A Can of Judicial Worms
It's quite clear within the findings of the higher court judges involved with Jason's case, that it was not in their best interest to find that his original trial had been a failure of the system. From judge to judge, one ruling after another, is an exercise in gross negligence. They breeze through all the rights that were violated (throwing yet another on top of the pile) and in each finding each one moves on to the "bigger" issue at had. That, of course, is how they don't want this "can of worms" opened, the "can" being whether or not a judge who is a victim of sexual assault should be ruling over the trial of someone accused of sexual assault - more directly, a BENCH trial where they are the sole decider. With no precedent in Iowa at the time of Jason's case, this became ALL that it was about. An intellectually disabled boy was insignificant at this point and setting this case aside in anyway simply opened the door to problems that the judges were not going to allow to upset their lives. Jason would ultimately be the pawn that they would sacrifice. They read their unwillingness to let this case unravel, right into their findings, speaking of judicial meeting before hand to "confer" over this matter. They gave concerns such as: opening this can will open the door to every judge's personal life, that every convict will want to pursue their judge's past relentlessly - and that soon no one would want to be a judge anymore. Certainly a clear undermining of such coveted power - can't have anyone challenging their judgements While it can be argued that there are times when someone needs to be in charge of making final decisions - this leaves quite a nasty taste of how they really view their position when they are sacrificing someone's very rights to protect their own. This an abuse of power that goes beyond criminal, and they do so without hesitation, proving that they already hold themselves so high above the law that we can't touch them. They have excluded themselves from "We The People" and have moved on to find a more perfect union of their own.. This system has been left unchecked for so long and become so corrupted that the constitution with the bill of rights has become toilet paper for the powerful.
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Jeremy Jason Mann's case is a shocking testament to the absurdity of our legal system and it's blatant disregard for the truth. It is truly an eye-opening look into how the value of human life is meaningless when it comes to preserving the integrity of the court itself. An integrity that has become so corrupt in it's unchecked misuse of power that all common sense and rationality is disregarded at the expense of the helpless innocent
His story is a true and factual account of how the simple truth can be overlooked so many times that the world no longer makes sense. Sentencing a boy - without the cognitive skills to fully understand what has happened - to life without parole (for a crime that never took place). is a punishment so cruel that it's beyond comprehension.
For what is life without the possibility of hope?
Miscarriage of Justice
At the age of 19 and still a junior in high school, Jeremy Jason Mann was convicted in 1991 of Kidnapping in the First Degree and Attempted Murder. For these two charges he was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for the first charge, and an additional 25 years for the second. Jason, as referred to by his family, was born at home with the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck three times and suffered brain damage due to the oxygen deprivation. He grew up always in special needs and education classes, and diagnosed as intellectually slow and mentally challenged, his IQ scores always coming in under 75 - which is the simplest explanation for how this all happened to him. Why it happened is a really long story - so here I will try to sum up WHAT happened. His rights were so violated in almost every step of the process, that not only is his case a pure travesty - but the details seems unbelievable. So, with that said, bear in mind that every detail listed below can be verified by documents I've uploaded to this website. Links will be provided to all statements of fact as I'm slowly working through this site and once again his case files. The day this happened was the last day of Jason's freedom, the next day the 7 year old girl went to school.
His Alibi - On May 30, 1991 a few minutes before 3:30pm, Jason was pulled over by an officer and given a ticket for heading the wrong way down a one-way street in front of the high school where he was picking up his brother. After an admonishing by the officer he was given a ticket timed at 3:35. At 3:30, a couple blocks away, the abduction he would be accused of was taking place. This ticket that should have kept him from ever even being considered a suspect - was the instrument of his fate.
The Incident - At 3:44pm the police got a call of a possible assault that took place a few blocks from the high school.. A 7 year-old girl named Esther claimed she'd been grabbed just as she was almost home from school and taken to an isolated spot by the Winnabago River where she was assaulted then thrown into the river.
The Police Officers Within moments of arriving at the scene the officers learned that the girl reported a brown truck. Since Jason's truck was brown, he became the one and only suspect from that moment on.. After taking her home so she could change clothes, they took her and father back to the police station where they recorded the first of two interviews. Even though her further description of the truck was clearly not Jason's, he continued to be the only suspect. Her certainty that the man's truck had brown Wisconsin license plates, no tailgate and had little seats in the back (Jason's did not), didn't stop the officers from proceeding (and by this point that included the chief of police and the prosecutor who would end up prosecuting the case).. They had the girl go to the hospital for an examination then out to dinner with her parents. When she got back to the station they took her out on drive by the house where Jason lived with his parents, at which point they state she said that truck looked like the one. Jason's brother happens to be out in the yard on the first of their three trips around the block, and she states that looks like him. (they look nothing alike) They then take her back to the station where she makes the second video recorded interview.
