7 20 256 https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/dc4d9fc66feca1995a9c20f94381fb16.jpg 57e45c4526f7f38873d11d829ba730f9 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 Text Any textual data included in the document A reporter once found Public Defender Bob Jagger pacing his office floor as nervously as if he were the defendant about to go on trial. I asked Jagger why he was so anxious, since it was hardly his first murder case. “But this guy is innocent,” he said. “I'm afraid of making some mistake that will get him killed.” Fortunately for them not, the jury thought the man innocent too. I have written about many other criminal cases over the ensuing 30 years. What strikes me now is how very few other defense attorneys have proclaimed their clients’ innocence with such moral certitude as Jagger voiced that day. Almost always, they turned out to be right. So I urge you today to read Michael Mello’s heartfelt account, beginning one page 1D of this section, of his efforts, futile so far, to save Joseph “Crazy Jow” Spaziano from Florida’s electric chair, where he is now scheduled to die in just 23 days. It brings to mind how someone once described law as the “bastard offspring to justice.” In that instance, it was to decry mercy for guilty men. In this, the courts are using the law as an excuse to avoid facing the only question that can verify the justice or injustice of Spaziano’s execution: Was he proved guilty, beyond a reasonable doubt, of murdering Lynn Harberts? He was not. It doesn't matter that he was a biker, an outcast, a card-carrying Outlaw, or even that he also is a convicted rapist. What does matter to us all, if we do not want outrage perpetrated in the name of us all, is whether he is guilty of this murder. Even the jury had doubts, voting 9 to 3 for a life sentence instead of death. But though there is now impressive evidence that Spaziano’s trial was unfair and his conviction unjust, the courts have relied on procedural pretexts- technicalities, if you will- to refuse to let him present any of it to a new jury. The state’s entire case depended not he shaky testimony of a 16-year-old boy whose memory has been “refreshed” by hypnosis, at the hands of an arguably unqualified hypnosis who asked leading questions for the police. (The same hypnotist contributed to the infamous murder convictions of Freddie Pitts and Wilbert Lee, whom Gov. Reunion Askew eventually pardoned because he doubted their guilt.) The Florida Supreme Court no longer allows testimony induced by hypnosis. But where this was “harmless error” in multiple murder Ted Bundy’s case, the courts are content to let it be fatal error in Spaziano’s. There is also evidence that police withheld evidence pointing to the possible guilt of another man. Other men have been set free from death row for that. Not Spaziano. What out to be an unceasing search for truth has becom a morbid game of “Gotcha!” What is even more troubling is that Gov. Lawton Chiles, a man of conscience, has shut his mind and heart to the issue of Spaziano’s possible innocence. Our tradition acknowledges that the justice system can miscarry. This is one of the reasons for the power of executive clemency. Florida’s governor must share with his elected Cabinet, at least three of whose sex members must approve his recommendation for clemency. But though governors and Cabinets of the past weren't afraid to grant life sentences in similar cases, there haven't been any commutations for Florida’s death row since the third year of Bob Graham's first year, 14 years ago. Chiles wouldn't even give Spaziano a hearing. “It's one of the more frustrating experiences I've ever had,” says Tom Horkan, the longtime lobbyist (now retired) for the Florida Catholic Conference, who had signed Spaziano’s clemency petition “… He (Chiles) just has a flat-out attitude to the effect that it's up to the courts and it's not up to him.” Horkan said he had presented the governor’s office with Chief Justice William Rehnquist’s description of clemency as “’the fail-safe’ in out criminal justice system.” It was no use. In the 1993 case Horkan cited, the Supreme Court had ruled 6-3 that the Constitution does not bar states from executing people who may be innocent. But if governors like Chiles won't step in either, there is not fail-safe at all. “Everybody denies responsibility,” Horkan complains bitterly. “He (Chiles) says its up to the courts, the courts say it's up to the executive.” W. Dexter Douglass, the governor’s general counsel, argues that Spaziano has a hearing before Graham signed his first death warrant 10 years ago. “Hasn't anything changed,” says Douglass. Indeed, some things have changed. No one really thought that warrant would be carried out. It was assumed the courts would block it, as they did. But Spaziano did not get a new trial either. And of course, neither Chiles nor any of the present six Cabinet members sat in on the 1985 hearing. You would think they would be willing to hear Spaziano’s case for themselves if his blood had to be on their hands. At last count, there were 350 other people on death row, most of them guilty as hell. Aren't those enough, Governor? 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 Closing the door on innocence Subject The topic of the resource Death penalty Description An account of the resource News article covering Mello's continued defense of Joseph Spaziano 23 days before his execution is carried out. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Dyckman, Martin Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived St. Petersburg Times 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 1995-06-04 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 Florida Language A language of the resource English death penalty Gov. Lawton Chiles Joseph Spaziano Michael A. Mello Ted Bundy US Supreme Court https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/ec860cc8d367d2d39601af5117f97989.jpg 2ec3987385b27c49403992f236348ebc https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/ec3685ae537c9d95e39a2773d0ce91c6.jpg a387af6dcf48eca164815bb2a4f1a24c 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 Text Any textual data included in the document To the lawyers defending him, Raleigh Porter sometimes seems like a ghost already, Porter, who's scheduled to be executed Wednesday, would not face the electric chair if his appeals were being considered today, they say. But Porter doesn't live in the present - not the legal present, anyway. Instead, he inhabits another legal world, one that has been dead and buried for a decade. Soon enough, unless the courts intervene, Porter will finally be put to rest, just like the old rules and standards that determined his fate. Even then, though, Raleigh Porter's case - and the problems it symbolizes - are likely to keep haunting the courts. Convicted in 1978 of strangling two Port Charlotte retirees, Porter seemed to be a good candidate to be spared the electric chair: At his sentencing [[end page]] [[start page]] hearing, he won a recommendation of life in prison from the jury. BY most accounts, it was one of Porter's lawyers who pulled it off. In his closing argument, attorney Robert Jacobs read a description of an electric-chair execution: "The executioner threw the switch. My father smashed into his straps as if hit by a train. He snapped back and forth, cracking like a whip. The leather straps groaned and creaked. Smoke rose from my father's head. . . . When the current was turned off my father's rigid body suddenly slumped in the chair, and it perhaps occurred to the witnesses that what they had taken for the shuddering spasmic movements of his life for God know how many seconds was instead a portrait of electric current, normally invisible, moving through a field of resistance." [[end page]] [[start page]] As it turned out, this was fiction - and not entirely accurate fiction - from a novel, E.L. Doctorow's The book of Daniel. But it may have worked. Something did. The jury voted unanimously for life. The judge in the case, Richard M. Stanley of Naples, wasn't so sympathetic. And unbeknown to Porter's lawyers, he'd already decided that Porter should die. "The court is aware that a death by electrocution is not a pretty sight, but then neither were the pictures of the bodies of the old married couple," Stanley intoned a few days later. "The totality of the circumstances dictate the death penalty be imposed." In looking back on the sentence, Stanley says: "I thought about that old man and old woman, married over 50 years...and then one had to watch the other being strangled." Evolving policies Even before the judge pronounced Porter's fate, the state Supreme Court had decided that jury recommendations would be followed when there was any plausible reason for doing so. But when it comes to the modern death penalty, it's often hard to know just what the law is, or what it means. For two to three years in the mid-1980s, for example, the state Supreme Court seemed to change its mind concerning cases where the judge overrides the jury. It let stand a number of death sentences where the jury had recommended life. No one knows why. So when Porter appealed his case in 1985, the Supreme Court upheld Judge Stanley's death sentence, even though attorneys could offer several reasons for the jury's life recommendation, including his age and demeanor on the stand. "Porter [was] just singularly unlucky in the time frame when [[end page]] [[start page]] [[Death penalty backer: Judge Richard M. Stanley - image]] his appeal came up," says Michael Mello, a Vermont Law School professor and an expert on Florida's death sentence. "It really was during the only window during its history when the justices seemed to have lost their interest in closely monitoring jury overrides. . . . And hence Raleigh Porter's death warrant." 1972 high court ruling For the death penalty - especially the death penalty - it wasn't supposed to be so confused, so convoluted. But sometimes it seems the harder judges and lawyers try to get the death penalty right, the more they get it wrong. The problems date from the early 1970s. Concerned that the death penalty had been applied disproportionately against minorities, the U.S. Supreme Court in 1972 struck down death penalty laws across America, demanding that states find a system that would be more rational, more standardized, more uniform. To lawyers and legislators, that could only mean one thing - reining in the traditional discretion of juries. Juries had been responsible for doling out death for years, with only their consciences as their guide. Now, the process would be guided by judges armed with complex new legal formulas. In the vanguard, Florida would be the first state to try to meet the new standards. Like a lot of first tries, it was far from perfect. In particular, Florida officials couldn't quite decide whether the U.S. Supreme Court just wanted more rules for jurors to follow, or whether the high court wanted jurors cut out altogether [[end page]] [[start page]] So lawmakers reached an awkward, yet well-intended compromise: Jurors would stay in, but they would get less authority. They would make a recommendation. But the final decision would be made by the trial judge. The legal architects thought this had a big advantage: Florida believed that death sentences would become more rational [[end page]] [[start page]] because judges - unlike juries - could apply specific standards to each case in written orders, and appeals courts could follow their thinking and review sentences in detail. It didn't work out that way. Intricacies upon intricacies The new system with its formulas turned out to be incredibly complex, requiring juries and judges to consider many factors - violent criminal record and motive, for example. Because of the complexities, appeals judges found themselves tinkering at one point. Finally they decreed that Florid'as whole system was too complex. They declared that henceforth jury sentencing recommendations in death cases would be upheld unless "virtually not reasonable person" could agree with it. What's more, every time the appeals courts made a change in the law, they created a new appeal issue for every Death Row inmate who had already gone through. In a legal setting that demanded NASA-quality tolerances, executions become more difficult to accomplish that a space shuttle launch - and almost as expensive. Even so, there are still bugs in the system. Perhaps because judges have become so painfully aware of the delays they've fostered, they sometimes haven't been as careful about retrofitting the changes they keep making - as Raleigh Porter is finding out. Some state Supreme Court justices have even said that they would not decided cases like Porter's the same way today as they did in the mid-1980s. The Florida courts "have been pretty reluctant to revisit a lot of cases," says Mello, the Vermont Law School professor. In many cases, "they've bent over backward to come up with whatever artifice they could" to avoid overturning old death sentences, he says. [[end page]] [[start page]] 'Law of the case' Among the reasons courts have used have been a doctrine called "the law of the case," which means that issues decided in the first appeal - such as the jury override in the Porter case - usually can't be revisited in later appeals. Why the difference in treatment of some cases versus others? "I've really tried to ponder what explains the difference, and I haven't come up with any explanation other than randomness," Mello says. "It's just a crap shoot." Meanwhile, judges have tinkered with Raleigh Porter's case for 17 years. Today, the Florida Supreme Court will hear the last appeals scheduled in the case. But Judge Stanley, the man who sent Porter to Death Row 17 years ago, has no doubts about the death penalty. He remembers [[end page]] [[start page]] a debate with foes of capital punishment: "They said to me, 'Judge, suppose that they passed a law that said the man who passes the death sentence has to flip they switch on the electric chair?' I said to them. 