DEAR PRESIDENT HUGO CHAVEZ,



Seventeen year old Manuel Gonzales was convicted of attempted premeditated murder with a handgun April 11, 2005 in Van Nuys CA. Manuel was sentenced to serve 27years in a CA prison without any possibility of early parole. The 23 year old victim in this case was shot at three times and nicked on top of his shoulder requiring a two hour hospital visit (no stitches ) and was released with pain medication.



Within the first the first few days after this shooting, the victim identified to the police another mans face other than Manuel's in a picture lineup. Forty days later this victim changed his mind and Manuel Gonzales was arrested instead.The prosecutor at Manuel's trial was informed by the presiding judge before the trial began, that she and her witnesses who would be testifying in court were not to ever mention anything relating to gangs or attempting to connect this case to a gang related incident. Unfortunately for Manuel Gonzales the prosecutor never followed the judges orders and Manuel was convicted by a compromised jury in little over one hour of deliberations.



The public defender who represented Manuel at his trial asked the judge more than once to declare a mistrial as soon as it became apparent that his client (Manuel) could no longer receive a fair trial guaranteed him by our constitution. The judge in this trial had to remind the jury that there was no gang related evidence in the case and she had comments stricken from the court records that kept attempting to mislead the jury into believing that this trial was somehow connected to gang activity.



We all know that CA taxpayers finance trials and it would be very tragic for all of us if any of our judges feel forced to allow trial cases to continue with tainted juries due to cost restraints put on them by a lack of state funding.A new trial for Manuel Gonzales would have cost CA taxpayers ,000 and would have given this 17year old kid his day in court. The sad irony here is that there is over ,000,000 available to incarcerate Manuel Gonzales for the next 27 years in the CA prisons, while at the same time judges are being forced to pinch pennies and possibly deny new trials when warranted.



My name is Douglas Field and can be reached at 424-247-2013 or at this E mail address: lawyersforpooramericans@yahoo.com

I would greatly appreciate it if you would forward this E mail to Mr. Chavez. It appears that Hugo Chavez and myself might be the only two people who would even take a sincere interest in making sure a poor Mexican American kid even has a opportunity to receive a fair trial in America.

Currently this case is on appeal and needs financial backing for a real lawyer to submit a proper appeal so Manuel could have a new trial.I know with the evidence that was presented in this court case, had Manuel been able to afford a real attorney at his initial trial, he would definitely be a free man today.

Douglas Field

(Letter sent to Mr. Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela, on September 22, 2007)



COMMENTS FROM OTHER READERS ARE FOUND AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE.

Manuel Gonzales in the New Folsom Prison in Northern Califonia

We are all praying for Manuel Gonzales at our church

and hope others in this same situation will get the attention they deserve.This type of lynch mob mentality

should not be happening here in LA. Fair trials for all Americans (even the poor) is just as important as our free speech.

How could anyone expect a fair trial to take place when

the poor in America are represented with novice legal minds ? If Hugo Chavez comes to Manuel Gonzales

rescue here in LA, maybe our government will provide

those charged with serious crimes private attorneys

instead of public defenders.Having more qualified attorneys for defendants who face long sentences

if they are convicted might make the playing field more

even.

It sounds like the judge in Manuel's criminal trial attempted to protect the defendant from the usual DA

tactic of gang attatchment.The DA in this case seemed

pretty confident that there would never be a mistrial given even though she disobeyed the presiding judges orders on not allowing gang info to be heard by the sitting jury.Obviously both the judge and prosecutor

are aware that once a jury hears that a defendant might be a gang member justice is thrown out with the bath water.Defendants with public defenders facing

this LA court one two punch have really no other direction to go other than straight to New Folsom prison for 27 years without any possible opportunity

of early parole.Many Gonzales was a lamb entering the

fox's den looking for mother goose justice. Let's all hope and pray that our honest and fair Attorney General attends to this fairy tale horror story quickly.

The last thing this state needs is international exposure making us look like the big bad wolf.

If this situation is going on in our local courts,we might need legal people from outside the area to correct

this machine of injustice that appears to have gone off

it's track. All Americans deserve fair trials.Thank God its election cycle,otherwise this injustice train

might have kept rolling over the poor who can't

afford private attorneys.Manuel Gonzales should have the opportunity to a new trial without anyone influencing

a jury with insightful lies.The judge in this case laid down the ground rules and the DA kidnapped the jury

with info that the jury was never suppose to hear.

The prosecutor in this case reminds me a little like the

one in North Carolina.Both of these two prosecutors

decided to play unfair with American kids.Manuel Gonzales should also get justice here in LA like those kids did in NC.

How any prosecutor could feel good about sending

a 17 yr.old to prison for 27 years without a fair trial troubles me greatly.Who is suppose to guard

the public from this type of bad faith conduct ? This prosecutor is a state employee and lets all pray

that this person will exit our courts here in LA for North Carolina .

At the expense of our youth we as naive taxpayers are making certain stockholders very rich.They lobby a small fortune at our state officials, and in return they are rewarded with prisons overflowing with innocent young bodies

who will stay most of their adult lives in these money making prison machines.

Yes, Manuel Gonzales is just one example of of the injustice right here in Los Angeles CA. Every criminal defense attorney in LA county will tell you the DA's are using Gang association on unsuspecting juries and are not even worried about a judge ordering up a new trial.The CA Supreme Court is left up to decide these innocent victim's fate.After spending years in jail before you might get a chance to a fair jury trial, these victimized defendants have already served those who prosper at their expense.

Where does the buck stop on this crazy attitude that

its ok for anyone to be wrongly convicted in our local courts and wait in prison for an appeal from a higher court. Obviously it is four times cheaper to order a mis

trial for a defendant then having them go into the prison systems at a cost of .000 a year for incarceration and .000 for a new trial. Trying kids as adults is bad enough, but please don't think the tax payers do not deserve better from our judicial system.

This unjust criminal court case becomes a overnight international story when Mr. Chavez decideas to assist

this poor Mexican American who obviously was taken advantage of by LA's justice system.If our local judges

are allowing these kids juries to be wrongly influenced by win at all cost prosecutors,then Attorney General Brown and our CA Governor need to set the record straight publicly,that this type of improper lawyering will not fly under their watch.

I think the best thing that could happen for Manuel and

all the other prison inmates in our CA prison system

is if Mr Hugo Chavez decides to finance real private lawyers for those that had inept representation by their

public defenders like Manuel Gonzales did.It

What kind of message would this send the rest of the

world if Mr. Chavez is needed here in LA to finance our

poor with their legal situations. Maybe if our CA state leaders were to just ask President Hugo Chavez how to handle this situation of unjust trials here in our courts he could give them some real tips.Who knows

he might even suggest that our Government take more of a interest in making sure our least fortunate will have proper legal protection from loose DA's and

judges that look the other way instead of protecting

defendants who we all expect to have their day in court.

This type of abuse here in LA can not be tolerated.The

best we all can do with this is to pray for Manuel and

know God will answer our prayers.Of course we all might want to include our local and state government

officals who have allowed this to occur in the first place in those prayers.We do need media exposer and a state investigation here to find out how serious this mess is.I read the LA Times and have faith they will get to the bottom of this.

Let Manuels case be a perfect example for those who are poor and need a government public defender.Let Manuels case be a perfect example for all Americans

who can well afford a private attorney.Being poor does

not mean your guilty nor does being a Hispanic American makeone a gang member.Manuel Gonzales you may have been locked away in our CA prison system without a fair trial or a fair sentence,but you should know that I and many other upset Americans will continue voicing our dismay over your tragic situation.I also agree that if President Hugo Chavez were to assist Manuel Gonzales with his legal fees that our troubled courts would be forced to treat our defendants(rich or poor) with the same protections they are due under our constitution.

Dear Mr.Chavez I will be inviting America's prison population to this web site for your personal observation.What will follow in many days ahead will

be a onslaught of wrongly imprisoned inmates voicing

publicly to the rest of our country that bad lawyering not only affected Manuel Gonzales for 27years of his and his families life,but I'm sure there are thousands nationwide who have also run into incompetant people

calling themselves criminal defense lawyers that also destroyed their life.MR.President Hugo Chavez please forgive me for having put you on the spot with America's legal dilema,but you of all people know this situation here in the UScould change with your investment.The American people have accepted for so long that any old attorney for a poor person should suffice,and they should be glad to have any old attorney represent them in a court of law.

Where are all those wonderful ACLU private attorneys who provide free legal assistance to our poor around our country? Our legal system is not perfect,

but when push comes to shove there are always those humanitarian Americans coming to the rescue of others like Manuel Gonzales. I bet this case wins a new trial and Manuel gets a private attorney for his next trial. i know one thing that is certain, Manuel's next trial will be a fair one !! This tragic legal case will only be corrected if we all stand firm and demand justice from our media and state elected officials who are in the position to make positive changes for Manuel Gonzales and possibly thousands of others who have been denied their right to a fair trial in our courts.As we all know DNA evidence has freed hundreds who were wrongly imprisoned and likewise this poor lawyering issue can and should be dealt with accordingly.

What happened to Manuel should never happen in the richiest country in the world.when a defendant is facing

a 27 year possible sentence he should have a private attorney representing him.The government provides private lawyers for appeals,so why not give a defendant the best defense possible.It is so much cheaper for the state to supply a private lawyer for a

criminal case then wait to provide a appeal lawyer

after a defendant looses because his public defender

was not qualified or working too many cases to defend a client properly.

What happened to Manuel should never happen in the richiest country in the world.when a defendant is facing

a 27 year possible sentence he should have a private attorney representing him.The government provides private lawyers for appeals,so why not give a defendant the best defense possible.It is so much cheaper for the state to supply a private lawyer for a

criminal case then wait to provide a appeal lawyer

after a defendant looses because his public defender

was not qualified or working too many cases to defend a client properly.

Our state must be flush with cash to spend over ,000,000 of taxpayers money to incarcerate Manuel for 27years. We are all interested in keeping our streets safe from gangs, but its also possible that every Hispanic male is not a gang member.After hearing that this DA disobeyed the judges orders on admissable evidence with Manuels jury,the judge should have known better to let this trial continue.

Everyone knows how inflamatory gang info is with any LA jury.Thats why the DA disobeyed the judge to begin with. ( Win at all cost ) This unfair trial and waste of CA

tax dollars needs further investigation.

I suuport just trials not just for Manuel Gonzales but for every American.To me this situation sounds unreal.

We live in a wonderful country with caring and loving people that will not allow this type of legal injustice to prevail.I'm very happy that this was exposed so it can

be fairly corrected.Americans need to stand behind our justice system,but this case of Manuel Gonzales needs all our participation in alerting our state, county

and Federal elected officials.Our local media is silent

on this case,and I assume it's because President Hugo Chavez might help this kid seek justice.

Regarding the allegation that the trial lawyer who defended Mr. Gonzalez was inexperienced or not a "real lawyer" is completely false and without merit.

As one who works in the courts alongside prosecutors, private attorneys, and public defenders everyday I have seen trial lawyers of every stripe. From what I have seen of the public defenders who have worked in my courts, they are generally better than most of the private bar. There are many reasons why this is so. First of all, public defenders are highly trained. They go through a rigorous training program before they are given any serious cases. By the time a public defender is given a case like an attempted murder they have been well seasoned. The public defender's office (unlike the DA's office) has to worry about liability from malpractice claims based on ineffective assistance of counsel. So by the time a public defender is given a serious case to handle, they have already proven themselves as competent and capable to handle it. A public defender lawyer will have shown through his or her record of trials and courtroom results that he or she has the skill, judgment, and maturity to handle a case of that magnitiude. The public defender's office is not going to give an attempt murder file to some green attorney with only a couple of years of experience. Contrast this with the private bar where any lawyer can be hired to handle an attempt murder case. For example I have often seen the situation where a private attorney will substitute in on a public defender matter and that private attorney only has a fraction of the experience of the public defender he or she is replacing. I have even seen some of these same private attorneys ask the public defender whom they have replaced for legal advice on how to proceed with the case! What is really sad is when the family has to mortgage their home in order to hire this private attorney. This leads me to another point. There are a lot of hack lawyers out there in the private bar. Just because you give some private lawyer a fee does not mean that he or she is going to do a better job. In fact, I have seen the money issue work to the detriment of a defendant. One frequent example that I see is when the defendant is talked into taking a plea bargain that he doesn't necessarily want but feels forced to accept because he cannot afford to pay the private lawyer the per diem fee for a jury trial. Normally, a private attorney will simply be retained up until the pretrial or the preliminary hearing stage, and if the defendant does not settle the case, the private lawyer will charge extra if the defendant wants to go to trial. What the defendant gets instead of the justice he was seeking is an expensive professional hand holder. He could have saved the money and gotten the same deal with a public defender. Note...this also flys in the face of the often held notion that public defenders are just "dump trucks" who just want to plead out their clients at the earliest opportunity regardless of the merits of the case. In reality, if a defendant represented by the public defender's office wanted to go to trial money would be no object and the public defender could prepare the trial, conduct case investigation, and hire expert witnessess the same way that a private attorney could. FYI, the private attorneys and the public defenders frequently use the same expert witnesses! Another point you should also consider...hack lawyers who are privately retained generally go unnoticed. What I mean by that is that there is less scrutiny on a privately retained lawyer who performs poorly for their client. On the other hand, a public defender is always being watched and compared to other lawyers by the court staff. If you are a public defender who regularly puts out sub par performance on behalf of your clients, it will be seen and talked about by the court staff, including the judges, bailiffs, clerks, and opposing counsel, etc. and you can bet that this will eventually reach the ears of that public defender's supervisor. No public defender ever wants that , so every public defender has yet another incentive to do a good job for his or her client. Moving on...a public defender has another resource that no private attorney has which is a vast resevior of literally thousands of years of collective wisdom and experience in the field of criminal law. The public defenders office has over 600 lawyers in Los Angeles County, many of whom have been in practice for more than 20 or 30 years. Whenever a novel or new situation arises in a case, a public defender has the benefit of tapping into the minds of many other colleagues for advice. Some public defenders have developed an officewide reputation for expertise on the subject of drunk driving defense, or firearms, or insanity defenses, or immigration issues, or gang issues, or forensic evidence, ect. In fact many of these lawyers are recognized statewide and have even published articles on these topics in numerous professional journals and practice guides. Some of these lawyers frequently lecture at state bar required continuing education seminars. Thus a public defender can leverage this vast expertise of their colleagues in any given matter. In other words, all lawyers have to start out as new and inexperienced. However, a relatively new public defender will not have to reinvent the wheel as much as a relatively new private attorney. This benefit is available to a public defender whether or not the case is a petty misdemeanor or a capital murder case. (As an aside, no public defender but those of the highest caliber and level of experience will even get near a capital case. In fact most of your ineffective assistance of counsel claims in a capital case involve private attorneys, some of whom were appointed by the court) Another advantage with the public defenders is that they tend have a highly developed sense of the value of a case. A public defender has the benefit of more experience to know what traps may lie for the unwary in a case (for example, charges that could have been alleged but were missed by the prosecutor), or when the case is overfiled, i.e. with charges more serious than the facts really warrant. A private attorney who also happens to dabble in family law, personal injury, real estate and bankruptcy law, etc. etc. may not be able to spot those issues until it is too late. Public defenders also have local knowledge of their courts, they know all the idiosyncracies of the judge and prosecutors in any given courtroom. A private attorney from another part of the county or state may not even have the slightest clue as to who the players are and how to approach them. In fact, most savy private attorneys who enter an unfamiliar courtroom will first approach the public defender assigned to there in order to get the scoop on the personalities of the judge and the prosecutor before they talk to anyone else. That said, there are many excellent private attorneys out there in criminal defense bar. However they still only represent a minority. With a very few notable exceptions, I would pick a public defender over most private attorneys to represent me on a criminal case. I think most prosecutors, judges, and private attorneys know what I mean. This brings me to the reason why I am writing this. I am outraged and appalled by the attacks made on Many's lawyer. The remarks made that he is inexperienced and not a "real lawyer" are simply wrong. I know this lawyer personally. This lawyer who defended Many has 20 years of legal experience. Before becoming a public defender 10 years ago, this gentleman was an experienced appellate lawyer who had argued cases before the California court of appeals. Generally trial lawyers do not handle appeals, and it is somewhat of a rare quality for an experienced trial attorney to also have previous appellate experience. Even more rare among attorneys, even those who practice appellate law, this man is even qualified to practice before the Supreme Court of the United States. In other words, Many's lawyer was not some second or third rate hack who couldn't be hired anywhere else. The public defender's office has many dedicated professionals like this one. To characterize him as inexperienced and not "real" is an undeserved insult and quite frankly is a slander on him. Many was fortunate enough to have this man as his attorney. Sometimes I think that people devalue something because it is free and available to the public. That is human nature I suppose. We also have this perception that only those who have a ton of money get off. We see O.J. and Robert Blake and see how they got off. We forget about Winnona Ryder, Scott Peterson, Martha Stewart, Leona Helmsley (remember her...look her up on Wikipedia!). They all had top dollar lawyers. Even in the Phil Spector case the jury was split on guilt for murder (the case will be reset). Instead, the writer of this blog wants to take a cheap shot at Many's lawyer because he is a public defender. Even more strange is how he wants to appeal to none other than Hugo Chavez of Venezuela for help. Hugo Chavez, the greatest self proclaimed socialist in the western hemisphere since Castro. Did the writer ever consider that the concept of a "public" defender's office is very much in line with socialism. In fact many public defenders (but not all) are socialist or liberal in orientation to begin with. The constraints of capitalism did not interfere with Many's representation. In fact, the quality of Many's representation would have been worth tens of thousands of dollars if this same lawyer had been retained privately. Therefore, the author's invective against Many's lawyer is misplaced and only reveals the author's ignorance which is also a reflection of the ignorance of many about the true caliber of representation the public defender's office provides. If there are any signs of prosecutorial misconduct, or errors in judicial rulings at trial then Many's appellate lawyer will be able to point these out because his trial lawyer will have been able to preserve these issues for appeal based on clear objections on the record at trial. One thing Many's appellate lawyer will not be able to do is to point out that Many's trial lawyer was incompetent.

