HOUSTON -- Authorities say a Texas death row inmate with a history of mental problems has gouged out his only good eye.
Andre Thomas told officers that he ate it.
The 25-year-old inmate was on death row for the fatal stabbing of his 13-month-old daughter, Leyha Marie Hughes. He was also accused of fatally stabbing his 20-year-old estranged wife Laura Christine Boren and their 4-year-old son Andre Lee in March 2004, then ripping out the hearts of all three.
While in the Grayson County Jail in Sherman before his trial, Thomas similarly had plucked out his right eye. A judge subsequently ruled he was competent to stand trial.
Now, a death-row officer at the Polunsky Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice has found Thomas in his cell with blood on his face and took him to the prison infirmary.
According to agency spokesman Jason Clark, "Thomas said he pulled out his eye and subsequently ingested it."
Thomas was treated at East Texas Medical Center in Tyler after the December 9th incident. Then he was transferred and remains at a prison psychiatric facility near Houston.
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on: January 19, 2009, 07:42:37 PM 1 General Death Penalty / U.S. Death Penalty Discussion / Death Row Inmate Rips Out Second Eye
on: January 08, 2009, 05:28:44 PM 2 General Death Penalty / U.S. Death Penalty Discussion / Put A End To Prisoners Use Of Penpal Websites!
The ability to communicate to millions of people over the Internet was not what Missouri's Department of Corrections had in mind when the allowed inmates to write letters to people on the outside. But that's just what some inmates are doing, forcing the department to ban offenders from soliciting penpals on the Internet, reports the Missouri News Tribune.
Some Missouri inmates have put up Web postings and photos to solicit thousands of dollars from individuals and to defraud the public, a review of Missouri prisons showed. As result, Corrections Director Larry Crawford has announced the department will ban offenders from soliciting penpals on the Internet.
Prisoners will still be able to write to people on the outside. Inmates are reminded that it is their responsibility to remove their names if they are penpal website members. Failure to do so, or future efforts to post ads, will result in punishment.
"They can apply for these Web sites by mail and we believe it is either their family or friends who are posting on the Web site," said Corrections Spokesman Brian Hauswirth. "In some cases, the pictures put up are not actually of the inmates."
As a lawyer and technology writer, Richard Koman brings a unique perspective to the blog's intersection of law, government and technology. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
Some Missouri inmates have put up Web postings and photos to solicit thousands of dollars from individuals and to defraud the public, a review of Missouri prisons showed. As result, Corrections Director Larry Crawford has announced the department will ban offenders from soliciting penpals on the Internet.
Prisoners will still be able to write to people on the outside. Inmates are reminded that it is their responsibility to remove their names if they are penpal website members. Failure to do so, or future efforts to post ads, will result in punishment.
"They can apply for these Web sites by mail and we believe it is either their family or friends who are posting on the Web site," said Corrections Spokesman Brian Hauswirth. "In some cases, the pictures put up are not actually of the inmates."
As a lawyer and technology writer, Richard Koman brings a unique perspective to the blog's intersection of law, government and technology. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
on: January 06, 2009, 09:28:19 PM 3 General Crime / U.S. Crime Related News / Man Accused Of Animal Cruelty Arrested Used Bones For Necklaces
Fremont, NC - Lawton McKenzie, 28, of Fremont was taken into custody Tuesday afternoon and faces three charges of animal cruelty.
Animal control officers say they found a revolting scene at his Wayne County home. They say they discovered dismembered animals and what appeared to be a decapitated puppy's head in a zip-lock bag.
Animal control director Justin Scally says they removed 26 living animals from the home. "It was the most horrific, disturbing case that I have ever investigated" Scally said. "What we saw I don't think I will ever forget for the rest of my life."
When officers arrived they also found a dying goat which was rushed to a veterinarian's office where they were able to save the animal. They also found a machete, knives and bowls of blood.
Scally says they also discovered the remains of a decapitated dog with it's front paws cut off, dead puppies, dead snakes, a dead turtle, and what appeared to be a goat's head on a grill.
"Some of the animals were being burned on what appeared to be a home-made grill of sorts" Scally said.
Lawmen say McKenzie told them that he was studying taxidermy and using the animal bones for necklaces.
Investigators say they went to the man's home after receiving a complaint. Their investigation began in early December and Scally says more charges are possible.
Wayne County on Tuesday filed a civil complaint against McKenzie, requiring him to pay for the upkeep of the animals seized. The county also wants McKenzie to post funds to the Clerk of Court, ensuring that the animals are taken care of for an additional 30 days.
McKenzie was arrested Christmas for unrelated charges and bonded out of jail. Authorities say when they went to his home Monday night to arrest him on the animal cruelty charges he could not be found.
Animal control officers say they found a revolting scene at his Wayne County home. They say they discovered dismembered animals and what appeared to be a decapitated puppy's head in a zip-lock bag.
Animal control director Justin Scally says they removed 26 living animals from the home. "It was the most horrific, disturbing case that I have ever investigated" Scally said. "What we saw I don't think I will ever forget for the rest of my life."
When officers arrived they also found a dying goat which was rushed to a veterinarian's office where they were able to save the animal. They also found a machete, knives and bowls of blood.
Scally says they also discovered the remains of a decapitated dog with it's front paws cut off, dead puppies, dead snakes, a dead turtle, and what appeared to be a goat's head on a grill.
"Some of the animals were being burned on what appeared to be a home-made grill of sorts" Scally said.
Lawmen say McKenzie told them that he was studying taxidermy and using the animal bones for necklaces.
Investigators say they went to the man's home after receiving a complaint. Their investigation began in early December and Scally says more charges are possible.
Wayne County on Tuesday filed a civil complaint against McKenzie, requiring him to pay for the upkeep of the animals seized. The county also wants McKenzie to post funds to the Clerk of Court, ensuring that the animals are taken care of for an additional 30 days.
McKenzie was arrested Christmas for unrelated charges and bonded out of jail. Authorities say when they went to his home Monday night to arrest him on the animal cruelty charges he could not be found.
on: December 14, 2008, 10:15:32 PM 4 General Death Penalty / U.S. Death Penalty Discussion / If we must have the death penalty, let’s call it what it really is “Revenge.”
My thoughts would not be complete without addressing the issue of murder victims and their families who are left behind. I have never walked in their shoes and God willing, I never will. I cannot imagine the perpetual pain they suffer. I think it is a normal human emotion to want revenge, so much so that hatred is allowed to consume the heart in the face of such a loss. Remember these people in your prayers; remember that just like you, they are only human On the other hand, I cannot imagine what it must feel like to have a loved one facing a death sentence. I have heard the comment, "at least they have some time together." I don't think that makes the situation more tolerable or easier. Loss and the pain felt because of it are heart breaking, either way!We also spend too much time rating the evil quotient of murderous crime (even I have been guilty of this). Anyway you look at it, the outcome is the same: blood has been spilled, life has been lost, pain will be felt and the cruel cycle concludes with one last murder. (the execution) Remeber This! 
It is so easy to hate but it requires great strength to love; especially toward those who may despise you. There is great peace & joy that come when you let go of bitterness & anger
It is so easy to hate but it requires great strength to love; especially toward those who may despise you. There is great peace & joy that come when you let go of bitterness & anger
on: December 14, 2008, 10:06:50 PM 5 General Death Penalty / U.S. Death Penalty Discussion / No One Can See The Human Face In The Death House!
These days, most people I meet have a really hard time believing that I was once a corrections officer and even harder to believe that I worked 2 years on Texas Death Row. At first, they wrongfully assume I worked at a women’s facility or as a secretary in an office at a male unit. I don’t know why it should be so mind blowing that as a femal I once walked the catwalks of J-21/J-23. The basis of their disbelief, no doubt, comes from the misconception out here about monstrous death row inmates. I am always asked if working on Death Row was “scarier" than working with “regular” inmates. My answer is always a firm, “No.” General population has plenty of convicted murderers, as well as the old pre "cruel and unusual punishment" death row population; whose death sentences were commuted to life in the 70's. Besides, any officer who truly believes they are "safer" in any part of any prison should seriously rethink their career options. The overall message I'm desperately trying to convey in this snippet is that, "No it was not spooky & creepy to work among death row inmates." Believe it or not, I never saw one man with horns growing from his forehead. Some claimed that they were innocent, some admitted guilt, and some never addressed the subject. I remember even at that point, I was mature enough not to allow the "possible innocence" scenario to affect my performance as a corrections officer. My opinion was dull indifference and it would have been grossly unfair to treat anyone differently.The day-to-day work was mostly routine and generally uneventful. I didn't spend much time pondering upon the fact that I was working in the midst of persons who had been, at the very least, convicted of capital murder. I saw regular human beings, many of whom I saw inmates looking out for each other. I even saw inmates looking out for officers who may not have even known it. I saw them care about issues and other people. I saw them feel down when they hadn't gotten mail or a visit. I saw them feel true pain when a friend was executed. There was even a time when they stood in peaceful unity and declined to eat the breakfast meal following any execution. Those weren't feigned emotions; they were real. Some had their "knucklehead moments" at times. But I saw people smile, laugh, cry, fight, etc.Now I don't mean to give you the impression that the inmate population of death row were choir boys, by any means. I won't sugar-coat my memories. I did see a lot of sad things too. There were even times when I got really ticked off myself. Everyone has their good days and bad days.
But my point is THEY ARE HUMAN!
But my point is THEY ARE HUMAN!
on: December 14, 2008, 09:50:33 PM 6 General Death Penalty / U.S. Death Penalty Discussion / Are We Really Solving The Problem By Killing These Sick People?
We are all human. We have all had experiences that have built our ideals and supported our beliefs. When we are presented with something highly different, we suffer from congnitive dissonance. It is too uncomfortable to live in that state long and we either choose to ignore conflicting messages or we change our thinking. It’s a choice. I’ve worked in Law Enforcement and public administration with criminals. I’ve worked in child protection with perpetrators. I’ve worked in hospital settings with the victims of abusers. I’ve suffered from evil abuse. I have looked into the eyes of a soul murderer and had the cold chill run down my back. Of course, I know they need to be separated from the rest of our kind, law abiding citizens. Also, I know they are walking around with us, doing harm, causing rife and creating pain. I don’t have the need to kill. I won’t make the ultimate judgement. That is how I decided to settle that cognitive dissonance.
on: December 14, 2008, 09:46:17 PM 7 General Death Penalty / U.S. Death Penalty Discussion / The Freedom To Live
http://aclu.tv/deathpenalty
An unfortunate side effect of hanging or poisoning a man is that his organs go sour before they can be transplanted. Death-row inmates have repeatedly asked to donate their organs, but their requests are always denied. The simple reason is that execution generally ruins organs before they can be harvested. By the time you cut someone down from the gallows or pronounce the injection lethal, the heart and lungs will have thumped and puffed for the last time. Soon after, the kidneys start rotting, and before long nothing is useful but the corneas. Even with beheading— still practiced in Saudi Arabia—the heart and lungs probably wouldn’t make it, says Douglas Hanto, chief transplant surgeon at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. But by using what the bioethicist Arthur Caplan calls “the Mayan Protocol”—a term derived from the ancient Mayan practice of vivisecting their human sacrifices—the removal of organs would itself be the method of execution. If this sounds inhumane, compare it to current practices: botched hangings, painfully long gassings, and messy electrocutions. Removal of the heart, lungs, and kidneys (under anesthesia, of course) would kill every time, without an instant of pain. So far, the organs of all criminals executed in the United States have stayed with their original owners. Consider the loss. Someone died waiting for that killer’s heart. Two died waiting for his kidneys, and two more suffocated for lack of his lungs. The liver, split two ways, could have saved two babies. Take the hair, bone, skin, ligaments, and fluids for grafts and transfusions, and all that’s left of the donor’s body could be shuffled off into a very petite coffin indeed. The inmate could allow nearly a dozen people to live, in exchange for a body he wouldn’t be around to enjoy anyway. The math says we should encourage death-row organ donation.
But medical ethics, which bars doctors from murdering patients, says we cannot. Physicians have come out strongly against participating in capital punishment, even to administer anesthesia or find a vein for lethal injection. The result: inaccurate injections, and a sometime torturous demise for the condemned. And the fraternity of surgeons is quite attached to its cardinal directive in vital-organ-transplant ethics, the aptly named “dead-donor rule.” They will not take the lungs of someone still using them. But medical ethics, which bars doctors from murdering patients, says we cannot. Physicians have come out strongly against participating in capital punishment, even to administer anesthesia or find a vein for lethal injection. The result: inaccurate injections, and a sometime torturous demise for the condemned. And the fraternity of surgeons is quite attached to its cardinal directive in vital-organ-transplant ethics, the aptly named “dead-donor rule.” They will not take the lungs of someone still using them.
Moreover, Arthur Caplan says, issues of consent should haunt any doctor considering a Mayan-style transplant. We do not take organs from people—even dead people—who have not invited us to do so. Death-row inmates are trapped in cages and desperate to win favor from judges and prison guards. How do we know their invitations are sincere?
