Cannon Trial 2

Derek Cannon Trail

Cannon Trial page 3
Louis Jones: This inmate, who by all actions, was the state’s star witness and who the state held up as the key to the bulk of their convictions, testified that I had nothing to do with the deaths in L6. This is the same witness that the prosecutors told the jurors was going to tell the truth because he was testifying under an oath of immunity of four (4) of those deaths in L6. But now, all of a sudden, when he says that I wasn’t involved, Louis Jones, who had been praised in several major newspapers by the head prosecutor, was a liar and should not be believed. [See document 8] The same person whose testimony had been used to assist the state in putting a man (Keith Lamar) on death row was now a scumbag out to sabotage the prosecution, “Don’t believe him,” they said.
Hiawatha Frezzell: This inmate testified that I was a part of the so-called Death Squad. However, since my trial, Hiawatha has recanted his testimony and presented the truth in the form of a signed and notarized affidavit [See document 7], admitting that the state forced him to commit perjury when he was told to take the stand and say that I was a member of the Death Squad.
By this point, it was obvious that the state was grasping at straws (so to speak), trying to piece together a case that in truth was non-existent. I found out after my trial, that the judge had made several comments to my lawyer and the prosecutor that he had doubts about my guilt [See document 14] . However, in a last-ditch effort to secure a guilty verdict, the state resorted to one of the oldest and ugliest tactics in the book, the jailhouse snitch.
Dwayne Buckley: This inmate, a prisoner at the Hamilton County Jail (Cincinnati, Ohio) serving time on drug (crack) related charges, testified that I, in a fit of overwhelming grief and guilt, confessed to torturing and then murdering the guard, who was killed during the disturbance. According to Dwayne, I was so over-burdened by what I did that I just had to tell somebody, anybody and that he just happened to be in the right place at the right time. He said, that over a period of 7-8 days, he had gotten to know me to the point that I felt comfortable enough to tell my darkest secrets. It was unbelievable!
In the first place, I arrived at the Hamilton County Jail the evening of August 25, 1995, two and a half days before Dwayne Buckley was released on the morning of August 28, 1995, not the 7-8 days that he testified to. Secondly, as I was a high-profile prisoner and therefore, separated from the general population, as policy dictates, Dwayne and I would never have been allowed around each other without the presence of a County Jail Deputy Sheriff. In point of actual fact, I’ve never spoken to him, let alone confessed to murdering someone. Lastly, I was never charged with the guard’s death. Furthermore, just this year (2004), I received a certified document from the Department of Corrections, showing that there is no possible way I could have been in L-block when the guard was killed. [See document 15] So, to say I confessed in an attempt to relieve my conscience was nonsense. The general consensus was that Dwayne Buckley’s testimony was the pivot that turned the verdict towards guilt. Even that judge had to laugh at that. [See document 14]
“If you truly believe in justice, then there’s no way you can deny that I deserve your support and, your voice…Please help.” - Derek Cannon