'Well, I will go along with that as long as they allow me, right after I pronounce the sentence, to reach down by my left leg and come up with my pistol and shoot 'em right between the eyes." John D. Mckinnon, who holds a law degree from the University of North Carolina, covers legal affairs in The Herald's Tallahassee bureau. Tomorrow: Redemption on Death Row. [[On Trial: Raleigh Porter was convicted in Moore Haven, Fla. - image]] [['81 police mugshot: Porter - image]] 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) The Herald from Tuesday, March 28, 1995. 7A Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Blake, Amy 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 Shifts in law come too late to aid killer of Florida couple Subject The topic of the resource Death Penalty Description An account of the resource The issue of Raleigh Porter's death sentence by electric chair could have been avoided due to newer laws in Florida courts. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource McKinnon, John D. Pancake, John Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The 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 1995-03-28 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 Florida electric chair Florida death penalty juries Life sentence Michael Mello Raleigh Porter U.S. Supreme Court https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/29dff63ea4bf031528d23136d9fdff69.jpg 337b98eaf72f25d6baf7ad2c1be510aa 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 Text Any textual data included in the document Your "Kill the Lawyers" editorial, along with the daily televised antics of O.J. Simpson's all-star cast of defense lawyers, reveals much of what is wrong with the legal profession today. F. Lee Bailey's cynical playing of the race card suggests that the public's distrust of lawyers flows not from the fact that people don't understand what lawyers do, but rather that the public does understand. David von Drehle's recent book. "Among the Lowest of the Dead: The Culture of Death Row," provides a useful antidote to the public's revulsion with the culture of lawyers. Von Drehle explores Florida's recent experiences with capital punishment, and he does so by focusing on the people- lawyers, mostly, but by no means exclusively-who work within the reality of capital punishment as a legal and political system of deciding who dies, The book focuses on one character who was at the center of Florida's attempts in recent years to make executions a reality. Craig Bernard, who spent his entire legal career working on behalf of Florida's condemned population, was the architect and driving force behind the loosely affiliated group of lawyers who demanded that Flordia keep its promises of fairness to those whom the state was trying so hard to annihilate. Mr. Barnard did this work as a public defender, working for the lawyerly equivalent of sub-minimum wage; he always worked in self-imposed obscurity, insisting that others- including myself, during the two years I served as a public defender under Mr. Barnard-recuvebe the credit for victories for which he was really the person responsible. Significantly, Mr. Barnard's job was not, as you quoted Swift, to prove that "white is black and black is white, according to how they are paid." Rather, he always taught that our job, as lawyers for death row, was to fill out the full picture of the person whom the state wanted to kill, a portrait the seldom emerges at capital trails in the southern jurisdictions that comprise the Death Belt. It was all about situating the crime- and the criminal- in context.Mr. Barnard's aim was to tell the prisoner's whole story, in the hopes that such a full view would make it less easy to reduce his clients to one hideous crime they committed in one day of their lives (except for the ones who were innocent). Whenever I hear people trashing lawyers, I think about Craig Barnard. With the publication of Von Drehle's book, I hope that others will as well. Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. 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 "A Lawyer Who Served Life" Subject The topic of the resource Lawyers Description An account of the resource A newspaper article from the "Rutland Daily Herald" by Michael Mello. It is four paragraphs long. It discusses the public's view of lawyers and why they are not trusted Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Mello, Michael Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Mellow, Michael. “A Lawyer Who Served Life.” <em>Rutland Daily Herald</em>, April 5, 1976. 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 1976-03-05 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 300 dpi 1 JPG Language A language of the resource English https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/d7bb7069862cf29087629b18512341f9.jpg 487343b24320a728019cfd6102e9dccf 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 Text Any textual data included in the document To the Editor, Michael Mello, professor at Vermont Law School, wrote about the “absurd humanity” of convicts on death row in Florida (Forum, April 16). He does not seek to justify the “hideous crimes” of his Florida clients. He asks readers instead to recognize “that prisoners are more like us normal people than we often want to admit or acknowledge.” Mello points out that “if you were to meet (convicted serial killer Ted) Bundy in your local bar, you’d never know he had confessed to many, many murders. You’d think he was just like you, and for the most part you’d be right … we are similar to him.” Mello does not exactly say what we should make of this, but he seems to be advancing it as an argument against the death penalty. But his observations warrants and sound like normal people, most of them could not have killed anyone. If Ted Bundy had 30-inch horns and behaved as Hulk Hogan pretends to, he could not have murdered so many unsuspecting young women. If John Wayne Gacy had not been an outwardly charming and jovial guy, he could not have enticed dozens of boys to his home in order to rape, torture and murder them. It is precisely because of many murderers’ deceptive ordinariness that society has to treat perpetrators of hideous crimes harshly. Mello’s letter suggests a more disturbing message than confusion about the functions of punishment. Mello is not just saying that it is hard to tell who is a murderer. He asserts that Ted Bundy is essentially like any one else, including, we are to infer, an innocent person who would not commit murder. This implies that we should suspend any moral judgment on such crimes, since it could be any one of us sitting there on death row. How else could one interpret Mello’s conclusion about normal people an criminals: “There is no ‘us’ and ‘them.’ We’re all part of ‘us.’” Appearing as it did during Easter and Passover, the letter might be intended as an appeal to our sense of forgiveness. This is not reprehensible, though the appeal seems better directed at the relatives and friends of Ted Bundy’s victims. What is wrong is Mello’s extraordinary moral relativism. It is strange to have to say this, but ordinary people are not like Ted Bundy. Ordinary people, even those who had unpleasant childhoods, do not go around systematically murdering others. A society that loses its moral capacity to distinguish evil from innocence is one that will ultimately be dominated by evil. William A. Fishcel 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. Evans, Kaitryn 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 Yes, Ted Bundy Is Different Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1995-04-26 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource William A. Fishcel 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 Florida Subject The topic of the resource Florida. Death row. Serial killers. Death penalty. Description An account of the resource A letter to the editor concerning Michael Mello's involvement with death row convicts in Florida. The text focuses on Mello's unique coverage of serial killer Ted Bundy. 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 1 JPG 300 DPI Ted Bundy https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/7bd974781af3a5fab57655df9b2b0e19.jpg 105d64f78911b4da8284f53e480cf049 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 Text Any textual data included in the document To the Editor: According to Edwin Vaile's satirical letter (Forum, April 5) , Donella Meadows' recent column observed that "criminals" might actually be human beings as well-- an insight lost on the likes of scholars who prefer car- toonish views of "them." Folks such as Ms. Meadows actually let their opinions be influenced by conducting their own field research-- i.e., actually meeting, getting to know and (gasp!) perhaps even coming to like and respect the shared humanity of people whom society would prefer to write off as alien species and forget about. I have been a fan of Ms. Meadows' writing for years, and she recently granted me permission to use one of her past pieces in my forthcoming book on capital pun- ishment. But I missed this column, and I am grateful to Mr. Vaile for bringing it to my attention. Full disclosure: For the past 12 years, I have worked as an attorney on behalf of Florida death row inmates. Over that period, I have come to know a fair number of people who the Sunshine State is trying to kill-- along with the families and loved ones who were victims for my clients' crimes. The only generalization I can make about the killers I have known is that no generalizations really work. They're surprisingly random slice of American culture, with one only clear unifying characteristic being that virtually all of them came from backgrounds of extreme poverty and family dysfunction. Not that that explains away or justifies their hideous crimes (except for the surprising--to my mind, at least -- number who are factually innocent of the crimes for which they are to condemned to die,i.e., they didn't do it, period). And as often as not, they are ashamed of their backgrounds and reluctant to let me raise their histories as legal issues, even when raising such claims might well get them off death row. They'd rather die in the electric chair than to let their lawyers tell the world about how they were raped by their parents or about how their family lived in tar-paper shanties and subsisted on dog food. The fact is that prisoners are more like us normal peo- ple than we often want to admit or