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Free Valentino Dixon
Townhall.com ^ | August 1, 2018 | Michelle Malkin

Posted on 08/01/2018 12:35:13 PM PDT by Kaslin

"If it wasn't for my artwork and God, there's no way we'd be having this conversation right now."

I'm in Colorado on a three-way phone call with Valentino Dixon, inmate No. 91B1615 at New York's Wende Correctional Facility, and his 27-year-old daughter, Tina Dixon, a first-grade teacher in Ohio. Faith, family and drawing -- golf courses, jazz musicians, landscapes -- have kept him alive and sane behind bars. It has been a long, hard roller-coaster ride with "so many ups and downs" that he has learned to manage expectations while holding on to hope.

Tina was a four-month-old infant when her father was convicted of second-degree murder. That's "26 lost summer vacations, 26 missed birthdays, 26 years of life," she recounted earlier this year at an event I attended at Georgetown University's Prisons and Justice Initiative class on wrongful convictions.

"I watched him for years studying the case in front of me over trailer visits, showing me all the facts, putting this puzzle together."

At Attica, the notorious supermax prison where Valentino Dixon spent all but the last eight months of his 33-years-to-life sentence before being transferred to Wende, Tina tells me:

"I would eat pancakes and bacon, have water fights and coloring contests with my dad" during family reunion visits on the honor block while listening "to him and my grandmother and my aunt going over the trial transcripts and educating me about injustice."

About six years into his sentence, Dixon started reading every book he could get his hands on -- from criminal justice texts to Viktor Frankl's "Man's Search for Meaning" to Donald Trump's "Art of the Deal." He is self-taught in art, business, law and survival. Dixon has been a model prisoner, mentoring other inmates ("I'm like Dr. Phil for these guys," he chuckles) and earning international interest for his online art gallery. He's never been to a golf course, but Attica's former warden sparked Dixon's imagination by bringing him a photo of Augusta National's 12th hole.

Lots of convicts will tell you they didn't do it. But Dixon has steadfastly maintained his innocence in the street corner shooting that led to the death of Torriano Jackson and wounding of three others. And here's the kicker:

There is someone else who has repeatedly said Dixon didn't commit the crime -- because he did it.

Lamarr Scott first confessed to killing Torriano Jackson just days after the 1991 shooting during a Buffalo TV news broadcast. In 2012, Scott stated publicly of prosecutors who he says threatened him: "Each and every day it eats away at me that I allowed them to convince me to do the wrong thing."

No forensic evidence, no physical evidence and no murder weapon tied Dixon to the crime. Multiple witnesses gave sworn statements that Dixon was not the shooter; others gave physical descriptions that matched the six-foot-tall, heavy-set Scott, not the five-foot-seven, 130-pound Dixon. Two witnesses who adamantly insisted Dixon didn't do it were charged with perjury by the prosecutor before Dixon's trial.

Instead of objecting to the government's strong-arm intimidation tactics, Dixon's own public defender (who failed to call a single witness to the stand or enter a single exhibit in his client's defense) obsequiously praised the prosecutor's maneuver as "brilliant."

"Lawyers throw cases all the time," Dixon sighs. As I've delved more into wrongful convictions over the past two years, this sickening pattern repeats itself endlessly in blue states and red ones, across racial and socioeconomic lines: ineffective counsel, faulty eyewitness testimony, shady deal-making and decades of legal wrangling to undo the damage and uncover the truth.

Dixon makes no excuses for his rough past when he got caught up in drugs in his youth: "I'm no angel." But he and a growing army of supporters say he's no killer.

New York lawyer Marty Tankleff is an extraordinary exoneree who was wrongfully convicted of murdering his parents at 17 based on a coerced confession, corrupt police detective and prosecutorial misconduct. Tankleff co-teaches the Georgetown class whose students investigated Dixon's case last semester. As a result of new evidence of prosecutorial misconduct they helped uncover, a new "440 motion" was filed on Dixon's behalf in May.

The prosecutor, Christopher Belling, revealed to the students for the first time in nearly three decades that Dixon's clothing had been tested for gunshot residue and came up negative -- facts he failed to disclose to the defense or reveal at trial while accusing Dixon of shooting at least 27 rounds from a 9mm handgun.

