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1. DO NOT SEND JUSTICE:DENIED ANY LEGAL WORK! Justice:Denied does not and cannot give legal advice.

2. NO COMMUNICATION WITH JUSTICE:DENIED IS PROTECTED BY ATTORNEY-CLIENT PRIVILEGE! Only tell Justice: Denied what you want the entire world to know.

3. Justice: Denied is ONLY concerned with publishing accounts of the wrongly convicted. PERIOD. As a volunteer organization with limited resources, mail unrelated to a wrongful conviction can not be answered.

4. Anyone may submit a case account of a wrongful conviction for consideration by Justice:Denied. However your account should be no more than 3,000 words in length. Short accounts are more likely to attract people to your story. A typed account is best, but not necessary. If you hand write your account, make sure it is legible and that there are at least ½” margins to the edge of the paper. First impressions are important, so it is to your advantage to pay attention to the following guidelines when you write the account that you submit to Justice:Denied.

Take your reader into your story step by step in the order it happened. Provide dates, names, times, and the location of events. Be clear. Write your story with a beginning, middle and end. Tell exactly what facts point to your innocence, and include crucial mistakes the defense lawyers made. Do not soft-pedal the truth: Explain what the judge or jury relied on to convict you.

However, don’t treat your story as a “true confession” and only include information either in the public record or that the prosecutor already has. Do not repeat yourself. Remember: the people reading your account know nothing about your case except what you tell them. Do not complain about the system or the injustice you have experienced: let the facts speak for you. Your account will have much more punch if you provide the affidavit of one or more recanting witnesses and/or alibi witnesses. At the end tell what the present status of the case is, and provide your complete mailing address. Include the name and contact info for the person you want listed as an outside contact. Also provide Justice:Denied with the name and email address and/or phone number of any independent sources necessary to verify the account or who can clarify questions. This can speed acceptance of your story, since if Justice:Denied needs more information, it can readily be requested.

Among the basic elements of a story that should be included are:

Who was the victim, who witnessed the crime, and who was charged?

What happened to the victim. What is the alibi of the person the story is about and who can corroborate that alibi? What was the person charged with? What was the prosecution’s theory of the crime? What evidence did the prosecution rely on to convict you?

Where did the crime happen (address or neighborhood, city and state).

When did the crime happen (time of day, day and year), and when was the person charged, convicted and sentenced (month and year).

How did the wrong person become implicated as the crime’s perpetrator?

Why did the wrong person become implicated as the crime’s perpetrator?

The following is a short fictional account about a fictional person that has the elements that should be included in a story.

Mix-Up in Identities Leads to Robbery Conviction

By Jimm Parzuze

At 5p.m. on July 3, 2003, a convenience store on 673 West Belmont Street in Anytown, Anystate was robbed of $87 by a lone robber who handed the clerk a note. The robber didn’t wear a mask, brandish a weapon, or say anything. The clerk was not harmed.

My name is Jimm Parzuze and on July 17, 2003 I was arrested at my apartment on the eastside of town, about nine miles from the scene of the robbery. It was the first time I had been arrested. The police said that someone called the “crime hot-line” with the tip that I “sort of looked like the man” in a composite drawing of the robber posted in a public building. The drawing had been made by a sketch artist from the clerk’s description of the robber. I protested my innocence. But I was ignored because I told the police I had been alone in my apartment at the time of the robbery. I was certain of my whereabouts because it had been the day before the 4th of July when I went to a family picnic.

After the clerk identified me in a line-up, I was indicted for the robbery. My trial was in November 2003. The prosecution’s case relied on the clerk’s testimony that I was “the robber.” On cross-examination my lawyer asked the clerk why the drawing didn’t show an unmistakable 3” long and 1/8” wide scar that I have on my left cheek from a car accident. The clerk said the right side of the robber’s face was turned to him, so he didn’t see the left side. My lawyer, a public defender, asked the clerk that if that was the case, then how could the police drawing show details on both sides of the robbers face – including a dimple in his left cheek – but not the much more noticeable scar? The clerk responded the drawing was based on the robber’s image burned into his memory and it was the truth of what he saw.

I testified that I had never robbed any person or store, that I was at home at the time of the robbery, and that I was obviously not the man depicted in the police drawing.

In his closing argument my lawyer said that although I generally fit the physical description of the robber, so did probably 10,000 other people in the city, many of who had convictions for robbery and lived in the area of the robbery. He also argued that the clerk’s explanation didn’t make any sense of why he identified me, when unlike the robber he described to the police, I have a long, deep, and wide scar across my left cheek.

However the jury bought the prosecution’s case and I was convicted. In December 2003 I was sentenced to eight years in prison.

My lawyer had submitted a pre-trial discovery request for the store’s surveillance tape to prove I had been mistakenly identified, but the prosecutor told the judge it couldn’t be located.

I lost my direct appeal. The appeals court said there was no substantive reason to doubt the clerk’s ID of me. A private investigator is needed to search for possible witnesses to the robbery who could clear me, and to try and locate the “missing” surveillance tape. If you think you can help me, I can be written at,

            Jimm Parzuze #zzzzzzz
            Any Prison
            Anytown, Anystate

            My sister Emily is my outside contact. Email her at, Aaaa@bbbb.com

You can also read an issue of the magazine for examples of how actual case accounts have been written. A sample copy is available for $3. Write: Justice Denied, PO Box 68911, Seattle, WA 98168.

Justice:Denied reserves the right to edit a submitted account for any reason. Most commonly those reasons are repetition, objectionable language, extraneous information, poor sentence structure, misspellings, etc. The author grants Justice:Denied the no fee right to publish the story in the magazine, and post it on Justice:Denied’s website in perpetuity.

5. All accounts submitted to Justice: Denied must pass a review process. Your account will only be accepted if Justice:Denied’s reviewers are convinced you make a credible case for being innocent. Accounts are published at Justice:Denied’s discretion. If your account is published in Justice:Denied, you can hope it attracts the attention of the media, activists, and/or legal aid that can help you win exoneration.

6. Mail your account to: Justice Denied, PO Box 66291, Seattle, WA 98166 Or email it to: jdstory@justicedenied.org

The following is what can happen when the account of an innocent person is published in Justice: Denied:

“In November of 2000, Justice:Denied Magazine published an article I had written about my son Derek’s case and a publisher from Medstar Television read that article which led to the production of an hour long episode of Medical Detectives which airs on The Learning Channel. That program has been seen around the world, we have received numerous messages of concern and offers of support. An article was written and published in the February 2003 issue of Playboy and a book is currently in the process of being written.

All the recognition and support would not have happened were it not for Justice:Denied Magazine. The dedication of the staff is to be highly commended.”

Larry A. Tice, father of Derek Tice, one of the “Navy’s Forgotten Four”