5 20 256 https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/dc13fe1e8db50c04db4756ccd50871ac.jpg 2076543b566d08a67007f78bb8e89c54 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 2, 1983-1994 Text Text Any textual data included in the document Tallahassee- The death sentence for Stephen Todd Booker, convicted of beating, raping, and fatally stabbing a 94- year- old Gainesville widow in 1977, was overturned Friday by a federal judge who said not all mitigating evidence was considered by the jury. The state of Florida immediately filed an appeal with the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta. Booker, 35, was four days away from execution when Judge Maurice Paul of the U.S. District Court in Tallahassee issued his opinion, vacating the death sentence and ordering a new sentencing hearing for him. Booker, an inmate at Florida State Prison in Starke, was on his fourth death warrant. This is the first time he has won a new hearing. The ruling has no effect on Booker’s murder conviction, only the sentencing. Earlier this week, one of Booker’s attorneys, Michael Mello, a professor at Vermont Law School, predicted that Paul would overturn the sentence based on a 1987 Supreme Court decision, Hitchcock v. Dugger, that stated all mitigating evidence must be heard by juries in capital cases. Booker’s attorneys argued that some mitigating evidence, such as his family background, mental instability and a history of alcohol and drug problems, were not considered by the jury. Judge Paul agreed. “What the court is saying is there was a Hitchcock violation,” said Carolyn Snurkowski, assistant attorney general for the state. Part of Paul’s opinion read: “This court is cautious about speculating on the effects of errors in capital sentencing proceedings, especially in light of the discretion given to the sentencer.” Snurkowski said the state will argue there is no need for a new sentencing hearing and Booker should be executed. “The argument is: Just because this error may have occurred,… it’s not such a fundamental error that would require a resentencing proceeding,” Snurkowski said. One of Booker’s attorneys said Booker would prevail despite the state’s appeal. “The state is going to do what the state is going to do,” said James Coleman, a Washington-based attorney. “(But) I think if anyone were to look at this thing objectively, I don’t think there’s any reason for a death sentence.” Coleman said Booker would probably receive a life sentence after a new sentencing hearing. “He’s never denied it,” Coleman said of the murder. “His defense has not been innocence. It’s been a question of whether the court should have sentenced him to death.” Booker killed Lorine Demoss Harman during a savage attack in her apartment, beating her, raping her, stabbing her nine times and leaving two knives plunged in her body. A jury convicted Booker of murder in 1978 and he was sentenced to die. Coleman described Booker as “remorseful” for his crime. Coleman said he spoke with Booker after learning of the decision. “He was surprised, but very happy,” Coleman said. Booker was surprised, Coleman said, because he has failed to win any of his earlier appeals. His first death warrant was signed in 1982. Another inmate also was scheduled for electrocution on Tuesday, but the Florida Supreme Court this week issued a stay for Freddie Lee Hall. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Staneart, Kellyn Student Editor of the Digital Item Dickinson, Terra Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Booker death sentence reversed: the state immediately appealed the ruling to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta Subject The topic of the resource Capital punishment Description An account of the resource The death sentence of Stephen Todd Booker was overturned because the jury did not look at all mitigating evidence. Booker was before convicted of beating, raping, and stabbing a 94 year old woman. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Loughlin, Sean Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The Gainesville Sun Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1988-09-17 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The materials in this online collection are held by Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington and are available for educational use. For this purpose only, you may reproduce materials without prior permission on the condition that you provide attribution of the source. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 1 JPG 300 DPI Language A language of the resource English Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Gainesville, FL Atlanta, GA appeals capital punishment Death sentence Florida Death Row Florida Supreme Court murder rape https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/4eab6c645cd6562557edb557cec0fcb8.jpg c4cc5afef1c4f4fa079b7d14604157fe https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/68cfd85680009c501f08a4e3de977f05.jpg 9c537b12ad92e643dda3f0f047e6c503 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 2, 1983-1994 Text Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper article Vol. No./Issue No. Volume and issue number for the newspaper (if available) Vol. 113, No. 120 Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Sundberg, Eric Text Any textual data included in the document STARKE — Even though Florida already appoints lawyers to defend Death Row asking that the U.S. Supreme Court not make the practice mandatory. On Monday, the high court agreed to hear a Virginia case in which that states is appealing a federal circuit court ruling requiring the state to provide attorneys for indigent inmates on death row who are appealing their convictions. The case involves Joseph M. Giarratano, who was convicted and sentenced in 1979 for murdering a woman and raping and murdering her 15-year old daughter. His conviction and sentence were upheld by the Virginia Supreme Court in 1980. He is one of nearly 40 inmates on death row. A district judge ruled that Virginia was not giving inmates meaningful access to the courts and ordered the state to appoint personal lawyers for individual inmates, rather than have inmates rely on law libraries or on a small group of lawyers to represent a number of prisoners simultaneously. In the Florida case of Gideon vs. Wainwright, the high court recognized the right of the indigent to have legal representation supplied by the state at the trial level. So far, that right has not been extended to appeals. Defendant Clarence Earl Gideon was documented in a book written by Athony Lewis, a columnist for The New York Times. The book was the basis of a movie where the role of Gideon was played by Henry Fonda. Florida’s support of Virginia’s position is detailed in a 13-page brief the state’s attorney general filed with the Supreme Court last month. The state of Georgia filed a separate brief with the other states. In the amicus curiae — commonly called a “fiend of the court” brief — the state of Florida maintains death row inmates have no constitutional right to attorneys on appeals. The position has bewildered the director of the Office of Capital Collateral Representative, the Florida state agency that represents most of the state’s 290 death row inmates on appeals. Director Larry Spalding said there is an inconsistency with the states having such an agency and then questioning the state’s constitutional obligation to death row inmates. Of the states that filed briefs on Virginia’s behalf, Florida is the only one with an agency that provides attorneys to death row inmates on appeal. “The state of Florida does not have a unified position before the U.S. Supreme Court,” Spalding said. “I am giving serious consideration to CCR filing an amicus brief on behalf of Giarrantano in support of a constitutional right.” Asked why death row inmates should be entitled to attorneys on appeals when such a principles does not apply to other convicts, Spalding replied: “Because there’s a difference between sitting in jail and being put in an electric chair.” The state’s attorney general office disputed the notion of inconsistency or the suggestion that the brief is an effort to dismantle the agency. Gov. Bob Martinez has been an outspoken critic of the Office of Capital Collateral Representative, having called for several investigations of the office. A specially appointed commission recently found no evidence of unethical conduct, but a criminal investigation continues. Carolyn Snurkowski, an assistant attorney general for the state, said establishing a new constitutional right for inmates could complicate an appeals process that already takes years. Specifically, Snurkowski said, if death row inmates have a constitutional right to legal representation, they could then question the competency of their lawyers on further appeals. “Can they come back and challenge the assistance” is the question concerning the state, Snurkowski said. Mark Menser, another assistant attorney general, said the Supreme Court has never set such a right for death row inmates in federal courts. “It should be left up to the states,” Menser said. “The federal government can’t impose a duty on the states it doesn’t impose on itself.” Snurkowski would not speculate how the court’s ruling, which is not expected until next year, would affect the Florida agency. But the brief, written by Menser, contains one passage where the state worries about “the creation of new grounds for collateral attack (such as ineffective collateral counsel) or the creation of new ‘due process’ rights.” “Florida will have to give serious consideration to abandoning the project,” the brief read. Rep. Everett Kelly, D-Tavares, chairman of the House Committee on Corrections, Probation and Parole Committee, said if the Supreme Court rules against recognizing a constitutional right for inmates, the legislature would have to consider the future of the agency. “If we don’t have to do it, why do it?” Kelly said. “I’m just not sure I would require legal counsel for them (death row inmates), most especially if they’re able to afford lawyers.” Michael Mello, a professor at the Vermont Law School, has written about the availability of attorneys for death row inmates. “It’s desperate,” he said. “There are people less than two weeks away from being executed who don’t have attorneys. The crisis that led to the creation of CCR in Florida is a crisis being replicated throughout the country.” But Jon Peck, press secretary for the governor, said Florida’s response to the crisis in 1985 was voluntary — and that is the key. “There are times when you do something, but you don’t want it mandated,” Peck said. Student Editor of the Digital Item Williams, Megan Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource State joins death row suit Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Loughlin, Sean Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Gainesville Sun Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1988/11/3 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The materials in this online collection are held by Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington and are available for educational use. For this purpose only, you may reproduce materials without prior permission on the condition that you provide attribution of the source. Language A language of the resource English Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 2 JPG Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Gainesville, Florida. Description An account of the resource The article discusses Florida joining the lawsuit against the federal government to stop the federal government from mandating the appointment of lawyers to death row inmates for appeals. The article also accounts for the different opinions of state officials and agencies on the suit and fractured stance on the state's role in the suit. Subject The topic of the resource Death row Death row inmates Due process of law amicus curiae appeals Bob Martinez Carolyn Snurkowski Circuit court Constitutional court Death Row due process Earl Gideon Everett Kelly Federal Florida Gainesville Sun Giarratano Gideon vs. Wainwright Henry Fonda John Peck Larry Spalding Mark Menser Michael Mello State suit Supreme U.S. Virginia https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/fb2205e480948187dcb3f09eb993d2cf.jpg 83fe8fb838baec6b2f1ff804b2c79299 https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/24ca71748c08ca8e36f61ab28d4d42f9.jpg e738201347503293f0160a2ea3366b72 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 2, 1983-1994 Text Text Any textual data included in the document Attorney General Bob Butterworth says the plan to eliminate some of Death Row inmates’ state appeals may not speed up the process. TALLAHASSEE – While agreeing with Gov. Bob Martinez’s view that appeals for Death Row inmates take too long, Attorney General Bob Butterworth expressed some skepticism Monday that Martinez’s plan to eliminate some state appeals would solve the problem. “We’re all in favor of speeding up the system,” Butterworth said. “But like I said, we’re reserving judgment (on the proposal). It could just back up one court, so it might not speed anything up. It could be a Catch-22 situation.” Martinez, a vocal critic of lengthy death-penalty litigation, last week proposed eliminating one series of appeals for condemned inmates, who average spending more than 9 1/2 years on Death row. Currently, inmates can appeal collateral issues through state circuit courts all the way to the Florida Supreme Court. Collateral appeals focus on such issues as the competency of an inmate to stand trial and whether the prosecution withheld any evidence from the defense. Those issues can also be argued through the federal court system. Saying there is too much duplication, Martinez wants to eliminate collateral appeals in state circuit courts, giving only the Florida Supreme Court a chance to hear such challenges before they enter the federal system. But Butterworth, whose office represents the state on death-penalty cases, said the problem with long appeals doesn’t really lie with the state. “The real issue is at the federal level,” Butterworth said. The state already has a two-year time limit in which a condemned inmate must raise all collateral (constitutional) challenges. There is no such time limit for the federal court system. Butterworth said he hoped Martinez succeeds in generating enough support for his plan, but he wasn’t optimistic that legislators would agree to completely eliminate one phase of the appeals process. In a separate move, U.S. Sen. Bob Graham has introduced a bill in Washington that would place a two-year time limit for collateral appeals in the federal courts, a move Butterworth says he supports. Graham has tried unsuccessfully in previous years to get that bill passed. Deputy Attorney General James York said he is frustrated more by federal courts that overturn or delay death sentences than state courts that review the legal challenges. While saying he appreciated the governor’s frustration with the current system, York said the proposal to eliminate some state appeals might result in the federal system “doing even more review” of death penalty cases. Defense attorneys for condemned inmates have lambasted all proposals to shorten the appeal. Several attorneys have said the maze of state and federal court hearings helps to prevent mistakes from being made before the state puts someone to death. Cutting out parts of that system may backfire for death penalty advocates, according to Michael Mello, a lawyer who once represented condemned inmates in Florida and is now a professor at the Vermont Law School. “Nothing’s going to get rid of executions faster than a string of executing innocent people,” Mello Said. But Peter Dunbar, general counsel for Martinez, said the issue is not having sufficient appeals, but having a duplication of appeals. Dunbar said the governor agreed with Butterworth that the reform is needed at the federal level, but Martinez can only address the state system. “How many times do you have to hear the same issues-until someone says, “We’ve heard it once, twice, three times, you’re out,” Dunbar said. “You don’t need to be duplicating your efforts.” Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Rigmaiden, Erin Student Editor of the Digital Item Williams, Megan Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Cutting appeals 'could be Catch-22' Subject The topic of the resource Death row inmates Description An account of the resource Pan to eliminate state appeals for death row inmates may not speed up the legal process. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Loughlin, Sean Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The Gainesville Sun Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1987-03-07 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The materials in this online collection are held by Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington and are available for educational use. For this purpose only, you may reproduce materials without prior permission on the condition that you provide attribution of the source. