FairPlay | Challenging Wrongful Convictions in America

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FairPlay is an original discussion series on Wrongful Convictions from JustcieNews.Net where a "Fair" dialog takes place from the vantage point of the accused, and brings forward those voices that are mostly ignored by the society. Hosted by Justice News managing editor Imran Siddiqui, FairPlay sheds light on the injustices in the U.S. justice system, based on facts, data, and ground realities, without any fear to speak the truth. FairPlay, Conversations@JusticeNews, uncovers a wide variety of issues ranging from criminal justice reform to racial discrimination, bias, corruption, cruel and unusual punishment, rehabilitation, and seeking justice for the wrongly convicted. FairPlay guests come from all walks of life sharing their perspectives and real-life experiences that are directly impacted by decisions made within the U.S. judicial systems. Discover the truth and the innocent at JusticeNews.Net

  1. Michael Smith | FairPlay EP24 S2 | The Case With No Indictment

    06/19/2022

    Michael Smith | FairPlay EP24 S2 | The Case With No Indictment

    June 19, 2022 | Imran Siddiqui | Justice News | This was the first message I received on Twitter from Michael Smith of Kentucky on Jan 3 2022. Quote Lexington Kentucky fraud on the court case number 3:08-cr-31(Jmh) denied due process malicious prosecution fraud-The federal grand jury declined to indict YET WE had a five 5 week trial and spent nine years in federal prison wrongful conviction miscarriage of justice malicious fraud by Kentucky bar members Then on April 30th I received sequences of Tweets containing messages like these. Quote All was malicious prosecution, malicious fraud on court - malicious civil rights violation. malicious injustice. -Malicious politics by political leaders Quote I have typed on Twitter 7000 times wrong full conviction miscarriage of justice actual innocent no crime no indictment malicious prosecution fraud-Fraud on the court case number 3:08-Cr-31(Jmh). Lexington Kentucky-malicious abusing of political power on a East Kentucky family On May 10 2022, after almost 4 months, which was wrong, but this was my response to Michael. Quote Good morning. Typing it a million times won't do anything until you stand up and raise your voice and both your fists. I wanted to add more to the fists part, like where to take them, because the deeper I dug into his case the more nauseating it got. It is a case unlike what you see or hear about everyday. The case has never had an actual indictment, or if anyone has really seen one, and yet Michael spent over a decade in Prison for something he maintains he did not do. In fact they put him in prison, just to put him in prison, even they don't really know why they put him in prison. On the same day, May 10 2022, Michal sent a few more messages saying "it's a 1 in a 10 million case". Continue reading on The JBlog on JusticeNews.net

    24 min
  2. Omar Muhammad | FairPlay EP23 S2 | A Crime With No Victim?

    06/01/2022

    Omar Muhammad | FairPlay EP23 S2 | A Crime With No Victim?

    June 1, 2022 | Imran Siddiqui | Justice News | Like thousands of other young black men wrongfully incarcerated in the United States of America, there is another young and articulate man by the name of Omar Muhammad pulling a 26 year sentence in Minnesota for an alleged sexual assault that he maintains he did not commit. He says his girlfriend, C.M., who had a consensual relationship with him, was coerced by her co-workers, her parents and the police, to set up a trap for him. According to Omar, this is what happens when a 20 year old black man in Hugo Ohio falls in love with a 40 year old white woman, both madly in love. After leaving Chicago, Omar moved to Ohio looking for work and wanting to make something out of his life. He found a job at a local grocery store and there he met C.M. Both fell in love and soon moved in together. Omar says, nobody liked that and the stares were obvious. People accused Omar of using an older woman by taking advantage of her but there is no record of C.M accusing Omar of abuse, let alone, an assault. In fact there are letters and messages, confirming C.M’s love for Omar. Continue reading on The JBlog - https://www.justicenews.net/thejblog | Imran Siddiqui is the managing editor at Justice News and the author of The JBlog. Listen to Imran's podcast FairPlay Challenging Wrongful Convictions on J107 Justice Radio

    36 min
  3. John Merritt | FairPlay EP22 S2 | Florida Commissioners on Offender Review Are Corrupted Vermins.

    04/30/2022

    John Merritt | FairPlay EP22 S2 | Florida Commissioners on Offender Review Are Corrupted Vermins.

