Joshua Stump Case Goes Federal

    U.S. District Judge David L. Russell issued a Order Of Referral to

U.S. Magistrate Judge Bana Roberts for preliminary review, after

attorneys from the Arnett Law Firm of Oklahoma City filed a Writ of

Habeas Corpus in the U.S. Western District Court of Oklahoma, on behalf

of Josh , who is the main subject of the widely viewed website

http://whataboutjosh.tripod.com

   This Appeal process began after some 8+years of incarceration had

passed when Joshua first learned that his "state appointed defense

attorney" neglected to inform him of specialists' reports favorable to

his case, and that the Oklahoma Indigent Defense System was out of funds

and thereby unable to finance a jury trial. Instead this attorney told

Josh, (who was barely 18 at the time) waiting to go to his rightful jury

trial for first degree murder , which the state had charged him with

eight months before, when he failed to persuade a friend of his from

going back alone and unexpectedly committing a deadly crime in which his

friend lost his own life, that the old man's testimony was going to get

him killed and they might even get him for his friend's death as well if

he did not accept a plea bargain of 75 yrs.. (of which he wold do 7 to

9) and second degree murder. Josh reluctantly accepted and has been

without freedom almost 10 years now. He is currently serving his

sentence at the state reformatory in Granite, Oklahoma.