Current Status Of The Case, An October 20 Deadline For Filing My Appeal

To My Friends, Supporters and Other

Interested Folks Who Visit The Blog

10/1/11

(Please note that on 10/21/2011 Michael's attorney was granted a 30 day extension of time. This article was written three weeks prior to that.)

My dear 98 year old Dad wrote and said it is not yet clear what the status of my
case is, and what the probabilities of me getting out are. I felt I had clarified
that in recent writings, but I want to be certain that I’ve done a good job on
that complex situation, so I’ll address this again.

In short, I’m 100% confident that I’ll be released and be completely exonerated. A court will eventually rule that I was intentionally framed via one of, if not
the largest, fraud in California’s judicial system in decades. Perhaps I should say
I’m only 99% confidant of success because of the vagaries of the court system, and that my sworn enemy Colleen Campbell has both so much juice in the criminal justice system, and so much to lose when I’m released. That is because I will expose many multi-million dollar felony crimes by her attorneys, two of whom were trial witnesses against me, and her.

Let me address the reduction to the 99% confidence of prevailing rather than 100%. Although I’ll submit to that, I don’ t really believe it. Knowing my case like I do, and the law, it is simply impossible for me to believe that every one of the eight courts we will have an opportunity to present my direct appeal and/or habeas corpus petition to will fail to enforce the law on every one of my now over 100 (yes, one hundred plus) powerful trial errors and defenses. Any one of these should cause reversal.

Those eight courts are the steps as we go to higher courts, if we lose at the next
lower court. Please recall that we have never yet been able to present my appeal
to any court. All of the filings I’ve apprised you of, by myself or my lawyer, were
merely trying to get our “trial record”, that has been ostensibly “lost” for over
4½ years (crucial parts of it). They just “found” these lost parts on 9/20/11.

We were not able to file the direct appeal until we had those records. We now have a deadline to file our AOB (Appellant's Opening Brief) on October 20, years over-due. Indications are strong that was an intentional delay. Our trial judge used to work for the lead prosecutor in my trial. She was blatantly biased against the defense.

I don't know whether my state appointed lawyer will file on time, although I doubt the appeal court will give her many, if any, continuances since they were so upset when learning of the delay by me bringing it to their attention. I’m torn as to whether I want her to file by 10/20 or not. First I really want to get this going. However the flip side of that coin is that for the motion-to-dismiss I’ve been advising that I will be filing, has a far better probability of sending me home now, before Christmas, based on law; if it gets filed before the appeal gets filed.

The problem with that is that I was initially delayed by the guards taking
my boxes of legal records that I needed to file. Now that I’ve gotten that settled and I’m ready with the information/evidence, I’m short $300 to pay the person who I need to finalize this very complex pleading.

The reason the motion-to-dismiss is so desirable is that the direct appeal has
statutory briefing schedules for state answers and our reply. That means that the
earliest my appeal could be decided is realistically summer 2012. The motion-to-
dismiss is much quicker, with a decision that should have me home by Christmas.

Before I go into listing the procedures and the eight courts we can present to, let me address a couple of key facts. I cannot give you all or even most of our defenses on the blog (that will be also read by the prosecution). However, if you will read first my writing on the unlawful conspiracy jury instruction, that is one of our dozen-most powerful defenses. That alone should automatically reverse my conviction. Then read the JACKSON & DIXON LIES TO THE JUDGE and JURY, particularly Exhibit D. Those are outright frauds on the court by the DDAS (Deputy District Attorneys).

Then read the 20 perjuries I’ve detailed with evidence by “the #1 source of case
information", Colleen Campbell’s lawyer, Dolores Cordell. Although these combined are not 10% of our rock-solid defenses, and do not include any of the top six defenses, any one of them should reverse the conviction. Recall that controlling law that has been scanned onto the blog rules that perjury causes automatic reversal. Evidence proves over 70 (seventy+) material perjuries at just the Los Angeles proceeding.

Now, here are the eight courts we have available to present these defense to. In
most cases there is also a procedure called a “Request for Reconsideration” at each level. Although not often granted, that gives us more than a dozen “bites at the apple” to have justice prevail. I assure you that Campbell’s culture of corruption-juice does not reach up through all of the courts.

