Syracuse Inmate Won His Murder Trial Without A Lawyer!

Derrick Wilson turned his jail cell into his personal law office as he fought a murder charge. He crammed 17 boxes of legal documents under his desk, beneath his bed and against the walls. He spent more time sitting at his desk than on his bed because paperwork was sprawled across the cot. Deputies joked the cell was approaching a fire hazard.

When Wilson wasn't in his "office" at the Syracuse jail the last two years, he was plugged into a law library kiosk in his roughly 50-man housing unit for eight or nine hours a day. Evenings, he paced around the rectangle, gymnasium-sized "pod," rehearsing his opening statement or reciting his questions for cross-examination.

"Muhammad Ali said the fight wasn't won in the ring -- it was won in the gym," Wilson said in an interview with Syracuse.com from the Onondaga County Justice Center. "The courtroom was my ring. My office is my gym." His office is where Wilson says he beat a murder charge without a lawyer.

The 38-year-old, ninth-grade dropout successfully defeated a career prosecutor in an unprecedented trial in the Easter morning 2000 shooting death of Waliek Hamer. Charges were not brought for 15 years. Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick said he'd never in his 40 years seen a murder defendant successfully represent himself in Central New York.
Posted By Joe