Vanguard News Desk Editor
PHOENIX, AZ — The ACLU of Arizona and other local justice advocates here last week, on Oct. 2, Wrongful Conviction Day, Arizonans for Rational Sex Offense Laws, focused on Stephen May, who they note has “spent more than a decade in prison for crimes he maintains he did not commit,” exposing “troubling flaws in the criminal justice system, from improper trial procedures to unchecked biases that lead to wrongful convictions.”
AZRSOL said Stephen May was “wrongfully convicted in 2007 on multiple counts of child molestation based on allegations stemming from innocent interactions with children in public.”
May, who AZRSOL said suffers from neurological deficits said AZRSOL, maintained “his innocence (with) a lack of physical evidence…was sentenced to 75 years in prison. His case has drawn significant attention from advocates and legal experts who argue that his conviction was deeply flawed,” said supporters
In 2017, Senior Federal Judge Neil V. Wake, of the District of Arizona, granted habeas relief and ordered May to be released immediately, said AZRSOL.
Judge Wake ruled “(m)easured against the Supreme Court’s standards and criteria, the burden-shifting scheme in Arizona’s child molestation law violates due process plain and simple,” and found the scheme violated Stephen’s “right to be convicted of a crime only if the State proves each element beyond a reasonable doubt and to have the jury so instructed.”
AZRSOL said, as a result, in part “because of the District Court’s decision in Stephen’s case, on April 25, 2018, Arizona amended its molestation statutes. In 2021, a Ninth Circuit panel reversed this ruling by a 2-1 majority, which resulted in Stephen’s conviction and 75-year sentence being restored.”
During last week’s ASU-hosted AZRSOL conference, “New Directions in Sexual Offense Policy,” Senior U.S. District Federal Judge Frederic Block, who AZRSOL said served on the appellate panel that reviewed Stephen’s case, again called Stephen’s conviction and sentence “unjust.”
“Block was the dissenting opinion on the ruling that upheld Stephen’s conviction, and he has been a vocal critic of the decision ever since,” added AZRSOL, noting the judge “expressed his ongoing support for May and explained why he had dedicated his book, A Second Chance: A Federal Judge Decides Who Deserves It, to May.
“There are so many who do not belong in jail, like Stephen May,” Judge Block told a packed conference, adding, “Do not give up the fight. I’m not going to give up the fight.”
“May’s story is a reminder that wrongful convictions have lasting impacts, not just on those imprisoned, but also on their families and communities,” said May’s supporters, who announced a Change.org petition, and are urging state leaders to revisit May’s case.