It's very true about LA juries,that once the thought of a defendant having gang connections ( correct or incorrect ) by any prosecutor ( even over a presiding

judges orders that gang activities were not involved with the case )will play a major role with certain jurors

in deciding guilt instead of innocence. If that were not the case, why would you have this prosecutor not listening to the presiding judges orders.No attorney

private or otherwise can guarantee a win when judges allow this unfair influence into their courtroom.Retrials

are exactly for this purpose.I just Manuel will see justice prvail in his case!!

It's very true about LA juries,that once the thought of a defendant having gang connections ( correct or incorrect ) by any prosecutor ( even over a presiding

judges orders that gang activities were not involved with the case )will play a major role with certain jurors

in deciding guilt instead of innocence. If that were not the case, why would you have this prosecutor not listening to the presiding judges orders.No attorney

private or otherwise can guarantee a win when judges allow this unfair influence into their courtroom.Retrials

are exactly for this purpose. I just Manuel will see justice prevail in his case!!

Tragic story for all of us Americans to deal with .The beauty of this is that it was even exposed so we all can understand that even here in LA there is much work to be done.Manuel Gonzales represents one lost kid in

the bowels of our prison system who needs our help and prayers for a new and just trial.I encourage anyone who feels the same as I do about this terrible injustice to send E mails and call state and public officals along with local media outlets.

Tragic story for all of us Americans to deal with .The beauty of this is that it was even exposed so we all can understand that even here in LA there is much work to be done.Manuel Gonzales represents one lost kid in

the bowels of our prison system who needs our help and prayers for a new and just trial.I encourage anyone who feels the same as I do about this terrible injustice to send E mails and call state and public officals along with local media outlets.

Why is so much power given to the DA's here in LA?

If any DA can avoid a judges order not to attempt to influence a jury with gang attatchment comments, how

can we as CA taxpayers be asked to continue to finance such injustice and waste of our tax dollars.LA does not need everyone worldwide to fear our court system if they ever were to travel here on a vacation.

We need to get our city officials and media to clear this

up as soon as possible.If this type of unjust court continues here I for one will also welcome President Hugo Chavez to assist our falsely imprisoned.

Why is so much power given to the DA's here in LA?

If any DA can avoid a judges order not to attempt to influence a jury with gang attatchment comments, how

can we as CA taxpayers be asked to continue to finance such injustice and waste of our tax dollars.LA does not need everyone worldwide to fear our court system if they ever were to travel here on a vacation.

We need to get our city officials and media to clear this

up as soon as possible.If this type of unjust court continues here I for one will also welcome President Hugo Chavez to assist our falsely imprisoned.

I wish you all would stop referring to Manny Gonzalez as a political prisoner. I am not saying that he was not wrongfully convicted. We must always fight wrongful convictions because no wrongful conviction is justice! But Manny was not convicted on the charges of treason or attempting to overthrow the government or resisting an FBI raid on a medical marijuana facility. No. Manny was charged and convicted of attempted murder. Not that I don't deplore his injustice. Not that I am outraged that the judge would allow such prejudicial evidence in. But that is why we have an appeals system, and Habeas Corpus motions. No judge should improper evidence into a trial, ever! But please, put it on the judge. Put it on the DA. But please don't make this about political martyrdom. I do sympathize with Mr. Gonzalez and his lawyer who tried to get a mistrial for him. By the way...I doubt seriously if Hugo Chavez is even going give this any real thought. In fact, he always says we are butting into the business of other countries. Aren't we asking him to butt in the business of ours? Instead of trying to get Hugo Chavez involved (which I think is a waste of time and is pretty much a delusion to hope for) the better course is to raise money for Manny Gonzalez's appellate defense as well as to try to petition the governor and the attorney general for either a pardon or commutation or at least a new trial! I just don't want to over use the term "political prisoner" for every instance of wrongful conviction because that term denotes something more along the lines of Nelson Mandela, Dr. Martin Luther King, Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar, and others like them who were imprisoned for their efforts to make a better society. Even if they were "guilty" they still were imprisoned for that reason and not for simply committing an attempted murder of a gang rival. My issue here is that if one is guilty of committing attempted murder of a gang rival that is a crime that should be punished. The only question here is whether or not Mr. Gonzalez is truly guilty of this offense. If the trial was defective then we must give him a new trial that is fair and without any prejudicial evidence. Maybe instead of contacting Hugo Chavez, you should be trying to contact Nelson Mandela. After all, Mr. Mandela certainly knows what it is like to suffer in prison wrongfully.

Everyone who works in our local criminal court system here in LA , CA knows the truth about DA's attempting to connect gang related data to any defendant

they might have a weak case against.Hispanic defendants fit this profile perfectly as we are now hearing about the Manny Gonzales case.If one were to investigate past trials here in LA county,one might find hundreds of other cases

where other juries were also allowed by local judges to be mislead by DA's with false accusations that lead to long term imprisonment. The public defenders all

will tell you this is a reality.Being that everyone knows the truth about this unjust tactic by DA;s here in LA, it makes you wonder why our legal system has just looked the other way.

How could our CA. Governor pretend to not know about this situation with Manny Gonzales when it is being talked about more and more everyday around the world.Arnold's prisons might be his future political failure that all Califorians will never forget .I think the buck stops on his desk on this one!!Taxpayers deserve more from him and his wonderful team to get

this abuse and waste resolved as soon as possible.

Everyone in the rest of our country do not need to hear about Arnold's Prisons.It makes all of us here in CA look bad!!!

We will begin to publish this court case on the WWW

so everyone can judge what happened to this minor

here in the Van Nuys court in LA California. You will

be able to view various court papers daily right here

at this sight everyday starting next week.A different

part of this bizzare case will be featured every week.

We will begin to publish this court case on the WWW

so everyone can judge what happened to this minor

here in the Van Nuys court in LA California. You will

be able to view various court papers daily right here

at this sight everyday starting next week.A different

part of this bizzare case will be featured every week.

It looks like this Manny Gonzales kid is another one of Arnold's captives.The Governor had no mercy for Tookie Williams and I assume he will also take a quick

look at Manny Gonzales case unfavorably.I guess our Governor believes that everyone gets a fair trial in his state and everyone in his prison's is guilty also.

The accepted figure nationwide for innocent Americans

to be incarcerated in this country is 10 %. Arnold's prison "s have 173,000 inmates and 17,ooo of them are innocent.Who is assisting these innocent victims

of bad lawering ,judges not protecting defendants from rouge prosecutors who get away with misleading juries with a wink from a presiding judge ,etc.The ACLU is very silent on this one !!!

We are all aware of the dire gang situation here in LA

and any reasonable local CA resident will support our police and judicial system that have to process these dangerous individuals. However, If what happened to Manny Gonzales happens in our local courts on a daily or weekly basis to other defendants, then we all are also supporting our own special type of legal gang activity.This type of injustice by our local DA's and judges is not what I choose to call justice or

support with my tax dollars.A Federal investigation is in order here.No justice system is perfect,but this type

of unjust court does not belong anywhere in a free and just society.

Poor poor Manny Gonzales.If he or his family only had money when his criminal trial took place in Van Nuys CA he would be a free man today. This is a very sad reality that we all know about and have to live with in America. this country will only supply fair legal representation for our poor when push comes to shove. I think President Hugo Chavez would wake us all up to the tragic reality that our

prison's are lined with innocent felons whose only crime was that they believed

the American justice system would offer them a fair trial with a capable lawyer.

This legal case of Manny Gonzales is a very serious breech of justice by a presiding judge allowing a rouge DA to mislead a naive La jury into believing that this criminal case was somehow gang related when it was already determined by the judge prior the trial that there was no gang involvement. IF this resembles justice to our Ca Governor and his staff, then it must be true that anyone of us or our family members could

also get terminated like Manny Gonzales did.

I am so sick of these ad hominem attacks on public defenders. Do any of you who criticize these hard working lawyers practice law yourself? How would have handled Manny's trial differently? Nobody here can say what Manny's lawyer did wrong. It seems like he did the right thing in asking for a mistrial based on that evidence. So what is your problem!

Hey Mr. Fields, Do you have the trial transcripts of the testimony, arguments, and evidence presented? We all need to see where justice went wrong! Also, if you know who the lawyer was that defended Manny, you should invite him to contribute to the discussion. When are you going to post the trial records you promised? I can't wait to see what happened. Jon S. - a law student

The ability of rouge prosecutor's to influence LA juries with misinformation concerning gang information boggles my mind.Where was this so called judge during this trial of Manny Gonzales? I thought a presiding judge was suppose to make sure

that defendants get fair trials. If this is what it appears to be we are all in for a federal investigation.Let's just hope all those unfairly tried like this Gonzales kid get new trials.Arnold's prisons are already under a Federal mandate due to improper state care, so I guess Our Governor will not care much if others all also neede to bring justice to CA courtrooms.

Hey, here is an idea that might even jibe with our institution of democracy: Find out who the judge was in that case and then find a suitable lawyer to run against that judge in the next election. Maybe that is another way of showing the bench that we won't tolerate their B.S. if they keep making rulings like this. In any event, we are forcing that judge to spend money to keep his or her seat that would otherwise be uncontested. Does anyone know of any lawyer they would back for the bench? Or are we all just blowing smoke out of our collective arses hoping that Hugo will come to our rescue? If we are serious then let's find some good Constitution minded lawyers that we think are trustworthy enough to sit on the bench. How about it gang?

One other thought. We should have a tracking system in place for judges who dispense sub par justice on a regular basis and put them on a common public data base along with their most outrageous rulings. This way they can eventually know that their decisions are always being reviewed by We the People!

Hugo is that guy in Venezuela who called George Bush. He is not going to be interested in Manny's case. Im sorry to break it to you. He is too busy. He has his own country to run. Are one of those pro Hugo people that love him so much you think he is god or something? I'd get a movie star like Richard Gere or some other activist actor. How about Whoppi Goldberg?

President Hugo Chavez might just want to assist Manny Gonzales to prove to the rest of the world that America's poor residents are not well taken care of .Poor Americans such as Manny Gonzales who can not afford private attorney's are the hardest hit by our cruel legal system. Remember President Chavez paid $ 20,000,000 last winter for poor Americans electric bills.This whole situation with any American

needing money in order to hire attorneys to get a fair trial in this country says very much on its own.If you do not have the dime $$$ i guess you will do the time !

I also think that this is a national blemish on us all that we have put up with the fact that our rich get justice and our poor get public detenders, and then unreasonable jail time.Manny Gonzales getting a 27 year sentence is way out of line even if he did this shooting There was no real victim in this case to begin with? The presiding judge ruled there was no

bodily injury in this case and this kid (tried as an adult)

is sent off to Arnols's Prisons at a cost of over ,000,000 for the CA taxpayers to foot the bill.

Our prisons need the Governors dire attention and

all he can think about is positioning himself for a

a US senate seat in the near future.

I have written comment after comment about the hardworking public defenders and their high level of skill in the courtroom. Yet everybody here keeps talking about how Manny was sent to prison because he did not have enough money to hire a private attorney. Well I have something to say to all you public defender bashers: YOU ARE CONVICTING MANNY'S LAWYER OF MALPRACTICE WITHOUT GIVING HIM A FAIR TRIAL ABOUT HIS PERFORMANCE!!! Isn't that just a little bit hypocritical? I have explained in my previous comments about the training and experience these public defender lawyers must have before they can even handle as serious a case as Manny's. I have even explained that because I personally know Manny's lawyer that I am also aware of his impressive legal credentials BEFORE he became a public defender. Do you people even read these comments before writing your own? How about you Mr. Field? Do you read these yourself? If so, you should respond. I think that it is very unfair of all of you to condemn Manny's lawyer for his efforts simply because he is a public defender. Mr. Field, where are the court records you have promised to post on this case? Shouldn't we reserve our judgment on the quality of Manny's legal representation until we at least get a chance to see what his lawyer did or did not do? WHAT WOULD A PRIVATELY RETAINED LAWYER DO DIFFERENTLY ON THIS CASE? Would anyone like to respond? You folks like to talk about justice and fairness. Yes, we do have the presumption of innocence in this country. But then you are all ready to crap all over Manny's lawyer for trying to uphold that principle just because he is a public defender. I suppose that principle of giving someone the benefit of the doubt does not apply to those hardworking legal professionals who dedicate their lives to defending the poor like Manny's lawyer. You should be ashamed! I challenge any of folks out there who are lawyers that want to help represent the poor to go and apply to join the public defender's office. Until then, go ahead and keep thinking that everything gets better after you throw money at it. It's a nice delusion. Just ask Martha Stewart and Winnona Ryder. They had the best lawyers that money could buy! Until then, I will await Mr. Field's posting of the trial records. Yours truly, I. Pubman

Does Hugo Chavez read these articles? Come on! I am so sure he is going to take the time to do that. What is wrong with getting a celebrity form Hollywood? At least they would be easier to reach than Hugo. Does the person who made this blog even know him? I mean has he ever gotten a response from Hugo in the past that would make him think that he would listen this time? I seriously doubt it. Besides, doesn't Hugo have some political baggage with him that would make people like the 'Governator' Arnold not want to listen to him? Arnold is an actor so I think you need to get another actor that would be better able to relate to him. Dude, if you are going for Hugo then that makes as much sense as going for Castro! Trust me, get a Hollywood celebrity on this!

A foreign President offering the richest country in the world's poor legal finances in order to get a fair trial???

You had better get you thinking cap on fella.When anf if

this humanitarian President decides to enter Manny's case with any offer of $$ for his appeal, this case and our whole messy legal system will be talked about worldwide.One important President like Hugo Chavez will change our legal systems way of treating our poor folk.America's poor are doing the time ecause our government will not pay the dime.

A foreign President offering the richest country in the world's poor legal finances in order to get a fair trial???

You had better get you thinking cap on fella.When anf if

this humanitarian President decides to enter Manny's case with any offer of $$ for his appeal, this case and our whole messy legal system will be talked about worldwide.One important President like Hugo Chavez will change our legal systems way of treating our poor folk.America's poor are doing the time ecause our government will not pay the dime.

You people are all smoking something! (Got any for me?) You have this romantic revolutionary fantasy that comrade Hugo is going to come and rescue Mr. Gonzalez from his fate. Hey, I got another question for you...Does anyone know what Venezuela's criminal justice system is like compared to ours. What does Amnesty International say? What if Hugo's system is worse? I still think you need to come back to reality. By the way there are probably lots of others in our system who have been shafted way worse than Manny. Should Hugo try to bail them out first?

I am a little puzzled why this issue of public defenders

has not been talked about more on a national level.

If the figure of 10% of all Americans in our prisons are

deemed to be innocent , and ( Ca has 17,000 in custody at a average cost to the CA taxpayer of ,000 per inmate each year) why isn't more being done to release these poor souls?

I was convicted many years ago of a crime in a midwest state and had to use a public defender as my attorney.I did not follow his advice to settle my case

prior a trial because I was not guilty of what they said I

did.I thought my public attorney was a very nice person and seemed to want to help me,but things changed

when we were at trial.I can only speak for me,but I felt

this public defender was way over his head in trying to deal with the DA.I'm not crying in my soup,but I do understand if you do not have a private lawyer handling your case you will not have the best chance to have a fair trial.

The problem with publicdefenders is not that they are bad but taht they are overworked with too many cases! It took forever for my brother to get his domestic battery case to trial because his public defender kept on postponing the case because he had other cases he had to try first. But he got a not guilty on the domestic abuse because the public defender showed the jury how my brother's girlfriend had lied and gave different stories to people. Im not a lawyer but I think my brother got as good a result as he could get, not guilty.

i was forced to have to usa a public defender once and

I would never tell anyone I know who can afford the use of a private attorney to go with a free government lawyer,Like nurses in our hospitals who have way too many patients to care for properly, these under paid

over worked free lawyers just do not compete with a

private attorney who can just defend you and not five other poor clients at the same time.Besides, my belief is when most of these public attorneys get good at their craft private law firms snap them up.

They are back at it ! Creating student protests for president Hugo Chavez of Venezuela seems to be

something our CIA is getting rather good at. I guess President Chavez needs to be sent a little message that he should only take care of his own people and not get involved assisting American poor in our prisons with their legal appeals.The Citgo Freedom Foundation would become an American Non Profit

organization that could help all poor Americans that

have been incarcerated due to lousy legal representation in our courts.This business of Public

defenders needs to be corrected so all Americans have an equal chance in our State and Federal courts.

If it takes President Hugo Chavez to bring home this fact , then so be it. The US had better start taking better care of all their people and not allow this rich get out jail free card to those well heeled while only supplying our poor with well intentioned Public Defenders.

My understanding that this site allowed anyone to post a comment that was reasonable.;The previous comment before this one is hidden and I'm wondering why? If we do not have the freedom to post with this laIndymedia, please advise us.I read the previous hidden post and found nothing wrong with it and am

amazed your moderator hid it to begin with.This Jones woman had a intersting post and everyone should bhe able to view it.

I also am quite shocked to have found that the post by the Jones woman would ever be hidden from our readers.this is not Indymedia's doing?

I also am quite shocked to have found that the post by the Jones woman would ever be hidden from our readers.this is not Indymedia's doing?

There never was a posting by anyone named Jones. You never read anything by such a person on this site. Is that clear? Every one of your IP addresses has been noted.