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 2 JPG Language A language of the resource English Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Florida appeals Death Row Florida Florida Death Row Supreme Court https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/99ff48b52b0718c2ffc55cc2d595bbae.jpg d83ae450271b7918294befd23a7d85af https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/5f08db3e6bab0ba288f5243d4a3b2a9c.jpg 2baee2b0d83068e7d877c31d0b1c7e32 https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/c7d19c1fd9bafe6ba1596f396b4ddfb4.jpg 3aad7d84dd3fc215a4216f7fc3118ca7 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 4 Text Text Any textual data included in the document [Title] Death Penalty Not one, but two irreconcilable differences of opinion concern the death penalty in America. The first is the question of whether the death penalty is morally permissible. In the twentieth century more delicate consciences have arisen which judge the death penalty immoral, despite the universal practice of mankind in prior centuries, and general agreement among older moralists. Still many thinkers find the death penalty morally acceptable for heinous crimes by dangerous thugs; and the American people are overwhelmingly in favor of capital punishment. I may remark parenthetically that, apart from the intellectual classes, such opposition to the existing death penalty seems to be motivated by the ugliness of all present methods of execution. It would be interesting to note the effect on public opinion if any state should begin to execute by use of an oxygen-free nitrogen chamber. Since nitrogen is a major component of air the victim notices no unpleasing odor, and, since the victim continues to exhale normally, the carbon dioxide does not build up in the blood so that no need for breath is felt prior to loss of consciousness. Such an approach would seem to mitigate some of the negative reaction to execution methods expressed in the propaganda of death penalty opponents. The second difference of opinion, although puzzling to some, concerns how the Constitution can be interpreted to absolutely forbid the death penalty when it specifically refers to “capital cases” and the “jeopardy of life or limb.” It would seem to some that theoreticians capable of such a jump could also find ways to justify quartering soldiers in private homes. Among the absolute opponents of the death penalty on both moral and constitutional grounds were two former supreme court justices, Brennan and Marshall. In the face of solid court majorities supporting the constitutionality of capital punishment, these two persisted for years dissenting in every capital case that reached the court, even filing dissents to the denial of certiorari. [End of page] As did the subjects of this book, also the author, Professor Mello (who has been counsel in more than fifty death penalty cases) wholeheartedly opposes the death penalty on both moral and Constitutional grounds. He makes no attempt at an extensive explication of the opposing arguments to either of these questions. Nor does he attempt to provide a detailed history of death penalty cases since Furman v. Georgia. His book is a salute to justices Brennan and Marshall; and with them it rejects the case law for an absolutist approach. To the extent that the author confronts public support for executions he suggests, like Justice Marshall, that the moral position would triumph if the public were better informed. He also repeatedly brings up the popular assumption that the death penalty is applied in a racially discriminatory manner. This popular belief cannot be maintained when variables other than race are added to simplistic studies. (See “Execution by Quote?” in THE PUBLIC INTEREST, no. 116, Summer 1994 p.3). There is no hint given that this conclusion may be questionable. Professor Mello’s interesting and varies study discusses the lives of justices Brennan and Marshall, the origins and history of dissenting opinions in the United States Supreme Court, the justification of the persistent unavailing dissents under varied theories of jurisprudence and finally the treatment of death penalty cases in the Supreme Court and the dissenters themselves. In each of these segments, except perhaps the last, the author demonstrates an admirable gift for concise and clear summarization. For a reader who has not read a full length biography of either, the brief and excellent biographical essays on justices Brennan and Marshall provide interesting anecdotes about their appointments. It is well-known that Eisenhower described Brennan as his worst mistake. Mello [End of column] explains how that mistake occurred when both the President and his Attorney General, Brownell, assumed that Brennan was ideologically in tune with Arthur Vanderbilt, Chief Justice of New Jersey. In fact, while Brennan and Vanderbilt shared an interest in court reform, on political questions they were far apart. Marshall’s appointment to the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit is even more interesting since it involved a deal whereby Mississippi’s Senator Eastland agreed to advance Kennedy’s appointment of Marshall in return for an appointment to the Fifth Circuit of Herold Cox, and outspoken racist and a great embarrassment to the federal judiciary. Following the biographies, Mello provides an account of the practice instituted by John Marshall of promulgating an opinion of the Court, rather than having the Justices give their opinions seriatim. The official opinion created the need for dissents. Brief, useful histories of the most prominent dissenters stop with Harlan on the Warren Court. Mello’s brief biographical essays and histories serve as background study in his summary of jurisprudential theories, before he settles down to a rather dry analysis of the actual dissents by Brennan and Marshall. This section makes the interesting point that the seemingly pointless dissents to denial of certiorari were often effective messages to the lawyers below as to what points might be raised successfully in the future. The author’s political position is always in evidence, and leads to some overstatement. Marshall is said to have resigned from a court whose “decisions invariably would increase the misery of Blacks, the poor, and the uneducated.” Lewis Powell is off-handedly described as a [End of page] “cynical hack”; and Clarence Thomas is attacked at greater length for no reason germane to the book. In law professor fashion the text (210 pages) is supported by voluminous footnotes (110) pages. There is a combined index and table of cases. The book is suitable for all academic collections acquiring a broad range of materials on legal history, the Supreme Court or the death penalty. It is not intended to be useful in practice. [End of article] Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Student Editor of the Digital Item Dickinson, Terra Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Underwood, Drew Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Death Penalty Description An account of the resource A review of Michael Mello's book: Against the Death Penalty. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Lynch, Michael J. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 3 JPGs 300 DPI Language A language of the resource English Michael Mello Supreme Court https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/794fc2742e7652bd644a81dc0fcb6412.jpg 01c6071e292438cd12e3e49c73231b84 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 2, 1983-1994 Text Text Any textual data included in the document A U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday inspired a former death-case lawyer to blast Florida’s court system for decisions he thinks probably cost several lives. Mike Mello was an assistant public defender in West Palm Beach when he tried, in federal appeals court, to overturn James Ernest Hitchcock’s death sentence. Mello now lives in Washington, D.C. The appeal argued that Hitchcock’s 1977 sentence was imposed unfairly because the judge interpreted Florida statutes – as many judges apparently did – as meaning that judges and juries deciding on the death penalty could consider only the specific list of mitigating circumstances spelled out in Florida law. Such limiting of possible leniency-inspiring factors is unconstitutional, the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday, as it did in a similar U.S. Supreme Court decision in a 1978 Ohio case. The 1978 ruling changed the sentencing rules in Florida, too. Mello said those sentenced to death in Florida before then have had no luck getting their sentences reviewed – until now. Hitchcock, sentenced to death in 1977, had his appeal rejected by Florida’s supreme court despite the 1978 U.S. Supreme Court decision. But on Wednesday, Hitchcock won a new sentencing hearing in a 9-0 vote of the nation’s highest court. The decision was a spark of good news for death-penalty opponents in Florida on the day when a more sweeping U.S. Supreme Court decision was made in favor of death-penalty backers. But Mello said the Hitchcock decision not only gives Hitchcock a chance at a life sentence with a 25-year mandatory, it also gives hope to a number of other long-time Florida Death Row veterans. Florida’s Attorneys General’s office has a more conservative opinion, but Mello said, “The case will affect two dozen or so cases in Florida. Basically, every Florida death sentence approved prior to summer of ’78 has this issue in it.” Several other possible cases may have become moot in the most final way possible – by the executions of the potential appellants, he said. Mello lapsed from his restrained, professional tone when he said, “Almost every one of these people who’ve been executed has had the same damn issue. You’ve got a dozen dead people who were tried during the same period, and some had the same errors. “That’s what’s wrong with the death penalty,” Mello said. “If you happen to be still alive when the big decision comes out, then you get a new trial. If your case was a little too early, tough.” Carolyn Snurnowski, director of criminal appeals for Florida’s Attorney General’s office, said she could not agree that many of those executed in Florida in recent years would have been entitled to new sentencings. But Snurnowski did agree the Hitchcock decision will mean her office will have to handle a flurry of appeals, “just as all U.S. Supreme Court decisions do,” she said. “We’ll live with it.” She would not speculate about how many of those appeals might succeed. Mello said the ruling would not lead to new trials or dropped charges – just to new sentence hearings in which more mitigating circumstances would be presented and considered. “This isn’t going to put anyone back on the street,” Mello said. “The only question is life or death.” Hitchcock was convicted of strangling his 13-year-old stepdaughter in Orange County in 1976 when he was 20. Almost four years ago he received a stay of execution the day before his scheduled death by electrocution. At his trial, his defense lawyer asked the judge and jury to consider Hitchcock’s age, lack of significant criminal history, poor upbringing, potential for rehabilitation and his voluntary surrender to police. “Look at the overall picture,” the defense argued at the sentencing, according to Mello. But the trial judge who imposed the death sentence referred in jury instructions, and in his own execution order, only to Florida’s list of mitigating factors. The list included age and prior record – but none of the other considerations that the defense argued were relevant. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Walker, Woodie Student Editor of the Digital Item Dickinson, Terra Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Second ruling, had it come earlier, may have saved some inmates, ex-public defender says Subject The topic of the resource Death penalty Supreme Court--United States Description An account of the resource An article about a 1987 U.S. Supreme Court decision that allowed Florida courts to consider additional mitigating circumstances in death penalty cases. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Lyons, Tom Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The Gainesville Sun Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1987-04-23 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The materials in this online collection are held by Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington and are available for educational use. For this purpose only, you may reproduce materials without prior permission on the condition that you provide attribution of the source. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 1 JPG 300 DPI Language A language of the resource English Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Florida death penalty Florida death penalty Florida death penalty sentencing rules Florida Death Row Florida Supreme Court Mike Mello U.S. Supreme Court https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/c741f4af0224316e5c04754e2ca8ba1e.jpg eef15b0fd5e771f37887422003785bdc https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/8210afd7c644b5998e95f7e31646ddd5.jpg 0acf0e1371882df6b10aa4b3e8b2c79c Text Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Lauer, Payton Text Any textual data included in the document [Start Page] [Header] Region/State Rutland Daily Herald Saturday, December 4, 1999 Windsor, Windham & Benn [Title] Young arms of the law [Sub-title] Mock ‘arrest’ gives students lesson in Fourth Amendment By MELISSA MACKENZIE Herald Correspondent [Text] SOUTH ROYALTON – Vermont Law School pro-fessor Michael Mello was giving a speech on the Fourth Amendment Friday when an armed police officer paused outside one of the glass doors leading into the room. The officer, state Trooper Paul Gauthier, stared hard at Mello, who abruptly stopped lecturing, announced his time was up and stuffed his papers into his brief-case. Mello looked distracted, flustered. He swore and hurried in the opposite direction. Gauthier, meanwhile, opened the door, crossed the meeting hall, apprehended Mello and frisked him. He also searched Mello’s briefcase, in which he found a gun. Then he took Mello away. When Mello reappeared a few minutes later “free on bail,” however, it was clear he hadn’t really been arrested. The act was just a demonstration about the Fourth Amendment, which deals with the right of individuals to be free from “unreasonable” searches and seizures, for more than 75 junior high and high school students from around the state who attended the fifth annual Youth for Justice Summit at Vermont Law School. But the conference, a day-long event that aims to pro-mote the importance of legal education and responsibility (See Page 13:Law) [Image- three students listening to Michael Mello’s Speech] [Image Caption- Photo by Melissa MacKenzie] [Image Caption- Students listen to Vermont Law School professor Michael Mello speak Friday during the fifth annual Youth for Justice Summit at the school in South Royalton.] [End Page] [Start Page] [Heading-Law] [Sub-heading- Continued from Page 11] [Text] among teens, gave students more than lectures about the issue – it gave them a live performance. After Mello returned, law students argued the pros and cons of whether Mello was guilty. Then, with the help of students, the “case” was taken step by step all the way to the Supreme Court. Donning impressive black robes trimmed with black velvet, Mello, as U.S. Supreme Court Justice Rhenquist, and five seventh-graders from St. Albans City and Milton, as associate justices, began the trial of “former professor Mello.” The young justices took on the lawyers toe to toe on whether the police had any right to search Mello. Questions like “why did the officer enter this room in the first place?” and “the professor left in a hurry because of shock! How do you know he was engaged in suspicious active-ity? He was done with his speech. He was leaving! It is a crime to hurry from the room?” and “did the officer have a warrant to search the brief-case?” and the answers given by law students and Mello educated and engaged the entire audience. Later, as the several “lawyers” spoke, the “justices” had to consider the matter from the point of view of the police officer. The session, which was based on a case presently before the U.S. Supreme Court, Illinois vs. Wardlow, was the fifth in a series of legal dis-cussions held at the Youth Summit. Other sessions explored the legali-ties of school rules, discipline and expulsion, curfew laws, property rights, and rescue and first aid issues in Vermont. Founded in Bellows Falls in 1994 by retired Bellows Falls Union High School principal Harry (“Bud”) Weiser, the Youth for Justice Summit pro-gram in Vermont that is recognized by the American Bar Association. Topics addressed in previous years included prison life, Internet crime, environmental pollution and drug enforcement. School or Individuals who wish to purchase a videotape of Friday’s events can call Eric Columber of the Vermont Law School Legal Education and Empowerment Project at 763-3021. [End Page] Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Young arms of the law Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 299, University of Mary Washington Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1999-12-04 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The materials in this online collection are held by Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington and are available for educational use. For this purpose only, you may reproduce materials without prior permission on the condition that you provide attribution of the source. Language A language of the resource English Description An account of the resource Professor Micheal Mello gave a speech regarding the Fourth Amendment for High School students at the Youth for Justice Summit at Vermont Law School. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Mackenize, Melissa Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant (Royalton, VT) Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 2 JPGS 300 DPI Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Mackenzie, Melissa. "Young arms of the law." Rutland Daily Herald. December 4, 1999. Subject The topic of the resource United States. Constitution. 