Dear Editor,
One of your subscribers has been sharing your newspaper with me for years. I have always felt that you are one of the few, if fewest, who outrightly publish injustices in the system against those who are poor and wrongfully discriminated against. I have also seen how ineffectively the media can be to tear someone down, but I have also seen how your paper has actually exposed injustices and helped people in a situation similar to my own—namely, Mr. Gerald Manning and also Mr. Jimmie Duncan.
This is briefly my story:
I have been incarcerated since 1981. I was convicted in the 11th Judicial District Court, DeSoto Parish, of FIRST-DEGREE MURDER. The La. Supreme Court set aside my conviction and remanded it for a new trial.
Recently, I found some documents indicating that I was indicted in 1981 for SECOND-DEGREE MURDER but was tried for FIRST-DEGREE MURDER. Thereafter, I was re-indicted on October 16, 1985, and on November 05, 1985, I was sentenced and committed to the Department of Corrections. This was basically 3 weeks later—certainly not enough time for another sanity hearing, as well as another trial before sentencing.
I am presently seeking evidence of a second trial (one that I do not remember and honestly don’t think ever happened). My only defense was of sanity and my mental state at the time of the offense. I have an extensive mental health history, and I think I was sent to prison wrongfully.
Please, if possible, help me with this situation.
Joseph Hamilton
Angola Prison