But the point of the dead-donor rule, and of doubting the apparently sincere consent of the condemned, is to ensure that donation is untainted by benefit or harm to the donor. To be sure of that, we need to request consent only after the courts deny the final appeal. Death-row inmates after their last appeal occupy a space between death and life, dead but not dead, unable to profit from the donation and unable to lose by withholding it. Some might object that it’s never too late for a shocking last-minute exoneration. But this is an argument against capital punishment itself, not against the compassionate use of a dead man’s organs.The real objection to the Mayan Protocol is aesthetic. Many want executions to remain grim affairs, and don’t want a condemned man to cloak his squalid final hour in the raiment of altruism. “To get the organs, you really have to take them right away, and that would change the mood from an execution to a sympathetic harvest,” Caplan says. “Frankly, the families of many victims probably don’t want that.”Plus, the medicalization of execution would creep everyone out. We like the state to kill neither too clinically (as with a multiple organ transplant) nor too medievally (by chopping off the head). Better, for the sake of all but the condemned and the people dying for his organs, to find a Goldilocks-style middle ground in execution—neither too controlled nor too chaotic.
But being creeped out is the price of living in a society that kills its criminals. If organ harvesting would make executions uncomfortably like human sacrifice, perhaps that’s because our death chambers are already gory enough to make anyone but a Mayan high priest pale.
An unfortunate side effect of hanging or poisoning a man is that his organs go sour before they can be transplanted. Death-row inmates have repeatedly asked to donate their organs, but their requests are always denied. The simple reason is that execution generally ruins organs before they can be harvested. By the time you cut someone down from the gallows or pronounce the injection lethal, the heart and lungs will have thumped and puffed for the last time. Soon after, the kidneys start rotting, and before long nothing is useful but the corneas. Even with beheading— still practiced in Saudi Arabia—the heart and lungs probably wouldn’t make it, says Douglas Hanto, chief transplant surgeon at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. But by using what the bioethicist Arthur Caplan calls “the Mayan Protocol”—a term derived from the ancient Mayan practice of vivisecting their human sacrifices—the removal of organs would itself be the method of execution. If this sounds inhumane, compare it to current practices: botched hangings, painfully long gassings, and messy electrocutions. Removal of the heart, lungs, and kidneys (under anesthesia, of course) would kill every time, without an instant of pain. So far, the organs of all criminals executed in the United States have stayed with their original owners. Consider the loss. Someone died waiting for that killer’s heart. Two died waiting for his kidneys, and two more suffocated for lack of his lungs. The liver, split two ways, could have saved two babies. Take the hair, bone, skin, ligaments, and fluids for grafts and transfusions, and all that’s left of the donor’s body could be shuffled off into a very petite coffin indeed. The inmate could allow nearly a dozen people to live, in exchange for a body he wouldn’t be around to enjoy anyway. The math says we should encourage death-row organ donation.
But medical ethics, which bars doctors from murdering patients, says we cannot. Physicians have come out strongly against participating in capital punishment, even to administer anesthesia or find a vein for lethal injection. The result: inaccurate injections, and a sometime torturous demise for the condemned. And the fraternity of surgeons is quite attached to its cardinal directive in vital-organ-transplant ethics, the aptly named “dead-donor rule.” They will not take the lungs of someone still using them. But medical ethics, which bars doctors from murdering patients, says we cannot. Physicians have come out strongly against participating in capital punishment, even to administer anesthesia or find a vein for lethal injection. The result: inaccurate injections, and a sometime torturous demise for the condemned. And the fraternity of surgeons is quite attached to its cardinal directive in vital-organ-transplant ethics, the aptly named “dead-donor rule.” They will not take the lungs of someone still using them.
Moreover, Arthur Caplan says, issues of consent should haunt any doctor considering a Mayan-style transplant. We do not take organs from people—even dead people—who have not invited us to do so. Death-row inmates are trapped in cages and desperate to win favor from judges and prison guards. How do we know their invitations are sincere?
But the point of the dead-donor rule, and of doubting the apparently sincere consent of the condemned, is to ensure that donation is untainted by benefit or harm to the donor. To be sure of that, we need to request consent only after the courts deny the final appeal. Death-row inmates after their last appeal occupy a space between death and life, dead but not dead, unable to profit from the donation and unable to lose by withholding it. Some might object that it’s never too late for a shocking last-minute exoneration. But this is an argument against capital punishment itself, not against the compassionate use of a dead man’s organs.The real objection to the Mayan Protocol is aesthetic. Many want executions to remain grim affairs, and don’t want a condemned man to cloak his squalid final hour in the raiment of altruism. “To get the organs, you really have to take them right away, and that would change the mood from an execution to a sympathetic harvest,” Caplan says. “Frankly, the families of many victims probably don’t want that.”Plus, the medicalization of execution would creep everyone out. We like the state to kill neither too clinically (as with a multiple organ transplant) nor too medievally (by chopping off the head). Better, for the sake of all but the condemned and the people dying for his organs, to find a Goldilocks-style middle ground in execution—neither too controlled nor too chaotic.
But being creeped out is the price of living in a society that kills its criminals. If organ harvesting would make executions uncomfortably like human sacrifice, perhaps that’s because our death chambers are already gory enough to make anyone but a Mayan high priest pale.
on: December 14, 2008, 09:29:26 PM 8 General Death Penalty / U.S. Death Penalty Discussion / Last Words On Deathrow
Whether it's a sorrowful apology to family or best wishes for sports teams, the final statements of Death Row inmates before execution offer an inside look at the last moments.
Here are a selection compiled by Court TV:
"I'd like my family to take care of each other. I love you, Angel. Let's ride."
-- Michael Richard, executed in Texas on September 25, 2007
"This is destiny. This is life. This is something Allah wants me to do. I'm not mad at you. When I get to the gates of heaven I'm going to be waiting for you. Please forgive me."
-- Johnny Ray Conner, executed in Texas on August 22, 2007
"I just want to tell my family I love y'all, man. ... Keep your head up, y'all. I'm ready."
-- Kenneth Parr, executed in Texas on August 15, 2007
"Father, take me home. I'm gone, baby. I'm ready to go."
-- Lonnie Earl Johnson, executed in Texas on July 24, 2007
"Go Raiders!"
-- Robert Charles Comer, executed in Arizona on May 22, 2007
"We all got to go sometime, some sooner than others. I'm going to be busy getting the Browns to the Super Bowl. Working magic. I love you guys."
-- James Filiaggi, executed in Ohio on April 24, 2007
"I am guilty. I don't deny that ... They had good evidence. Witnesses saw me. What can I say?"
-- Newton Anderson, executed in Texas on February 22, 2007
"I can't really pinpoint where it started, what happened, but really believe that's just the bottom line, what happened to me was in California. I was in their reformatory schools and penitentiary, but ah, they create monsters in there."
-- David Long, executed in Texas on December 8, 1999
"I'm an African warrior, born to breathe, and born to die."
-- Carl Kelly, executed in Texas on August 20, 1993
"We will keep marching. Keep marching black people, black power. ... Keep marching black people. Keep marching black people. They are killing me tonight. They are murdering me tonight."
-- Gary Graham, executed in Texas on June 22, 2000
"The act I committed to put me here was not just heinous, it was senseless. But the person that committed that act is no longer here -- I am."
-- Napoleon Beazley, executed in Texas on May 28, 2002
"They butchered me back there. I was in a lot of pain. They cut me in the groin; they cut me in the leg. I was bleeding profusely."
-- Bennie Demps, executed in Florida on June 8, 2000
"I lived as if I were going to be executed. That left me well-prepared. I took four people's lives; I'm man enough to give mine."
-- Earl Richmond, executed in North Carolina on May 6, 2005
"Please tell the media, I did not get my Spaghetti-O's, I got spaghetti. I want the press to know."
-- Thomas Grasso, executed in Oklahoma on March 20, 1995
"It's all the state of Oklahoma's fault."
-- Walanzo Dion Robinson, executed in Oklahoma on March 18, 2003
"We're not here for a social event, we're here for a killing."
-- David Wayne Woodruff, executed in Oklahoma on January 31, 2002
"You can be a king or a street sweeper, but everybody dances with the Grim Reaper."
-- Robert Alton Harris, executed in California on April 21, 1992
"Only the sky and the green grass goes on forever, and today is a good day to die."
-- David Martinez, executed in Texas on July 28, 2005
"When I die, bury me deep, lay two speakers at my feet, put some headphones on my head and rock and roll me when I'm dead. I'll see you in Heaven someday. "
-- Douglas Roberts, executed in Texas on April 20, 2005
"Freedom, freedom at last! It's been a good one!"
-- John W. Rook, executed in North Carolina on September 20, 1986
Here are a selection compiled by Court TV:
"I'd like my family to take care of each other. I love you, Angel. Let's ride."
-- Michael Richard, executed in Texas on September 25, 2007
"This is destiny. This is life. This is something Allah wants me to do. I'm not mad at you. When I get to the gates of heaven I'm going to be waiting for you. Please forgive me."
-- Johnny Ray Conner, executed in Texas on August 22, 2007
"I just want to tell my family I love y'all, man. ... Keep your head up, y'all. I'm ready."
-- Kenneth Parr, executed in Texas on August 15, 2007
"Father, take me home. I'm gone, baby. I'm ready to go."
-- Lonnie Earl Johnson, executed in Texas on July 24, 2007
"Go Raiders!"
-- Robert Charles Comer, executed in Arizona on May 22, 2007
"We all got to go sometime, some sooner than others. I'm going to be busy getting the Browns to the Super Bowl. Working magic. I love you guys."
-- James Filiaggi, executed in Ohio on April 24, 2007
"I am guilty. I don't deny that ... They had good evidence. Witnesses saw me. What can I say?"
-- Newton Anderson, executed in Texas on February 22, 2007
"I can't really pinpoint where it started, what happened, but really believe that's just the bottom line, what happened to me was in California. I was in their reformatory schools and penitentiary, but ah, they create monsters in there."
-- David Long, executed in Texas on December 8, 1999
"I'm an African warrior, born to breathe, and born to die."
-- Carl Kelly, executed in Texas on August 20, 1993
"We will keep marching. Keep marching black people, black power. ... Keep marching black people. Keep marching black people. They are killing me tonight. They are murdering me tonight."
-- Gary Graham, executed in Texas on June 22, 2000
"The act I committed to put me here was not just heinous, it was senseless. But the person that committed that act is no longer here -- I am."
-- Napoleon Beazley, executed in Texas on May 28, 2002
"They butchered me back there. I was in a lot of pain. They cut me in the groin; they cut me in the leg. I was bleeding profusely."
-- Bennie Demps, executed in Florida on June 8, 2000
"I lived as if I were going to be executed. That left me well-prepared. I took four people's lives; I'm man enough to give mine."
-- Earl Richmond, executed in North Carolina on May 6, 2005
"Please tell the media, I did not get my Spaghetti-O's, I got spaghetti. I want the press to know."
-- Thomas Grasso, executed in Oklahoma on March 20, 1995
"It's all the state of Oklahoma's fault."
-- Walanzo Dion Robinson, executed in Oklahoma on March 18, 2003
"We're not here for a social event, we're here for a killing."
-- David Wayne Woodruff, executed in Oklahoma on January 31, 2002
"You can be a king or a street sweeper, but everybody dances with the Grim Reaper."
-- Robert Alton Harris, executed in California on April 21, 1992
"Only the sky and the green grass goes on forever, and today is a good day to die."
-- David Martinez, executed in Texas on July 28, 2005
"When I die, bury me deep, lay two speakers at my feet, put some headphones on my head and rock and roll me when I'm dead. I'll see you in Heaven someday. "
-- Douglas Roberts, executed in Texas on April 20, 2005
"Freedom, freedom at last! It's been a good one!"
-- John W. Rook, executed in North Carolina on September 20, 1986
on: December 14, 2008, 09:25:03 PM 9 General Death Penalty / U.S. Death Penalty Discussion / Former Deathrow Inmate Speaks At Conference
Curtis McCarty was freed last year after DNA and other forensic evidence proved he was not guilty of the 1982 murder for which he was convicted and sentenced to die. He had been in prison for almost 22 years – half his life – and spent 19 years on death row.Mr McCarty said he believes the death penalty is always wrong.
"It is immoral, first and foremost," he said. "It sounds cliched because you hear it so often, but you don't teach people that killing people is wrong by killing people. It's illogical and it's immoral."There is just no justification for taking that man, who is now himself defenceless and caged, helpless, and killing him. It serves no purpose.”
Mr McCarty said he is proud of the religious people involved in the fight against the death penalty. "They are being true to their faith, not just paying lip service to their faith. I have respect for them, unlike the large portion of the religious community in America that speaks rather loudly about the right to life and the sanctity of life," but supports the execution "of caged men who pose no harm to anybody".
