Interview with Sherry Swiney, Founder of the Patrick Crusade Organization

Sherry Swiney was born in San Francisco, California, in 1944 and lived in many cities in that state before beginning her travels across the United States working as a civil engineer on major construction projects. She came to Alabama in 1996 to free her wrongly incarcerated husband. She is founder and Director of the Patrick Crusade Organization, a very popular website on the internet that receives, on average, over 600,000 hits every month.

Sherry, your husband is incarcerated in an Alabama prison, how long has he been there?

As of this date (June 13, 2008), my husband, Patrick Swiney, has been in the Alabama prison system for 19 years. He spent almost 13 years at Holman prison in Atmore, Alabama. That's in southern Alabama down by the Florida border. Then on November 30, 2001, he was suddenly transferred to Kilby prison in Mt. Meigs. A month later, they sent him to St. Clair prison in Springville. A year after that he was transferred to Donaldson prison in Bessemer, where he is living now. If people wish to write to him, here is his address: Patrick Swiney, 154406 L20A, 100 Warrior Lane, Bessemer, AL 35023. He's not looking for pen pals but a card or note wishing him well is always welcome.

What was he convicted of, and how long of a sentence did he receive?

The short answer is that Patrick was convicted in 1989 of killing his wife and her ex-husband and he was sentenced to life without parole (LWOP). Forensic sciences however, show that Patrick could not have committed this crime.

Tell us something about Patrick Swiney, the man.

Ronald Patrick Swiney, known to his friends as Patrick, was born to Odelle and Leland Swiney on August 20, 1944 in Alabaster, Alabama. When Patrick was sixteen years old, a police officer stopped him in his father's car and accused him of reckless driving and speeding. Patrick believed himself innocent of this alleged offense. The police officer did not arrest Patrick, but he cursed at him and spoke to him with complete distain and utter disrespect; in Patrick's words, "He spoke to me like a dog". It was that day that Patrick vowed he would one day become a police officer and devote the rest of his life to fighting actual crime while being respectful of the public at large he would swear himself to protect.

And indeed Patrick did become a police officer. He began his career with the Huntsville Police Department in 1965 after graduating from Thompson High School in Alabaster. In 1967, he graduated from the Alabama State Police Academy. In 1969, he transferred to the Vestavia PD in Vestavia Hills as a motorcycle cop, during which time he served as Vice-President of the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP). In 1973 he was transferred to the Gulf Shores PD in Gulf Shores where, because of his commendable and unblemished career, he was soon given an undercover investigators assignment; his duty was to investigate what was suspected as being a large scale drug ring operating in the area.

What happened to him, and why?

It's a long story, one of crime and corruption as well as spirituality, healing, hope and miracles. As to what happened, he was framed for murder as "pay back" Alabama style. In the course of working that investigation Patrick uncovered compelling evidence showing that the suspected illegal drug ring was in fact being operated ... by the head district attorney of Baldwin County, Jimmie Hendrix and the chief investigator for the Baldwin County Sheriff's Department, Bobbie Stewart. As the direct result of the report Patrick compiled and forwarded to federal law enforcement officials, some 47,000 pounds of illegal drugs were recovered, both District Attorney Hendrix and Chief Investigator Stewart were indicted and arrested, following which they each pled guilty to federal criminal charges, resulting in them each being sentenced to prison.

It was then that Patrick's problems began; shortly thereafter, he began receiving threats against his life and the life of his young daughter. In the first incident, he escaped unscathed. In the second incident, he was not so fortunate; three men attacked him, one bearing a knife, which cut his face so badly that that he required several hundred stitches to prevent him from bleeding to death. In that incident, only one of the three assailants was arrested. Originally charged with the felony offense of first-degree assault with intent to murder, the Baldwin County Court judge assigned the case allowed the identified perpetrator to plead guilty to simple misdemeanor assault in exchange for a small fine, without notification to Patrick or the Gulf Shores Police Department for which he was then working. A third threat was made by three unknown men who threatened to kill his young daughter who was then living with her mother approximately 250 miles away. In that incident, it was made known to Patrick that they knew the color of the house in which she then lived, the number of other people living with her, and the phone number to the residence.

By 1977 Patrick had had enough of the pervasive corruption running rampant in the Alabama criminal justice system; he turned in his badge instead of agreeing to accept under-the-table payoffs to turn a blind eye toward what was going on around him. He then went to work in the private sector as an investigator for a well-known attorney.

In 1987, Patrick married Betty Snow, the daughter of Nell Snow, a well-heeled local who was sufficiently connected to the local politicians that she was actually able to get the State of Alabama to build an Interstate off-ramp to their business when there were no other businesses around for miles. Patrick's new wife, Betty, was very close to then Shelby County District Attorney Mike Campbell; it was even widely rumored around the community that, unbeknownst to Patrick, the two of them were carrying on an extramarital affair while Betty was married to Patrick. And as it turned out, Betty was still romantically involved with her most recent ex-husband, Ronnie Pate.

Five months following Patrick's marriage to Betty, she and her ex-husband Ronnie were murdered in the Swiney marital residence. It is for those murders that Patrick was arrested, tried, convicted, and sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

What evidence of innocence does Patrick have?

