Two Years For What?

Scotford Simunyu has been in jail at the Rockingham County House of Corrections for two years. The worst crime he ever committed was to let his visa expire.
Scotford was arrested just after 9/11 when the INS was rounding up people with various immigration violations. He went before Immigration Judge Thomas Ragno and applied for political asylum. Ragno turned him down and ordered him held without bail describing Scotford as a flight risk. Scotford fled to The United States in 1984 from Zimbabwe shortly after his father, a politician there, was assassinated. Scotford and the rest of his family were all threatened with death if they tried to investigate or talk about the death of his father. They were even threatened after they arrived in the US.
He has an engineering degree from the University of Zimbabwe and had attended Lowell Tech for two years. At the time of his arrest he was working as a programmer at BAE Systems in Nashua.
Judge Ragno was recently removed from the bench because of his racist remarks to a Black woman who he was deporting to Africa. He said, "Jane, come here, me Tarzan". During Scotford¹s trial Judge Ragno turned to joke with the prosecutors and said, "Remember the movie, Hang Em High?"
Scotford needs money to appeal his case. He needs approximately $1500 for the case to move forward. I ask you to consider helping to free this man so that he may get on with his life.
If you can contribute please make your check out to:
Scotford Simunyu Defense Fund.
Mail to:
SSDF
C/o Pat Morse
62 Canaan Back Road
Barrington NH 03825

Currently, Michael Goldman, a third year law student at Boston College has agreed to work on this case pro bono. If you have any legal expertise and can help in any way please contact Pat Morse: pat@trunk.com or phone: 603 664-2205

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