18 Oct 06

How I Received the Hearing Result Before the Hearing

“I’ve got a fax for you,” CO3 Rose said, “from the Arizona Board of Executive Clemency.”
“What’s it say?” I asked.
“That the result of your hearing was that you were not approved.”
“That doesn’t make sense. The hearing is tomorrow.”
“Your hearing is tomorrow?” CO3 Rose frowned.
“Yeah. My parents have flown in from England to attend it.”
“Are you sure it’s tomorrow?”
“Absolutely sure.”
“That’s strange.”
“How does that work? Could they have made a decision before the hearing?”
“I don’t know. I’m just the messenger.”

The fax read: It was the decision of this board at your hearing on: 10/02/06 to take the following action: not passed to phase 2 commutation.

That night, thoughts about the hearing result kept me awake. How can I have the result of the hearing before the hearing? How could an earlier hearing than the actual hearing have been held when there is only supposed to be one hearing? Was there a secret hearing that I wasn’t supposed to know about? If so, who attends these hearings and what decisions are made pertaining to later hearings? Does every hearing have a prehearing hearing or do prehearing hearings only occur in certain cases? Am I the first to be accidentally faxed the result of a prehearing hearing? Would the orchestrators of the prehearing hearing deny the existence of such a hearing if confronted with the evidence of the fax? Are my family about to attend a hearing whose outcome was predetermined at a prehearing hearing? Am I Joseph K.?

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Copyright © 2006-2007 Shaun P. Attwood