A plea from an innocent man

MY NAME is Darrell Lomax, aka Malik Hasan. I am a factually innocent man on California's death row. I was falsely convicted and sentenced to death in late 1996. The false charges against me were robbery and murder.

I need your help in exposing the state of California's false justice system. I am sure you will find this case goes far beyond the typical, all-too-common travesty of injustice occurring in California and other states.

The starting point in my case is that I am innocent. However, in order for me to prove my innocence and clear my name, I must be afforded the opportunity to utilize the appeals system. The California Supreme Court has denied the appointment of a state habeas corpus counsel for over 15 years. This is judicial malpractice, illegal use of power and a violation of my constitutional due process rights. I have been left to a life of false imprisonment without having my day in court.

In California, there is an automatic appeal that follows any conviction and sentence of death. The Supreme Court, however, bars capital defendants from representing themselves on appeal--so the state adopted a policy that obligates them to provide court-appointed counsel to all capital defendants for their appeal. It is this very right to have appointed counsel that affords a defendant due process rights, and it is this lack of counsel that has denied me these rights.

There are two phases to a capital defendant's appeal process: one is the direct appeal and the other is the habeas corpus appeal. The direct appeal is limited only to the facts of the trial that are already in the record. A defendant cannot bring up new evidence in this phase or talk about any violation of their constitutional rights. A factually innocent person like myself must go through this process, even though I did not have a valid conviction.

The second phase of the appeal process, habeas corpus, is an actual appeal of the conviction and sentence itself, and can raise all issues in the court record, but also evidence from outside the records that would show the conviction was invalid and a violation of the defendant's constitutional rights.

The California Supreme Court does not allow a defendant to file a petition for a writ of habeas corpus until after the state-level direct appeal has been exhausted. On average, it takes a defendant 10-15 years to exhaust a state-level direct appeal. This includes a four- to five-year wait for the appointment of the direct appeal counsel.

As previously explained, the direct appeal simply does not accommodate a factually innocent person who seeks immediate relief from an unlawful or false conviction. The only relief for those wrongfully convicted is a state-level habeas corpus petition. The U.S. Constitution states, "The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion of the public may request it."

Thus, the state of California is in violation of the Constitution because it bars the filing of a habeas corpus appeal until after the direct appeal has been exhausted. This is a violation of a prisoner's due process appeal rights.

In late September 2001, the State Public Defenders office was appointed to file a direct appeal for my case that was later denied on July 2, 2010. There was also a petition for a re-hearing that was denied on August 11, 2010. This final denial commenced the one-year deadline for filing a state habeas corpus petition due to the new streamlined deadlines of the federal law passed in 1996 by then-President Bill Clinton called the Anti-terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act.

DESPITE 15 years of writing legal letters to the California Supreme Court requesting habeas corpus counsel, I was again denied this counsel in January 2011. Not only have I been deprived my constitutional due process rights for over 15 years, I have also learned that there are at least two dozen condemned prisoners who arrived on death row one to four years after I arrived who have received habeas counsel. This means for some of them that they have a 10-year time frame for preparing their writ petition, whereas I have been outright denied this opportunity all together.

In January 2011, the State Public Defender's Office notified me that their representation of me had reached its conclusion. They also revealed that they were aware of my desire to seek pro bono legal help to assist me in filing a writ of habeas corpus requesting immediate relief from this unlawful restraint and imprisonment. While counsel agreed that I had in fact been denied my rights, they were unwilling to assist and so we parted ways with them wishing me luck.

Then, unexpectedly, on March 3, 2011 I became aware that the public defender who was previously assigned to my case joined the Federal Public Defenders office and, without my knowledge or consent, filed a petition to the U.S. District Court, which in essence waived my state-level appeal. This petition was illegally accepted by the district court.

On March 3, 2011, I filed an objection letter, which included a conflict-of-interest statement and on March 10, 2011, I filed a request for a criminal investigation of counsel's actions. The U.S. District court rerouted my letter and request to the very same attorneys who had defrauded the court in the first place. I am now seeking assistance with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

I have, since March, filed with the appropriate jurisdictions to get the matter investigated. I have also cut all communication with the federal attorney who succeeded in getting himself appointed to my case on March 7, 2011. I have less than 90 days left before my window closes to file a writ of habeas corpus petition.

As you can see, I need help, and I need it fast. The state and its legal representatives have joined forces to deprive me of my constitutional due process rights, and they are intent on covering up the truth, keeping me unlawfully behind bars and trying to murder me with out giving me my day in court.

I need a few good, reliable people on my side to help me battle this giant, dishonorable justice system. I need help managing my website and Facebook page, and promoting my case through the radio and newspaper--and I need money for legal copies and postage. Please contact me by mail if you can help.

You can write to Darrell Lomax at: P.O. Box K-27402, San Quentin State Prison, San Quentin, CA 94974.