18 Oct 06

How I Received the Hearing Result Before the Hearing

“I’ve got a fax for you,” CO3 Rose said, “from the Arizona Board of Executive Clemency.”
“What’s it say?” I asked.
“That the result of your hearing was that you were not approved.”
“That doesn’t make sense. The hearing is tomorrow.”
“Your hearing is tomorrow?” CO3 Rose frowned.
“Yeah. My parents have flown in from England to attend it.”
“Are you sure it’s tomorrow?”
“Absolutely sure.”
“That’s strange.”
“How does that work? Could they have made a decision before the hearing?”
“I don’t know. I’m just the messenger.”

The fax read: It was the decision of this board at your hearing on: 10/02/06 to take the following action: not passed to phase 2 commutation.

That night, thoughts about the hearing result kept me awake. How can I have the result of the hearing before the hearing? How could an earlier hearing than the actual hearing have been held when there is only supposed to be one hearing? Was there a secret hearing that I wasn’t supposed to know about? If so, who attends these hearings and what decisions are made pertaining to later hearings? Does every hearing have a prehearing hearing or do prehearing hearings only occur in certain cases? Am I the first to be accidentally faxed the result of a prehearing hearing? Would the orchestrators of the prehearing hearing deny the existence of such a hearing if confronted with the evidence of the fax? Are my family about to attend a hearing whose outcome was predetermined at a prehearing hearing? Am I Joseph K.?

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Copyright © 2006-2007 Shaun P. Attwood
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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

OUCH. My mind would have run rampant as well. So sorry to hear this. I wonder what happened.

2:42 AM
Anonymous said...

I hope this will all be a mistake, if not, good luck to you Jon, and i would say keep your head up...

They couldn't get you in the beginning, they sure can't touch you now...

Good luck and of course my best wishes

6:12 AM
Anonymous said...

Hi Jon,thanks for writing this blog and sharing so much.Sometimes you read something and it changes your life,your blog has done this for me,and also made me late for work from staying up,reading it late into the night.

We are the same age and I grew up in the drug/alchohol thing,but was never caught for anything serious,thankfully I've mellowed now but could easily have been in the same position you are in.Reading about your experiences has been enlightening,horrifying,hilarious(thanks to your sense of humor)and a really good read.Thanks again for sharing so much.

I had bought into the Arpaio mythos and thought he was just a tough law and order guy from what I saw on tv,you shattered that myth for me,exposing this sleaze for what he is,good work..

Frankie kinda freaks me out,Xena did at first too,but now seems like a cool person,I didnt know they did Dungeons and dragons in jail!When I read she was a dm,she gained 100 cool points.
Two Tonys sounds like a cool guy too,I think he has some wisdom.Slingblade really needs to get his diet under control,that entry with him eating off the trays really sicked me out!

Its sad to see the decent people railroaded by the system,thanks for sharing their stories with the world.

stay strong,you Brits are always tougher than you appear!stiff upper lip and all that rot...hope you get back home soon,billy

10:21 PM
Thane Eichenauer said...

I believe that the the board (due to the Willie Horton effect) isn't motivated to approve commutations. Additionally all the articles I have read about the Arizona Board of Executive Clemency seem to have the underlying message that the board plus the board staff think that they have too much work to do. That *might be true* and then again it might be that they just think two hours of solitaire per workday is an example of being abominably overworked. As denying clemency provides additional government jobs and establishment supporters (the average elected Democrat and Republican) are both supporters of prison one way or the other there isn't much motivation for Janet Napolitano's 4 appointees (one board member is a Governor Hull appointee) to grant commutations.

I can easily believe that the board staff decided Shaun wasn't going to be one of the 12 or so people who were going to be approved this year and so the board was just going through the motions.

You managed to get an insight into the incompetence of the system...pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

9:00 AM

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