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Voices From
Victims of Grief
My name is Tracey Watkins. I'm writing to you to tell you about my husband Daryl Watkins. Most of the time; people assume that the only folk's falsely convicted are deathrow victim's, which I know death is the ultimate price, but there are still many other falsely convicted victim's out there. My husband is one such man. He was convicted over twelve year's ago of an armed robbery of a Grand Ole Market. At the time he was on parole for fencing stolen property; and third degree burglary. My husband had only been out of prison for a month when he was rearrested for an armed robbery; the judge said he had moved up to more serious crime's. He took a best interest plea under the insistence of a public defender.
About four year's ago I hired a private investigator. We found out that there were two robberies, seven day's apart. The first victim was black like my husband. The witness there at the store also identified the robbery suspect's. Instead of the police department going after them; they took a picture of my husband. The victim told them numerous times that that wasn't the man that robbed them. They let the case drop, but there was a video tape with the robbery suspect's on it. Seven day's later another Grand Ole Market was robbed. This time the victim's were white. They gave a description which matched the first two suspect's, still the police didn't take their mugshot's instead the took my husband's, told the victim's he was on parole, and convinced them that he was the man. My husband was given thirty year's, at thirty percent. Each time he goes for parole we are denied.
Anyway the private investigator started checking into thing's. We found out that there were fingerprint's taken at both location's. When we requested them they mysteriously got lost. The video tape which we could have digitized is lost. Recently one of the policemen involved sent me a letter stating the video tape has been destroyed. The DA's office didn't feel it was of importance. My attorney asked for the file from the DA's office. It's lost. Also the file at the public defender's office is lost. Just recently one of our state representative's did ask for my information, to find out whether or not he could find the video tape, since my husband is still incarcerated. Also one of the victim's of the second robbery informed me that he did not pick my husband out of the photo line up Also he didn't even know anyone went to jail for that robbery. Nobody in Tennessee has ever been released for a crime that they did not commit. We are hoping to change that static.
I've hired four attorney's and one private investigator. It is very expensive. Luckily now I can afford it. What I found out over the year's is that in Tennessee the DA's office is given thousand's of dollar's more then the public defender's office. Also the public defender involved in our case never once questioned my husband's alibi. He didn't talk with one person, and by his own admission, stated that he only went by what the police department told him.
Sincerely,
Tracey Watkins
Wife imprisoned with invisible bar's