There's not a person alive who does not know what will happen to them if they get caught," Mr McCarty said. "People who commit crimes don't think they are going to get caught. It's a universal mindset."Mr Moore added: "Getting caught is not part of their plan. Every criminal I've talked to didn't plan to get caught, so the punishment of the death penalty never comes into the equation."
"It is immoral, first and foremost," he said. "It sounds cliched because you hear it so often, but you don't teach people that killing people is wrong by killing people. It's illogical and it's immoral."There is just no justification for taking that man, who is now himself defenceless and caged, helpless, and killing him. It serves no purpose.”
Mr McCarty said he is proud of the religious people involved in the fight against the death penalty. "They are being true to their faith, not just paying lip service to their faith. I have respect for them, unlike the large portion of the religious community in America that speaks rather loudly about the right to life and the sanctity of life," but supports the execution "of caged men who pose no harm to anybody".
There's not a person alive who does not know what will happen to them if they get caught," Mr McCarty said. "People who commit crimes don't think they are going to get caught. It's a universal mindset."Mr Moore added: "Getting caught is not part of their plan. Every criminal I've talked to didn't plan to get caught, so the punishment of the death penalty never comes into the equation."
on: December 14, 2008, 06:22:24 PM 10 General Death Penalty / U.S. Death Penalty Discussion / Escaped Death Row Inmate Found Dead
After a week of searching through swampy, bug-swarming river bottoms, law officers hunting death row inmate Martin E. Gurule finally found their man Thursday–dead, beneath a bridge over the Trinity River near Huntsville, with tantalizing hints about how he’d made his way over the prison’s two razor-wired security fences.
The body of Gurule, 29, was swathed in cardboard and two sets of heavy underwear, according to officials. Prison spokesman Larry Fitzgerald speculated that the armor-like wrappings had permitted Gurule to dart over perimeter fences as guards halted six of his companions in a rain of bullets on Thanksgiving night.
Gurule was the first man to break out of Texas’ busy death row since the era of Bonnie and Clyde.
His body was found about 5:30 p.m. by two off-duty prison employees who were fishing about a mile east of the prison. Authorities said the body was bloody but lacked obvious bullet wounds, and it appeared Gurule had been dead for some time.
“We do not have a cause of death, but we suspect drowning,” Fitzgerald said.
The discovery of the body brought a measure of satisfaction to law enforcers after a round-the-clock manhunt with 500 officers, dogs and heat-sensing helicopters. State officials earlier Thursday offered a $5,000 reward for Gurule’s capture, and only hours before the body was found, Gov. George W. Bush had asked the Texas Rangers to help in the investigation of how he broke out.
For the family of one of the two men Gurule and his girlfriend killed during a 1992 robbery at a restaurant in Corpus Christi, his death brought relief. The U&I restaurant is still operated by George Piperis, whose brother Minas was slain.
“I don’t care how he died, just that he’s dead,” said Piperis. “They found him dead. That’s fine. I thank God it happened. He killed innocent lives and he deserved to die for it.”
But for Amalia Marez, the news was the worst possible outcome during a season that always seemed dark for her grandson. “Baby Martin,” as Marez still refers to him, always got depressed in November, the month of his birthday and that of his late mother, Marez said. But though she and Gurule corresponded regularly, her grandson never gave any sign of his desperate plan, she said.
“Today I was praying that God would take care of him,” said Marez, a 66-year-old baby sitter. “Nothing dawned in my mind that he would die. I figured he was either in the woods or just traveling, just hungry somewhere.”
The escape attempt from the Ellis Unit outside Huntsville began when the seven inmates hid in a recreation yard after leaving cloth dummies in their beds to deceive prison guards. The seven then used a hacksaw to cut through a fence into the main prison yard and scaled the roof. They dashed for the outside perimeter several hours later.
The leadership of the state criminal justice system came under attack for Gurule’s success. Tuesday, officials suspended the prison’s “work capable” program. Under the program, about 150 model prisoners like Gurule were free to leave their cells on death row and visit other inmates on the block.
Gurule worked as a janitor in the program, while others in the group that tried to escape worked in a prison garment-making shop.
“No prison is escape-proof,” Wayne Scott, executive director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, told the Dallas Morning News. “Even Alcatraz had escapes. Any time you have human beings, you are going to have human error.”
Last year, Texas executed 37 people, far more than any other state. There have been 17 executions so far this year.
The last successful breakout from Texas death row occurred in 1934, when Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow stormed into Huntsville’s Eastman prison with guns firing. They killed two guards and released Barrow’s cousin Raymond Hamilton, who was recaptured, escaped again, caught again and then executed.
The body of Gurule, 29, was swathed in cardboard and two sets of heavy underwear, according to officials. Prison spokesman Larry Fitzgerald speculated that the armor-like wrappings had permitted Gurule to dart over perimeter fences as guards halted six of his companions in a rain of bullets on Thanksgiving night.
Gurule was the first man to break out of Texas’ busy death row since the era of Bonnie and Clyde.
His body was found about 5:30 p.m. by two off-duty prison employees who were fishing about a mile east of the prison. Authorities said the body was bloody but lacked obvious bullet wounds, and it appeared Gurule had been dead for some time.
“We do not have a cause of death, but we suspect drowning,” Fitzgerald said.
The discovery of the body brought a measure of satisfaction to law enforcers after a round-the-clock manhunt with 500 officers, dogs and heat-sensing helicopters. State officials earlier Thursday offered a $5,000 reward for Gurule’s capture, and only hours before the body was found, Gov. George W. Bush had asked the Texas Rangers to help in the investigation of how he broke out.
For the family of one of the two men Gurule and his girlfriend killed during a 1992 robbery at a restaurant in Corpus Christi, his death brought relief. The U&I restaurant is still operated by George Piperis, whose brother Minas was slain.
“I don’t care how he died, just that he’s dead,” said Piperis. “They found him dead. That’s fine. I thank God it happened. He killed innocent lives and he deserved to die for it.”
But for Amalia Marez, the news was the worst possible outcome during a season that always seemed dark for her grandson. “Baby Martin,” as Marez still refers to him, always got depressed in November, the month of his birthday and that of his late mother, Marez said. But though she and Gurule corresponded regularly, her grandson never gave any sign of his desperate plan, she said.
“Today I was praying that God would take care of him,” said Marez, a 66-year-old baby sitter. “Nothing dawned in my mind that he would die. I figured he was either in the woods or just traveling, just hungry somewhere.”
The escape attempt from the Ellis Unit outside Huntsville began when the seven inmates hid in a recreation yard after leaving cloth dummies in their beds to deceive prison guards. The seven then used a hacksaw to cut through a fence into the main prison yard and scaled the roof. They dashed for the outside perimeter several hours later.
The leadership of the state criminal justice system came under attack for Gurule’s success. Tuesday, officials suspended the prison’s “work capable” program. Under the program, about 150 model prisoners like Gurule were free to leave their cells on death row and visit other inmates on the block.
Gurule worked as a janitor in the program, while others in the group that tried to escape worked in a prison garment-making shop.
“No prison is escape-proof,” Wayne Scott, executive director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, told the Dallas Morning News. “Even Alcatraz had escapes. Any time you have human beings, you are going to have human error.”
Last year, Texas executed 37 people, far more than any other state. There have been 17 executions so far this year.
The last successful breakout from Texas death row occurred in 1934, when Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow stormed into Huntsville’s Eastman prison with guns firing. They killed two guards and released Barrow’s cousin Raymond Hamilton, who was recaptured, escaped again, caught again and then executed.
on: December 14, 2008, 06:06:19 PM 11 General Death Penalty / U.S. Death Penalty Discussion / 'Strenuous security' as escapee returns to jail!
HOUSTON - A death row inmate has been escorted back to the same county jail he escaped from last week when he ditched his prison jumpsuit and handcuffs and fooled guards with a fake ID.
Charles Victor Thompson was returned to the Harris County Jail about 10:30 p.m. Monday after officers captured him outside a liquor store in Shreveport, La. on Sunday night. He had been on the run since Thursday.
Officials with the Harris County Sheriff’s Department said they’re making sure Thompson won’t have another chance to escape.
“We will have very strenuous security around him,” said Lt. John Martin, sheriff’s department spokesman. “Anytime he’s out of his cell block, we will have a deputy with him at all times.”
Thompson will be housed under tight security when he goes back to death row within a few weeks, said Michelle Lyons, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Those security measures include a reduction of recreation time from one hour a day to one hour a week. Thompson also will be banned from having such personal items as a radio or typewriter.
“Most inmates with an escape under their belt are housed under our highest level of security,” Lyons said. NBC VIDEO
Escaped death-row inmate caught
Nov. 7: A condemned double-murderer who escaped from a Texas jail was captured while drunk and talking on a pay phone in Louisiana. MSNBC-TV Chris Jansing reports.
MSNBC
Thompson, 35, was convicted in 1999 for the shooting deaths a year earlier of his ex-girlfriend, Dennise Hayslip, 39, of Tomball, and her new boyfriend, Darren Keith Cain, 30, of nearby Spring.
He had been brought to the county jail in Houston from death row to be resentenced on the orders of an appeals court. He was resentenced to death on Oct. 28 and was awaiting transfer back to Livingston when he escaped.
After meeting with an attorney in a jail visiting room Thursday, Thompson slipped into civilian clothes that authorities believe he wore during his sentencing and somehow smuggled back to his cell.
Thompson left the locked prisoner’s booth in the visiting room and waved a fake ID badge as he passed at least four jail employees. Thompson, described by his victims’ families and his lawyer as a charmer, was let into the jail’s visitor’s lobby. From there, he walked out the door and into the street.
No objection to extradition
Thompson didn’t fight his return to Texas during a court hearing Monday in Caddo Parish, La., where he participated via video from jail.
“I don’t want to waste the taxpayers’ money in Louisiana,” Thompson told state District Judge Ramona Emanuel.
Thompson faces escape charges in Harris County, which must be dealt with before he can be returned to death row in Livingston, about 75 miles northeast of Houston. But it was unlikely the state would bother trying Thompson on the charges because he already is condemned, Martin said.
An internal investigation into how Thompson escaped continues. While investigators have not ruled out the possibility Thompson got help from a jail employee, there is no direct evidence to support that, Martin said.
Investigators also are trying to determine how Thompson got to Shreveport, La., about 200 miles northeast of Houston.
Charles Victor Thompson was returned to the Harris County Jail about 10:30 p.m. Monday after officers captured him outside a liquor store in Shreveport, La. on Sunday night. He had been on the run since Thursday.
Officials with the Harris County Sheriff’s Department said they’re making sure Thompson won’t have another chance to escape.
“We will have very strenuous security around him,” said Lt. John Martin, sheriff’s department spokesman. “Anytime he’s out of his cell block, we will have a deputy with him at all times.”
Thompson will be housed under tight security when he goes back to death row within a few weeks, said Michelle Lyons, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Those security measures include a reduction of recreation time from one hour a day to one hour a week. Thompson also will be banned from having such personal items as a radio or typewriter.
“Most inmates with an escape under their belt are housed under our highest level of security,” Lyons said. NBC VIDEO
Escaped death-row inmate caught
Nov. 7: A condemned double-murderer who escaped from a Texas jail was captured while drunk and talking on a pay phone in Louisiana. MSNBC-TV Chris Jansing reports.
MSNBC
Thompson, 35, was convicted in 1999 for the shooting deaths a year earlier of his ex-girlfriend, Dennise Hayslip, 39, of Tomball, and her new boyfriend, Darren Keith Cain, 30, of nearby Spring.
He had been brought to the county jail in Houston from death row to be resentenced on the orders of an appeals court. He was resentenced to death on Oct. 28 and was awaiting transfer back to Livingston when he escaped.
After meeting with an attorney in a jail visiting room Thursday, Thompson slipped into civilian clothes that authorities believe he wore during his sentencing and somehow smuggled back to his cell.
Thompson left the locked prisoner’s booth in the visiting room and waved a fake ID badge as he passed at least four jail employees. Thompson, described by his victims’ families and his lawyer as a charmer, was let into the jail’s visitor’s lobby. From there, he walked out the door and into the street.
No objection to extradition
Thompson didn’t fight his return to Texas during a court hearing Monday in Caddo Parish, La., where he participated via video from jail.
“I don’t want to waste the taxpayers’ money in Louisiana,” Thompson told state District Judge Ramona Emanuel.
Thompson faces escape charges in Harris County, which must be dealt with before he can be returned to death row in Livingston, about 75 miles northeast of Houston. But it was unlikely the state would bother trying Thompson on the charges because he already is condemned, Martin said.
An internal investigation into how Thompson escaped continues. While investigators have not ruled out the possibility Thompson got help from a jail employee, there is no direct evidence to support that, Martin said.
Investigators also are trying to determine how Thompson got to Shreveport, La., about 200 miles northeast of Houston.
on: December 13, 2008, 07:16:18 PM 12 General Crime / Crime Debate and Discussion / Pam Perillo Gets off Deathrow After 22 years!!!! Heres What She Wrote...
