Free David Wong

[tapestrybabe]

David Wong support committee is a grassroots community organization that has been steadfastly working with David's freedom for more than 12 years. David Wong is a Chinese immigrant who lived in New York City who was charged with killing an inmate at Clinton Correctional Facility in 1987. Wong was serving a sentence for a petty robbery at the time. Despite lack of motive or any physical evidence linking Wong to the murder, Wong was convicted for second degree murder. The DWSC maintains that David Wong is innocent and was framed by the criminal justice system because he was poor, an immigrant, had no family in the United States, and had limited english skills.

for more information and what you can do, go here...
http://www.freedavidwong.org

[SunWuKong]

woh... am i missing something here? or is our justice system really that bad?

[BeTheReds]

This is some F'd up crap!

Free David Wong!

[tapestrybabe]

yeah, the free david wong support committee was at the apa heritage festival the other day... they had their own booth... trying to gain supporters... and i thought i would just pass the word about it...

[applehead]

oh man. that's awful.
thanks for the info tj.

[sOKaLiBoY]

now that sucks ass. i'll do anything i can for him.

[Fireblade]

That's f-ed up. I'll spread the word.

[Rogmok]

I just watched the david wong documentary... i'm just shocked.
In case people didn't know, the judge ruled that there wasn't enough evidence for a retrial. Its on appeal right now i believe.

Apparently the Judge Lawles (sp?) who ruled on the new evidence, was a former law partner with the DA who is prosecuting David Wong, and their wives are business partners.

If i'm getting this wrong, someone correct me.

[sandra]

they should bring this back to the media's attention.

i'm sure they know about the case of chul soo lee. k.w. lee, a korean journalist, did most of the investigation and pretty much helped free him.

Originally Posted by Rogmok

I just watched the david wong documentary... i'm just shocked.
In case people didn't know, the judge ruled that there wasn't enough evidence for a retrial. Its on appeal right now i believe.

Apparently the Judge Lawles (sp?) who ruled on the new evidence, was a former law partner with the DA who is prosecuting David Wong, and their wives are business partners.

If i'm getting this wrong, someone correct me.

geezus, motion for recusal, anyone? a judge i appeared in front of a few months ago recused himself because he was my mentor for this program and had dinner with me twice. (read: two times). if this judge was partners with the DA, it's highly inappropriate, and i would characterize it as judicial misconduct, for him to hear the case.

[etcj]

Originally Posted by kasia

they should bring this back to the media's attention.

i'm sure they know about the case of chul soo lee. k.w. lee, a korean journalist, did most of the investigation and pretty much helped free him.



geezus, motion for recusal, anyone? a judge i appeared in front of a few months ago recused himself because he was my mentor for this program and had dinner with me twice. (read: two times). if this judge was partners with the DA, it's highly inappropriate, and i would characterize it as judicial misconduct, for him to hear the case.

Hmm...maybe someone should ask for an amicus brief?

Anyways, this real life case seems to be a more sobering view about Asians and the corrections system. The television drama of Law & Order and other NYC-based shows doesn't ever seem to show how Asians and Pacific Islanders are affected by the system beyond the intra-community dealings.

Along the same line, if you would like to read a story written by an another Asian inmate, who is currently on death row, check out the latest issue of Nha Magazine (Vietnamese-English periodical).

[sandra]

one reason why we have these problems is the lack of good Asian court interpreters. the courts are also ignorant. thus, if you have a Cantonese defendant, the court may order a Mandarin interpreter for you. sometimes, if you speak Toisan, the interpreter won't know what the hell you're saying but will make it up to keep his job (b/c he may have written on his resume that he spoke a variety of Chinese dialects).

interpreters SUCK. i've proven this to my law clerks over the summer by taking them to court with me for hearings. i had one law clerk get so pissed that she could hardly remain in her seat during cross-examination.

[Rogmok]

update:
Today, on October 21, 2004, the Appellate Division in Albany, New York granted David Wong's appeal and ordered a new trial, overturning his 1987 murder conviction! Thank you for all your support and help -- please help us reach the media immediately with this breaking news! We need to get our message out -- we demand that the DA drop the prosecution and not go through with a new trial. We also want to highlight the problems with the criminal justice system because this fight is not just about helping one person. (let us know if you can help circulate our press release)

Please come to an immediate meeting tonight, October 21 at 6:30pm at Project REACH (1 orchard street) in NYC where we will plan a press conference and rally.

Please check www.freedavidwong.org over the next few days to find out the exact time, date, and place for our press conference and rally. We are targeting Saturday morning October 23 in Chinatown NYC but this is not yet confirmed.

Let us know if you can come to the press conference/rally and any organizations who can show their support.

A copy of the court's decision is posted at
http://decisions.courts.state.ny.us/...2004/13878.pdf

We will post details and a copy of the decision at www.freedavidwong.org as soon as possible.

[ChinaLama]

Great news!

