Media Coverage

Nonprofit to aid proving innocence
Kristen Daum
The Forum - 06/14/2007

The wife of a Fargo man convicted in last year’s riot at the Red River Valley Fair has enlisted the help of a Michigan nonprofit group that aims to overturn wrongful convictions.

Mevludin Hidanovic, 29, is serving an 18-month prison sentence after a jury convicted him in January for engaging in a riot while armed, a felony that could lead to his deportation.

His wife, Chanda, is leading the charge to free Hidanovic, who has filed an appeal with the North Dakota Supreme Court. Hidanovic, who is serving his time at the James River Correctional Center in Jamestown, claims he was mistakenly identified by witnesses and a juror based the conviction on his ethnicity.

Hidanovic’s family is paying for the appeal, while the nonprofit INNOCENT, based in Muskegon, Mich., will help with outreach to elected officials and the community, Hidanovic’s wife, Chanda, said.

“Public awareness is the key,” she said. “I’m glad that people aren’t forgetting about him in there.”

INNOCENT’s mission is to help those wrongly convicted of their crimes.

Chanda Hidanovic said she researched several organizations and filled out applications asking for help, including a 15-page plea to INNOCENT. No other groups have responded to her request for help.

This spring, Hidanovic asked East Central District Judge Wade Webb for a new trial based on an affidavit filed by Becky Rettig, a juror for his trial. Hidanovic’s request claimed Rettig voted to convict him because of his Roma Bosnian ethnicity. An affidavit she filed in court claims she based her decision on personal experiences and influenced others to agree with her.

Now Hidanovic’s family will “go through the hoops and loops that we need to get him out,” Chanda Hidanovic said.

The riot last June 24 involved between 20 and 30 people, some who needed hospitalization. H idanovic, who moved to Fargo in 1999, and his family maintain that he was with them on the opposite side of the fairgrounds when the brawl broke out.
Doug Tjapkes, president and founder of INNOCENT, said he took the Hidanovics’ plea for help because of the similarities he saw between this case and others Tjapkes has encountered.

“There wasn’t anything else that convicted this guy, other than cross-racial identification, and that is just so unreliable,” Tjapkes said of Hidanovic’s case. “We’re going to do our best to try to bring in some experts to help us sift through this.”

“It’s really a case that deserves a lot of scrutiny,” he said.