Subsequent to Patrick's conviction, significant technological advancements were made in the science of GSR (gunshot residue) and ballistics testing. It was thus that, in late 2002, the renowned Dr. Jon Nordby, Ph.D., D-ABMDI was retained for the purpose of reconstructing the murder scene, according to the state's evidence, to determine whether or not Patrick could have committed the murders as alleged. Dr. Nordby, specializing in death investigations and criminalistics forensic analysis, is widely considered as being the preeminent authority in his field.

In his detailed 207-page report dated July 2, 2003, complete with pictures of the testing procedures he developed and employed, Dr. Nordby concluded that the Charter Arms AR-7 semi-automatic .22 caliber rifle - the alleged murder weapon -- spews copious amounts of GSR when firing any brand of ammunition, and that it would therefore be impossible for anyone to fire such a weapon in an enclosed area such as the living room where the murders occurred, without being literally covered with GSR. This report thus shows as clearly false the heavily-relied-upon Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences (DFS) disclaimer stating that certain brands of .22 caliber ammunition do not contain the elements necessary to determine the presence of GSR and therefore proves as scientific evidence of innocence the negative GSR test result from the swabs of Patrick's hands.

Dr. Nordby further concluded that, if indeed Pate had been shot at point blank range in the head as claimed, Patrick's clothing would certainly have been covered with blood spatters, thus also proving as evidence of innocence the absence of blood from his coat, pants, shirt and shoes. And supporting Dr. Nordby's findings were the mirroring conclusions thereafter reached by Dr. Glenn Larkin, MD, a highly regarded forensic pathologist and medical examiner considered one of the nation's best practitioners of legal medicine. Dr. Larkin too painstakingly reviewed all the state's evidence in this case. In his detailed 43-page report dated December 27, 2003, Dr. Larkin also concluded as impossible for Patrick to have shot his wife and her ex-husband eight times altogether without being literally covered with GSR. Moreover, Dr. Larkin's report further shows that none of the bullets were fired through the window seized as evidence, as was alleged, that in any event, the recovered bullets were not fired from Patrick's gun, and that it would be impossible for Betty to have suffered gunpowder burns to her alleged fully clothed body without her clothing also containing GSR at the point of bullet entrance.

Further, in the course of the investigation never before seen crime scene photographs were handed over by the current District Attorney showing there never were any bullet holes in any of the house windows, thus confirming Dr. Larkin's conclusion that none of the bullets were fired through the window seized as evidence.

Patrick was the proverbial cop's cop. He was committed completely to enforcing the laws he was sworn to uphold. And for doing so, he paid; indeed the catalyst for the murders of his wife and her former husband was his having developed evidence of a major illegal drug ring being operated by the head district attorney and chief investigator for the sheriff's department of Baldwin County Alabama. And for those murders, Patrick was framed. He has since developed evidence of his actual innocence not available at the time of his trial. To be sure, not only have Doctors Nordby and Larkin - the preeminent authorities in their fields - formed the opinions that Patrick is innocent of the crimes for which he has now been imprisoned nineteen years, they have proven his innocence through scientific forensic examination. Yet no state or federal court will even consider such evidence of actual innocence on its merits. Instead they have shot him down at every turn on purely procedural grounds.

It cannot be said that Patrick has been afforded justice in any way in this case.

Didn't the courts see Patrick's evidence of innocence?

Indeed all of it was submitted to the courts. It didn't matter. The evidence was ignored. You know, maintaining the imprisonment of an innocent person by ignoring due process does not make the innocent person guilty; instead it impacts the safety of the whole of civilization and sets a dangerous precedent.

That the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Georgia didn't address any of the federal questions or publish a proper opinion on this brief is completely outrageous and contrary to the chartered purpose of the courts. The brief filed on Patrick's behalf was positively brilliant according to jurisprudence and for the 11th Circuit to treat it as they did could only have been carried out in an environment of secrecy. What I mean by that, and this is important, is that this "opinion" if you could even call it that, was contrary to American jurisprudence and could only occur in an environment where it falls under the radar. Clearly, the 11th Circuit counts on the majority of their opinions or orders falling under the radar and that's how they are able to keep up a semblance of proper jurisprudence! I mean, if it appears to be in accordance with the rule of law, then it must be so. But what I am saying is that appearances are deceiving.

Can you explain this further? I'm not sure I understand the legal analysis here.

Sure. The reason actions such as these on the part of the 11th Circuit are contrary to American jurisprudence is because of the separation of powers defined in the U.S. Constitution. The federal government is chartered (by the Constitution) with powers that have very distinct purposes. Those purposes cannot overlap, otherwise it is a Constitutional issue.

Understanding that a government's role is to protect individual rights, but acknowledging that governments have historically been the major violators of these rights, the measure of Separation of Powers was made part of the U.S. Constitution to prevent this likelihood.

The premise behind the separation of powers is that when a single person or group has a large amount of power, they can become dangerous to citizens. The Separation of Power is a method of removing the amount of power in any group's hands, making it more difficult to abuse. Clearly, our system of separated powers is not designed to maximize efficiency; it is designed to maximize freedom.