When I left death row and was placed in general poplation I never imagined the whole new world that I would be walking out to. Nor did I ever imagine that my being off of death row would be more of a political fight than I ever faced while on death row. I returned to TDCJ, after making a plea bargain with this state for a Life sentence. I was assigned a new number and taken to the Plain-State Jail. I was escorted from the bus which transported me to this state jail, to the chaplain’s office. I was informed that I would be housed in segregation while I
was at this facility due to the fact that my case was such “a high profile case”, and because I was “doing so much time…”
I stayed there a little over a week then was transferred to the Goree unit which just so happens to be a male unit. I spent 15 days there in transit then was again transferred to the Reception Unit at Gatesville and placed in transient status for nearly 3 weeks. I spent approximately 45 days on this level and was not able to visit with my family the entire time I was there in transit. I was then sent to the Hilltop unit, also in Gatesville. This was a fairly small unit where I
stayed almost a year In all my 20 years spent on death row I had never gone through so much political turmoil as I have since I’ve been off death row. There are so many instances where I’ve been harrassed by the correctional authority in which whose control I am helplessly still under. I am harrassed in such a way that it definitely constitutes my assertion that my fair right as recognised by the Department of Justice, to make parole, is being jeopardized.
HILLTOP UNIT
I was called “Miss Death Row” by a Sgt. Pain the whole time I was on this unit. He never addressed me by my TDCJ recognized name.
I was told: “You missed the needle…” by a Lt. Johnson. I was pulled out of my dorm or out of line for instance to eat, all the time; Yelled at and verbally antagonized constantly for no legitimate reason whatsoever; which for me was an emotional form of harrassment. On this
unit they searched my cubicle 3-4 times a week for no apparent reason at all, treating me entirely different than the other offenders; they never found any contraband. I was spoken to like I was some kind of animal, constantly being verbally abused. When I attempted to find some form of resolve with the unit warden about the way I was being treated, her response was: “It’s just because you’re a high profile inmate and it will all die down.” The fact is that it never did: in fact, it got worse for me!
I stopped going out of the dorm with the mindset that I’d avoid targetting of me as I felt I was to the officers, to include the rank that I’ve named specifically here. The targetting of their harassment. I even stopped going to the “chow hall” altogether which caused my body
weight to drop from 178 lbs dow to 122 lbs. This decline in my body weight was also the result of the tremendous stress I was under relating to the constant harassment I was continually victimized by.
I was sitting in the dayroom on a Saturday night waiting for a movie to come on with the other offenders, it was approximately 11:00pm. I was in a t-shirt, shorts and shower shoes, when 2 SGTs came into the dorm and asked me to step outside. When I did they told me to put my hands behind my back and they put handcuffs on me. As they were walking me to the
segregation section of the unit I asked them, “what is going on?” They would not say anything to me in responding to my question, my right to know why I’m being treated with the use of force, namely the use of the handcuffs when I was not as all violent or insubordinate. The female SGT then spoke on her hand radio and said: “the Hilltop trustee camp is locked down also.” They placed me in a cell with nothing. They wouldn’t give me sheets or anything the rest of the night I was there. Why? Why was I being singled out on this night? According to the PD-21 there are 2 infractions here that were imposed upon me, see below:
PD-21.22 HARASSING OR RETALIATING AGAINST ANOTHER:
Employees are prohibited from harassing, discriminating or retaliating against another in any form, or for any reason. This includes all forms of harassment or retaliation for reason other than sex, gender, race, color, religious preference, national origin, age or disability.
PD-21.23 MISTREATMENT OF INMATES/CLIENTS OR OTHERS:
Mistreatment usually takes the form of physical abuse, but it may also include such actions as threats, unauthorized or illegal denial of privileges, entitlements etc.
With the reasonable consideration that I am under the control of the embodiment of TDCJ and its correctional officers assigned to govern these units and their practices, I am helplessly at the mercy of the professionalism and conduct, their treatment to me while I am incarcerated. But when these officers and ranks violate the standard rules of their conduct to me then they violate my entitlement to be fairly rehabilitated toward the goal of being reintegrated into
society, by way of making parole. I’m being discriminated against and harassed.
The next morning at 8:00am I was handcuffed again and taken to the major’s office. When I entered the office, all of my property was scattered all over the floor in an office connected to this main office. Officers were everywhere in my property, searching in such a way that personal photographs were being flung to the floor, being trampled on carelessly by the next officer in the room. I was shocked at the attitude of negligence to my personal property there. Why? Why such handling of my property?
Anyway, a man in a suit came out of the major’s office and told me that he was from “I.A.” and to come with him.. I walked into the office and was instructed to have a seat. He then said: “M. Perillo I understand that you had a visit with your mother yesterday morning, did you discuss the escape with her?” I was blown away at his question. Dumbfounded. I said: “would you please repeat the question. I’m not sure I’m understanding what I think I just heard you say. He was very mean and arrogant towards me, and told me to tell him what me and my
mother discussed at our visit, and to tell him about my plans to escape.
He then told me that 2 phone calls had come into the Hilltop unit at 9:00pm the night before, and that a female caller said that my mother and son had planned to come and “break me out” of prison at 12:00am. I looked at him like he had lost his mind, not really believing or
understanding anything at this point of what he was saying. How do you defend yourself against that insane suggestion? Then I got upset about the way that he was speaking to me, and the way that he was involving my mother and my son in all this madness.
I said to him: “Look, let me tell you something. I just sat on death row for 20 years with my mother and son by my side through every day of it. I’ve had 2 execution dates and came 2 days away from my last date.
I was supposed to be put to death at 12:01 am Sunday night but was given a stay of execution the Friday prior at 9:00 am in which my mother and my son stood right by my side through it all. If they ever had any desire to “break me out” of prison, it would have been back then, when we didn’t know from one day to the next if I was going to live or die!
Not now, now that I’m off of death row with every possibility to be set free by making parole… to go home.
I also told him that my mother has a very good job and makes very good money, and my son is graduating from Texas A&M, so why would they even want to give up their lives out there, and what they have going for themselves to “break me out” of prison? What, so that we could all be forced to live on the run for the rest of our lives? It made no sense at all, and the more that I thought about it, the more upset I became.
He sent me back to my cell handcuffed again. About 30 minutes later the SGT came and got me again, but this time he didn’t handcuff me. He took me back to the M Major’s office, where I met with Warden Botkins.
She said: “Pam, I’m sorry about all of this. I’m sure these are just some prank phone calls from someone sick out there, or someone mad that you got off death row. We are going to keep you in seg a few more days just for security reasons. As soon as all this dies down, we’ll move you back to your dorm.” I was returned to my cell and there I wrote a letter to my Mom, telling her to call the warden there, Ms. Botkins, so she would know what was going on.
The next day 2 officers came to my door and told me that I was leaving. I thought I was going back to my dorm, but they escorted me to a van and then transported me to the Mountain View unit. I was placed in seg-transit, pending investigation. I wrote my Mom again and urged
her to get down here right away. She and my son came that weekend. I described every detail of what happened, and they were naturally very upset. My Mom asked me why had I.A. not contacted her or my son, especially if they were the ones being accused of “breaking me out” of prison. They left and spoke to the Major on their way out.
MOUNTAIN VIEW UNIT:
My Mom and son spoke to the Major on their way out after the visit… He told them he was sure it would get cleared up very soon. About 10 days later, while still in the seg’ section of this unit, my Mom called and spoke with Warden Baggett, and insisted that I be let out of seg’ or to
charge me with a legitimate reason for having me there. I was let out of seg’ that afternon, and placed in H-dorm. I was never spoken to again about the whole escape matter.
It’s been months now and they’ve never attempted to help myself or my family understand anything beyond the simple fact that I was up-rooted, mistreated, denied the reasonable explanation of being treated like an offender in punitive status; an explanation beyond the
hollow claim of a so called phonecall, to include an investigation which would definitely
necessitate the act of contacting my mother and son, my so called accomplices.
I wasn’t on this unti 2 weeks when this unit went on lock-down because a pair of garden/hand-held clippers had come up missing. I was called to see the unit warden, Ms.
Smith. She told me: “the word on the street is that you took the clippers to use to escape with
…” and that I set the whole thing up on the Hilltop Unit so that I could get moved to Mt View to be with my “home-girl.”
For starters, I was locked in the visiting room the day the clippers came up missing. I was with my boss Mr. Ford and the rest of the paint crew painting the visiting room. I was nowhere near the yard vew or their tools at the time the clippers came up missing, or any other time close to it. A pair of clippers would be of NO USE to me!
In response to the accusation of my “setting it up at the Hilltop unit to move here to Mt. View …” to be with some “home-girl” … that’s ridiculous! How would I ever be able to pre-determine where I’d get a transfer to? I have no “home-girl” here. I am from the State
of California. So who is my “home-girl”??? Why would I jeopardise my mother and son in a mess like that? I wouldn’t!!
Warden Smith made no sense at all, and I feel that she knew that. I told this warden the same thing that I told the man from I.A. “It makes no sense.” It makes no sense that I would try to escape now after all that I’ve been through and being so close to going home.
Warden Smith said “Well Perillo, what do you consider close to going home?” I said “that I don’t have a death sentence any more and I see light at the end of the road now, so that’s being close to me.”
I know that I’ve been here 22 flat calendar years, so why would I go through all that I’ve been
through, and arrive today to have so much going for myself now, to give it all up, to be “on the run” for the rest of my life, as well as my family??? The clippers were found somewhere on the unit, but do you think that Warden Smith called me back into her office to apologize to me for her strong accusations that I took them for my own senseless use? In a word: Not!!!
I was sitting on a bench outside the command building, when 2 female officers were standing around behind me talking with each other. One said to the other: “imagine the schools we could have sent our kids to, and the money we could have saved had we not had to support
her on death row all those years with our taxes, and she’s still living.” It was without a
doubt said for me to hear it.
Once, I was sitting on my bed with my headphones on, writing a letter. There was a commotion going on in the dayroom between some of the inmates and an officer “WATTS.” I heard my bed number being called by this same officer. She was yelling when I had
removed my headphones. I said: “Did you call me?” She went totally “off” on me and told me: “I told you to be quiet now!!!” I told her that I hadn’t said anything; I was confused being that I hadn’t even spoken to her until I responded to my bed number. I was listening to music; she must’ve mistook my bed number for another offender’s which is a common mistake inside the dorms.
The disturbing part of this incident which I’m point out is what she said to me next. She said “I’m wearing grey, you’re wearing white, who do you think they will believe, me or you?” I responded: “I hope me, because I am not a liar and I didn’t have anything to do with
whatever had her so upset.” Later that night I was called out and read a 3 coded case. The first case I’ve ever had in 21 years!
When I attempted to talk to this same officer she said to me with such animosity: “Get out of my face!!!” The very next day I went to a Lt. Griffith and tried to tell him what had happened. He asked me: “Who am I supposed to believe, you or my officer?” I told him that I wasn’t lying, that I’ve been in TDCJ for 22 flat years and that I’ve seen officers, I am clearly aware of officers who have been: Taken off this unit, male and female for having sex with inmates. Lt’s taken to jail for molesting their step kids, Captains taken to jail for robbery. Captains in the newspapers for stealing (many times!) A warden taken off a unit for stealing money from the
state, ie inter-unit funds. Officers as well as rank taken off the unit for hitting inmates. So how
can anyone inside this institution suggest that the level of integrity of these officers is
above that of an offender just because of the color of clothes? The sad element of this is that this sets up the mentality in these CO’s that they are somewhat “above the law”, thus, free to be 8 hour tyrants to offenders.
What upset me deeply was that I’ve known Lt. Griffith for years. He knows that I’m not a
trouble-maker and that I wouldn’t stand there and lie to him. The real inmate who did have the actual confrontation with Officer Watts went to this Lt and told him that the officer had her and myself mixed up regarding the incident that I was wrongly written up for. Other inmates in the dorm wrote statements to support the incident and the fact that this officer wrote the wrong person up. I went to court in front of a Lt White; I was found guilty of a 3 coded case I had nothing to do with. Once I was found guilty of giving food to a neighboring inmate. I was
guilty! I claimed my guilt! I always will. Anyway, this same officer Watts came to me after she had written me up and said: “Perillo, all the officers here are talking about how you got yourself off death row after 20 years. I sure hope that case I just wrote you won’t keep you here any longer.” The entire time she had a grin on her face. Then she asked if she could see my pictures of myself and the other ladies on death row.
I have repeatedly sent forms to both wardens, Smith and Nance, the Major and someone from I.A. asking them to talk to me about everything I have been through since being off of death row, but to no avail, because not one person has responded. I’ve requested a job change to the boiler room because I felt it would give me the time I needed alone to adjust to
general population and also remove me from the way of this harassment. I stated to the Major my reasons for requesting this job. The job I received was in the clothing room.
