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extract from Greg's letter to Peter Bellamy, dated July 24, 2005

My legal situation is rather a long tale but I did state that I would provide you with an overview of the problem. Here goes.

The attorneys that were appointed to me at trial did not investigate any of my previous arrests. Did not investigate any leads that might have proven my innocence or would have placed doubt in the jury's mind. I had no idea of what they were suppose to be doing and I placed my trust and faith into their knowledge of the law. I knew that I was innocent and the two attorneys told me that they believed me and would do what they could to defend me at trial. That was all a lie.

The attorneys offered no witnesses in my defense. They did not call one technical expert in my defense. When I had asked why they stated that there was not enough "hard" evidence to convict me and that their trial strategy was going to be to expose all of the evidence the prosecuting attorney presented for either being false belonging to someone else or being circum­stantial (meaning that there were many explanations for that particular piece of evidence). When I stated that I wanted to take the witness stand and testify on my behalf and tell what happened both attorneys convinced me that it would be in my best interest that I not testify and let the lack of hard evidence speak for itself. That was plain ignorance on my part. I just did not know what was expected or what I needed to do. Also I need to point out that John Adams was not ever called forward to testify either.

So here we are; Adams committed the crime but never testified at my trial and I never provided a statement at any time. The question is now; how did the prosecution and police suspect me? Adams had called the police on the telephone twice according to records and statements of other police involved. He dialed an emergency station that is set up for immediate help to the caller. It is called "911" because that are the only three numbers needed to dial that institution. They record all calls.

I, and according to the word of my court-appointed attorneys, they, did not have knowledge that Adams had phoned "911" emergency. We found out all of this the first day of my trial. Long story short when we asked for the recording of the calls the tapes came up missing. Oh they were sent to the prosecution's office. After that/ noone knows what happened.

This is what I was then told. Since we did not have hard proof of the call we could not introduce the call as evidence nor the conversations. The person that took the call was not ever recognized at least no-one told me who it might have been and I don't think that the court-appointed attorneys ever bothered to find out who it was or if they remembered the call. That would have been a long-shot anyway since so many calls come in. Those tapes should not have ever been lost. Since we could not introduce that evidence of the call then Adams' name would not come up and his conversation with the "911" operator could not be discussed. This was very important because the business man that placed the first call for Adams, had stated to a police officer that Adams had stated that "he" had committed murder and could not live with himself any longer and wanted to turn himself in. Remember, we found all of this out the very first day of trial. My trial was approximately 9 months after my arrest. Plenty of time for an investigation. That particular business man was never found and thus that bit of information could be brought to light and presented to the jury. So - why did the police think that I committed murder? Adams told them that I did.
Evidently, between the first 911 call and the second, he had changed his story as to what happened. He had waited for about 20 minutes when he asked the business man to call "911" for him, and then he had left, for what­ever reason. A few hours later, he had made the second call himself.

The police officer investigator that finally picks him (Adams) up is a Lieutenant Paul Pothen. At trial he takes the witness stand to tell how he learned of my involvement. On cross-examination my attorney is grilling him on different pieces of evidence that is showed to the jury. One piece is the murder weapon (Adams' lock-blade knife).

My attorney asks Lt. Pothen if Adams had taken him to where Adams had burried that particular knife. The Lt. stated "Yes". Then my attorney asked if Adams had told the Lt. that the knife belonged to Adams. The Lt. stated "Yes, he did." My attorney then states that he has no more questions. The prosecutor then jumps up and makes several "objections" stating that he cannot leave the jury with a partial explanation and (get this) let them think that another man committed the crime. I swear those were his exact words but they did not record them or print it when they made out the transcript of the trial. At least it is not in my copy.
Under a trial court rule the Judge allowed the prosecutor to ask more information about the knife. What then happened was that the prosecutor asked for the whole conversation between the Lt. and Adams. The rule stated that questions could be asked only on the topic of the knife. The whole conversation could not come out unless Adams was going to testify and state that "YES" what was repeated is what he had stated. It had already been rumored that he was not going to testify thus his statement was not to be used against me. As citizens of the U.S. we are protected with certain rights against wrong-doing by the government. One of those Rights is the right to confront your accusers.

Throughout,  Lt. Paul Pothen Adams' entire statement was solicited, describing a complete lie made up by John Adams. My Attorneys objected numerous times but never objected siting the U.S. Constitutional Right of the Confrontation Clause. The attorneys did not protect my Constitutional Rights. This is a fundamental Right and not something new. It had been in practice for over twenty years.

So...Adams gets his statement entered into evidence in front of my jury and he never takes the witness stand. Now check this out. At my trial the prosecution team stated to the jury that the evidence shows that I committ­ed this crime. That included Adams testimony to the Lt.. They claimed that his statement to the Lt. was all true. Six months later at Adams' trial his attorneys wanted the same statement entered into the record and presented to the jury. The same prosecuting attorneys told the same Judge that "NO" they did not want that entered as evidence because it was self-serving and filled with lies. At my trial it was the gospel. At Adams' trial it was an outright lie.

Now then, on my appeal, the state and the government are claiming that I cannot raise this issue because I did not properly preserve the issue for appellate reveiw. In other words, my attorneys did not properly object to the presentation of Adams'statement to my jury without Adams testifying, thus violating my U.S. Constitutional Rights. My attempts at presenting this issue has failed at every level so far.

NOW—at the Federal district court level this Judge has recently denied my appeal and is stating that even without Adams' statement there was still enough evidence to convict me and that is just not true. Not only that, but this Judge has sited some false facts that do not even exist in my case. I cannot begin to describe my feelings on this. These Judges are suppose to be cerebral.
   
When appealing a felony case, you have to go through the State process of appeal first and then you can present your issues to the Federal Courts. Federal Law sort of oversees the State court's application of the law. The only issues that you can present to the Federal Courts are violations of U.S. Constitutional Rights.

I have a plethora of issues that I have raised. It only takes one to reverse a case and send it back to trial. Unfortunately, these Judges are not allowing my issues to be granted and they are giving very poor reasons and even sighting facts that do not even exist. I only have two more courts that I can solicit and they are very difficult to get into for a hearing. I am looking for an execution date now. It could come at anytime now.

In order for my case to get the proper attention and for these Judges to make the correct rulings, people have to have concerns about my innocence or that I did not receive a fair and impartial trial process. I cannot find anyone to get my case out to the people and I have been trying for years. 

Once I have enough to afford the postage and copying fees, I will send you a copy of one of my writs, used for my appeal that will provide you with the issues that I have raised. At that time, I will also provide you with statements of witnesses that testified at Adams' trial that stated that Adams had told them that it was he that had committed the murder. These witness­es were never presented at my trial nor did I have knowledge of them. I tried to get these appellate attorneys to raise that fact as an issue on my Federal appeal and they will not do it. It is frustrating as hell!

There is alot more I can tell you, but I am going to close here.

Respectfully,               
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