PRESS RELEASE

 
For immediate release
Contact: Jenny Holtzclaw, jenniferholtzclaw@gmail.com 
        
HOLTZCLAWS RESPONDS TO U.S. SUPREME COURT DENIAL OF CERT
PETITION
 
Former Oklahoma City police officer’s jaw-dropping 29-page petition
raised alarm over “problematic” secret hearings, forensic falsehoods,
and prosecutorial misconduct
 
Holtzclaw vows to “fight on” and “never give up the pursuit of truth,
justice, and freedom; post-conviction process “a marathon, not a
sprint”
 
Enid, Oklahoma March 9, 2020
 
The U.S. Supreme Court today denied former Oklahoma City police
officer Daniel Holtzclaw’s petition for a writ of certiorari seeking review
of the unjust and unconstitutional ruling against him issued by the
Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals (OCCA) in August 2019.
 
“While we are disappointed,” Daniel’s sister Jenny said after the court
announcement this morning, “it is important to note that the high
court’s denial of Daniel’s cert petition does not necessarily mean that
the panel agrees with the OCCA’s outrageously flawed and
scientifically-illiterate decision. According to the Court’s rules, at least
four justices must agree that the lower court’s ruling warrants review.”
Moreover, as longtime court experts have reported, the acceptance
rate for SCOTUS cert petitions usually hovers at less than 5 percent due
to the massive caseload.
 
Jenny Holtzclaw noted that “the post-conviction process is a
marathon, not a sprint. The average time it takes to exonerate an
innocent person like Daniel is upwards of 14 years. As the University of
Michigan reported last year, there were 151 exonerations in 2018,
representing a ‘total number of years lost to exonerees of more than
21,000 years.’ This is devastating and Daniel lives through it every day,
but he remains strong in his faith and spirit.”
 
The Supreme Court offered no comment or explanation for its
rejection, which is standard historical practice. The arrogant and
unaccountable Oklahoma Attorney General did not even bother to file
a reply brief responding to Daniel’s cert petition, which outlined:
 
o How accusers on whose charges Holtzclaw was found guilty
had erroneously described an assailant “as a short man with
blond hair” or “a black man shorter than her height of 5'11"
and darker than her own skin tone”–when Holtzclaw is 6'1",
pale-skinned, and Japanese-American;
 
o How accusers on whose charges Holtzclaw was acquitted
included a woman who wildly claimed while high on drugs
that Holtzclaw had “assaulted her while she was in a hospital
bed” in a busy emergency room and another woman “who
had told detectives initially that no officer had been
inappropriate with her except for a black police officer who
had exposed himself to her,” but later lodged a claim that
Holtzclaw induced her to expose her breasts; and
 
o How the OCCA’s factual recitation of the case crucially
omitted “that detectives used Holtzclaw’s police records to
contact and solicit further complaining witnesses” and
specifically sought out “African-American women with ‘drug
and prostitution histories and arrest warrants’ to falsely
 inform them that detectives had ‘received a tip’ that they
were ‘possibly sexually assaulted by an Oklahoma City police
officer’ who ‘was a really bad guy.’”
 
“I urge Americans everywhere who are concerned about our criminal
injustice system to learn more about the true facts of the bias-driven
investigation--and especially about the brazenly illegal secret
hearings, the cover-up of the police department crime lab’s systemic
failures, false testimony, prosecutorial misconduct, and suppression
of vital e-mails in my case,” Daniel Holtzclaw pleaded.
 
“This case is not just about me,” Holtzclaw said, “but about unknown
other wrongfully accused and convicted Oklahomans whose cases
OCPD forensic analyst Elaine Taylor and Det. Kim Davis – who came
out of retirement and is now shockingly back working for the
department – collaborated on together. I urge Gov. Stitt to ask what
the crime lab and police brass are hiding and why.”
 
Crime lab misconduct over the past two decades, including OCPD’s
infamous Joyce Gilchrist scandal, has resulted in countless wrongful
convictions in Oklahoma. Taylor worked with Gilchrist, destroyed
forensic evidence under Gilchrist’s orders, and admitted in a sworn
deposition that she witnessed destruction of rape kit evidence buried
“in a big ole hole” down by the Oklahoma river. Thousands of pages of
her e-mails related to Daniel’s case were destroyed or remain hidden
by the OCPD. A review of her testimony in Daniel’s case remains sealed.
Daniel’s lawyers were barred from the secret hearings discussing
Taylor’s work and barred from sending transcripts of those hearings to
an outside expert for competent analysis.
 
“I am grateful that my legal team and supporters are pursuing all
post-conviction avenues to prove my complete and total innocence.
We will fight on and never, ever give up the pursuit of truth, justice,
and freedom,” Daniel Holtzclaw said. “The very integrity of
Oklahoma’s criminal justice system is on trial.”
 
Supporters can donate to Holtzclaw’s post-conviction efforts through
his GoGetFunding campaign. Tax-deductible donations to aid in the
legal defense of Holtzclaw and other wrongfully accused and convicted
individuals can be made through the non-profit Uncuff the Innocent.