In this system there are three branches of government: (1) The Executive branch (President, Cabinet and all federal agencies) is chartered with leadership, protection through use of the military, and enforcing laws; (2) The Legislative branch (House and Senate, together called Congress) is chartered with defining legal statutes, writing laws, and appropriating funding to all branches of government; and (3) The Judicial branch (the Courts) is chartered to interpret the laws made by Congress. Each has equal but separate powers. If the courts truly do interpret the laws according to the intent of Congress, then there is no problem Constitutionally.

Now then, that interpretation charter is the basis of American jurisprudence. When the courts refuse to interpret the law, the Courts blur the line of power established by the Constitution. The courts are tasked to determine if a law has been broken. The 11th Circuit Court did not answer the federal questions presented in Patrick's case. Ok, still following?

I think so. Let me see if I have this right. Executive Branch enforces the laws. Legislative Branch makes the laws. Judicial Branch interprets the laws, and one branch isn't supposed to cross over the lines of authority of any other branch.

Yes, you've got it perfectly. Now, travel backward to 1996. In a knee-jerk reaction to the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Congress passed the AEDPA. The intent of Congress in writing the AEDPA was to limit needless and baseless litigation by persons who were convicted and sentenced to death or life without the possibility of parole also known as LWOP (i.e. Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols). Remember that McVeigh got the death penalty and Nichols got LWOP. There is literally a HOST of legal writings about the intent of Congress in enacting the AEDPA including the Congressional record where members of Congress discussed the AEDPA before it was passed and what their intent was in passing it. From those writings it is easy to recognize that Congress did NOT intend to limit legitimate habeas corpus litigation (the process of presenting a convicted person before a court to determine whether the law has been violated in the conviction of that person). That brings us to federal court interpretation of the AEDPA remembering that the Courts only interpret Congressional intent.

Had Patrick's case gone to a liberal circuit court with all this evidence of innocence; with all the constitutional violations that occurred at trial, he would have been exonerated long ago.

You see, the liberal circuits courts interpret the AEDPA according to the Congressional intent that I just stated. The conservative circuits, including the 11th, interpreted the AEDPA much more strictly in the beginning and established a new common law of habeas corpus.

How did they do that?

Common law is established by a court when they decide a case. In other words, the case sets precedent for future decisions of that court. Every federal court must also honor precedent set by the U.S. Supreme Court. Precedent is extremely important because it is the basis for decisions that have a similar interpretation to previous cases. This is how the courts establish common law (decisions contrary to common law fall under "activist" decisions and may take a lot of heat). This is why it's so difficult to change precedent. Another factor is that when precedent is changed, a new interpretation takes place and that interpretation may be retroactive to prior cases (like Apprendi was) and open up a deluge of cases coming back to court based upon the new precedent. A case called Teague v. Lane is the "patch" for this potential deluge. That means that the courts prefer to call something a precedent rather than tread on new ground, regardless of the truth that may be coming out in a case.

Now, fast forward to 2007 and the 11th Circuit's recent decision in Patrick's case. The Court was presented with a pleading containing several relevant legal questions as they relate to this particular case. Remember that the chartered duty of the courts is to interpret the law. They refused to do so. Why? Because they can't interpret the law in light of his case and remain consistent with their own precedent. The Court can avoid the issue - basically keeping the case under the radar - like they did, and doing anything else would violate their own precedent. Judges do not want to be seen as "activist" judges because that opens up a deluge of cases coming back to court based upon the new precedent. Doing what they do frequently, however, is essentially encroachment on the Executive branch of government (which enforces laws). So they are enforcing their own precedent rather than interpreting the law. This encroachment on the Executive branch has been accomplished by federal conservative courts for a long time but it doesn't get any attention of the public because its done in opinions like this one that contain NO INFORMATION related to the actual case. Opinions without information are worthless to other courts, lawyers, legal scholars and litigants.

But opinions like this have historically been "safe" for the Court. Why are they safe? Because the Court does not have to violate their own precedent even if that precedent is wrong. If the precedent is wrong and the Court stands by it anyway, it has, at worst, created its own law and at best ignored the intent of Congress (encroachment on the Legislative branch). The 11th Circuit could have agreed that Patrick's case has merit and then blocked it using Teague v. Lane. I don't doubt for a moment that this was one strategy the judges discussed among themselves. However, blocking it with Teague (in order to maintain their own precedent) might have had a more high profile affect.

I think I'm following you but am not sure. Please explain further.

Okay. If they used Teague v. Lane, they would have in essence brought the case into the realm of Supreme Court strict scrutiny. Strict scrutiny is a legal term that is the means-end test that the Supreme Court uses to determine whether they will hear a case. If the case meets the "strict scrutiny" means-end test, the Court HAS to hear the case. This is a whole discussion in itself that I won't go into in this interview. Suffice it to say, for now, that by not imposing Teague, the 11th Circuit kept the case under the radar and out of the U.S. Supreme Court at the same time.

But how did the 11th Circuit avoid not imposing Teague v. Lane?

