2008 Woodie Awards
David Wong Appeal Denied Again
Although Testimony Proves Innocence, Injustice Prevails
Jason Hortillas
Issue date: 10/16/03 Section: Opinion
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When the word activist comes to mind, the response usually is associated with terms such as tree-hugger, save the whales or hippie peace and love. Those negative connotations have destroyed the very fabric of finding something to fight for. Moreover, even if there is a cause to be supported, many attempt to empathize and still do nothing about it.
Some say the activist is dead. The Civil Rights Movement was a long time ago?, is a phrase I hear from many of my peers. Freedom is an assumed definite for the ignorance is bliss? faction. If someone is locked up, it is not the forces of the system but a person who made the wrong decision. Why is this so cut and dry? If you believe this to be true, go ask David Wong and he'll give you a different story.
What happens when the odds are stacked up against you, and a justice system you initially think lives by its name, has no justice at all? David Wong, 40, a Chinese immigrant was convicted of the March 12, 1986 murder of Tyrone Julius, a fellow inmate of Clinton Prison in New York State.
Wong, an immigrant from China, without any family or fluency in the English language, was pinned as the scapegoat to Julius death. How convenient that a man who has practically no way to defend himself for a charge as serious as murder. Yes, there was an interpreter but Wongs Fukien/Fujian dialect was not one of the tongues under his/her repitore of languages. Contrary to ignorant assumptions, Chinese people dont just speak Chinese.
The last time David Wong saw the outside world, the NY Mets won the World Series. While Daryl Strawberry and Doc Gooden were bidding sobriety adieu, an innocent man was handed to him a 25 to life bid by August 1987.
In a Sept. 30 hearing, 17 years after the initial verdict, the motion was denied for a new trial by Judge Timothy Lawliss stating that new evidence was "unreliable and incredible."
What I find unreliable is Judge Lawliss disregarding two different accounts of Wong's innocence. Now if I heard accounts by John Q. Misinformed stating innocence simply on a whim, I would agree with you.
Some say the activist is dead. The Civil Rights Movement was a long time ago?, is a phrase I hear from many of my peers. Freedom is an assumed definite for the ignorance is bliss? faction. If someone is locked up, it is not the forces of the system but a person who made the wrong decision. Why is this so cut and dry? If you believe this to be true, go ask David Wong and he'll give you a different story.
What happens when the odds are stacked up against you, and a justice system you initially think lives by its name, has no justice at all? David Wong, 40, a Chinese immigrant was convicted of the March 12, 1986 murder of Tyrone Julius, a fellow inmate of Clinton Prison in New York State.
Wong, an immigrant from China, without any family or fluency in the English language, was pinned as the scapegoat to Julius death. How convenient that a man who has practically no way to defend himself for a charge as serious as murder. Yes, there was an interpreter but Wongs Fukien/Fujian dialect was not one of the tongues under his/her repitore of languages. Contrary to ignorant assumptions, Chinese people dont just speak Chinese.
The last time David Wong saw the outside world, the NY Mets won the World Series. While Daryl Strawberry and Doc Gooden were bidding sobriety adieu, an innocent man was handed to him a 25 to life bid by August 1987.
In a Sept. 30 hearing, 17 years after the initial verdict, the motion was denied for a new trial by Judge Timothy Lawliss stating that new evidence was "unreliable and incredible."
What I find unreliable is Judge Lawliss disregarding two different accounts of Wong's innocence. Now if I heard accounts by John Q. Misinformed stating innocence simply on a whim, I would agree with you.