Legal Case
Melvin is serving a life without parole sentence for a capital murder conviction in January 2001. Melvin was convicted when he was 30 years old, and has been incarcerated for 25 years. He maintains his innocence.
Melvin Ray maintains his innocence and seeks the opportunity to return to court to demonstrate that his conviction was wrongful, in a case marked by:
- The absence of any physical or DNA evidence connecting Melvin to the crime
- No physical or DNA evidence admitted as evidence at trial
- Conflicting testimony
- Inconsistent records of evidence
- Inconsistent autopsies
- Compromised witnesses
- Incompetent defense
- And egregious prosecutorial misconduct
But long before this conviction, the odds were stacked against him. At 16, Melvin, along with five other friends, was arrested, interrogated without a parent or attorney present, illegally certified as an adult, isolated from his family for months, and pressured into pleading guilty to dozens of unsolved burglaries. Two decades later, those unlawful convictions would be used to enhance his sentence to life without parole, under Alabama’s Habitual Felony Offender Act.
Melvin now seeks to establish in court that his prior felony convictions were illegal, that his sentence enhancement was unlawful, and that his murder prosecution was without legal foundation.
Contact us for a detailed case summary and court documents
Sign the petition to the Alabama State Courts to rectify these illegal juvenile proceedings.
The night that changed everything…
Thirty-one years ago on March 24, 1988, six Black children, all under the age of 17, were arrested by the police in the early morning hours around 1:00 am, for a department store burglary. After their arrest, they were taken to the police station for a three-hour-long interrogation. The interrogations were conducted by an all-white group of 4 to 6 detectives. The children were not represented by attorneys and their parents were not present during this interrogation.
When the interrogation was completed around 4:00 am, these children were charged with over 30 felony offenses involving several unsolved burglaries in Gadsden. At the time they called this “clearing the books”.
Just a few hours after this early-morning interrogation ended, police and the district attorney’s office then marched these children into court for an initial appearance hearing that quickly turned into a full fledged probable cause detention hearing. Again, none of the children were represented in court by an attorney, and none of their parents were present. It was just the judge, police, and the D.A.
At the hastily erected probable cause detention hearing, which was orchestrated by the juvenile court judge, the DA and police, the judge allowed the D.A. to stipulate to probable cause on behalf of all six children to ALL 30-plus charges pending against them. This illegal probable cause stipulation would then be used to justify continued detention of these children and removal from their homes, parents and siblings.
Juvenile Court Judge Robert E. Lewis’ order states:
“At detention hearing probable cause stipulated to and child ordered detained. . .”As the above court record shows, attorneys were not appointed until April 6, 1988, two full weeks after the arrest and “probable cause” stipulation were made.
Meanwhile, the Gadsden 6 remained in detention for over a month, until April 27, 1988, when the juvenile court judge granted the prosecutor’s motion to transfer these children to adult court. The juvenile court judge granted the prosecutor’s motion to transfer on the same day that it was filed, without conducting a transfer hearing or even notifying anyone that the motion had been filed.
None of the children were present when this motion was heard, no one was served notice of the prosecutor’s motion, the children did not have legal representation to review the motion or present evidence in their behalf, and none of their parents were present when the motion was heard or granted. Injustice was administered behind closed doors when no one was looking…
On to Adult Court…
Once in adult court, the Gadsden 6 were given an ultimatum: plead guilty to all charges and go home that day with sentences of time served and probation, or take a chance on trial and spend the next decade of their lives in prison. The authorities in Gadsden saddled these young black children with over 20 adult felony convictions that would follow them for the rest of their lives, and through a process that guaranteed injustice, as no one was present during the juvenile proceedings to protect the constitutional rights of these children or the parental rights of their parents.
These illegally prior felony convictions have been used in subsequent adult proceedings to enhance many of the Gadsden 6’s sentences under Alabama’s draconian habitual felony offender law, resulting in an additional 50-plus years of illegal time being served, including two instances where life without parole was illegally imposed.