by Shahon Cumbo

I was convicted and sentenced to 75 years last August due to jailhouse snitches.

The motive of all jailhouse snitches is to cooperate with the Commonwealth for the return of a sentence reduction; a lot of people know of this as a time cut.

Jailhouse snitches are convicted criminals; 98 percent are felons. Some have pending cases and shouldn’t be allowed to testify against anybody from in the jail.

If you commit a crime and are truthfully and lawfully found guilty, then you should pay the consequences.

These jailhouse snitches are criminals, liars, thieves, murderers, rapists, drug dealers, drug addicts and robbers getting away with serious crimes only to commit them again.

We, as in people of the communities or prisons, need to stop the unlawful justice being done by prosecutors and judges. We need to have justice sought and found, the truthful and lawful way.

These jailhouse snitches commit a crime, go to jail and then make up evidence against inmates and others.

Now what if you, an innocent person sitting at home one day, are arrested for a crime after being implicated by an inmate? These are the things that jailhouse snitches do for sentence reductions. It’s really unfair and sad when you can’t go to jail without knowing if you will ever be released.

You got people who may have been sentenced to 15 days for trespassing, and you got a jailhouse snitch, who implicates you in a murder he probably committed. Now the guy with the 15-day sentence is charged with murder and sentenced to life in prison because of a lying criminal.

This is what these jailhouse snitches are doing, and something has to be done about it.

Place yourself in a situation like this. Would you like to have somebody do something to like this to you?

A jury due to testimony from jailhouse snitches falsely convicted me in Southampton County Circuit Court. I wasn’t even housed in the same jail with some of the guys who testified against me.

Commonwealth’s Attorney Eric Cooke wanted to convince the jury at my trials he was seeking justice for the safety of the community.

In court, I was described as a drug dealer, murderer and gang member. Cooke recommended I be sentenced to life in prison plus 25 years.

Everybody who testifies in court is placed under oath to tell the truth.

I just wanted to tell the community the type of activities taking place in the courtrooms. These activities are unfair and unjust, and we need to stop them.

I can assure everybody this will keep the real criminals off the streets for the safety of the community.

Ask yourself, what if I, or somebody that I cared for, were in a situation like this? Remember this can happen to anybody; you don’t even have to go to jail to get lied about and convicted of a crime you didn’t commit.

I’m not just writing this because of my situation. I’m writing this because I am a witness to the unfair and unjust activities taking place in courtrooms.

Remember, if you break the law, you should do the time for the crime. If these jailhouse snitches are so scared to go to prison, then they should not commit crimes.

Now this is how justice is really supposed to be served. Justice is the truthful outcome of the law that has been broken by anybody, and justice is not supposed to pick and choose sides.

I want to apologize to the victim’s family again for my name being involved in a situation that I had nothing to do with. This is to Darren Lee’s mother, brother and sister and his kids. You all heard the case for yourselves, and I know that you know that this really isn’t justice.

SHAHON CUMBO lived in Franklin before being sent to Wallens Ridge State Prison for the Oct. 7, 2010, murder of Darren Lee at Southampton Meadows Mobile Home Park. A jury last February found the 24-year-old guilty of first-degree murder during a three-day trial in Southampton County Circuit Court. His address at the prison is P.O. Box 759, Big Stone Gap, Va., 24129.