvey Finkle at The Bean coffee shop on South Street in Philadelphia in the early 1990’s. At that time this particular coffee shop located on the North side of the 600 block of South street was a fixture for artists, photographers, writers and hard core coffee drinkers.

Each morning at around 7:30am a group of friends that lived in the neighborhood assembled to talk shop. The group included Harvey Finkle, Zoey Strauss, Robert Asman, Ed Simmons, Sam Binder, Pat King, Gary McQuitty and others usually sat outside the bean where we drank java and watched the eclectic mix of passersby the neighborhood was famous for.

Harvey and I lived a block a way from each other in Bella Vista, a neighborhood known in Philadelphia for housing a variety of artisans. The proximity to Harvey provided us an opportunity to see each other around the neighborhood and spend time together. I became a regular guest at his exhibitions and he came out to support mine as well. Over the years, we became really good friends. You knew you were in Harvey’s good graces when he invited you down to his shore house or over to watch Monday Night Football with his life long friends.

His 5o years of photographic work is a testament of his compassion for the disadvantaged and downtrodden. His early years working as a sociologist sharpened his cameras eye on immigrant communities as well as political and social activism. 

In recent years Harvey unfortunately started to lose his vision.  A cruel twist of fate given his profession. He’s taken it in stride, by recently donating his collection of photographic archives to his alma mater, The University of Pennsylvania where future generations will learn about the legend that lives amongst us.

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To learn more about Harvey Finkle’s photographic work, link herehttp://www.harveyfinkle.com

Amsterdam: A Change in The City That Never Slept


Photography and Text by Bartje Parade, Copyright 2022

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Amsterdam: A Change in The City That Never Slept

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Almost two years ago on March 15, 2020 the world changed.  Not only in Amsterdam, The Netherlands but all over the world. Life changed completely for everyone. Schools closed, traffic jams erased like there have never been cars.  Zoom conferences became a new standard, working from home was the new norm.  Clubs, bars and non essential shops closed . Planes didn’t fly anymore. Runways became parking lots. People stayed home.

I’m a natural born Amsterdam guy. I used to work as a music promoter, DJ, film director and tour director. One day I woke up and there was no work. I became unemployed and was scared for the unknown. I isolated myself from almost everybody I knew. Something I thought could only exist in a nightmare and it was sometimes.

After a couple of days I decided to walk into town doing day trips from home to different neighborhoods and tried to visualize my hometown in this surreal situation.  The results you can see in this series of pictures. I hope as tourists you like this photo story about “Amsterdam instead of Covid: and would love to see you back in real life as soon as it is possible!

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Portrait of dutch citizen Bartje Parade in his hometown of Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Bartje Parade: Amsterdam, February 2022

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About The Author: Bartje Parade is a lifelong resident of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.  He is currently working for an American tourist company and also available for private tours by contacting him here: bartjeparade@gmail.com

This is Bartje Parade’s first contribution to Tony Ward Studio.