I am not in any way personally connected to Frank Wetzel, but having learned of his case, have become increasingly outraged and wish to reverse this 52-year old miscarriage of justice.
The evidence on his side is overwhelming and compelling.
Eighty-eight year-old Frank Wetzel, a New Yorker who has been wrongfully incarcerated in North Carolina since 1958, was found guilty in two separate trials of killing two State Troopers who were shot nearly 50 miles apart – and within 20 minutes of each other. The evidence presented in the trials should have exonerated him of both murders, not convicted him. The police engaged in a clumsy and transparent attempt to frame the only suspect rounded up after the murders.
The sole “eyewitness” recanted his testimony in 1986. He said he had implicated Frank Wetzel because, as a black man in North Carolina police custody in the 1950’s, he had feared for his life while a police officer stood over him with a blackjack until he identified Mr. Wetzel as the murderer.
Frank Wetzel was not represented by counsel in his first hearings in those pre-Miranda days. His court-appointed attorney was an ex-FBI agent who provided ineffective assistance of counsel.
- He had not challenged glaringly conflicting and inconsistent testimony.
- The sole “eyewitness” described the killer as dark-complexioned and Hispanic, with a foreign accent—whereas Frank Wetzel is fair-skinned, was born in the U.S., and has no foreign accent.
- The car was described as two-toned; Mr. Wetzel’s car was black.
- A page in a hotel log that would have proved Frank Wetzel was far from the scene of the crimes was found to be missing, having been clumsily torn out of the book.
- Finally, saying the case was “too hot” at the time, Mr. Wetzel’s court-appointed attorney advised him not to appeal the convictions.
- Having not appealed within the legal time frame, Mr. Wetzel was denied recourse to later legal rulings protecting his rights as the accused.
In sum, Mr. Wetzel’s counsel made serious errors which prejudiced the defense – errors so serious that he was not functioning as the ‘counsel’ guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment. When Mr. Wetzel did not receive the death sentence for these heinous murders, the jurors said that seemed only fair: After all, they said, there was “reasonable doubt” as to his guilt. Reasonable doubt was an understatement, since counsel entirely failed to subject the prosecution’s case to any meaningful adversarial testing.
As if all this were not enough, Mr. Wetzel has been eligible for parole since 1978, yet, among the longest-serving U.S. prisoners, he still remains behind bars. His regular requests for a review of his case have been denied. No justification is required.
Because of the length of incarceration and Mr. Wetzel’s advanced age; because the evidence points to his innocence, not guilt, in these crimes; and because he was wrongfully convicted and denied his constitutionally-guaranteed rights, with the help and support of Mr. Wetzel’s family and a foundation they are starting, I am launching an appeal to North Carolina Governor Perdue to grant Frank Wetzel immediate clemency.
To sign the petition please go to:
http://helenfogarassy.com/petition-to-free-frank-wetzel/
or click on the “Wetzel Petition” link in the menu at the top of the page.
If you wish to read more, including citations from original news articles from 1957 through the present, please read my earlier blog posts below. There is also additional information at freefrankwetzel.com.
Thank you,
Helen Fogarassy