acknowledge. Some- times they are too recognizable for out comfort. "Ted" Bundy, for instance, remains our culture's leading metaphor for incomprehensible evil and horror, even half a decade after his execution. If you were to meet Bundy in your local bar, you'd never know he has confessed to many, many murders. You'd think he was just like you, and for the most part you'd be right. That's the scariest part: not that he's so different from us, but rather that he's so similar. As we are similar to him. There is no "us" and "them." We're all part of "us" MICHAEL MELLO Professor of Law Vermont Law School South Royalton 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. Brooks, Anna 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 Yes, Inmates Are Human Beings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Mello, Michael Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Mello, Michael. “Yes, Inmates are Human Beings”. Valley News, April16, 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 1995-04-16 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 West Lebanon, New Hampshire attorney capital punishment Florida Death Row Individual Rights Inmate appeals law school Letter to the Editor Michael A. Mello New Hampshire newspaper Ted Bundy Vermont https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/77b19c9ffd6609db8c41760f5d9130a8.jpg 37a80ed11aa32623a1a68c18187af198 https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/387002369995ce855318045cf856c8d4.jpg a367fe50b367050c35e784e6fd7baf34 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 Text Any textual data included in the document Connecticut’s Death Penalty Bills Open the Door to More Executions By Kirk Johnson Hartford, April 7 – The State of Connecticut has put six murderers on death row in recent years under a penal code with roots in the harsh doctrines of the 1630’s. But, there has not been an actual execution here since the closing days of the Eisenhower Administration. Now a package of bills – approved by both the State House and Senate and nearing Gov. John G. Rowland’s enthusiastic signature – would make it significantly easier for juries to impose the death penalty and the state to carry it out. The new Connecticut law would streamline and shorten the appeals process and broaden the list of crimes that could result in the forfeit of a life. "We had a death penalty in name only," said State Representative Dale Radcliff, a Republican attorney from Trumbill who helped rewrite the law. "What we did was remove the hypocrisy. This makes the penalty a workable statute." Some legal experts flatly predict, in fact, that the long unofficial moratorium on executions in the Northeast – the last one anywhere between Pennsylvania and Maine occurred in 1963 – could very likely be broken here. "Connecticut is going to be the first leak in the dam," said Randall Coyne, a professor of law at the University of Oklahoma and the author of a state-by-state comparison of death penalty legislation. Experts like Professor Coyne said that although New York State's recent reinstatement of the death penalty has received most of the national attention, Connecticut's tinkering goes further toward making punishment by death a reality. In New York, for example, juries will weigh aggravating factors like the brutality or cruelty of the crime against mitigating factors in the defendants background, like an abusive, tortured childhood. The panel may then decide, after that calculus, that the death penalty is not justified in any event. In Connecticut, the new law would allow no discretion. If aggravating factors outweigh mitigating factors, the die is cast and the sentence is death. If the mitigating factors outweigh or equal the aggravating factors, a second iron-clad choice is required, 60 years to life in prison. The threshold for weighting the factors will also be lower here. In New York, juries must find that the aggravating factors tiling toward a death sentence substantially outweigh mitigating factors. In Connecticut, an amendment with moderating language similar to New Tork's was defeated, so that even a slight prepoderance of factors working against the defendant could mean a death sentence. The new law would relieve the Connecticut Supreme Court, which must review all death sentences, of a burdensome and time-consuming survey designed to make sure that the defendant's sentence was not disproportionate to sentences for other similar crimes. Both New York and New Jersey, which reinstituted its death penalty in 1982, require proportion studies to insure that a death sentence was not dictated by passions or other factors peculiar to the defendant's case. Referring to Connecticut's old death penalty law, Michael Mello, a professor of law at Vermont Law School, and the author of two books on capital punishment, said, "Connecticut had what I would call one of the most careful and reliable capital statutes in the country – they made the decision that we want to err on the side of mercy rather than risk executing innocent people." The new code, Professor Mello said, "will most Connecticut into the national mainstream, and particularly in the mainstream of the death belt states of the old Confederacy, where the death penalty is now and has been historically much more of a reality and a presence than it has been in the Northeast." Connecticut's Chief State's Attornery, John M. Bailey, agreed that there will be more death sentences, and he also believes that Connecticut will be the first in the region to carry out an execution. But he said that safeguards remain in place that will still make capital trials more scrupulous than in southern states. In states like Florida or Texas, Mr. Bailey said, nearly any murder can qualify for consideration as a death penalty case. Connecticut has a preliminary threshold for capital felonies, like limiting the option to crimes like multiple murder, murder during a sex crime, or the murder of a police or corrections officer. The new law would also add another category to the list of possible death penalty cases, the murder of someone under age 16. It would substitute death by lethal chemical injection for the electric chair, which state prison officials have said would have needed $500,000 of refurbishing work. "We still don't have an easy death penalty," Mr Bailey said. However, he added, using the phrase that most supporters of the bill habitually repeat, the new code, unlike the old one, will be "workable." " The old law was drawn to make sure that even though we had a death penalty law, no one in fact would ever face the death penalty," he said. But even the most enthusiastic supporters of the new law concede that years of legal review and court challenges lie ahead. And some also say they feat it may be fraught with Constitutional problems. Citing one example, Senator George C. Jepsen, the former Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said that the combination of adding a new category of capital felony – the murder of a child – and at the same time eliminating the Supreme Court's proportionality yest for measuring one case against all others with similar circumstances make appeals based on "arbitrary or capricious," sentencing harder to combat. "We might put 10 people on death row in the next seven to eight years and have the whole thing thrown out," said Mr. Jepson, who voted for the bills, and who said he will do so again when the package makes one last appearance before the Senate, probably this week, for approval of a final technical change in wording. Mr. Jepson said he doesn't believe Connecticut will go crazy executing people, partly because in the end, the process will still be left in the hands of jurors who can find reasons not to vote for death. One jury decided against a death sentence in a case several years ago for example, because the defendant's good behavior in prison was considered a mitigating factor. Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Hiser, Kristopher 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 Connecticut's Death Penalty Bills Open the Door to More Executions Subject The topic of the resource Connecticut. Capital punishment--United States. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Johnson, Kirk Language A language of the resource English Description An account of the resource Article in the New York Times describing the passage of new death penalty statues in Connecticut. After years of technically having a death penalty that could not be implemented in practice, Connecticut is about to have a "workable" death penalty. In the article, legal experts describe the danger of such a law while legislators in favor of its passage make comments in attempt to alleviate such concerns. 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 1995-04-10 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 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Connecticut Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived New York Times Aggravating circumstances Connecticut Connecticut death penalty Dale Radcliff Death belt Florida death penalty George C. Jepsen John M. Bailey Mitigating circumstances New York death penalty New Jersey death penalty Randall Coyne Southern death penalty Texas death penalty Trumbull https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/bc66b7c29c7fb109d08aae80d0a1fedb.jpg 2f1eddca65bc48a67135ec5a083f1f7f https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/6a3aa9a7ccc63ec6a8c7d582ad15040a.jpg 7958f917ea03938a99a614845b98cb49 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 Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. McDonough, Caitlin Text Any textual data included in the document TALLAHASSEE – To their dismay, prosecutors are learning that Florida’s death sentence law suffers from a kind of genetic defect – a flaw that could give dozens of killers a second chance at life sentences. Last month, the state Supreme Court ruled that a crucial jury instruction about premeditation and cruelty in Florida capital cases is unconstitutional. That decision sprang from a similar ruling by the U.S Supreme Court. Combined, the two cases probably represent the most significant death penalty setbacks for prosecutors since the mid-1980s, experts say. In both decisions, the courts ruled that standard jury instructions used in virtually every Florida death penalty case gave jurors too much discretion to demand death. The result: The sentences of most of Florida’s 339 Death Row inmates probably will have to be reviewed in appeals courts over the next few years. For the majority of condemned inmates, the error probably will not prevent their eventual execution. But at least a few prisoners will escape the electric chair as a result of the rulings. In fact, one – Davidson James, convicted of the 1981 robbery-murder of an elderly Hillsborough County woman – already has. He got a life sentence when his case went back. And there’s a chance that the problem eventually will require new sentencing before new juries in dozens of cases. That would mean even more inmates would avoid electrocution. “This is a major constitutional change in the law,” said Steven Goldstein, an associate dean at the Florida State University law school. Mark Schlakman, a legal adviser to Gov. Lawton Chiles, says that the state’s death penalty jury instructions ought to be thoroughly reviewed in the wake of the decisions. The instructions are written by committees of lawyers and approved by the state Supreme Court. Said Jacksonville State Attorney Harry Shorstein: “Of course, it’s difficult enough to try death penalty cases without changing the rules after the fact.” Prosecutors have been burned before by a similar ruling. In a 1987 case called Hitchcock vs. Dugger, the U.S. Supreme Court threw the state for a loop when it held another Florida jury instruction relating to evidence in the defendant’s favor was unconstitutional. Eventually, about … Death Row inmates got new sentencing hearings. Damage Control This time around, with so many more sentences at risk, Florida officials are hoping to avoid that kind of chaos. And state Supreme Court justices already have made it clear that they’ll strictly enforce procedural rules that could halt most of the appeals. In fact, some Death Row defense