We lost!
The five-word message from Fargo, North Dakota, attorney David Chapman:
We lost the hearing. Unbelievable.
It's the most recent disappointing chapter in a hellish story about a Bosnian family in Fargo.
Mevludin Hidanovic was enjoying a day at the Red River Valley Fair with his family when a skirmish broke out at another location on the fairgrounds. Yet, he was arrrested.
Hidanovic was convicted in January, 2007, on a charge of engaging in a riot, and was sentenced to 18 months in prison. This all came after he refused to accept a deal from the Prosecutor to plead guilty and accept a 30-day jail term. Six months later, HFP got involved. That was when we learned that a juror came forward after the guilty verdict and admitted to the media that she had found him guilty due to race. That was when a woman who witnessed the fight came forward, after seeing his picture on the news, and said she knew it was the wrong person. That was when the family members voluntarily took a lie detector test to prove that he had been with them at the time of the incident. They passed.
One of the nation's leading eye-witness identification experts, suggested by HFP, said cross-racial identification is rarely accurate.
But, this tragic case went all the way to the North Dakota Supreme Court with no success. Then attorney Chapman persuaded the state to consider a new trial. A hearing on that request was held yesterday, and Chapman was confident. We started a prayer chain.
Not only Chapman, not only the Hidanovic family, but fairness, and justice for all, lost in that courtroom yesterday.
Hidanovic's wife and four children are citizens of the United States. He is not, and he now faces deportation.
We are all in this together.
It's a sad day for all of us.
.
We lost the hearing. Unbelievable.
It's the most recent disappointing chapter in a hellish story about a Bosnian family in Fargo.
Mevludin Hidanovic was enjoying a day at the Red River Valley Fair with his family when a skirmish broke out at another location on the fairgrounds. Yet, he was arrrested.
Hidanovic was convicted in January, 2007, on a charge of engaging in a riot, and was sentenced to 18 months in prison. This all came after he refused to accept a deal from the Prosecutor to plead guilty and accept a 30-day jail term. Six months later, HFP got involved. That was when we learned that a juror came forward after the guilty verdict and admitted to the media that she had found him guilty due to race. That was when a woman who witnessed the fight came forward, after seeing his picture on the news, and said she knew it was the wrong person. That was when the family members voluntarily took a lie detector test to prove that he had been with them at the time of the incident. They passed.
One of the nation's leading eye-witness identification experts, suggested by HFP, said cross-racial identification is rarely accurate.
But, this tragic case went all the way to the North Dakota Supreme Court with no success. Then attorney Chapman persuaded the state to consider a new trial. A hearing on that request was held yesterday, and Chapman was confident. We started a prayer chain.
Not only Chapman, not only the Hidanovic family, but fairness, and justice for all, lost in that courtroom yesterday.
Hidanovic's wife and four children are citizens of the United States. He is not, and he now faces deportation.
We are all in this together.
It's a sad day for all of us.
.
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