The Arrest and Search Warrants - By 8pm, one officer, the chief and county prosecutor has filled out the warrant applications - and taking the first recording to the magistrate even before the second interview was completed. The information given by the officer, is not even factual. Jason is pulled from his sleep and arrested at 11:15 that night.
The Interrogation - By midnight, this same officer has started questioning Jason. he begin by only audio taping for a half hour or so, then takes him to another room where they begin video taping. Before the end of that first video tape, very tired and confused, Jason does start trying to guess what the officer wants him to confess too - simply using the cues that the officers drops. But by the end of the hour and 22 minutes on that tape it is very clear the officer has lost his patience (and officer who has reprimands in his file for his anger) . Then that tape abruptly ends, it is claimed that it ran out and they couldn't find another one for approximately 20 minutes to a half hour while the interrogation goes on.. There is no time stamp on these videos. Amazingly, one is found and put in the recorder at the exact time the officer is sitting down to tell Jason that now the need write this up and have him sign it and they.'ll be done. When Jason is reluctant to write it himself, the officer does it for him, leaving his notes of what Jason needs to confess to just off camera.
The public defender - This delightful man is assigned Jason's case and immediately moves for a trial by judge that following week at the arraignment and never arranges for Jason to have a competency test. In fact, up until this point no one has questioned this after being made aware of Jason's handicap from the very beginning, besides the obvious signs of it. It was documented the year before that Jason was at the emotional maturity level of a twelve year old. There was simply no way that Jason understood at that time what he was up against or anything that his lawyer would have advised him on. Throughout the few months before the trial, no investigation was ever done - even after he stumble over discrepancy after another during the depositions. and during the "trial" itself that lasts all of two days. On the third day the prosecution rests - and immediately after so does the defense. No witnesses called, no mention of the time factor or the fact that Jason had the best alibi an accused could want, no closing argument or even a comment.
The Judge - Judge Mackey finds Jason guilty of the charges, reasoning that discrepancies in the girls testimony are overshadowed by the evidence, even though none was presented. The lab results showed no sperm was present, the sweep of the truck failed to turn up any prints or hair of the girl, the medical exam showed no injuries or anything to back up an assault or attempted murder. Those charges are all dependent on the ever-changing testimony of the 7 year old girl, who states right on the stand that the chief and an officer had pointed out to her who the suspect was in the book of mugshot used for a line up the following day. After Jason's arrest they used the double exposure photo that the sheriffs had taken and inserted in amongst the police station mug shots with completely different backgrounds. She also states that she'd seen him plenty of times before the trial on the television and in the newspapers. When asked why her description of his clothes changed to match those in evidence, she states because she didn't remember them correctly until they showed her the pictures of them before the trial. The judge uses her identification in court, the "confession" and the fact that her red tweety-bird backpack was found at the scene as overwhelming evidence.
The sentence - Within a few weeks after the sentencing to mandatory life without parole, it comes to light that the judge was sexually abused as a child. He admits in a deposition taken before the post-conviction relief hearing that following April, that he should have recused himself. And in fact, he does recuse himself of that hearing. But during the course of that hearing which takes place in another county, Judge Mackey is seen by several witnesses and the newly hired appellate attorney, coming out of the new judge's chambers. They both refuse to be questioned or answer to what was taking place. During this hearing several of the witnesses that should have been called before appear to give accounts that support Jason's innocence along with many of the discrepancies and even an added bonus of the interrogating officer perjuring himself on the stand. Yet the relief was denied
The appellate attorney - After Jason was convicted, his parents hired a young lawyer from Des Moines who spent the remainder of Jason's appeal over the next decade pursuing the judge who tried the case in hopes of setting a precedent. He does succeed in getting the conviction overturned several years later, but that is quickly upheld later. He takes this course right through to the habeas corpus, then tells Jason's parents that there's nothing else that he can do after that.
The Mother - And finally this brings me to the cause of all this, without question, jason's mother is 100% to blame for the outcome of Jason's life.
Jeremy Jason Mann has spent every day of his life since that day of the ticket locked away in the Iowa prison system. They have, thankfully, kept him segregated from the general population for the most part but spent a great deal of time shuffling him from prison to prison. And they have to commended for their quick action here recently when he was found on the floor with no pulse. But now his health issues are of concern as diet and medical care have been almost non-existent before. He has been treated poorly all around, which I'm sure is do to a lack of understanding on both sides. These are just a few of the glaring things that went wrong during this fiasco, because underneath it all, Jason's full story is truly heartbreaking. There is no doubt of his innocence or the fact that everything above and more took place in Mason City Iowa. And to call this unjust, or simply a miscarriage of justice is an understatement. I've heard it said that our legal system is broken, but I tend to believe it got thrown out with the bath water.