1. The Second District Appellate, State Court. Due 10/20/11.

If we lose there, we go to:

2. The California Supreme Court. That is the end of the line for the direct appeal.

And, that is not all bad since our hands are really tied on the direct appeal. It
is limited to issues/evidence which is on-the-record (0TR), things that came up
at trial. Thus most of the 70+ perjuries, the 250+ instances of the District
Attorney hiding evidence that would have helped me, and much more, all identified since trial, cannot generally be brought into the direct appeal. For this reason, and that my State appointed lawyer may not be paid enough to really dig into the details of the case, I only give us a 50% probability of prevailing on the direct.

There are sufficient issues/errors and facts for us to win, but my appeal lawyer is
of the mindset that “they have no evidence, we don’t need to worry about the
details", (she just wrote me this). So, I’ll forecast just a 50% probability. My
appeal lawyer’s comment is chilling. It echoes eerily what my State appointed
trial lawyer told John Bradley and me when she refused to put on the many pieces of evidence which we had and would have destroyed the District Attorney's case.

3. Then we do our habeas corpus petition (habeas), on which I will use someone else besides my State lawyer, and all the frauds, perjuries, fabrication of evidence, witness threats, false police reports, lies by the prosecutors and investigators get to come in. We will prevail on this one. The six additional opportunities are:

A) The Superior Court, the original trial court.

B) Again the 2nd District.

C) Again the Calif. Supreme Court.

Now the Feds:

D) The Central Federal District.

E) The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

F) The United States Supreme Court.

As we go higher the courts "accept for review” fewer cases, but the Judges are
generally better legal scholars and the chances are less of inappropriate influence. 37% of murder convictions across the U.S., in a recent 20 year period, were reversed or remanded back to a lower court for rehearings, primarily for State misconduct.

Dozens of Constitutional denials of due process guarantee we will prevail!

God Bless You All,
Thank You for Your Support

Michael Goodwin

Summary of Why I Am Still in Prison and How We Know That I Will Go Home Soon

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(This late message from Michael has just been added: "After filing 6 large pleadings totaling over 600 pages and persistently turned down twice, I just received a fabulous court ruling!! It does not say go home, but it will force the government to produce evidence that will allow me to go home more quickly!!") - June 27, 2011
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All this is explained in detail in the full 12 page Summary. I'm still in only because I have not been able to file any Appeal four years after my conviction, which we can easily prove was Constitutionally invalid (when we are finally allowed to present my case to the higher, reviewing Court). We have more than 100 (one hundred) times the evidence needed to prove my innocence and prove I was intentionally framed.

We have not been able to yet file my Appeal since the biased Court who convicted me, the District Attorney, and also my Public Defender, have all claimed that they cannot find some critical sealed records which were to be kept under lock and key. These "lost" records are a few hundred pages out of 47,000 pages of official evidence… and I'm not able to file my Appeal without them. All three of these groups are State agencies. Since the State will have to write me a State record awards settlement of $30,000,000 or much more, it is clear what is going on.

Most Appeals are filed within months and decided within a year. The law requires that the Court produce a full record of the proceedings within 60 days following the filing of a "Notice of Appeal'. Mine was filed on 3/1/07, over four years ago. I recently located a case with a delay of only three years and eight months, which the higher Federal Court called "alarming" and ordered the inmate released within 90 days. I will have a MOTION T0 DISMISS filed under that controlling law within 30 days. That is our 1st attack.

There are, as I said above, at least 100 truly slam-dunk legal approaches that will reverse my unlawful, provably fabricated, via many criminal acts which I have briefed and evidenced, conviction. A pleading alleging these crimes was filed with the Superior Court on 4/18/11, with over 250 pages of conclusive supporting evidence. My biggest problem, aside from the continuing, obvious delay by the State actors to obstruct justice, a Penal Code (PC) 182 (1) through (5) felony, is choosing “what first“. And, as long as I'm waiting I keep digging for what else I can find. Here are keys:

I. The MOTION TO DISMISS above based upon the "alarming" intentional delay. The State has not even paid my lawyer on my case for over three years, so she slowed down.

II. The Judge gave three illegal jury instructions which linked me to some unproven conspiracy when no evidence was introduced to link me in any way to a conspiracy, even if one was proven, which it was not. Supreme Court law is absolute that jury instructions cannot be given without supporting evidence. The jury foreman gave a post-trial sworn declaration which confirmed that I would not have been convicted without these unlawful jury instructions. These are automatic reversals.