I was then told by a Mr. Veach that the Major told him I couldn’t work the boiler room because of the incident at Hilltop, and my crime. I never Number ONE, I never tried to escape!!! Nor was I found guilty of it. Nor was I changed with an attempt, or the conspiring to do so! I am being punished for, and unfairly judged for, a phone call they “say” came into the unit. As for my crime, I’m no longer in here for “capital murder.” I am currently incarcerated for the crime of “aggravated robbery” and I’ve served 22 flat years for it.
This is recognized by the State of Texas and the Department of Criminal Justice. TDC must also comply with the standards of recognizing this fact. So the reasoning of which made me “ineligible” for this job makes no sense. There are offenders with big crimes and big time working all over this unit, in positions such as I’ve requested, so how can the major make
such a claim?
In all that I am saying here is that I can somehow fathom this treatment to myself, “if” I was a
trouble-maker on this unit and the one before, but I try very hard to keep a low profile. I don’t even go out of the dorm much. I just want to do my time the best I can and hopefully go home someday soon. I stay to myself, and I’m a very hard worker no matter the job I’m doing.
I have a hard time understanding what it is that these people in grey want from me. I feel and hold an attitude of respect to these officers, and I’m trying my best out here in population. I sat on death row for 20 years on this unit. It’s been very difficult for me to be back on the Mt. View unit. Two weeks after I was returned to this unit, I had to go to the old death row section of this prison to put lights in there. I was in this place for years; 14 ½ years with my best
friend, “Karla Faye Tucker.” I can’t even find all the words to express all the emotions I felt
having to go back inside there.
I went to Karla’s old cell and mine and sat on our beds, in the now empty cells, and I cried. You can’t just put a person in a cage for 20 years and then one day let them out and expect everything to instantly be absolutely normal for the person who is now out of this
cage.
I’ve gone through a very rough time with all of this. I lost 60lbs from all the stress and I hold all this inside because these people I’m asking to investigate, to talk to me, they seem to be ignoring my pleas. I’m put on what to me seems like the “Pay you no mind list.”
I never dreamed it would be so political within the institutional and the administration division my being off of death row. If people have a problem with me getting off of death row, then they need to take it up with the State of Texas. I’m just trying to do my time and make it out of here. If it wasn’t for my family and the friends in my life, I would have certainly lost
the focus I feel I have … my mind!
was at this facility due to the fact that my case was such “a high profile case”, and because I was “doing so much time…”
I stayed there a little over a week then was transferred to the Goree unit which just so happens to be a male unit. I spent 15 days there in transit then was again transferred to the Reception Unit at Gatesville and placed in transient status for nearly 3 weeks. I spent approximately 45 days on this level and was not able to visit with my family the entire time I was there in transit. I was then sent to the Hilltop unit, also in Gatesville. This was a fairly small unit where I
stayed almost a year In all my 20 years spent on death row I had never gone through so much political turmoil as I have since I’ve been off death row. There are so many instances where I’ve been harrassed by the correctional authority in which whose control I am helplessly still under. I am harrassed in such a way that it definitely constitutes my assertion that my fair right as recognised by the Department of Justice, to make parole, is being jeopardized.
HILLTOP UNIT
I was called “Miss Death Row” by a Sgt. Pain the whole time I was on this unit. He never addressed me by my TDCJ recognized name.
I was told: “You missed the needle…” by a Lt. Johnson. I was pulled out of my dorm or out of line for instance to eat, all the time; Yelled at and verbally antagonized constantly for no legitimate reason whatsoever; which for me was an emotional form of harrassment. On this
unit they searched my cubicle 3-4 times a week for no apparent reason at all, treating me entirely different than the other offenders; they never found any contraband. I was spoken to like I was some kind of animal, constantly being verbally abused. When I attempted to find some form of resolve with the unit warden about the way I was being treated, her response was: “It’s just because you’re a high profile inmate and it will all die down.” The fact is that it never did: in fact, it got worse for me!
I stopped going out of the dorm with the mindset that I’d avoid targetting of me as I felt I was to the officers, to include the rank that I’ve named specifically here. The targetting of their harassment. I even stopped going to the “chow hall” altogether which caused my body
weight to drop from 178 lbs dow to 122 lbs. This decline in my body weight was also the result of the tremendous stress I was under relating to the constant harassment I was continually victimized by.
I was sitting in the dayroom on a Saturday night waiting for a movie to come on with the other offenders, it was approximately 11:00pm. I was in a t-shirt, shorts and shower shoes, when 2 SGTs came into the dorm and asked me to step outside. When I did they told me to put my hands behind my back and they put handcuffs on me. As they were walking me to the
segregation section of the unit I asked them, “what is going on?” They would not say anything to me in responding to my question, my right to know why I’m being treated with the use of force, namely the use of the handcuffs when I was not as all violent or insubordinate. The female SGT then spoke on her hand radio and said: “the Hilltop trustee camp is locked down also.” They placed me in a cell with nothing. They wouldn’t give me sheets or anything the rest of the night I was there. Why? Why was I being singled out on this night? According to the PD-21 there are 2 infractions here that were imposed upon me, see below:
PD-21.22 HARASSING OR RETALIATING AGAINST ANOTHER:
Employees are prohibited from harassing, discriminating or retaliating against another in any form, or for any reason. This includes all forms of harassment or retaliation for reason other than sex, gender, race, color, religious preference, national origin, age or disability.
PD-21.23 MISTREATMENT OF INMATES/CLIENTS OR OTHERS:
Mistreatment usually takes the form of physical abuse, but it may also include such actions as threats, unauthorized or illegal denial of privileges, entitlements etc.
With the reasonable consideration that I am under the control of the embodiment of TDCJ and its correctional officers assigned to govern these units and their practices, I am helplessly at the mercy of the professionalism and conduct, their treatment to me while I am incarcerated. But when these officers and ranks violate the standard rules of their conduct to me then they violate my entitlement to be fairly rehabilitated toward the goal of being reintegrated into
society, by way of making parole. I’m being discriminated against and harassed.
The next morning at 8:00am I was handcuffed again and taken to the major’s office. When I entered the office, all of my property was scattered all over the floor in an office connected to this main office. Officers were everywhere in my property, searching in such a way that personal photographs were being flung to the floor, being trampled on carelessly by the next officer in the room. I was shocked at the attitude of negligence to my personal property there. Why? Why such handling of my property?
Anyway, a man in a suit came out of the major’s office and told me that he was from “I.A.” and to come with him.. I walked into the office and was instructed to have a seat. He then said: “M. Perillo I understand that you had a visit with your mother yesterday morning, did you discuss the escape with her?” I was blown away at his question. Dumbfounded. I said: “would you please repeat the question. I’m not sure I’m understanding what I think I just heard you say. He was very mean and arrogant towards me, and told me to tell him what me and my
mother discussed at our visit, and to tell him about my plans to escape.
He then told me that 2 phone calls had come into the Hilltop unit at 9:00pm the night before, and that a female caller said that my mother and son had planned to come and “break me out” of prison at 12:00am. I looked at him like he had lost his mind, not really believing or
understanding anything at this point of what he was saying. How do you defend yourself against that insane suggestion? Then I got upset about the way that he was speaking to me, and the way that he was involving my mother and my son in all this madness.
I said to him: “Look, let me tell you something. I just sat on death row for 20 years with my mother and son by my side through every day of it. I’ve had 2 execution dates and came 2 days away from my last date.
I was supposed to be put to death at 12:01 am Sunday night but was given a stay of execution the Friday prior at 9:00 am in which my mother and my son stood right by my side through it all. If they ever had any desire to “break me out” of prison, it would have been back then, when we didn’t know from one day to the next if I was going to live or die!
Not now, now that I’m off of death row with every possibility to be set free by making parole… to go home.
I also told him that my mother has a very good job and makes very good money, and my son is graduating from Texas A&M, so why would they even want to give up their lives out there, and what they have going for themselves to “break me out” of prison? What, so that we could all be forced to live on the run for the rest of our lives? It made no sense at all, and the more that I thought about it, the more upset I became.
He sent me back to my cell handcuffed again. About 30 minutes later the SGT came and got me again, but this time he didn’t handcuff me. He took me back to the M Major’s office, where I met with Warden Botkins.
She said: “Pam, I’m sorry about all of this. I’m sure these are just some prank phone calls from someone sick out there, or someone mad that you got off death row. We are going to keep you in seg a few more days just for security reasons. As soon as all this dies down, we’ll move you back to your dorm.” I was returned to my cell and there I wrote a letter to my Mom, telling her to call the warden there, Ms. Botkins, so she would know what was going on.
The next day 2 officers came to my door and told me that I was leaving. I thought I was going back to my dorm, but they escorted me to a van and then transported me to the Mountain View unit. I was placed in seg-transit, pending investigation. I wrote my Mom again and urged
her to get down here right away. She and my son came that weekend. I described every detail of what happened, and they were naturally very upset. My Mom asked me why had I.A. not contacted her or my son, especially if they were the ones being accused of “breaking me out” of prison. They left and spoke to the Major on their way out.
MOUNTAIN VIEW UNIT:
My Mom and son spoke to the Major on their way out after the visit… He told them he was sure it would get cleared up very soon. About 10 days later, while still in the seg’ section of this unit, my Mom called and spoke with Warden Baggett, and insisted that I be let out of seg’ or to
charge me with a legitimate reason for having me there. I was let out of seg’ that afternon, and placed in H-dorm. I was never spoken to again about the whole escape matter.
It’s been months now and they’ve never attempted to help myself or my family understand anything beyond the simple fact that I was up-rooted, mistreated, denied the reasonable explanation of being treated like an offender in punitive status; an explanation beyond the
hollow claim of a so called phonecall, to include an investigation which would definitely
necessitate the act of contacting my mother and son, my so called accomplices.
I wasn’t on this unti 2 weeks when this unit went on lock-down because a pair of garden/hand-held clippers had come up missing. I was called to see the unit warden, Ms.
Smith. She told me: “the word on the street is that you took the clippers to use to escape with
…” and that I set the whole thing up on the Hilltop Unit so that I could get moved to Mt View to be with my “home-girl.”
For starters, I was locked in the visiting room the day the clippers came up missing. I was with my boss Mr. Ford and the rest of the paint crew painting the visiting room. I was nowhere near the yard vew or their tools at the time the clippers came up missing, or any other time close to it. A pair of clippers would be of NO USE to me!
In response to the accusation of my “setting it up at the Hilltop unit to move here to Mt. View …” to be with some “home-girl” … that’s ridiculous! How would I ever be able to pre-determine where I’d get a transfer to? I have no “home-girl” here. I am from the State
of California. So who is my “home-girl”??? Why would I jeopardise my mother and son in a mess like that? I wouldn’t!!
Warden Smith made no sense at all, and I feel that she knew that. I told this warden the same thing that I told the man from I.A. “It makes no sense.” It makes no sense that I would try to escape now after all that I’ve been through and being so close to going home.
Warden Smith said “Well Perillo, what do you consider close to going home?” I said “that I don’t have a death sentence any more and I see light at the end of the road now, so that’s being close to me.”
I know that I’ve been here 22 flat calendar years, so why would I go through all that I’ve been
through, and arrive today to have so much going for myself now, to give it all up, to be “on the run” for the rest of my life, as well as my family??? The clippers were found somewhere on the unit, but do you think that Warden Smith called me back into her office to apologize to me for her strong accusations that I took them for my own senseless use? In a word: Not!!!
I was sitting on a bench outside the command building, when 2 female officers were standing around behind me talking with each other. One said to the other: “imagine the schools we could have sent our kids to, and the money we could have saved had we not had to support
her on death row all those years with our taxes, and she’s still living.” It was without a
doubt said for me to hear it.
Once, I was sitting on my bed with my headphones on, writing a letter. There was a commotion going on in the dayroom between some of the inmates and an officer “WATTS.” I heard my bed number being called by this same officer. She was yelling when I had
removed my headphones. I said: “Did you call me?” She went totally “off” on me and told me: “I told you to be quiet now!!!” I told her that I hadn’t said anything; I was confused being that I hadn’t even spoken to her until I responded to my bed number. I was listening to music; she must’ve mistook my bed number for another offender’s which is a common mistake inside the dorms.
The disturbing part of this incident which I’m point out is what she said to me next. She said “I’m wearing grey, you’re wearing white, who do you think they will believe, me or you?” I responded: “I hope me, because I am not a liar and I didn’t have anything to do with
whatever had her so upset.” Later that night I was called out and read a 3 coded case. The first case I’ve ever had in 21 years!
When I attempted to talk to this same officer she said to me with such animosity: “Get out of my face!!!” The very next day I went to a Lt. Griffith and tried to tell him what had happened. He asked me: “Who am I supposed to believe, you or my officer?” I told him that I wasn’t lying, that I’ve been in TDCJ for 22 flat years and that I’ve seen officers, I am clearly aware of officers who have been: Taken off this unit, male and female for having sex with inmates. Lt’s taken to jail for molesting their step kids, Captains taken to jail for robbery. Captains in the newspapers for stealing (many times!) A warden taken off a unit for stealing money from the
state, ie inter-unit funds. Officers as well as rank taken off the unit for hitting inmates. So how
can anyone inside this institution suggest that the level of integrity of these officers is
above that of an offender just because of the color of clothes? The sad element of this is that this sets up the mentality in these CO’s that they are somewhat “above the law”, thus, free to be 8 hour tyrants to offenders.
