Werner Kunkel, Fall Guy
Meet Werner Kunkel
When the Yanktons, with help from corrupt FBI and BIA, killed Eddie Peltier, they got a fall guy--19 of them.
With beatings, torture, the rape of wives and threats against them, they and other witnesses who were threatened, falsly testified against the eleven who remained to defend themselves.
Eventually all but two were cleared after serving time in prison for a crime they had nothing to do with. Two remained: Richard LaFuente and John Perez. After almost 20 years for a crime he had nothing to do with, John Perez was released.
Almost a decade later, the evidence of a wrongful conviction embarrassingly overwhelming, with the hard work of the Innocence Project, the public, his family, and after just being denied parole a week or two earlier, Richard LaFuente was essentially "kicked out of prison".
No media was allowed to record or video, his family and supporters had to wait across the highway or be arrested, but Richard walked free. He has no way to regain the decades he lost to false charges and a corrupt justice system.
He has no way to earn enough to have a pension to live on as retirement age has already come over him. This is the price the innocent pay, when the real killers are allowed to remain unaccountable.
Now, we have Werner Kunkel. Wrongly accused, evidence of his innocence hidden from his defense, and decades behind bars because he refuses to confess to a crime he did not commit.
There are other murders committed by the same circle of corrupt agents, BIA and prosecutors. But for now, we work to free Werner. Because he won't confess, he has been tortured: Physically, mentally & emotionally.
The agents misled him to believe he could be released and deported and he was on his way out. He generously gave away the few belongings he had that had helped him pass the time: His radio, X-Box, books... things he woulld not be able to pack into a suitcase and take with him to Germany, where his uncle and uncle's family were waiting for him.
And then, eight days before he was supposed to be released... they changed their minds, rescinded his parole. He would not be released. He now has little or nothing.
He has the devotion of family, especially his sister, Silvia. And he has the dedication of his attorney from The Innocence Project, and the assistance of his other attorney, Dane DeKrey, who is helping because he believes in Werner's innocence.
And he has you and I. Corruption is evil and it contaminates our society from top to bottom. They are people without empathy. They see the suffering of others as amusement. They see getting away with crimes as a form of power.
“Evil, I think, is the Absence of Empathy” a quote from Captain G. M. Gilbert after the Nuremberg trials. His appointment was as the prison psychologist of German prisoners. During the process of the Nuremberg trials, he became a confidant to several of the defendants, including Hermann Göring.
Disturbing that these days Nazi's are coming into vogue.
What I say here won't appeal to those who think like they do. I get that. But for those who still possess a soul, a sense of right and wrong, empathy-- this is who I am reaching out to.
We are all he has. WE are all WE have.
Find a way to speak out. Find a way to stand up. Find a way to be the better people we all want to have in our lives, our community and our world.
There have been others before him, we know that. The question we all need to ask ourselves is this: Who's next?