I read Sarah Jones views under hidden posts on this site. and also do not understand why they were hidden by the moderator.

I read Sarah Jones views under hidden posts on this site. and also do not understand why they were hidden by the moderator.

President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela must be getting quite a kick out of all

of us. If this humanitarian President decides to assist Manny Gonzales with money for his appeal then all our American poor who have suffered so long under our bogus system of providing every person a lawyer (not always a qualified lawyer,but a lawyer never the less ) will be highlighted world wide. Sometimes thats all it takes to make change in a unfair system. Our current system operates on the basis that a person charged with a crime will have his public defender cut a deal and never see a court room. If 90% of our criminal court cases did not settle out of court without a trial it would be total chaos. This type of machine justice leads to innocent people afraid to go to trial because their real fear of only having a public defender represent them at trial could lead to a jail sentence.So not only do we have innocent poor folks

cutting deals to avoid trials with PD's , we have naive poor folks like Manny Gonzales who think they might have a chance at getting a fair trial with a PD.

Our current system of justice for the American poor is so under funded

and misguided that it is hard to believe that our government has been able to fool the masses for so long. For the wealthiest country in the world to abandon our poor with pretend legal representation is America's dirty little secret that we all have learned to accept. Congress can do much better for

masses of Americans who might need a private lawyer to really defend them from false incarceration. Currently America's working poor are being beaten down with a lack of health care for themselves and their children and a total

lack of protection from rouge prosecutors like Manny Gonzales and his PD had to attempt to deal with. Look around at all the other wealthy countries in

the world and see the difference how they are providing for their poor.

Yes our Government is very concerned about President Hugo Chavez assisting Manny Gonzales with monies to finance his appeal for a fair trial.

What would the rest of the free world think if this poor Mexican American kid needed a outsiders money to have a chance to receive justice. The richest country in the world is the first one to point their finger at other countries not taking care of their own citizens, but the sad reality is we spend billions of American tax dollars on foreign aid ourselves, but can't seem able enough to afford a private lawyer or health care for our own needy. If the experts are correct that !0 % of America's 2,5oo,ooo prison population is innocent, then this country needs to begin to attempt to begin to figure out how to not only get these poor soles private lawyers, but to prevent others from meeting the same fate in years to come.To have 200,000 innocent in our prisons nationwide without anyone attempting to assist them says much about the

real America. Good luck Manny Gonzales I'm one American praying that President Hugo Chavez will assist you and also bring America to it's senses.

President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela must be getting quite a kick out of all

of us. If this humanitarian President decides to assist Manny Gonzales with money for his appeal then all our American poor who have suffered so long under our bogus system of providing every person a lawyer (not always a qualified lawyer,but a lawyer never the less ) will be highlighted world wide. Sometimes thats all it takes to make change in a unfair system. Our current system operates on the basis that a person charged with a crime will have his public defender cut a deal and never see a court room. If 90% of our criminal court cases did not settle out of court without a trial it would be total chaos. This type of machine justice leads to innocent people afraid to go to trial because their real fear of only having a public defender represent them at trial could lead to a jail sentence.So not only do we have innocent poor folks

cutting deals to avoid trials with PD's , we have naive poor folks like Manny Gonzales who think they might have a chance at getting a fair trial with a PD.

Our current system of justice for the American poor is so under funded

and misguided that it is hard to believe that our government has been able to fool the masses for so long. For the wealthiest country in the world to abandon our poor with pretend legal representation is America's dirty little secret that we all have learned to accept. Congress can do much better for

masses of Americans who might need a private lawyer to really defend them from false incarceration. Currently America's working poor are being beaten down with a lack of health care for themselves and their children and a total

lack of protection from rouge prosecutors like Manny Gonzales and his PD had to attempt to deal with. Look around at all the other wealthy countries in

the world and see the difference how they are providing for their poor.

Yes our Government is very concerned about President Hugo Chavez assisting Manny Gonzales with monies to finance his appeal for a fair trial.

What would the rest of the free world think if this poor Mexican American kid needed a outsiders money to have a chance to receive justice. The richest country in the world is the first one to point their finger at other countries not taking care of their own citizens, but the sad reality is we spend billions of American tax dollars on foreign aid ourselves, but can't seem able enough to afford a private lawyer or health care for our own needy. If the experts are correct that !0 % of America's 2,5oo,ooo prison population is innocent, then this country needs to begin to attempt to begin to figure out how to not only get these poor soles private lawyers, but to prevent others from meeting the same fate in years to come.To have 200,000 innocent in our prisons nationwide without anyone attempting to assist them says much about the

real America. Good luck Manny Gonzales I'm one American praying that President Hugo Chavez will assist you and also bring America to it's senses.

Please be advised that certain readers of this site have

asked me to find out the specific reason why you hid

comments that MS.Sarah Jones made to this site on

Saturday Nov.3 2007. Anyone wanting to view those comments can always go to the top of this site and click on hidden comments to view them, however it is

also a little puzzling to me as to your reasons for doing this.If it was only a oversight, would you be so kind as to allow the Sarah Jones post to be read without anyone being forced to go to the hidden post to view it.

By the way, I'm told that Sarah Jones also posted her

same comments on SFindymediawebsite without any difficulty.

This case is currently under review with the

CA Central District Federal Court in Riverside CA.

Second Appellate Division One # B185550

Van Nuys # La046958

I welcome President Hugo Chavez to enter California with the humanitarain intentions of assisting our poor who because of poor lawyering or bad judges find themselves without anyone interested or financialy calable to rescue them from Arnold 's Prisons. 10 % are innocent and if our state government is not interested in finding out who those 17,000 innocent wards of our state are, then why would anyone have an issue with President Hugo Chavez assisting them with his countries money? Nobody seem to care when President Chavez paid ,000,000 for our poor last winter for their heating oil ?

Today on CNN.com there is an article about a retired Venezuelan army general who helped Chavez come to power and who now publicly opposes him. This ex-general, Raul Baduel says that he does not like the changes that Chavez wants to make to the Venezuelan constitution. According to him, Chavez proposes changes that will guarantee Chavez presidency for life as well as the ability to rule by executive decree. In other words, A DICTATORSHIP! When will you fools wake up and realize that Hugo Chavez is no real friend the average Joe and is only using the poor in his country to acquire more and more power? Do you think it is a good thing for power become more concentrated into the hands of fewer people? How does that help democracy? How does that help the poor? He is a dictator, plain and simple. IF YOU READ YOUR HISTORY BOOKS MORE OFTEN YOU'D SEE THIS PATTERN OF USURPATION HAPPEN OVER AND OVER AGAIN! Or have you not heard the old saying...POWER CORRUPTS, ABSOLUTE POWER CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY! Lenin used to call people like you in the West who supported him as "useful idiots." When will you wake up? Make your pitch for Manny to Nelson Mandela or Jimmy Carter, but not Hugo Chavez!

I might be mistaken, but these Norton comments sound like they are from the same person who called himself Pubman lask week ? I remember one other

person last week also posting comments that MR. Pubman might really be the Manny Gonzales public defender on his criminal trial.

I want to answer those who wonder about me. I know Manny's lawyer. He is a public defender who works out of the Van Nuys courthouse. I am a retired court clerk as well as a former paralegal who used to work with him BEFORE he became a public defender. Nowadays I like to come to court and watch trials whenever there is something interesting. You may have seen me on tv in the Phil Spector case as one of the audience members. At the time I had a grey ponytail and I am bald on top. Also, the last time I checked, my name was not Norton. However, I think he may have read my comment that I previously posted about appealing to Nelson Mandela as opposed to Hugo Chavez. I will say however that I agree with him so far with what he has said. Norton, if you are reading this I am flattered.

I also think Pubman and Norton are the same posters.

I do not have a big problem with that, but I do not agree with their ideas .

My dui case is coming up on Nov 15 in west LA and I was wondering if anybody knows of a good criminal lawyer. I have money so I dont need a public defender. I'll even take a recommendation from Pubman/Norton if he actually knows anybody based on his experience.

Taht depends on how much $ you want to spend. My husband had a dui and we had to pay 5 thousand dollars.

sorry about that. I guess there must be some lag on the internet or something that makes people do double entrys. I still stand by my principle that 4 is too many though.

Hey Lisa S. Take a break for awhile. I think you are having computer twitching problems or something.

The reason I thought that Pubman might be Mannys lawyer is because "Pub" as in public defender. Since he is so pro public defender I thought that was his alias...pub - man. get it? however I am not sure about Norton.

I just hate hearing about a situation like this ever occuring here in our courts to begin with. My prayers are with this Manny getting a new trial whether he gets

Presidents Hugo Chavez to assist him or an American really does not matter to me. As long as a fair trial opportunity is always given to everyone in this country either rich or poor then and only then can we be proud to live in a democracy.

Here! Here! Manny needs all the help he can get. I hope he has a good lawyer for his appeal.

By the way Anonymous I may be able to refer you to a good lawyer if you have to go to court in LA. His name is Jon Artz and dui is his specialty. He did my son's case and he is a nice guy too.

The masses of Americans are the working poor and it amazes me that they are in need of health care and proper legal protection in the richest country in the world.I guess its true that some of our people can be fooled some of the time and poor people can be fooled all of the time.How long can America's poor take this obvious abuse and still turn the other cheek ? Well rich America and Congress have to decide to

sincerely start helping their own citizens with real assistance and not just empty promises! The reality that others around the world will be asked (such as President Hugo Chavez ) to pick up the American poor by their bootstraps seems to have hit a raw nerve, Congress obviously needs a little wake up call and President Hugo Chavez and other world leaders who

identify with the American poors plight might be our poor folks ticket to the promised land.

Those who have cable and get IFC (independent film channel) there was a documentary called Energy Wars. A large segment of it was about President Chavez and how he is using oil revenues in Venezuela as part of his policy. Very interesting and educational.

This truely is a very interesting situatuion with Manny Gonzales needing money to file a proper legal appeal

to the Central Ca Federal District court in order to get a chance at a fair trial in the LA courts.By asking President Hugo Chavez for the needed finances to hire a appeal attorney on behalf of Manny Gonzales

lawyersforpooramericans has brought international

drama into our treatment of the American poor.If America's poor are not being supplied proper attorneys for their legal appeals, then why would anyone have a problem with outsiders offering financial aide if warranted? I think this sort of outreach

should take place all over our country with our prison population that despertly needs legal representation.

If we will not take care of our own citizens then why should we deny others who might have an interest more than us to fill this need ?President Chaves you

have my support anytime you decide to get involved with our American poor.

I think we all better take a good look at reality and decide what is best for the American working poor who have such a tough time making ends meet here in LA. No health care provided for them or their families, their kids mistreated by our local courts, and other Americans complaining when someone from another country might want to offer this kid Manny Gonzales a chance to appeal to a court of law with private attorneys in an attempt to get a fair trial with the La Legal.Please, save all this idle chatter and lets all be concerned about the end result that real justice for a kid tried as an adult facing a rouge Da with a Public Defender gets the chance to have a fair trial.

Our state prisons fall under our Governor's job duties,

but it looks like the Terminator has taken a US Senate

seat before one ever became available.I have never seen Arnold so quiet about anything else in state affairs as he is about his prison situation. CA prisons

are so bad that they are currently being run by a Federal outsider.Arnold's Prisons have about 17,000

innocent people in them and nobody in this state

has any ideas or interest to set them free.!0 % of all prison population is considered innocent by the experts.

Yes our local court in Van Nuys CA meted out a 27 year sentence to a minor without giving that minor his right to a fair trial.Manny Gonzales will never see the ouside of his New Folsom Prison until he is 44yrs old if he does not win his right to a fair trial. It really is tragic that Manny's brother is in the US Army fighting for our country in the middle east war zone and Manny is fighting for his right to a fair trial in LA Legal. What kind of a topsy turvy world do we live in ? On one hand this Gonzales family has offered up one of their sons to protect this country, and on the other we take justice away from the brother in our local Van Nuys court. Only in America I guess ??

What will the rest of the world think if President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela or Citgo Oil decide to start a Non Profit organization in the US that assists financing lawyers for American poor prison inmates ? Well we may all be hearing about that exact situation happening in the very near future. Our obvious neglect

of America's poor has caught the attention of other world leaders, and it is just a matter of time now until our government will be forced to either get their act together and correct this blatant injustice or allow outsiders like President Chavez the opportunity to

win the hearts and minds of our neglected citizens.

Someone said that Pubman and I are the same. Huh? Whatever. FYI the only time I go to court is for the occasional speeding ticket and that is painful enough. Pubman seems to be one of those courtroom geeks. No offense Mr. Pubman :-) I find going to court about as fun and as exciting as going to the dentist. But the suggestion that P-man made is a good one though because Chavez is too divisive a figure but Nelson Mandela is respected more worldwide. I got another one, how about Hurricane Carter? (you know the one Denzel Washington played in that movie based on a true story). Other celebrity suggestions are Oprah Winfrey, the guy from MASH who played B.J. and is against the death penalty, just to name a few. On the other hand, no Rosie! You need people who don't come off as crazy. also you should get people like Alan Dershowitz involved in some kind of probono deal. To bad Johnny Cocran isnt alive anymore. This is up his alley. Does anybody think theres anything wrong with these ideas beacause I think they make more sense than Hugo. By the way has anyone else seen the IFC documentary that I mentioned called "Energy Wars." They should do another one about legal representation of the poor in Venezuela. I wonder what thats like? BTW Pubman do you know a good place for English fish and chips and a pint of warm beer? Lol. That said, I don't want to minimize Mr. Gonzalez's situation. He clearly got a harsh sentence. But even with good lawyers you still can't always get around idiot juries and judges who make stupid and unfair rulings. maybe his appeal can get overturned on a technicality or something. As much as I think Hugo is a buffoon and a big fake I dont want Mr. Gonzalez to spend time in the prison when he shouldnt.

I agree that Gonzales got a unfair sentence also.According to what I read there were no serious wounds to any victim here,so why should we the taxpayers pay through our noses for this.I read that it cost ,000 each year this Manny kid is in the prison system. Know wonder ther is no money left in our state budget for worthy causes. Maybe this explains why our prisons are being run by a federal outsider.

If this just one example of how the CA taxpayers are being pipped off then we really do need some type of investigation here.

This progressive state of ours needs to begin to set up a special task force thats designed to free the 17,000 innocent CA inmates who have found themselves in Arnold's prisons even though they do not belong there. If we rely on the experts figures that

10% of all American prison inmates are not guilty, then

this country has 200,000 innocent prison inmates nationwide. Manny Gonzales is one example of a CA prison inmate who needs justice to correct his unjust trial, but there are also thousands of others in our

state prisons who need to have their cases reviewed

so they can also prove their innocence.This unique

special legal task force would save this state millions of dollars every year and at the same time start to free

our wrongly convicted .For the worlds richest country

not to have a Freedom Task force with so many innocent in our prisons, says alot about how most

American's feel about this countries prison population.

Guilty ! Guilty ! Guilty !

I agree with this concept of freeing our innocent from our Ca prisons using a special designed Freedom task force made up of investigators and attorneys.

I know If I were one of the 10 % in our prisons who were innocent, this would

give me hope that some day justice could happen and I would be freed from

false incarceration. Maybe this Manny Gonzales case will become the first of

a long awaited new concept in how we show concern for the 10 % population in our penal colonies here in beautiful California, home of the free and land of the brave. Is it really a brave act to adopt a new state policy of freeing our innocent,

or is it just our basic belief that justice is for all.

We asked for it and now we have it , egg I mean and it appears to be running down our countries face.It also looks like there will be plenty more to come.

I believe it states somewhere in the Bible something about taking care of the poor? Well thank you Manny Gonzales for taking your mirror into your prison with you. Now we all just have to pray that others in our state and federal government know the difference between your mirrors reflection of reason, change,hope and love and their mirrors reflection of fear, hate and cruel and unreasonable punishment. Beauty I guess is only in the eyes of ???

I don't like fish and chips or warm beer as much as I prefer sushi and a cold Sapporo. That said, try Ye Olde King's Head in Santa Monica. Also, I am an overall fan of public defenders because I know/knew so many of them especially from my clerking days. But you can't pay me enough to do their job. Have you ever had to sit through a Marsden hearing? No thank you. That said, everyone here jumps to the conclusion that Manny got bad representation because he was poor. Imagine you are the appeal lawyer on Manny's case and you are trying to argue that Manny received Ineffective Assistance of Counsel. What specific points are you going to make about his trial lawyer's performance that was ineffective? I keep asking this question and nobody wants to answer it. Are you all full of hot air or is there anyone who can give an answer with some substance to it? No? I didn't think so. For the record one of my English or Scottish ancestors must have owned a tavern or a pub hence my name. All right, so now that we have got this out of the way when is someone going to say what Manny's lawyer did wrong that a fat cat private lawyer would have done differently. And don't say "Get Manny acquitted" because that's a cop out. What I mean is what in terms of trial tactics, witnesses called, case preparation, motions filed and heard ect did Manny's lawyer fall short in doing? Until someone gives me an answer that more than another diatribe about Arnolds prisons or Hugo Chavez then please don't dump on his lawyer for doing what he could to defend Manny. I especially await your reply Mr. Field!

Mr.Pubman why are you not asking your friend the PD who defended Manny Gonzales if he would let us really know what went wrong in this legal case ? it might answer many of our questions. You are defending your friend or yourself with this case, but none of us know what happened other than what MR.Douglas Fields letter to president Hugo Chavez states. Are you saying Manny Gonzales got a proper and fair trial ? Do you know if this type of gang comments are

made by local DA's is as common as we are lead to believe. If you or your friend really are this public defender, then this is a great place to disclose what really is going on in our local courts.

