20 January 2000
Mr. Don Siegleman
Governor of Alabama
600 Dexter Avenue
Montgomery, AL 36104
Dear Governor:
I am Patrick Swiney's mother.I'm
writing to you to ask you to do whatever you can to set my son free.I've
seen new evidence that shows Patrick did not shoot Betty Snow and Ronnie
Pate.This evidence was never brought
out in the trial.There are other
things that the jury should have seen, but the District Attorney, Mike
Campbell, withheld these things in an effort to get a conviction.This
is wrong.In the beginning, we all
thought Patrick did the shooting but we all believed that he was not in
his right mind.What I fail to understand
is how a case that is almost identical, where a man shot his wife and her
lover in their home, right around the same time as the crime for which
Patrick is imprisoned, allowed this man to serve a total of six (6) years
for manslaughter while my son is serving life without the possibility of
parole.
I'm enclosing copies of
the newspaper articles on the case of Tyrone Robinson.Tyrone
was a disc-jockey and part-time bailiff.He
was a friend of the court.The articles
show that Tyrone put on a tape at the radio station so no one would know
he had left.Then he went to his
house and shot the man he believed to be his wife's lover.Then
he beat up his wife, threw her in a closet, dragged her out and beat her
again, then shot and killed her.Tyrone
first told the courts he thought the man was a burglar.Then
later on he admitted that he shot both of them in a sudden heat of passion
and he was let go.
My son doesn't have any
memory of shooting his wife and her lover.If
he did, he would have told the truth because my son does not lie -- even
if it means he will get into trouble for telling the truth.Now
that I've seen evidence that he did not have any gun powder residue or
blood on his skin or clothing, I can see that the reason he has no memory
of shooting them is because he did not do the shooting.I
don't understand why Mike Campbell hid this evidence from the jury, except
to hide his own wrong-doing.
Please do everything you
can to see that my son receives justice.He
is innocent and deserves his freedom.
Sincerely,
Odelle Swiney
825 Burning Tree Tr.
Alabaster, AL 35007
205-663-2620