III. This may be somewhat esoteric for people not trained in the law, but the result of these unlawful jury instructions was what is called a "directed verdict" by the Judge which says you can/should convict without the prosecution having to prove every element of the crime beyond a “reasonable doubt“. U.S. Supreme Court law is unyielding that because of this, the conviction must be reversed, 508 US 275, 279.

IV. Evidence proves about 50 instances of material false testimony or perjury by 14 State witnesses. Only one is needed to mandate/require automatic reversal.

V. Evidence proves over 250 pieces of evidence that would have proven my innocence that the State has but withheld/suppressed/hid and haven't produced for the defense. Just one of these, when shown to be material enough, requires reversal. There are also 110+ confirmed witness statements for trial witnesses that I) the State has, ii) were withheld, & iii) must be produced, or the conviction reversed. End Summary 1/10/11

Read the entire 12 page Summary by clicking here.

23 Years Since the Tragic Mickey and Trudy Thompson Murders... and They Still Aren't Solved

Evidence proves the Sheriff's Department quit trying to find the real killers twenty two years ago and focused on trying to find information that they could twist to link the crime to me; or even to manufacture evidence. But, that is not what I write about today.

Pleadings have now been filed, including evidence, to prove that, that I am innocent; that I was intentionally framed/railroaded via the commission of over 100 felony crimes by investigators and prosecutors; and this will all soon come out and be over soon.

I write today to celebrate the value of friendship and to thank all of you for the outpouring of support, including from the recent article posted on the internet. I have not been privileged to read it yet; my mail is often held up and even "lost'.

However, even a cop I didn't know stopped me in here the other day and said it was excellent. It is on http://www.motocrossactionmag.com/Main/News/MY-AFTERNOON-WITH-MIKE-GOODWIN-THE-FATHER-OF-SUPER-7759.aspx, I understand, written in cooperation between Tom White, who recently visited, and Jody Weisel.

Apparently, from the letters I've received, the magazine is still garnering the great readership it had years ago when I was still heavily involved in trying to help build our fledging sport of Supercross, that Feld seems to be doing such a top notch job with nowadays.

I often think back to the very first Superbowl of Motocross when some of the top riders could not even afford gas money to get from race to race; when most people told me motocross would never work in a Stadium; and that first night in 1972, with 27,000 screaming fans present, I was throwing hay bales on the field to cover the grass. The Stadium manager had told me we could come back as long as the bike knobbys did not eat down into the football field.

Larry Huffman kept the fans on their feet; 16 year old wonder kid Marty Tripes beat all corners; my wonderful wife-to-be Diane kept the sponsors happy while I was on the field; Lynne Saunders coordinated; and we all learned. Rick Simon, from DIRT BIKE MAGAZINE, called it the "Salad Bowl of Motocross". And our Public Relations people mistakenly put Motorcross on the press ribbons; very embarrassing.

Bryon Farnsworth (who has experience in every area of motorcycling), Tom White, White Brothers, (Chairman of the AMA Hall of Fame), and Supermouth, Larry Huffman visited me recently. I assume that is in the article so I won't be redundant except to say it was wonderful being remembered and reliving old stories, not all of which could be reprinted either in MXA - or even here! Thank you guys for your time, expense and caring.

I also want to stress that I am extremely grateful for the letters of support and caring, plus the financial contributions to my defense fund that you've been so kind to send. They are all very helpful, as are your prayers. I apologize profusely for not having the time yet to write you each individually and thank you. I have a very tight window of opportunity to file my Motion to Dismiss based on something that just occurred, and I feel all will agree, that is most critical.

GOD BLESS, THANK YOU.

Michael

The Michael Goodwin Conviction of the Mickey Thompson Murder - A Summary

By Michael Goodwin

February 1, 2011

Famed and controversial race car driver, promoter and inventor Mickey Thompson and his wife Trudy were tragically murdered on March 18, 1988.

I was convicted of ordering those killings on January 4, 2007, almost nineteen years later, even though nothing connected me to the murders except a failed business relationship 3½ years earlier. I was sentenced to two life sentences, with no chance of parole - and now live in a concrete and steel small box.

The trial, conviction, sentencing and original killing generated 22 National TV Specials across all networks. Coverage included many CBS 48 Hours airings, Good Morning America, Sports Illustrated, Time, People, Car and Driver, Los Angeles Magazine, Hot Rod, plus thousands of electronic and print clips, both local and national. Harper-Collins has commissioned a major book.