They simply denied the case without comment. In other words, they did not write an opinion.

Okay, so how does this fit with the "secrecy" portion of the analysis that you mentioned earlier?

Well, to wrap that up for you, the courts already know that violating precedent is termed "activist". This is a political no-no because it opens the floodgates. The people also know this because there's been a lot of media about "activist judges" over the years, thus in standing on precedent regardless of evidence that a law (due process) has been broken, they are - in essence - making their own law. By making their own law to avoid political outfall, they have committed Legislative branch encroachment.

The Courts also know that in refusing to interpret a federal law question (such as "based on the evidence presented, was any element of due process violated in Patrick's case?"), they are empowering the Bush mandate of the Executive branch of government that enforces the laws. In doing so, they have committed Executive branch encroachment. Both of these actions are strictly prohibited by the Constitution for reasons I stated earlier. When courts refuse to answer federal questions, by citing procedural bars, precedents, or merely denying "without comment", they are deliberately avoiding the Constitutional law, thus preventing the litigant from proceeding further with his/her case of innocence (preventing access to the courts). The "secrecy" part of it comes in when the courts do this without writing an opinion or writing an unpublished opinion, as they did in Patrick's case. Unpublished opinions cannot be cited in a litigant's motion and are therefore worthless.

Let me say this in a different way. The Judicial branch consists of the judge, jury and so forth. The determination of guilt is within the judicial branch. The Executive branch assumes that the crime has been committed and that the accused is guilty based upon the evidence. The purpose of the courts (jury) is to sort this out to see if it is, indeed true. Laws are in place that prevent innocent people from being convicted. These laws are called Due Process. When a person is convicted of a crime but has evidence that the conviction occurred by violating Due Process, that person has the right to take the evidence of illegal conviction to courts that are higher than the court that convicted.

To maintain the conviction of an innocent person, these higher courts would merely have to ignore the evidence of the Due Process violations that took place at trial. They can do this by saying that the evidence is "procedurally barred" and simply refuse to hear the case. In these cases, the courts will write an order that says nothing about the facts related to the crime or the illegal acts committed at trial. Remember that the entire purpose of the courts is to interpret whether a law has been broken, which is an important part of the checks and balances set up in the Constitution. When they refuse to say one way or another, they take themselves out of a "checks and balances" position. When there are no checks and balances on the Executive branch, there is no due process of law. There is merely a silent (secret) agreement with the Executive branch where the courts ignore their Constitutionally imposed duty. In other words, the Courts are supposed to "check" the actions of the Executive branch, essentially providing relief where the Executive branch was in error. This keeps everything in balance so that people are not convicted of crimes they did not commit. This is the way the Constitutional system in this country is designed to work.

How is it that they are committing Executive branch encroachment through these actions?

In order to understand that we must look at how the Executive branch operates in that capacity. The Executive branch uses police to enforce the law. Enforcement includes a determination that the law has probably been broken. The person is seized into police custody awaiting a determination of whether the law has actually been broken and whether the person seized is guilty of breaking that law. If a police officer seizes a person and then beats the hell out of them or denies them access to the courts, then the Executive branch is encroaching on the functions reserved to the Courts (the Judicial branch). We know all about when this happens too because it generally gets a lot of press. The two duties of law enforcement are seizing the person and presenting them to the courts. This is because people are supposedly innocent until proven guilty in this country. Seizing and presenting the Executive power and duty (that's also why we heard about suspension of habeas corpus in the Guatanamo Bay situation...the Executive branch seized the prisoners but refused to present them for trial). When the courts refuse or do not have the opportunity to interpret the law a person is denied access to the courts and the checks and balances stated in the Constitution are circumvented. This is a very important component of Patrick's case and the so-called decision handed down by the 11th Circuit Court.

The courts gave physical control over Patrick to the Executive branch (the State of Alabama) and denied him access to the courts. This practice is extremely widespread in the 11th Circuit and I suspect in the other conservative circuits. People don't know this is happening because it's hidden behind opinions just like the one they issued in Patrick's case.

The 11th Circuit's dispensation of the case has nothing to do with what happened in the precedent-setting U.S. Supreme Court case, Slack v. McDaniel, which the Court cited in Patrick's case. Slack simply gives them the precedent that allows them to follow their own established precedent with ease. In other words, the 11th Circuit acts in the capacity of police (Executive branch) by denying litigants access to the federal courts and then hides that action by not publishing a valid opinion of the case. If they published an opinion on Patrick's case, it would open up a floodgate of media attention and they know that . . . just as "activist" opinions open up floodgates and illegal police actions open up floodgates (crossing into the Judicial branch). Their actions on Patrick's case and any other case similarly situated are, by legal definition, encroachment on the Executive branch and therefore illegal under Constitutional law. Do the judges on the 11th Circuit know this? Of course they do. They're counting on the people NOT knowing this.

This is outrageous! How widespread is this? How high up does this go?

