A disappointing milestone was passed over this weekend as the injustice of the Nicaraguan Kangaroo Courts have had Nashville native Eric Volz wrongly convicted and incarcerated for the murder of his Nicaraguan girlfriend for over 2 years now.

Despite abundant evidence of his innocence, Volz’s greatest crime was Traveling While American:

“Don’t misunderstand,” Nicaraguans told us, “We’re not anti-American. But we don’t want that rich ‘gringo’ to avoid paying for his crime.”

At this point, I don’t believe anyone outside of Nicaragua misunderstands anything about this case. They’re not Anti-American, they just want that “rich gringo” to pay for someone else’s crime.

• NONE of the physical evidence recovered from the scene linked Eric to the crime…

II. The Arrest and Prosecution of Eric Volz: • Despite the conclusive evidence showing Eric’s innocence, the police issued an arrest warrant for him, as well three others: Armando Llanes, Nelson Lopez-Danglas and Julio Chamorro. A few days later, in return for a testimony against Eric, Danglas was released and all charges against him were dropped.

• Llanes, who is from wealthy Nicaraguan family, disappeared after the murder for 16 days until he appeared at the first hearing where all charges were dismissed without any questioning of him.

• Outside the courthouse in Rivas on the date that Eric was ordered to stand trial, a vigilante mob gathered in an attempt to bring their own justice. They chased Eric and the RSO from the U.S. Embassy with clubs and machetes with the intent to kill Eric. They narrowly escaped.

• Further, the prosecution failed to establish that Doris had been raped, yet Eric was charged with rape. The conviction for that crime is unsupportable as the Medical Examiner’s testimony verified from the very beginning.

III. The Defense Case: • Three witnesses were allowed to testify on Eric’s behalf. The defense case was overwhelming. Indeed, it was conclusive. Those permitted to testify on Eric’s behalf were: Ricardo Castillo, a highly regarded Nicaraguan journalist (who is a contributor to The Washington Post, U.S. News and World Report, and The Economist…), Nick Petty an American businessman and journalist, and Rose Agularia a hairdresser who was cutting Eric’s hair when the phone call came notifying him of Doris’ murder.

• The judge threw out all of the defense testimony and supporting evidence yet the lack of evidence presented by the prosecution did not prohibit the judge from handing Eric a verdict of guilty. A lynch mob once again congregated outside the courtroom in Rivas where, at one point in order to quell the potentially violent mob the police fired gunshots at the crowd. All of this served to frighten the judge away from the truth.

Volz’s story is a cautionary tale for Americans traveling throughout Latin America but as Volz is not a buxom, blonde-haired teen with a margarita in his hand this story has been all but forgotten and 30 years is too long to wait for justice.

The Youtube video from his friends, family and co-workers.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 26th, 2007 at 11:17 am and is filed under Race, Tennessee. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.