Breaking News

Floyd’s convictions are reversed!

The Innocence Foundation wishes to convey its deepest gratitude for the exceptional work of Mr. Erik Eklund, Floyd Marsh’s attorney who took on his post conviction relief case last year after Floyd’s appellate attorney failed to preserve Floyd’s rights under a pending case, Ramos v. Louisiana. That landmark 2020 Supreme Court decision rendered non-unanimous jury verdicts (such as Floyd’s) to be illegal, ironically coming out just four days after Floyd’s Appeal was rejected without its benefit. Nonetheless, Mr. Eklund successfully reopened Floyd’s case on Ramos’s merits. On February 17th, 2022, Mr. Eklund filed the Department of Justice paperwork, reversing all of Floyd’s convictions! 

What’s next?

So he gets to go home, right? Not quite. The message sent to Clackamas County District Attorney’s office was such that they screwed up Floyd’s 2017 trial and need to start over. As a result, they took physical custody of now stroke-victim Floyd Marsh on February 23rd, 2022, remanding him back to Clackamas County Jail. Subsequent actions seem to indicate the politically motivated Deputy D.A. Russell Amos is for now keeping his options open to retry Floyd. The Innocence Foundation maintains that running Floyd Marsh, the unhappy robbery victims and the Oregon taxpayers through a second showboating two-week trial simply to bolster Amos’s media opportunities, is fiscally reckless and morally irresponsible.

How did we get here?

Can we be real for a moment? It’s widely understood that Floyd’s sole crime lay in embarrassing his former boss, Sheriff Craig Roberts, by being falsely arrested in Chicago, early 2014, for pot. Although the judge dismissed that case due to the arresting officer’s unethical behavior (he lied), the damage to Mr. Roberts’s reputation had been done, and he was out for revenge. Near the end of 2014, C.C. D.D.A. Russell Amos colluded with known drug dealer Gerald Wiese to blame Wiese’s desperate 2011 home-invasion robbery (perpetrated against my family) on Floyd Marsh. In exchange, Russell Amos cozily arranged for Wiese’s total immunity for numerous charges associated with the robbery, plus drug charges stemming from large amounts of meth, heroin, cocaine and illicit steroids found in Mr. Wiese’s possession in 2014. Gerald Wiese was not required to pay restitution for what he stole. Since Floyd’s 2017 trial, Gerald Wiese has been rearrested many times for his ongoing drug trade. Somehow, this D.A.’s sweetheart never gets much time at all. And to this day, no one has been been held accountable for the robbery attack with a deadly weapon on Zdena, my dear co-parent.

The C.C.S.O. and the C.C.D.A. knew from the beginning that Floyd Marsh was innocent. If otherwise, why did investigators state up front and on the record that their primary objective was – not to find the truth but rather – to “build a strong case against Floyd,” only to later admit on the stand they failed to verify anything Gerald Wiese told them? Why did they repeatedly threaten that I would be in trouble if I brought forth evidence in Floyd’s favor? Why did prosecutors disobey (for many years) court orders to produce exculpatory evidence in their possession? Clearly, they did not want the truth – or even a fair procedure. And despite receiving copies of the Amos/Wiese Project years ago, they took no action against their star witness for his perjury.

1/05/2024 Latest Update

Floyd’s new trial was set to begin Tuesday, January 9, 2024. Instead, Clackamas County DDA Russell Amos filed a Motion to Dismiss, which the judge granted. Floyd’s arrest will be expunged, and his case now qualifies for placement on the National Registry of Exonerations. True, Oregon recently joined the ranks of states who compensate those wrongfully convicted, yet dismissal is not enough. Such requires an entire new trial – a civil one, for which attorneys require retainers. Will you help us raise any portion of the $20,000 necessary to prompt Oregon’s good faith compensation, so that we may continue to help others? Thank you!