We asked for it and now we have it, egg I mean, and it appears to be running down our countries face.It also looks like there will be plenty more to come.I believe it

states somewhere in the Bible something about taking care of the poor.Well thank you Manny Gonzales

for taking your mirror into your prison with you ! Now we all just have to pray that officals in our state and federal government know the difference between your mirrors reflection of reason,change,hope and love and their mirrors reflection of fear, hate,and unreasonable punishment.

I know Manny's lawyer. No I am not his alter ego. I do not speak for him, only for myself. The issue here is that Manny's case is still ongoing as it is now being litigated in the Federal court. I don't want to put any words in his mouth but he may not be permitted by his office to make public comments on a still open case. I know I previously suggested that he be invited to give a response. That may have been premature on my part. I respect him and value his friendship so I want to make it crystal clear my comments are NOT his comments. If he can't make any statements until its all over then I am not even going to be his intermediary. I just have a burr in my saddle and bee in my bonnet over the fact my friend has been attacked by Mr. Field for no good reason. Yes I am outraged by that. Time and time again I have asked Mr. Field to expand on his premise and to provide substance to his claim that Manny did not have a "real" attorney at his trial. I think that he has been vindictive and slanderous for saying that without any proof whatsover. Did Manny's lawyer show up drunk? Did he fail to raise proper objections or file proper motions? Did he fail to get any experts who could have cast doubt on the People's case? Did he do anything unethical? Did he give an otherwise lackluster performance? Don't you think the burden should be on Mr. Field to explain what he meant when he said that Manny did not have a "real" lawyer? Otherwise its just another cheap shot, another rhetorical drive by shooting, if you will. What I discuss with Manny's lawyer I will not disclose, unless he says it is okay to do. But make no mistake, I am very upset and angry about how this blog has treated him. I have tried numerous times to explain things to everybody here about how the court system really works. But people still want to automatically think that everything would have been different if Manny had a big shot top dollar lawyer. Tell that to Scott Peterson! Incidentally, I think that Scott Peterson would have probably done better with a public defender. They typically have more experience and expertise with death penalty cases. Anyway, call me what you will. Whether you think I am Nortons split personality, or Manny's closet lawyer, or just some crazy weird old guy who likes to hang around courtrooms and post rambling blogs in his spare time. That's fine. I plead no contest about the obsession with court watching and blogging. Retired people need hobbies you know! I am just another geezer writing some angry letter to the editor. But unless you have something to show how Manny's lawyer was incompetent then for the love of Pete grow up! When I was a young draft dodging hippie I went to Central and South America. I surfed all over from Mexico to Peru. Getting arrested in twice, once in Oaxaca and the other time in Panama was a real treat too. I know how corrupt and oppressive other countries can be. And getting an adequate lawyer appointed to represent you on some trumped up charge down there, HA! I have never been to Venezuela. Maybe since Mr. Chavez has come to power the court system down there has been vastly improved and the poor have access to the finest legal representation possible. However I remain skeptical that that is in fact the case. But my point about my travels in Latin America is to point out that we in the US are spoiled. We want to think that our place is so horrible and unjust and that America is so evil. Well sometimes you have look at how other places truly run before you can get a real perspective. I don't say that our system is beyond criticism. I'll be the first to tell you that I have seen many unfair and unjust outcomes in court. A system is no better than the people who are in it. How do you think Manny's case would have gone if he was tried in some other country, say China perhaps? Just some food for thought. Finally, one last thing...somebody else on this blog mentioned the Bible. Isn't one of the commandments "Thou shalt not bear false witness?" I assume that if Manny was innocent then maybe his conviction was the result of a witness or witnesses that lying against him. Seems like false testimony can cause as much damage and ruin as murder, theft, and adultery. Something else to think about. Hmmm? Okay, its late. I'll get off my soapbox to tonight. P.S. I know this is ironic coming from a Vietnam draft dodger, but this weekend say thank you to a vet. Without these vets, would we even be having this conversation?

The comment that Sarah Jones posted on Saturday, Nov. 03, 2007 at 10:59 AM is back up. Sorry for the oversight.

Why on Earth would the extremely busy and highly targeted president of a nation under CIA scrutiny and covert assassination attempts, to say nothing of a hostile corporate media, have the inclination or spare time and resources to assist this individual?

Talk about a political tar baby.

Please become real and answer this one question.

This horrific abuse of Manny Gonzales attempting to receive his right to a fair trial also coupled with a 27 year mandatory sentence (without any possible early release possible ) ending with this 21 year old being forced from inside prison to come up with his own appeal to submit to the Ca Central Federal district Court in Riverside California.I also agree that the US Congress needs to stop this third world judicial process from continuing to plague our American poor in this obvious fashion. President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela might have a bigger heart for our poor Americans then our own government does ? If the average appeal attorney wants ,000 to put together a proper federal appeal for this kid, then how could our federal government expect Manny to work on this appeal by himself from his prison without any legal skills and without even a college degree ? The amazing fact is that the state of CA will spend over ,000,000 incarcerating Manny Gonzales for the next 24 years, and the Federal government will not spend a penny on legal fees for his Federal appeal. How could this judicial abuse and neglect of this countries poor continue to enslave our fellow citizens ? America's beaten down poor in our prisons will praise President Hugo Chavez if he decides to assist them in their plight for financial support with their criminal cases. If this the richest country in the world has given up protecting their poor in the judicial system,then it is time for others who understand what it's like being poor (President Hugo Chavez ) to come to their rescue.!!

This horrific abuse of Manny Gonzales attempting to receive his right to a fair trial also coupled with a 27 year mandatory sentence (without any possible early release possible ) ending with this 21 year old being forced from inside prison to come up with his own appeal to submit to the Ca Central Federal district Court in Riverside California.I also agree that the US Congress needs to stop this third world judicial process from continuing to plague our American poor in this obvious fashion. President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela might have a bigger heart for our poor Americans then our own government does ? If the average appeal attorney wants ,000 to put together a proper federal appeal for this kid, then how could our federal government expect Manny to work on this appeal by himself from his prison without any legal skills and without even a college degree ? The amazing fact is that the state of CA will spend over ,000,000 incarcerating Manny Gonzales for the next 24 years, and the Federal government will not spend a penny on legal fees for his Federal appeal. How could this judicial abuse and neglect of this countries poor continue to enslave our fellow citizens ? America's beaten down poor in our prisons will praise President Hugo Chavez if he decides to assist them in their plight for financial support with their criminal cases. If this the richest country in the world has given up protecting their poor in the judicial system,then it is time for others who understand what it's like being poor (President Hugo Chavez ) to come to their rescue.!!

This is a silly thread seeming to be about the president of Venezuela and not a criminal court case.

Sounds like and smells like Agiprop.

Work on the system, this case or prison politics. Stop being silly.

Manny Gonzales criminal case is just one of possibly hundreds if not thousands that have been mishandled by the state of CA. Why would the Federal government investigate these type of judicial abuse cases when they have their own issues to deal with in this case?

The Federal government has gotten away with forcing

poor people like Manny Gonzales to represent themselves in their federal court cases even though

they might not have a high school degree Our Congress knows all about this gross mistreatment of America's poor and oviously could care less. Congress knows how to vote themselves pay raises, but when it comes to protecting poor Americans within our judicial system these sane fat cats give a million and one excuses why this country can't afford it. I also agree that America's poor need to become a

protected class in this country. Why would American poor even need outside support for their heating oil bills and leagal bills if our US Congress were watching after them ?? To many of our political

leaders only talk the talk. I do know one thing that is for certain, this President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela walks the w$lk. I guess our US Congress needs to see other world leaders assisting our poor before they

understand their short-commings.

Manny Gonzales criminal case is just one of possibly hundreds if not thousands that have been mishandled by the state of CA. Why would the Federal government investigate these type of judicial abuse cases when they have their own issues to deal with in this case?

The Federal government has gotten away with forcing

poor people like Manny Gonzales to represent themselves in their federal court cases even though

they might not have a high school degree Our Congress knows all about this gross mistreatment of America's poor and obviously could care less. Congress knows how to vote themselves pay raises, but when it comes to protecting poor Americans within our judicial system these sane fat cats give a million and one excuses why this country can't afford it. I also agree that America's poor need to become a

protected class in this country. Why would American poor even need outside support for their heating oil bills and leagal bills if our US Congress were watching after them ?? To many of our political

leaders only talk the talk. I do know one thing that is for certain, this President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela walks the w$lk. I guess our US Congress needs to see other world leaders assisting our poor before they

understand their short-commings.

Who could imagine that we can't afford appeal attorneys for Americans on death row? Every ten prison inmates executed in this country causes one innocent victims death as well.Remember, 10% of the overall prison population nationwide is innocent to begin with.This country might want to consider that we can't afford not to offer proper legal representation to our poor in our prison systems.There comes a point in time that the poor will begin to truely realize this obvious injustice and look for their humanitarians outside of this fair and decent country of ours.President Hugo Chavez seems to be one of many foreign leaders who might have more of an interest helping our poor then we do.I assume in a short period of time the international community will also know the true character of President Hugo Chavez.

I also agree that President Chavez of Venezuela is the real deal, and our US Congress is freightened to death that their neglect and allowed abuse of the American poor will become exposed internationaly when it takes an outsider to care for and protect our poor instead of our own government .

If it takes the poorest of our population ( in the richest country in the world ) to look to foreign leaders for legitimate financial assistance in their legal cases

then we all really have to wonder if this democracy of ours is going to be here ten years from now ? We all remember it was already tried in this country once by the British. The American poor are looking for their leader and if it turns out that President Hugo Chavez comes to their rescue,I'm sure every Frenchman will applaud and remember the days they helped another group

of downcast Americans win their rights of respect and freedom. Boy, were those the days??

Lets all drink the kool aid for Hugo Chavez. we know he is the unquestioned leader and savior of us all. Viva Hugo! Viva Hugo! Hugo you are my life. Hugo is Venezuela and Venezuela is Hugo. Seriously, are all of you just robots or something?

I agree that our Congress needed to get involved with this issue in the courts.From the sound of it we may have treated hundreds or even thousands of defendants improperly in our courts. It must be a nightmare for all these people in jail who might have been able ot stay free had the system treated them fairly.All these victims of this injustice and their families need to be compensated. Manny Gonzales

sounds like he may be the poster child of this abuse!

There will be a great meeting of the minds after our next presidential election with president Hugo Chavez.

We need to put our differences behind us with president Chavez and learn that both countries have

the ability to work out our differences

you are all being suckered by the writer. all he wants to do is use this case to promote socialism. he doesnt care about manny except to use him for propaganda purposes. hugo chavez has as much to do with this case as fish has to do with a bicycle. those of you who support hugo chavez dont care about the truth either.

We live in a great country that prides itself on fair and just trials.Manny Gonzales it appears was taken advantage of by the states prosecutor in his criminal case and it stands to reason that his appeal for a new and just trial will be approved by the Federal Court.

I would be very interested to know if this presiding judge at this trial ever instructed this inflamed jury

to avoid all media during the two week trial. Watching

the La evening news with all the gang related stories

should have never been allowed with this jury ! Manny Gonzales never had one iota of a chance to win his trial.The states justice system failed terribly with this kid Manny and if this type of mistreatment of Manny Gonzales is as common as some have stated , then

a federal investigation should get to the bottom of it.

Nowadays we like to compare everything bad with Hitler or the KKK. Now I don't know about you, but my mother remembers growing up in Tennessee and my grandfather waiting on the porch with a shot gun waiting for some rednecks to come and burn a cross on the lawn. I don't think a lynch mob like the KKK would give Manny any trial whatsoever, they would just string him up. I am not saying that Manny doesn't deserve a fair trial or a new trial. I just don't like people using Klan images so easily because it cheapens and dillutes the true impact and meaning of what that was really all about. Its just like people comparing politicians they don't like to Hitler. I think you can be plenty enough of an a-hole judge, d.a. or politician without being promoted to Grand Dragon, Imperial Wizard, or The Fuhrer of Germany. Also I don't know if any Black people were on the jury, or if the judge, prosecutor, or defense attorney were Black. I am not about to compare one of my people to the Klan. That is like calling a Jewish person a Nazi.

Amen my brother! Amen! Our struggle is not to be taken lightly.

This injust trial that Manny Gonzales was put through

shows that America still has much to work on in our own judicial system. The beauty of our sustem is that

sometimes justice wins out. I can only pray that this case is that sometime.

Amnesty International says that most human rights violations committed by members of the security forces remains unpunished. A.I. also says that human rights defenders were threatened, intimidated, and attacked.

Lets all get a grip on thinking that we as American's have the moral authority to point out other countries faults and mistakes . President Hugo Chavez will become a very important international leader that the US needs as a partner not enemy. It is not unique that our foreign policy makes changes on who we might support today versus who we could support two years from now. Think back on all the various world leaders that our country has supported and worked with in our past and you might come to the realization that things change quickly in politics and it takes being open minded and open for change to win the day,not narrow minded and naive. Venezuela is reported to be sitting on some of the worlds largest oil reserves and it seems to be very shortsighted to make fooey where you eat? Besides, who you think armed Pakistan with nukes ?

What we have here in this Manny Gonzales criminal case is a jury, judge and DA taking care of their communities safety from gangs in a typical vigilante

hang him high process. The presiding judge tells both attorneys (defense and prosecution ) prior the trial that this specific case is not gang related and advises the DA to instruct their witnesses not to mention or insinuate gang association information to the jury. At this point in this trial the presiding judge is aware of and protective of the defendants rights to a fair trial, knowing dar n well that if a La jury is lead to believe ( rightly or wrongly ) a defendant is affiliated with a gang that a fair trial is almost impossible. What happens when this Da decides to use gang association (over the judges denials ) on this jury is really quite devious. LA judges are allowing these type of unjust trials to continue knowing these defendants can appeal for a new trial from prison

after they lose their jury trials. Local DA's know this local judicial system will not dismiss a jury due to DA's using gang association with defendants and they have a free hand to play their jury to the max. This play acting between the presiding judge pretending to protect the defendants right to a fair trial and the devious DA who wants to protect our society by taking justice into their own hands is a little what Manny Gonzales and his public defender had to deal with. Any judge that allows a rouge Da to disobey their specific orders on misleading their jury into believing the defendant is either a gang member

or the specific crime is gang related should have the common sense and decency to dismiss the jury and call for a new trial. This kid Manny Gonzales

tried as an adult needed this judge not just to set the guidelines in the start of the trial with this rouge DA,but also to continue to protect the defendant with his right to a fair trial throughout the entire trial. When this presiding judge allowed this trial to continue the jury believed both the DA and the judge that Manny Gonzales was a gang member and this specific shooting incident was not related to his affiliation with gang activity. Every night during this two week trial this jury went home and had the opportunity to watch gang violence reported on their nightly news. How could anyone think Manny Gonzales and

with his public defender in tow could defeat a presiding judge, rouge DA,and a inflamed jury with possible nightly exposure to gang TV violence ?

If anyone deserves a call for GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME A NEW TRIAL,

Manny Gonzales Does !

People died at Kent State. People died at Ruby Ridge. Nobody died in the Manny Gonzalez case. Kent State involved Vietnam protesters on a college campus shot by trigger happy national guardsman. Ruby Ridge involved a white supremacist separatist's family members shot by trigger happy FBI agents. In Manny's case the only alleged shooter is Manny himself. I dont mean to be picky but I really hate it when I see someone make bad analogies. It just reveals poor thinking. Try a better comparison instead.

This countries future will be based on its leaders to a great extent. Currently

this democracy in which we live is inflicting great harm on the weakest of our citizens with no end in sight. The American working poor have had to deal with making ends meet for themselves and their families while being discriminated against by their Congressional leaders. Whenever a budget needs cutting its always the American poor ( without a leader or lobby to speak on their behalf ) that take the first economic hit. All Americans are aware of the lack of health care by 45 million Americans including millions of American children. The handwriting is on the wall when it comes to poor folks attempting to live in our country without certain rights that others are enjoying on a everyday basis. Take for example this poor Mexican American kid Manny Gonzales who was beaten down with injustice in his Van Nuys CA criminal court case. The truth being that most Americans have been so conditioned to think everyone convicted in our courts of law had to have been guilty or they never would have been charged with a crime to begin with.

Thank God this country has appeal courts that correct injustices inflicted on

thousands of American citizens every year. Manny Gonzales will win his court appeal with the Central California Federal District Court in Riverside, but who can explain why our system of justice could not have given this kid a new and fair trial without Manny needing to spend 3 years in a Ca prison before gaining his right to a new and just trial. No system of justice can be a perfect one, but when there are vast differences of how our rich and poor citizens are dealt with in our court system its time to make the needed changes to even the playing field. If our political leaders resist and continue with business as usual we all can expect poor prison inmates across our country to start to ask

others world wide for MERCY MONIES to pay their appeal attorneys . Having a possible chance of freedom through presenting a proper legal appeal to a US court of law should already be a reality for all our prison population. Until Congress offers the financing for poor prison inmates to have private lawyers work on their appeals we all will see appeals worldwide

to other countries leaders such as President Hugo Chavez.

Since every American wants safe streets and we all can agree that criminals have to pay a price for their crimes, we need to also know that our courts are working fairly for the poor as well as the rich. If this get out jail card for America's rich and famous continues

and our poor such as Manny Gonzales suffer extreme

sentences, our society will sooner or later be looking at a future that will be as uncertain as President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela being asked to contribute money

to help America's poor pay their legal fees. this situation needs the attention of our lawmakers without delay. This is the wrong message to be sending the rest of the world about what this country stands for.

Anyone attempting their own Federal appeal without a

appeal attorney would have better luck getting a new trial in China.This country has been pulling this policy

off on our poor for as long as I can remember.

This is about our messed up system, the laws that apply only to the poor and the acceptance of the whole mess by a narcotized public.

