Freeing Calusinski should be top priority

In response to Lee Filas' article "What the key issues in prosecutor race might be," Mr. Filas talks about the advisory panel Mr. Nerheim set up to review wrongful convictions but neglects to say that Melissa Calusinski's case was not among those. It seems Mr. Nerheim is exploring how to not get any more convictions overturned and is fighting any attempt to introduce the new evidence that his predecessor failed to show at Melissa's trial.

Mr. Nerheim and Commander Filenko would like to pretend that Melissa's confession was real, even though it is one of the worst cases of a coerced confession that I have seen. After being deprived of a phone call, a drink of water or a bathroom break for 10 hours while she stated she didn't do it 79 times, Filenko broke her spirit down and promised she could go if she just "helped" them. Melissa was finally in the "zone of compliance" that General Hayden was talking about with regard to torture tactics on prisoners.

Mr. Nerheim is not going to get anyone's vote who feels Melissa should be free, and she has a lot of supporters in the Lake County area and worldwide following this case very closely.

Although Matt Stanton does not have the prosecutorial experience that Michael Nerheim has, that is probably a good thing if he is not accustomed to how the cops align with the prosecutor, then the judge follows whatever the prosecutor recommends and "innocent until proven guilty" goes out the window.

They hold your words against you that they put in your mouth and you can't recant. Enough is enough!

Jami Cirotti

Stafford, Virginia