Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor,

This complaint is to bring to the attention of the media and the citizens of Leon County the corruption of the criminal justice system in the county.

I have lived in this county for a number of years and have personally witnessed the corruption that goes on here. Sadly, I waited until a family member, my son, was the victim of such corruption. My son, out of passion, shot his wife--an offense he never denied--and I thank God she lived through it all and she's able to live a normal life. My son took full responsibility for the offense he committed but was charged for an offense he did not commit. He was charged with burglary of a habitation, which arrived out of the same episode where he had been in the residence talking with his wife before she was shot. Therefore, there is no way he should have been charged with a burglary where he was authorized to be in the residence where the alleged burglary was to have occurred.

As I stated from the beginning, my son did commit aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, an offense the both of us are very sorry happened, but he's actually innocent of the offense in which he has been sentenced to life in prison for. At trial my son never had a fair chance to defend himself against the charges because the jury consisted of all white females and one white male. Because a black male was accused of a burglary of a habitation where his wife was shot, this jury would convict on any charge the DA put before them, especially where one has admitted he shot his wife (which amounts to aggravated assault).

It is the law of the land that one cannot have a fair trial where the entire jury panel is all white, as the United States Supreme Court ruled in Batson v. Kentucky. In this trial, Batson, a white defendant, was tried and convicted by an all white jury. The court reversed his conviction and granted him a new trial. It wrote in its opinion that no matter the race of the defendant, one may not be tried in a court of law where there are no minorities on the jury panel.

The trial where Lynn Cornelius Relerford was tried for an offense that was never committed was no less than a mockery of justice. The United States Supreme Court's rulings are the law of the land and apply not only to Texas, but also Leon County judges, D.A.s, lawyers, and law enforcement. I have taken it upon myself to bring this to the attention of the State Board of Judicial Conduct, the State Bar of Texas, and the Court of Criminal Appeals.

I'm not saying my son Lynn Relerford is innocent: he assaulted his wife out of sudden passion, which he takes full responsibility for. However, he never committed the offense of burglary of a habitation. Furthermore, there is no way the trial could be said to have been a fair trial where there was not one juror of his ethnicity sitting on the jury.

Alvin Relerford