Wanking about the president of another country to come in and expose himself to hostile corporate press, in multiple posts that say the same damn thing, over and over like a moron, makes little sense.

Unless this is a post about Hugo Chavez.

It appears our American society is not quite as civilized as we all think we are. Keeping our poorer citizens in prison due to a lack of $$ to have proper legal representation in our Federal Courts is our typical mode of operating our court system. If this continues to be our governments official national policy when it comes to our appeal process for our poor, then calling our country a democracy for the rich seems to be a more realistic reality then pretending otherwise.

We as a civilized country need to take better care of our poor in our prisons or the rest of the real civilized world might find out the truth about us !

I dont know what you mean by "civilized". There's lots of civilized countries with worse prisons than America. Or when you mean "civilized" are you only referring to certain countries of a certain ethnic/cultural persuasion? Say...White, for example? Of course not! Because that would be racist. Im sure you also include in your list of "civilized" countries places like the Phillipines (don't get me started on Filipino joints), China, Mexico, El Salvador, VENEZUELA, Cuba, Turkey, or all of the countries in Africa. They don't have prisons nearly as bad as ours do they? No. Of course not.

Congress does need to hear from us as well as from all our people of the cloth. Religion in America has been told do not dare to get involved with politics or you will put your 5013c tax charter at risk. Americas poor need protecting and if Christians and other religious affiliations want to speak out on their behalf

they should never have to worry about the IRS possibly punishing them. The poor in this counrtry are being constantly shafted and our Congress is more worried about their next pay raises then correcting current

shorfalls that are currently affecting thousands of poor

Manny's in our prisons.Public appeals to the Pope for humanitarian assistance might get the attention of Congress on this one more then President Hugo Chavez will ?

I do feel in my heart also that poor American's are being slighted in our society everyday.This example of Manny Gonzales points out this type of treatment that

our poor have to deal with in appeals in the Federal courts but the masses of Americans would never have heard about this situation had it not been for Manny Gonzales court case.How can our media be so complacent while our poor are forced to stay in prisons because they do not have lawyers to assist them with their appeals ? If this is American justice,

then the citizens need to be informed about it nationwide. If our local and national media are up to the task,then President Hugo Chavez and his people should be. One way or another this injustice needs to change.

I am still not sure what the president of Venezuela have to do with a local criminal case in Los Angeles? I have no idea. I'm also beginning to think that this blog is not about true justice in America and in Manny's case but really about promoting Hugo Chavez style socialism. I have asked nummerous questions about the performance of Manny's lawyers. Instead my questions are met by more repetitive claims that Chavez is answer to our prayers. Do the Chavez people have anything of substance to say besides that? I also agree that what Amnesty International has to say about Venezuela and its civil rights track record should be important too, don't you think? After all, how can you take the dirt out of someone's eye when you have a two by four beam sticking out of yours (to quote the Bible again)

I read in the LA Times Newspaper article that Federal

judges were upset about mandatory sentencing being a horrific way to conduct our judicial system nationwide. I'm wondering why they have not complained about poor defendants that can't afford appeal attorneys to the federal courts being forced

to represent themselves. This type of bizzare situation

of expecting our poor, uneducated and inexpierenced in our prisons to be their own appeal attorneys has created this outreach to another President outside this country to begin with. Congress needs to address this

very obvious descriminatory practice before monies start flowing into our prisons from abroad. Change is

sometimes slow in the US but sooner or later events

do make others aware of sytematic flaws that need

repair. If Manny Gonzales loses his handwritten appeal to this federal court in California it might have a good chance of becoming a international story. Our judicial procedures and lack of equal protection for our poor to defend themselves fairly might become fodder for many in the international world. Our UN representative attempting to point out other countries neglect and abuses of their citizens will become laughable to many and possibly affect this countries

standing in the worlds eyes for sometime to come.

So I for one am very supportive that our Congress acts to correct this injustice done to Many Gonzales and thousands of other poor defendants stuck in our

prisons before others from around the world decide

to do their jobs for them.

I forgot to give thanks for some of things that we often take for granted in this country. First I want to thank God (yeah, that's right! God! I know that makes some of you uncomfortable. Get over it!) I want to thank God for the fact that we have a written Constitution. The first one in the world as a matter of fact (unless you count the Magna Carta). It lets us do things like call George Bush a moron without any fear of reprisal. It lets us protest and picket things we don't like. It lets us call our system corrupt and decayed without any fear of being rounded up in the middle of the night and sent to a re-education camp. It lets us be a Catholic or a Buddhist, or a Mormon, Protestant, Muslim, Hindu, or None of the Above. It lets us have some type of protection against unlawful searches and seizures. It lets us have due process of law with an open and public trial by 12 jurors and a lawyer if we cannot afford to pay for one. It lets people vote no matter their race or social economic status (as long as they are citizens over 18 and not on parole). It also lets us appeal cases that were wrongly decided at trial. Does this country still have problems? Yes. Has this country failed from time to time to live up to its ideals? Yes. Does this country sometimes elect leaders who turn out to be lousy and steer us into pointless wars? Yes. In my day it was Lyndon Johnson. Now its Bush. But our country is bigger than its leaders and no matter how good or bad they are, they are still only temporary. How long will Chavez stay in office? Until the next coup? I am also thankful that Manny Gonzalez still has a chance to have his case overturned if his case was wrongly decided. And finally, I am thankful for those hardworking and dedicated lawyers who have decided to forgo the big bucks at some downtown mega firm so that they could serve in the trenches day after day representing the poorest of our poor as a public defender. These public defenders are on the vanguard of any new civil rights issue. In fact, if you are a lawyer who wants to do "civil rights" cases, this is where its at! These people will do their best work in relative obscurity and with little if any thanks. More often than not they will be discounted for their work because they are not some privately retained fat cat lawyer with a Beverly Hills or Century City address. Yes, I thank God for the public defenders of this country. Maybe this week we should all pause to reflect on some of these things that we have taken for granted and actually give thanks.

I enjoy reading all the posts here,but do not approve of

others attempting to overshadow by double posting

their book here.Please Mr.Pubman and others who

might post in the future keep it to a single post when

your post is so large to begin with that all of us will not

dream of passing it by.

Manny Gonzales might not have been a gang member and the judge in his criminal case thought the shooting was not gang related,but more importantly

why is there no attorney even provided for this kids federal court appeal ?If this is a common reality around the country then how could anyone once convicted wrongly ever have a decent opporunity to get justice from a Federal court ? This is really shocking to me !

None of us would have ever heard about this injustice done to Manny Gonzales had it not been for this wonderful web site we all know and love. President Hugo Chavez has allowed indymedia.org to operate in Venezuela and we all need to give our thanks that freedom of speech from all of us can be read almost worlwide.Next stop I hope will be the US Congress

where they have people working there that are more isolated from the American poor then our former President Bush was.

There is plenty more "posting space" on this site. You too can "write your book" if you have anything you want to say. I am sorry if others feel that I have tried to overshadow them. I am only trying to speak my peace in a free speech environment. I will also take steps to avoid accidental double postings. I hate those too. It's Thanksgiving so I am out of here for now. God bless you all.

Where are our noble and fair minded federal judges on the issue of all these thousands of Americans in our US prisons due to not being able to write proper Federal appeals ! Our nation needs these judges to come forward and reveal the truth about this dirty little secret. Congress and these Federal courts need

to come clean with the American public and then quickly institute the proper changes so this injustice will never happen to another Manny Gonzales or anyone else in this Democracy of ours needing a proper chance to prove their innocence.

Only now is the black community hearing about this ? Where have all our black leaders in and out of Congress been? Why has this very devious method of

not offering appeal attorneys in federal courts for all our black brothers ever been lobbied by our black Congressional representatives before ?

Lester,

You might be correct in your views that this injustice was started to keep blacks in our prisons longer,but today it affects not only poor blacks but other poor Americans of all colors. Not having a lawyer help a prison inmate with their federal appeal is now a national neglect affecting thousands of inmates nationwide.

Lester,

You might be correct in your views that this injustice was started to keep blacks in our prisons longer,but today it affects not only poor blacks but other poor Americans of all colors. Not having a lawyer help a prison inmate with their federal appeal is now a national neglect affecting thousands of inmates nationwide.

I just read up on this federal appeal situation and find it sad that we have been

operating our courts of appeal in this fashion. If I were a innocent prison inmate

and i had to write my own federal appeal only to be turned down to my right to a new trial, my anger might get the better of me. DNA evidence should have proved this notion that everyone in prison is guilty. If we continue to deny new trials in our federal courts because poor people can't afford appeal attorneys

to properly submit the paper work, then I have to say that those running our judicial system and our US Congress could use a little new DNA themselves.

I do not understand how this Manny Gonzales could be sent into prison for attempted premeditated murder

when his victim was not even injured ? I'm not a lawyer,

but isn't there a difference in the amount of prison time a defendant must spend in prison when they really injure a victim from when they don;t ?

I do not understand how this Manny Gonzales could be sent into prison for such a long period of time on a attempted premeditated murder charge when his victim was not even injured ? I'm not a lawyer,

but isn't there a difference in the amount of prison time a defendant must spend in prison when they really injure a victim from when they don;t ? Manny Gonzales I believe should have never been given a 27

year sentence in this case.I agree that these mandatory sentences nationwide are unreasonable and need to be abolished.All of these Americans in our prisons for drug use need to pardoned and put in rehabs.How did this justice of ours system get so out of touch with reality ? Who are the real supporters of this national policy of cruelty to our own citizens ?

Salem Mass. should have taught us something ?

I have read this posting and I find it a unique mixing of issues but I am very interested in why our federal appeal courts are forcing prison inmates to do their own appeals . This process of allowing poor and possibly our less educated prison population to write their own legal appeals is quite revealing.

Even if this was created to force blacks to stay in prison lawyer it now is

affecting all the poor in our prisons nation- wide. If our US Congress is not going to fund these legal appeals with proper attorneys for the poor, then what is wrong with Manny Gonzales or any of the other thousands of poor in the same situation as Manny asking various world leaders to finance their cases ? I suspect there might be many innocent Americans in our prison system who are running into this same tragic neglect . I do not believe this

represents America in a very good light and we will also put a call into our Congressman"s office asking for change. We all want safe streets from these

gang members,but we all must be fair in how we handle our judicial systems

process of sentencing the guilty and offering everyone fair opportunities to defend themselves. Only a congressional fool would continue to allow poor defendants to be their own best Federal appeal lawyers. This country no longer has slaves and we should be making every attempt to elevate our poor

instead of this mandatory sentencing and denial of proper legal representation in our US Federal Appeal Courts.

Anytime thousands of Americans are being unjustly treated as a class there always seem to be others who will come to their defense. I would prefer that

those caring and loving citizens of our country correct this federal court appeal

issue before outside leaders begin to enter into our internal affairs attempting to

protect our prison population for us.

The judicial process with this unjust withholding of legal counsel for Federal appeals in relatioship to Americas poor in our US prisons , has been heard loud and clear and certain members of our US Congress are now working on the needed changes that have been long overdue.

The notion that everything is fair in our American justice system is only meant to appease the masses outside of America. Most all Americans know the reality of the rich having a different justice system that is based on buying the best attorneys possible and then beating a much less experienced district Attorney.If that fails then having appeal attorneys win a new trial and then reassemble a top flight legal team for round two.

This appeal situation with our Federal courts is something that stands out very clearly as a US judicial injustice.We in the system have known it for a long time and also feel powerless to assist in making it change. It is very true that thousands of prison inmates have been turned down with their Federal appeals that they submitted themselves due to ineffective arguments and documentation of other case laws. Yes this should have been changed if the system was to really offer everyone a fair opportunity at receiving new trials

in our Federal Courts, but what should be and what is sometimes are two different realities.

The notion that everything is fair in our American justice system is only meant to appease the masses outside of America. Most all Americans know the reality of the rich having a different justice system that is based on buying the best attorneys possible and then beating a much less experienced district Attorney.If that fails then having appeal attorneys win a new trial and then reassemble a top flight legal team for round two.

This appeal situation with our Federal courts is something that stands out very clearly as a US judicial injustice.We in the system have known it for a long time and also feel powerless to assist in making it change. It is very true that thousands of prison inmates have been turned down with their Federal appeals that they submitted themselves due to ineffective arguments and documentation of other case laws. Yes this should have been changed if the system was to really offer everyone a fair opportunity at receiving new trials

in our Federal Courts, but what should be and what is sometimes are two different realities.

The real question about Manny Gonzales and the thousands of other prison inmates needing lawyers to

represent them with Federal appeals is the issue that

needs to be highlighted to the American public.Do we

as Americans agree that it is ok for prison inmates to

stay 20 years longer in our prisons because our Congress does not want to find the monies needed to

fund appeal lawyers for all these fellow citizens ? I for

one think this type of injustice does not reflect the real America we all know and love.You all would be shocked at how much power we the people still control when it comes to influencing Congress. I do not believe for one minute that real Americans would condone allowing a sizable portion of our prison population to be forced to remain behind prison walls due to not having a proper appeal submitted on their behalf to Federal Courts by an attorney. This seems

to be unreal in a way because our country is suppose to represent Freedom to the rest of the world and we

ourselves are guilty of not offering our own poorer citizens a fair chance to gain new trials in hopes of exonerating themselves. Sometimes it does take a village of the masses to make change but this crazy

injustice I'm sure will be corrected in the very near future.I give Congress 6 months before we all hear about this release from American bondage court issue being resolved to bring this country into the real

Democratic Free World !

I know our society stands behind law enforcement, but

we all must stand behind everyones right to have a real chance to win an appeal with our Federal Courts no matter if we might be rich or poor. None of us really know what took place in Manny 's criminal trial but we do know he and others who are in our prisons nationwide have to write their own federal appeals if they can't afford to hire an appeal attorney.This very serious issue of poor Americans being harmed with

their inability to do adequate appeals for themselves needs to be corrected . Manny Gonzales is only one of

thousands of US prison inmates who are held hostage everyday by our US Federal Courts of Appeal.

Yes, I also am very much in favor of making sure our poor prison inmates have every fair opportunity to seek equal representation by our US Federal Courts with their appeals for new trials.Without proper federal appeal attorneys submitting their cases, these downtrodden souls have no real hope of freedom.

They all can't be guilty as charged can they ? The innocent in our prisons deserve our persistant calls for equal justice with this unjust Salem Witch judicial

policy.

There comes a point of over punishment in this great society of ours.Yes we all want safety in our homes and communities, but do we all condone prisons full

of inmates that never get a fair chance to be free for 20 years because they might be poor and can't afford appeal attorneys for the federal courts? That is not what this Democracy of ours is suppose to be about.

All of these prison inmates rich or poor should be getting proper legal representation in the Federal court appeals. How can any of us ever talk about other countries faults when we have and continue to

enslaved thousands and thousands of our poor

this way ?

Manny Gonzales is just one of thousands who are meant to fill our US prisons for long extended stays so certain capitalist American corporations can profit on their prison stocks. This crazy cycle of these big corporations lobbying state officials with hard cold cash for harsher prison sentences for convicted criminals and then making millions of dollars profit when their prisons are full of young healthy kids ( that will never require much healthcare costs over the century that they are stuck in their prisons ) must be rethought.Hundreds of thousands of Americas poor are languishing in US prisons while slick fat cat Ceo's

of these devious private prison corporations are encouraging citizen enslavement right under the nose of our US Congress. The average cost each year for

the state of Ca for just one prison inmate is ,000

This state has a current prison population of 173,000

inmates so it does not take long to figure out where

most of our tax dollars are heading.This private prison industry is our Iraq Haliburton Corp. only it is lining its

pockets off poor American kids like Manny Gonzales

and thousands of other Americans falling under heavily

lobbied mandatory sentencing laws. Follow the $$ and

then you might clearly understand why so much fear

has been thrown at us the public to keep our society safe. Most Americans can't understand why our Democratic society has more prison inmates then any other country in the world. We are now currently locking up mental patients, drug users and poor folks

who can't affrord legal representation. Yes, I agree that

enough is enough and we need to take back our prison systems from those who love making their livings off some of our most vulnerable fellow citizens.

Todays New York Times News Paper reported that US Federal Court class action judges across the country quite often have many millions of dollars leftover from certain cases they presided over after all apparent victims in the class were paid their settlements.

This is very interesting and troubling because we also have our US Congress denying tens of thousands of poor prison inmates (across the country ) funding for appeal attorneys to represent them with their federal appeal court cases in attempts to win new retrials.

Yes, President Hugo Chavez might be the only person capable of assisting poor American prison inmates from thge obvious neglect of this US Congress.

I love living in America, but I know there are plenty of other wonderful countries to reside in also. This business of pointing our fingers at other lifestyles around the world is a verry shallow attempt of some

very uneducated folks to judge others in a negative fashion when in fact those citzens currently residing in those so called locations prefer their own style of government and social order. President Hugo Chavez might turn out to be a better leader for his own population then many other so called leaders that are currently our governments buddies. I suspect since President Chavez came from poverty himself that his

feelings for the worlds poor is real. If one were to travel to France you would find the same thoughts about their poor as Mr.Chavez has with most of their population.The world is full of those in need and we in the US talk a great game, but we still need to fine tune

our own system of checks and balances before being so quick to always point our fingers at others around the world. Have we not been shown a very specific need for our government to correct within our Federal judicial appeal process so all our poorer prison inmates nationwide have a fair opportunity to have lawyers represent them properly in the federal courts ?

