Reunited in Islam (Part 2)

Do you remember Claire and Mujaheed, the Muslim couple whose story I shared with you?

Here is an update in their story:

They have 5 children together; Mujaheed became Muslim in prison and they performed nikah once he was released after Claire followed him into Islam. But just as things were getting better, Mujaheed was arrested because he was in a car with a person who had a concealed firearm that he had no idea about.

Frightened into pleading guilty

In my last email, I told you that Mujaheed’s fingerprints were not found on the gun and that he was coming home...

Turns out, I was wrong. Mujaheed wasn’t told right away about the fingerprint results. Instead, he was threatened with a heavy sentence if his fingerprints were found… unless he pled guilty right then and there.

Mujaheed was really afraid of being handed down a heavy sentence that would separate him from his family for many years (perhaps even decades). And he had no proper legal advice.

So he pleaded guilty. Only then he found out that the fingerprint analysis came back negative.

Because he pleaded guilty of violating his parole, Mujaheed was sentenced to 8 years in prison. There is hope that he will be paroled in 4. All for riding in a car with someone who turned out to have a gun.

The travesty of guilty pleas

If you think that an innocent person pleading guilty is strange - it’s not. In fact, it’s extremely common in the US criminal justice system.

You see, there are too many court cases for the system to handle. Guilty pleas save time, so defendants are given offers they can’t easily refuse: an easy sentence if they plead guilty or decades in prison if they’re convicted.

You’d think their lawyer would advise them on when their chances of acquittal are actually low enough to make the plea worth it, but… public defenders have so little time to spend on each case that they simply advise them to plead guilty in nearly every case.

(In some places in the US, public defenders have just a few minutes to spend per case on average… go figure)

If you were threatened with spending half of your life in prison and your lawyer was telling you to give up… even if you were innocent, wouldn’t pleading guilty and spending just a few years behind bars sound attractive?

This is why 98% of all federal court cases result in a guilty plea, just like Mujaheed’s.

Back to square one

We’ve had to remove the checkmark next to “released” in Mujaheed’s case file. He unfortunately joins the over 75% of parolees who end up returning to prison.

In our last conversation with him, Mujaheed told us he’d like to continue his studies with Tayba. We’re waiting to hear which prison he’s placed in so we can send him his next course.

We’ll also continue to counsel him and prepare him for his release in 4 years.

If there is an opening for him to challenge his incarceration, we’ll help connect him with legal resources through our Legal Initiative program.

But Mujaheed is not the only one who needs support. His wife and 5 children wait for him out in free-society.