Bush packed the federal courts with conservative judges specifically to get the courts to propel the wishes of the Executive branch, which are to seize people and maintain that seizure. Police complain all the time about how they go through all manner of gyrations to build a case against a person and then the courts let him go. Police are interested in getting convictions usually because they believe the person is guilty or they wouldn't be arresting him. If the Police could choose judges, they would choose Bill Pryor (former Alabama Attorney General who prosecuted Patrick's case at the State level, and who is now a judge on the 11th Circuit Court) and his ilk every time because they would know the arrest would hold.

The Executive branch is likewise, interested in getting convictions but can only get convictions when federal laws are broken. They can however, maintain convictions through federal oversight by packing the courts with judges who ensure that state convictions are upheld in habeas corpus actions. The 11th Circuit was always a conservative court, as far back as I know about, since it arose from the 5th Circuit which is also conservative. Bush appointed Pryor to the 11th Circuit Court because the Executive branch is concerned with maintaining convictions and Pryor is known for that. Bush also appointed several conservative judges to the U.S. Supreme Court because a conservative Supreme Court branch is interested in empowering the wishes of the Executive branch. These actions have changed the balance of the federal courts. That balance wasn't changed because Bush appointed them but because the conservative Congress approved his appointments. Remember when the Republican party controlled Congress before the last election? Bush appointed those judges on the heels of the newly declared "war on terror" before Americans started to wise up and recognize that the White House needed to be reined in by a more liberal Congress.

The Courts have to maintain a semblance of their established duty which is to interpret federal law equitably and according to the established common law while not encroaching on the other two branches of government. The common law is different across the country because it's interpreted by different Circuit Courts. This violates the equal protection clause of the Constitution because everyone is NOT equal under the law. Equality under the law cannot ever be introduced into a case unless the case is in the Supreme Court (which oversees all Circuits). Vague or unpublished opinions, like the 11th Circuit issued in Patrick's case, prevent escalation of the arguments to the Supreme Court. Does the 11th Circuit know this? Certainly! This prevention is deliberate and is encroachment on those duties exclusively granted to the Executive branch by the U.S. Constitution. This practice violates the established checks and balances of the federal government because the Courts work in concert with the Executive branch and that is strictly disallowed under the charter that defined the government of the United States. Without checks and balances, the Founders of this country knew that we would be headed for despotism like those who escaped the rule of England's King George.

This action taken by the 11th Circuit is an example of violation of separation of powers. It is an example that the Rule of Law (equal protection under the law) has been suspended. Not only is maintenance of Patrick's conviction ridiculous, unfair, ludicrous, and a waste of money, it is ILLEGAL! I can't stress enough what I'm saying here. Patrick isn't by any means the only person this happens to; this happens to tens if not hundreds of thousands of people. The courts are not an independent branch of government anymore. They have violated the Constitution by merging with the Executive branch to empower the aim of the Executive branch. They hide that fact from the public by issuing unpublished opinions like the one issued in Patrick's case.

Is there much corruption in the Alabama justice system?

I'd say that the Alabama justice system is the very definition of the word corruption. For most people, it is disturbing to see the corruption in the courts, followed by the corruption in the prisons. We see a lot of people feeling lost and believing that as one person, they cannot make a difference, but I know differently. One person can make a large difference but not by fighting in the conventional way.

What do you mean by that? People have to fight the system, if they want it to change, don't they?

Yes, but in a different way. We have to remember that this is not a physical battle really. That is an illusion. This is a spiritual battle and it always has been. People have gotten so conditioned to believe that they are their physical body and their physical brain that they have forgotten who they really are and what they can really do to affect changes in reality.

From my point of view, there is a great healing taking place on planet earth. It is happening because there are some people who have come to realize that fighting FOR a principle is more powerful than fighting AGAINST that which they perceive as corruption. It's a mindset really. When we constantly see things as bad, they are bad and the more we see it that way, the worse things get. So we fight harder claiming how bad things are and we are amazed that they just get worse. Have you ever noticed that? It is the decrying "This is so bad" that brings the bad-ness of things to us. And why does that happen? Well, because we do not remember how powerful our thoughts and feelings are. We do not remember that we create our own worlds - our own realities - by our thoughts and emotions.

I don't get that. How does this work?

It's really quite simple. The difficulty is in getting through the conditioning to see this as reality. The first hurdle is recognizing that you have been conditioned to think certain ways - to perceive things in a certain light, depending on your culture, or what you were told as you were growing up. Apathy is one of the conditions put on people in our society. Racism is another. Fear of government (or fear of what the neighbors will think) is yet another. Low self-worth, victimhood and powerlessness are other conditions put upon people by our society. Once you recognize you have been conditioned, the road to waking up is easier. I call this having an "open mind" to heretofore unheard of possibilities. Until then, people with "closed minds" will continue to suffer injustice and cruelty - none of which is deserved and none of which is necessary.

Let's jump to something else for the moment. How is your husband's health and well-being?

Patrick has gone through so many life-threatening events that that's a story all its own. Click here for one example and click here for another example; click here for yet another. The links go on and on...and most all the abuses are documented and posted on the P.A.T.R.I.C.K. Crusade website. Despite these abuses, he is doing okay, and I attribute this to the hundreds of people who pray continuously for him to stay strong and healthy.

Do you visit him often?

