The Arizona Justice Project is seeking clemency for Joseph Fuentes who they say was wrongfully convicted of murder.
Written by Colleen Sikora, 12News
Originally published Dec. 31, 2024
An Arizona man is seeking clemency from President Joe Biden for what his attorneys say is a wrongful conviction.
Joseph Fuentes was serving time in the federal prison in Phoenix for marijuana charges when in 2001 another inmate was killed.
“They knew who stabbed the other inmate, there were eyewitnesses that they did an in-depth investigation you know about why this happened,” Karen Smith, Senior Litigation Counsel for the Arizona Justice Project said. “The other people who were admittedly involved in organizing this murder, pointed the finger at Joseph in exchange for deals to get shorter sentences or to not be prosecuted.”
Fuentes was convicted of murder and conspiracy to commit murder in 2005.
But Smith said the decade of research and investigation done by the Arizona Justice Project found Fuentes didn’t do it.
“The person who was killed in the federal prison, had actually been arrested for assaulting a teenage victim on the reservation before he went to prison, and those charges had been dropped,” Smith said. “We learned that that teenage victim actually was the niece of the person who ordered the hit on the victim in prison, and that information never came up at trial, and we got police records that confirmed that that assault happened.
Incentivized informant testimony, ineffective counsel at trial and no attorney granted for post-conviction relief are all factors in Fuentes serving his life sentence today, Smith said. The Arizona Justice Project also tried to get relief for Fuentes.
Now, the organization has filed for clemency on behalf of Fuentes from President Biden who has granted about 1,500 people clemency over the past month.
“This is his last chance to get freedom,” Smith said. “If he is not granted clemency, he will serve the rest of his life in prison.”
They now hope that the wrongful conviction will be righted.
“I’d ask (President Biden) to take a close look at Joseph’s case and see both the problems that happened with his conviction, but also how deserving he is as a person, as a second chance at freedom outside of prison, and how much he has to give back to society if he were given that chance,” Smith said.