[Rogmok]

NY Times article

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/22/ny...2overturn.html

[Faithless]

Chinese Immigrant Wrongfully Convicted In America

Asianweek, News Report,
Lisa Wong Macabasco, Jan 05, 2005

After serving 18 years in prison for a crime he did not commit, David Wong took another leap toward freedom on Friday Dec. 10, 2004, when Clinton County District Attorney Richard Cantwell dropped murder charges against him. Wong’s conviction had been overturned on an appeal in October due in part to the potential bias of the trial judge, Timothy Lawliss. The judge has since recused himself from the retrial.

In a letter from Clinton County Jail, Wong said the victory belonged to his support committee and his lawyers, whom he called “the true heroes.”

“My freedom did not come easy, but I’m happy I’m now able to put my nightmare behind me, and I’m excited for my freedom and the prospect of my future,” Wong wrote.

He now awaits the court’s official ruling and faces a new struggle against a pending order of deportation.

“His life is the biggest waste of all,” says Wong’s niece, Fei Yeung. She felt relieved — but also angry that he has spent so much of his life incarcerated. “I’m 27, and I’m ready to begin my life and career. He’s lost all that. He’s in his 40s, and he’s going to start his life now? It’s not fair.”

Yeung says Wong missed his sister’s wedding and his father’s funeral while in jail. “My family and I have lost a beloved uncle, brother and son,” she says.

Wong’s supporters now face the difficult task of preventing his deportation due to his status as an undocumented non-citizen. Jaykumar Menon, Wong’s lawyer, says he does not know of a case in which someone who was wrongfully convicted and subsequently ordered deported was allowed to stay in the United States. Wayne Lum says the committee was pursuing political and diplomatic channels to fight the deportation order and admitted, “Legally, it’s very difficult to overcome.”

“After 17 years, the David Wong Support Committee and his allies in the community will not allow Wong to be deported,” says Kwong Eng.


Wong’s 20-year odyssey through the criminal justice system is an eye-opening look at one Asian in America in the between the cracks in the law. His story is the lesson of a man wrongfully convicted and trapped at the nexus of race, immigration, crime and the law.

Coming to America

Wong is one of three children raised by their mother (above) in the Fujian province and later in Hong Kong. He came to the United States in the early 1980s as a teenager, working long shifts at different restaurants at below minimum wage.

Arrested and Sent to Prison: June 1984

At 21 years old, as a busboy in Manhattan’s Chinatown, Wong is arrested for participating with co-workers in an armed robbery of his employer’s Long Island house in 1983. Wong is sent to Clinton Correctional Facility in northeastern New York to serve an 8-to-25-year sentence.

A Brutal Murder: March 1986

On the afternoon of March 12, 1986, Tyrone Julius, a 32-year-old inmate at Clinton Correctional Facility serving a sentence for second-degree murder, is stabbed in the neck with a five-inch blade in the middle of the prison yard and dies 11 days later. Wong and Tse Kin Cheung, an inmate from Hong Kong, are the only Chinese inmates — and the only ones searched out of the 70 to 100 inmates present at the time of the stabbing. No weapon and no blood are found on either man.

Found Guilty: July 1987

Wong, who speaks little English and claims he had never met Julius, is tried for Julius’ murder by an all-white jury in Clinton County Court. Four inmates testify to Wong’s innocence. The prosecution’s case is based on the testimony of two witnesses: Ryan LaPierre, a corrections officer who viewed the scene through binoculars from a tower more than 100 yards away, and inmate Peter DellFava. Wong is convicted and sentenced to an additional 25-years-to-life for second-degree murder. Cheung writes to prominent Asian American activists telling them that Wong was framed.

Yuri Kochiyama Organizes the David Wong Support Committee: 1990

Yuri Kochiyama (above), a longtime civil rights activist and staunch political-prisoners advocate, visits Wong in prison. Kochiyama creates the David Wong Support Committee, operating out of her Harlem apartment.

‘New York Times’ Eye-opener: March 1999

A New York Times article reveals new anecdotal evidence suggesting Wong is innocent. Reporter David W. Chen (left) quotes former prison employees who say Wong’s innocence was common knowledge at the prison. Former inmates who witnessed the murder said it was an act of revenge by a former rival. Cheung says inmates were scared to speak up for Wong because they feared for their safety.

Julius’ widow, Sharon Julius, states she never heard of Wong or his conviction for the murder of her husband. She also says she received threatening letters and phone calls well after Wong was arrested — telling her to stop investigating the case — and therefore assumed his murderer was still at large.

Wong loses every major appeal since his 1987 conviction, but Wong’s lawyers at Manhattan’s Center for Constitutional Rights continue to question the credibility of witnesses and cite misconduct by the prosecutor, errors in Wong’s defense and the lack of an adequate translator. LaPierre admitted in his testimony that he did not see the stabbing or the weapon. DellFava may have tried to gain early parole in exchange for his testimony. Wong’s original lawyers also failed to interview witnesses who identified the attackers as two Hispanic men.