For many years, I could visit Patrick every week for 6 hours. When the prisons started getting overcrowded, they changed that to every week for 3 hours, then every other week for 3 hours and that's what it is today in Alabama prisons. So the Alabama system went from allowing 312 hours per year for visits to 78 hours per year. That's a 75% cut in visiting hours.

Now, because I work so far away from where he is, I only visit him once a month for 3 hours. For the past two years, I have been bringing his 87-year old mother with me to each visit so she may see her son. No one else in the "immediate" family can take her there. Others in the family would, but the Alabama prisons have a rule that visitors have to be what they consider immediate family (mother, father, siblings, children, one female friend and male friends). The female friend position is taken up when the wife visits so no other females are allowed, even if they are family (cousins or nieces). Patrick's father, brother and one sister have died. His daughter has disowned him. He has one sister left and his mother in his immediate family. These rules are actually discrimination against the elderly prisoners. As they get older, and their immediate family members die, they are left with fewer and fewer visitors until there are none left to visit. It's crazy but then so are many other Alabama prison rules. We're always told it's about "security" but it clearly has nothing at all to do with security.

What is the Patrick Crusade?

It's an acronym that stands for People Aligned To Replace Injustice & Cruelty with Knowledge - P.A.T.R.I.C.K.

The mission of P.A.T.R.I.C.K. Crusade (PC) is to correct the abuse that is endemic to our prison system through peaceful means. Many of the abuses that prisoners are forced to endure have been common knowledge for many years. Very few of these abuses are new, for things have changed very little in our prison system over the years. Prison authorities regularly abuse prisoners in the most inhumane ways. These officials know they will get away with this abuse because, other than family members, few care about the incarcerated once the prison gates swing shut. The fact that many hundreds of prisoners are released each year, because new evidence shows them to be innocent of the crimes for which they were convicted, should be enough to force an increased awareness of the deplorable conditions in our nation's prisons, but it is not. The problem is major. Prison abuse is compounded by the fact that people are not seeing justice within the court system. Too many innocent people are being taken from their families and anyone could be next!

We are an international human rights group that focuses on exposing what happens inside our prisons in the United States of America. Members of PC group are loving and caring. They work tirelessly for what is right, even when some of them do not have friends or loved ones who are in prison. View the website here.

How does Patrick spend his time in prison?

The majority of people don't know what goes on in prison because of the apathy that has been pounded into everyone over the years about everything. Prisons and the injustice system are just one of the many signs of apathy in this nation that is heading for its downfall. So to answer your question directly, Patrick tries to sleep amidst the slamming doors, yelling youngsters who spend their days and nights practicing horseplay, screaming guards who march into his dorm like tyranny goons or yelling over the PA system, and bright lights. He tries to remain cool in the hot humid Alabama summers and warm in cold humid Alabama winters. Donaldson prison does not have air conditioning. He tries to eat from things he can buy from prison stores rather than stand in the chow line out in the hot sun or pouring down rain, among the rowdy inmates who have no problem butting in line. He tries to get to sick call when he is called for regular check-ups and hopes the guards don't turn him away when he is scheduled to pick up his medication for the month.

But that is not all. Patrick also tries to help other inmates whom he feels want to get out and stay out. He works with them and they in turn learn good values in life and respect him for this. Those that have gone through this with him do get out and stay out, hard as that is in the system of revolving doors, such as it is today. Patrick also helps people outside who are living in so-called freedom. I receive numerous emails, letters and phone calls from people who have received help from Patrick. I'd like to share one such email that I received recently:

"It seems to always come up in my mind about the time I was pondering prison reform and wrote the series called 'The Beast.' At that time I remember saying that as 'outmates' we should gather information from those who are inside the belly of the beast because they are uniquely positioned to assess the beast's subtle nuances of character. The majority of prisoners are also apathetic, unable to detect these nuances because they perceive themselves as victims and spend their time acting out their egos without a sense of purpose of any kind. But Patrick doesn't see himself as a victim; he sees opportunity to awaken the masses. Not only that, his focus is not on himself but on interacting with people in need. I will never forget the letter he wrote me after my mom died. Others were supportive but Patrick was the one who shared amazing wisdom about her death. That letter touched a part of me that was not even fully awake at the time."

"As you know very well, the majority of prisoners are so focused on their own victimhood that they can be a total energy drain. But Patrick stands strong right in the midst of that horrendous, difficult energy unwilling to adopt the victim mentality! How amazing is that???!!! He has lemons yet he chooses to make lemonade. I can't help but compare him to some of the great leaders on this planet who were exiled only to continue to lead anyway. And I cannot forget that YOU also lead in the adversity of having your husband in prison and dealing with all of the apathy that the prison and court systems dish out! You and Patrick have both chosen an existence that is steeped in adversity and difficulty yet both of you just keep going....like the Energizer bunny. Many people might wonder why you do it...but that wondering comes from an apathetic mindset. Patrick's essays on the injustice system may be as widespread now as the works of Alexander Solzhenitsyn"

Showing these things to the world is truly a unique opportunity to attempt to awaken people to apathy from the inside of the system where apathy exists in spades! It is also a wonderful opportunity to attempt to awaken the public from its apathy toward what happens inside our prisons. We as human beings can no longer live by the old idea that "Well, I have mine, so to heck with everyone else." As soon as they stop living by the notion that we are separate from each other, life will change for the better for them and for everyone else on this beautiful planet.

