To: Governor Gavin Newsom

From: Chyra Knox

Re:

  My name is Chyra Knox I am writing you this letter to urge you to review a case in which I feel an innocent man by the name of Tyquan Carl Knox who is also my husband and is currently being housed at Centinela State Prison was tried and convicted of.

 He has been in prison for 14 ½ years for a crime he did not commit when this case was brought to trial Tyquan was only 19 years old, there was a co-defendant whose story changed multiple times throughout the investigation and trial proceedings. An unreliable eyewitness who failed to identify my husband prior to trial. Due to the detectives working the case failing to perform an in person identification or a photo array in which case means Tyquan’s due process was violated. They had no physical evidence to prove my husband was involved in the crime he is in prison for. We have attempted multiple times to present this information to the appellate court only to be told this information should have been brought to the attention of the courts in the beginning but due to ineffective counsel it wasn’t and even now with a new attorney we have hit nothing but road blocks the state had merely circumstantial evidence and I believe they did not prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt they simply fixated on one person and deemed him guilty before proving it to a jury of his peers and the fact that it took 3 trials to convict 2 of which ended in hung jury’s proves that there were flaws In the state’s case against this man at the time of conviction he had never been incarcerated with a clean record prior to this  and a promising future and that was all cut short he was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole plus 21 years for a first time offender that is an excessive sentence for anyone let alone a first time offender who was only 19 years old at the time of conviction if the goal of the correctional system is to rehabilitate how can a then young man now turned adult , husband, father and step-father ever have to chance to prove he has been rehabilitated with a sentence so harsh a sentence that will never give him the opportunity to do so I know you get plenty of letters like this and I know there is a chance you may never read this but I am hopeful that this makes it to your desk and I’m hoping with the outlook you have on the criminal justice system and your willingness to push criminal justice reform this letter will urge you to look into this case I have known Tyquan for 15 years we have been married for 4 years I can personally attest to his growth as an individual as well as from a boy to man and can undeniably say that he has changed and deserves an opportunity to become a productive member of society that he would have had the opportunity to become had this case not been mishandled by the men and women assigned to it in closing I pray that your refreshing perspective on the criminal justice system will point out the mishandling of cases by the courts and men and women’s lives aren’t discarded as if they don’t matter.

Thank You,

Mrs.Knox