Time is of the essence in the fight for my life. The federal district court should rule on my case sometime this year and I must be ready to proceed once they do no matter how they rule. I have a plan that I think will be effective, but I need all the help I can get to carry it out. And that's the purpose of this writing: to reach out to ANYONE out there willing to extend a hand.
My main concern at this point is hiring an investigator. I need someone to track down a handful of inmates who were initially willing to speak up for me but were deterred after TDCJ put an enormous amount of pressure on them. By pressure I mean that their property was illegally confiscated, they were written bogus disciplinary cases, they were placed in administrative segregation and a couple were told that testifying on my behalf might jeopardize their chances of making parole. My hope is that enough time has elapsed since all of this happened that they'd be willing to sign statements as to what really happened so I can include those statements in my appeal. Some of those guys are probably out of prison by now, so they wouldn't be afraid to step up for me. Others might be towards the end of their sentence and also willing to tell the truth. Even if everyone is still uncooperative I think I should try to send an investigator their way. You never know, one of them might change their tune.
It's gonna cost money to hire an investigator and I'm lacking in that department. I figure that since most of the people I need to send an investigator to are spread out all over Texas in prisons, it'll cost extra for travel expenses. My guess is that I'm gonna need $5,000 to hire a quality investigator, possibly more than that. Right now I don't have a dime, so ANYTHING that anyone can donate to my legal fund would be greatly appreciated. Again, time is running out, so I must act now.
Besides hiring an investigator, I think raising the public's awareness to my situation is of the utmost importance. Judges say that they rule objectively, but in my experience public opinion influences, if only to a small degree, some of their rulings. I mean, if there's an outcry about my case and how I'm sitting here on death row when the DNA evidence supports my innocence claim, then the courts are less likely to screw me over. Right now no one seems to give a shit. But if everyone I know tells everyone they know and so on, then before long it might draw the attention of the media. I'm also having my girlfriend and some of my friends contact all the newspapers, TV stations, and other media outlets in their area. Not only does the DNA evidence disprove the prosecution's theory that I killed Nagle, their entire case was built around five inmates who, #1) Repeatedly changed their statements prior to testifying against me, #2) Were rebutted by Correctional Officers who testified (Who would you believe—a convicted felon with something to gain from testifying or a prison guard who worked on the unit with the man that was murdered?), #3) Testified in exchange for beneficial treatment such as early parole recommendations. Couple all of that with the fact that there's no physical link between me and this murder and it should raise some eyebrows, right? If the story is spread in a couple of large media markets in and out of the state of Texas, I should be able to raise people's awareness and hopefully encourage the judge's ruling on my case to grant me a reversal. So if you're reading this, please contact reporters, news anchors, and other media personnel on my behalf. You might not think that it'll help any, but I assure you that it will. Direct them to my website and my MySpace page if you would.
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While my focus is mostly my case, I'm also worried about seeing my father and brother, both of whom are in administrative segregation in the TDCJ-ID. You see, TDCJ allows inmates within the institution to visit immediate family members confined within TDCJ, but certain criteria must be met. The main thing is that neither of the two requesting a visit can be in administrative segregation. My brother is in ad. seg. because he was a confirmed gang member, but he has since renounced his membership and is on the list to be transferred to a unit for ex-gang members. Once he gets there, which could be anytime, I'll be eligible to visit with him. My father, on the other hand, has no real chance of being released from administrative segregation unless he files a lawsuit on it. He was placed in ad. seg. in January of 2000 because the administration decided that he was a threat to their staff. He has been in and out of TDCJ since 1963 and has a long history of violence within the institution, so a month after I was accused in the death of Nagle he was locked up. But he had spent close to five years on the Allred Unit in minimum custody (the least secure part of any unit) without any disciplinary cases and he hasn't demonstrated any violent behavior in the 12 years that he has been incarcerated this time, so they were unjustified by segregating him. And after six years of being in ad. seg. they must've realized that they had no real reason to hold him because they confirmed him as a gang member without any evidence. All gang members of STGs (Security Threat Groups) are placed in ad. seg. until they can prove that they aren't members and complete a program that's supposed to keep them away from gangs. My father isn't a gang member (he's 60 years old for crying out loud!) and the administration knows this, they're just keeping him in ad. seg. because they don't want him visiting me.
And so I need to file a lawsuit on the agency to get him out of segregation, otherwise I might die without getting a chance to see him again. So yeah, while hiring an investigator and fighting my case is my primary objective, I also need to raise the money to file a lawsuit. I'm not sure how much it'll cost, but I believe it costs $250 to file if you do it yourself. I'm not equipped to do it and neither is my father, but he knows inmates on his unit who are more than capable of filing an effective suit and wouldn't charge nearly as much as a freeworld attorney. He once told me that he had a friend over there that told him he's file the suit for $500 and he said the guy is as competent as any lawyer he's ever used. Who files the lawsuit isn't all that important so long as it gets filed by someone familiar with TDCJ and their attorneys. If anyone reading this can help me in this matter then you can donate to my legal fund and attach an e-mail stating what the money is for so it doesn't get confused with the money I need for an investigator. Again, I would greatly appreciate any assistance in these matters. I hate asking people for help, especially people I don't even know, but at this point I don't have any choice.
With that I'll conclude this entry. While I'm raising money for an investigator and to file a lawsuit against TDCJ, my girlfriend is contacting potential investigators so she'll be ready to hire one as soon as we raise the money for it. In the interim, I'm composing a list of inmates and questions for the investigator to ask them. I can't stress enough how important it is to get this rolling ASAP. My life depends on it.
Robert Pruett #999411
Polunsky Unit
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