Where is your husbands case as far as appeals, parole etc.?

Patrick is finished with his appeals and so far, there is no parole in a sentence of LWOP. But this, by no means, is a statement that indicates we have lost hope or given up on freedom. Other things are in the works but I am not at liberty to discuss them yet.

How can the public help?

Ah, now there's a good question and one that's dear to my heart. One thing the public can do is read about Patrick's case - read this interview, for example, ponder it and if so moved, spread the word so a lot more people know about his case. There's also a petition to help that is posted here

Another thing people can do is talk about the case to other people and discuss how he was so wrongly treated by the courts (not to mention by the prisons). If five law schools would make it an assignment for students to study Patrick's case that would make a difference in the judicial system as I described earlier. If people would take a few minutes each day to imagine (visualize, think about, and "feel") Patrick being home now that would make a difference in his life and many other lives.

What issues does the Alabama prison system have that need to be reformed?

Where to begin? I could talk about numerous issues here. You have innocent people in prison who should be home with their family and friends. That's not a prison issue really but still needs to be mentioned as a big deal. People need to realize that when innocent people are in prison, the guilty ones are still out there ready and willing to commit more crimes and create more victims of crime.

The main issue in the Alabama prison system, in my opinion, is overcrowding. You cram human beings into tight spaces like sardines and the result is unrest - mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. The issue of overcrowding could be resolved by the abolishment of the AEDPA (Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996) which I mentioned earlier as a knee-jerk law that was written after the Oklahoma City bombing. The AEDPA affectively wipes out the rights of the incarcerated to present their cases - even of innocence - to the courts when that was not the intent of Congress when they passed this law. It's not just Alabama's prison system that's overcrowded. The last report I saw, stated there are about 2.5 million people in prison across the country. This is greater than any other country on earth. One has to wonder if American citizens are all "that bad" or is there something wrong with the system.

What a waste of taxpayer money! More money is spent on prisons than on schools and universities and it is well known that the majority of people who are in prison never had anything resembling a decent education. Educate the citizens and the crime rate goes down. Duh!

In addition to the education issue, there needs to be a First-Time Offender law. Statistics show and even wardens testify to the fact that 97% of the people who murdered someone as a first-time offense, will never do that again. They will never hurt anyone again. I'm not talking about people who have killed someone in the course of committing another crime (such as bank robbery). Statistics show that the occurrence of the first-time offense is almost always due to a person being pushed to the limits. In addition to that the Three-Strikes law needs to be used under its original intent and not what it is today. And the War on Drugs needs to be abolished because it is a foolish war - one that will never be won.

If American prisons only held the people who are actually "dangerous" to society, the prison population would be a small fraction of what it is today. 2.5 million citizens in prison in one country demonstrates a system that has gone off the deep end. There's a lot of money being made from the Prison Industry just as there is today in the Oil Industry and Military Industry. Prison overcrowding is not about fighting crime; it is about profits. Once the public knows this, I believe things will change.

At this time if there is anything you wish to add please do so.

Yes, I want to continue where we left off regarding the spiritual war we are in as it relates to the injustice people are experiencing. Over the past few years, I have realized that the way human beings have been thinking and feeling about injustice and cruelty in our world seems to have brought even more injustice and cruelty to us. The way we have been thinking is "old paradigm" and times are changing.

Old paradigm says we must fight against it and replace it with something we think is better. But everyone has a different opinion of what is better and that has created confusion and as it turns out whatever we fight against we actually bring more of that to us. The new paradigm says our desire is for injustice and cruelty to be released from its own darkness of its own accord. I believe this can happen when all the injustice and cruelty in our entire nation is exposed. Should such exposure be done by individuals around the world, people would gain more knowledge and insight. This would help to eliminate ignorance which will beget a mindset of general wisdom that is not (and cannot be) mandated by any sort of law. I think all of this calls for a slight shift in everyone's awareness, and when that happens, that shift will cause a shift in the outcome.

Have you ever noticed that when you don't feel very good, you get more of "you don't feel good"? Your feelings are an indicator of what you are about to experience in the future. Well, when people go around saying "It makes me sick the way the government is treating people," guess what? They end up getting sick and then they cannot help anyone! Is that a coincidence or spiritual/universal law? It's actually a cosmic law based upon a fantastic design by something far more intelligent than we are. This intelligence has many names. Religious people call the creator of this awesome design, God. Scientists call the creator of this awesome design, Source / Field / Matrix. Native Indians call this awesome creator, Great Spirit. Agnostics might call this Chance or Coincidence. Other religions have their own names for All That Is. Names do not matter for names are human inventions, just as Time is a human invention. A Lily isn't offended if you call it a Rose or a Thistle.