    When The Tsunami of Justice Comes. The Unjust Are Mowed Down and Destroyed. April 30, 2022 | Imran Siddiqui | Justice News | I have always felt that audio does not lie, audio is naked, no matter how hard you try to dress it up, you can't, you can always catch a person's true character in their audio, the sound, the spoken voice will say it all. This is one of those episodes where I don't have to say much. I chose to do audio so I can show people the reality of what we can really become, as human beings - and mostly we are worse than animals. A clear example of what I'm writing about is not just in the case of John Merritt a "Florida Shame" or any other external reference link that I will give you to source. Instead I will give you the pure audio, in it's closest raw form, and because you are reading this, then you do have a brain cell and you can think, listen and understand what's being said and then make up your own mind. This is an audio of John Merritt's parole hearing which was a public hearing that took place on April 27 2022 at the Florida Commission on Offender Review in Tallahassee, Florida. Merritt's Private Investigator Dennis Forrester of the Beacon Investigative Solutions was there along with John's attorney Gray Thomas, John's sister Darlene Roy and myself. What we heard at the end was absurd and shocking to the senses. This is what you get after 36 years of wrongful conviction. Continue reading on the JBlog -  | Imran Siddiqui is the managing editor at Justice News and the author of the JBlog. Listen to Imran's podcast FairPlay Challenging Wrongful Convictions on J107 Justice Radio

    19 min
  4. Michael Thompson | FairPlay EP21 S2 | Life After Clemency

    04/24/2022

    Michael Thompson | FairPlay EP21 S2 | Life After Clemency

    April 24, 2022 | Imran Siddiqui | Justice News | After spending over 2 decades in a Michigan state prison for selling marijuana to an informant in 1994, Michael Thompson is thankful to God that he was saved from life in prison. Michael was granted clemency in 2021 by Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, he wouldn't have been eligible for parole until 2038, he is over 70 - another possible death by incarceration - just for selling some weed, in a state that legalized recreational marijuana in 2018. So why now and how? How did it work out for Michael - Well, this is how it looks like when public pressure becomes something so big that the state can't ignore it anymore. Continue reading on The JBlog - Justice News

    1 hr
  5. Kemen Taylor | FairPlay EP20 S2 | False Eyewitness Testimony Breeds Wrongful Convictions.

    03/21/2022

    Kemen Taylor | FairPlay EP20 S2 | False Eyewitness Testimony Breeds Wrongful Convictions.

    March 21, 2022 | Imran Siddiqui | Justice News | If you give a ride to some guys you kinda know, and they go and shoot someone else, will you be held responsible for the shooting? False or Mistaken Eyewitness Testimony is something that is loved by the U.S. In-Justice System. They love it so much that it makes up almost 70% of the more than 375 wrongful convictions in the United States that were overturned by post-conviction DNA evidence, according to some reports. But do you need more reports, when day after day, year after year, you yourself watch these cases unfold right in front of your own eyes? Would I be enough of a witness for you, who witnesses on a daily basis, the negative and disastrous effects of these, False Eyewitness Accounts destroying people's lives forever? The Case of Kemen Taylor is a prime example of such False Eyewitness Testimony that is devastating the core Justice Values of America while decimating the lives of real human beings and their families, along the way. Continue reading on The JBlog | Imran Siddiqui is the managing editor at Justice News and the author of the JBlog. Listen to Imran's podcast FairPlay | Challenging Wrongful Convictions on J107 Justice Radio FairPlay is brought to you by Justice News Warrior Patrons and Justice News Super Patrons

    1h 21m
  6. David Thorne | FairPlay EP 19 S2 | Harmless Error. A Lifelong Damage

    02/11/2022

    David Thorne | FairPlay EP 19 S2 | Harmless Error. A Lifelong Damage

    February 11 2022 | Imran Siddiqui | Justice News | When the woman you admire becomes the mother of your child, it’s just a very surreal moment. Why would anyone want to throw all that away to oblivion? And just for a couple of hundred bucks? If you are insane then I can understand it, but if you're ready to cut a check for one year of advance child support then you wouldn't want to brutally kill your child’s mother for the sake of a few hundred bucks in child support, even if it's in two months arrears, because of the red tape, not because you didn't have the money to pay, especially when you were no where near that crime scene with zero motives to kill anyone. End result - A "Harmless Error "of the State, but a "Lifelong Damage to the Innocent". And no one really knows why. In United States law, A Harmless Error is a ruling by a trial judge that, although mistaken, does not meet the burden for a losing party to reverse the original decision of the trier of fact on appeal, or to warrant a new trial. In easy language. If you end up in prison due to the mistake or negligence of others, chances are you will never get out alive. The damages caused by these kinds of unjust laws can completely devastate an innocent person's life, while the real killer remains out there. With such laws in effect how can one bring justice to the victim and the accused? What remedies are in place to correct the wrongs of the State and the Government? The story of the wrongful conviction of David Thorne is not new and sadly not rare. The end result, of one of the oldest failed methodologies to falsely convict someone, is to simply use false eyewitness testimony. Because of these archaic practices against their own fellow citizens, David Thorne has been sitting in Ohio State prison for over 20 years for a crime he says he did not commit.  | Imran Siddiqui is the managing editor at Justice News and the author of the JBlog. Email - imran@jnews.network or Catch his podcast FairPlay on j107 Justice Radio

    1h 6m
  7. Mahdi Ali | FairPlay EP 18 S2 | Juvenile Injustice. Growing Up Wrongfully Incarcerated.

    01/16/2022

    Mahdi Ali | FairPlay EP 18 S2 | Juvenile Injustice. Growing Up Wrongfully Incarcerated.

