JAILED BODYBUILDER SALLY McNEIL AGAIN LOSES APPEAL, BUT FIGHTS ON
By Wessex Man
 
     Valley State Prison for Women, California -- Athlete and bodybuilder
Sally McNeil, now behind bars for over nine years, has run into fresh
roadblocks in the U.S. legal system.
     After a couple of unfavourable decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court
she's been turned down yet again in California's appellate circus. "I
have bad news to tell you," she wrote in a recent letter. "Two of the
three judges handling my case on the 9th Circuit Court agreed not to
re-overturn my verdict."
     "However one of the judges dissented in my favour and my attorney is
appealing again to the Supreme Court. He said he'd never give up."
      Now 44-year-old Sally figures that in another six months or so she
could be in a position to plead for clemency to Governor Arnold
Scharzennegger. To reach that point she says she needs to exhaust all the
appeal levels available within the court system. 
       "I didn't expect the 9th Circuit not to re-overturn my verdict.
But boy was I wrong.  I was O.K. this morning and last night when I got
the Legal Mail from my lawyer. Now I'm crying as I write this letter to
you."
        It's understandable that anyone vaguely following the Sally
McNeil saga since 1995 is completely at sea.  The appellate process has
been so complex and lengthy.  Her claims are based on alleged misdirecton
of the the jury at the original trial. She's also raised a number of
points including precedents set in Battered Women Syndrome cases.
        The fact that she shot and killed her second husband Ray McNeil,
a Mr California, was never in doubt. 
        Meanwhile Sally remains a remarkable world class personality.  In
jail she's running track for at least 100 miles per month and the rest of
her physical training program is as Olympic as the limited facilities
permit.
      "Hello again and how are you doing ?", she says in a more upbeat
note just received. "I'm doing pretty good.  I've just run seven miles
followed by 150 push-ups and 100 dips. I did 30 reps for my first set of
dips, then 60 pull-ups and 25 sit-ups. Now I've just showered so "It
feels Good" as James Brown sings."
          Sally plans on becoming a Celebrity Physique once again when
she gets free. In fact she's lost quite a lot of muscle while in jail due
to the absence of weight traning equipment. But her body retains the
lithe strength of the panther who once held the U.S. Armed Services
Physique Championship for two years (women's middle weight, 1988, ' 89).
          Sally is still very much a U.S. Marine in spirit. And she's
going to be calling on all the support she can muster if a clemency
appeal goes before the California governor.  She remains well-known
internationally, primarily through internet, but realises  that the
bodybuilding fraternity failed to speak up for her before she was
sentenced to life in 1996.
         Hopefully she's probably right to believe that opinion must be
swinging back in her favour. She's paid a such huge price for what
happened.
         Anyone wanting to offer moral support can reach her at this
address:
 
         SALLY M. McNEIL, #W62688,
         Valley State Prison for Women, D2-27-4Low,
          P.O. Box 92,
          CHOWCHILLA,    CA 93610-0092,
          Unted States of America.