OUR MESSAGE, OUR MISSION

Our case is one that (unfortunately) too often happens to immigrants (even if in parts) when they become victims of bigotry and injustice. We ask that as you familiarize yourself with the issues, realize that if it happened once it could happen again and that tolerance for injustice should be with the same indignation (if not more) that you have against crime itself. We hope that you join our efforts or at the minimum, pass this link along to help spread our message. We hope that what we share helps one if not many and raises awareness to the cruelties of injustice. We believe that because of imperfections and misjudgments, which are qualities of all men, we owe it to ourselves and each other to stand together against injustice. We, the people are the checks and balances that must always remind and demand our government for a truer and more equal justice system for all. 

For this, we are united families in support of bringing the long awaited justice to Denis Calderon and Julio Maldonado, cousins who undeniably were victims of an unpunished hate crime that led to a wrongful conviction which now wrongfully labels them “criminal aliens removable and permanently exiled” as an effect of IIRIRA. Variations of these injustices are not rare, but like all cases, the circumstances makes ours unique and undeniably wrong. Consider that after these men where wrongfully found “guilty” via a bench trial for “aggravated assault”, the same evidence and claim of self defense found them “not guilty” at a later attempt of further injustice when they were charged with “murder” after the attacker passed away 2 years later. Consider that the same Judge/Trier of fact, who convicted them for “aggravated assault”, vacated his own conviction and granted them a new trial after the evidentiary hearing remanded by the Superior Court as an effect of their direct appeal of “insufficient counsel” brought forth the additional medical expertise which proofed errors in trial occurred. Though the Judge really tried to make a wrong right again, regrettably his ruling was overturned at the request of the Assistant District Attorney via his own appeal over the Judge’s ruling. For this, they both served almost 3 years in jail and 10 years of parole. All following appeal efforts were either denied or rejected due to case law technicalities or missed deadlines that should not block true justice. These men have always wanted the opportunity to prove their innocence in the courtroom, but today they will settle for justice any way they can get it. Their only hope for relief is a full pardon from Governor Edward G. Rendell (PA) followed by an approval by the Department of Homeland Security to cancel their “deportation/removal orders”. Denis and Julio have been in Federal Prison for the last 4 yrs because they refused to assist the government with their “removal orders”. Being deported as innocent men and victims of hate is not only injustice but inhumane. Soon they will be released back to DHS, only to face what they have been trying to avoid – removal and permanent exile from the only country and family they have ever known and loved.

 DENIS AND JULIO, LATINOS AND COUSINS

They were both born in Peru in 1967. They came to the United States (to NYC) as infants (early '70s) with their respective families. Most if not all of their other extended relatives also came during these years. Today, they are a strong family unity that consists of 100+ American citizens across 5 generations within the tri-state area. Like most, they were brought here as a family to get away from the sufferings and fear of the never ending violence and extreme poverty caused by the controversial abusive power of socialism, militarism, capitalism and government corruption that existed in Peru at the time. Their parents wanted them to have a better life, some call this the "American Dream" others call it “survival”. Unfortunately, for non-related reasons, as adults, neither Denis nor Julio completed the Naturalization process they once started to become citizens, even though they qualified 100%. They (like many others immigrants who live lawful quiet lives) never imagined that not completing the administrative process of citizenship would one day jeopardize their right to life, liberty and their pursuit of happiness – especially at the hands of hate and injustice..

A HATE CRIME AND INJUSTICE

On August 4, 1996, Denis and Julio were brutally attacked by a gang of white racist hoodlums. It was an undeniable “hate crime” that went ignored and unpunished by the Philadelphia authorities. Instead they were wrongfully convicted based on lies, government misconduct and bad judgment. They were denied the right to the assumption of innocence right from the start; the right to a complete non-biased investigation, the right to the benefit of “reasonable doubt” based on physical evidence and facts.

The Judge/Trier of Fact denied their "claim" of self defense against Christian Saladino even though Denis had stab wounds during an undeniable racial attack. Instead he chose to believe the attacker (stabbing Denis) was an “innocent bystander/peacemaker”, as depicted by his teenage girl friends during the trial. The attacker’s violent and racist history went ignored, including the “aggravated assault” charges he was coincidentally suppose to face the same week the trial begun. He had also been arrested for punching and threatening a cop with a gun at another one of his “fight scenes”. He was known as a local hoodlum, a big brawny bully. Are these the qualities of an innocent bystander/peacemaker in a racial attack his friends were part of? We think not. Witnesses’ testimonies were inconsistent with each other and throughout different interrogations and court hearings. Two of the 17 year old girls stated they saw Denis and Julio (400 ft away) repeatedly beat the attacker (or innocent bystander as they preferred calling him) with a baseball bat and club (after he went down). Yet medical records explicitly prove otherwise, since after extensive examinations not one single injury or trace of trauma was ever found on the fallen attacker, even after extensive and ongoing internal and external thorough examinations. Could he have been a victim of his own demise? As Dr. Hofman tried to explain “These are not candy canes…”; as he went on to explain the kind of injury that would be caused if in fact he had been hit (even once) with a bat or club, especially if it was a “beat down”, as the attacker’s friends testified. These points are important because none of the medical experts could explain root cause for the apneic and pulseless state the attacker was found in when the paramedics arrived at the scene.

