Shakeil Price was given a life sentence based solely on the testimony of his co-defendant’s girlfriend. He has spent the last nine excruciating years navigating the exhausting prison appeals process.
The pressure amounts as I impatiently dwell in my cell, contemplating my fate. Will my life sentence be vacated and modified, or will the sentence stand as it is? My life now rests in the hands of the New Jersey Appellate Court judges.
On March 3, 2015, I initially filed a Post-Conviction Relief (PCR) petition to overturn my 2010 murder conviction. Nine years later, my PCR appeal has still not yet been fully resolved.
The journey has been enduring. On June 22, 2017, after hearing oral arguments, the judge said I had “no merit” and refused to grant me any relief. I was devastated. My attorney and I had worked diligently to present a compelling argument supported by tangible evidence and established case law.
On the contrary, the Appellate Division reversed the denial of my petition and remanded my case for an evidentiary hearing on March 4, 2019. I and my family were ecstatic; it was the first time the courts had ruled in my favor.
After conducting the evidentiary hearing, the judge issued an opinion again denying granting my post-conviction appeal on November 10, 2022. This decision sent me into yet another state of depression.
My family was present at the hearing and was under the impression that my sentence would be modified. As laymen, they recognized that my legal arguments were legitimate. The disappointment in my children’s faces crushed me. I was legally and spiritually defeated. It was a matter of life or death. Failing to prevail on this appeal means I could potentially spend the rest of my life in prison.
Following that ruling, my lawyer submitted an appeal brief on June 23, 2023, challenging the denial of my PCR appeal. For over a year now, I have been eagerly awaiting that decision. With each passing day, the anticipation becomes more agonizing.
As I draft this article, it is a challenge to remain focused. The appeals process is a perpetual emotional rollercoaster. I continually experience waves of panic and depression. With each new ruling from the courts, my spirit is dealt a blow that leaves a permanent scar.
From my observation, most wrongful convictions take over 20 years to overturn. When you are finally granted any relief, they’ve already taken away 20 years of your prime.
My daughter, Keyonna, who is frustrated with the slow grind of the justice system, asked me, “Why does it take so long, Dad?”
I have no answer to that question.
What I do know is that it’s not the defendant’s fault that the appeals process takes so long. We fight day in and day out to get relief from the courts. Most of the people who are wrongfully convicted have either claimed innocence from the date of their arrest or were coerced into confessing to a crime that they didn’t commit.
Researching the law is a painstaking task. It requires defendants to learn a whole new language. The legal jargon is rooted in Latin. Plain English terms like “due process” have alternate technical meanings that pertain to something totally different in the court of law.
Defendants without a high school education are obligated to learn and prepare legal documents with the skill level of a bar member with eight years of college education. The pressure is overwhelming.
Working on your own case is extremely emotionally taxing. It is beyond hope-shattering to repeatedly read about similarly situated individuals who were granted relief while you’ve been denied by a court telling you that your issues have “no merit.” Also, reliving the trauma of your trial every time you reread your transcripts is brutal. But it has to be done; failure to do so may result in you spending the rest of your life in prison.
Any day now, a corrections officer will call my name for legal mail, and I will be informed of the Appellate Division’s decision. I have served approximately 20 years of my life sentence, so perhaps one day soon, I, too, will have my conviction overturned.
Shakeil Price #200947-c
#666160 NJSP
P.O.Box 861
Trenton, NJ 08625
Instagram: @FreeShakeilPrice