    January 16 2022 | Imran Siddiqui | Justice News | Mahdi Ali did not grow up like a so-called typical kid, who bikes, goes to school, has fun with friends hanging out or just playing video games, nor did he go to college, he did get his GED but not in the way you might think. Because for the past 11 years, he’s been figuring out how to grow up and survive in different prisons across the state of Minnesota. He had to grow up fast. He had no choice. Mahdi Ali was convicted as a teenager, for triple murders in Minneapolis that occurred on the night of January 6 in 2010, Murders that he claims he did not commit. Mahdi says despite his numerous efforts to reach out to Minnesota attorney general Keith Ellison and his office, including the conviction review unit, no body has responded to his requests so far even when the facts are absolutely clear. The actual accomplice, Ahmed Ali, who was with another unknown person during the time of the robbery, implicated Mahdi Ali at that time, but recently, in a shocking move, Ahmed Ali recanted his statement. This happened on camera while Tom Lyden of Fox 9 Minnesota was interviewing Ahmed Ali in regards to Mahdi's case. Even in the light of such a revelation, the state is not responding to Mahdi which makes him feel that once again the justice system of his own state of Minnesota will let him down. Mahdi also says that the Somali American community in Minneapolis has been mislead by the state convincing them to believe a false narrative about the murders in a rush to solve the high profile case and now the state is ashamed knowing they had the wrong guy all this time. Those horrific murders took place at about 7.44 pm. The biggest evidence of Mahdi's innocence, is the actual time stamped video footage from his alibi, which was never used in court. It states 7.41 pm. Mahdi has maintained his innocence since the beginning because Mahdi Ali won’t admit to a crime he says he did not commit. It's been over a decade now and he has never changed his story, and it fits the facts. Who is telling the truth? Did Mahdi Ali's story change this time? Find out on this episode of FairPlay on Justice News - Where Justice Has No Color. | Imran Siddiqui is the managing editor at Justice News and the author of The JBlog. Email - imran@jnews.network or Catch his podcast FairPlay on j107 Justice Radio Discover More on JusticeForMahdiAli.Com |  FairPlay is brought to you by Justice News Warrior Patrons and Justice News Super Patrons

    1h 20m
  8. Paula Kensu | FairPlay EP 17 S2 | Families of The Wrongfully Incarcerated

    01/10/2022

    Paula Kensu | FairPlay EP 17 S2 | Families of The Wrongfully Incarcerated

    January 9 2022 | Imran Siddiqui | Justice News | If you are reading this while married, and if you have a spouse, a husband or a wife, and they are next to you, then immediately thank God. Because things can turn around for worse, any second, and all that you are taking for granted everyday, could be gone in the blink of an eye. I thank God for all that and more - Half of Americans have family members who are incarcerated. And that is from the data in 2018. Probably half of the incarcerated are innocent. And there is no real clear data on this. No one has it. What about those who are married and would do anything to be together but just cannot. Like the women who visit their innocent husbands incarcerated in prisons across America. They go through a lot of trouble, and embarrassing searches just to be able to meet and hug and see each other and spend some time together, until it's time to go. And then you turn around to have that one last look, holding on to that last hug and the beautiful smell that it left in your mind and your memories. Irreplaceable!. What kind of a toll does it take on a spouse when she knows her husband is innocent but in prison for something he did not do, and has been there for over three decades and she really doesn't know when he's coming back? What kind of an emotional and psychological impact does it leave on spouses who have innocent loved ones incarcerated? For many it's heart breaking. To help us understand the human side of the equation to wrongful convictions, and speak about what Imprisoned Families go through, joining us on this episode of FairPlay is Paula Kensu, the wife of Temujin Kensu, who is serving life in prison for the alleged shooting death of a Port Huron college student Scott Macklem in 1986. Mr. Kensu has maintained his innocence for over 3 decades now and is currently fighting for his freedom from inside the prison in Michigan. But the Governor of Michigan is not listening to the truth. Yet. | Imran Siddiqui is the managing editor at Justice News and the author of the JBlog. Email - imran@jnews.network or Catch his podcast on wrongful convictions FairPlay on j107 Justice Radio

    1h 6m
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FairPlay is an original discussion series on Wrongful Convictions from JustcieNews.Net where a "Fair" dialog takes place from the vantage point of the accused, and brings forward those voices that are mostly ignored by the society. Hosted by Justice News managing editor Imran Siddiqui, FairPlay sheds light on the injustices in the U.S. justice system, based on facts, data, and ground realities, without any fear to speak the truth. FairPlay, Conversations@JusticeNews, uncovers a wide variety of issues ranging from criminal justice reform to racial discrimination, bias, corruption, cruel and unusual punishment, rehabilitation, and seeking justice for the wrongly convicted. FairPlay guests come from all walks of life sharing their perspectives and real-life experiences that are directly impacted by decisions made within the U.S. judicial systems. Discover the truth and the innocent at JusticeNews.Net

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