What upset me deeply was that I’ve known Lt. Griffith for years. He knows that I’m not a
trouble-maker and that I wouldn’t stand there and lie to him. The real inmate who did have the actual confrontation with Officer Watts went to this Lt and told him that the officer had her and myself mixed up regarding the incident that I was wrongly written up for. Other inmates in the dorm wrote statements to support the incident and the fact that this officer wrote the wrong person up. I went to court in front of a Lt White; I was found guilty of a 3 coded case I had nothing to do with. Once I was found guilty of giving food to a neighboring inmate. I was
guilty! I claimed my guilt! I always will. Anyway, this same officer Watts came to me after she had written me up and said: “Perillo, all the officers here are talking about how you got yourself off death row after 20 years. I sure hope that case I just wrote you won’t keep you here any longer.” The entire time she had a grin on her face. Then she asked if she could see my pictures of myself and the other ladies on death row.
I have repeatedly sent forms to both wardens, Smith and Nance, the Major and someone from I.A. asking them to talk to me about everything I have been through since being off of death row, but to no avail, because not one person has responded. I’ve requested a job change to the boiler room because I felt it would give me the time I needed alone to adjust to
general population and also remove me from the way of this harassment. I stated to the Major my reasons for requesting this job. The job I received was in the clothing room.
I was then told by a Mr. Veach that the Major told him I couldn’t work the boiler room because of the incident at Hilltop, and my crime. I never Number ONE, I never tried to escape!!! Nor was I found guilty of it. Nor was I changed with an attempt, or the conspiring to do so! I am being punished for, and unfairly judged for, a phone call they “say” came into the unit. As for my crime, I’m no longer in here for “capital murder.” I am currently incarcerated for the crime of “aggravated robbery” and I’ve served 22 flat years for it.
This is recognized by the State of Texas and the Department of Criminal Justice. TDC must also comply with the standards of recognizing this fact. So the reasoning of which made me “ineligible” for this job makes no sense. There are offenders with big crimes and big time working all over this unit, in positions such as I’ve requested, so how can the major make
such a claim?
In all that I am saying here is that I can somehow fathom this treatment to myself, “if” I was a
trouble-maker on this unit and the one before, but I try very hard to keep a low profile. I don’t even go out of the dorm much. I just want to do my time the best I can and hopefully go home someday soon. I stay to myself, and I’m a very hard worker no matter the job I’m doing.
I have a hard time understanding what it is that these people in grey want from me. I feel and hold an attitude of respect to these officers, and I’m trying my best out here in population. I sat on death row for 20 years on this unit. It’s been very difficult for me to be back on the Mt. View unit. Two weeks after I was returned to this unit, I had to go to the old death row section of this prison to put lights in there. I was in this place for years; 14 ½ years with my best
friend, “Karla Faye Tucker.” I can’t even find all the words to express all the emotions I felt
having to go back inside there.
I went to Karla’s old cell and mine and sat on our beds, in the now empty cells, and I cried. You can’t just put a person in a cage for 20 years and then one day let them out and expect everything to instantly be absolutely normal for the person who is now out of this
cage.
I’ve gone through a very rough time with all of this. I lost 60lbs from all the stress and I hold all this inside because these people I’m asking to investigate, to talk to me, they seem to be ignoring my pleas. I’m put on what to me seems like the “Pay you no mind list.”
I never dreamed it would be so political within the institutional and the administration division my being off of death row. If people have a problem with me getting off of death row, then they need to take it up with the State of Texas. I’m just trying to do my time and make it out of here. If it wasn’t for my family and the friends in my life, I would have certainly lost
the focus I feel I have … my mind!
on: November 26, 2008, 05:19:27 PM 13 General Death Penalty / Executed Offenders (Graveyard) / Phillip D. Hallford - Alabama - 11/4/10
David Ferguson has waited more than two decades for justice in the slaying of his older brother.
As Ferguson grew up in the Daleville area he shared a bedroom with his brother, Charles Eddie Shannon. Ferguson recalled how they regularly hung out with who would later turn out to be the sons of his brother’s killer.
Evidence showed Phillip Hallford used his daughter to lure her boyfriend, Shannon, to a secluded bridge on April 13, 1986. Hallford shot Shannon once in the roof of the mouth, then dragged him to the side of the bridge and shot him two more times in the head before throwing him over the bridge and into the water, according to Attorney General Troy King’s Office. Hallford, 61, has been on death row since April 1987.
“My brother was trying to date his daughter,” Ferguson said. “He didn’t like my brother dating his daughter and so he shot him three times in the head. He killed a 16-year-old innocent person.”
Even though law enforcement caught his brother’s killer, Ferguson has lost faith in the judicial system. He has questioned whether anyone will ever fully pay for his brother’s death.
Twenty two other people from five of the Wiregrass counties join Hallford on Alabama’s death row, many of them having been there more than 10 years.
King said lengthy terms on death row allow the convicted to escape justice.
“It frustrates me a lot that these cases are so old,” King said. “I wish I had the ability to see them carried out. I just don’t have the authority.”
King said as of last week no execution dates had been set for any of the more than 200 people on death row. He said all he can do is submit people who have reached the end of their appeals to the Alabama Supreme Court, which sets the execution dates. King submitted a motion for an execution date last week for Hallford, along with three other men.
Ferguson said he’d received paperwork in the mail from the state about a possible execution, which he said he plans to attend when it happens.
“I hope he serves out what he was sentenced to do, the electric chair,” Ferguson said. “I think he should have already seen the death penalty by now. I would be there for my brother. He ain’t here no more so somebody has to represent him.”
King attributed the lengthy time on death row to what he called a broken system.
He said there has not been an execution in Alabama in 2008 while the state Supreme Court waited for a national ruling on the constitutionality of lethal injection. He said it was already ruled constitutional, but no more dates have been approved by the Alabama Supreme Court.
“The reason it takes so long is it’s not good enough when we know the person is guilty. We let them manipulate the system,” King said. “We’ve got a system that puts the rights of criminals ahead of the rights of victims.”
But Bryan Stevenson, who has represented multiple death row inmates at post conviction, cited several other reasons for the delay, including a system overloaded with over prosecuted homicides.
“We (the state) over prosecute, and are charging too many cases as death penalty cases,” Stevenson said. “We have the highest rate of death sentencing in the United States because we’re not very selective.”
Stevenson, the director of the Equal Justice Initiative out of Montgomery, said the death sentence was intended to be used for the “worst of the worst” of crimes, not every murder.
“Last year we sentenced more people to death in Alabama, with a statewide population of 4.5 million, than the state of Texas, with 23.5 million people,” Stevenson said. “It’s just a much broader use of capital punishment in Alabama, and particularly in Houston County.”
Stevenson cited two Houston County cases as what could be “tragic child abuse” cases if prosecuted in another state, but in Alabama the Tierra Gobble and Patricia Blackmon convictions became death sentences. Stevenson said their goal at EJI is to make sure the convictions were fair and legal.
Doug Valeska, who has served as the district attorney for Houston and Henry counties for more than 20 years, said he has sought justice for the victims through a fair trial. Valeska questioned the worth of a person’s life.
“We take for granted what your life is worth,” Valeska said. “It goes back to the victims. Their life was forfeited by these evil, wicked people that showed no mercy. Why should they be entitled to mercy?”
Someone can be charged with capital murder and face the death penalty if convicted of a murder during a felony crime, including robbery, kidnapping, the murder of a child under the age of 12, a drive-by shooting and the murder of a law enforcement officer, among others.
“The pain and suffering for victims seems to be forgotten,” Valeska said. “There’s no justice if they get life without parole. They took a life so they should lose their life.”
Stevenson said lack of proper representation contributes to the lengthy time inmates serve on death row. He said Georgia and Florida both have post-conviction defender programs. He cited several obstacles to providing adequate representation, including the cost.
Each capital murder defendant, by state law, can be represented by two appointed lawyers during trial, and can also receive an appointed lawyer during appeal to the state. But Stevenson said there is a $1,000 limit on post-conviction representation after state appeals have been exhausted.
“These are very unpopular cases,” Stevenson said. “People spend years on death row trying to find legal assistance.”
Solutions
King said the Alabama Attorney General’s Office has tried moving the cases more quickly through the appellate process but has hit some problems at the federal level.
“I think there are federal judges whose personal views have found their way into their rulings,” King said. “What we really need are judges who will exercise restraint and will do their job. If you’re going to rule against us go ahead and say it, but these long delays are cruel to the victim’s families.”
Stevenson said defense lawyers look at several ways to possibly get a death penalty case overturned, including improper instruction to a jury by a judge and the improper exclusion of someone from a jury because of their race.
“The state of Alabama can make this process work faster but they’re going to have to invest in getting them good lawyers,” Stevenson said. “They have to put more pressure on prosecutors to be more selective in capital prosecution.”
Robert Schnell, of Minneapolis, represents Brandyn Benjamin free of charge, and has asked for a new trial on the grounds of ineffective defense counsel during his client’s capital murder trial. Benjamin was convicted in the robbery-related murder at Wiregrass Commons Mall. The case is before Circuit Court Judge Larry Anderson, and an evidentiary hearing will be set at a later date.
“Sometimes you might find the evidence shows the whole proceeding was flawed,” Schnell said. “It’s important to us that constitutional rights are upheld, particularly when we’re talking about life or death.”
Death row inmates from the Wiregrass
Inmate Age County Years on death row Victim(s)
Billy Joe Magwood 56 Coffee 27 Sheriff C.F. Neil Grantham
Phillip D. Hallford 61 Dale 21 Charles Eddie Shannon
Willie Simmons Jackson 57 Coffee 19 Elmo Roberts
Willie McNair 43 Montgomery* 17 Ella Foy Riley
Andrew Bart Clark 36 Henry 13 Thomas Oliver Posey
Bobby Baker Jr. 35 Houston 12 Tracy Baker
Artez Hammonds 38 Houston 10 Marylin Mitchell
Jerry Jerome Smith 37 Houston 10 Willie James Fluornoy, Theresa Ann Helms
and David Lee Bennett
Jerry Devane Bryant 39 Houston 9 Donald E. Hollis
James Donald Yeomans 45 Dale 7 Julie Ann Yeomans, Jake Simmons
and Sylvia Lucinda Simmons
Anthony Eugene Brown 33 Houston 6 Virginia Keel
Patricia Blackon 38 Houston 6 Dominique Bryant
Rex Allen Beckworth 41 Houston 5 Bessie Lee Thweatt
Michael Jerome Lewis 55 Houston 5 Timothy Kaye
James Earl Walker 29 Houston 4 Bessie Lee Thweatt
Emanuel Gissendanner 32 Dale 4 Margaret Snellgrove
Antonio Devoe Jones 27 Houston 4 Ruth Kirkland
Brandyn Joseph Benjamin 27 Houston 4 Jimmy Lewis
Tierra Capri Gobble 25 Houston 2 Phoenix Cody Parrish (infant)
Anthony Christopher Floyd 26 Houston 2 Waylon Crawford
Michael Sale 53 Houston 2 Lynn Sale
Heath Lavon McCray 39 Houston 1 Brandy Bachelder
David Phillip Wilson 24 Houston 9 months Dewey Walker
*crime occurred in Henry County
As Ferguson grew up in the Daleville area he shared a bedroom with his brother, Charles Eddie Shannon. Ferguson recalled how they regularly hung out with who would later turn out to be the sons of his brother’s killer.
Evidence showed Phillip Hallford used his daughter to lure her boyfriend, Shannon, to a secluded bridge on April 13, 1986. Hallford shot Shannon once in the roof of the mouth, then dragged him to the side of the bridge and shot him two more times in the head before throwing him over the bridge and into the water, according to Attorney General Troy King’s Office. Hallford, 61, has been on death row since April 1987.
“My brother was trying to date his daughter,” Ferguson said. “He didn’t like my brother dating his daughter and so he shot him three times in the head. He killed a 16-year-old innocent person.”
Even though law enforcement caught his brother’s killer, Ferguson has lost faith in the judicial system. He has questioned whether anyone will ever fully pay for his brother’s death.
Twenty two other people from five of the Wiregrass counties join Hallford on Alabama’s death row, many of them having been there more than 10 years.
King said lengthy terms on death row allow the convicted to escape justice.
“It frustrates me a lot that these cases are so old,” King said. “I wish I had the ability to see them carried out. I just don’t have the authority.”
King said as of last week no execution dates had been set for any of the more than 200 people on death row. He said all he can do is submit people who have reached the end of their appeals to the Alabama Supreme Court, which sets the execution dates. King submitted a motion for an execution date last week for Hallford, along with three other men.
Ferguson said he’d received paperwork in the mail from the state about a possible execution, which he said he plans to attend when it happens.