lawyers complain that the justices are overdoing the damage control – possibly to avoid embarrassment. “Unless the court found some way to limit the scope of [the recent cases], the disruption on Florida’s Death Row could be significant and the Florida Supreme Court could wind up being the one blamed by the public,” said Michael Mello, a Vermont Law School professor who’s perhaps the leading expert on Florida’s death penalty jury instructions. Jury instructions are the way that the law gets applied to individual cases. If those instructions are flawed, jurors are liable to apply the law incorrectly. That’s exactly what happened in the two recent cases, the courts [are saying]. April 21 in the case of Andrea Hicks Jackson, who had been sentenced to death for the slaying of a Jacksonville police officer. In her appeal, Jackson’s lawyers alleged that a key jury instruction used at her trial was unconstitutionally vague. The instruction told jurors how to define of of the key aggravating factors used to justify death, the “cold, calculated and premeditated” factor. Jurors apparently found that the factor applied, because they recommended the death penalty for Jackson by 7-5. But on appeal, Jackson’s lawyers argued that the jury instruction was unconstitutionally broad. The state Supreme Court concluded that Jackson’s lawyers were right. By a 5-2 cote, the court invalidated the jury instruction and ordered a new sentencing for Jackson before a new jury. Two justices Ben Overt[…] and Parker Lee McDonald, […]ented, saying th[…] though […] instruction was […]. […], the majority […] the penalty phase of […]] case in which the […] jury instruction [on that aggravating factor] was given subject to attack,” The decision was prompted by an earlier U.S supreme Court ruling invalidating another Florida jury instruction. That decision, issued in 1992, threw out the instruction on the so-called “heinous atrocious or cruel” aggravating factor. Again, the problem was vagueness. The potential damage is so large because most Florida death cases involve one or both of the aggravating factors under attack. Florida prosecutors can expect to limit the damage significantly, however. First prosecutors can argue that defendants who didn’t object to the instruction at their trials aren’t eligible for relief. Second, they can argue that the incorrect jury instruction didn’t make any difference in the outcome – for example, where the killer’s sentence was supported by two or three other aggravating factors. So far, those methods have stymied all but four of the 25 or so Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Notes Additional information regarding your item. This content will not be viewable in the Public View. ink splotch in the middle of the article. 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 Florida Court ruling could spare lives of some condemned inmates Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource McKinninon, John D. 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 1994-05-07 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. Language A language of the resource English Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 2 jpgs 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 Florida Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived McKinninon, John D., "Florida court ruling could spare lives of some condemned inmates," Miami Herald, May 7, 1994. 1A, 16A. Subject The topic of the resource Florida Supreme Court Death Penalty Death Row Description An account of the resource The Flordia Court made a ruling to spare the lives of condemned inmates. death penalty Death Row inmates Michael A. Mello Michael Allen Mello Michael Mello Supreme Court Supreme Court of Florida https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/0114402b747b1a1097d749b98a7528d7.jpg 45020fa78462623784cfe51d9890fe65 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 CHELSEA – A judge is drawing fire because she ruled that a man charged with rape could be released from jail only if he agreed not to possess or view pornography. Civil liberties advocates said they were troubled by Judge Mary Miles Teachout’s ruling. “It’s a first for me,” said Vermont Law School Professor Michael A. Mello. Teachout decided that David C. Green could be released on bail while awaiting trial but only on the condition that he stay away from pornography. Green, 22, is accused of repeatedly raping his wife, who had told him he wanted a divorce, on Oct. 21. “He told me that earlier in the day he had rented a movie and had masturbated while watching the movie,” Green’s wife wrote in an affidavit submitted to police. Neither the affidavit nor other police records indicated the content of the movie. Green of Lebanon, N.H., was arrested and charged with five counts of aggravated sexual assault and one of kidnapping. He is being held in the Southeast Regional Correctional Facility in Woodstock, unable to make bail. Critics of the release conditions Teachout set questioned whether the judge should be linking the alleged crime with a movie. “Take it out of the realm of sex,” suggested Vermont American Civil Liberties Union executive director Leslie Williams. “What if you rob a bank after watching a movie about robbing a bank? It’s assuming a connection that I’m not sure is justified.” Mello, who teaches criminal law, said judges had the right to impose a number of release conditions as long as they can be “rationally related to the offense” and do not violate the constitution. “I think it’s unconstitutional,” Mello said of Teachout’s order. David Putter, chairman of the Vermont ACLU’s legal panel, said the problem with the order was that it was essentially unenforceable because it’s so broad. Vermont has no legal definition of pornography, he said. “The state can’t prohibit speech unless it clearly defines the prohibited speech and that speech falls within a lawful definition of obscenity,” Putter said. “If (Teachout) has not specified what particular guidelines govern, then the order would be a violation not only of the First Amendment but of the Vermont Constitution as well.” Mello said Teachout’s order involved the “suppression of ideas… it infringes on the marketplace of ideas. It has a potentially chilling effect.” That is what sets apart from typical conditions of release, such as prohibiting drinking alcohol or barring contact with certain people, he said. Williams, who is not a lawyer, said the argument could be put in simpler terms. “This is unreasonable,” she said. “To forbid someone to read something or look at something is going a little too far.” [Pull quote]: “What if you rob a bank after watching a movie about robbing a bank? It’s assuming a connection that I’m not sure is justified.” 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. Bales, Jack 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 Conditions of Release: Don't Watch Pornographic Movies Subject The topic of the resource Pornography--Law and legislation American Civil Liberties Union Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived "Conditions of Release: Don't Watch Pornographic Movies ,” Rutland (VT) Daily Herald , November 30, 1993. 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 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 1993-11-30 Language A language of the resource English Description An account of the resource After a man views a pornographic movie, he rapes his wife and is charged with sexual assault. A judge rules that he can be released on bail only if he agrees not to possess or watch pornography. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Lebanon, NH First Amendment https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/7224b4885b2e6047022f1a1a3ad83975.jpg 25ff76420ffde2e5a5fd3cb37b07b6e1 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 Porno Ban is Assailed Condition Imposed On Alleged Rapist Called Improper Subject The topic of the resource Pornography--Law and legislation. Pornography--Law and legislation--Social aspects--United States. Constitutional rights Vermont. 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 jpeg Language A language of the resource English Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Sarah Strohnmeyer Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived "Porno Ban is Assailed Condition Imposed On Alleged Rapist Called Improper" West Lebanon (NH) Valley News, November 29, 1993. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Valley News Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource Nov. 29, 1993 https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/4b6f8b0ac644c54870c3c4d0168aa610.jpg d67fbcac278c7c8345c21eed65b64421 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 CHEALSEA – when Judge Mary Miles Teachout last month ordered alleged rapist David C. Green not to possessor view pornography as a requirement of his release from jail, she imposed a condition that some experts find troubling. Vermont American Civil Liberties Union lawyers and other legal experts say they have never seen such a condition before and they have problems with it. For one thing, teachout appears to be linking the alleged crime – sexual assault – with a medium Green viewed on the day he attacked his wife. “Take it out of the realm of sex,” suggested Vermont ACLU Executive Director Leslie Williams. “What if you rob a bank after watching a movie about robbing a bank? Its assuming a connection that I’m not sure is justified.” “It’s a first for me,” said Vermont Law School Professor Michael A. Mello, who teaches criminal law. He said judges have the right to impose a number of conditions of release that limit liberties as long as those conditions can be “rationally related to the offense” and do not directly violate the constitution. “I think it’s unconstitutional,” said Mello of Teachout’s order. “it feels to me unconstitutional.” The crime of which Green is accused, however, is a supremely violent one. According to records filed in Vermont District Court in Chelsea, Green, 22, allegedly repeatedly raped his wife, who had told him she wanted a divorce, on Oct. 21, after handcuffing her in his car. Supposedly armed with a gun that he did not show her, Green took her to a secluded area, sexually assaulted her, and then took her back to their apartment where he allegedly raped her again. “He told me that earlier in the day he had rented a movie and had masturbated while watching the movie,” his wife wrote in an affidavit submitted to police. Neither the affidavit or other police records indicate what kind of movie it was. Green, of Lebanon, was arrested by Vermont State Police and charged with five counts of aggravated sexual assault plus a count of kidnapping on Oct. 25. He is in the southeast Regional Correctional Facility in Woodstock, unable to make bail. David Putter, who chairs the Vermont ACLU’s legal panel, said that the problem with Teachout’s pornography condition is that it is essentially unenforceable because it’s so broad. He noted that Vermont has no legal definition of pornography – a concept usually defined by local mores. Most states that have defined pornography have kept the parameters vague. “The bottom line is that while it may very well be for the state to criminalize or prohibit certain types of speech content, which would fall under the rubrick of obscenity,” Putter said. “The state can’t prohibit speech unless it clearly defines the prohibited speech and that speech falls within a lawful definition of obscenity.” “one of the traditional problems with obscenity is having a clear definition,” he continued. “If (Teachout) has not specified what particular guidelines govern, then the order would be a violation not only of the First Amendment but of the Vermont Constitution as well.” But what about the fact that many everyday rights – such as drinking alcohol, soeaking and being free to associate with whomever one wants – are often yanked when someone is released on bail? Mello said the difference lies in the material nature of what Teachout is prohibiting. “it’s different from other kinds of conditions of parole and probation, maybe because it has to do with communication, with books and the modern information highway whose incarnation is movies,” Mello said. “What bothers me is it’s the suppression of ideas . . . it infringes on the marketplace of ideas. It has a potentially chilling effect.” Williams, who is not a lawyer, put Teachout’s order in lay terms. “This is unreasonable. To forbid someone to read something or look at something is going a little too far.” Teachout, who, until recently, was the judge in Windsor County Family Court, could not be reached for comment. However, she has declined to discuss her bench rulings with the press in the past. Green did not return messages left for him at the prison. His lawyer, Matthew Levine of White River Junction, could not be reached for comment this weekend. If Teachout did impose the condition because of what Green’s wife said in the affidavit, then she wouldn’t be the first legal authority to link pornography with a sex crime. Seven years ago then Attorney General Edwin Meese’s Commission on Pornography linked hard-core porn to sex crimes. The commission’s report concluded that “substantial exposure to sexually violent materials . . . bears causal relationship to antisocial acts of sexual violence and possibly to unlawful acts of sexual violence.” 