
Bob Shell: The Wheels of Justice
Text by Bob Shell, Copyright 2020
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The Wheels of Justice
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Early this year, I filed an ‘Independent Action to Vacate for Fraud on the Court, to get my false convictions overturned.
It took me more than three years to do the legal research and write this Independent Action. An Independent Action is like a Motion with more chutzpah. They are used to effect some action by a court, in this case to vacate my convictions. I identified five different frauds that the Commonwealth (Virginia is a Commonwealth) committed against me, documented in detail.
The most significant frauds were false testimony given by the Commonwealth’s main witnesses, false testimony without which the jury would never have believed the allegations against me, and I could never have been convicted.
The judge in Radford just sat on my Independent Action, refusing to rule on it, which prevented me from appealing to the Virginia Supreme Court, what I’ve wanted all along.
His refusal to act was a violation of the Canons Of Judicial Conduct, the rules judges are supposed to follow, and require prompt response to filings.
After waiting months with no ruling on my action, I petitioned the Virginia Supreme Court to issue a Writ of Mandamus against the judge. A Writ of Mandamus is a legal instrument forcing a judge to act, when he should act, but doesn’t.
In response to my petition, the Virginia Supreme Court issued a ‘Show Cause’ order against the judge, ordering him to rule on my action, or show cause why he couldn’t or shouldn’t, by November 15. Instead of responding to the ‘Show Cause’ order, he wrote an overdue order denying my Independent Action, to forestall the Virginia Supreme Court from coming down on him over nonresponse to their ‘Show Cause’ order.
But, and here is the truly astounding part of this judicial Odyssey. He wrote the order citing the correct case number, but denying the WRONG case!
His order denies an ‘Independent Action for Violation of Speedy Trial,’ a totally different case filed a year earlier and that he already denied, and which has nothing to do with my action for fraud, which doesn’t even mention speedy trial!. Incompetence of this level is hard to believe!
I have asked the Virginia Supreme Court to come down hard on him for this. This is my life at stake, and he couldn’t even be bothered to act on the right case!
Right now, we are under a State of Judicial Emergency declared by the Virginia Supreme Court, meaning that courts are operating at the bare minimum, and all VDOC law libraries are closed. I can’t do the research and appeal anything right now. Once the Judicial Emergency is over, I’ll have 90 days to appeal the judge’s denial of my speedy trial action, and take whatever action the Virginia Supreme Court decides is appropriate in this judicial SNAFU over my fraud case. What they will do is anybody’s guess.
My guess is that they will order the judge to go back and act on the right case, even though he clearly missed their deadline to respond to their ‘Show Cause’ order.
I’ve tried repeatedly to get an order to depose the Commonwealth’s Chief Medical Examiner, who says the medical testimony used to convict me was, “Just wrong!” but the same judge has blocked my efforts to get the Chief ME’s testimony on the record. The Chief ME even volunteered to be deposed and forego his usual fee, but without a judge’s cooperation I can’t have a deposition done.
It’s plain to anyone who looks at the evidence that I was wrongly convicted, but the judge and prosecutor don’t want to admit that they sent an innocent man to prison for an extraordinarily long sentence, so my efforts to set the record straight have been blocked.
A friend recently asked me how I’ve managed to keep my spirits up. The answer is that I have a clear conscience, because I did none of the things I was accused of. In my own mind, I know the truth, and nothing will ever change that.
My other legal actions are also on hold because of the Judicial Emergency, that doesn’t look to end anytime soon.
My photography studio’s contents are still in storage, waiting for my release. Friends have kept the storage rent paid. If anyone reading this who hasn’t contributed to this cause would like to help, please contact me. Thank you to everyone concerned about my welfare. I’m doing well health wise except for arthritis, which is always worse in cold weather.
Happy Holidays to all!
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About The Author: Bob Shell is a professional photographer, author and former editor in chief of Shutterbug Magazine. 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 Bob Shell’s, first essay on civil war, click here: https://tonywardstudio.com/blog/covid-19-is_holding-me-hostage/
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.