This matter is the true basis of what our country is suppose to stand for to the free world and we have a

snafu that makes US look two faced.We have poor prison inmates stuck in our prisons for 20 or 25 years

because they never had lawyers given them for their Federal appeal cases !!! Does this sound like the country that should be running around telling others how they should treat their populace?No, we all need to call Congress and correct this horror before we really do become the laughing stock of others around the world.Manny Gonzales is only one of thousands

of poor prison inmates in this beautiful country of ours that need our support to bring new light into our US Congress in how we as a loving and caring country want our less fortunate treated within our national judicial system.If we do not get this change then President Hugo Chavez and others around the world

will be just as able to point their fingers at US and say

the Americans can sure talk a good game but they do not really live it !

This Congressional oversight lapse of our poor in US prisons is hard to belive ? This appears to be done not by accident, but by design. Scares me to death !

...of course it is....that is what is known as 'Federalism',dear....that means that the US government largely lets each state determine its own policies about such things....try reading the Federalist Papers sometime.....and by the way.....just how much cheese did Alice grate?

I have a feeling that this national issue of federal appeals not being available for poor Americans in US prisons is being talked about world wide and that others are already making plans to correct this imbalance. Our country has no real choixe but to correct this and the sooner the better.

It saddens me to see that our educational system has produced such mindless dolts as these. The people who have no concept of what our constitution says, what federalism is all about, or even the basic elements of how to structure a logical argument. Chavez appeals to people who are uneducated. However, for those who seriously study law, history, and politics, Chavez represents yet another petty dictator in a long line of petty dictators. Here is a question for all the Chavez sycophants: What is Chavez going to do for the lady in Saudi Arabia who got gang raped and now is the one sentenced to flogging and prison for it? Do you think Chavez should come to her rescue first? Aren't Venezuela and Saudi Arabia fellow OPEC members? Can't he use that as leverage on her behalf? The problem with stupid people is that they fail to recognize real evil when they see it.

You might be correct about being more aware that our prisons are full of guilty and a small % of innocent.to shut the door on that small % of innocent by not affording all prison inmates legal reps for their federal appeals might be a touch cold hearted.If this Gonzales

person needs an appeal attorney because he is too poor to afford one I believe the federal government should provide one for him.Why aren't the federal courts doing this now ?

Gee, I thought the U.S. Congress was supposed to oversee all convictions even in state courts. Maybe Manny should have appealed all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court first and just bypass the State of California because its so corrupt anyway. In fact, Manny should have given a FEDERAL public defender at the outset because if you are a federal appointed attorney you are clearly much better than a state appointed attorney. That's because everything is better on the federal level. In fact, I don't know why we even allow the states to prosecute any crimes. The federal courts should take over all of it. After all, federal is better. In time, maybe the states could be more like larger forms of counties and we could have uniform laws all across the board. That way all the poor can have good lawyers and then we won't need Hugo Chavez. Duh...is that federalism?

Who decides how to correct this national problem with

poor prison inmates ? I would feel much better if President Hugo Chavez offered to pay the needed legal fees for all these poor prison inmates being turned down on their own hand written legal work

submitted to these Federal courts.President Chavez

puts his money where his mouth is and if our country

has no interest to sort this out why not allow him or others to assist our poor in prison to have proper legal representation with federal appeal lawyers ?Lets not be short sighted and think everyone in prison is always guilty.If the innocent are not supplied proper federal appeal attorney's they would never have an opportunity to achieve their freedom also.We can not

continue allowing any of these people to not have their

day in our Federal appeal courts can we ?

Based on what I see here I would rather be arrested in Venezuela because I know that over there Mr. Chavez would assure that I would have the best lawyer that country could offer I did not have any money. Right? Right?????? Am I wrong? The indigent criminal defense system in Venezuela is much more fair and just than it is here, right? That is why we need Hugo Chavez to come and take care of our poor lawyers here. Right??? Yeah, I'd much rather be arrested in Venezuela. Yeah. Any more Kool Aid left?

This issue of all these poor Americans not having proper lawyers to work their cases for appeals with the Federal courts will be a sensational international story if President Chavez enters with the finances.

Yes i have heard it many times and i find it hard to believe ? American's are very easy to fool when it comes to their concept of innocence and guilt. How could our judicial system allow our poor to be forced to write their own federal appeals when most all Americans abhor this lack of protection for all our citizens. I'm sure our Democratic Congress will be taking $$ from this trillion dollar WAR of ours and will start redirecting a small potion of it to this very needed issue affecting poor prison inmates . Heck i believe most of our US soldiers protecting our freedoms abroad would themselves qualify for needed legal assistance with a federal appeal if the need ever arose. How many other Americans have an extra ,000 to pay a federal appeal lawyer ? Manny Gonzales and the thousands of other poor prison inmates should never have been caught in this quagmire of congressional neglect .

I will not be the judge of MR. Gonzales,but for him and the thousands of other poor prison inmates to be caught in this posistion of not having legal representation for their federal court appeals, I also welcome anyone from within or ourside this country

who might have an interest to assist thes poor souls economically May God Be With You.

One brother in the Middle East War Zone fighting for freedom and justice with the US Army and his brother Manny fighting from prison to have a fair oorortunity for proper legal representation for his Federal Court appeal..Thousands of poor prison inmates are in this same crazy situation being forced from their prisons to write their own federal appeals for their own possible

retrials.

Our country spends hundreds of billions of dollars fighting a war for freedom and justice in some far away country and then claim that there is no money for the thousands of our own poor prison inmates to have proper lawyers represent them in federal court appeals ?

It sound to me like other countries or other world leaders have just as much right to assist our poor enslaved prison population kept captive in our prisons nationwide as we do fighting in Iraq. I do not understand how the US Congress has ever allowed this obvious injustice to begin and continue in our judicial system,but if thousands of US poor need liberation for their fair chance at gaining their freedom i would support anyone world wide who was capable and interested in financing their appeal lawyers.

I would not be surprised if either President Chavez or one of his wealthy friends world wide decide to pay the ,00 Manny Gonzales legal appeal fees. If anyone knows how liberate oppressed people it is President Chavez. ( The Venezuela rich have also kept their poor down for centuries .) Good luck Mr.

president on your election reforms and we all are looking forward to your future

verbal and financial interest in Americas poor prison inmate situation.

The people of Venezula have just voted down Hugo Chavez's proposal to amend the Venezuelan constitution in order to allow an unlimited term for him. Even the people of Venezuela can see that all Chavez wants to do is consolidate more power for himself. They see right through him and now he knows it and can't deny it. Power to the People! Long live democracy!

This is a very bizzare situation that this Manny Gonzales is caught in.It was reported that this Gonzales kid was forced to write his own federal appeal even though he only has a GED and if his hand written appeal is denied he will spend 24 years in a Ca prison? Are we talking America here or some third world country ? I can only wonder what Mannys parents think knowing their other son in the war zone in the Middle East is suppose to be fighting for our freedoms and justice ? This story needs to be told ,

don't you think?

When other countries need help with billions of dollars of foreign aid we as a gracious country accomodate them.Why is it not alright for President Chavez of Venezuela to assist our poor prison inmates finance their appeals to the federal courts? I guess it's easy to

not relate to a prison inmate forced to hand write his own federal appeal for a retrial with a GED education ?

This practice of harboring Americans from new trials in this fashion does not befit this great coiuntry of ours !

Maybe Hugo Chavez knows what its like to be poor and not even your fellow citizens give a hoot if you stay stuck in prison for 20 or 25 years longer than you should. Welcome to the real USA>

I take exception when some believe that our citizens

want this unjustsituation with these federal appeals

being denied to our poorer prison inmates.This horror

is soley on the US Congress and our judicial system.

We might remember that these two groups of mostly all lawyers would not justice until it hit them in their own pocketbooks. No, its not the ordinary American

that wants our poor to suffer extra years in jail unjustly

its just that we have too many shameless lawyers

in powerfull positions of leadership.

.....that not one single lawyer from the ACLU or the National Lawyers Guild or any of the other outfits who claim to want to help the 'poor and oppressed", has come forward and volunteered to represent Manny pro bono?....well,just maybe those who might fall into that category are familiar with the facts of the case and don't think he has any real grounds for a Federal appeal....if that is the case,then all the Chavez money in the world isn't going to get him a new trial....more than 90% of Federal appeals like this are rejected as being 'without merit'

"The race goes not always to the swift nor the battle to the strong....but that's the way ya gotta bet 'em."

Ring Lardner

If any of us condone not allowing poor prison inmates

proper appeal attorneys for their federal court cases

we should only think about those 250 men recently found innocent with new DNA samples.These men

will tell you about being forced to write their own federal court appeals only because they were poor.

Do you want such a unjust system to continue to enslave innocent Americans for lengthy prison terms

as these men had to endure ?I read that Manny Gonzales has a brother fighting in the US army in the Middle East war zone. This country asks our poor to risk their lives for all of us but their family members

don't deserve equal protection from long incarceration ? All of our military forces are mostly poor kids from poor families.These families deserve

to have their fair oppportunities at freedom within our judicial system also.

Making sure all Americans have fair trials and fair appeal opportunities should be the motto of all these attorneys in our US Congress and US judicial system.

It appears that the ivory towers of both these legal clubs have lost their humanistic feelings for their fellow poor Americans.This country of ours does not need to enslave our poor prison inmates by offering false hopes of gaining new retrials by forcing these thousands of mostly uneducated inmates to write their own legal appeals to US Federal Courts.

And we want to point our finger at Venezuela ?

We all might have issues with certain lawyers in our government, but overall that is how business is conducted even in government. This specific issue of our US Congress not providing proper funding so legal protection for all of Americas poor with their federal appeals to our federal courts I believe was designed to keep the poor folk down.

I'm not amazed that this tragic situation exists with the thousands of US poor prison inmates not being afforded their fair legal representation for their federal court appeals.I guess we all have to only assume the next step will be torture. That would save the American taxpayers lots of $$.Just think if we torture these poor Americans and get the truth out of them, we all will really know who the true innocent victims are ??

I'm also sure if those 250 prison inmates who were freed by new DNA data would also approve of this.

We are all in deep trouble if we can't correct this tragic injustice to Americas poor prison inmates.This type of

conduct by any government calling itself a democracy might just be the start of other injustices within our society.When masses of the American people are led to believe that this situation with our prison poor being denied fair opportunities to retrials is only a financial

problem we are all in for a rough future. We have already been exposed to our secret torture chambers

around the world, i just wonder what this also means for all of us here ? Eliminating poor prison populations might just be the start of it !

I do nor believe anyone in this country is interested in doing away with our poor in our prisons,but I do agree that this policty of not allowing our poor to have legal representation in our federal courts should be abated.

I really do not see that this country has any choice about correcting this terrible injustice inflicted on our poor prison inmates.We in the US are suppose to be the leaders of the free world not the leaders of the

" AXIS OF EVIL."

My good friend and I were talking about this issue of these thousands of poor prison inmates not being afforded appeal attorneys for their federal court cases and she mentioned that Russia has a policy of putting their people in their prisons and keeping them there for prolonged periods of time like we seem to be doing with our poor. Maybe President Chavez could force the needed change this democracy for the rich needs. Could this Noam Chompsky fellow know a little more then the rest of us have been informed of about our countries injustices ?He did predict in his new book that the US could have a revolution in the distant near future. In my opinion this mistreatment of our poor prison inmates can and should be changed as soon as possible. Remember this country now has a female who knows about justice heading our US Congress ! Nancy is a much different breed of

human being that would make every possible effort to make sure this cruel policy of US Congressional neglect will not continue to destroy countless American lives. This ugly and unjust policy was designed out of hate and needs all of our attention.We all are well aware that our country can afford to offer every legal opportunity possible for our poor in prison that our rich are easily able to obtain with their $$$.

Today was a vey good day for all Americans.Our Supreme Court made a very good choice on giving judges in the trenches more control over sentencing in

their own courtrooms.After 20years of complaints from Federal judges around this country, partial positive change has made its way into a somewhat new reality.

Now we just have to hope and pray our US Congress is much more agile to make positive changes and correct injustices with poor prison inmates enslaved in our prison systems.Offering poor prison inmates a sincere opportunity to appeal retrials in our Federal courts with proper legal representation seems to much more American then forcing these mostly uneducated prisoners to attempt writing their own hand-written appeals from prison.If our Sumpreme Court lawyers could see the light of justice with mandatory sentencing after 20 years, maybe all of our US Congressional legal minds can follow their lead and be just as prudent ?

If you have not read the La Times today you really should take a look at the article written on the front page concerning Arnolds prisons !

I have to believe that all American's believe in maintaining our demaocracy and not letting our judicial system get too powerful over our lives.

These mandatory sentencing guidlines are completely

unreasonable and need to be completely abolished.

There is no reasonable explanation why the state of Ca should impose a 27 yesr sentence on this guy Manny Gonzales when the so called victim never wqs even injured. I read other comments about this Gonzales case and it sounds like this young man

got railroaded and now is being inflicted with even more injustice by being forced to write his own federal appeal from prison with only a GED education .

If this is justice in America why are we talking about Burma or Venezuela ?

The real story behind the title above is that all poor Americans deserve to have Federal appeal attorneys representing their interests to possibly receive a retrial on their criminal cases. If Manny Gonzalest is not given the same legal right to have a proper federal appeal submitted on his behalf as a wealthy American then we are faced with attempting to explain to the millions of poor Americans who have loved ones in our armed services across our nation and around the world that they and their poor family members can participate in risking their lives for our freedom and justices to be preserved here in America,but please do not ask us to support you or your family members in receiving justice from our judicial system if the need should ever arise.Manny Gonzales has a brother who has already been shot once in the Middle East War Zone fighting for us all here at home,and his brother Manny has to reach outside this country in an attempt to find finances to pay an attorney to represent his retrial case? Are these kids from poor families in our military only fighting for freedom and justice for our wealthy here at home,

or are they risking their lives for all of us to benefit from their bravery ?

No justice in America for poor prison inmates ! If we had real national media that reported reality and not just fairy tales the headlines would read that there is no real justice for poor folks in the USA.Manny Gonzales got stung three times because he was a poor kid with no protection form our justice system that just grinds out Americans into prison for 25 years like they were just pieces of garbage.This kid never got justice in his criminal trial in VAn Nuys CA ,never got justice with his mandatory sentence and now is

being forced to write his own federal appeal to our CA

Central district Fedral court in Riverside California

from prison himself. Who kidnapped America's values at doing the right thing equally under the law ?

Very few Americans could feel good about our judicial

system denying thousands of poor prison inmates appeal attorneys for their federal court appeals. Manny Gonzales is just one example of this injustice,

because he is expected to write his own federal appeal from prison himself . how could a federal appeal judge even be willing to accept appeals for review from uneducated prison inmates to begin with ?

It seems vey obvious to me why Congress allowed

poor and mostly uneducated prison inmates to write their own federal appeals for possible retrials instead of our government affording them appeal lawyers.

This policy today affects thousands of poor prison inmates from ever getting retrials due to their inability

to formulate proper appeal cases for federal judges reviews.

I have read the previous comments and really wonder why our US Congress has been holding back the $$ for poor uneducated prison inmates nationwide to

have federal appeal lawyers work on their retrial review cases. This does have the appearance of being out of the ordinary !

This injustice could very well wind up in the international court or even the United Nations as a crime aginst humanity ! Enslaving uneducated poor prison inmates by forcing them to file their own federal appeals without legal representation and then turning them down in mass only to remain in "US prisons for 25 to 40 years seems devious and criminal

in itself. International torture and now national enslavement of US poor prison inmates.

I just read about this legal case concerning Manny Gonzales and his determined battle to get a lawyer to work on and submit his federal appeal for him instead of attempting to write it himself from prison. If this is happening to thousands of other poor and uneducated Americans in our prison systems, then my belief is our US Congress should be making sure that federal appeal attorneys are financed and supplied to all when needed. If I were a innocent prison inmate attempting to prove my innocence through a federal appeal for a new trial,I know that I would never be able to complete the needed legal paperwork myself. This is not even remotely in the area of American justice that most every American expects of our judicial system. We should not be faking that we offer our poorer citizens equal protections under the law when this is happening everyday destroying American lives and families from coast to coast.

If the International Court or the United Nations were to

investigate this injustice of the US enslaving thousands of poor and uneducated prison inmates for prolonged years due to their inability to write their own fedeal appeals properly, it might put enough pressure on the judicial system to start this long overdue payment of legal protection.

When our judicial system becomes a perfect one, we will all know everyone in our vast prison system deserves to be there. Until that time however, I also agree that our US government should be providing everyone the availability of proper legal representation concerning their federal appeal retrials. Even wealthy Americans would not approve of this injustice taking place against thousands of our poorer citizens who are being forced to represent themselves from prisons all across this country. When and how did this accepted unjust government policy of only rich Americans having the availability of proper legal representation in federal appeals become the norm in this country?

I caught the Manny Gonzales retrial case on the WWW on topix .com and was

very surprised the amount of world wide coverage this issue of the US Congress not paying the legal fees for the thousands of US poor prison inmates who are unable or capable to write their own federal appeals just like Manny Gonzales.

" Those who make peaceful revolution impossible

will make violent revolution inevitable."

Where have all our true American leaders gone?

When our country is forcing prolonged incarceration onto tens of thousands of poor prison inmates nation-wide,we need to look to new minds and leaders to correct this grave injustice.

A wonderful piece written about our US and CA

penal colonies and judicial systems that is a must read.A USC author who appears to have an open mind to the humanitarian changes that are needed to bring our wonderful country back into a sphere of normal humanitarian treatment of our own citizens.

I read the article wriiten in Sunday's LA Times and I also found it with a Google search. Prisoners of panic by Joe Domanick is vey well written and really does

educates the reader about our prison system here in CA.

More Than a Steak Dinner is a wonderful New York Times editorial written today that anyone interested

in bringing justice to our judicial system concerning innocent prison inmates getting a fair chance to have

their legal cases properly presented will applaud.