I had been cleared of all charges in December, 1988, after 600 interviews following the murders. 450 of those interviews are illegally hidden. For the first nine years of the investigation after the murders, the first two lead investigators both focused on me and could find nothing to link me to the murders. They focused on me because of lies by Campebll and Cordell.

I was charged in Orange County, CA, in December, 2001 (13½ years after the murders), just one week after I'd opened a multi-million dollar civil litigation against the victims' sister, Colleen Campbell.

Colleen Campbell is a powerful politician in Orange County, CA. (She was on the Republican National Committee, was four times Chair of the California  Peace Officers Training and Procedures Committee, and much more.) This suit would have exposed multiple, multi-million dollar Federal crimes by her. I was charged out of jurisdiction in Orange County, CA, for the Los Angeles murders (which is unlawful) by Campbell's ex-personal lawyer, business associate, political crony and close friend, Tony Rackauckas. He was then and is now the Orange County District Attorney, whose activities in other cases have attracted scrutiny by investigative agencies. Evidence proves perjuries and frauds by him.

After I was first arrested in Orange County, CA, in 2001, I was eventually freed in 2004 (with an Appeal Court ruling that "there was no evidence to justify charging Goodwin in Orange County to start with“). It generated a banner headline in the Orange County Register, GOODWIN GOING HOME.

Then, Los Angeles County recharged me the same day I was released. The evidence on which I was charged was not only the same evidence from when I was previously cleared in a very top level L.A.S.D. (Los Angeles Sheriff's Dept.) report in 1988, but it was the very same evidence on which the Los Angeles D.A. had previously and repeatedly rejected for prosecution due to lack of evidence. Every trial witness wasknown of 17 years before trial.

Even after a key component of the evidence was proven as faulty, the Los Angeles D.A. still agreed to prosecute me (and even after I'd been cleared in Orange County, with the Appeal Court ruling "there was no evidence to justify charging Goodwin in Orange County to start with“). The LADA no doubt agreed to the charge to help their OCDA friend, since he was in such huge exposure for large damages under RICO and § 1983 civil rights violations.

In my suit against Coleen Campbell, we can prove that Campbell committed material perjury at the L.A. trial. Even the 1^st lead detective reported in writing that her husband and witnesses that she had referenced had called her a liar.

Coleen Campbell then posted a million dollar reward, targeted on me alone, ironically funded with the money she had stolen from my Federally protected pension and my business. That was the subject of the suit I had initiated against her and her associates. She clearly did this to protect herself.

Every witness who testified at trial and/or the preliminary hearing to issues thaty helped the D.A. convict me had radically changed their story from initial statements that were either nuetral or exculpatory (tending to support my innocence, vs. inculpatory, tending to support guilt) to one to help convict me - or told a new story that had never been told before by them.

All evidence used to convict me had been known of 17 years before and discarded, but the D.A. twisted it and lied about it to make me sound guilty. The last evidence list  was in November, 1989. The false testimonies/perjuries, alll of which can be irrefutably proven as perjuries (as the D.A. knew), were the only evidence vs me.

Critical witness statements were then suppressed for every one of the 25 most prejudicial witnesses vs. myself. Those were required to have been produced by Penal Code (PC) 1054.9. Many of those contain exculpatory information, so they are more strongly required to be produced under BRADY V. MARYLAND.

Those "changed stories" created forty three material felony perjuries or false testimonies. 30 of these were by four D.A. "experts" and two of their own investigators. Thirteen were D.A. witnesses and thirty were by their own two investigators and four "experts“. Of these, fourteen were told by Colleen Campbell's current lawyer, Dolores Cordell (who was acknowledged by the D.A. as "the #1 source of information" to convict Goodwin). Ironically, Cordell had led the criminal frauds to steal my money, that in turn initiated the litigation that got me charged (in retaliation). We have all evidence organized and available to prove their multi-million dollar criminal frauds. They are slam-dunk guilty.

Within that evidence are "declarations against their own interests", admitting to felony crimes by Cordell’s and Campbell’s co-conspirators. But, because of Campbell's political influence, no law enforcement agency will investigate. She is so well connected that she has had four lawyers who have gone over the line to harm me, appointed or elected as Judges. She had an ex-lawyer who changed sides to help her set up as the lead counsel for the Orange County Republican Party, and arranged a cushy County job for a witness who we can prove committed material perjury at trial for her.

