On Tuesday, December 28, 2004, David Wong was freed from prison but he was immediately taken by immigration officials and is now held in the Buffalo Federal Detention Center in the Buffalo, New York area. His supporters are launching an urgent national petition and letter-writing campaign for Congress and the immigration authorities not to deport David Wong. The public can reach the new online petition through www.freedavidwong.org
After serving seventeen years in prison for a murder he did not commit, David Wong was finally exonerated in December when Judge Richard Giardino ruled on a motion to drop murder charges against Wong. He faces potential deportation to China because despite having arrived to the United States legally in the early 1980s, he currently does not have status. He is also vulnerable to deportation because of a robbery conviction in 1984. This is just the latest chapter of a nearly twenty-year saga for Wong's freedom. His supporters fought since 1990 to prove his innocence and now are turning their attention to halting his detention and possible deportation. Wong's case gained national attention because of his trial and conviction for the 1986 murder of a fellow inmate. Wong was sentenced to 25-years-to-life despite a complete lack of physical evidence and the failure on the part of the Clinton County prosecutors to present any link between Wong and the murder victim, including a motive. Wong's trial lasted only six days and his public defender refused to investigate the case. Wong was also not provided a qualified translator. According to Wong, his family, and community supporters, the trial and conviction was a "railroading," that smacked of racial profiling, courtroom corruption, scapegoating, and fear. Wong was only one of two Asians at Clinton County Correctional Facility when the murder took place. He was an easy target for prison officials and prosecutors. Outrage over his case among Asian American community members and beyond led to the formation of the David Wong Support Committee that has worked for his justice since the early 1990s under the leadership of Yuri Kochiyama, a long-time civil rights, racial justice, and political prisoner activist. Wong recently said that "I am happy to be able to now put my nightmare behind me and I am excited for my freedom and the prospect of my future, and also, I am happy in looking forward to seeing my family and friends again in the free world." His niece, Fei Yeung, said that because of the wrongful conviction, "David Wong has lost his freedom, privacy, the prime years of his life and everything else that you and I take for granted." Wong's release from prison was a bittersweet victory for his supporters. They are currently applying pressure on federal officials, pointing to the suffering that Wong has endured for a crime that he did not commit, AS WELL AS THE SHOW OF SUPPORT FROM THE COMMUNITY AND HIS FRIENDS AND RELATIVES IN THE UNITED STATES. Petitions demanding Wong's full freedom and an end to the deportation process are being signed across the country.