A big congratulations to the editorial staff of this highly respected international publication for their integrity in being on the ground floor of this needed national movement to correct this injustice from ever again being able to inflict prolonged prison sentences on our innocent citizens incarcerated all across America.

Today we have two more great national and international publications speaking out about our countries judicial system..Too hasrsh editorial in the LA Times and The punishment fits the times in USA Today are both very different in their topics but both very enlightening in their content.Both can also be found online and they are written in the front page sections of both papers.

We all know the story with our justice system.We hear

it all the time on the media about wealthy people getting off while poor folks are getting shafted.Federal appeals are currently only for upper class Americans to benefit from and the poor in our prisons can wing it

when being forced to write their own federal appeals.

Nobody cares if this Gonzales kid stays in prison for 24 more years because he could not write his own federal appeal properly.Why do you think president Hugo Chavez is needed in this country to finance legal fees for a poor person ? Congress is only taking care of their own who can affoerd to lobby them with $$$ contributions for reelection.

We all know the story with our justice system.We hear

it all the time on the media about wealthy people getting off while poor folks are getting shafted.Federal appeals are currently only for upper class Americans to benefit from and the poor in our prisons can wing it

when being forced to write their own federal appeals.

Nobody cares if this Gonzales kid stays in prison for 24 more years because he could not write his own federal appeal properly.Why do you think president Hugo Chavez is needed in this country to finance legal fees for a poor person ? Congress is only taking care of their own who can afford to lobby them with $$$ contributions for reelection.

When average Americans on our local juries are open minded enough to be capable of seperating active gang members from past gang member participation or friends of gang members but not actively paticipating in gang activity,we might then have the ability in our courtrooms to have the needed clear vision of being able to decide criminal cases fairly.Lumping all these individuals together is just as unwise and naive as mandatory sentencing is in deciding how to punish convicted defendants fairly.

Punishment based on fear of gang activity by local juries is not always going to afford real justice more then it might convict innocent citizens made to only look guilty by rogue DA's (North Carolina )who know how to play this reqal fear to manipulate jurors into rendering guilty verdicts in order to attempt to protect our society from those who are really perpetuasting violent street crime.

When average Americans on our local juries are open minded enough to be capable of seperating active gang members from past gang member participation or friends of gang members but not actively paticipating in gang activity,we might then have the ability in our courtrooms to have the needed clear vision of being able to decide criminal cases fairly.Lumping all these individuals together is just as unwise and naive as mandatory sentencing is in deciding how to punish convicted defendants fairly.

Punishment based on fear of gang activity by local juries is not always going to afford real justice more then it might convict innocent citizens made to only look guilty by rogue DA's (North Carolina )who know how to play this real fear to manipulate jurors into rendering guilty verdicts in order to attempt to protect our society from those who are really perpetuasting violent street crime.

When average Americans on our local juries are open minded enough to be capable of seperating active gang members from past gang member participation or friends of gang members but not actively paticipating in gang activity,we might then have the ability in our courtrooms to have the needed clear vision of being able to decide criminal cases fairly.Lumping all these individuals together is just as unwise and naive as mandatory sentencing is in deciding how to punish convicted defendants fairly.

Punishment based on fear of gang activity by local juries is not always going to afford real justice more then it might convict innocent citizens made to only look guilty by rogue DA's (North Carolina )who know how to play this real fear to manipulate jurors into rendering guilty verdicts in order to attempt to protect our society from those who are really perpetuating violent street crime.

Would our Us Congress not be interested in assisting the release of 1000,000military troops if they were being falsely inprisoned in a foreign country? the experts in our country estimate that our US prisons are currently holding 100,000 innocent prison inmates, and it appears that our Congress couls care less.the American public has no idea that poor and mostly uneducated prison inmates who are appealing their criminal legal cases to federal judges are being forced to write their own legal cases.Why is there no interest in our US Congress in affording legal assistance for thosewho are innocent and are being enslaved in our national prisons ? We are all aware that our judicial system is not nearly perfect,and mistakes are happening with innocent fellow citizens everyday causing prolonged incarceration.for all of us just to sit around and not even attempt to offer these innocent poor prison inmates legal assistance is almost a criminal act in itself.

Our country can not afford to allow this many innocent poor prison inmates

(100,000) to be denied their federal appeal retrial reviews due to not being able to be represented by proper legal counsel. There is no excuse for our US Congress to not arrange for everyone in our US prisons to have equal opportunities at presenting proper federal appeal legal paperwork. Being poor and innocent in an American prison should not equate to decades of prolonged prison sentences. Our country can easily afford this needed outlay of legal funding for federal appeals and anything less will just not be American justice as we all expect of our judicial system.We the leaders of the free world need to set the example for fairness and real justice that everyone else around the world can point to and respect us for.

Our US prison experts say there are 100,000 innocent prison inmates imprisoned with the over 2 million total American prison piopulation.By our US Congress denying these innocent prison inmates proper legal counsel for their federal retrial appeal legal cases,they have effectively closed the doors on their equal opportunities as wealthy Americans have to ever be granted new trials concerning their criminal cases.Somehow our US Congress feels that poor and mostly uneducated prison inmates should be capable in formulating federal retrial review legal cases as lawyers with law degrees who have been trained and equipped with the needed legal skills to attempt this feat.The federal appeal retrial procedure was created for all Americans to be able to utilize, but currently only wealthy Americans who can easily afford to hire their own private appeal lawyers are the ones able to benefit from this judicial system safeguard.If our federal appeal process is only for affluent Americans then the masses of the US public who have no idea that this two tier slight of hand judicial injustice exists,have every right to be informed about this secret and dreaded reality.How our US media can be so silent on this obvious continued injustice being inflicted on this many innocent Americans caught in the jaws of our US prisons is just as troubling as the injustice itself.

The Supreme Court of the United States of America



stated in 1984

"Of all the rights that an accused person has,the right to be represented by counsel is by far the most pervasive,for it affects his ability to assert any other rights he may have".

I understand this injustice very clerarly now after I read

many various comments concerning the lack of federal appeal layers being denied our 100,000 prison inmates in the US national prison systems.I am also convinced that our US Congress has just closed the door on these tens of thousands of innocent Americans ever being capable of properly representing themselves with their federal retrial appeals.I read that the federal appeal proscess was created for all Americans to be able to utilize for gaing new criminal trials with,not just the rich who can afford to hire their own private legal representation.

This terrible neglect of our US Congress and Judicial system in not attempting to really assist the tens of thousands of falsely prosecuted and imprisoned American inmates needs to be investigated and corrected. No judicial system can be perfect, but it is high time our tax dollars are utilized to help exonerate

the innocent from our prisons nationwide.

Keeping prisons full of youg fresh bodies like this kid Manny Gonzales,has become a very big business that is putting big money into lobbists pockets all across our country.State officials are constantly being influenced for tougher laws with longer sentences attatched so others can continue to collect ,000 for each US prison inmate in their prison facilities from state governments.Manny Gonzales might deserve a new trial,but he only represents the tens of thousands

of other poor and mostly uneducated prison inmates

being enslaved decades in US prisons in the name of the mighty greenback.The prison industry has stock holders in their huge corporations and those stock holders expect the CEO's to make sure their profit margins are being looked after properly.CEO's of companys that build and maintain prisons for our states and federal government have lobbists who do their bidding for them with everyone in the state governments to the Federal governments who is interested in their companys $$ in exchange for influence in keeping tougher laws active to keep prison inmates in their facilities longer.A perfect example of this injustice happening around our country is this Manny Gonzales kid. This shooting incident that took place in Van Nuys CA never really created a victim other then being freightened at being shot at.The state of CA will pay over 1 million dollars

for the 27 year prison sentence given to Manny Gonzales when there was no injured victim???

CA state Republicans want long prison sentences here in CA to show voters they are tough on crime in hopes that concept will endure us all to keep them in their elected offices.Wasting our tax dollars in this fashion is tough on our state pocketbook not crime.

Our country is reported to lead the rest of the world with the total amount of prison inmate population(over 2 million) and the total amount of falsely incarcerated inmate population (100,000) ! Do we really have US Congressional representatives who would condone and feel proud of their neglect, which is allowing this lack of legal counsel ( not being afforded our poor prison inmates concerning their federal appeal retrials ) to continue to assist in the false imprisonment of the tens of thousands of our fellow innocent American citizens ? If we indeed have such people serving in our US Congress that will not want to lift a finger at correcting this horror for our poorer innocent Americans, then i also believe international assistance should be looked at as a viable solution.

Our country is reported to lead the rest of the world with the total amount of prison inmate population(over 2 million) and the total amount of falsely incarcerated inmate population (100,000) ! Do we really have US Congressional representatives who would condone and feel proud of their neglect, which is allowing this lack of legal counsel ( not being afforded our poor prison inmates concerning their federal appeal retrials ) to continue to assist in the false imprisonment of the tens of thousands of our fellow innocent American citizens ? If we indeed have such people serving in our US Congress that will not want to lift a finger at correcting this horror for our poorer innocent Americans, then I also believe international assistance should be looked at as a viable solution.

Congress+150 years of injustice =Reality of the USA being ranked #1 in the World for false imprisonments with a reported 100,000 innocent Americans

being wrongly incarcerated nationwide. Who could ever believe the Leader Of The Free World could pull this smoke and mirrors injustice off this long?

Ever since the 1800's when black Americans were being falsely imprisoned all throughout the Southern States, our US Fedral Appeal retrial judicial process still continues to this day to deny the tens of thousands of innocent poor American prison inmates proper legal representation for their federal appeal reviews related to their state criminal legal cases. And the rest of the World sits and listens to our government leaders continue to lecture various other countries and their leaders about their injustices???

The most devious and deceptive way to keep certain groups of American citizens falsely imprisoned is to simply deny them proper federal appeal legal counsel !

Black Americans had to deal with this exact injustice over 100 years ago all through our Southern states.

Poor prison inmates with little education being forced to submit their own federal appeal legal cases has turned out to become the longest running injustice in the American judicial system! Quietly falsely incarcerating 100,000 innocent poor prison inmates nationwide can only be done with the US media's cooperation !

Asking tens of millions of the middle class and poor working class Americans to support with their taxes,

a US Federal Appeal Judicial Process that only serves up justice to those capable of affording their own federal appeal lawyers, is an injustice needing national media exposure!

Asking tens of millions of the middle class and poor working class Americans to support with their taxes,

a US Federal Appeal Judicial Process that only serves up justice to those capable of affording their own federal appeal lawyers, is an injustice needing national media exposure!

Asking tens of millions of our middle class and poor working class Americans to support with their taxes

a US Federal Appeal Judicial process that only serves up justice to those Americans capable of affording their own Federal appeal lawyers,is an injustice needing National Media Exposure!

What kind of Christian values is our country demonstrating to the rest of the World,when our national prisons are reported to contain 100,000 innocent and

falsely imprisoned inmates,and there is not even one US political leader,or national media source interested in taking the high road in fighting for justice and equality within our federal appeal judicial process ?

Great societies that do not protect their innocent citizens,become the guilty party!

We hear various reports in the US media telling us all about those very unlucky Americans who have been falsely imprisoned for decades in our US prisons

and recently have been released because it became apparent after 25 years that they never were the proper party who commited the criminal act they were charged with! Once an American has lost his State appeals for a new trial,our judicial system affords us all the right to appeal to the federal courts in hopes of receiving a new retrial.Where our judicial federal court of appeals will gladly accept all federal appeals from any prison inmate or their attorney,federal judges only really grant new retrials to those inmates who are fortunate enough to have appeal lawyers write their legal cases properly.Imagine being innocent and poor and not being capable of writing your own proper appeal legal case and being forced to remain in a prison system for 20 more years that has murders and rapes happening on a daily basis .

What type of Congressional representatives could deny their fellow Americans federal appeal lawyers closing the door on their opportunities to have any chance of exonerating themselves ? These reported 100,000 innocent US prison inmates have not only been abandoned by our judicial system,they have been truely victimized more then most real crime victims in our country!

We have all been made publicly aware that Americas 100,000 innocent and falsely imprisoned American inmates nationwide,have no real assistance or protections afforded them by our US Congress concerning their federal retrial appeals! How in the world can affluent guilty American defendants with proper federal appeal legal counsel,have the greater advantage of receiving new retrials being granted them from our US Federal Judges,then the tens of thousands of innocent poor American prison inmates who are being forced to represent their own federal appeal legal cases from prison?? Innocent but poor prison inmates who are being denied new federal appeal retrials in mass all across our nation,have never had anyone in America interested in focusing on their horror of being falsely imprisoned for decades in the wealthies nation in the world. Without proper legal assistance being afforded these innocent prison inmates,they will never really ever be capable of exonerating themselves through the federal appeal judicial process! We ask every caring and loving American to just attempt to put yourself into this same exact situation for just one minute in your mind. Being falsely imprisoned in an American prison for 25 or 30 years without the US Congress affording you proper legal counsel to ever have the slightest opportunity to possibly exonerate yourself using the federal appeal process. Lawyers for poor Americans has just recently begunour national educational plea for the hearts and soulsof the American people concerning this injustice,and our mission of exposing this injustice and freeing all of our innocent fellow Americans from our national prisons, will not stop until our US Congress legislates the needed and proper funding to bring our innocent and missing American prison inmates back home !!!

The tens of thousands of innocent American citizens falling victim to our imperfect American judicial system have sadly been forgotten by all of us caring and loving Americans.

Many in our society are fantastic at making excuses for our imperfect judicial systems thousands of failures in not being efficient enough in prosecuting and imprisoning the proper defendants,but have no concept or caring thoughts about all the falsely accused and wrongfully imprisoned that line the walls of our prisons all across America ! When a wonderful and great country like ours has both ,the World's #1total prison population and false imprisonment population,we have to wonder who really is on first?

Federal appeals only really being available for affluent Americans to properly utilize,is one perfect example of a very real and tragic injustice that has become so ingrained in our American judicial system,that possibly even some US Congressional members have also not given it any more thought then it being only one more aspect of a very large judicial process that is in desperate need of repair

and future financing .For those of us who know better,lets hope and pray our next future US president will take the interest to lead the reins in the proper direction of bringing honesty and fairness into our current failings of

administering this thing called jusice in America!

When our US Congressional leaders can sleep soundly everynight knowing there are 100,000 falsely imprisoned American citizens residing in our American prisons,you have to wonder why any of them were upset about our countries policy on torture? Spending 25 to 40 years being wrongfully incarcerated is another form of torture that works slow but is torture never the less!

When the legally unprotected innocent US poor are continuing to be allowed to be falsely imprisoned here in America ,and our wise US Congressional leaders of the Free World do not seem even remotely interested to lift a finger to abate it,then it might be the right time for the Pope to visit the United Nations and speak about this injustice,so the rest of the World can be made aware that human enslavement of poor citizens,can even happen right here, in the

wealthiest country in the World!

There is something very unethical with our American judicial system which allows only wealthy Americans with proper legal representation for their federal appeals to have real opportunities

of being granted new retrials,and the tens of thousands of innocent poor prison inmates without the benefit of legal counsel to be consistently denied in mass their equal opportunities at receiving federal judges positive decisions of new retrials. If having 100,000 falsely imprisoned in this country is not enough of a wake up call for our US Congress concerning this injustice,then why would any caring American be upset if president Hugo Chavez of Venezuela decided to get involved with assisting these falsely incarcerated Americans who not only have been forgotten and abandoned by their Government leaders,but have been neglected by a National media who can only pretend they do not even exist ??

I believe that Manny Gonzales was a penny short in attempting to defend himself needing a public defender in his criminal legal case in Van Nuys CA, but I also read that the DA in that legal case pulled a no no and got away with misleading the sitting jury into believing that the shooting incident was gang related and the defendant was a gang member.The presiding judge in this case was reported to have specifically instructed (prior the trial beginning), to both defense and prosecutor that the mentioning of gangs was out of bounds in this trial by both lawyers and witnesses.

Our LA political leaders and Governor are only re-electable if the streets remain quiet from gangs,so there will be many more railroaded defendants here in LA ,because Manny Gonzales the kid that everyone forgot in the CA prison system is a sad reality that our judicial system,media and naive juries all play their part in

supporting!

If our elected Leaders of the Free World are not caring enough or bright enough to be capable of designing a new Federal Appeal judicial process for the masses of middle class and working poor Americans to be able to utilize for fair and just opportunities at receiving retrials from our US Federal judges,then our society has not learned well from the situation

the German population found themselves facing prior WW2.

Falsely imprisoning 100,000 innocent fellow Americans without even a peep out of our National Media or the American people

could be the start down a very slippery slope!

After recently seeing the CNN prison special on TV,I know our media will also be getting around to this federal appeal issue and exposing it also for what it really is !

California prisons need a major overhaul, and our leaders ought to think about keeping prisons for white prison inmates , prisons for black prison inmates and prisons for Hispanic prison inmates.There is not one reason why our state prison inmates need to always live in lock down conditions most of the time due to all the different races being forced to live with each other,when segregating the various races into their own prisons would simply avoid all these race and gang related problems behind our state prison walls.

-- THE FIRST OF THE TOP 10 --

REASONS FOR OUR US CONGRESSIONAL

LEADERS OF THE FREE WORLD TO BEGIN AFFORDING MIDDLE CLASS AND WORKING POOR AMERICAN CITIZENS FEDERAL APPEAL LEGAL REPRESENTATION!

#1)America is already rated the number one country in the World for the amount of ones own innocent citizens(100,000)being falsely imprisoned! By continuing to deny our poorer fellow Americans affordable federal appeal legal representation, our US Congress will only continue running the risk of allowing our US judicial system to go on wrongfully incarcerating many more thousands of our innocent fellow Americans to endless decades behind our very high silent walls of the largest populated (2,000,000)prison system in the World!

