Justice for Jorge Ruiz

In early August 2019, an Alabama court sentenced Jorge Ruiz, 19 years old at that time, to 99 YEARS in prison for the accidental death of a nurse living in Deatsville, Alabama.

During the trial, after Jorge's Family paid a $5,000 bond, local Sherriffs contacted ICE, and he was detained and then released back to the Sherriffs, and the family lost the bond money.

Jorge is a Mexican national living in the country on a work visa. However, during the trial, local newspapers falsely labeled him as an “illegal immigrant” and a drunk driver even though his Blood Alcohol Content was 0.016, 4 times LESS than the legal limit for adults and .004 LESS than the legal limit for minors. Jorge was sentenced by a jury of his peers of 11 whites, one black, and no one from his race. After sentencing Jorge to 99 YEARS in Alabama State Prison, the judge who handed down his sentence appeared to feel remorseful and entertained a motion for a new trial on the grounds of ineffective assistance of counsel. During Jorge’s hearing, there were many unanswered questions, but his attorney failed to bring those answers to light.

After Jorge was unjustly sentenced to 99 years in Alabama State Prison, his family started a Gofundme to raise money for an appeals attorney. The Gofundme was pretty successful, but his already struggling family still needed to pay thousands of dollars out of their own pockets.

Jorge’s case was then sent to the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals and the Alabama Supreme Court of Appeals, and, as reporter Josh Moon wrote, "The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals was supposed to be Jorge Ruiz’s savior — the court that was going to rectify his horribly unjust sentence by picking apart the botched lower-court trial…Instead, the Appeals Court simply piled on".

What happened to Jorge is unfathomable, but there is still hope. Jorge needs your support and time of the essence to fight these injustices. The deadline to file a particular motion for ineffective assistance of counsel is October 21, 2022. Jorge’s family has been struggling to pay his legal fees and has decided to reach out again to ask for your support. If his family cannot raise funds to pay Jorge’s attorney, he could be imprisoned for 99 YEARS on unjust charges.

The hope for Jorge is called "Alabama Rule 32. Post-conviction remedies", and it could allow Jorge's case to be sent back to the trial Judge because his original attorney could have argued specific facts, but he did not. There were many unanswered questions during the trial, and this motion could bring justice to Jorge.

Two separate legal fees need to be paid as part of Rule 32. The first is the investigation portion which will cost $7,500. The second part is drafting the motion, filing it, the hearing, and all other associate legal fees to complete Rule 32, which will cost $10,000. The total needed for Jorge's legal fees is $17,500. Currently, his family has $2,000, and a kind, concerned Law Professor, worried about the injustice of this case, has given $1,000 to help with Jorge's legal fees. This leaves $14,500 that needs to be raised in a short time to save Jorge. The deadline to file a motion is October 21st, and we are running out of time.

If you can find it in your heart, please support Jorge so he can receive the justice he deserves, not only as a Mexican migrant worker but also as a human being. Any support you can provide is loved and appreciated, even if you can only share this cause with your family and friends.

You can click the underlined links below to read Josh Moon's full articles.

Josh Moon’s article addressing the appeals court. To summarize the sentiment of his article in just a few words, he wrote, “Look, we can tiptoe around this all day or I can come out and say it: Jorge Ruiz is convicted of reckless murder and serving 99 years because he’s a Mexican immigrant…You can pretend that’s not the reason, and these judges and prosecutors can act all indignant about it, but it is. And deep down, everyone knows that’s the case.”

Josh Moon’s original article regarding trial court.