Innocence Lost

The past two years have been an ordeal,
It’s hard to believe it was truly real.
When the government can determine our fates,
Are we really living in the United States?

Now a telephone call was declared a crime,
So remember that each and every time.
I am truly amazed and quite aghast,
Is free speech now a thing of the past?

“Innocent until proven guilty” – or so they say,
But that’s not true in our courts today.
The evidence was plainly there to see,
But the fix was in and they convicted me.

Forbidden in court along with all the rest,
The facts of the investigation and the residue test.
A conspiracy for a journalist and source to meet?
For the First Amendment a great defeat.

Our sentence was light, of that we are glad,
But to get this far is extremely sad.
To get at the truth with all our might,
To clear our names, we continue the fight.

- Liz Sanders (email)
July 1999

[return to Michelson letter]