March 31, 2009

March 31, 2009

Dear Elsa,

How sad…no, how tragic for a Jewish mother to be unjustly imprisoned and thus to miss your son’s bar mitzvah yesterday! I am sure that your beloved younger son, Lars, would have done you proud had you not been innocent and in prison. Not only that, but I understand it is the second bar mitzvah you really had the right to attend, because of your innocence—but that in both cases the courts, prosecutors, and government of Maryland denied you that both that right and the privilege that would have meant so much to you.

I’m wondering if there is any comparison in other faiths. A Catholic mother unjustly imprisoned and unable to attend her children’s first communions or confirmations? A Conservative Evangelical Protestant mother forcibly absent, by virtue of false imprisonment, on the day her child walks down the aisle to “accept Jesus as Savior”? A Methodist mother who had her baby while falsely imprisoned and thus had to miss the child’s christening?

Or what about the secular world? What about an unjustly imprisoned mother who thus had to miss her children’s high school or college graduations? What about missing a first recital? Did you ever get to see and hear Herbie in a violin recital?

I don’t know that there is anything—either in other faiths or in the secular world that quite compares. My heart goes out to you.

Truthfully, my heart would go out to you, even if you were guilty of the crimes of which you are accused. But you and I and an assortment of other people are well aware of your innocence.

Among them? The prosecutors. An assortment of witnesses who lied. The State’s Attorney, now Attorney General of the State of Maryland. The judge who heard your case. Maryland’s highest court which declared that the first trial had been improperly conducted and stated clearly in their majority opinion that there was nothing to connect you to any crime. Your ex-husband, who set up the case for the prosecution by informing the 911 operator that his wife had sent someone to kill him [Sheesh, Elsa! Even if that were true, there is no way Arlen Slobodow could have known it! Why didn't somebody wise catch that slip-up on his part?]

And of course, there are always those among us—Friends of Elsa Newman and Sons--who know in the deep places of our spirits that you are not guilty, although we have only joined this battle after you were already unjustly imprisoned and have learned of your innocence and unjust imprisonment by months of research and study.

Finally, there are the over 200 people who signed a petition asking Governor O’Malley to open an unbiased investigation into your case. All of these people also believe in your innocence and believe your incarceration is a travesty of justice.

Again, my heart- and spirit-felt sympathies. No Jewish mother should ever have to miss her sons’ bar mitzvahs because of such insane, unjust circumstances.

Because the Care2 site closed your original position as of March 28, after it had been online for only six months, I have started another petition for you on the same site. I am hoping that people who read my letters to you will click on this site and sign this petition: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/2/free-elsa-newman--save-her-kids-from-abuse

Sincerely...and holding you in the light,

Aine