----- Original Message -----

I found your article, "Justice Delayed is Justice Denied" after a google search of a dear friend's name.  She is very sick, and very deep in trouble.  Her name is Amber Torrez, she killed a taxi cab driver, she killed the founder of the Colorado Free University, and she has admitted both counts.

 

She also tried to fire her own lawyer, asked to donate blood to an ailing grandmother and skip the trial and head straight to sentencing.  This is not a master plan on her part.  I assure you.

 

Amber and I were friends in middle school.  We were 13 year old girls together, she spent the night at my house and we giggled about boys.  When, after losing touch for some years, she resurfaced in the midst of this chaos I went to county jail to visit her.  She is gone.  The girl who slept in my bed is gone to the world into a land where she is an anti hero, dolling out justice in a leather jacket.  She claims to have traveled the country, helping people in need, and putting out fires, saving babies, and sky diving.  In fact, previous to her embroilment with the proceedings she was stuck in North Denver dealing drugs and working in a pizza place.

 

Your article is poorly written and uses this, superficially researched situation as a rallying cry for justice.  There are two types of justice in America, and being an immigrant, or being black or green or blue have nothing to do with what you get, not really.  There's justice for the rich and powerful, and justice for the poor and downtrodden.  Were taxi cab drivers paid seven digits a year instead of five, they could buy better justice.  As it is, the only one with any influence in the case are the relatives of John Hand, and they seem sympathetic.

 

Amber Torrez is sick, I know, I've talked to her, I've shared dreams with her.  She is a hurt and trembling shell of a person, and in all honesty, when we were children together she was still a wounded creature.  It is tragic that your friend was killed, but he wasn't killed in malice, he was killed by disease.

 

Amber needs a cure, not a punishment.