Bob Shell: Covid-19 is Holding Me Hostage
Covid-19
Text by Bob Shell, Copyright 2020
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Covid-19 is Holding Me Hostage
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Our law library here is shut down, except for allowing us to order copies of court cases. But, to know what cases to order we need to use the research computers, and our access to them is blocked until the law library reopens, and before it was closed we’d been restricted to using it only two days a week! These things have blocked any hope for me to get my actions before a court with jurisdiction to hear them any time soon.
COVID-19 is holding me hostage. This is terribly frustrating. I have a more than good chance to have my convictions overturned and regain my freedom, and to get my precious forest land back, if I can just get into court. I’d hoped to be free this year, but the ‘Wuhan Virus’ has nixed any possibility of that.
On another topic, much has been said lately about removing the qualified immunity that police have to lawsuits. I agree that this is a good idea, in fact I believe no one should be above the law, so long as any legislation includes protection from frivolous lawsuits. I know from observing men here in prison that many, if not most, of the lawsuits they file are frivolous — most downright silly. But there is a minority of lawsuits that aren’t frivolous, and legislation must protect and enable those.
I strongly believe that prosecutorial immunity should be removed. The immunity to lawsuits that prosecutors now enjoy in our present system, is a threat to the whole system and our personal freedom.
Contrary to what you may think, prosecutorial immunity is not an old part of our system. Lack of access to research computers has prevented me from determining exactly when it infected our judicial system, but one case states that it was established “long after” the civil rights legislation of the 1960s.
Under current prosecutorial immunity, there is absolutely no protection from false prosecution. I’m a victim, and I’ve met others. Currently, there’s nothing to stop a prosecutor from going after you because she/he doesn’t like your politics, religious beliefs, or just your lifestyle.
I was prosecuted for living my life in a way the prosecution didn’t approve of, although my lifestyle was in no way illegal. As one courtroom observer said after my trial, “But he didn’t do anything illegal!” After my convictions, an attorney present in the courtroom loudly observed, “And who says there’s no railroad service in Radford!”
California Federal Judge Kinser has written, “There is an epidemic of false prosecution abroad in the land today.”
How do we stop this epidemic? The answer is simple, make prosecutors accountable.
Most of you have heard the story of the Duke University lacrosse team, who were falsely charged with sex crimes by an unscrupulous prosecutor named Mike Nifong. Yes, they were eventually cleared, but by that time these young men had seen promising careers evaporate. There is no way to regain those lost years.
I’ve been in prison for over thirteen lost years now, based on events the Chief Medical Examiner of Virginia says never happened. I was ‘Nifonged,’ falsely charged and convicted by an unprincipled prosecutor with political ambitions who knew the evidence he produced to convict me was nonsense.
Why am I still in prison? Because the system is weighted against the innocent person.
Courts routinely block attempts to overturn bad convictions, as they’ve blocked me repeatedly. They’ve even denied my attempts to depose the Chief Medical Examiner and get his testimony on the record. In law, anything not on the record doesn’t exist.
So I sit here in a prison cell, counting the days, unable to get the truth before a court that will free me. They say, “The truth will set you free,” but not if you can’t get that truth in front of the right people.
In the Virginia Department of Corrections we’ve been living under a ‘modified lockdown’ since March. We spend twenty or more hours in our cells every day, even eating our meals in our cells. The library, law library, and school are closed. There’s no visitation other than video visitation, which is expensive and frustrating. The video visitation station is in the same room as the law library, and I heard, “can you hear me now?” all the time from people trying to use the system. The VDOC video visitation system is not compatible with Apple phones.
Both the quality and quantity of our food has declined dramatically, and if kind people on the outside didn’t send me money for commissary, I’d go hungry a lot. Even that’s problematic, since commissary has been out of many items lately. For a long time they were out of Ramen noodles, the prison staple, because one of the Maruchan factories was shut down.
The VDOC currently has about 29,000 inmates and an annual budget of one billion dollars. That’s about $ 35,500 per inmate per year. I can’t help wondering where all that money goes. Certainly not into inmate meals!
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About The Author: Bob Shell is a professional photographer, author and former editor in chief of Shutterbug Magazine. 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 Bob Shell’s, first essay on civil war, click here: https://tonyward.com/bob-shell-things-i-dont-have-to-worry-about/
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.