Eventually it was learned the attacker was legally drunk (.118) but drug usage was never determined, because tests were not administered. He also had a delicate pre-existing blood coagulation condition known as Factor VII. This is what led Denis and Julio to seek their own Forensic Pathologist expert (Dr. Hofman), who eventually helped prove their innocence in both the later "murder" trial and the direct appeal. However, the injustice continued, when at the prosecutorial discretion of the Assistant District Attorney, he appealed the results of their appeal and ultimately won - again, based on lies and the same injustice that wrongfully convicted them in the first place. He, Seth Williams (Democrat and the prosecutor in this case) is running for Philadelphia District Attorney in Nov. 2009.

STATUS OF WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS

As reported by the nationwide Innocence Project, in the last 20 years, over 240 post-conviction (170 since 2000) DNA exonerations have proved wrongful convictions exist. These innocent men served an average of 12 years and a combined total of 2,982 years in prison. It is believed that this is just a small percentage of all wrongful convictions since many cases do not have DNA type evidence and/or the resources to help prove their innocence. However due to the national attention this subject continues to receive, many states have implemented commissions to study and report the causes of these injustices and provide recommendations that would minimize or remove possible repeats. As an example of how improved practices can bring more justice, the first "Conviction Integrity Unit" was implemented in 2007 by District Attorney Craig Watkins from Dallas, Texas after the many cases of injustice and exonerations came to surface. To date, 10 innocent men walk free thanks to the efforts of this brave leader of justice.  This was chronicled in an Investigation Discovery TV program - "Dallas, DNA" and should be an effort that we demand from all District Attorney’s across America because it’s not just a social and/or criminal issue of injustice but one with great economical consequences. As they say, this is an effort in constant progress and unless we keep the demand on high volume, it will easily be muffled by other not as inhumane issues. As recently published, “A congressionally mandated report from the National Research Council finds serious deficiencies in the nation's forensic science system and calls for major reforms and new research” - Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward. In Pennsylvania (the state with the 8^th highest DNA exonerations), Senator Stewart J. Greenleaf (R-12) initiated the 2006 Senate Resolution 381, P.N.2254 that established the "Advisory Committee on Wrongful Convictions" after he heard direct testimonies from innocent wrongfully convicted Pennsylvanians. These are successful efforts by those who are brave enough to speak the truth and are willing to fight for what is right. We should embrace and continue to demand this from those who have the power to make a difference.

LATINO HATE CRIME → DEATH OR DEPORTION

This past year, we’ve all read or heard about the horrific hate crimes that ended the lives of immigrants like Luis Ramirez. Marcelo Lucero and Jose Sucuzhanay. As noted in the “Confronting the New Faces of Hate: Hate Crimes in America” published report by the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund (LCCREF) - “It is time for our nation to redouble its efforts to combat the commission of hate crimes in America” and even though the FBI reports a higher rise of hate crimes against immigrants, many go unreported either out of fear by the victims themselves or by the authorities who fail to classify them as such. This was the case for Denis and Julio when the prosecutor chose not to bring charges to any of the attackers, even though no one ever denied the root cause of the attack and even acknowledged it during his arguments. How many cases like this exist throughout our nation and what kind of silent and internal hatred is potentially breeding in those related to these immigrants? How much wrongfulness will citizens have to endure before we recognize hate based on gender, race or creed against any human is intolerable?  For this reason and because this case stemmed from an unpunished hate crime, it is critical to our cause (as a way to avoid future repeats) the support and ultimate passage of the "Federal Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009." Denis and Julio were definitely lucky to have survived the hateful attack but at the price of deportation and permanent exile as innocent men, wrongfully labeled criminals. It is a sad day for Latinos when the outcome of their attacks is either death (may our brothers Luis, Marcelo, Jose and the many others… rest in peace) or the death-like sentence by permanent exile from their only family via removal from the only country they know.

In 1996, the most heinous anti-immigrant, anti-family law in American history was passed by a majority Republican Congress and signed by then President Bill Clinton. This law is known as IIRIRA (Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996). It was meant to address, fix and remove illegal immigrants as well as legal aliens with “criminal convictions”. Consequently hundreds of thousands of American families have been inhumanely FORCED APART. This should not have been an issue for Denis and Julio, long term legal permanent immigrants who always lived lawful lives, however as ironic as life can sometimes be, it was on that same year that they found themselves in a roller coaster of injustice, but never did they imagine that it would last the 13 years it already has.

For this, we ask that immigration reform includes legal alternatives of relief for those whose convictions were a result of being “hate crime” victims and by which they have always claimed their innocence, especially at the hands of “self defense”. It is inhuman to ignore the lives that are destroyed as an effect of errors in justice and to disenfranchise people from their right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness simply because they are not American citizens. It is not unacceptable to limit the talks of immigration reform to amnesty for illegal aliens and improved border patrol - people have to realize that wrongful convictions do exist and that in order to receive justice one has to remain here in the United States since here is where the error occurred and it is here that it must be fixed. Many immigrants and their families feel the effects of deportation as form of death penalty since many will never ever see their loved ones ever again.

THANK YOU & GOD BLESS

We Families Against Injustice Towards Humanity strongly believe that

“INJUSTICE ANYWHERE IS A THREAT TO JUSTICE EVERYWHERE” (MLK).

We will advocate, support and uphold faith for those that have been wronged until justice prevails.

Friday – July 24, 2009

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