“I hope he serves out what he was sentenced to do, the electric chair,” Ferguson said. “I think he should have already seen the death penalty by now. I would be there for my brother. He ain’t here no more so somebody has to represent him.”
King attributed the lengthy time on death row to what he called a broken system.
He said there has not been an execution in Alabama in 2008 while the state Supreme Court waited for a national ruling on the constitutionality of lethal injection. He said it was already ruled constitutional, but no more dates have been approved by the Alabama Supreme Court.
“The reason it takes so long is it’s not good enough when we know the person is guilty. We let them manipulate the system,” King said. “We’ve got a system that puts the rights of criminals ahead of the rights of victims.”
But Bryan Stevenson, who has represented multiple death row inmates at post conviction, cited several other reasons for the delay, including a system overloaded with over prosecuted homicides.
“We (the state) over prosecute, and are charging too many cases as death penalty cases,” Stevenson said. “We have the highest rate of death sentencing in the United States because we’re not very selective.”
Stevenson, the director of the Equal Justice Initiative out of Montgomery, said the death sentence was intended to be used for the “worst of the worst” of crimes, not every murder.
“Last year we sentenced more people to death in Alabama, with a statewide population of 4.5 million, than the state of Texas, with 23.5 million people,” Stevenson said. “It’s just a much broader use of capital punishment in Alabama, and particularly in Houston County.”
Stevenson cited two Houston County cases as what could be “tragic child abuse” cases if prosecuted in another state, but in Alabama the Tierra Gobble and Patricia Blackmon convictions became death sentences. Stevenson said their goal at EJI is to make sure the convictions were fair and legal.
Doug Valeska, who has served as the district attorney for Houston and Henry counties for more than 20 years, said he has sought justice for the victims through a fair trial. Valeska questioned the worth of a person’s life.
“We take for granted what your life is worth,” Valeska said. “It goes back to the victims. Their life was forfeited by these evil, wicked people that showed no mercy. Why should they be entitled to mercy?”
Someone can be charged with capital murder and face the death penalty if convicted of a murder during a felony crime, including robbery, kidnapping, the murder of a child under the age of 12, a drive-by shooting and the murder of a law enforcement officer, among others.
“The pain and suffering for victims seems to be forgotten,” Valeska said. “There’s no justice if they get life without parole. They took a life so they should lose their life.”
Stevenson said lack of proper representation contributes to the lengthy time inmates serve on death row. He said Georgia and Florida both have post-conviction defender programs. He cited several obstacles to providing adequate representation, including the cost.
Each capital murder defendant, by state law, can be represented by two appointed lawyers during trial, and can also receive an appointed lawyer during appeal to the state. But Stevenson said there is a $1,000 limit on post-conviction representation after state appeals have been exhausted.
“These are very unpopular cases,” Stevenson said. “People spend years on death row trying to find legal assistance.”
Solutions
King said the Alabama Attorney General’s Office has tried moving the cases more quickly through the appellate process but has hit some problems at the federal level.
“I think there are federal judges whose personal views have found their way into their rulings,” King said. “What we really need are judges who will exercise restraint and will do their job. If you’re going to rule against us go ahead and say it, but these long delays are cruel to the victim’s families.”
Stevenson said defense lawyers look at several ways to possibly get a death penalty case overturned, including improper instruction to a jury by a judge and the improper exclusion of someone from a jury because of their race.
“The state of Alabama can make this process work faster but they’re going to have to invest in getting them good lawyers,” Stevenson said. “They have to put more pressure on prosecutors to be more selective in capital prosecution.”
Robert Schnell, of Minneapolis, represents Brandyn Benjamin free of charge, and has asked for a new trial on the grounds of ineffective defense counsel during his client’s capital murder trial. Benjamin was convicted in the robbery-related murder at Wiregrass Commons Mall. The case is before Circuit Court Judge Larry Anderson, and an evidentiary hearing will be set at a later date.
“Sometimes you might find the evidence shows the whole proceeding was flawed,” Schnell said. “It’s important to us that constitutional rights are upheld, particularly when we’re talking about life or death.”
Death row inmates from the Wiregrass
Inmate Age County Years on death row Victim(s)
Billy Joe Magwood 56 Coffee 27 Sheriff C.F. Neil Grantham
Phillip D. Hallford 61 Dale 21 Charles Eddie Shannon
Willie Simmons Jackson 57 Coffee 19 Elmo Roberts
Willie McNair 43 Montgomery* 17 Ella Foy Riley
Andrew Bart Clark 36 Henry 13 Thomas Oliver Posey
Bobby Baker Jr. 35 Houston 12 Tracy Baker
Artez Hammonds 38 Houston 10 Marylin Mitchell
Jerry Jerome Smith 37 Houston 10 Willie James Fluornoy, Theresa Ann Helms
and David Lee Bennett
Jerry Devane Bryant 39 Houston 9 Donald E. Hollis
James Donald Yeomans 45 Dale 7 Julie Ann Yeomans, Jake Simmons
and Sylvia Lucinda Simmons
Anthony Eugene Brown 33 Houston 6 Virginia Keel
Patricia Blackon 38 Houston 6 Dominique Bryant
Rex Allen Beckworth 41 Houston 5 Bessie Lee Thweatt
Michael Jerome Lewis 55 Houston 5 Timothy Kaye
James Earl Walker 29 Houston 4 Bessie Lee Thweatt
Emanuel Gissendanner 32 Dale 4 Margaret Snellgrove
Antonio Devoe Jones 27 Houston 4 Ruth Kirkland
Brandyn Joseph Benjamin 27 Houston 4 Jimmy Lewis
Tierra Capri Gobble 25 Houston 2 Phoenix Cody Parrish (infant)
Anthony Christopher Floyd 26 Houston 2 Waylon Crawford
Michael Sale 53 Houston 2 Lynn Sale
Heath Lavon McCray 39 Houston 1 Brandy Bachelder
David Phillip Wilson 24 Houston 9 months Dewey Walker
*crime occurred in Henry County
on: November 26, 2008, 05:00:53 PM 14 General Crime / U.S. Crime Related News / Mother Tells Cops She And Kids Were Attached
UPDATE 4:15 PM: The mother of Seth Kehoe, 2, of Coralville -- found dead in the woods near Littleton -- told investigators she and her two sons were attacked by a man with a knife.
Division of Criminal Investigation agents said Michelle Kehoe told police officers at the scene on Monday about the alleged attack. They said they were looking in to the claims by Michelle Kehoe.
Jessica Lown, spokeswoman for the Department of Public Safety, said the possibility that someone attacked three family members has been a part of the investigation from the beginning.
Still, Lown said investigators do not believe the public is in danger and doubt it was a random act of violence.
'We don't believe there was some crazy person running around who would go and potentially attack another family," Lown said.
Two search warrants have been issued in the investigation but authorities would not elaborate on what the search warrants were for or if they would be sealed. DCI agent Jeff Jacobson said investigators learned more information today but have not decided when to make it public
He said, however, that Michelle Kehoe never claimed she was adbucted, although she said she and the boys were in danger and mentioned a man with a knife.
Condition reports are not available this afternoon for Michelle Kehoe, 35, and her surviving son Sean Kehoe, 7. An autopsy Tuesday found that Seth Kehoe died of cuts made with a sharp instrument.
Earlier story: 'Sharp injuries to the neck' killed 2-year-old
By Stephen Schmidt and Gregg Hennigan
The Gazette
Two-year-old Seth Kehoe of Coralville, whose body was found Monday near Littleton in northeastern Iowa, died of “sharp force injuries to the neck” in what was ruled a homicide Tuesday following an autopsy.
John Kraemer, director of forensic operations for the Iowa state medical examiner, would not release any more information about how the injuries happened, but explained the terminology.
“It means that a sharp object was used to create those injuries,” Kraemer said. “That is about all I can release right now.”
Little else was revealed Tuesday during the second day of an investigation by the Buchanan County Sheriff’s Office and the state Division of Criminal Investigation in an incident that also resulted in serious injuries to Seth’s mother, Michelle, and brother, Sean.
Authorities have said they do not believe members of the public are at risk from anyone connected with the case, and have not released any information on possible suspects.
Seth, his mother, Michelle Kehoe, 35, and his brother Sean, 7, were traveling from their home in Coralville to Sumner Sunday when they ended up off course in a remote area.
Gene Kehoe reported his wife and two children missing to the Coralville Police Department at 8:45 p.m. Sunday.
At 8 a.m. Monday, an injured Michelle Kehoe went to a home on River Road Boulevard and told the resident that her children were in danger.
Michelle and Sean Kehoe were seriously injured. Michelle Kehoe was taken to University Hospitals and Sean Kehoe was taken to Covenant Medical in Waterloo, where they underwent surgery. Neither hospital would release information on their conditions. The nature and severity of the injuries also have not been disclosed.
Jessica Lown, spokeswoman for the Iowa Department of Public Safety, said investigators conducted interviews Tuesday and a ground search of the grassy area southeast of Littleton where Seth Kehoe was found dead Monday morning outside the Kehoe family van.
“They’re just trying to make sure that they’re diligent about collecting all possible evidence,” Lown said.
(AP Photo/The Waterloo Courier, Matthew Putney)
State and local law enforcement continue to investigate the death of two-year-old Seth Kehoe off of River Road Boulevard Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2008 in Littleton, Iowa. Much remains unknown about the slaying of a toddler and injuries suffered by his mother and brother in northeast Iowa, but some facts became clearer in the second day of the investigation.
Courtney Greene, public information officer for the Department of Public Safety, said the Kehoes’ van was moved off site to a warehouse Tuesday morning and is being processed for evidence.
People who know the Kehoes reacted to the news Tuesday.
Sean Kehoe is a first grader at Regina Catholic Elementary School in Iowa City, whom Principal Celeste Vincent described as “a very nice, wonderful little boy.”
Seth Kehoe was signed up to attend the school’s day care/preschool when he turned 3, she said. She described Gene and Michelle Kehoe as “very nice people.”
Students have been told that Sean is in the hospital, Vincent said, and school officials are working with the Grant Wood Area Education Agency critical incident team to plan how to best deal with the situation.
“We’re doing a lot of praying,” she said.
Michelle Kehoe and the two boys were supposed to be going to Sumner on Sunday, authorities have said. Sumner Mayor Gary Walke said he doesn’t know exactly who the Kehoes were to be visiting, but he has talked to residents who know the family.
“We’re very upset and very sorry about what’s happened,” he said. “Anything like this is just an unspeakable tragedy when young children are involved.”
Michelle Kehoe was in the news in December when she lost control of the family vehicle while driving in Iowa City and ended up in the Iowa River. She told The Gazette she was distracted by her sons and veered off the road.
Iowa City Police Sgt. Troy Kelsay said he reviewed Monday the report from the December crash and didn’t see anything that would lead him to second-guess the conclusion that Kehoe lost control of her car.
On Tuesday, one of the men who pulled the family from the icy river said he had no doubt the December crash was unintentional.
Cory Rath of Cedar Rapids said he was driving behind Kehoe on Dubuque Street when her car suddenly veered off the road. He said it hit a snow bank that was so big no one would think a vehicle would have made it through it and into the river.
“I just don’t think you can plan something like that,” Rath said. “And if it was planned, you wouldn’t choose that spot.”
Rath said he talked with Gene Kehoe on Monday morning and offered his help. He said Kehoe told him the police were trying to find Michelle by getting a location on her cell phone.
“He was obviously upset and (there was) not much I could offer,” Rath said.
The situation has been particularly hard on Rath because he pulled Sean from the river and he has two children the same ages as the Kehoe boys.
“I’m deeply grieved by what has happened,” he said.
Last January, the Iowa City Council honored Rath and the three other men who pulled Michelle, Sean and Seth Kehoe from the river. Michelle Kehoe spoke at the event and said that, at the time of the accident, she and her children were heading to the library to check out books on the meaning of Christmas.
“Our family has experienced firsthand the true meaning of Christmas this season,” she said through tears as she thanked the men and called them heroes.
Funeral services for Seth Kehoe have tentatively been scheduled for Saturday at St. Wenceslaus Catholic Church in Iowa City.
Division of Criminal Investigation agents said Michelle Kehoe told police officers at the scene on Monday about the alleged attack. They said they were looking in to the claims by Michelle Kehoe.
Jessica Lown, spokeswoman for the Department of Public Safety, said the possibility that someone attacked three family members has been a part of the investigation from the beginning.
Still, Lown said investigators do not believe the public is in danger and doubt it was a random act of violence.
'We don't believe there was some crazy person running around who would go and potentially attack another family," Lown said.
Two search warrants have been issued in the investigation but authorities would not elaborate on what the search warrants were for or if they would be sealed. DCI agent Jeff Jacobson said investigators learned more information today but have not decided when to make it public
He said, however, that Michelle Kehoe never claimed she was adbucted, although she said she and the boys were in danger and mentioned a man with a knife.