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) Volume 42: Number 161 Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Carter, Jacob 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 Porno Ban Is Assailed: Condition Imposed on Alleged Rapist Called Improper Subject The topic of the resource Pornography--Law and legislation Pornography--Law and legislation--Social aspects--United States First amendment cases Description An account of the resource Newspaper article analyzing the legality of a judges ruling to ban an alleged rapist from owning or viewing pornography. Michael Mello and other legal professionals give insight into the case. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Strohnmeyer, Sarah 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 1993-11-29 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 NH ACLU court cases First Amendment Michael A. Mello New Hampshire pornography https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/808bd0b756eafdc41396af80991ab380.jpg 028eaef7e11c047881a1c82d1d577321 https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/a64befea40e6f4091dac49dfdc0a1a6d.jpg 39370f5c482cb7f874a0f4fa70fdf345 https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/f0583045667f1452690f531d5e41cf98.jpg 4dd2c94d31edfc5da61db85d457899f4 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 Vermont prides itself on its progressive approach to incarceration, especially in its treatment programs for offenders. But a recent visit to the state by the American Civil Liberties Union's National Prison Project is bringing those programs under closer scrutiny, and raising questions that cross and recross the lines between philosophy, physiology, and law. Do these programs mean to punish people or change them? Do they work> Are they Legal? Last month, the ACLU sent Gov. Howard Dean a long letter criticizing conditions in Vermont's prison system. In the letter the ACLU claims that the states treatment programs for violent offenders and sexual offenders are "of an extraordinarily intrusive and dubious nature," that they are coercive, and that they force prisoners to waive their rights to confidentiality. Drawing on reports from inmates and their lawyers, the ACLU also criticism the way programs are staffed, claiming that the programs "vest untrammeled power to practice 'psychotherapy' in the hand of unqualified guards, ex guards, caseworkers and contractors, whose attitude towards prisoners is usually hostile and adversarial at best, and not infrequently vindictive and sadistic." The ACLU refuses to comment on the letter, which has been obtained by the Valley News, or on its past prison activities elsewhere in the country. Nor would Department of Corrections Commissioner John Gorczyk talk about the ACLU's criticisms of the state's treatment programs other than to say they are "more philosophical than legal in nature." The Comment is telling. Mental health professionals, lawyers and corrections officials interviewed for this story had difficulty restricting their comments and observations exclusively to their own disciplines. "It's a problem you encounter whenever you introduce medicine, or mental health, into law," says Michael Mello, a Vermont Law School professor who specializes in criminal and constitutional law. "The agendas are so different it introduces a warping effect." The agenda of psychiatry is to make people well, he says. The agenda of criminal justice "is ot making people well but making them act right, behave a certain way, and also to punish them even if they're well and are acting right now. The punitive dimension is the most dramatic difference." Punishment is the issue that falls under Constitutional protection. The Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution provides protection against cruel and unusual punishment. Since the early 1970s, the legal test of that provision has been "whether a punishment violates the evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society," Mello says. "It;s a good, evocative term, supplied most often in capital punishment cases. And, as it implies, the standard of what's constitutional changes as the cultural norms change." Vermont's program for violent offenders is mandatory for all inmates convicted of violent crimes, as well as those who are determined to have a history of violence. Inmates serving time for sexual offenses are told that parole and probation may hinge on their successfully completing a program for sexual aggressors. Is that coercion? "Probably no more coercive than plea bargaining," Mello says. But similar policy on sex offenders, passed by the Kentucky legislature in 1986, is being challenged in the state's circuit court, according to Barbara Jones, general counsel for the Kentucky Department of Corrections. The Legal issue, says Jones, is that in order to participate in the program, a sex offender must admit his guilt. "Some don't believe they have a problem," she says. "Others, who are challenging their conviction on appeal, have been advised by their attorneys not to admit." And there's the rub: Admitting guilt could be self-incriminating, and might mean a conviction for a second crime. So far, the state court has ruled that the program and the requirement to admit are constitutional, Jones says. "But out case, or someone else's, could wind up in the (U.S.) Supreme Court." In the past the Supreme Court has upheld the prosecution of criminals for crimes they admitted to under treatment, Mello says. "But I wouldn't want to make book on the way these questions would be resolved by the Supreme Court and presently constituted." Nor would he wager on the outcome under Vermont's Supreme Court. "That court has always gone beyond the minimum standards to protect the rights of suspects." Vermont's sex offender program also requires that offenders admit guilt, says William Pithers, a clinical psychologist and director of the Vermont Treatment Program for sexual Aggressors. In the 11-year history of the program, Pithers can remember only one istance in which an inmate's admission led to a second conviction. "His sentence ran concurrently, so he would up not doing any more time than his original sentence," he says. Under state law, teachers, doctors and counselors in Vermont are required to report the sexual abuse of minors to authorities. Counselors in Vermont's treatment program are bound by this mandate as well. Minors are given this protection because the state assumes they may not have access to treatment otherwise, Pithers says. Counselors are not required to report crimes involving adults. Sex offenders who agree to treatment are required to sign a waiver of confidentiality, according to a published description of the program. The programs are constructed and supervised by mental health professionals. Although the treatment team makes recommendations to the parole board, the board is under no obligation to follow the recommendation. "The parole board is an independent agency and has, in the past month, paroled four people against the recommendation of the treatment program," Pithers says. "That's the way it should be - a system of checks and balances." Pithers emphasiszes that the program itself is not coercive. Offenders are taught that committing a crime is a personal choice - actually, one in a long series of choices that has resulted in their arrest and conviction. Counter to popular myth - and to old, disproven theories - sexual aggressors are not mentally ill, they are not swept away by irresistible impulses, and they are not oversexed, Pithers says. Nor are sexual aggressors suffering from a simple lack of self esteem. The philosophy behind the program: what sexual aggressors need is to become conscious of the choices the make that lead to acts, and to recognize the consequences of their behavior on other people. The focus of treatment is teaching others to empathize with their victims, and to identify the patterns of thoughts, feelings and beliefs that lead them into abusive behavior. Depending on the individual, offenders are taught to acknowledge their emotions and their "thinking errors," to manage their anger, to alter abusive sexual fantasies and urges. The goal: to give offenders the skills they need to catch themselves slipping into old patters and correct the behavior and ultimately to prevent relapses. A Corrections Department study using cumulative figures from 1982 to 1991 shows the treatment to be most successful for child sex offenders, somewhat less so for rapists. Since the beginning of the program, about 30 of the 473 offenders treated have been brought back to prison for repeating their crimes. "No form of treatment wil eliminate all recidivism by sexual aggressors. No form of treatment can remove a person's ability to exercise free choice," Pithers says. The philosophy behind the treatment program: Sexual aggressors need to become conscious of the choices they make that lead to criminal acts, and to recognize the consequences of their behavior on other people. But when does treatment become punishment? A technique that raises red flags to civil libertarians is the use of an instrument called a penile plethysmograph. The device, when attached to the penis of a male offender while he views slides or listens to tapes of people in various sex acts result in arousal. Proponents of the device say it is necessary to break through the denial that keeps many offenders from seeking treatment for their deviance. "Some men don't get aroused until they hear that blood is spurting from the face of the women they have just punched," Pithers says. "They can deny it, but a counselor in the next room can see the evidence clearly." In some cases, recognizing a deviant pattern of arousal is a necessary step toward treatment. Pithers says that Vermont uses the plethysmograph primarily in a mandatory assessment of offenders before treatment begins. Offenders are alone when they use the device, which is attached to a measuring instrument in an adjoining room. "Even I wish those things weren't necessary. It would be wonderful to be able to treat individuals who are turned on to fantasies about assaulting people by making them feel better about themselves, but the reality is we can't. Violent Offenders Program Unlike Vermont's sex offender program, the State's treatment program for violent offenders is mandatory and is not supervised and carried out by mental health professionals. "We don't assume people are sick. We assume they're lawbreakers," says Jack Bush, a consultant who designed Vermont's program. Bush, who has a Ph.D. in philosophy, says that the program doe not rely on confidential disclosures or an intimate alliance with a therapist. "The program is very pragmatic and methodical," he says. Though treatment is mandatory, it's a soft shell, Bush says. Inmates are told "your history demonstrates you're a high risk offender. Our solution is to incarcerate you for the maximum sentence. Another is to teach you skills, give you the ability to control your own risk. You get to choose your course." If offenders successfully complete the program, they may be released earlier on parole. The program, like the state's