UPDATE 12.22.07: Eric is home!
This from Shawn in an email Sat 12/22/07:
yo everybody! as you all prolly know, e is free! pretty figgin nuts what all just went down. you can’t make this stuff up. can’t even imagine whats going thru his head. he was the headlining story on CNN’s website last night. here’s a clip from last night as well. http://www.newschannel5.com/global/story.asp?s=7533451
Some of you may have heard of Eric Volz.Eric is a friend of a friend who was wrongly accused of murder down in Nicaragua. Eric was living down there, running a magazine called El Puente at the time of his conviction. He’s been held in prison down there for a little over a year.The court proceeding that convicted Eric was a complete joke. Evidence demonstrating that Eric was 100% innocent was thrown out and/or not allowed in court. Basically the Nicaraguan judicial system is completely corrupt and Eric’s 30 year sentence is a result.
The Nicaraguan media has sensationalized the case to the point that almost everyone associated with the court case is locked into an ‘Eric is Guilty’ mentality or else they receive death threats.
Good News: The local Appellate Court overturned his conviction on Dec 17th and demanded his immediate release from prison.
Bad News: He’s still being held in prison because the judge that originally convicted him, who is supposed to sign the release papers has essentially refused to sign the papers. Im sure she’s receiving death threats.
This story just trips me out. Its like a movie but it’s happening to someone relatively close to me. I can’t imagine what this guy is going through. Makes all the shit i’ve ever gone through in life seem pretty small.
Here’s to a safe and speedy return home.
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