4th Amendment Mello, Michael Vermont Law School Youth for Justice Summit Gun Control Michael Mello https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/dd58500a4cefe17bd6b837d7d1f67877.jpg 53c1d419d1d3b8753f84d67090cd0a33 https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/28a0e0674c1c257942fb9dc17801ec66.jpg 3d3bebeeb17e2604d9ae8ce8ec0c97d5 https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/f8737b31c96cb5b444556daa8bb47263.jpg 2d846c42113ef56efd2119f9224fd0a0 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 2, 1983-1994 Text Text Any textual data included in the document BOYDTON, Va., Feb. 28 –Joseph Giarratano has spent most of the last 10 years in his cell in Mecklenburg Correctional Facility here, in the undeviating and claustrophobic universe of death row. But more than any of the nation’s 2,500 other condemned inmates, his name has traveled beyond the prison walls. It has resonated in the courts, where the 33-year-old Mr. Giarratano has fashioned novel legal arguments to broaden the constitutional rights of prisoners, notable, their right to counsel. In the tightly knit community of lawyers, scholars and opponents of capital punishment, he is considered more a colleague than a convict. But now, Mr. Giarratano, convicted of murdering two women, is running out of appeals. There may be only a Supreme Court decision, and the two-hour drive up Interstate 85, standing between him and the electric chair in Richmond, where seven of his friends have already been executed. Impressed by his intelligence, confident of his innocence, or convinced of his rehabilitation, his friends are frantically seeking to save him. “Joe is unique among folks on death row,” said Richard Burr of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund Inc. “He’s metamorphosed from a confused, erratic addict to someone who’s extraordinarily strong and empathetic, as well as strategically brilliant. No one else has done that.” Gerald T. Zerkin of Richmond, one of Mr. Giarratano’s lawyers, added: “Whether or not he committed these crimes, there’s no question Joe’s a completely different human being than the one that existed in 1979. No one is his right mind could say now that he’s a future danger to anyone.” In 1979, Mr. Giarratano confessed to murdering a 44-year-old Norfolk, Va., woman as well as raping and killing her 15-year-old daughter. At the time, he now says, he was high on drugs and so convinced of his own evil that he admitted to crimes he could not remember committing. After a one-day trial that was actually over by lunch time, he was convicted. To this day, Mr. Giarratano says he does not know whether he killed the mother and daughter, Toni and Michelle Kline. But his lawyers say that conflicting statements he made in his five confessions and evidence obtained in the last two years suggests he did not. They have moved to reopen his case. This is what the lawyers say the new evidence suggests: that Michelle Kline was strangled by a right-handed person, while Mr. Giarratano is left-handed; that the footprints found at the crime scene could not possibly have been made by the boots he had been wearing; that the blood found on his boots did not match that of Toni Kline, who had been stabbed, and that hair found on Michelle Kline, who had been raped, did not match his. Bert L. Rohrer, a spokesman for Attorney General Mary Sue Terry of Virginia, who oversees the case, dismissed Mr. Giarratano’s characterization of the new evidence. “What we have maintained in court is that this new evidence is, frankly, old evidence in different wrapping,” he said. “To this point, obviously, the courts have shared this view.” Three months ago, in fact, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, in Richmond, turned down his appeal. His next, and probably his last, judicial stop is the United States Supreme Court. International Interest in Case In the meantime, the campaign to spare Mr. Giarratano has attracted international interest. News reporters from Britain, West Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden have visited him here, as camera crews from ABC News program “20-20” and the CBS News program “Nightwatch.” So many reporters have come through this remote prison, just north of the North Carolina border, that guards grumble that Mr. Giarratano should hire a press agent. Amnesty International has bought billboard space on his behalf in Richmond. It says: “Virginia: Is Joe Giarratano innocent? Will we kill him without knowing?” The campaign is directed principally at two people: Attorney General Terry and L. Douglas Wilder, the state’s new Governor, who can either pardon Mr. Giarratano, commute his sentence or order a new trial. Newspapers in Fredericksburg, Culpeper, and Charlottesville have endorsed Mr. Giarratano’s drive. “Terry is afraid of appearing to be weak on a law-and-order issue,” The Charlottesville Daily Progress said in an editorial. “She is not afraid, it seems, to risk the death of a possibly innocent man, sacrified for her own ego and political ambitions.” Mr. Rohrer, the Attorney General’s spokesman, called such an assertion ridiculous, and added, “We aren’t influenced by public relations campaigns or editorials.” Governor Could Decide Fate Mr. Giarratano’s fate could rest with Mr. Wilder, who opposed the death penalty when he visited Mecklenburg prison a few years ago, but reversed on the issue in his gubernatorial campaign. A lawyer in the Governor’s office did not return the telephone call of a reporter who sought the Governor’s position on the case. If the past is any precedent, Mr. Giarratano’s prospects of prevailing in Virginia, either judicially or politically, are not good. Virginia’s procedural rules in criminal cases are among the most stringent anywhere, severely limiting the introduction of new evidence and raising of objections after the trial. “Virginia is the most iron-fisted and mean-spirited of the death penalty states,” Mr. Burr said. “In any other state, I’m absolutely certain that Joe wouldn’t be on death row anymore.” Now, like constitutional scholars and death penalty litigators on the outside, Mr. Giarratano is counting heads on the Supreme Court. He knows he needs the votes of four Justices for the Court to take the case and five to win. “Right now, I’m hyper,” he said. “I think I can get four votes, bur the fifth, I don’t know where it’s going to come from, if at all.” Mr. Giarratano, going down the list of Supreme Court Justices, assessed his chances this way: “I’ve got Brenan and Marshall for sure, just because it’s a death case. I think we’ve got a shot at Blackmun and a good shot at Stevens. That fifth vote’s going to be tough. O’Connor seems to have a streak of fairness in her at times, and White could go either way. I don’t know enough about Kennedy to know where he fits in. Scalia and Rehnquist seem to be walking together hand in hand on all this; their attitude in death cases is ‘kill ‘em.’ So forget them.” Mr. Giarratano himself vacillates on his chances. “Some days my gut tells me I’m going to win,” he said. “But last night it told me, ‘Go ahead and pack up your boxes, you’re going to the chair.’ The bottom line is that I could be dead by the end of the year. The prospect of sitting in the electric chair scares the hell out of me. It’s frying. That’s got to be a hell of a way to go.” Even those who any capital punishment view Mr. Giarratano’s case as execution. “There is the run-of-the-mill injustice you get used to in this kind of work, but Joe’s case is different in kind and quality and magnitude,” said Michael Mello, a professor at the Vermont Law School who has represented many death row inmates. “Executing him would be an absolute outrage, not only because of his innocence, but because it would mean the loss of a very sensitive and intelligent commentator.” But some, like Lawrence C. Lawless who prosecuted Mr. Giarratano 10 years ago, are convinced neither of his rehabilitation nor his innocence. Mr. Lawless, now a judge in Norfolk, told The Richmond Times-Dispatch that he is still haunted by the photographs of the two victims. He added that while he is not not a strong proponent of capital punishment, “if they needed a volunteer to push the button, I’d do it off duty, on the weekend. I’d pay my own expenses to Richmond.” With its generic 1970’s institutional architecture, Mecklenburg Prison could pass for a community college campus, but for the Slinky-like coils of security wire surrounding it. It houses 340 inmates, including 40 on its death row, an all-time high facing death in a state that has executed eight prisoners since the Supreme Court reinstituted capital punishment nationally in 1976. Mr. Giarratano, prisoner No. 118475, is now in cell 43. And he is the first to admit that no matter his fate, death row has already saved his life. Mr. Giarratano’s story has many of the hallmarks of juvenile offenders: a fractured family, an abusive mother, a father he did not meet until they were inmates in the same Florida prison 16 years ago. It also includes an early exit from school and an even earlier introduction to drugs. Only when he got to death tow was he able to free himself from drugs: first the ones he had taken himself, then the Thorazine tranquilizer the state psychiatrists gave him. He also stopped attempting suicide. And he found a new calling. It began, he recalled, when a fellow inmate, who has since been executed, lent him a law book. Since then, he has studied the law incessantly, even rapturously. Mr. Giarratano has become a sophisticated student of constitutional law. A right-to-counsel case that he undertook on behalf of another inmate employed a novel legal argument that he helped fashion: an inmate is guaranteed a lawyer while pursuing his last legal remedies beyond normal appeals, not just by the fair trial guarantees of the Sixth Amendment but by the due process clause of the 14th Amendment. He does not actually take cases to court, but helps develop the arguments, which are then presented in court by his lawyers. His argument in that case won in the United States Court of Appeals but lost in the Supreme Court by a vote of 5 to 4. Mr. Giarratano called that decision “wimpy.” A few hours a week, Mr. Giarratano can visit the law library, where he sits in a cage and is handed books through a slot. As a jail house lawyer, Mr. Giarratano has fought for things like increased access for visitors an confidentiality of communications with lawyers. Even guards drop by his cell to ask his legal advice. Should all else fail, Mr. Giarratano is already grooming another death row inmate, Joe Payne, to take his place as Mecklenburg’s in-house counsel. Mr. Payne, he said, is proving to be an apt student. “He still believes too much that the system does what’s right,” Mr. Giarratano said. “But he’s learning.” Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper article Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. University of Mary Washington Notes Additional information regarding your item. This content will not be viewable in the Public View. There are several typos in the article that the transcriber included. "scarified," "no no," and "Even those who any capital punishment view Mr. Giarratono's case. . ." Student Editor of the Digital Item Williams, Megan Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Legal Scholar on Death Row Fights to Halt Own Execution Subject The topic of the resource Death Penalty Giarratano, Joseph Description An account of the resource Legal scholar Joseph Giarratano appeals to the Supreme Court in an attempt to commute his death sentence and save his life. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource New York Times Margolick, David Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Collected documents of Michael Mello Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1990-03-05 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The materials in this online collection are held by Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington and are available for educational use. For this purpose only, you may reproduce materials without prior permission on the condition that you provide attribution of the source. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 3 JPGs 300 DPI Language A language of the resource English appeals David Margolick death penalty Joseph Giarratano Mecklenburg Prison Michael A. Mello New York Times Supreme Court https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/c0349ce14514e9bb77e1216f8083e0f4.jpg 6f4e495634e0c857c2ffa98de00b8174 https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/e1c35c3520d3f3aa0bda9502b171be29.jpg fc759c7bf0133d155e6f328c0e753255 https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/c73d4b5be711b4b18df8857dae23a5e5.jpg a307ba8dea7f7dbaf6a2b6d6219cb6e6 https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/0dae1f7da640aa010da0b03c56a888e9.jpg e0b3f830b9d6edc9c2f9c1cf71124ba5 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 4 Text Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Vol. No./Issue No. Volume and issue number for the newspaper (if available) Sunday Issue from 1995-10-08 Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Silberstein, Michael Student Editor of the Digital Item Williams, Megan Text Any textual data included in the document [title] Lawyer Stretches The Ethics Envelope [title] [image – Michael Mello] VLS Professor Knows Time Is Running Out For Death Row Client [subtitle] By BRYAN K. MARQUARD Valley News Staff Writer Michael Mello believes that one of his clients – a convicted murderer – is innocent. Such a belief is hardly surprising coming from an appellate attorney who has spent a dozen years keeping this client away from Old Sparky, the nickname for Florida’s electric chair. But Mello, a professor at Vermont Law School, has taken it one step further. Innocence he said, is an attribute Joseph Robert Spaziano does not share with any other condemned man with whom Mello has worked – and he has been closely involved in about 70 death row cases. “I’m saying he’s innocent the old fashioned way, as my mother would put it,” Mello has written. “Joe Spaziano didn’t do the crime, period. This fact makes him unique among my death row clients.” That final phrase, which has appeared in opinion articles he wrote for the Miami Herald, the Valley News and the Vermont Law Review, is a bold statement – one that some legal experts say would never be allowed in a courtroom argument. The decision to publish it presented Mello with a moral dilemma: toe the line of legal ethics, or go all out in an attempt to prevent the execution of a man that he believed “in the marrow of my bones” was innocent. There are many things that make this case unusual. If he were beginning his trip through the court system today, Spaziano would not end up on death row, and in all likelihood would not be convicted. Spaziano was sentenced to be electrocuted for murdering a woman in 1973. According to Florida newspaper accounts, no physical evidence connected him to the crime. He was convicted on the basis of testimony by a teenage boy who only remembered hearing Spaziano talk about the killing after two sessions of hypnosis – and the teen said their conversation took place on a day when they took LSD, smoked marijuana and got drunk. In 976, a jury recommended life in prison, but a judge imposed a death sentence instead. Years later, the Florida Supreme Court decided that so-called hypnotically refreshed testimony is not admissible in trails, but the ruling was applied retroactively and was of no help to [end page] Lawyer Pushes Envelope As Client’s Time Runs Down [title] unable to determine the cause of Harbert’s death. Spaziano has alibi for the day Harbert’s disappeared, and Mello said there are reasons. To begin with, he wasn’t a suspect for two years and its difficult for all but those who keep journals to recall a single day two years later, Mello said. Also, Spaziano was run over by a truck in 1966, and the severe head injury still limits his memory. Brain damage from the accident led to behavior that earned him the nickname Crazy Joe, Mello said. In Florida, death warrants signed by governor are pieces of paper with thick black borders, the better to distinguish them from run-of-the mill government paperwork. During the more than 19 years Spaziano has been on death row, three governors have signed a total of five warrants. When the Florida Supreme Court issued its most recent indefinite stay of execution last month, Spaziano’s head had already been shaved in anticipation of the trip to Old Sparky, Mello called Sept. 12 with the news. It was Spaziano’s 50th birthday – the 20th he has celebrated on death row. The Last Death Row Case [subtitle] But for the book-lined surroundings in the living room of his Wilder home, Mello looked like he could be on death row as he discussed the Spaziano case. He smoked on Camel filtered cigarette after another in an interview punctuated by coughs – a reminder of a battle with pneumonia that Mello waged earlier this year. A carved cigarette holder provided another filter for the nicotine, and is a reminder of another threat to his health. Mello, who is 38, underwent surgery a few months ago for possible cancer of the tongue. The prognosis is good: no cancer was found. The prognosis is not so good for Spaziano. The Florida Supreme Court set an early November date for an evidence hearing, and Mello – along with a capital punishment class he teaches at Vermont Law School – is preparing a certiorari petition for the U.S. Supreme Court. But Spaziano’s case has gone before both courts on various occasions during the past 19 years. After the key witness, Tony Dilisio, recanted his testimony in June, public outcry prompted Florida Gov. Lawton Chiles to issue an indefinite stay of execution until a review of the case could be completed by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Based on that agency’s report, the governor signed another death warrant even though he ordered the report sealed, which is permissible in clemency proceedings. The state supreme court first rejected an appeal for an indefinite stay and set a hearing shortly before the Sept. 21 execution date. But Mello refused to participate, saying he had too little time to prepare and no resources. The gamble paid off: the court instituted an indefinite stay and ordered the November hearing, but it also ordered Mello of the case. That order appears