Wong also did not have access to a translator who spoke his Fuzhou dialect; he had to use a translator who spoke Mandarin instead, which he barely knew. The Times article quotes Wong’s translator during the trial, Jo-An Ting, who had never worked as a translator before and admitted to feeling nervous and unprofessional during the case: “If some outside person evaluated my work and said that I was not competent, then I accept,” she says.

After the publication of the article, the Times receives a letter from a prisoner who claims to have witnessed Julius’ murder and asserted that Wong was innocent and nowhere near the scene at the time.

Appeal Rejected: April 16, 1999

A State Court of Appeals judge rejects hearing an appeal on Wong’s case, saying there is “no question of law.”

Within the year, Manhattan private investigator Joseph Barry locates DellFava. DellFava admits to having lied at Wong’s trial in order to secure a parole recommendation and a prison transfer. He says that a corrections officer persuaded him to blame Wong because he knew little English and had few friends in prison.

The Tide Turns: April 2002

Almost one dozen current or former inmates sign affidavits or tell investigators that Julius was murdered by Nelson Gutierrez, a longtime rival with a record that included drug charges and first-degree manslaughter. One former peer counselor and inmate legally swears that Gutierrez confessed to the murder to him. DellFava recants his testimony, and LaPierre, while still adamant about Wong’s guilt, supports a new trial.

The wives of both Gutierrez and Julius verify that the two were rivals and had an earlier altercation at Rikers Island. In May, Sharon Julius signs an affidavit that says Gutierrez killed her husband. Inmates come forward who say they saw the stabbing but said nothing out of fear of retaliation. Gutierrez won parole in 1994 and returned back to the Dominican Republic, where he died of an apparent drug overdose in May 2000.

The case is one of very few taken up by criminal law professor William E. Hellerstein, head of Brooklyn Law School’s Second Look Clinic, which focuses on investigating wrongful convictions.

“It was clear to me and to the students that David Wong was innocent from the beginning of the case,” Hellerstein says. “The facts didn’t make any sense going the other way.”

A Glimmer of a Chance: Jan. 7, 2003

Judge Timothy Lawliss, acting judge of the Clinton County Court in Plattsburgh, N.Y., agrees to hear the fresh evidence in the case and then decide whether the murder conviction still stands.

Reversing the Story: April 2003

At the evidentiary hearing, DellFava admits he lied in order “to get the hell out of that prison” even though no official deal was made. Three former Clinton inmates, including friends of Gutierrez, testify to seeing Gutierrez stab Julius.

Judge Deals a Blow: October 2003

Lawliss denies Wong a new trial, ruling there is not enough evidence and questioning the credibility of the witnesses. Clinton County District Attorney Richard Cantwell now says DellFava’s past fraud and perjury convictions made him an untrustworthy witness.

Judge in Question: Dec. 2, 2003

The New York State Appellate Division in Albany reviews the case. The court looks at whether Lawliss should have recused himself from the trial because of his close connections to the prosecutor, who used to be his law partner.

A Ray of Hope: Oct. 21, 2004

A five-judge panel in New York’s Appellate Division unanimously overturns Wong’s murder conviction based on the new evidence. Unlike the county court, the state court does not find DellFava’s testimony “incredible.” The decision questions LaPierre’s testimony because of his great distance from the murder scene and says the testimony of the former inmates should not be discounted. The case is sent back to Clinton County Court for a new trial.

Behind the Scenes of the Case: The David Wong Support Committee

The David Wong Support Committee was formed in 1990 by longtime civil rights activist Yuri Kochiyama, but members say it is often Wong who inspires the committee to stay optimistic.

“He’s the spirit of the committee — he keeps everyone else up when we’re down,” says Siddhartha Joag, an artist and member. “He’s so selfless. He’s constantly asking what we’re doing to support others. He’s not just indulging in his own case, even though he’s lost most of his life for no reason. It shakes you.”

Joag says his impression of Wong upon meeting him was that he was calm, friendly, well-read and “just a good guy.”

On Sept. 8, three dozen supporters went to Albany to show their support at the Appellate Division hearing. Even though none of the committee knew Wong before his case, many have developed a close relationship with him.

“A lot of us feel personally attached to him,” Joag says. “He’s a friend.”

“He’s using his case as a vehicle for change in the system,” Joag says. “He doesn’t even believe in his own exoneration being important. For every one David Wong that gets a retrial, there must be 1,000 that are on death row for a crime they didn’t commit.”

While Joag admits it has been difficult to get support from the Asian American community for someone who is both an undocumented immigrant and a convicted felon, William E. Hellerstein, Wong’s lawyer, says the community’s support has been strong and that support for the case shouldn’t stop there.

“The fact the Asian American community has been so supportive has been a blessing,” Hellerstein says. “The entire world should care about this case. Any decent, right-thinking human being should care.”

“This is a grievous injustice,” Hellerstein states. “This man is innocent. Everyone knows it.”