treatment for sexual aggressors, is built around the theory that violent behavior is a choice, based on patters of thought, feelings, and beliefs. Once a person is aware of that pattern, he can chose to change it. "This is not a therapy we impose on offenders or something we do to offenders. It's a technique we teach them, a rational hopeful process," he says. Treatment takes place in groups, where offenders listen to each other vocalize the thoughts that run through their heads in situations that inspire them to violence. Offenders are taught to recognize false assumptions and to substitute non-violent problem-solving techniques. They keep journals - or Thinking Reports - of their efforts to recognize and change their own abusive patters. Offenders are also taught that partial lapses do not mean total failure, that a chain of events that results in a crime can be stopped at several places. The program was deliberately designed to use corrections officers, not mental health counselors, because it is meant to be integrated into day-to-day life inside the system, Bush says, not separated from it. Ideally, the program could be an impetus for system-wide change, a model of a new, collaborative relationship between corrections officers and inmates. At a training workshop sponsored by the New England Council on Crime and Delinquency in Burlington earlier this month, Brian Bilodeau, a former guard and now a case work supervisor at the Northwest Stat Correctional Facility in St. Albans, offered himself as an example of someone who'd turned around from a punitive attitude toward inmates to a positive one. It was his participation, as a corrections officer, in the violent offender program that made him aware of the destructive role he was playing, he said. For more than an hour, he and a small group of consultants and corrections officers talked about the difficulties in translating a good idea and a hopeful vision into real change. "We're not very good at implementing ourselves into a new vision," said Bush. "But there are glimpses of the light all over here." 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) Vol. 42: Number 158 Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Stroh, Cooper 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 Treatment Programs For Inmates Raise Deep Questions Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Serrell, Nancy 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 1993-10-26 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 Subject The topic of the resource Constitutionally legality of correction facility's treatment programs for sexual offenders and violent offenders in Vermont. Description An account of the resource An article about treatment programs in Vermont dealing with sexual and violent offenders. Programs in Vermont deal with the rehabilitation of inmates with questionable methods that some argue are not constitutional. Mello, Pithers, and Bush, three authorities on the subject provide counter arguments and a description of the programs purpose and execution. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Valley News 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 American Civil Liberties Union Inmate Treatment Programs Jack Bush John Gorczyk Law and Mental Health Michael A. Mello Prison Correction Programs Rehabilitation Sexual Offender Treatment Programs Vermont Violent Criminals Violent Offender Treatment Porgrams William Pithers https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/15e1242fa6cf5695a3e840123cd9eb9d.jpg d9a898249d6ca9d061c4332f3aac0111 https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/59751eb600c440c496a2af70064daf4e.jpg 232962e2db48cdf964eccb9d383a44a1 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 What Congress now deems "reasonable" may soon prove impossible for state police. <br /><br />Confusion within law enforcement and gun dealerships about the scope and implementation of the Brady law can be traced to language that may ultimately have to be defined by the federal courts. <br /><br />With fewer than 70 days until the law goes into effect, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) have yet to issue a coherent policy for state police to make the mandated background checks on handgun purchasers. <br /><br />At issue for police and gun dealers is a phrase that appears to only vaguely define the extent of authorities' responsibilities. <br /><br />The Brady law requires that police "shall make a reasonable effort to ascertain within five business days" whether a potential handgun purchaser has a felony in his criminal history, is a fugitive from justice, is "an unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance," is an illegal alien, has been dishonorably discharged from the armed forces, has renounced U.S. citizenship, or has "been adjudicated a mental defective or been committed to a mental institution. <br /><br />Although these restrictions have existed in federal law since 1968, police have never been called upon to verify them. Each is reason enough to prohibit the transfer of a handgun. <br /><br />"Reasonableness" is a word that often finds its way into legislation and just as often signifies a compromise. "It allows all sides to claim political victory," said Michael Mello, a professor of criminal law and procedures at Vermont Law School in South Royalton. <br /><br />"That's a loophole big enough to drive a truck through," said Mello. <br /><br />Whatever victories and whatever party affiliation of the victors, some question remains about a law that might not have the legal teeth or procedural muscle to curb violent crime. <br /><br />For instance, although most state police forces remain, or are in the process of constructing, computer files of criminal histories, how can they check for an "unlawful user" of controlled substances without a criminal conviction recording the abuse? <br /><br />In order to satisfy the other background demands, will the police be given access to military and immigration records? No definitive answers have yet come from Washington.<br /><br />"In some of the categories, there may be categories where nothing can be reasonably done. Drugs are not easy to check. The ATF will have to put out regulations on how to do that," said one congressional aide who is attached to the House Judiciary Committee. The aide declined to be identified, but said that he had been present at and involved in the process of drafting the law. <br /><br />"The (Brady) law is a political compromise, and I imagine that the 'reasonable' Brady clause factored into that decision," said the aide. <br /><br />He said it was his impression that framing legislators such as Sen. Howard Metzenbaum, D-Ohio, and Rep. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., wanted to mandate a criminal records check and to encourage the checking of other conditions where possible. <br /><br />But a legislative aide from Sen. Metzenbaum's office, speaking about the ambiguities of the bill's language, said he wasn't sure how the bill would be fulfilled. <br /><br />"The ATF may or may not clear that up. If the ATF doesn't, the courts will," said the aide, who also spoke on the conditions of anonymity. <br /><br />Officials at the U.S. Department of Justice have been equally reticent about announcing a federal plan that would help guide state law enforcement agencies through the law. They said that such a plan is currently under review. When pressed for a date of release, they said the plan would be presented "in the near future." <br /><br />Traditional opponents of gun control have been quick to finger the source of the law's confusion. <br /><br />"Since there's no standard definition of 'reasonable,' the Brady Bill has no effect. You'll have the waiting period in some cases, but there's no obligation for a records check. The law is unenforceable," said Joseph Phillips, a lobbyist for the National Rifle Association (NRA) in Washington. <br /><br />Phillips said the NRA was confident the law would be struck down - at least partially - once tested in court because there are no penalties for police departments that fail to make the background checks. He also said that Congress' efforts were misplaced, and that the system would be better served by a procedure for an instant background check. <br /><br />Semantics aside, the debate has done little to make the law's application any clearer. <br /><br />Col. Robert Horton, director of the Vermont State Police, the agency that will oversee the mandated check of criminal records, doesn't see how his force can fully comply with the law.<br /><br />"It's an extreme amount of work, and we just don't have the personnel or resources. There is no database that combines all those files," said Horton. <br /><br />The result in Vermont will probably be a passing of responsibility to municipal police forces. Horton said that local police will likely recognize potential purchasers and are therefore in a better position to judge who is fit to own handguns. <br /><br />Horton acknowledges that casual information cannot satisfy the Brady law's background stipulations, but he said he is resigned to do what he can to make the law work. <br /><br />"A lot of those things just got tacked onto the bill to please everybody. It's hard to put a value on it. It may not be cost-effective, but if (the law) saves one life, it's probably worth it," he said. 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) Volume 42: Number 185 Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Fanning, Neal 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 Carrying Out Grady Bill Could Be Troublesome Subject The topic of the resource Gun control--United States Description An account of the resource Concerns arise about vagueness with gun control bill supposed to tighten background checks. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Pearce, Jeremy 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 1993-12-23 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 300 dpi 2 JPGs Language A language of the resource English Background Checks Federal Legislation Gun Control https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/c5f84b16aaa2c120f2935bb028fd214e.jpg c35abf6b6e41b46c6b47389d451bf5ea https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/e21445019fa62d5279a8ae193d9d9655.jpg 2299f9d6fcf5e894f21cbc24d68fb100 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 Vol. No./Issue No. Volume and issue number for the newspaper (if available) Vol. 41/ No. 159 Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Mesa, Drew Text Any textual data included in the document NORTH HAVERHILL- Haile Selassie Girmay, an Ethiopian man accused of murdering two Dartmouth College graduate students last year, may use an insanity defense when his trial begins in February. But that defense likely would be affected by a ruling issued yesterday that Girmay's taped confession to police can be used as evidence at his trial. Grafton County Superior Court Judge Peter W. Smith ruled yesterday that the two-hour recorded interview- in which Girmay, 33, confesses to killing the women and states how and why he did it- is admissible, despite defense protests that he didn't understand his rights as a suspect. The ruling will certainly affect how each side presents its case, especially since Girmay indicates on the tape that he had doubts about killing the women. To prove insanity, a defendant must show that he was not in a state of mind to appreciate that what he was doing was criminal. "The most widely used test is the inability to distinguish right from wrong," said Michael Mello, a criminal-law professor at Vermont Law School. Selamawit Tsehaye, who had been engaged to marry Girmay, and Trhas Berhe, her roommate, were discovered dead from ax wounds in their Summer Street apartment in Hanover on June 17, 1991. Screams from the apartment had prompted neighbors to call police, and when officers arrived, Girmay answered the door. According to police testimony given during a recent court hearing, Girmay shook hands with police at the door and said, "I killed them. I killed them both. I killed them both with an ax." It was not that statement, though, that Girmay's lawyers wanted suppressed. Rather, it was what he said to police