The Government Has No Interest In Justice Being Served.
October 1 2021 | Imran Siddiqui | Justice News.
Explicit Content Warning | 18 + | For Mature Audience.
Somewhere around late August 2021 I started receiving detailed case documents in the mail from a gentleman named John Merritt. I did not know then how blatantly unjust his case would turn out to be.
John is at the Apalachee Correctional Institution in Sneads Florida, and is currently serving a potentially wrongful conviction in the form of a life sentence without any possibility of parole for the 1982 murder of Darrell Davis which occurred in Lake City Florida while John was at work, allegedly. For the last almost 4 decades John has denied this and maintained his innocence. Except for the time when he was coerced to take the plea deal so they don't kill him by putting him on death row, a second time.
There is not much data available on John except for a brilliant article from 2007 written by
Edward Olshaker that explains a lot about what's going on in John Merritt's case. Olshaker states, "The 1,000-plus-page trial transcript from 1986, as well as depositions taken in 1989, reveal that, after hair samples and fingerprints were taken, there was no physical evidence tying Merritt to the Davis murder. There was not even circumstantial evidence. The case was based solely on the conflicting testimony of two convicted felons, Gregory Hopkins and Gerald Skinner, and to a lesser extent Hopkins’ wife Belinda (who was Skinner’s sister). Brothers-in-law Hopkins and Skinner both cut deals in 1985 to drastically reduce their prison sentences in exchange for implicating Merritt. Merritt was initially sentenced to death, but a 1989 appeal reduced the penalty to life in prison".
But there is more, like over a dozen page detailed investigative report conducted extensively a decade ago by a professional investigator Dennis Forrester from the Beacon Investigative Solutions which is licensed to operate across the U.S. This report provides evidence beyond any, so called, "reasonable doubt", how the state planned and took down John Merritt. The favorite past time of the government, to fuck people over.
And if all this is not enough then listen to John Merritt's sister Darlene Roy speak in this recent video.
All these facts are well documented and there is no time to bullshit around. And if anyone has any doubts in this, after going through all the facts which require time, detail and attention, then they can go and drown themselves in an ocean of shame and join those who are still apposing John's parole and or release.
I had contacted John Merritt at the request of another exoneree, Robert DuBoise , who himself spent almost 37 years of wrongful conviction in a Florida state prison and the state nor the government have any remorse nor integrity to accept their faults even after Robert was fully exonerated.
I had reached out to Robert through the Innocence Project, and they, as usual, miserably failed to connect me with Robert. So after a few attempts with no responses I tried other ways to find Robert. Finally with the help of God I was able to connect with Sunny Jacobs at the Sunny Center where Robert lives. Sunny Center is helping to heal the wounds of wrongful convictions and are also victims of this injustice.
While speaking to Robert about an interview for my podcast FairPlay, I had asked Robert, that now when he is out and free and exonerated, was there anyone that he left behind whom he considers to be innocent too, like him. It was then when Robert told me about John Merritt and that he was at the Apalachee Correctional facility for a crime he says he did not commit.
As John Merritt and myself connected, the information unload from his side was overwhelming.
Even before I received the case files and the documents from John, I wondered why isn’t anyone from the media, the press or the innocence organizations, not picking up this guy's case, and it's been almost 40 years. Shouldn't they be all over this case if they are looking for the innocent. What is it? Lack of money, lack of interest, case overload from the amount of wrongful convictions, which itself should be a thing of disgust, or was it the lack of simple courage?
Everything stopped a decade ago for John, since Robert Cracknell had done some good work on his case and when Dennis Forester from the Beacon Investigations, so intelligently and with evidence and proof, laid down the entire case of John Merritt in front of the media and the state, where neither of the two parties gave a damn and the public was not made aware of another injustice occurring right in front of their cognitive dissonance.
After digging deep through the troves of documents that contained facts, hard evidence and all the information a mentally sane person would need to demonstrate, that despite being not the best human being in America, John is innocent of the crime for which he has spent almost all his life in prison.
John and I are finally in touch now over the phone. He has another parole hearing coming up in October 2021 which might be his last shot.
John wants people to know his side of the story and find the truth and contact the Florida Commission on Offender Review to shed light on his case.
This Is what John's sister Darlene Roy told me over a phone call, "she is asking people to hear John's story and support him for his upcoming parole hearing", which for some odd reason, always ends in a denial, even after 4 decades?
These are the findings as the result of the last conclusive investigation that was carried out by Beacon Investigations lead investigator
Denis Forrester. I spoke to Dennis and he confirmed everything. This is how he opened his final report from the Beacon investigation.
"Our investigation clearly and demonstrably proves that John Merritt is not only innocent, but the government that was supposed to uphold due process and see Darrell Davis’ murderer brought to justice had no interest in justice being served in this case."
Now read how Dennis concludes his investigation. Then ask yourself, why in the name of God is this guy not being released? Whose interests are at stake here?
If you have the courage to just look at who is trying to block his release that might help in answering all the above questions. Justice News wants to keep an eye on John's case and have launched a dedicated page.
What goes on at these parole hearings of John?
Nobody wants justice for Darrell Davis nor justice for John Merritt?
Here is the link to all my communication with John Merritt. Read it for yourself. And judge with the truth.
All the letters, the investigations, the final reports, exhibits, facts, proof and whatever else that you want to call the truth, it's all in there.
And if a common man can come to such concise conclusions then why can't the state or the government?
And because most of the so called professionals from any serious profession are hypocrites and are absolutely not what they claim to be so I’m sure that you will not do your own due diligence too and that you will go back to sleep.
| Imran Siddiqui is the managing editor at Justice News and the author of the JBlog.