Easy To Get In, Hard to Get Out—No one is safe

Lucius Taylor—After spending 27 Years in Jail for a Murder he did not commit.
THE SOUL JUGGLER Lucius M. Taylor (Author)

The court system in New York State thrives on money. You heard of the phrase… “Money makes the work go round!”

“This is so true!” I am living proof, 27 years of incarceration.. for a crime I didn’t commit. My trial lasted 3 weeks and there was a lot of foul play taking place by the court.

I came from a public assistance household and couldn’t afford a private attorney. Because of this I was given a court appointed lawyer who had no prestige and my life was taken away.

For a murder trial I should have been given a top notched lawyer and defense team.. Had that taken place I would not have been forced to grow up in a cage belonging to a dark world.. where I lived in fear for THREE DECADES. After all; this was my life I was fighting for. I know of cases where criminals charged with the same crime got their cases or trial dismissed or thrown out because of their hired, well respected private attorneys.

In my case… the evidence was so weak and bogus that  4 other judges refused to take it before landing in the lap of corrupted judge Aiello. The other judges didn’t want to touch the case. I have supporting documents to prove it.

My trial was a circus. I have trial minutes that show the alleged eyewitness against me stating…when cross examined by the District attorney and my defense attorney. “What did you see Lucius Taylor do? While pointing me out to him. He said he didn’t know. Further questioning. “Did you see Lucius Taylor there at the crime?” Again he stated he didn’t know!” that’s when Judge Ronald Aiello coerced him to say I was there. I didn’t know the legal terminology as a 19 years old kid, but I knew that what was taking place in my trial was not right.   

My court appointed lawyer never called my eyewitness, nor subpoenaed them. Neither did he use the supporting evidence that was sure to support my innocence in the mind of the jurors because they were probably watching the same show at the same time and date the crime took place and would have known that I couldn’t have been at the scene of the crime because the T.V. show didn’t end until after the crime had taken place. My lawyer had an investigator retrieve the documents from NBC showing the date and time the show aired and ended. And he advised me not to use it. “What do I know”, he told me to trust him with the other strategy which caused me my life.  

 I have met “inmates” who have won or gotten their case reduced to a lesser sentencing on the account of their paid private attorney. The courts always give you an ultimatum; like in my case they offered me 5 to 15 years for manslaughter as a cop out. When I told the “inmates” in the holding pen and in the county jail what the district attorney had offered most of them advised me to take it because if I blow the trial I will be spending the rest of my life in prison.. and I don’t want that. The courts know what they are doing.

 Most took the offer saving the court major expenses in the process while spending lesser time in prison.. I had been fighting the court of appeals forever. Pointing out their faults and errors in their false accusation. I have gotten responses back from the appellate division stating that I had a valid point however it wasn’t preserved for appellate review, or it was a harmless error. “A Harmless Error!” outraged; I was stunned. “This decision was one that caused me life in prison” That was an answer I received when I accused them of jury misconduct based on a sworn affidavit from one of the jurors who stated we (my co-defendants and I) didn’t have a fair trial because the jurors were smoking marijuana in the deliberating room while making a decision on my life.   

          Profiling in prison is known as being labeled. And the DOCS staff treat you accordingly. If a correctional officer don’t like you he or she can ruin you and make you a target to the rest of the prison population. That is how much power they have behind the wall.  Any fight for dignity gets you solitary confinement. It is abused, if you question authority of any wrong doing you were put in solitary confinement. your stay is extended if you have gotten any infractions the disciplinary officer can not like you, and send you there with excessive solitary for minor offenses. Some prisoners have grown so immuned to it that they can’t function in the general population.

  Solitary confinement got so popularly compelling that the DOCS received funds from the government to build long term disciplinary facilities in New York State. To house for small infractions, it doesn’t matter but they had to keep the facilities functioning in order to receive funds from the government and the governor receive funds from the Feds.         

I believe there is a great deal of falsely incarcerated people, though it may be a small percentage in comparison to the the mass prison population. Corrupt police men, if you look at most of the arrests in Brooklyn New York in the 1980’s. You will see most of the arrests occur during the election.  District attorneys, and judges are responsible for this endemic outbreak. There is no fairness in the judicial system or the department of corrections, nor the Executive department. Power can corrupt and there are many helpless souls to prey upon. You could be minding your business and a C.O, may not like you and make your incarcerated life a living hell.

There is no fairness in the judicial system or politics. And the Department of corrections in NYS is its “Warehouse of deception!” No one is safe!!!   

                                                        THE SOUL JUGGLER Lucius M. Taylor (Author)