Conviction Revisited
by ANNA JOLLY
http://www.pressrepublican.com/Archive/2003/04_2003/040420033.htm
April 4, 2003
PLATTSBURGH — Clinton County Judge Timothy Lawliss will hear new evidence in the case of an illegal Chinese immigrant convicted of killing a fellow inmate at Clinton Correctional Facility more than 16 years ago.
David Wong was serving time for armed robbery when he was sentenced to 25 years to life after the 1986 fatal stabbing of inmate Tyrone Julius at Clinton Correctional.
Wong has always denied that he killed Julius.
The David Wong Support Committee, a grassroots organization that has been fighting for more than a decade to exonerate Wong, will be in Clinton County Court April 10 and 11 for the evidentiary hearing.
At 3:30 p.m. this Sunday, the Unitarian-Universalist Fellowship in Plattsburgh will host a public informational meeting on the case.
Church member Nancy Frederick was Wong’s English teacher while he was at Clinton Correctional.
"He was a kid," she said. "He was young and brilliant."
Frederick said she knew little more about Wong, but she remembers his conviction and has followed his case the past few years.
Someone from the Wong Support Committee will attend the informational meeting, she said.
Wong was convicted in 1987 on the testimony of two witnesses. One of those witnesses has recanted, and Julius’s widow has signed an affidavit stating that another man, Nelson Gutierrez, stabbed her husband.
Wong is serving time at Shawangunk Correctional Facility. Gutierrez was released in 1994 and died a few years later in the Dominican Republic.
"It’s amazing the dedication (of the Support Committee)," Frederick said. "They have been at this for years."
To contact us, send us email at freedavid@freedavidwong.org