The ABC Network had a trial last night on 20/20 of a man that was nearly found guilty of a crime he did not commit. It was a story that could have occured to anyone anywhere. It was a compelling story about how justice goes wide of the mark when one person decides to take one’s fate into their own hands. It the case last night, March 5, 2010, it was a Medical Examiner that had lied for over thirty years to get people found guilty. No telling how many blameless people this man sent to prison or worse.
I, too, have a story that parallels that story but this innocent person was killed by the Commonwealth of Virginia. And, it only took them five years to do it. This was a conspiracy of a lot of people, judge, prosecutor, police and defense lawyers. It seems implausible, maybe impossible to you but it happened and I have the proof it happened. It is undeniable proof since it came from the mouths of the people that carried out this horrible crime.
In Roanoke County Virginia in nineteen ninety-seven Earl Bramblett was put on trial for his life. It was a crime that happened in nineteen ninety-four. Four people were found dead, murdered, in a house that had been set on fire. The man, husband and father, Blain Hodges was located in bed upstairs in the house and he had been shot once in the head. His two daughters were discovered in another bedroom and both had been shot twice each in their heads. The wife and mother was located downstairs on a couch and she had been strangled and her body burned beyond recognition. The fire did little structural damage to the house since all the windows and doors had been shut and the fire was smothered from lack of oxygen.
The case was tried in the county seat of Salem, Virginia and heard by Judge Roy Willett. The Commonwealth Attorney of Roanoke County was F.W. (Skip) Burkart and his assistant Randy Leach. Two defense attorneys, appointed by Willett, were Mac Doubles and Terry Grimes.
Let’s begin with the defense attorneys. These were two of the most inexperienced lawyers in the Roanoke Valley. Grimes was exceptionally ineffective and known for losing trials that should have been effortlessly won. Doubles, on the other hand, didn’t have enough familiarity to have a reputation yet. During the trial it was evident these two lawyers were scared by the seriousness of the case and were ill prepared. They had wasted a year, while Bramblett was in the county jail, allegedly planning for this trial. It was apparent they were incompetent, unprepared and scared.
The Commonwealth Attorney Burkart had prepared for the trial and had his “facts” laid out for the trial. These facts were in actuality all lies. The only thing that was a fact that he talked about was the real crime and the victims. Everything else was made of whole cloth, lies, and simply proven so if Bramblett had had a honest defense. He and Randy Leach had prepped a jail house snitch to perjure himself by saying he had made notes of something Bramblett shared with him while in jail. That, also, was a lie. Bramblett had not told him anything he testified to in court. Opening and closing were filled with lies had someone been listening closely.murder
Roy Willett, the judge in the case, sat and oversaw this one sided train wreck of justice and intimidated the inexperienced lawyers while giving Burkart everything he brought up as evidence. A tape made alleged to show the jury how a white truck turned in a “pinkish” red truck under lights Burkart knew was incorrect. Willett was supposed to make sure the trial was fair, but he made sure it wouldn’t be from the beginning by appointing these incompetent lawyers to defend Bramblett. Then he sat and listened while it was principally a trial from the prosecution side only. Nothing of substance was objected to.attorneys
The lead investigator, State Police Investigator Barry Keesee, testified to conversations he had with Bramblett where no one except he heard. He lied by omission by failing to tell the court he had visited Bramblett’s place of employment the morning of the crime, then testified he believed it was a murder/suicide till that afternoon. He couldn’t bring up the visit since it would have destroyed the lie about the murder/suicide. His ‘good ol’ boy” attitude and down-home manner made the lies well-suited for the jury.
So, Bramblett was determined responsible, something that surprised no one, and was given the death penalty. Then the same incompetent Grimes “argued” his case before the Supreme Court of Virginia and, as usual, was denied a new (real) trial. His habeas attorney was Will Lindsey, whom most assumed to be an effective lawyer, but for some incentive, he joined the group and threw Bramblett to the wolves, using the same lies presented in the trial. Lindsey had all the new evidence but chose to sweep it under the rug. Bramblett was killed in just over five years from his trial. This kind of fast track executions are reserved for the Oklahoma City bomber and the Washington, DC sniper.
Obtain important things to know in the sphere of traffic to website – make sure to read this webpage. The times have come when concise info is really only one click away, use this possibility.