to have had little effect on Mello, whose life and home are consumed with the case; he estimated he has spent about $12,000 of his own money this year on phone bills, materials and court charges while working to save Spaziano. It all may be for naught. Mello’s efforts have resulted in the sentences of many condemned men being commuted to life sentences, but he is icily realistic about his chances this time. Only one other person on Florida’s death row has survived five death warrants, and he was executed on the seventh. “The likely outcome I think is that the evidentiary hearing will happen … and we’ll lose,” Mello said. “Gov. Chiles will sign a new death warrant the day we lose the hearing … So I think he’s got two months.” “Joe’s had two miracles already with the last four months,” he added. “I don’t know if he’s got enough karma left for another one.” Lawyer and client have already discussed one detail: Mello will be present to witness the execution. If it occurs, it will be the first execution Mellow has attended. And Spaziano, he said, is his last capital punishment case. Absolute Opposition [subtitle] Mello said he decision to flout ethics rules in a last-ditch attempt to save Spaziano could be seen as civil disobedience. Although he agonized over the decision to single out Spaziano as an innocent client, Mello has no regrets. He has worked on other death row cases involving better-know clients, among them serial killer Ted Bundy, who was sentenced in December to the electric chair for killing an abortion doctor and his escort in Pensacola Fla. “I absolutely oppose the legal system of capital punishment that operates in the U.S. today,” Mello said. There currently are no circumstances under which his opposition would waver “because any capital punishment that will execute Ted Bundy … will also have the power to execute Joe Spaziano.” “The question everyone ought to be asking themselves about capital punishment isn’t whether you support in the abstract, because that’s irrelevant,” he added. “The question is whether you think the criminal justice system as it exists today is competent and reliable enough to make the right choices in deciding who among us has lost their moral entitlement to live, who among us deserves to die. “And I don’t see how anyone followed the O.J. trial, and certainly no one who has read with anything remotely like an open mind the trial transcripts in Joe Spaziano’s case can support capital punishment.” [end page] Spaziano. Today, a jury’s call for a life sentence is binding, but Mello said Spaziano’s appeal passed through the courts during a brief time when judges were not overruled if they ignored jury recommendations and meted out death sentences. And then there’s the prosecution’s key witness, Tony Dilisio. “if you don’t believe Tony Dilisio, find this defendant not guilty in five minutes,” a newspaper account quoted the prosecutor as telling the jury in 1976. Earlier this summer, Dilisio forcefully recanted his testimony. “Joe has been an incredible victim of bad timing and bad luck,” Mello said in an interview last week. Mello, formerly a public defender in Florida, said proclaiming Spaziano’s innocence at the beginning of an opinion piece for the Miami Herald was necessary to convince the newspaper to report on the case. He sought the involvement of the paper because its reporting had led to the pardons of two death row inmates in the 1970s. Since the opinion piece appeared, stories reported by the Herald, including the witness’s recantation, led some Florida newspapers to call for a reexamination of Spaziano’s conviction and death sentence. First the governor and then Florida Supreme Court ordered temporary delays in his execution. By singling out Spaziano’s innocence in his opinion piece, Mello helped spare a life – at least until next month, when a hearing is scheduled. But by his own admission, he also flouted established rules of legal ethics, and some experts say he potentially cast aspersions on his 69 other death row inmates – about a dozen of whom have already been executed. “It certainly could potentially have legal ramifications for me and professional ramifications for me since me saying that, I think is a fairly clear violation of Florida’s ethics rules governing the behavior of lawyers.” said Mello, who became involved in Spaziano’s case while handling capital appeals in Florida during the 1980s. Several legal ethics experts interviewed by the Valley News said that a published statement such as Mello’s could raise a host of issues, such as potential breach of confidentiality by suggesting that he had personal knowledge of the guilt or innocence of his clients and was publicly revealing the information. Others cited a potential for conflict of interest in playing the needs of one client against dozens of others, or the possibility that by going to the media, Mello skirted a rule that prohibits lawyers from personally vouching in court for the guilt or innocence of a client. The bluntest remarks came from Geoffrey Hazard, a trustee professor at the University of Pennsylvania. The public comment violated “the spirit of the rule that a lawyer may not make a personal affirmation concerning the guilt or innocence of a client,” he said. The second problem, he added, is that such as statement “condemns everybody else that he’s represented in a capital case.” But some of the experts also said that Mello’s potential lapses may well have been called for in a situation such as Spaziano’s, which has taken several unusual legal twists. “In my mind, he gets pretty high marks for going to the wall for his client,” said Jim Duggan, the chief appellate defender for the state of New Hampshire, who teaches at Franklin Pierce Law Center. “In my book, it’s a minor peccadillo if at all,” said the Rev. Rebert Drinan, founder of the Georgetown University Journal of Legal Ethics. “I’m prepared to give him absolution from whatever sin he might have committed.” And David E. Kendall, who spent five years in the 1970s working for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, said of Mello: “He’s a resourceful, dedicated and creative anti-capital punishment lawyer.” Kendall, who currently is counsel to President Bill Clinton on the Whitewater matter, said Mello is “held in the highest regard by his colleagues.” Mello said that, to date, none of this former death row clients has expressed anger or concern over his published statement. There has been some adverse reaction from colleagues and former colleagues, however, which he characterized as: “How can you sell your other 69 clients down the road?’ … That’s a good question. It’s a damm good question that I don’t have a real good answer for.” The only explanation, he said, is that the statement is true, and that publishing it was the only way to get the necessary media attention. As of Friday, no complaints had been filed with Florida Bar association, a spokes-women said; Mello remains a member in good standing. A 50th Birthday Present [subtitle] In many newspaper accounts of this case, Spaziano is referred to in headlines as “Crazy Joe” – a nickname he picked up during his days a local chapter leader of the Outlaws motorcycle gang. A police mug shot from the early 1970s shows him with the thick flowing hair and beard of a biker – a stark contrast to the file photograph Florida newspapers run of the victim, Laura Lynn Harberts, and attractive, 18-year-old hospital clerk from Orlando. Police did not focus on Spaziano as a murder suspect for two years. By that time, he had been charged and convicted of brutally raping and assaulting a 16-year-old girl – a crime he also says he did not commit, and one that Mello also hopes to overturn. Authorities said that crime bore similarities to the Harberts murder, but newspaper accounts note that a medical examiner was [end page] Opposition To Capital Punishment Goes Back To Teen Years [title] By Bryan K. Marquard Valley News Staff Writer The play Inherit the Wind suggested a pair of potential career pats to Michael Mello when he was a high school student in Virginia. He was impressed by the Clarence Darrow and H.L. Mencken characters and weighed the options of whether to pursue law or journalism. “I ultimately decided that I wasn’t a good enough writer to be a journalist,” he said, “so I ended up going to law school.” Before leaving high school, however, the teenager came across a passage in his readings that planted the seeds for what has become a career-long opposition to capital punishment as it is practiced in this country. “For as long as I remember, I’ve had a visceral opposition to capital punishment,” Mello said. “it’s interesting, I can trace that back to a moment in high school when I read somewhere that the chemical compound that California uses in its gas chamber is the same chemical with the same trade name – Zyklon B – that the Nazis used at Auschwitz.” “I wanted to be real clear about this – that’s a totally irrational connection to make particularly in light of the Johnnie Cochran atrocities over the last week or so,” he added, referring to the lawyer for O.J. Simpson who compared Los Angeles Police Detective Mark Fuhrman to Adolph Hitler. “Any parallel to the Holocaust, but especially those sort of facile ones, I find just revolting and deeply, deeply offensive.” Nevertheless, as a teenager in the 1970s, reading that simple fact about a deadly chemical had a significant impact. Mello is Jewish, and the Holocaust was a subject of discussion when he was growing up. “A good part of the reason why I read as much about the Holocaust as I did starting in high school and continuing up as recently as last night was that part of my mother’s family was killed, most likely in Warsaw ghetto or Auschwitz,” he said. “It’s something that is very much a part of my own sort of emotional and psychic landscape,” he added.“It’s something I’ve never written about – and I’m not sure that I ever will write about it – but it’s never far from my consciousness.” Mello was born in Washington and grew up in northern Virginia. His parents worked for the government, although his memory – a precise tool when applied to his clients’ cases – is somewhat vague on this point. “My mother was a secretary and father was something in government,” he said. “I’ve never really been clear on what that was.” After graduating from Mary Washing College in Fredericksburg, Va., with a degree in history and philosophy, and from the University of Virginia law school, his first job provided the experience that sparked his interest in capital punishment cases and cemented his opposition. In 1982, Mello became the so-called “death clerk” for Judge Robert S. Vance of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. “Which meant that all of the death cases that came into his chambers came through me,” Mello said. A year later, he joined the capital appeals division of the Florida Defender’s office in West Palm Beach, Fla. Mello felt that, coming from a working class background, he had “an obligation to give something back” through public service. He also harbored a measure of guilt because of a certain case from his year as a clerk. Mello was told to draft an opinion for Vance upholding the constitutionality of a particular death sentence. The prisoner, Ivon Ray Stanley, “clearly was retarded, clearly was a follower in a bad crime – but a fairly run of the mill felony murder case,” Mello said. “Ivon Ray Stanley probably will be count one of the indictment against me that’s going to end me up in hell,” he said. “I agonized over the opinion.” He briefly considered not writing the opinion or resigning, but friends said “if you quit and walk away, someone else will come in and do it, and won’t have you sensibilities, won’t even realize that this case is a problem.” His first assignment during his first week as a public defender was an appeal for Joseph Spaziano, a convicted murderer on death row. More than a dozen years after Mello encountered the case, he draws a narrative thread from the Ivon Ray Stanley decision to his work on behalf of Joseph Spaziano to a decision to walk away from his work as a lawyer in death row appeals. Spaziano, Mello said, in his final battle. “It’s the old liberal’s dilemma: To what extent should you buy into a system that’s not fair? And I knew that I was unfair then,” Mello said. “I concluded more recently because of Joe Spaziano’s case … that the system’s not just unfair, but it’s evil. And the way Joe Spaziano’s case was treated by the courts really was the final push that led me to a personal decision not to participate in any other (capital punishment) cases.” [end page] Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Lawyer Stretches The Ethics Envelope Subject The topic of the resource Capital punishment--United States Description An account of the resource A reporting in the "Valley News" over the legal dispute surrounding Michael Mello's claim that his client, Joeseph Robert Spazionao, is innocent. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Marquard, Bryan Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Bryan Marquard, "Lawyer Stretches the Ethical Envelope," Valley News (West Lebanon, NH) October 8, 1995. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1995-10-08 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The materials in this online collection are held by Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington and are available for educational use. For this purpose only, you may reproduce materials without prior permission on the condition that you provide attribution of the source. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 4 jpg 300 dpi Language A language of the resource English Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Florida New Hampshire Innocent Joeseph Robert Spazionao Michael Mello https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/9783325eace82d08c066646463efc24d.jpg ab805ab5346656da0f8538a560548c39 https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/9450cd903fa816ea43fc268a3a5aa954.jpg 604a567325862ad567f523abd5714dd3 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 4 Text Text Any textual data included in the document [title] Judge Orders Retrial of Condemned Man [author] By BRYAN K. MARQUARD: Valley News Staff Writer [subtext] The decision could mean the Joseph Spaziano will leave Death Row alive, rather than end his more than 20-year stint with a walk to Florida’s electric chair. [image—Joe Spaziano] [image caption] Joe Spaziano listens as his attorneys argue for a new trial in his 1976 murder case during the first day of a hearing in Sanford, Fla., on Jan. 8. This week, a judge ordered a new trial for the former Outlaws gang member after ruling a key witness lied to the 1976 trial jury. A Florida judge has issued a stern opinion ordering a new murder trial for a death row inmate whose longtime attorney and friend teachers at Vermont Law School. The decision could mean that Joseph Spaziano will leave Death Row alive, rather than end his more than 20-year stint with a walk to Old Sparky—the nickname for Florida’s electric chair. Spaziano’s case was Michael Mello’s first assignment when he joined the Florida Public Defender’s office in the early 1980s. He continued to work on his client’s Death Row appeals after joining the law school faculty—even when a showdown with the Florida Supreme Court last fall resulted in the justices removing his from the case. “I feel great,” Mello said yesterday in an assessment that was echoed by one of the three lawyers who argues the condemned man’s case during an evidentiary hearing in Sanford, Fla., earlier this month. “It’s great news,” said Elyse Runzow, one of 11 students in Mello’s capital punishment seminar at Vermont Law School last fall that, as a class project, worked on two petitions that Mello filed with the U.S. Supreme Court. The high court unanimously reject those petitions earlier this month. The Florida circuit court judge issued the ruling Monday, a day before the 20th anniversary of the murder conviction that sent Spaziano to Death Row, where he has survived five death warrants signed during the administrations of three Florida governors. The ruling that vacated the murder conviction came after a hearing that was prompted in part by a Miami Herald interview last June with Anthony DiLisio, the key witness in the case. DiLisio told the Herald—and testified in the hearing this month—that he lied more than 20 years ago when he said Spaziano had taken him to a dump in a rural area to show him the mutilated bodies of two women he had murdered. In 1976, DiLisio was a troubled teenager in a juvenile facility, and he recalled the encounter only after two sessions of hypnosis. “In the United States of America every person, no matter how unsavory, is entitled to due process of law and a fair trial. The defendant received neither,” Judge O.H. Eaton Jr. wrote in an eight-page ruling. “The validity of the verdict in this case rests upon the testimony of an admitted perjurer who had every reason to fabricate a story which he hoped would be believed.” Spaziano, who is on Death Row at the Union Correctional Institution in Union County, Fla., told the Herald Monday, “I’ve been trying to tell people all this time that the kid lied. I’m so happy people finally believe me.” Spaziano, who was known in the 1970s by his nickname, Crazy Joe, was a member of the Outlaws motorcycle gang when he was convicted of murdering Laura Harberts, a 18-year-old hospital clerk. The judge also wrote that DiLisio’s recantation “would probably produce a different result on retrial.” Tom Hastings, an assistant state attorney [end of page one] [beginning of page two] who was the lead prosecutor during the hearing, did not return calls seeking a comment. But he told the Herald Monday that it’s likely the state will appeal the decision. Gregg Thomas, one of the three lawyers representing Spaziano in the hearing this month, said in an interview yesterday that he believes the judge’s decision “is almost totally unassailable. . . . I think it would make an appeal very difficult.” He also predicted that the state would not attempt to retry Spaziano on the murder charge. Regardless of what the state decides to do, Spaziano will remain in jail for now. A few months before being convicted of murder in 1976, he was sentenced to life in prison for the brutal rape and assault of a 16-year-old girl. Spaziano has said he did not commit that crime either, and Mello is pushing for another court battle in an attempt to win freedom for his client, who was notified of the stay of execution on his fifth death warrant last September on his 50th birthday. But those battles are for another time. Yesterday, those involved with Spaziano’s defense were in a congratulatory mood. Two of the three attorneys who represented him in the hearing have praised the actions of Mello, who, in a dangerous game of brinkmanship, defied a Florida Supreme Court order to attend a hearing last fall. The move earned him the enmity of the court, but bought Spaziano the few extra months necessary for a legal team to get things in order for this month’s hearing. “But for your courage and fortitude, which were evidenced in your 1995 actions on behalf of Mr. Spaziano, there is no question that he would be dead today,” James Russ, one of Spaziano’s attorneys, wrote in a letter to Mello dated last Friday. “I write to thank you for the courageous efforts you made on his behalf, in the face of criticism by both the Florida Supreme Court and the legal profession.” “Michael Mello is responsible for Joe Spaziano being alive,” Thomas said in the telephone interview yesterday. “I’ve never been prouder of a lawyer in my life.” “If you’re measuring our contributions next to Michael’s contributions, ours pales in comparison,” he said. Thomas said several lawyers from his firm—Holland and Knight, the largest firm in Florida—worked through what would have been their Christmas vacation to prepare for Spaziano’s hearing. “Our Christmas present came yesterday,” he said with a chuckle. Among those who were elated over the ruling was Rose Spaziano, the defendant’s mother, who said she expected the judge would order a retrial. “I was hoping for a complete dismissal, but a retrial’s OK,” she said. “I’m hoping that things will go Joe’s way for a change.” She had not heard from her son yesterday, but said she was expecting a call, and added that he looked “real good” during the hearing. “He smiled at me,” she said. “He’s in good spirits.” Marynoel Spaziano was not quite 5 years old when her father was sent to Death Row. Yesterday, while shushing one of her father’s three grandchildren, she said she was happy about the judge’s ruling. Joseph Spaziano has seen two of his grandchildren once, she said. He was kept in handcuffs during the in-person meeting, which was allowed as he neared the execution date for one of his five death warrants. Also cheered by the news was longtime death penalty opponent Mike Farrell, the actors whose credits include he TV show M*A*S*H. He was active in a petition drive calling for a retrial for Spaziano. He said yesterday that Spaziano’s case “added elements” to the anti-death penalty crusade that would “make it abundantly clear to people that it doesn’t work, if you pay attention to the specifics.” He said he plans to spread the word about the case and “use this experience to help inform people about the ugly realities” of the death penalty. “I have profited enormously from this experience, just from the perspective of a human being,” he said of his work in cases such as Spaziano’s. “When we succeed in ending this, we will be a better nation for it.” Mello said the biggest hero in the Spaziano case may be the judge who issued the ruling, because the seat on the bench is an elected position. “From a political standpoint, from a personal standpoint, the only fair characterization of this decision . . . is extraordinarily courageous,” he said. “His local newspaper (the Orlando Sentinel) has been frothing at the mouth over this. All of the local TV stations have frothing over this.” The decision was also courageous “in terms of judicial politics,” Mello said, given that Spaziano’s attempts to secure a retrial or dismissal have failed when his case argued before the Florida Supreme Court, U.S. District Court, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the U. S. Supreme Court. “This took guts,” Mello said. “You never know where the heroes are going to come from.” [end of page two] Student Editor of the Digital Item Williams, Megan Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Judge Orders Retrial of Condemned Man Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource MARQUARD, BRYAN K Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Newspaper Language A language of the resource English Description An account of the resource Could Joseph Spaziano leave Death Row alive or will he end his twenty year stint with a walk to Florida's electric chair? Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Valley News Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1996-01-24 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The materials in this online collection are held by Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington and are available for educational use. For this purpose only, you may reproduce materials without prior permission on the condition that you provide attribution of the source. https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/08c0dfab3a8795025f7a0361689913e4.jpg 8c56e5e1ed1267a035fe7e1a8ba80b39 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource VLS Prof Doesn't Hide His Feelings Subject The topic of the resource Vermont Law school Professor makes feelings known about court case verdict. Description An account of the resource Vermont Law Professor Michael Mello makes his feelings known regarding the O. J. Simpson court case verdicts. He took a moment during a seminar on preparing a U.S. Supreme Court petition to summon the case. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Marquard, Bryan K. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Valley News Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available History 298 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource October 3, 1995 [based on the date of O.J. verdict decision] Language A language of the resource English Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant South Royalton, VT Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 4 Text Text Any textual data included in the document [start page one] [heading] VLS Prof Doesn't Hide His Feelings [subheading] By BRYAN K. MARQUARD Valley News Staff Writer [start of the first column] SOUTH ROYALTON- At Vermont Law School, Professor Michael Mello was teaching a capital punishment seminar a few hours after the verdicts were announced in the O.J. Simpson case. Mello, an expert who has been involved in dozens of capital punishment cases in Florida, makes no secret of his feelings about the Simpson case. A footnote in his curriculum vitae gives a concise list of the major newspapers he has appeared, but notes, "I am pleased to say that I have never been quoted in the Nicole Brown Simpson/Ron Goldman murder trial." Nevertheless, he paused to invoke that case during a seminar that is a clinic on preparing a U.S. Supreme Court certiorari petition on behalf of his client, Joseph Spaziano, who is on death row in Florida for a murder in which the state's chief witness has now recounted his testimony. "We can't let this day pass without a reference to the O. J. Case," Mello told the second- and third-year law students in the seminar. "As it turns out, I have a tie-in to Joe's case." [start of the second column] He then held up an editorial cartoon for the Miami Herald. On one side of the panel, Simpson was dancing, his shackled hands above his head with the shackle breathing. On the other side, Spaziano sat in an electric chair while the governor of Florida threw the switch. Simpson and the governor were smiling; Spaziano's head was covered with a hood and smoke was rising from his body. Above Simpson, the text read, "Los Angeles, CA: Defendant faces voluminous forensic evidence, witnesses, and strong motive, but his case is investigated by a foul-mouthed, egomaniacal, racist cop..." Above Spaziano, it read, "Tallahassee, FL: Defendant faces no forensic evidence, motive, and a main witness who admits to lying after police coerced his incriminating testimony..." The grim, biting humor of the cartoon was mitigated a while later when a student misheard a judge's name that came up in the discussion. "They have another Judge Ito in Florida?" the student asked. "No, Judge Eaton," Mello replied. "There's only one Lance Ito and there's no Dancing Eatons," he said, alluding to the Dancing Itos, a comedy sketch that has become a staple of The Tonight Show. [end of article] Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Morton, Mariah Student Editor of the Digital Item Williams, Megan Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource VLS Prof Doesn't Hide His Feelings Subject The topic of the resource Mello, Michael. Simpson, O. J. Description An account of the resource Vermont Law Professor Michael Mello, while teaching a seminar on capital punishment, could not hide his feelings regarding the O. J. Simpson court case verdict. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Marquard, Bryan K. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Valley News Staff Writer Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource October 3, 1995 [according to the O.J. Simpson verdict date] Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The materials in this online collection are held by Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington and are available for educational use. For this purpose only, you may reproduce materials without prior permission on the condition that you provide attribution of the source. Language A language of the resource English Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant South Royalton, VT Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 1 JPG 300 DPI https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/88990e54afcb4412df5584abf29d5c42.jpg 240b6b8a1ca88bd7e7fc80a19dc6ddc2 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 2, 1983-1994 Text Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Magazine Article Text Any textual data included in the document Friday’s decision by a Vermont federal judge to allow DNA testing as evidence is the first of many federal court rulings on a controversial issue that may ultimately wind up in the nation’s highest court. The opinion from U.S. District Judge Franklin S. Billings Jr. is the first written ruling addressing the admissibility and reliability of DNA testing to identify suspects in rape and murder cases. But the issue is far from settled. Professor Michael Mello of Vermont Law School said while the ruling would not set a precedent for state courts to follow, it would have an effect. “Especially since Judge Billings is a respected judge, it would have a persuasive effect,” Mello said. “The court to watch is the court of appeals.” Professor Ken Kreiling, a Vermont Law School professor who has written on the uses of scientific evidence in trials, said Friday’s decision was significant because the defense was able to effectively contest the prosecution’s experts. “There are very few cases in which it has been hotly contested and the defense had the resources to hotly contest it,” he said. Both Mello and Kreiling said there was still not enough scientific evidence and established procedure to use the tests in criminal trials. “One of the things I think is important is there are a number of different procedures. The labs sometime don't follow their own procedure. They kind of ad hoc as they go and what does that say for reliability,” Kreiling said. “Most scientists say you don’t deem something to be scientific and reliable until there’s a clear protocol, until the designers are willing to put it into publications, willing to put it into the journals and defend it.” But a California assistant district attorney who has successfully prosecuted two cases using NA testing said the proof of its reliability was in the overwhelming acceptance in state courts. “There have been one or two or three defense successes and a couple hundred prosecution successes,” said Rock Harmon of the Oakland District Attorney’s office. “There’s a clue there. There’s a subtle hint that the debate should focus on something more worthwhile.” California prosecutors have successfully overridden 12 challenges by defense attorneys in getting DNA testing admitted into evidence, he said. “We’ve been successful in every case.” Mello said that the trend in courts was to admit DNA testing and let a jury decide its credibility. “Until there’s more evidence in the scientific community, more consensus, it shouldn’t be admitted at all,” he argued. “The judges have got a role in determining the reliability of evidence, especially this kind of potentially misleading evidence. That’s a very emotionally powerful tool to out in the hands of a prosecutor, especially when the defense side doesn’t get the resources to combat that.” While DNA testing had proven reliable, Kreiling said how the test was conducted must be weighted. “For lawyers to be able to look at all of these levels and bring in experts possesses incredible problems. That suggests to me that we ought to bend over backwards before we admit this stuff.” Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Matragrano, Katey Student Editor of the Digital Item Williams, Megan Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Ruling Over DNA Testing To Have Impact Subject The topic of the resource Billings, Franklin S., 1922- Mello, Michael Description An account of the resource An article about the approval for use of DNA testing in federal court rulings. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Maynard, Michael Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Rutland Daily Herald Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1990-09-20 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The materials in this online collection are held by Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington and are available for educational use. For this purpose only, you may reproduce materials without prior permission on the condition that you provide attribution of the source. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 2 jpgs Language A language of the resource English Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Vermont and California California DNA testing Franklin S. Billings Jr. Kenneth Kreiling Michael A. Mello Vermont https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/faccc93022869c23233eed745c3d7802.jpg 48bb27a5326fd1f8cecd4dfa2bf425f0 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Colman McCarthy Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The Washington Post Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1989/09/03 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 2 jpgs Language A language of the resource English Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Mecklenburg, Virginia Title A name given to the resource The Debate Over Capital Punishment https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/bc012d0cb5719e817947ce60b80fde46.jpg f40963f646c132d639e91c35fde4fa10 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 2, 1983-1994 Text Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Jaster, Matthew C. Text Any textual data included in the document When I visited Joseph Giarratano in early June in a state prison in Mecklenburg, Va., the sustaining life force in his death-row cell was a typewriter. It had the sacredness of a chalice, from which he drank of hope. Giarratano, convicted of killing two people, but whose guilt I and a fair number of others who have studied the records of the case see as open to grave doubt, is a gifted writer. He has produced articulate legal briefs on behalf of fellow prisoners, and his disciplined efforts are keeping with the view of Justice William Brennan: “Writing…is not an egotistical act. It is a duty. Saying ‘Listen to me, see it my way, change your mind’ is not self-indulgence-it is very hard work we cannot shirk.” Giarratano occasionally sends me some of his essays. Their quality matches his “The Pains of Life,” one of 16 essays in this valuable collection of perspectives that examines the effects of legalized killing on both the condemned and those involved in the judicial watch. Giarratano, along with C. Michael Lambrix, one of the more than 300 death-row prisoners in Florida, and Willie Darden Jr., who was executed in Florida on March 15th, 1987, are the three voices from within the walls. The outsiders, including attorneys, criminologists, historians, a philosopher, a journalist and a minister, tell of their personal involvement with the condemned or offer their assessments of what governmental homicide means at the time when death rows hold more than 2,200 people- a record- and are sent more than 200 citizens a year. Collectively, the authors are ones whom many Americans dismiss or ridicule for misplacing their sympathies with criminals, not victims, or for leading the soft-on-crime lobby. That image is as hollow as the disproven notion that capital punishment is a deterrent. The authors’ sympathies are with justice and compassion, neither of which has been on display when murderers kill or governments kill murderers. “As I see it (though others will disagree)” writes Watt Epsy, the Alabama historian who has documented some 15,780 legal executions, “no murderer is so heartless and cruel as the society that executes him. No individual murderer confines the victim to restricted quarters over a sustained period of time, or arranges things so that the person to die knows the manner in which death will come and the time at which it will arrive, hoping against hope for the magical reprieve, stay, or commutation that might prolong his life.” In his essays Giarratano, who is 32 and has lived 10 years on death row, writers of conversations with cellblock guards, “most of whom avoid the subject of my death, the possible deaths of the men around me, and their own role in this death ritual. There are a few who avoid my eyes and say “Joe, it’s not my doing. I don’t want to see you die. There are other people who deserve it more than you.’ Many find it easy to avoid the subject, since they will not be the ones who actually pull the switch- they will only escort me to the death house and let their co-workers take over.” Giarratano’s phrase, “this death ritual,” touches on what may be the only explanation for 70 percent of Americans-according to Gallup-favoring executions. In their essay, Elizabeth Purdum and J. Anthony Parades, anthropologists at Florida State University, compare the rituals of death in U.S prisons with the sacrificial killings of the Aztecs of Central Mexico in the 16th century. The Aztec’s believed that killing prisoners maintained universal order and the government’s well-being. Purdum and Parades argue persuasively that a similar view prevails today. A “groundswell of support for capital punishments in the United States,” they argue, “springs from the universal ancient human impulse to do something in times of stress, even if it is only ritual…In the face of all the evidence that capital punishment does no more to deter crime than the bloody rituals of Tenochtitlan did to keep the sun in the sky, we must seek some broader, noninstrumental function that the death penalty serves…Modern capital punishments is an institutionalized magical response to a perceived disorder in American life and in the world at large, an attempted magical solution that has an especial appeal to the beleaguered, white, God-fearing men and women of the working class. And in certain aspiring politicians they find their sacrificial priests.” Most of America’s state killings occur in the South. Nearly all of the executed have been poor, were victims of violence themselves and had pre-conviction lawyers who were inept. It is the judicial system’s rank unfairness that helped motivate Michael Mello to represent death row citizens. In his essay he recalls working for a man who was executed in May 1986 after the Supreme Court, five minutes before the electrocution, voted five to four to deny a stay: “I will never forget the waves of helpless rage that washed over me as the clerk of the Supreme Court read me the orders [of denial]. It would have been easy-too easy- to blame the Court as an institution…Instead I found that the real target of my rage was myself: a participant in the system of legal homicide…Was I serving to legitimate the system by helping to provide sanitized executions, executions with the aura of legalism and therefore the appearance of fairness?” In the months before Willie Darden was electrocuted in Florida, I encouraged a number of my students at the University of Maryland to write to him. He answered their letters faithfully, and no student failed to have new slants about capital punishment. Darden wrote to them much the same message he offers here: “We execute for the traits of the person found guilty. If the person is black, uneducated, poor, outspoken, slightly retarded, eccentric, or odd, he stands a much greater chance of being executed than do those convicted of even worse crimes than he. Juries find it hard to convict one of their own, so middle-class whites are rarely in our ranks…Most, if not all, of the humans on death row have souls that can be made clean through love, compassion, and spirituality. However, to acknowledge this threatens our ability to execute, as we must dehumanize before we can kill in such a predetermined fashion.” The only lack in this collection of essays is the thinking of a murder victim’s family. Marie Deans would have been ideal. She is a Richmond, Va., women whose mother-in-law was murdered by an escaped prisoner. Deans not only fought the death penalty in that case but regularly visits death rows for her Virginia Coalition on Jails and Prisons. Few are more enlightened on the madness of killing for punishment than Deans, and few have gone as far beyond the myth that executions bring solace to the victims’ families. A growing literature- from Robert Johnson’s Condemned to Die, to The Death Penalty in America by Hugo Adam Bedau- offers alternatives to thinking and acting violently about punishing murderers. This work stands with the best of what’s been written. It represents the best of those who have seen the worst. Student Editor of the Digital Item Dickinson, Terra Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Debate Over Capital Punishment: Facing the Death Penalty Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource McCarthy, Colman Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The Washington Post Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1989-09-03 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The materials in this online collection are held by Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington and are available for educational use. For this purpose only, you may reproduce materials without prior permission on the condition that you provide attribution of the source. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 2 JPGs 300 DPI Language A language of the resource English Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Mecklenburg, VA Subject The topic of the resource Death row Executions (Administrative law) Giarratano Mello, Michael Description An account of the resource McCarthy anayzles the flaws of executions in death row. Talking with soon to be victim of exectuion, Giarrantano, among others, McCarthy lays out how complicated the legal use of executions are, and how many people think rather too quickly when favoring it ignorantly. https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/c9d1053373f7f88a1d0b8cef293451b7.jpg f4f8d341dffb1d5290db2567c109bcfd Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The case of the hypnotized witness Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 3, 1995 Text Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Kintz, Amber Text Any textual data included in the document Since 1978, 34 men convicted of homicide have been killed in Florida’s electric chair, a.k.a. “Old Sparky.” The 35th was to have been Joseph Spaziano, on death row for 19 years for the 1973 murder of Laura Harbets, a young hospital worker whose body was found in a Seminole County dump. In the 1975 trial, the jury, which was twice deadlocked but ordered to push on, recommended for a life sentence for the former president of the Orlando Outlaws Motorcycle Brotherhood. Florida is among the states allowing judges, in their robed wisdom and knowing they must run for reelection, to override sentencing juries. This one ordered death. In late May, Gov. Lawton Chiles issued a death warrant for Spaziano’s execution on June 27. On June 16, following an unprecedented outflow of editorial’s in the state’s major newspapers calling for either clemency or a new trial because of the flimsiness of the state’s case, Chiles granted a temporary stay of execution. Like previous chief executives of Florida—the state is second to Texas in the number of executions—Chiles does not hesitate to sign death warrants. He is not alone in his belief. Congress, the Supreme Court and Bill Clinton are now a united chorus for quickening the pace of executions. The president, calling appellate delays “ridiculous” and “interminable,” agrees with Republican death penalty champions that one appeal is plenty. The Spaziano case starkly counters this voguish faith in hurried justice. Twenty years were needed for doubts about Spaziano’s guilt to filter up to a governor and persuade him to pause and consider the defendant’s persistent claim of innocence. Among the glaring dubieties, the major one involves the fingering testimony of the state’s key witness, Tony Dilisio, a 16-year-old LSD and pot user when the crime occurred. When first questioned he offered only vague and uncorroborated accounts of what Spaziano allegedly said in general about murdering people. To jog the youth’s memory—no physical evidence was found to connect Spaziano to the crime—police interrogators called upon a hypnotist. Thus entranced, Dilisio now “remembered” that Spaziano had taken him to the dump to show him the victim’s body and brag of killing her. The jury was not told by Spaziano’s lawyer that the recollection of the dump site was induced by hypnosis. Florida now thinks better of allowing this sort of quackery into courtrooms. It was outlawed—though not retroactively—in 1985. Dilisio, now 37, agrees. Located by Miami Herald investigative reporters last month, he stated: “Surely they’re not going to let Spaziano go to the chair, to have his blood shed, on what a confused and scared kid said.” Dilisio added that he “could very well have been brainwashed. . . . With hypnosis, they plant things in your head.” The case turned on that planting. The prosecutor told the court, “If we can’t get in the testimony of Tony Dilisio, we’d have absolutely no case whatsoever.” As in nearly all death penalty cases involving questionable procedures and sketchy evidence, it was a lawyer of relentless energy who argued for Spaziano’s innocence. Michael Mello, a professor of Vermont Law School, author of two dozen law review articles on capital punishment, and one of a handful of specialists in post-conviction homicide law, is a former Florida public defender who has represented some 70 condemned men. Mello has practiced long enough to know that review courts, including the Supreme Court trade in questions of procedure and rarely on evidentiary issues of guilt or innocence. They are part of an increasingly busy assembly line, with death rows packed with nearly 3,000 people. Mello is an experienced professional skilled in unearthing evidence that persuades skeptics. This case, so riddled with questionable tactics, and based on one person’s sketchy testimony, prompts him to say: “I’m convinced Spaziano is innocent. I have never encountered a murder conviction that smells so rotten at its core.” Of his role in gaining the governor’s attention, Mello, who has worked pro bono on the case, is modest: “The execution was stayed because of the Miami Herald’s old-fashioned gumshoe reporting. It tracked down Dilisio and for the first time in 20 years he talked. It was not any defense lawyer or judge who stopped this execution. The Herald saved the legal system from itself.” True, so far. Spaziano could still get the chair. His hope for freedom is to be decided this month by the Florida Board of Executive Clemency, consisting of the governor and his Cabinet. One of its seven members is the attorney general, whose office is hellbent to see Spaziano killed. In a July 27 motion, it smear Michael Mello as “unethical” for having successfully publicized the case: He “lathered up the media to accomplish exactly what he wanted.” That’s quite a claim. It’s about as credible as the original—and now disavowed—testimony of the hypnotized teenage druggie. Student Editor of the Digital Item Dickinson, Terra Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The case of the hypnotized witness Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource McCarthy, Colman Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1995-08-05 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The materials in this online collection are held by Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington and are available for educational use. For this purpose only, you may reproduce materials without prior permission on the condition that you provide attribution of the source. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 1 JPG 300 DPI Language A language of the resource English Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Washington, D.C. Subject The topic of the resource Capital punishment Hypnotism Chiles, Lawton, 1930-1998 Spaziano, Joe Mello, Michael Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived "The Case of the Hypnotized Witness,” The Washington Post, August 5, 1995. McCarthy, Colman Description An account of the resource The article discusses the swiftness that the judicial system prefers the capital punishment system operate. Joseph Spaziano's case received a large amount of publicity and another appeal due to the vague testimony offered by a witness who had been hypnotized to "remember" what he had seen. https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/4678670355034aae98fc81d4b2c9536a.jpg d5061fd592d2a705e48d158d59e0002b Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 4 Text Text Any textual data included in the document [Author] Colman McCarthy [Title] States Streamline Machinery of Death Last year rests as a record-setting year for state-sanctioned homicides: 56 men executed at a cost estimated by Duke University researchers at $2.1 million per death. Jan 25 and 26 are likely to go into the books also: successive days on which one state hanged a man by rope and another state killed with bullets. Both executions were well reported, given the novelty of gallows and firing squads at a time when legislatures are increasingly sanctioning drugging people to death. Lethal injection has a softness to it, almost a cruelty-free medical aura, which allows state governments to have it both ways: to kill humanely. The Delaware hanging of Billy Bailey and the shooting 26 hours later of John Albert Taylor in Utah lacked the ordinariness that might have allowed these two executions to pass unnoticed beyond prison walls. The methods of killing-- not the killing itself-- caused uneasiness among politicians in both states. Bailey and Taylor could have chosen to go quietly, lying down on a gurney and having a vein opened. Instead, they rejected taking up the states' option of a lethal drug. As a result, international television crews along with major U.S. networks poured into the remote prison towns of Smyrna, Del., and Point of the Mountain, Utah. The power of TV visuals was at work. How often does a chance come along to get footage of a well- constructed wooden gallows and a trapdoor swinging open in a dry run for the cameras? Or to film the firing squad room and its sandbag-supported death chair complete with a spill device to catch the blood? The day before these two executions, Virginia executed a man by lethal injection. This was almost a non-story, except that death chamber technicians needed 30 minutes to locate a suitable vein, finally settling for one just above the foot. It is not likely that executioners in Delaware and Utah will earn this much international and national publicity again. Delaware switched to lethal injection in 1986 but Bailey, sentenced before then, rejected the choice. In Utah, politicians have introduced a bill to ban the firing squad for future death sentences. Many states are giving condemned prisoners choices in dying. Capital punishment advocates who see this as an unwarranted turn toward mercy-- why give these heinous murderers a choice?-- need not be alarmed. Legislatures aren't getting soft, they're getting practical. First, they are making capital punishment more palatable, should a clamor arise that death by hanging, shooting, electrocution or gassing is barbaric and bad for the state's image. Second, and far more important, is that the offering of choices protects the state against spending still more money in legal expenses. Death penalty sentencing is a post-conviction procedure, akin to another trial with full deliberations and arguments. In most states, juries decide whether murderers deserve death. In some, judges rule. In a few, judges, usually running for reelection, can override juries that reject a capital sentence. If those now on death row were not given choices they would have a legal opening to demand a new sentencing trial. Their reasoned argument would be: I was sentenced to die one way and now the rules are changing and I am forced to die another way. I should have another sentencing trial. Fearing that appeals courts might agree, states end-run this by offering a choice: The condemned are not being forced to accept another method; the first one remains available. Trail judges and prosecutors abhor new trials, whether on questions of guilt or sentencing. Evidence not originally available-- either because inexperienced defense lawyers didn't know how to gather it or because it was suppressed by prosecutors-- often has a way of showing up years later. Days before the Delaware and Utah executions, Joseph Spaziano, a Florida death row inmate for nearly 20 years, had one of the rarest of legal victories. A Florida circuit court, vacating both hid conviction and sentence, ordered a new trial. A combination of nonjudicial forces-- the doggedness of Spaziano's attorneys, including Prof. Michael Mello of the Vermont Law School, and reporters from the Miami Herald-- persistently presented evidence of grave doubts of the condemned man's guilt. It was said: Well, the system worked. In fact, it was lawyers and reporters who worked. The legal system did its powerful best to kill. Student Editor of the Digital Item Williams, Megan Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Kabre, Timbila Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource States Streamline Machinery of Death Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The materials in this online collection are held by Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington and are available for educational use. For this purpose only, you may reproduce materials without prior permission on the condition that you provide attribution of the source. Language A language of the resource English Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1996-02-06 Description An account of the resource After the deaths of Billy Bailey and John Albert Taylor, states are being faced with how to go about offering the most humane capital punishment. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource McCarthy, Colman Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived McCarthy, Colman. "States Streamline Machinery of Death." The Washington Post, February 6, 1996. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 1 JPG 300 DPI Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Smyrna, Delaware Point of the Mountain, Utah. Subject The topic of the resource Capital punishment--United States Billy Bailey capital punishment John Albert Taylor Joseph Spaziano Michael Mello https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/89a9c7c696998f6cd1196f9b7b9916f8.jpg 4113f0bf7b29f05c26dac64caf850f42 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 4 Text Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Kniskern, Kyle Text Any textual data included in the document [written in cursive, with pen, above the article] Mike – Thought you would like to have these two articles. [Above the title] Colman McCarthy [Title] Dead Men Talking So, after Hollywood and Susan Sarandon, the bestseller list, gigs on “Oprah” and “PrimeTime Live,” honorary degrees and more than 25 speaking invitations a week, how is Sister Helen Prejean handling celebrity? Much the way she lived with obscurity: keeping the faith and sharing her energy, with no holding back on either. The 57-year-old Louisiana nun who entered the Sisters of St. Joseph of Medaille at 18 left the anonymous life in 1993 when Random House published her book “Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States.” Shortly after, Susan Sarandon read it and went to talk with Prejean in New Orleans. The actress brought the book to Tim Robbins. In March, the film he directed – also titled “Dead Man Walking” – won an Oscar for Sarandon and her portrayal of Sister Helen. An estimated 8 million people have seen the film, which means they know a bit more about the ritual of state-sanctioned killing. “This movie shows the process of execution,” Prejean says. “Beyond the rhetoric of all the legislations who score their political points for being tough on crime, what it all boils down to is that a handful of people are hired to kill a guy in the middle of the night.” Among the Speaking invitations Prejean most softens to are those from legal aid groups representing death row prisoners. Most have recently disbanded, following the elimination of federal funding by Congress. One of the few survivors is the Virginia Capital Representation Resource Center. Prejean helped it by being the main speaker on May 26 at a fund-raising even at a Jesuit high school in Washington. Short-haired, understatedly dressed in a blue suit and blouse, Prejean is a natural storyteller with a talent for wryness and little taste for polemics. The factual arguments for ending the death penalty – it doesn’t deter, racial bias, excessive costs – are offered like notes in the margin. The main text is stories of people she has met since first going into death row in 1984 at the Louisiana state prison in Angola. Some stories are about men whose executions she witnessed and whom she counseled to ask forgiveness for their crimes. Some are about victims’ families, people Prejean – admitting past cowardice – was once afraid of meeting and chose to avoid. Then she went to a victims’ support group and heard families describe how people like her avoided them. Prejean praises prison officials who quit their jobs rather than cooperate with the process of executions. Of politicians who boast of their zeal for the death penalty, she asks: Where are they when the prisoners are killed? Why don’t they come in the darkness of midnight to throw the switch or do the injecting themselves rather than be asleep in their beds? “Witnessing an execution,” Prejean says of the first man she saw die in the electric chair, “Left an indelible mark on my soul.” It was, she says, a rebaptism. Compared with some longtime opponents of the death penalty – Marie Deans, Michael Mello, Stephen Bright, William Brennan, Joseph Ingle, Alvin Bronstein – Prejean is a newcomer. Her awakening came in the early 1980s when nuns were being killed in Latin America and ones at home were out of their convents and habits, acting on the church’s social teachings on solidarity with the poor and exposing the structural causes of poverty. Prejean moved into the St. Thomas housing project in New Orleans. “It was a shock,” she told the Progressive magazine recently. “Growing up in the ‘40s and ‘50s, I had known black people only as my family’s servants. Now it was my turn to serve them. It didn’t take long to see that for poor people, especially black poor people, there was a greased track to prison and death row.” From the housing project in New Orleans, Prejean began visiting another one – the Angola prison – to be a spiritual adviser to men awaiting their deaths. That ministry continues, plus a new one with its own set of difficulties. She describes it as trying to inform “white, affluent people in the suburbs. The more affluent you are, the more separated and the more afraid you are of the poor and ‘the criminal element,’ the more you take the hard line and say, ‘Those people need to be executed.’ They’re the toughest audience.” It is fitting that the work would be the hardest for Prejean. In the film, the father of a murder victim says to the nun, “I don’t have your faith.” She answers: “It’s not faith, it’s work.” Student Editor of the Digital Item Dickinson, Terra Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Dead Men Talking Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource McCarthy, Colman Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1996-06-04 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The materials in this online collection are held by Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington and are available for educational use. For this purpose only, you may reproduce materials without prior permission on the condition that you provide attribution of the source. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 1 JPG 300 DPI Language A language of the resource English Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant New Orleans, LA Subject The topic of the resource Corporal punishment Corporal punishment of children--Religious aspects--Catholic Church Description An account of the resource The passionate outreach against the death penalty by Sister Helen Prejean. As a Catholic nun she details her views and advocacy for those on death row. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Colman McCarthy, "Dead Men Talking," June 4, 1996. Corporal Punishment https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/7188467f0498143f4b8aa886cd5afd13.jpg d49ab8188737eed569645294b15cd1e7 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 1, 1976-1979 Text Text Any textual data included in the document Blame Enough for All In the article that appears on page one of this issue and the latest issue of PROMETHEUS, Jim Boyd make some interesting observations. However, I think his placement of responsibility is somewhat misdirected. I say somewhat because it is true that the administration apparently blithely superseded the handbook. But, while the administration committed the act, the Senate tolerated it. For if the student body, through their elected representatives in the Senate, felt strongly enough about this Kathy Mater matter they could recall her: Amendment I. Recall-"Any student official may be recalled if he has failed to... uphold the standards of the office." Therefore it is incorrect for Boyd to give the administration all the blame. Whether or not the removal of the S.A. President is an advisable policy is a question which must ultimately be answered by the student body of MWC. All side must be given a fair hearing and an equal opportunity to state their side o the issue. As students concerned with the maintenance of an effective student association, we must deal directly with the issue at hand. However, the issue here is much larger than Kathy Mayer; this is why Jim Boyd did not remain in office or attempt to impeach Mayer. The basic issue presented here is constitutional. During a meeting with President Woodard, Boyd was informed that Woodard possesses absolute veto power over the S.A. Constitution: Article IV: Authority-"The authority of the Student Association is derived from delegation by the President of the College and from the student body of the College." Why then, Boyd asks(in light of the provision in the constitution), have a constitution at all when only one signatory of the agreement is bound by its precepts. The example which Boyd has disclosed is symptamatic of the phenomenon that Michael Mello discussed in the first issue of the PROMETHEUS: the students have no power! In this particular instance the student body may, if it chooses, suspend the administration's suspension of the constitution by removing Kathy Mayer from office. AS stated previously in this editorial, the students may just as easily and in my opinion with a great deal more justification) dismiss the question of Mayer's eligibility for office as a technicality. But what about the crucial times that we are impotent in the face of similar administrative vetoes of our constitution? It appears that we will just have to watch on in frustration. H.M.M. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Student Editor of the Digital Item Williams, Megan Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Blame Enough for All Subject The topic of the resource College student newspapers and periodicals Description An account of the resource This MWC Newspaper article is responding to the pamphlet PROMETHEUS's criticism of the administration and its use of power. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource McFalls, Helen Marie Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Newspaper Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1977-11-15 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The materials in this online collection are held by Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington and are available for educational use. For this purpose only, you may reproduce materials without prior permission on the condition that you provide attribution of the source. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 1 JPG 300 dpi Language A language of the resource English Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Fredericksburg, VA https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/5ba1ce4a82f75e509f9f6be4acf76068.jpg da1c6143aed1d07b80040389ed702e74 https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/1cd6a83cccc8c838cb26dfa9e8ff88df.jpg 250b1c1baa100900e1a2bf6af5ec6909 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 1, 1976-1979 Text Text Any textual data included in the document On November 29, four Westmoreland male residents Mitch Sproul, John Bartenstein, Peter Back, and Steve Calhoun appeared before an Administrative Hearing charged with "(1) conduct in Westmoreland Hall which is detrimental to the environment of the College and contrary to College rules and regulations and (2) vandalism to College property in Westmoreland Hall." President Prince B. Woodard, who is invested with the sole authority for making the decision, apparently found the students guilty of both counts and notified them verbally and by letter of their punishments. His decision entailed three students being rejected from Westmoreland Dormitory. The fourth man, Mitch Sproul, was permitted to "continue to reside in Westmoreland Hall for the remainder of the semester without the privilege of having any visitors in your room or your visiting or entering any other student room in that Hall or visiting or entering any other residence hall on campus. "Further, his "continuing in Westmoreland Hall is conditional to your not being involved in any way with a violation of rules or regulations of the Hall or of the College. Should you violate any such rule or regulation or create in any way a disturbance including excessive noise, to the detriment of other students, your right to remain in the residence hall will be terminated." The main impetus behind this case was Scott Sharer, Judicial Representative of Westmoreland Hall. Sharer reported that he had received numerous complaints from residents of the dorm regarding noise caused by the four individuals. Some of these noise complaints dated back to the third week of the semester. The noise complaints continued intermittently until the Administrative Hearing. Around September 25th Sharer was approached at 2:30 a.m. by resident Laura Bannister who reported she had been awakened by "loud male voices" in room 303 next door and that she then heard some objects fall from the window of room 303 to the ground outside the dorm.. This was followed by loud, long screams, obviously male screams." Sharer, upon investigation, learned that Bartenstein, Back, and another individual had entered the room uninvited and obviously under the influence of alcohol." During an apparent pillow fight two stereo speakers and a fan were knocked from the open window to the ground. Sharer, in consultation with Dorm President Mayo Carter and Judicial Chairman Cindy Reeves, decided to "work out a punishment fitting to the crime yet positive toward the spirit of greater cooperation within the dorm." Sharer served the three men with a document that they "readily signed." The notice read: "We the undersigned do so accept the punishment of locking Westmoreland Dormitory for the period of one week for visitation and noise violations ..." We also understand that any further infractions will be dealt with to the fullest extent of the legal guidelines set by the College." Sharer then went on to say that frequent noise violations occurred throughout the semester and the four men were repeatedly warned that this behavior was unacceptable. On November 20th Sharer reported that he found damage in the hall "in the form of garbage, a water fountain off the wall, and a window broken." Earlier a telephone stand had been destroyed. On November 21st Sharer "observed a broken water fountain, a broken door, a broken telephone table... a broken fire extinguisher, shaving cream on the walls and doors, oranges smashed on the floor, and a broken window." Sharer issued a final warning to the entire hall that stated "there would be no more trouble in first north Westmoreland hallway. Sharer claimed that it was all but impossible to determine who had caused this damage because several dormitory residents "lived in fear" of these four men. Despite Sharer's final warning, noise violations continued. Later that morning Bartenstein was issued two hall offenses for leaving the door unlocked. On Tuesday morning an event involving vomiting, which Mitch Sproul termed a "group retch" occurred. It had not been determined whether this occurred in a private room or in the hall. The events of these two days precipitated action which led to the Administrative Hearing. The next night more noise ensued, and hall offenses were issued to Steve Calhoun and another resident: an altercation between Calhoun and Sharer was narrowly avoided. Interviews with both the four accused and witnesses at the hearing (Cindy Reeves, S.A. Judicial Chairman, and Scott Sharer, Westmoreland Judicial Representative) reveal that there was no clear evidence presented and no proof brought forth to establish a guilty verdict on the vandalism charges. Yet the letters, informing the four students of Woodard's decision, did not specifically state the charges on which they were convicted. President Woodard, whose sole responsibility this decision was, declined to comment. Dean Juanita Clement and Cindy Reeves, witnesses at the hearing, also declined to comment on the nature of the penalty. However, Scott Sharer as well as the four accused felt that the decision was based essentially on noise. Sharer pointed out that another residential student was responsible for some of the vandalism charges. Sharer believes that this may have entered into Woodard's decision since the handbook provides (pp.56-57) "Anyone in a residence hall to which he or she is not assigned a room by the college is considered a guest ... All guests must abide by the rules and regulations of the college and the student is responsible for the conduct of his guest at all times. Any damages to property will be paid by the students and/or guests." The decision to convene an Administrative Hearing rather than Joint Council or Judicial Court was made by Barbara Stammerjohn, Cindy Reeves, and Scott Sharer, in conference with President Woodard. Ms. Reeves stated that she felt the matter could be better handled by the administration for essentially five reasons. Firstly, college employees were involved (dorm mother Mrs. Janet Barnes, Dean Juanita Clement, and Campus Police officers) in the disposition of the case. Secondly, Reeves felt that the problem of noise and vandalism in Westmoreland required an immediate solution and concluded that the Administrative hearing could sooner dispose of the problem than could the Joint of Judicial Court. Thirdly, Ms. Reeves said that it was too much trouble for Judicial to handle. Fourthly, because no hall offenses had been issued for the specific charges of noise, it did not constitute a judicial complaint. Fifthly, vandalism offenses are not specifically mentioned in the provisions stating judicial territory. Thus, Ms. Reeves feels that the charges cannot be handled by Judicial Court , although vandalism charges were handled by Judicial last year. The accused are uncertain (though they asked President Woodard) exactly what charges they are convicted of. They also feel that they were denied due process of law and trial by their peers. Their complaints are essentially three. Firstly, they are frustrated by the fact that there was no appeal. Secondly, they are bothered because no transcript of the hearing was made. Thirdly, their letters of accusation were, in their opinion, vague and failed to enumerate precisely what charges of vandalism they were to face. They felt that this made the preparation of a proper defense difficult if not impossible. Finally, they believe that their case should have been heard by the student Judicial body rather than by Woodard. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Brown, Peyton Student Editor of the Digital Item Williams, Megan Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Westmoreland '4' Accuse Administration of Injustice Subject The topic of the resource School discipline Description An account of the resource Four residents of Westmoreland Hall at Mary Washington College believe the College administration's handling of their discipline did not follow normal judicial procedures and is unfair. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Mello, Michael A. McFalls, Helen Marie Webb, Gary Ringle, Patricia A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Newspaper Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1977-12-08 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The materials in this online collection are held by Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington and are available for educational use. For this purpose only, you may reproduce materials without prior permission on the condition that you provide attribution of the source. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 2 JPG 400 dpi Language A language of the resource English Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Fredericksburg, VA injustice Judicial proceedings noise violation student discipline vandalism Westmoreland Hall Woodard https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/f216de267760121bc7955c50d01e2dc6.jpg f9ed99c6de1aa8fde71324c27a770df2 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 1, 1976-1979 Text Text Any textual data included in the document Apathy to Action: A Concrete Goal By Helen Marie McFalls Change is in the air. Many recognize the need to move forward. Numerous people cry out for it. But few actually act to alter their dissatisfaction with status-quo. Fortunately for MWC some students have risen above the prominent case of apathy and backed their discontent with action. The result is a promising, new forum for debate--THE PROMETHEUS. Last year several members of the student body became dissatisfied with the limited means of communication offered by campus publications. During the summer plans solidified and the creation of an alternative paper began. THE PROMETHEUS is not a newspaper recording daily events. Its purpose is to present controversial issues to the public and in turn to elicit discussion and debate. The publication will reflect the views of the staff and contributors. PROMETHEUS welcomes the readers' responses to the issues presented. When questioned about any threatening motives behind the origin of THE PROMETHEUS, editor, Georgetta Sharman emphatically refuted any rumors that may be circulating. She clearly stated, "We are not in any kind of competition with THE BULLET." Mike Mello, a staff member, added that they are not a radical organization out to sensationalize. Although the PROMETHEUS staff refuted this issue, they do plan to maintain a state of independence in regard to any administration censorship pressure. For this reason they have chosen to remain financially independent of college funds. THE PROMETHEUS is financed by advertisers and monetary contributions. Because PROMETHEUS does not have a "club" status yet, it cannot be distributed in the dorms on campus. The staff will file for club admittance (with Sue Hanna as adviser) as soon as the revision of the I.C.A. constitution is completed. Presently, the 500 copies are distributed in front of the Post Office every other Monday. Plans to increase the circulation and to expand the format of the paper will depend on increased financial support. Letters to the editor and articles are welcomed. The staff is open to new ideas but they do request that all articles be factual and valid. Validity, they feel is the major criterion for printing material. There are still openings on the board for ad help and lay out experience. Anyone wishing to contribute should call Georgetta. Classified ads, a new addition to the paper, are also open to public contribution. THE PROMETHEUS could be the refreshing change we've all been awaiting: activity versus apathy in a concrete form. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Loughery, Nate Student Editor of the Digital Item Williams, Megan Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Apathy to Action: A Concrete Goal Subject The topic of the resource Censorship Description An account of the resource Creation of THE PROMETHEUS, a publication meant to promote discussion and debate on Mary Washington College campus. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource McFalls, Helen Marie Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived McFalls, Helen Marie, "Apathy to Action: A Concrete Goal", The Bullet, October 18, 1977, News Clippings, Box 1, April 19, 1976-October, 1979, Michael A. Mello Papers, 1957-2008, Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1977-10-18 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The materials in this online collection are held by Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington and are available for educational use. For this purpose only, you may reproduce materials without prior permission on the condition that you provide attribution of the source. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 1 JPG 300 dpi Language A language of the resource English Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Fredericksburg, VA apathy cencorship change debate PROMETHEUS publication https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/06812269afa3a52124a972e4889e2fc6.jpg fe4586cde82cfa5d7f6547f690333782 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 1, 1976-1979 Text Text Any textual data included in the document On Friday, March 3, 200 college journalists from across the nation met in Washington, D.C. to participate in a White House Press Briefing for college media personnel. BULLET Features Editor Michael Mello represented the MWC student newspaper staff at the conference. The informative day consisted of talks and question/answer sessions with members of the White House staff, and was highlighted by a thirty-minute collegiate press conference with President Jimmy Carter. Carter devoted most of the half-hour session to addressing the student editors’ questions. Inquiries covered a vast area of national and international topics. Carter answered the first question on SALT saying that a summit meeting with the Soviet leader, Brezhnev, would be necessary to finalize a nuclear arms agreement. Regarding economic issues Carter claimed “complete confidence” in G. Wm. Miller, the new Federal Reserve Board chairman. Although Carter recognizes the crucial effects of inflation, he stated that alleviating the unemployment situation holds top priority. He also added that attempts to stabilize the value of the dollar overseas are underway. During the session, Mello obtained the floor and addressed his question to Carter’s pardon policy for the Viet Nam War evaders. Mello’s inquiry focused on whether the President feels that the policy is a success. Carter admitted that a “much more extensive program is needed.” He cited Congressional constraints as hindering a more extensive program. At the conclusion of the press conference Carter remarked: “You have a lot of responsibility on you as do I. Your position in society is one of great privilege. The fact that you are here today shows that you have been fortunate, not just endowed with talent and intelligence, but also you come probably from a good, solid family background or have had benefits from government in getting scholarships that others couldn’t get. And you have an advantage and a certain flexibility of thought and analysis and perspective and a lack of heavy responsibility on your shoulders that constrains your independence of thought and also mobility. “That won’t always be the case. In a few years you will be employed by a major corporation or have your own business assignment or be teaching school or be working in a bank. And when that time comes, perhaps surprisingly to you, your freedom of expression and freedom of action and freedom of analysis will be severely restricted because there will be an inclination on your part to conform to what the local school board, or the principal of the school wants or what the president of the bank thinks or what your customers at a filling station might want you to believe. “And I really hope, as the President of the greatest country on earth, that you won’t relinquish your right and even responsibility for independent analysis and deep inquisitiveness and expressions of concern and open expressions of criticism when public officials like myself don’t reach the standards that you set for our country.” The collegiate reporters also met with Presidential Assistant for Public Liaison Midge Costanza. Costanza emphasized that the present administration boasts an open channel to protest groups stating, “We don’t just allow groups into the White House that agree with us.” Another speaker, Mary Berry, addressed the students on educational issues. Berry, the assistant secretary of education for HEW, complimented Carter’s higher education aid plan. Domestic policy adviser, Dave Rubenstein, spoke on Carter’s first year in office and mentioned some of the administration’s first year in office and mentioned some of the administration’s future priorities. These included energy conservation, Senate ratification of the Panama Canal Treaties, economic reforms including tax cuts, and civil service reform. Mello found the entire day a valuable experience. He commented that the conference was “an aspect of journalism that I didn’t expect to be exposed to for years to come. In some respects the grandeur and officiality of the whole atmosphere overwhelmed me; I didn’t feel intimidated so much as I felt awed. The interest of the President and his advisers in the college media underscored the significance of any form of a free and responsible press.” Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Page, Zoe Student Editor of the Digital Item Williams, Megan Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource White House Press Briefing Subject The topic of the resource Presidents--United States Description An account of the resource A newspaper article by Helen Marie McFalls of Mary Washington College about White House Press Briefing attended by Michael Mello. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource McFalls, Helen Marie Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived McFalls, Helen Marie. "White House Press Briefing: MWC Reported Questions Carter." The Bullet, March 21, 1978. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1978-03-21 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The materials in this online collection are held by Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington and are available for educational use. For this purpose only, you may reproduce materials without prior permission on the condition that you provide attribution of the source. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 3 JPG 300 dpi Language A language of the resource English Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Fredericksburg, Virginia Fredericksburg jimmy carter Mary Washington College Michael Mello MWC newspaper The Bullet University of Mary Washington white house press briefing https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/5a37c3fec95d8f09d12bffb03005a315.jpg 09b7e3b5b4e5b7fa3d896d934d952812 https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/1e55f607f54ff331e0de5fb1f4d583db.jpg c4dc4c0441b56d86cb449157e7abe1da Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 1, 1976-1979 Text Text Any textual data included in the document The Mary Washington College Judicial Court has upheld the “due process Clause of the Student Handbook. In a decision rendered Sunday night, the Court found freshman Anne Knight guilty of a visitation violation but dismissed the charges on grounds that she was not advised of her rights. Bullet reporters and artists were invited by Ms. Knight to cover the proceedings. This is the first known Judicial trial at MWC to be covered by the press. According to the Student’ Handbook, a defendant has the right to request an open trial. Ms. Knight was accused of having a male guest in her Mason dorm room on two different occasions in one day without signing him in. Charges were brought by Mason Judicial Representative Gail Warren. Witnesses called by the prosecution were Margaret Corcoran and Yvonne Walbroehl, the defendant’s suitemates, and Ann Hodgson, junior counselor. All claimed to have seen the male, whom Ms. Knight identified as her boyfriend. The trial began with the judicial representative’s account of the case. In response to the defendant’s claim that her right to due process was violated because she was not informed of their rights, Ms. Warren testified that “I didn’t inform her of her rights.” When questioned by defense counsel Michael Mello, she stated: “I forgot.” The defense cited this procedural error as a basis for dismissing the case. A second error concerned the defendant’s right to privacy. Ms. Warren stated in answer to questions by defense counsels Mello and Gary Webb that one Vanessa Martin, who was not otherwise involved in the case, was present when Ms. Warren told Ms. Knight the date, time, and place off trial. Ms. Warren claimed that the presence of Ms. Martin did not violate the defendant’s right to privacy. In her statement, Ms. Knight admitted that her boyfriend was indeed present in the room. However, Ms. Knight argued [t]hat Ms. Warren’s procedural errors invalidated any charges. Ms. Knight cited the Student Handbook, the Student Bill of Rights, and the S.A. Constitution as documents guaranteeing the right of “due process.” The defendant stated that the responsibility for following correct procedures lies with the judicial representatives. Ms. Knight challenged the Court by saying, “the judicial system of Mary Washington College is on trial here and the question is simply: is that system willing to abide by its own rules? If not, if officers of that system may trample on the Student Handbook and ignore it provisions, why shouldn’t all students follow its lead?” Although the accused based her defense on what some termed a “technicality,” she noted that, “What is being overlooked in these attacks on procedural ‘technicalities’ is the realization that, over the long pull of centuries, these requirements have served as gradually accumulating building blocks to form our most effective barrier against arbitrary governmental deprivation of our civil rights.” Thus, she concluded, “. . . but one remedy exists to deter future violations of The Handbook directions by dormitory officers. That remedy is the same one that the federal court system uses in similar circumstances: The nullification of convictions that are obtained in cases in which gross procedural errors occur.” The court deliberated for approximately 20 minutes. When the court reconvened Chairman Jane Daniels read the verdict: “Unanimously guilty of a visitation violation. However, we are dismissing the charges on the grounds that you were not advised of your rights. This is by no means a reflection on the entire judicial system. It is because of the incompetency of one judicial official. A new system for appointment for residential Judicial chairmen had been established to alleviate this problem.” Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Article Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Buterbaugh, Phillip Carl Student Editor of the Digital Item Williams, Megan Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource New Judicial Court Upholds Due Process: Court Dismisses Charges Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The materials in this online collection are held by Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington and are available for educational use. For this purpose only, you may reproduce materials without prior permission on the condition that you provide attribution of the source. Language A language of the resource English Subject The topic of the resource Due process of law Mello, Michael Student rights Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource McFalls, Helen Marie Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1978-04-25 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 2 JPG 300 dpi Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Mello_53 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Fredericksburg, VA Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived McFalls, Helen Marie. "Judicial Court Upholds Due Process: Court Dismisses Charges". The Bullet (VA), April 25, 1978. Description An account of the resource A newspaper article written by Helen McFalls, discussing a decision made by the Mary Washington College Judicial Court to overturn charges brought on Anne Knight regarding a unauthorized dorm room visit by her boyfriend. Defended by Michael Mello, her charges were dismissed due to a failure to advise her of her rights. This case initiated a revision of the system used to appoint residential Judicial chairmen. Anne Knight due process Gail Warren Gary Price Webb Helen Marie McFalls Jane Daniels Judicial Representive Margaret Corcoran Mary Washington College Judicial Court Mary Washington College Judicial Review Michael Mello MWC new system for appoiting Judicial chairmen sneaking boy in dorm Student Bill of Rights Student Handbook Student Rights The Bullet Vanessa Martin Yvonne Walbroehl