Colleen Campbell, via a series of secret meetings, for which no witness statements (WSS) have been produced (although PC 1054.9 requires that they are to be produced), brought on a third lead investigator, a very corrupt Detective Mark Lillenfeld to take the lead in 1997. We can prove 100+ material perjuries by him, witness threats, evidence fabrication and destruction, and forgery. He simply decided to frame me for Campbell, using the new million dollar reward as bait. He immediately announced, even with no supporting evidence, "Goodwin did it”.

Detective Lillenfeld then used the reward to lie to witnesses to make them believe that Goodwin did it (as he was a monster), and even if they had to "fudge" a bit (or a lot as many of them did) on their testimony, it was for the good since I (Goodwin) was guilty and needed to be punished. The problem was that there was no true evidence to link me to the crime. None. Lillenfeld just created it. No hard evidence connects me to the crime, only perjury.

Lillenfeld got twenty six witnesses to change their stories after he spoke with them (and after the million dollar reward was posted), some of them even contradicting their earlier sworn declarations that they had given in support of my innocence. He made this possible by working with the D.A. to illegally suppress and/or hide over 250 pieces of evidence that would have proven my innocence. We can prove that the D.A. has this evidence. This evidence exists nowhere else and is not repetitive. Each one of those (evidences) that is found to be material mandates a reversal of my conviction. If this evidence was produced, I wouldn't have been convicted. (Plus hundreds of witness statements).

As part of his scheme to falsely convict me, Lillenfeld actually 'reversed' the true order of Mickey and Trudy‘s death, as is proven by initially suppressed, but newly discovered, evidence - and created a bizarre bogus crime scene script worthy of a pulp fiction novel. He then created phantom black killers on bicycles when every crime scene witness had reported a white shooter (no crime scene witness ever reported blacks or bikes on the crime scene). He did this since he had found witnesses who "spoke out" (for the first time thirteen years after the crime and only after the reward was offered) to say they saw me 2½ miles away, a few days prior to the crime (and also where another witness saw black riders that morning). But, initially suppressed and newly discovered evidence proves that both that I was not there and the riders seen near this location were not killers. It is impossible that they were.

With these frauds, and many more, I am told that I was the first person in U.S. history to be convicted of "ordering a hit", when the killers were never identified or found. We don't even know what race they were, for sure. No forensic evidence connected me. It was stipulated I was not at or near the scene of the crime. There is no evidence I was connected to a conspiracy. There is no confession. And, suppressed evidence proves that every allegation supporting my alleged guilt is fraudulent, every one of them, knowingly done by the D.A.

Four years after my conviction, my Appeal still isn't filed. The court transcript has ‘disappeared’. My appeals attorney has not been able to do anything. Two cases have ruled that since the delay is caused by the State appointed counsel, a reversal of judgment is called for, now. E.G. see COE V Thurman 922 F2d 528, 530.

All evidence to prove my claims is organized and ready for court. This is despite the fact that I have been severely hampered from exercising my legal rights while in prison. Access to the prison’s legal law library and simple copying privileges has been severely restricted. My mail has been tampered with. Undo searches of have been of my cell, which never produce anything, but delay my legal research and filing abilities for days afterwards (as the result of the subsequent ‘trashing’ of the cell). Even my electricity is mysteriously turned off for days at a time, leaving me in the dark and unable to read out of the one good eye that I still have left (even with the electricity on, the one light in the cell is barely adequate). I lost my vision while "in" because guards refused to to provide me prescibed ophthamology medication.

In summary, although there are many issues that were knowingly fraudulent by the D.A., the ultimate issue that allowed the wrongful conviction was the suppression of the 250+ pieces of material exculpatory evidence which prohibited meaningful cross exam which would have proven 43 perjuries and impeached the witnesses. Thus, there has been no true "adversarial testing" of the prosecution case as is anticipated/guaranteed by the Constitution. However, there are also numerous huge D.A. frauds on the Court.

I, Michael Goodwin, declare that the above statements are declared of my own personal knowledge and if required I could and would testify thereto truthfully under oath. All statements made by me (above) are known by me personally, except any which I have specifcally attributed to being told by others. I declare to the above under penalty of perjury, under the laws of the State of California, that the foregoing is true and correct. Executed this 27th day of February, 2011, in Susanville, CA.

Michael Frank Goodwin