Wrongly convicted husband/father faces deportation!
I received this heart-breaking letter from our dear friend Chanda:
Chanda Hidanovic: A Family Divided
I won’t stop speaking until I am heard. No one should have to suffer the pain of wrongful conviction.
We live in a country that prides itself in having the fairest judicial system. Other countries have based their judicial system on ours, as though we have the best. Immigrants move to our country because they have heard their whole lives how the United States is the best place to live.
Yet we still hear those stories about people who have spend 25 years in prison and were exonerated due to DNA evidence. I never paid much attention to those stories. I listened for a minute and thought to myself how awful it would be not to have people believe in your innocence. Then I would dismiss it to the back of my mind.
That has all changed. My husband is in prison for something he didn’t do. I am 100 percent positive he is innocent because I was right there with him. Mevludin Hidanovic was charged with engaging in a riot while armed. There was no physical evidence.
This conviction was based on only one positive eye witness. The one witness was African American with a felony theft history. Cross- racial eyewitness identification is up to 80% inaccurate. Imagine a fight with 25+ Hispanic and Bosnian men in the evening. They all have dark hair, dark skin and shorter build. It would be difficult to pick one out, especially by looking at driver’s license pictures. It took several years for me to be able to distinguish all of Mevludin’s relatives. We have done everything in our power to prove his innocence. We have motioned for new trial based on juror misconduct. A juror in his case came forward after his guilty verdict and declared to the media she found him guilty due to his race. Our motion was denied.
Shortly thereafter a woman who witnessed the entire fight at the fairgrounds that night came forward. She had seen his picture on the news and knew it was the wrong person in jail. Her boyfriend and father of her children was the one struck with the bat that night (he wasn’t permanently injured).
We motioned for a new trial based on new evidence and were denied. We took this case all the way to the Supreme Court of North Dakota and were very hopeful. There were many things in our favor. We have spent thousands of dollars but mental and emotional pain has cost us the most. We spent six months waiting for a decision and were denied.
Recently, we motioned for a new trial based on ineffective council. This decision decides whether our family gets to stay together or not. Our court date is August 29 at 1:30 p.m. at the Fargo Courthouse.
My husband is a permanent resident and has a green card. He is not currently a US citizen although I am. I was born and raised and have lived in North Dakota my whole life. I grew up in Langdon, North Dakota and have been in the Fargo area since 1990.
Any jail sentence of over a year automatically brings immigration into the picture. Mevludin has served his 18 month sentence and is still being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He is currently being held in Sherbourne County Correction Center in Minnesota. He is facing a deportation trial.
Mevludin’s surviving family is here in the United States yet he could be deported to a country that he barely remembers, a country that is not stable. I just recently saw the U.S. Embassy in Kosovo getting attacked on the news.
Mevludin has two children and well as two stepchildren. We love them dearly and our family would be divided. I would stand by my husband as I have this entire time and leave with him. I love him and it has been a nightmare to see him go through this.
Nurija (our friend), Mevludin, our children and I know the truth about what happened that night of the fight at the fair. We were on a ride together when the fight happened. We took lie detector tests and passed. We paid for them with our own money to help prove our case. Nothing has helped, not even the innocence project that accepted our case or the website we created, freehidanovic.com. I am tired of being hopeful and praying for a miracle. I have been let down too many times. I want my husband back. I want my family back. Is that too much to ask?
Chanda Hidanovic Fargo
Chanda Hidanovic: A Family Divided
I won’t stop speaking until I am heard. No one should have to suffer the pain of wrongful conviction.
We live in a country that prides itself in having the fairest judicial system. Other countries have based their judicial system on ours, as though we have the best. Immigrants move to our country because they have heard their whole lives how the United States is the best place to live.
Yet we still hear those stories about people who have spend 25 years in prison and were exonerated due to DNA evidence. I never paid much attention to those stories. I listened for a minute and thought to myself how awful it would be not to have people believe in your innocence. Then I would dismiss it to the back of my mind.
That has all changed. My husband is in prison for something he didn’t do. I am 100 percent positive he is innocent because I was right there with him. Mevludin Hidanovic was charged with engaging in a riot while armed. There was no physical evidence.
This conviction was based on only one positive eye witness. The one witness was African American with a felony theft history. Cross- racial eyewitness identification is up to 80% inaccurate. Imagine a fight with 25+ Hispanic and Bosnian men in the evening. They all have dark hair, dark skin and shorter build. It would be difficult to pick one out, especially by looking at driver’s license pictures. It took several years for me to be able to distinguish all of Mevludin’s relatives. We have done everything in our power to prove his innocence. We have motioned for new trial based on juror misconduct. A juror in his case came forward after his guilty verdict and declared to the media she found him guilty due to his race. Our motion was denied.
Shortly thereafter a woman who witnessed the entire fight at the fairgrounds that night came forward. She had seen his picture on the news and knew it was the wrong person in jail. Her boyfriend and father of her children was the one struck with the bat that night (he wasn’t permanently injured).
We motioned for a new trial based on new evidence and were denied. We took this case all the way to the Supreme Court of North Dakota and were very hopeful. There were many things in our favor. We have spent thousands of dollars but mental and emotional pain has cost us the most. We spent six months waiting for a decision and were denied.
Recently, we motioned for a new trial based on ineffective council. This decision decides whether our family gets to stay together or not. Our court date is August 29 at 1:30 p.m. at the Fargo Courthouse.
My husband is a permanent resident and has a green card. He is not currently a US citizen although I am. I was born and raised and have lived in North Dakota my whole life. I grew up in Langdon, North Dakota and have been in the Fargo area since 1990.
Any jail sentence of over a year automatically brings immigration into the picture. Mevludin has served his 18 month sentence and is still being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He is currently being held in Sherbourne County Correction Center in Minnesota. He is facing a deportation trial.
Mevludin’s surviving family is here in the United States yet he could be deported to a country that he barely remembers, a country that is not stable. I just recently saw the U.S. Embassy in Kosovo getting attacked on the news.
Mevludin has two children and well as two stepchildren. We love them dearly and our family would be divided. I would stand by my husband as I have this entire time and leave with him. I love him and it has been a nightmare to see him go through this.
Nurija (our friend), Mevludin, our children and I know the truth about what happened that night of the fight at the fair. We were on a ride together when the fight happened. We took lie detector tests and passed. We paid for them with our own money to help prove our case. Nothing has helped, not even the innocence project that accepted our case or the website we created, freehidanovic.com. I am tired of being hopeful and praying for a miracle. I have been let down too many times. I want my husband back. I want my family back. Is that too much to ask?
Chanda Hidanovic Fargo
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