Condition reports are not available this afternoon for Michelle Kehoe, 35, and her surviving son Sean Kehoe, 7. An autopsy Tuesday found that Seth Kehoe died of cuts made with a sharp instrument.
Earlier story: 'Sharp injuries to the neck' killed 2-year-old
By Stephen Schmidt and Gregg Hennigan
The Gazette
Two-year-old Seth Kehoe of Coralville, whose body was found Monday near Littleton in northeastern Iowa, died of “sharp force injuries to the neck” in what was ruled a homicide Tuesday following an autopsy.
John Kraemer, director of forensic operations for the Iowa state medical examiner, would not release any more information about how the injuries happened, but explained the terminology.
“It means that a sharp object was used to create those injuries,” Kraemer said. “That is about all I can release right now.”
Little else was revealed Tuesday during the second day of an investigation by the Buchanan County Sheriff’s Office and the state Division of Criminal Investigation in an incident that also resulted in serious injuries to Seth’s mother, Michelle, and brother, Sean.
Authorities have said they do not believe members of the public are at risk from anyone connected with the case, and have not released any information on possible suspects.
Seth, his mother, Michelle Kehoe, 35, and his brother Sean, 7, were traveling from their home in Coralville to Sumner Sunday when they ended up off course in a remote area.
Gene Kehoe reported his wife and two children missing to the Coralville Police Department at 8:45 p.m. Sunday.
At 8 a.m. Monday, an injured Michelle Kehoe went to a home on River Road Boulevard and told the resident that her children were in danger.
Michelle and Sean Kehoe were seriously injured. Michelle Kehoe was taken to University Hospitals and Sean Kehoe was taken to Covenant Medical in Waterloo, where they underwent surgery. Neither hospital would release information on their conditions. The nature and severity of the injuries also have not been disclosed.
Jessica Lown, spokeswoman for the Iowa Department of Public Safety, said investigators conducted interviews Tuesday and a ground search of the grassy area southeast of Littleton where Seth Kehoe was found dead Monday morning outside the Kehoe family van.
“They’re just trying to make sure that they’re diligent about collecting all possible evidence,” Lown said.
(AP Photo/The Waterloo Courier, Matthew Putney)
State and local law enforcement continue to investigate the death of two-year-old Seth Kehoe off of River Road Boulevard Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2008 in Littleton, Iowa. Much remains unknown about the slaying of a toddler and injuries suffered by his mother and brother in northeast Iowa, but some facts became clearer in the second day of the investigation.
Courtney Greene, public information officer for the Department of Public Safety, said the Kehoes’ van was moved off site to a warehouse Tuesday morning and is being processed for evidence.
People who know the Kehoes reacted to the news Tuesday.
Sean Kehoe is a first grader at Regina Catholic Elementary School in Iowa City, whom Principal Celeste Vincent described as “a very nice, wonderful little boy.”
Seth Kehoe was signed up to attend the school’s day care/preschool when he turned 3, she said. She described Gene and Michelle Kehoe as “very nice people.”
Students have been told that Sean is in the hospital, Vincent said, and school officials are working with the Grant Wood Area Education Agency critical incident team to plan how to best deal with the situation.
“We’re doing a lot of praying,” she said.
Michelle Kehoe and the two boys were supposed to be going to Sumner on Sunday, authorities have said. Sumner Mayor Gary Walke said he doesn’t know exactly who the Kehoes were to be visiting, but he has talked to residents who know the family.
“We’re very upset and very sorry about what’s happened,” he said. “Anything like this is just an unspeakable tragedy when young children are involved.”
Michelle Kehoe was in the news in December when she lost control of the family vehicle while driving in Iowa City and ended up in the Iowa River. She told The Gazette she was distracted by her sons and veered off the road.
Iowa City Police Sgt. Troy Kelsay said he reviewed Monday the report from the December crash and didn’t see anything that would lead him to second-guess the conclusion that Kehoe lost control of her car.
On Tuesday, one of the men who pulled the family from the icy river said he had no doubt the December crash was unintentional.
Cory Rath of Cedar Rapids said he was driving behind Kehoe on Dubuque Street when her car suddenly veered off the road. He said it hit a snow bank that was so big no one would think a vehicle would have made it through it and into the river.
“I just don’t think you can plan something like that,” Rath said. “And if it was planned, you wouldn’t choose that spot.”
Rath said he talked with Gene Kehoe on Monday morning and offered his help. He said Kehoe told him the police were trying to find Michelle by getting a location on her cell phone.
“He was obviously upset and (there was) not much I could offer,” Rath said.
The situation has been particularly hard on Rath because he pulled Sean from the river and he has two children the same ages as the Kehoe boys.
“I’m deeply grieved by what has happened,” he said.
Last January, the Iowa City Council honored Rath and the three other men who pulled Michelle, Sean and Seth Kehoe from the river. Michelle Kehoe spoke at the event and said that, at the time of the accident, she and her children were heading to the library to check out books on the meaning of Christmas.
“Our family has experienced firsthand the true meaning of Christmas this season,” she said through tears as she thanked the men and called them heroes.
Funeral services for Seth Kehoe have tentatively been scheduled for Saturday at St. Wenceslaus Catholic Church in Iowa City.
on: November 26, 2008, 04:50:59 PM 15 General Crime / Crime Debate and Discussion / Thought Crimes
The new TV show Life on Mars features a cop thrown back in time to 1973. On a recent episode, the cop from 2008 calls an assault a “hate crime.” His buddy, a cop from 1973, retorts, “As opposed to an “I really, really like you crime?””
His witty comeback points out the commonsense response to the idea of a “hate crime:” all violence comes from evil emotions. We should not classify some rapes as more hateful or some assaults as more biased. This belittles individual survivors; it categorizes them based on their group identity, not their personal rights as a human being.
In New York State, seven teens have been accused of a “hate crime” after a 38-year-old immigrant from Ecuador, Marcello Lucero, was attacked and stabbed to death. The assistant district attorney claims that the teens said, “Let's go find some Mexicans to -- -- up.” She accuses them of a “well thought out crime targeting Hispanic males.”
Say she’s right. Say these seven teens murdered Marcello Lucero because he was the first Latin-looking man they saw and their agenda was to kill a Hispanic. That’s appalling. But would Marcello’s death be less horrible if the boys killed him because they wanted to gang-rape his wife? Would it be less hateful if they’d stabbed him to death so they could have a joy ride in his car? If they hadn’t hated his race but had hated his wealth or his job or his resemblance to a man who had molested one of them—would the crime have been less evil?
“Anti-hate” laws say yes. These laws segregate society into groups and say bias and hatred of some groups, like minorities, is worse than against others. A crime against a member of a protected group is punished more harshly than a crime against an individual not of those groups. This is identity politics at its worst.
As we warn time and again, these laws are ultimately dangerous not just because they further splinter society into separate social groups but because they criminalize bias, which is held in beliefs, thoughts and speech. There is no freedom more precious than the freedom to believe, think and speak as you choose, even if you choose racism or nationalism or to worship aliens. Hate crime laws shatter this precious freedom, invading the most personal space of thought and belief to legislate what are acceptable beliefs and biases and what are not.
An Associated Press article about Marcello Lucero’s stabbing reviews a few other assaults on Hispanic immigrants and quotes leaders of Long Island Immigrant Alliance; they blame the public debate on immigration for fostering a culture of hate. A local pastor and immigrant advocate even charged that “some of the highest leaders of our community also have blood on their hands.” Wow, now political commentators on illegal immigration are responsible for this brutal killing?
That kind of rhetoric is precisely what happens when prosecutors parse the “bias” behind a crime and prosecute beliefs, not just actions. Soon the realm of ideas and public debate is picked apart. Legitimate political speech is blamed for “inciting hate.” Soon government regulates ideas and speech. Bloggers are arrested for writing about immigration. Social scientists face jail time for taboo (but possibly true) theories about race. Pastors are put in handcuffs for quoting from the Bible about sexual immorality. Sound like a draconian dictatorship that could never happen in the USA? I wish it were. This kind of crackdown has already happened in Canada, Europe and Australia. It will happen here, too, if we continue to march to the steady beat of hate crime arguments. It is a natural path: you stiffen penalties for the thoughts behind a crime; soon you prosecute the thoughts if they are said aloud, whether or not an actual crime has been committed. The speech and the thoughts become the crime. And then we live in Orwell’s world.
In Burma, a 28-year-old poet and blogger has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for publishing an online poem mocking the country’s dictator. The lines of his poem formed an acrostic calling the dictator “power crazy.” He was arrested the day after publishing the poem. The blogger-now-prisoner owns three internet cafes in Burma’s capitol. His mother was not allowed to attend his hearing, and as a detainee he was deprived of food and water during the proceedings.
Unfortunately, no American can view Burma’s actions with indifference, as the fascist tactics of an outpost of civilization. Hardly. “Anti-hate” laws empower the most “civilized” governments of the world to imprison their citizens for online political and social speech. Just ask David Irving or Ernst Zundel, who served jail time for challenging establishment history of the Holocaust. As much as we might like to believe an American will never face a policeman’s fist on his door for critiquing the government—or Judaism, or homosexual practices, or religion—on his blog—it can and will happen.
And it will happen through the seemingly righteous move of defining and prosecuting violent “hate crimes”—as if some crimes were based in kindness.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
His witty comeback points out the commonsense response to the idea of a “hate crime:” all violence comes from evil emotions. We should not classify some rapes as more hateful or some assaults as more biased. This belittles individual survivors; it categorizes them based on their group identity, not their personal rights as a human being.
In New York State, seven teens have been accused of a “hate crime” after a 38-year-old immigrant from Ecuador, Marcello Lucero, was attacked and stabbed to death. The assistant district attorney claims that the teens said, “Let's go find some Mexicans to -- -- up.” She accuses them of a “well thought out crime targeting Hispanic males.”
Say she’s right. Say these seven teens murdered Marcello Lucero because he was the first Latin-looking man they saw and their agenda was to kill a Hispanic. That’s appalling. But would Marcello’s death be less horrible if the boys killed him because they wanted to gang-rape his wife? Would it be less hateful if they’d stabbed him to death so they could have a joy ride in his car? If they hadn’t hated his race but had hated his wealth or his job or his resemblance to a man who had molested one of them—would the crime have been less evil?
“Anti-hate” laws say yes. These laws segregate society into groups and say bias and hatred of some groups, like minorities, is worse than against others. A crime against a member of a protected group is punished more harshly than a crime against an individual not of those groups. This is identity politics at its worst.
As we warn time and again, these laws are ultimately dangerous not just because they further splinter society into separate social groups but because they criminalize bias, which is held in beliefs, thoughts and speech. There is no freedom more precious than the freedom to believe, think and speak as you choose, even if you choose racism or nationalism or to worship aliens. Hate crime laws shatter this precious freedom, invading the most personal space of thought and belief to legislate what are acceptable beliefs and biases and what are not.
An Associated Press article about Marcello Lucero’s stabbing reviews a few other assaults on Hispanic immigrants and quotes leaders of Long Island Immigrant Alliance; they blame the public debate on immigration for fostering a culture of hate. A local pastor and immigrant advocate even charged that “some of the highest leaders of our community also have blood on their hands.” Wow, now political commentators on illegal immigration are responsible for this brutal killing?
That kind of rhetoric is precisely what happens when prosecutors parse the “bias” behind a crime and prosecute beliefs, not just actions. Soon the realm of ideas and public debate is picked apart. Legitimate political speech is blamed for “inciting hate.” Soon government regulates ideas and speech. Bloggers are arrested for writing about immigration. Social scientists face jail time for taboo (but possibly true) theories about race. Pastors are put in handcuffs for quoting from the Bible about sexual immorality. Sound like a draconian dictatorship that could never happen in the USA? I wish it were. This kind of crackdown has already happened in Canada, Europe and Australia. It will happen here, too, if we continue to march to the steady beat of hate crime arguments. It is a natural path: you stiffen penalties for the thoughts behind a crime; soon you prosecute the thoughts if they are said aloud, whether or not an actual crime has been committed. The speech and the thoughts become the crime. And then we live in Orwell’s world.
In Burma, a 28-year-old poet and blogger has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for publishing an online poem mocking the country’s dictator. The lines of his poem formed an acrostic calling the dictator “power crazy.” He was arrested the day after publishing the poem. The blogger-now-prisoner owns three internet cafes in Burma’s capitol. His mother was not allowed to attend his hearing, and as a detainee he was deprived of food and water during the proceedings.
Unfortunately, no American can view Burma’s actions with indifference, as the fascist tactics of an outpost of civilization. Hardly. “Anti-hate” laws empower the most “civilized” governments of the world to imprison their citizens for online political and social speech. Just ask David Irving or Ernst Zundel, who served jail time for challenging establishment history of the Holocaust. As much as we might like to believe an American will never face a policeman’s fist on his door for critiquing the government—or Judaism, or homosexual practices, or religion—on his blog—it can and will happen.
And it will happen through the seemingly righteous move of defining and prosecuting violent “hate crimes”—as if some crimes were based in kindness.
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