Everyone communicates their life story in different ways. Some infuse it with comical snippets, others make it as serious as piano strings; still others paint it as tragic as hell, that you have no choice but to sympathize with the story being told. Unfortunately, I’m not that gifted. I’m not a writer by trade. I am simply making a plea for freedom so I can be reunited with my family once and for all. So please, bear with me the madness of my prison experience.
In 1998 I was given a 40 year sentence for selling cannabis, although I wasn’t caught with any drugs, money, or guns (you know the story). [Istandwithedwinrubis.com] I was 29 years of age at the time of my arrest and conviction. I’m now 56. And sadly, in about three months, I will enter my 28th year in federal prison. Half a life, most will say.
Why am I still behind bars? The answer is rather simple: “lack of money”. When I was first arrested, the court appointed me an attorney for indigent defendants (those who are unable to hire an attorney). Later, he turned out to be incompetent and corrupt after selling me out to the prosecutor and the judge. The same thing happened with my first appeal and the second and the third and the fourth and the fifth, along with my four clemency petitions. I’ve never had paid legal representation. Not then, and certainly not now.
I have six more years until my release from prison. By that time, I will have served 31 years to the day for a non-violent marijuana crime. But that can change with your assistance and support. Just imagine for a moment your father, mother, brother or sister, even your own son or daughter spending their best years behind bars.
Please forgive me for such a harsh example, but if you could walk a mile in my shoes (trust me, I wouldn’t want you to) even for a day, I believe you’d understand, at least on some level, the reason for my plea to be set free. Free from the nightmare of this experience I’ve endured for the last 10,000 days; locked in a cage, punished with bitter disillusionment and bound with an unseen yoke of oppressiveness.
I hate to sound like a victim, but this is my reality. I hate to tell the same story over and over as if I’m beating a dead horse, but this is my last plea for freedom: my family needs funds to hire an attorney specialized in post-conviction relief; a private investigator to interview the jurors; and also funds to purchase a billboard ad in Times Square telling the world who Edwin Rubis is.
Will you please sponsor me and be my deliverer, my savior, my donor … I am begging, I know. But who wouldn’t, if they were in the same position I find myself in? Who wouldn’t, if they wanted to see their father and mother (if only for a day), before they die and pass away? Who wouldn’t, if after living day in and day out for almost 30 years in a cage longing to be set free? This is my last plea for freedom … will you help me?
Edwin Rubis is a cannabis prisoner serving 40 years in federal prison. He has been incarcerated since 1998. His release date is 2031. He is a father to three sons. His father and mother are in their 80’s and want their son to come home. His friends and the community at large also want Edwin to come home. You can help with his release by donating to his family’s fundraiser: tinyurl.com/FreeEdwinRubis
You can send Edwin Rubis a personal message through corrlinks: (256) 770-4280.
You can see more of his article and the Beard Bros’s efforts to have him released here.
