WE NEED YOUR HELP in NC

Dear Mazda B Community,

I am currently a student at Duke Law working in a free legal clinic representing clients who we believe have been wrongfully convicted. I'm working on a case currently in which a man was shot while driving a 1989 Mazda B2200, 5 speed with the bench seat. According to witness testimony, which we want to demonstrate was clearly falsely fabricated, our client (who we believe was wrongfully convicted) shot this man in his own truck, then climbed into the truck and drove it a short distance while sitting on top of the victim. The problem is, the victim was 5'10" and weighed 224 lbs. and our client is 6'4" and probably weighed somewhere around 190-200 lbs. at the time, so we think that would have been impossible for him to drive a B2200 reg. cab while sitting on this victim, especially given that we know the victim's feet were still in the footwell.

We're looking to you all for some help. We are having a very difficult time finding a truck like the victim's in which we can conduct a demonstration to show justt his one part of why we know our client is innocent of this crime. We would just need to be able to use your truck to have some similarly sized people sit in it and demonstrate that there is no way that our client could have driven a B2200 while sitting on such a large man while we snap a few photos and maybe some video footage. We're located in NC, and so would love to find someone nearby.

Our clinic has done some great work, and as of today we've had three exonerations. Here are some news links to our latest which occured just a couple weeks ago:

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We really believe that our client has been serving a life sentence for a murder which he didn't commit. We would appreciate any help that one of you might be able to offer to help us get him back to his family.

Thanks,
Thayne Stoddard

^ The prize for most bizarre request for help goes to ^

Sitting on top of the victim, what a bizarre thing to have done.
Just that part makes you wonder what on earth the prosecutor/cops were thinking when they put that forward.
I wonder if the thought train went "blood on the back of clothing... must have sat atop the deceased"

Will the donator of the vehicle get to use the picture as their avatar?

This kind of makes me wish I still had the dash in my car, but I'm a fair bit away from you as well. I can however say without a doubt there is no way one could sit on the other and drive anywhere without extreme acts of contortionism. My roommate is 5'10-11 and 225 and I'm only 5'7 155 and there is no way I'd fit on top of him and between the steering wheel as well as be able to drive my truck.

I suggest you document two people who fit the same size as both individual, take those two individuals to a used car lot with a video camera and record them attempting to fit themselves in to the B2000 if you're unable to find someone to loan you one locally. That should easily demonstrate your point.

Ask the same question on MazdaTrucking.com, they've got several folks in NC.

I own a 1987 Mazda B2000 standard cab 5 speed with a bench seat but i live in Phoenix AZ. Im 5'10 162 pounds and my brother is 6'3 260 pounds. There is know way he could drive my truck while sitting on top of me.

Thanks for the suggestions all. It seems just as crazy a proposition to us too. To make things even more crazy, there was no forensic evidence WHATSOEVER to connect our client to the victim. No blood, no DNA, no gun, absolutely nothing. You can see why we want to get him out.

I'm in shelby and have a single cab. Its had the bench swapped out for factory bucket seats. Question? The mazda in your case... Did it have tilt steering or non tilt. That could make a huge difference in the slight possibility of one person sittin on another, but if the truck didn't have tilt steering you aint gonna have ish for room for one person to sit atop another to drive one of our single cabs. If a bench seats is absolutely needed, there is a junk yard within 10 mins from my house and if you footed the bill for the bench seat I would have no problem letting you use my truck for your research. I dont need the bench seat so I wouldn't need to keep it when you were done with your investigation.

Oh, and I fit the height/weight of the shorter 2 male profiles you listed...

even with the tilt column there would be no way. the tilt, while nice for taller/bigger people, wouldn't provide that much additional space.

A 6'4' man can easily push a 5'10 guy over enough to drive, and yes, even with the victims feet still in the footwell. It would appear to persons outside the vehicle that he is "on top" of someone else because a 6'4' person does not fit well in a standard cab.

I'm sure that a jury convicted this guy, there has to be more evidence than just one witness testimony that made the jury come to this conclusion, and on a life sentence, it has surely been appealed multiple times.

Let me help young man, everyone in jail is "wrongfully convicted", ask them.