late that day that public defenders George Ostler and James Moir did not want the jury to hear. Girmay says in that interview that he bought the ax about three days before the women were killed. He says he bought it on a whim shortly after Tsehaye told him she did not want to marry him after all. And he says on the tape that on the morning of June 17, he hesitated, prayed and waited in the early morning hours before killing the two women. Girmay, a former geophysics graduate student at Uppsala University in Sweden, has been housed in the Secure Psychiatric Unit of the New Hampshire State Prison since June of this year- a year after the homicides. He has been undergoing treatment with psychotropic drugs. "He was transferred to the unit for treatment of paranoid delusions which manifested themselves while he was housed at the (Grafton) county jail," his lawyers stated in court records. Moir and Ostler also state in court records that they plan to pursue the insanity defense. Neither Girmay's lawyers nor Assistant New Hampshire Attorneys General Mark Zuckerman and John A. Stephen would discuss how the insanity defense will be affected by use of the taped confession. "It's an important piece of evidence that can be presented to the jury so they will get a complete picture as to what happened," was the only thing Zuckerman would say. Under New Hampshire law, an insanity defense is known as an "affirmative defense," meaning that the defense must establish by a preponderance of evidence that the defendant was insane. It means the defense will present its case first at the trial. Normally, it is up to the state to carry the burden of proof, and the prosecution's case comes first. But there are no set standards in New Hampshire for determining what constitutes a successful insanity defense. Lawyers preparing such a defense look to a 1985 state Supreme Court ruling that says the defense must prove that a defendant is mentally ill and the crime is a product of that illness. "It is often difficult to ascertain if an individual has a mental disease and whether an act was the product of that disease," the court wrote. In the taped interview, Girmay says he is not a man who is quick to anger. "Even if I am angry, I don't express emotionally in most cases," he told police, according to a transcript of the interview. The transcript was made public for the first time yesterday. But when New Hampshire State Police Cpl. Wayne Fortier asks Girmay if he was hurt by Tsehaye's rejection, Girmay replies: "Of course, I have to be hurt-- I have to be hurt-- because it's-- I have been too fond of her." Girmay says on the tape that he did not set out to but the ax, but was passing by a hardware store, and saw it displayed in the wind. " I didn't go buy the ax-- but I saw the ax-- and I bought it because I was angry," he says. "I was angry, and I wanted to use it." Later in the interview he tells the police that he didn't want to use it, he just wanted to "show her that if she can punish me for a lifetime -- I can punish her with this -- not to kill her -- but to show her -- that I have also the power." At one point Hanover Police Detective Nicholas Giaccone asks Girmay why he did it. " I don't know," Girmay replies. " I was -- maybe her words that drove me to such unconscious -- state on unconscious." Girmay also told the officers that he waited at the door of the women's bedroom with the ax in his hand and watched as they slept. He said he went into another room and prayed to God, to keep him from committing the "sin." But then he said he returned to their room. "She waked up and she say I love you Haile," Girmay says toward the end of the tape. "After I beat her -- so she called her brother's name and then she said Haile I love you. "But it was done," Girmay says. " It was too late for her to change." 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 Girmay Ruling May Affect Use Of Insanity Defense Subject The topic of the resource New Hampshire Courts Criminal courts--United States Description An account of the resource Haile Selassie Girmay is a man accused of murdering two Dartmouth College students. He may use insanity as a defense, but that defense may be impacted by a ruling from Judge Peter Smith. Smith found that Girmay's taped confession will be permissible in court. This is despite the fact that Girmay may not have understood his rights during his confession. The suspect's insanity defense may prove difficult because the tape indicates that Girmay had doubts about the killings. A successful insanity defense must prove that the defendant was not in a proper state of mind, which the tape undermines. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Strohmeyer, Sarah 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 1992-12-10 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 New Hampshire Criminal Court Michael A. Mello New Hampshire New Hampshire Supreme Court https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/3a3f2ab371efbcedbda1e75cd2d2c6e7.jpg 246468f71fe289b3e61bba4dd82d4872 https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/15d49b05601869d9675647119a429750.jpg 4c0692b85fc295492882908ee7f79cff 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 jury's recent verdict acquitting four Los Angeles police officers of using excessive force on a black motorist has drawn a mixed reaction from local police and attorneys. All those interviewed agreed that if one were to judge the men by the infamous videotape, then they were guilty. But some of those interviewed said they did not know what other evidence was presented court, and believed that the jury system should be supported. I'll was not sitting on a jury for seven weeks. All I saw was 83 seconds of a tape," Woodstock Police Chief Byron Kelly said. But, judging from the videotape, Kelly said, "I would have thought they were guilty." Woodstock Attorney Tom Zonay agreed. A former police officer, Zonay believes the officers used excessive force against Rodney King. On the other hand, Zonay said that from the perspective of an attorney, he was obliged to respect the jury's decision. "I am a believer that you have to respect the system and the system sometimes makes decisions that many people are not pleased with," Zonay said. Slate Police Lt, Bruce Lang said this week that "All of us are shocked at the verdict" Lang said the verdict "sends a signal to the public that police officers can get away with that activity. There was no excuse for that." An all-white jury last week acquitted the officers of beating King in March 1991 following a high-speed chase. An amateur videotape of the beating was shown on television stations across the nation, creating an outcry over the tactics police used to subdue King. The verdict led to an orgy of rioting and looting in Los Angeles last week, resulting in the deaths of 58 people. Demonstrations were held in other cities across the United States. These demonstrations sometimes turned into in riots. Locally, a demonstration was staged by students at Dartmouth College. Michael Mello, a criminal law professor at the Vermont Law School, said the verdict was the result of the trial's location being moved from Los Angeles to Simi Valley. While Mello agreed with changing the trial's location, he said Simi Valley was' a poor choice because of its overwhelmingly white population. He said the jury should have been picked from an ethnically diverse area. Mello said the population of Simi was comprised of middle class whites who had fled Los Angeles. The jurors, according to Mello, were more inclined to believe a police officer than a victim of police brutality. Mello cases with the media. In this instance, however, Mello said "This verdict sickened me as a lawyer and as a citizen." Lang, said he too, was surprised that an all-white jury had been picked to decide the case. "I just don't understand that, especially in an area like Southern California," Lang said. Lang has been a police officer in Vermont for 15 years. In that time, he said he has never seen a single case of police using excessive force against anyone. As commander of the Bethel Barracks for the past five years, Lang has only received one complaint about an officer using excessive force to apprehend a suspect. Lang said the person who made the complaint was not the defendant in the case. Lang investigated the complaint and found that the officer was justified in using his nightstick to apprehend the suspect. Lang added that Vermont Slate troopers are taught never to strike defendants above the shoulders. U.S. Rep. Bernard Sanders criticized the 11-year Reagan- Bush presidential "reign" as the underlying cause behind the riots that resulted from the verdict. "During the same period as' the rich were getting richer, lower-income black workers saw their wages drop by 50 percent. The percentage of qualified his statements, saying that besides the videotape, he did not know what other evidence was presented to the jurors. For this reason, Mello said, he usually declines to discuss African-American fathers who did not earn enough at their jobs to keep their families out of poverty jumped from 25 to 40 percent,” Sanders said. He called for a “fundamental change in national priorities. 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 Verdict shocks Cops, Lawyers Subject The topic of the resource Police brutality--United States Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Brown, Julian P. 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. 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 Florida Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1992-05-07 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Vermont Standard Description An account of the resource A recent verdict has acquitted four Los Angeles police officers for using excessive force on a black motorist. This verdict has drawn a mixed reaction from local police and attorneys. https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/c20f9710978228eb79bb145aa4bbfe0e.jpg 03e70ce54f317559ac26b0a0e871f89e 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 [image] END OF THE LINE: Los Angeles police form a line to prevent a crowd from going into a building Thursday. National Guard troops moved in Thursday to seize control of neighborhoods torn by riots. [image] LOOTING SUSPECTS: Police stand over handcuffed looting suspects in Los Angeles on Thursday. Looters plundered businesses and torched buildings in brazen daytime assaults. SOUTH ROYALTON --- Convicting a police officer of a crime is a hard thing for a jury to do, Vermont Law School professor Michael Mello said Thursday. But Mello, who teaches criminal procedure and said he specializes in “the general issue of regulating police behavior,” was nonetheless surprised Wednesday when a jury found four Los Angeles Police officers innocent of charges in the beating of motorist Rodney King. “I was stunned by the verdict,” Mello said Thursday. “My jaw just dropped. When I had heard earlier that they were deadlocked on all counts but one, I had assumed that they were ready to convict.” Mello’s personal reaction to the jury’s decision was tempered, though, with a professorial view of the jury’s job. “You need to be careful about trashing the jury’s verdict without knowing what they had in front of them,” he said. “They had a responsibility to view the evidence, listen to witnesses and then make judgements about the credibility of what they see and hear. “On the other hand, you had an all white jury making those credibility judgements.” Rodney King is black. The four officers charged in his beating are white. Police on trial, Mello said, begin with a built-in advantage. “Juries identify with cops,” he said. “They tend not to identify with the victims of police brutality, especially in the case of someone who is not clearly an innocent victim.” 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. Lindsey, Megan 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 Verdict 'stuns' Vt. law professor Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Hacker, Tom Subject The topic of the resource Verdicts King, Rodney Description An account of the resource Michael Mello gives his thoughts on the jury’s verdict of the Los Angeles police officers who beat Rodney King, who were found innocent. