June 20, 2004Brian and Ruth Christine Newsletter: Edition 21
June 2004 Newsletter
June 8th
Dear Leonard,
Here are a couple of poems that I wrote to go into our writing book for the last writing class I was in here. Please put them on with the next newsletter. Thanks. God Bless. Ruth
June 20, 2004
Dear Leonard-
Here's a recent picture of scruffy old me =) with a couple friends. You can't see it very well, but my new guitar is under the bleachers there. I saw your website mentioned in Oregon Judicial Watch. You must get quite a few hits on that website huh? Isn't it hard to believe that it's been nearly 3 years since we committed our "heinous crime"? Thank you for providing a place were people can read about us and what's going on behind prison doors. I'm sorry you now need to type it, too bad I lost my computer job. Oh well. God has been good to me and I am thankful. God Bless you Leonard!
Brian Christine
Hello there! Greetings to you from now sunny Oregon. At least it's sunny here in Eastern Oregon anyways.
We enjoyed a really wet and mild spring which helped the plants to produce extra pollen, enough to set my allergies off for the 1st time in 2 years here.
The big news no doubt at the moment is that Ruth and I lost or Direct Appeal at the 1st level. But it comes as a relief to me so I know how to proceed legally. The limbo part is the worst. God has answered some prayers and I will give Him proper praise herein. But 1st, the traditional disclaimer whether necessary or not (it's tradition now =)
Disclaimer- This newsletter is not published by and organization, a religion, a group, a company or an association. This newsletter is nothing more than words on paper. Readers are not members of any of the above and shall not be labeled as such.
Quote: "Just keep on telling your storm how big your God is instead of telling God how big your storm is." Danielle Cloukey
That quote is by a fine young lady studying literature in Washington who corresponds with Ruth and I and has bee an incredible inspiration and encouragement to the both of us. Thank you Lord for the gift of Danielle.
I need to also thank our Father in Heaven for answering my prayers for better contact with our oldest 3 daughters. I am now able to call them in England once a month. Bethany is always waiting by the phone and that really touches my heart. Our youngest two in Indiana get to talk to me very frequently on the phone from day to day. This is a major blessing.
Although she hasn't said so, I suspect Ruth's finger has fully healed back and is doing fine. Her job answering phone calls for DMV is in full summer swing. I remain jobless but I make cards and suckers(?), from which I make enough. In prison you figure out a way to meet just about any need, you just do it with creativity and time rather than with money as on the streets. I recently started illustrating with color pencils for a book I'd like to do on fairies, sort of a kids book that adults would love too.
But now that we've heard back on our appeal, I need to do a lot of legal work which is very time consuming (and confusing for someone like me).
So here goes an explanation of what is going on with our court situation- The Oregon Court of Appeals is who you go to for your direct appeal. Any objections or possible mistakes during trial are brought to the attention and they rule whether there is merit to any of the points or not.
In our case, we argued that we never intended to steal the van permanently, only to borrow it, as it was left behind 2 miles down the road. It gets really technical but basically the court of appeals said that the trial court was right in allowing our convictions.
The good news is that it only took them 7 months to do our case and they actually wrote an opinion on our case. Often they just rubber stamp it without even looking at the facts. So I go 2 prayers answered this week- That we'd get news back and that I would have an opinion to work from. So now we appeal the Oregon Appellate Court's decision to the Oregon Supreme Court to see if perhaps the lower court made a mistake in their judgments.
Hopefully our attorney pro bono, Ed Steel will file that for us. If we lose at that level (Oregon Supreme Court) then we are officially convicted 100% and we go on what's called "Post Conviction" appeals. This is where you appeal to the local county were you're being held and say "Look, I'm being held illegally in prison here because of XY &Z" A local judge in you county reviews this.
Finally, after this level (if you lose yet again) you move for a Federal Habeas Corpus which is an appeal to the Federal Government to correct some mistake the state has made in convicting you, etc.
I will do all the post-conviction work myself pro se. This is what I' already working on now because once your Oregon Supreme Curt ruling is made, you only have a year to file your Federal Habeas Corpus, so there's a timeline and every day is precious.
The difficulty comes in having to sift through 100's of cases and pick out which ones support your arguments in you own case. It's a lot of work and it takes a lot of energy.
In other news, some friends and Ruth contributed to a little fund and bought me a guitar and case. I practice it every morning from 8:30 to 9:30 and it seems to come quite naturally to me. Thank you Debbi, Nancy, Ruth, and anyone else who made it possible =). Thank you!
Ruth and I are going through some interesting times in our relationship. I'm giving her a little space at the moment to sort of get her bearings and figure out what she wants in life and were she's headed. Pleas pray that she lean on God and not on her own understanding. She is such a beautiful person and it's difficult for me to let go of my attachment to her, but that's been on my prayer list and God seems to be doing it.
I'll bet you all are really enjoying the summer out there! To those in the east, please say hello to the fire flies for me. I miss them. It's been five years since I've played with God's little flash lights=).
Quote: "No one can make me feel inferior without my permission."- Eleanor Roosevelt
God bless you all!!
Love, Brian and Ruth Christine