We have a small elite group of less than 600 members in the US Congress who have seemed to have dug in their heels in denying

100,000 innocent prison inmates reported to be falsely imprisoned nationwide in our US prison systems federal appeal legal counsel in the hope of being able to prove their innocence!

The masses of Middle Class or Working poor Americans could never afford to pay for their own federal appeal legal fees for themselves or for one of their family members, so how can the US Congress rationalize their constant denial of this important legal coverage for these tens of thousands of innocent fellow American

citizens ?

WE HAVE A SMALL ELITE GROUP OF LESS THEN 600 MEMBERS OF OUR US CONGRESS WHO HAVE SEEMED TO HAVE DUG IN THEIR HEELS IN DENYING THE

(100,000 INNOCENT PRISON INMATES REPORTED TO BE FALSELY IMPRISONED NATIONWIDE IN OUR US PENAL COLONIES) FEDERAL APPEAL LEGAL COUNSEL IN THE HOPE OF BEING ABLE TO PROVE THEIR INNOCENCE.

THE MASSES OF MIDDLE CLASS AND WORKING POOR AMERICANS COULD NEVER AFFORD TO PAY THEIR OWN FEDERAL APPEAL LEGAL FEES FOR THEMSELVES OR FOR ONE OF THEIR FAMILY MEMBERS,SO HOW CAN THE US CONGRESS RATIONALIZE THEIR CONTINUED DENIAL OF THIS IMPORTANT LEGAL COVERAGE FOR THESE TENS OF THOUSANDS OF INNOCENT FELLOW AMERICAN CITIZENS?

Our US Congress affords themselves all the perks and salary most Americans could only dream about,

but ask anyone of these Leaders Of The Free World

to protect our Middle Class or Working Poor Americans from continuing to be falsely imprisoned endless decades due to the lack of federal appeal legal counsel being afforded them, and you just might be though of as being crazy?

The masses of the American people could never come close to ever being able to burden these federal appeal legal costs for themselves or for family members,and should not need a lobbying group for this basic right of legal protection to be afforded them!

What we have here in this Manny Gonzales criminal case is a jury, judge and DA taking care of their communities safety from gangs in a typical vigilante hang him high process. The presiding judge tells both attorneys (defense and prosecution ) prior the trial that this specific case is not gang related and advises the DA to instruct their witnesses not to mention or insinuate gang association information to the jury. At this point in this trial the presiding judge is aware of and protective of the defendants rights to a fair trial, knowing darn well that if a LA jury is lead to believe

( rightly or wrongly ) a defendant is affiliated with a gang that a fair trial is almost impossible. What happens when this DA decides to use gang association (over the judges denials ) on this jury is really quite devious. LA judges are allowing these type of unjust trials to continue knowing these defendants can appeal for a new trial from prison after they lose their jury trials. Local DA's know this local judicial system will not dismiss a jury due to DA's using gang association with defendants and they have a free hand to play their jury to the max. This play acting between the presiding judge pretending to protect the defendants right to a fair trial and the devious DA who wants to protect our society by taking justice into their own hands is a little what Manny Gonzales and his public defender had to deal with. Any judge that allows a rogue DA to disobey their specific orders on misleading their jury into believing the defendant is either a gang member or the specific crime is gang related should have the common sense and decency to dismiss the jury and call for a new trial. This kid Manny Gonzales tried as an adult needed this judge not just to set the guidelines in the start of the trial with this rogue DA,but also to continue to protect the defendant with his right to a fair trial throughout the entire trial. When this presiding judge allowed this trial to continue the jury believed both the DA and the judge that Manny Gonzales was a gang member and this specific shooting incident was not related to his affiliation with gang activity. Every night during this two week trial this jury went home and had the opportunity to watch gang violence reported on their nightly news. How could anyone think Manny Gonzales and his public defender could defeat a presiding judge, rogue DA,and a inflamed jury with possible nightly exposure to gang TV violence ?

If anyone deserves a call for

GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME A NEW TRIAL

Manny Gonzales Does !

Nobody in the local judicial system believes that this Manny Gonzales legal case is a solo unjust DA case without hundreds just like it all across the county ? Just being friends or related to a gang member here in LA can be a very big tragic mistake, in todays LA Legal ! When our local judges allow jury's to be manhandled by lies and manipulation to get convictions,we have all got to be very concerned about real justice being preserved and witch hunters going directly to Duke University

in North Carolina.

The Pope will be visiting America next week on the East coast,and it just so happens that our US Congress will be attempting to gain his graces and distract him from this very real issue of mass false imprisonment in America, by signing legislation offering 5,000,000 to help improve Americas convicted prison inmates with future employment and

re-acclamation into society.We agree and applaud this needed goal and investment by our US Congress,but please realize that this is just a very tiny amount of funding for our lobbying group to ever accept as being anything other then the long overdue beginning of our governments future investment in our forgotten American prison population. The Catholic Church will not be fooled by this small effort of pomp and show by our US Congress next week,and were sure they will need and deserve some real answers to the estimated 20,000 falsely imprisoned Catholic Americans lining American prisons from coast to coast!

Nobody needs to worry about this injustice happening to

America's Middle Class and Working Poor Americans going away anytime soon ! Even our US Congress will not mess with the Middle Class, because they vote,are needed for finances and have long memories ! We are coming up on a Presidential election where both parties need the support of the middle class,and neither party wants to look like they do not care about the protection of middle America for these costly federal appeal legal fees! Democrats need to get on board this issue before their members think twice about their true intentions! Federal Appeals will never again just be available to affluent Americans to properly utilize ! No innocent Americans will spend 25 years in our prison system due to our US Congress denying them proper legal counsel for their federal appeals !

When the wealthiest country in the world continues to allow the enslavement of the tens of thousands of their own innocent Middle Class and Working Poor Americans to decades of false imprisonment it's time to ask for International Help !

Currently there are reported to be 100,000 falsely imprisoned Americans living along with the estimated 2,000,000 US prison population nationwide.America now has the very unique distinction of not only being rated the #1 in the World for having the largest prison population,but America also has the distinct rating of having the largest wrongfully imprisoned prison population in the World as well.Our US Congress affords themselves all the perks and salary most Americans could only dream about,but ask anyone of these Leaders Of The Free World to protect our Middle Class or Working Poor Americans from continuing to be falsely imprisoned endless decades due to the lack of federal appeal legal counsel being afforded them, and you just might be thought of as being crazy?

The masses of the American people could never come close to ever being able to burden these federal appeal legal costs for themselves or for a family member,and should not need a lobbying group for this basic right of legal protection to be afforded them! Our Poster Child of this exact neglect by our US Congress is this young man named Manny Gonzales.Anyone interested in reading first hand how our US Congress is willing to allow our judicial system to continue keeping this now 21 year old young man imprisoned for 27 mandatory years for frightening someone with a hand gun(not even injuring the so called victim,) without affording him federal appeal legal counsel to properly be able to defend himself in our Federal courts of Appeal? Manny Gonzales The kid that everyone forgot in the CA prison system can be entered into any WWW search engine for the judicial ride of ones life! Tens of thousands of other Americans being imprisoned in the US are facing this same lack of legal counsel everyday,and with this lack of legal counsel being denied their right to new retrials,which in turn forces thousands to remain endless decades in our prison systems of the wealthiest country in the world!

Just like the German population prior WW2,the American people and our National Media have not felt any concern or interest to speak out about about our country having so many of our fellow Middle Class and Working Poor citizens being falsely imprisoned and not even being afforded the proper Federal Appeal legal counsel to assist in their attempt at exonerating themselves! This situation with the lack of federal appeal legal counsel has gotten so serious,and because it's affecting so many innocent citizens in America, that President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela has even been asked to finance the federal appeal legal fees for the Manny Gonzales federal court legal appeal taking place at the Central CA Federal District Court in Riverside California.

THIS UNJUST LEGAL CASE ONLY POINTS OUT THE IMPORTANCE OF MAKING SURE THAT ALL OUR MIDDLE CLASS AND WORKING POOR AMERICANS HAVE PROPER LEGAL REPRESENTATION AFFORDED THEM BY OUR US CONGRESS FOR THEIR THEIR FEDERAL APPEAL RETRIALS !

What we have here in this Manny Gonzales criminal case is a jury, judge and DA taking care of their communities safety from gangs in a typical vigilante hang him high process. The presiding judge tells both attorneys (defense and prosecution ) prior the trial that this specific case is not gang related and advises the DA to instruct their witnesses not to mention or insinuate gang association information to the jury.

At this point in this trial the presiding judge is aware of and protective of the defendants rights to a fair trial, knowing darn well that if a LA jury is lead to believe

( rightly or wrongly ) a defendant is affiliated with a gang, that a fair trial is almost impossible. What happens when this DA decides to use gang association (over the judges denials ) on this jury is really quite devious. LA judges are allowing these type of unjust trials to continue knowing these defendants can appeal for a new trial from prison after they lose their jury trials. Local DA's know this local judicial system will not dismiss a jury due to DA's using gang association with defendants, and they have a free hand to play their jury to the max. This play acting between the presiding judge pretending to protect the defendants right to a fair trial and the devious DA who wants to protect our society by taking justice into their own hands, is a little what Manny Gonzales and his public defender had to deal with. Any judge that allows a rogu DAto disobey their specific orders on misleading their jury into believing the defendant is either a gang member or the specific crime is gang related should have the common sense and decency to dismiss the jury and call for a new trial. This kid Manny Gonzales tried as an adult needed this judge not just to set the guidelines in the start of the trial with this rogue DA,but also to continue to protect the defendant with his right to a fair trial throughout the entire trial. When this presiding judge allowed this trial to continue the jury believed both the DA and the judge

that Manny Gonzales was a gang member and this specific shooting incident was not related to his affiliation with gang activity. Every night during this two week trial,this jury went home and had the opportunity to watch gang violence reported on their nightly news. How could any reasonable person think Manny Gonzales and his public defender could defeat a presiding judge, rogue DA,and a inflamed jury with possible nightly exposure to gang TV violence ?

If anyone deserves a call for GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME A NEW TRIAL Manny Gonzales Does !

Currently there are reported to be 100,000 falsely imprisoned Americans living along with the estimated 2,000,000 US prison population nationwide.America now has the very unique distinction of not only being rated the #1 in the World for having the largest prison population,but America also has the distinct rating of having the largest wrongfully imprisoned prison population in the World as well.Our US Congress affords themselves all the perks and salary most Americans could only dream about,but ask anyone of these Leaders Of The Free World to protect our Middle Class or Working Poor Americans from continuing to be falsely imprisoned endless decades due to the lack of federal appeal legal counsel being afforded them, and you just might be thought of as being crazy?

The masses of the American people could never come close to ever being able to burden these federal appeal legal costs for themselves or for a family member,and should not need a lobbying group for this basic right of legal protection to be afforded them! Our Poster Child of this exact neglect by our US Congress is this young man named Manny Gonzales.Anyone interested in reading first hand how our US Congress is willing to allow our judicial system to continue keeping this now 21 year old young man imprisoned for 27 mandatory years for frightening someone with a hand gun(not even injuring the so called victim,) without affording him federal appeal legal counsel to properly be able to defend himself in our Federal courts of Appeal? Manny Gonzales The kid that everyone forgot in the CA prison system can be entered into any WWW search engine for the judicial ride of ones life! Tens of thousands of other Americans being imprisoned in the US are facing this same lack of legal counsel everyday,

and with this lack of legal counsel being denied their right to new retrials,which in turn forces many of them to remain endless decades in the prison systems of the wealthiest country in the world!

Just like the German people prior WW2,the American people and our National Media have not felt any concern or interest to speak out about about our country having so many of our fellow Middle Class and Working Poor citizens being falsely imprisoned and not even being afforded the proper Federal Appeal legal counsel to assist in their attempt at exonerating themselves!

We thank all of you Worldwide who have also had a concern and are interested with this injustice being changed in the American judicial system for assisting all of us(who are also just interested volunteers ourselves)with your time and computer skills in posting this article on the WWW anywhere you think it might make positive change!

WHEN THE MEMBERS OF THE US SENATE TOOK A GOOD LOOK AT THEMSELVES ?



When the wealthiest country in the world continues to allow the enslavement of the tens of thousands of their own innocent Middle Class and Working Poor Americans to decades of false imprisonment it's time to ask for international help!!!!!!!!



Currently there are reported to be 100,000 falsely imprisoned Americans living along with the estimated 2,000,000 US prison population nationwide.America now has the very unique distinction of not only being rated the #1 in the World for having the largest prison population,but America also has the distinct rating of having the largest wrongfully imprisoned prison population in the World as well.Our US Congress affords themselves all the perks and salary most Americans could only dream about,but ask anyone of these Leaders Of The Free World to protect our Middle Class or Working Poor Americans from continuing to be falsely imprisoned endless decades due to the lack of federal appeal legal counsel being afforded them, and you just might be thought of as being crazy?The masses of the American people could never come close to ever being able to burden these federal appeal legal costs for themselves or for a family member,and should not need a lobbying group for this basic right of legal protection to be afforded them! Our Poster Child of this exact neglect by our US Congress is this young man named Manny Gonzales.Anyone interested in reading first hand how our US Congress is willing to allow our judicial system to continue keeping this now 21 year old young man imprisoned for 27 mandatory years for frightening someone with a hand gun(not even injuring the so called victim,) without affording him federal appeal legal counsel to properly be able to defend himself in our Federal courts of Appeal? Manny Gonzales The kid that everyone forgot in the CA prison system can be entered into any WWW search engine for the judicial ride of ones life! Tens of thousands of other Americans being imprisoned in the US are facing this same lack of legal counsel everyday,and with this lack of legal counsel being denied their right to new retrials,which in turn forces thousands to remain endless decades in our prison systems of the wealthiest country in the world!

Just like the German population prior WW2,the American people and our National Media have not felt any concern or interest to speak out about our country having so many of our fellow Middle Class and Working Poor citizens being falsely imprisoned and not even being afforded the proper Federal Appeal legal counsel to assist in their attempt at exonerating themselves! This situation with the lack of federal appeal legal counsel has gotten so serious,and because it's affecting so many innocent citizens in America, that President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela has even been asked to finance the federal appeal legal fees for the Manny Gonzales federal court legal appeal taking place at the Central CA Federal District Court in Riverside California.



*** LAWYERS FOR POOR AMERICANS IS A VOLUNTEER GROUP OF WORLD WIDE CONCERNED CITIZENS DONATING THEIR TIME WITH COMPUTER SKILLS IN AN ATTEMPT TO LOBBY AND CHANGE THE THINKING OF OUR ELITE GROUP IN THE US CONGRESS.IF YOU FEEL AS STRONGLY AS WE DO ABOUT THIS INJUSTICE AND REAL FREEDOMS FOR ALL AMERICANS, PLEASE JOIN US AND E MAIL THIS LETTER TO THOSE WHOM YOU BELIEVE MIGHT BE INTERESTED AS WELL..****



THERE ARE ONLY 100,000 REASONS FOR ALL OF US TO CARE ABOUT THIS ISSUE!!!!

ALL OF US ARE AWARE THAT THE US CONGRESS HAS MORE LAWYERS AS MEMBERS THEN ANY OTHER PROFESSION .WHAT REALLY IS QUITE LUDICROUS ABOUT THIS SITUATION IS THAT

THESE SAME OUT OF TOUCH CONGRESSIONAL LAWYER MEMBERS HAVE THE NERVE TO TURN AROUND AND DENY THE MASSES OF MIDDLE CLASS AMERICANS PROPER LEGAL COUNSEL WHEN NEEDED FOR THEIR FEDERAL APPEALS,EVEN THOUGH THEY KNOW THAT A LARGE PORTION OF ALL OF US POORER PRISON INMATES WHO DO NOT HAVE LEGAL COUNSEL FOR THEIR CRIMINAL CASES ANS APPEALS,COULD BE INNOCENT AND SPEND DECADES IN PRISON FOR CRIMES THEY NEVER WERE INVOLVED IN.

ALL OF US ARE AWARE THAT THE US CONGRESS HAS MORE LAWYERS AS MEMBERS THEN ANY OTHER PROFESSION .WHAT REALLY IS QUITE LUDICROUS ABOUT THIS SITUATION IS THAT

THESE SAME OUT OF TOUCH CONGRESSIONAL LAWYER MEMBERS HAVE THE NERVE TO TURN AROUND AND DENY THE MASSES OF MIDDLE CLASS AMERICANS PROPER LEGAL COUNSEL WHEN NEEDED FOR THEIR FEDERAL APPEALS,EVEN THOUGH THEY KNOW THAT A LARGE PORTION OF ALL OF US POORER PRISON INMATES WHO DO NOT HAVE LEGAL COUNSEL FOR THEIR CRIMINAL CASES ANS APPEALS,COULD BE INNOCENT AND SPEND DECADES IN PRISON FOR CRIMES THEY NEVER WERE INVOLVED IN.

No $$$ No Justice

No Lobby,No US Senate Assistance !

No $$ & No Lobby = !00,000 innocent American Citizens being Falsely imprisoned !

Most Americans are well aware that there are plenty of innocent poorer US citizens in our prison systems nationwide,but very few of us have ever heard about our US Congressional representatives denying the middle class and working poor Americans proper legal counsel for their federal appeals.If One were charged with a federal crime all legal costs are paid for,but when one is charged in the various states and run out of state appeal opportunities and need to appeal to the Federal Courts,it appears that inmates are left to their own best lawyering skills to attempt to write a federal appeal that could sway a US Federal judge to grant a new retrial.

These Congressional Representatives sleep soundly every night knowing there are reported to be an estimated 100,000 innocent Americans residing in our US Prisons who have been denied proper legal counsel to help them with their Federal Appeals for new retrials???