View Full Version : Wrongly Convicted Sex Offender
lifeanew
Jun 28, 2012, 01:03 AM
Wrongly convicted sex offender. My son was convicted of a 288(a) when he was 18 years old in 2001. He was represented by Public Defenders Office and took a Plea Bargain. We were unfamiiar with the law and he had never been in trouble with the law before this. In 2009, we received a Notarized Affidavit from the victim, stating that is was all a lie and she is coming forward wanting to clear this all up. That my son is serving time for a crime he did not commit. She went to the Public Defenders Office and recanted her story they were unwilling to help. I have copies of her affidavit and she is willing to do whatever she has to do. I do not have the finanes to hire a Private Attorney there fees are to high for me. My son is now 30 years old and has been in and out of Prison for violations under Jessicas Law, and no new cases. I don't know what to do or what can be done. My son has had to live under these sex offender laws being an innocent man. Where is Justice? The laws in California for S.Os are only set up for them to return right back like a revolving door. He is unable to find compliant housing in our city and wears a GPS device. He has to register as a SO, which has caused our entire family to live in fear. I just don't know what to do or where to trun. I am seeking advice so that my son can have his life back the best years of his life have been taken from him. Anyone with advice or referrals would be greatly appreciated. Thank You
ScottGem
Jun 28, 2012, 03:53 AM
OK someone under 14 yrs old, claimed he did something sexual with them. While that person may have consented, it was still illegal because they were too young to consent. Now that person has recanted the claims, but that is not uncommon. Are you saying your son did none of the things this person originally claimed? To be convicted, there generally needs to be corroborating evidence.
I'm sorry, but I really don't have much to offer you. If you have the complainants statement recanting the accusations, You can try the Innocence Project. The Innocence Project - Home (http://www.innocenceproject.org/) to see if you can get them to help. You can try going to your state representative and asking for a pardon. But without an attorney to try and get the conviction overturned, nothing much is going to change for him.
Fr_Chuck
Jun 28, 2012, 06:09 AM
And under the law, just being innocent is not a reason to get a verdict over turned. Once convicted and once all of the time for appeals is over, there is almost nothing that can be done, short of a pardon from the state governors office.
Next just being convicted would not have him on a ankle monitor, the issue now is he refuses to follow the laws and sounds like his probation may have been revoked since almost no sex offender has a GPS device, so they must have had lots of trouble with him, since his conviction?? Can you give more details on this.
There are 100's of thousands of sex offenders who live their life and follow all the rules and don't have GPS and have jobs and go on with life.
So if he has caused nothing but trouble since his conviction, has violated his terms of probation and not followed the laws, it will be very hard to get anything done for a pardon because he has proven he is a criminal by behavior.
Next the court is not going to very easy over turn a verdict after he has served his time ( even if you could get it done) guess why, because they go that all the rules of law was followed. Plus if they did, then he would have a law suit against the state for money damages for the wrongful conviction. So as long as they keep this conviction, they don't pay.
They can just say that the women is lying now, there is no way to prove it, she would have sworn under oath before that he did it.