Cody Davison # 2000016098

Larned Correctional Mental Health Facility

I’m writing this in hopes that enough people will get behind this and some changes can be made with the justice court and prison systems. My name is Cody L. Davidson and I’m in prison for attempted murder and aggravated kidnapping. I received a 61 yearlong sentence (732 months) from Wellington, Kansas in 1998. I’ve done 27 years straight on this sentence so far. I believe I’ve done enough time on this sentence and should be given another chance. I don’t take away from the crimes I committed, all crimes are terrible and all crimes should be paid for. But I feel like I paid dearly for the crimes I committed as a teenager and in my twenties. I don’t feel like people without a murder or sex conviction should be spending all their lives in prison with no possible way to get out. There should be a way people like me can work their way out of the prison system.

Over the years I’ve watched many, many people that have murders, rapes, child molesting crimes get out of prison or don’t have near the time I do. To me, those are the worst crimes. These people have taken lives and messed people up for life with these crimes. If these people are allowed to get another opportunity at freedom, surely people with lesser crimes should be able to. Taxpayers are paying millions and millions of dollars a year for hundreds of people throughout the prison system that have paid their debt to society and could be a productive part of society.

Instead of coming up with better reforms to relieve prison overcrowding and let people out, they just build more prisons, more beds to warehouse more people. In my opinion, the prison system has become a big money business. I believe they have stockholders. People wouldn’t invest in the prison system if there wasn’t a way to make big money off it. There is somewhere around 10,000 in the Kansas prison system. We each have a mandatory and forced savings account. 10 percent of all money sent into us by our families or money people made through private industry jobs at the prisons go into these accounts. We can’t use this money until we are released. This is millions of dollars altogether in these accounts, you can’t tell me all this money isn’t being invested. We don’t get any investment returns for our money being used. The taxpayers aren't getting any tax kickbacks for your money being used, so who’s getting this money? The shareholders and whoever else in the prison system is getting this money. I’m just trying to open people's eyes to the court and prison system. These are suggestions to look into.

Somewhere around 80 to 85 percent of people who get out of prison come back. That percentage I know up and down. The point is, whatever they are doing DOESN’T WORK. The court system is corrupt and no good a lot of the time. I’m all for law and justice to keep society safe, but it has to be fair, just, and not corrupt. If a person is poor and can’t afford a high-priced lawyer, you’re not going to get a fair trial most of the time. You can show them laws in black and white and they won’t follow it. Unless you have a high-priced lawyer to fight for you and hold the judger and D.A to the law your rights are going to be violated. A lot of the times the District Attorney (D.A) makes up a story about what he believes happened on the crime, so you’re convicted on a made-up story that isn’t even true. I got convicted on premeditated attempted murder. They said I thought about doing this crime months before it happened, which isn’t true. I’m going to write down here just a few of the violations in my case. This is not all of them. I’m taking these right off the court papers.

Issue #1: The trial court committed a reversible error when it failed to instruct the jury that to find Mr. Davison guilty of attempted murder, it must find that Mr. Davison committed an “overt” act, as defined by Kansas law. This error was a structural error in the trial mechanism because it denied Mr. Davison his right to trial by jury under the federal constitution and section 5 of the Kansas Bill of Rights. Mr. Davison was denied his right to a unanimous jury verdict over the attempted murder charge because the jury could have relied upon acts that are not legally sufficient “overt acts” under Kansas law to support a conviction.

Issue #2: The trial court committed reversable error in failing to instruct the jury to consider aggravated battery as a lesser offense.

Issue #3: Plaintiff was denied his constitutional right to effective assistance of counsel when defense counsel failed to recognize the need for a competency hearing to see if the defendant was competent to stand trial. The court records show that I was on enough mental health medication that I should have been hospitalized. I was going through hallucinations. That’s how they were taking me to court. A person is supposed to be in their right mind going to court.

Issue #4: Trial court abused its discretion in denying appellants motion to set aside conviction based on juror misconduct.

One of the jurors knew the victim's husband. You aren’t going to get a fair trial if the juror knew the victim's husband.

Issue #5: The victim of the crime was threatened that if she didn’t write a statement saying I did this crime she would

go to prison. The victim of the crime doesn’t even want me in prison, she’s been up to the prison several times to visit

me over the years. Like I said, this is just a few violations on my case, there are way more than this. I’m hoping the right

people see this post and want to help me. I believe there is a major lawsuit that can filed on my case. I’ve done 27

years on an illegal sentence. I will do anything to be released. I would never ever commit another crime. I’m willing

to do whatever I need to do to prove that. Please help me.