The point I am attempting to get across to the novice reader is this. What you think Matters, and I mean that literally. Thoughts are measurable energy in laboratories and hospitals. They are called brain waves. You've seen brain waves on the Discovery Channel or the History Channel so this is not new information. It's just an explanation of what thoughts are. Thoughts are energy. Your body is energy. Everything is energy when you get down to it.

Energy is a force that can never be destroyed, so that's what you are - a force. Energy can be changed from one form to another - light into heat, for example, but never destroyed. So think about this. Your thoughts create how you feel. Ever thought about how you feel about something?

Feelings are nothing more than frequencies just like a radio frequency. You tune into a radio station and that's the one you can hear. You turn the dial to a different station that's on another frequency and then you can hear that one - but you cannot hear both stations (both frequencies) on the same radio. So this is what the minds and feelings of human beings are. They are frequencies, which is a form of energy.

We make them be real by how we perceive things. Have you ever been in a dimly lit room and gotten startled or even scared by a shadow of something that looks like some kind of giant bug or flying thing? Then when you turn on the light, you feel greatly relieved to find out it was just a piece of spaghetti sauce the kids dropped on the floor :-). It's amazing what shining the light on something can do for you. So, that's what I am attempting to do. I am attempting to shine the light on Patrick's case as well as on the Justice and Prison systems. They are what we perceive them to be and they will continue to be this until enough people change their minds about how they are only one person who cannot make a difference....and much more.

You see, I believe there is a collective consciousness in this planet that comprises the individual consciousness of every human being. Some have called this a Matrix - or the Matrix. I hold to the notion that what happens to one, happens to all. Imagine how a spider web looks sparkling in the sunlight of a crisp morning in the rain forest. The slightest motion at any point on that web triggers a motion throughout the web. Do you remember how a lake ripples when a rowboat passes by, or when a rock is skipped across the water? Yes, we see a ripple effect or domino effect. Every bit of that water is affected to some degree by one little pebble skipped across the water.

In truth we live in a matrix of consciousness - a web of energy. Scientists have already shown us that we are only limited by our beliefs and what we once believed about this world and how it works is changing greatly. Surprisingly, (and this is for the religious people), everything in ancient scriptures points to exactly what scientists are just now finding out. For example: "What you sow, you shall reap." "Give and you shall receive." "Knock and the door will be opened." "Ask and it is given." "What a man thinketh, that he is." "All things are possible with God". The problem is that human beings have been conditioned to forget how thoughts actually create their realities.

Imagine planet Earth encased inside a huge web of invisible threads of energy. Imagine that your thoughts are energy, which they are. Imagine where your thoughts go once you think them. They go into that web of consciousness. Imagine billions of people sending all kinds of different thoughts into that web and then call that a pool of thought energy. Now realize that everything is made of energy, including YOU and your thoughts and feelings! Now, imagine what would happen to the matrix of consciousness if your thoughts and feelings (your current perception of the justice system) changed. This would have an affect on that matrix.

So what does this mean and how can people apply this knowledge to the things that are happening on earth and in our courts and prisons today?

Your thoughts are electric charges and they have power - more power than you have heretofore been told or ever imagined. Governments do NOT want you to know this. They want you to stay in your conditioning because that way you are easy to control. When you are easy to control, you get abused.

However, the truth is that you are a spiritual being who is wearing your body like a suit of clothing and you don't remember this because you've been conditioned to believe you have no power and that government has all the power. Not true. You have what some are calling your Full Potential Self available to you at all times. That self is connected to you and all other living things on this planet. In other words you are electrically connected to those whom you desire to change or wake up and they are connected to you.

This is profound thinking. It may be more than people are ready to hear right now.

But when people ARE ready, they will remember what they read here and they will put this information to work FOR change in the justice system that they had previously perceived as not working. They will become the pebble skipped across the lake.

What people have not known is that they actually have the ability to choose their thoughts. They are not puppets (although a lot of them act that way now). They do not have to be mindless drones if they don't want to be mindless drones. In reality they are a divine creation that cannot be destroyed and cannot be separated from the energy they are. The only thing that drives tormentors and victims is insecurity and that insecurity is based on their fundamental fear of not being connected to or somehow being separated from Source / God / Great Spirit / Matrix / All That Is. They do not know they are connected or that when they abuse someone by thought or deed, they are really abusing themselves first. In other words, their thought energy goes back to them first. Thus, they create their own living hell by their own thoughts and feelings. This is the way the design works.

What if people don't buy into this idea you have?

I am not here to try to convince anyone of anything or to try to control anything. Each individual reading this interview is responsible for what he or she chooses to think. I am here to tell you what I have learned from experience so far, to offer you the resources I have found during my studies and personal experiences over the years, and to make suggestions as to how people can apply these things to their work in the criminal justice system. I am very thankful that so many people on this planet are waking up or at least desiring to wake up. These are people who have never heard what I may be saying. They are experiencing these things independently and their lives are changing for the better in spite of what the world may look like to others. Or course, anyone is free to take this information or leave it as they wish.

Source:
Sherry Swiney (emails)
Petition:
http://petitionthem.com/?sect=detail&pet=3518
The Patrick Crusade
http://www.patrickcrusade.org/