"If his case is given a fair and independent review, everyone is confident that he will be granted post conviction relief," Tankleff told me Monday.

The motion is in the hands of Erie County District Attorney John Flynn, whose office told me this week that a decision may be issued by mid-August. Could this be the light at the end of the torturous tunnel? Dixon and his family have been here before, through endless appeals, waiting for a favorable ruling, hanging on to prayer, hope and each other.

"I have a strong faith. I definitely trust in God's plan," Dixon says during our hour-long talk. "This is a test from Him. I know I've got truth on my side. And truth always wins."


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: crime; newyork; punishment

1 posted on 08/01/2018 12:35:13 PM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

Our justice system in America is broke. Has been for years. And for every one innocent man in jail, how many hundreds of guilty ones walk free?


2 posted on 08/01/2018 12:49:55 PM PDT by Responsibility2nd
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To: All

I’ll say it. Prosecutors who willingly withhold exonerating evidence should be sent to prison for 3 times the maximum sentence on each count they attempt.

At a minimum.

And I won’t shed a tear for any of them.

Can’t convict on evidence? Then you haven’t got a case.


3 posted on 08/01/2018 12:50:34 PM PDT by SaveFerris (Luke 17:28 ... as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold ......)
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To: Kaslin
She makes a pretty good case that this was a wrongful conviction.

We had one in Colorado a few years ago. A teenage kid was convicted of murder because he lived near a field where it happened and had a sketch book with violent pictures drawn. And the police couldn't find anyone else to finger for it. No physical evidence or witnesses linked him to the crime.

Enough time had passed that a DNA test was available that was not at the time of the conviction and it proved the guy didn't do it.

A combination of a corrupt prosecutor, a bad defense lawyer and a jury not getting what proof beyond a reasonable doubt means can be deadly.

4 posted on 08/01/2018 12:52:19 PM PDT by colorado tanker
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To: colorado tanker

I wish I could disagree (I’ve been a prosecutor in multiple jurisdictions my entire 33 years of practice to a greater or lesser degree). These days I look purely at the facts before me in deciding whether to prosecute, I wish that had always been the case. I was trained by Air Force prosecutors, too many of whom had the, “If he didn’t do this, he did something else” mantra - one of the reasons that the more rank I got, the more I lobbied for never letting a JAG be a Chief of Military Justice until after an assignment as an Area or Circuit Defense Counsel.

Colonel, USAF (ret)


5 posted on 08/01/2018 1:19:56 PM PDT by jagusafr
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To: jagusafr
“If he didn’t do this, he did something else” mantra

Too many prosecutors (and police) get tunnel vision when they zero in on a suspect and then ignore anything that disturbs that narrative.

In thinking about this issue I can't help but think about Mueller and his BFF's, Comey, Fitzgerald and company. I believe there was a real attempt to corruptly influence the election but it came from within the government, the Clinton campaign and Democrat Party. But Mueller will not investigate any of that, viewing his mission to get Trump or someone near Trump on any charge he can dredge up.

6 posted on 08/01/2018 1:55:24 PM PDT by colorado tanker
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To: Kaslin

Look at the prosecution’s lengthy response to Dixon’s federal habeas corpus petition, and the court’s decision denying the petition. It would take you several hours to read both, but they cover the details meticulously.

Has Malkin done that?

Dixon is 100% guilty. Scott’s “confession” is absurd.

Do not be fooled by assertions when you have no basis for assessing them.

Discovering wrongly convicted persons is a noble thing to do. But in this case the person was correctly convicted.


7 posted on 08/01/2018 3:56:49 PM PDT by Gratia
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To: Kaslin
Valentino Dixon, and one of his many drawings of golf course scenes:


8 posted on 08/01/2018 4:12:22 PM PDT by Albion Wilde (Interrupt Obama and reporters are racist; interrupt Trump and they're heroes. --Mark Levin)
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To: colorado tanker

https://www.leagle.com/decision/infdco20090506997


9 posted on 08/01/2018 6:41:54 PM PDT by Eagles6
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To: Responsibility2nd

https://www.leagle.com/decision/infdco20090506997


10 posted on 08/01/2018 6:42:57 PM PDT by Eagles6
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