Dear Innocence Project of Minnesota::
I am writing on behalf of Jerome Webb (Webb) to request that you consider
taking his case for appeal of the original plea in his CSC4 case. He is currently in
custody in Moose Lake ordered to complete sex offender treatment in order to be
released from custody prior to his 2027 expiration date on the conditional release
associated with his 1998 criminal sexual conduct 4th degree case. Since he’s
innocent it’s a condition he will never be able to complete.
Over the past year I have learned that Mr. Webb’s original case has been a total
miscarriage of justice and is the type of case you expect to hear about on
Dateline about railroading a defendant in Texas, not Minnesota.
Webb has been in the system on this charge since 1998 at that time he was 17
years old. Webb pled to 4th degree CSC on the day of trial based upon his public
defender telling him that they had DNA that matched him and the state had all
their witnesses ready to testify against him (all untrue - in fact the State had little
to no evidence after the victim recanted, which was unknown to Webb until years
later). The victim was 19 years old and Webb was 17 years old and he
maintained he never violated the victim, and was talked into a plea by his public
defender as a juvenile with no family in the State to speak to.
Webb found out much later after he requested the file while in custody, that the
victim totally recanted prior to trial. See attached. She tried to recant to the police
and they refused to take her statement. She ultimately recanted totally when she gave a statement to the public defender investigator the day before trial. See
attached. All parties knew she recanted except for Webb, he never was told.
Webb was told there was DNA evidence that proved he was guilty, even though
there was no DNA match whatsoever with Webb. It also appears from the file
the State lost much of the evidence they claimed they had for trial. Webb was
pressured to plea out the case, he was told by his public defender he’d get a slap
on the wrist. Nobody that he recalled ever explained the conditional release
period to him, or he didn’t understand the long term consequences due to his age
and inexperience..
In spite of the lack of evidence against him and the recanted statement of the
victim and everything else that was in his file, Webb was still branded a level 3
offender even though my understanding is MN DOC panel was to review the
facts of the case when setting a level. With the enhanced supervision Mr. Webb
has spent much of his time in custody.
It appears the State Public Defenders did do a motion but it was turned down by
a Stearns County Judge. Apparently the State Public Defender assigned to
appeal the case suddenly died and the appeal time was missed (according to
Webb’s understanding). I have attached all the documents I have. Feel free to
contact me with any questions and I would be glad to help on this matter but I
have no experience with appeals.
Thank you for your consideration of this matter.