BLOODIED BUT UNBOWED

Dateline Tuesday, January 1, 2013

January first heralds the 12,693rd day in my captivity. April fifth will mark my 35th year of wrongful imprisonment, a prisoner of corrupt politicians, who fear that their highly-profitable political careers will  be ruined when the truth comes out about how and why I was convicted of a 1975 murder someone else committed.

But what about the two men who were given "immunity from prosecution for first degree murder" in exchange for their false testimony that Charles Norman told them he shot someone? Many people do not realize that only the guilty receive "immunity," because the innocent don't need it. Or what about the other felons who were released from prison at the behest of the prosecutor to commit perjury at the trial of Charles Norman? 

The actual shooter in the 1975 murder bragged that his wealthy father had paid off the prosecutor for his immunity. I refused the offers to pay the bribes and "...make it go away..." - I was not guilty and believed the system of "justice" would prove that truth.
And one dirty secret that the prosecutor hides is that his actions resulted in the rapes of 8 women, because one of the felons he had released for my trial became the notorious "Eastside Rapist."

Nothing is said about the only eyewitness to the shootout that resulted in the death of a young man. The eyewitness was the only non-felon to testify for the prosecution, and to the chagrin of the corrupt prosecutor he said Charles Norman was not the shooter - the actual shooter was a smaller and shorter man.

People ask me how I've survived, how I've done all this time, and I tell them, "Like a man." I am sustained by my faith and the love and support of family and friends who have not abandoned me.

Although others have done their best to silence my voice, I continue to express myself in ways that reveal what is inside me, to work, to write, to read, to share with others. On this first day of a brand new year, I would like to share two poems that I identify with, one from the Bible and another written by William Ernest Henley (1849-1903) . Perhaps they will have meaning for you. May 2013 be a time of health, happiness, and joy for you.

         Psalm 57:4
                      My soul is in the midst of lions;
                       I lie among ravenous beasts -
                      Men whose teeth are spears and arrows
                      Whose tongues are sharp swords.


         Invictus 
       
                     Out of the night that covers me,                     
                     Black is the Pit from pole to pole,
                     I thank whatever gods may be
                     For my unconquerable soul.

                     In the fell clutch of circumstance
                     I have not winced nor cried aloud.
                     Under the bludgeonings of chance
                     My head is bloody, but unbowed.

                     Beyond this place of wrath and tears
                     Looms but the Horror of the shade,
                     And yet the menace of the years
                     Finds and shall find me unafraid.

                     It matters not how strait the gate,
                     How charged with punishments the scroll.
                     I am the master of my fate:
                     I am the captain of my soul. 


Charlie