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Tom Hacker, “Verdict 'stuns' Vt. law professor,” HIST298, https://hist299.umwhistory.org/admin/items/show/142. 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 1992-05-01 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 300 DPI 1 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 Los Angeles, CA 1992 Los Angeles Los Angeles Police Rodney King Verdict Vermont https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/af51f244efea02e72873386d4af6458a.jpg b2f4aa19320ba9185a1f34b8ca0ef6c6 https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/260e3ed6d498cea5c0e334c1b07d0fa7.jpg 04cae11e9289139d9ef8332b708a11d1 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 Hartford – When Windsor County State’s Attorney Patricia Zimmerman decided not to prosecute a high-profile unlawful trespass case last month, she said her decision was made “in deference to the privacy rights of the witnesses.” The fact that some of the witnesses in the case were lesbians influenced her decision, she said. Was her reasoning legitimate? Legal? Unprecedented? Yes, yes and no, legal and police experts say. “She is well within statutory authority to make that decision,” said Tom Torti, executive director of the Vermont Department of State’s Attorneys and Sheriffs. “The privacy rights of an individual is as legitimate a reason for not bringing a case as is any other reason.” Two police officers interviewed for this story said they had occasionally heard privacy rights of victims and witnesses cited as reasons not to prosecute in cases that involve children or allegations of aggravated sexual assault. State’s attorneys have a remarkable degree of latitude in deciding whether to prosecute a case, and they needn’t explain their reasons either, said professor Michael Mello of Vermont Law School in South Royalton. The seemingly simple question of “Was the law broken?”is complicated by a number of other factors. Can the state prove its case? Does the alleged lawbreaker endanger the public safety? Given state budget cuts, is prosecution the best use of limited staff resources? What is the severity of the charge, and is prosecution worth the effort? “Having ongoing relationships with not just the police, but the public in general are legitimate factors that oftentimes come into the charging equation,” Mello said. “The wants and needs of the victims as well as the wants and needs of third parties, especially, in this case, of innocent witnesses,” he said, explaining that his information about this case comes from news accounts. “At least as told by the Valley News . . . this may not have been your everyday, normal trespass case,” Mello said. “If sexual orientation was an issue or potential issue in the trial, given the general homophobic nature of U.S. culture, (non-prosecution) makes sense to me.” Although a reluctant witness can be compelled by the court to testify, such a witness may be hostile and unhelpful, Torti said. The unlawful trespass charge stemmed from an evening last December when Georgina Forbes of Thetford and Susan Aranoff of Randolph went to the Howard Johnson’s junction with a group of (Continued on page 5) – DECISION friends, one of whom, a 39-year-old woman, lacked identification. Aranoff and Forbes unsuccessfully tried to persuade the bartender to let the woman in. Hartford police – five of them – were called to settle the ensuing dispute. During the subsequent arrest, Aranoff said she was shoved savagely to the floor. Aranoff and Forbes claim they were discriminated against by the bar because some in their party were lesbians. The bar denies it. The women further say the police acted unreasonably and violently during the arrest, accusations the police have consistently denied. Zimmerman sided with the police in her statement announcing her decision not to prosecute. “The Hartford Police Department acted appropriately and according to protocol,” she wrote, adding that prosecution would not serve the public good. She said yesterday that she stands by her decision. Mello analyzed Zimmerman’s decision thus: “The police are vindicated and the folks who are arrested are vindicated. At least on its face, it’s a compromise that I think had the political benefit of giving the various constituencies some of what they wanted, maybe not all. Politically, she was probably in a no-win situation.” Only one of the police officers involved in the incident could be reached for comment. Patrlman David Hedley said he was neither frustrated by nor triumphant about the case’s outcome. “If I were to get upset about all the cases that don’t get what I think they should get, I’d go nutty,” he said. “As soon as it’s out of my hands, I try to forget about it. “I don’t see that there is vindication involved,” he continued. “I just see that the truth came out. The facts were investigated by an independent body and it led to everything that my department has asserted in the first place. “I’ve been in law enforcement close to 11 years. I know the level of my conduct and am satisfied with my conduct. I don’t worry about what anybody else says, what the press says, what the victims say. I know I guided myself in a proper manner and according to our guidelines and regulations.” But if that arresting officer wasn’t frustrated, at least one former police officer was. In a letter to the Valley News, Hartford resident Frank Dupree implied that Zimmerman was pressured by a special interest group to back down. Tom Nelson, past president of the Vermont Police Association, who read about the case in the media, said it “popped” into his mind that “political” considerations might have influenced Zimmerman’s decision. “Most people don’t want for political groups to affect the courts’ work,” Nelson said. “The court should be looking for the truth. The issue should basically be the incident that occurred and the laws that were broken.” But Torti dismissed the notion that politics might have played a role. “Pat (Zimmerman) has a reputation in the state for being a very tough prosecutor. If you look at her record as a prosecutor and as a state’s attorney, clearly she hasn’t shied away from tough cases,” he said. Aranoff, who is an attorney, said she doesn’t accept Zimmerman’s stated reason for not pursuing the case, although she was glad that the charge was dropped. Aranoff said that the lesbian witnesses are her friends and she knows they weren’t concerned about their privacy. Aranoff, who is lesbian, speculated that Zimmerman wanted to show her sensitivity to the gay community by raising the privacy rights issue because she realized that otherwise her support for the police would be interpreted as insensitivity to homosexuals. “I think the state’s attorney was looking for a way out but the reason given doesn’t fly,” Aranoff said. Zimmerman said yesterday that wile some witnesses didn’t necessarily have a problem testifying, “it’s a matter of what collateral effect that process might have.” She declined to comment on Dupree’s letter, saying he is entitled to his opinion and that it was based solely on news accounts. 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 Zimmerman's Decision Not Groundbreaking Subject The topic of the resource Gay rights Discrimination Homophobia Description An account of the resource Windsor County State's Attorney Patricia Zimmerman dropped a case that involved prosecuting a group charged with trespassing after having been denied entrance into bar because of the sexual orientation of their party. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gutkowski, Sophia 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 1992-04-14 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 Windsor County, Vermont Court decisions and opinions. Gay and lesbian studies. Privacy--United States. Windsor County (Vt.). County Court https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/5fe4ea7bd534b6bde57c15ed3cd63a9e.jpg 4b06102c8dd40898dd3ad057257f67c5 https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/20bf2d566faeb61a3ad42ac5b89b641c.jpg b880fe8945e78a1c12f7f15e7e139547 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 Two state prosecutors have dusted off an old tool -- the grand jury -- to help them determine whether homicide charges should be filed in five recent cases. Some see the grand jury as a rubber stamp for a prosecutor who wants to justify a charge. Others see it as a way for prosecutors to tap community sentiment in deciding standards of conduct. Either way both State’s Attorneys William Sorrell in Chittenden County and Howard Vanbenthuysen in Franklin county say they won’t hesitate to use grand juries again. Sorrell used it four times in recent weeks. The results: one indictment for first-degree murder; four indictments for manslaughter, and one finding of justifiable homicide. VanBenthuysen used it last week to obtain a manslaughter indictment. Supporters if the system say grand juries give prosecutors an independent sounding board on the validity of charges. The process allows for review by a neutral party of cases that could be seen as politically motivated or sensitive. While a deputy prosecutor, VanBenthuysen helped in a 1985 Franklin county grand jury that reviewed alleged police misconduct. Critics contend that a prosecutor can lead a grand jury to an intended conclusion. No judge is present when a grand jury convenes, and prosecutors may present what information they choose. Robert Andres, who represents a Burlington man indicted by a grand jury, last week was critical of Sorrell for spending time and money to seek the three manslaughter indictments when the State’s Attorney’s Office had authority to file the charges. Grand jurors are paid $30 per day and 25 cents per mile for their services -- the rate of pay for a trial juror. Others note grand juries have enormous power because they may subpoena additional witnesses and start investigations into new cases. Grand jurors, unlike jurors at trials, may ask questions during the closed-door sessions. Defense lawyer Peter Langrock, who served on an American Bar Association grand jury reform committee, said the intent of the grand jury was good. “Historically grand juries were meant to act as a buffer between the … prosecutors and the rights of the individual,” Langrock said/ “As of late they have turned out not to fulfill that function but to be a mere tool of the prosecution.” He said the system is difficult for defendants because a lawyer is not allowed at the hearing. “If you’re representing somebody who’s subpoenaed … as a target you have to make a choice whether to let them go in on their own or refuse to let them testify. Neither solution is a very good one,” Langrock said. Langrock refused grand jury testimony by his client Robert Bizon of Clarendon, who was charged in the shooting death of a teen-ager Bizon caught in his garage. The grand jury indicted Bizon, but he was found innocent Thursday in Rutland Superior court. Abuses seen elsewhere Professor Michael Mello of the Vermont Law School said he has seen grand jury abuses in Florida while a public defender and in Washington, D.C., as a private lawyer. Since arriving in Vermont, however, he said he has been impressed by what appears to be the independence of Vermonters serving on grand juries. “My neighbors would not be swayed by a prosecutor,” said Mello, who noted indictments do not appear to be automatic in Vermont. Burlington attorney Norm lais knows what Mello means. After a grand jury refused to issue an indictment in October for a homicide, Blais praised Sorrell for his handling of the case. Burlington lawyer Jerome F. O’Neill, who worked in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for 8 ½ years, said indictments are not automatic, even in the federal system. He said he could recall at least two cases where the government thought an indictment was worthy, but the grand jurors refused to indict. VanBenthuysen said it makes little sense for a prosecutor to manipulate the grand jury. If a conviction cannot be obtained, why bring an indictment? He asked. A grand jury in state court normally consists of 18 to 23 residents from the county where an alleged crime occurred. At least 12 have to agree on any decision. A grand jury decides whether charges should be brought after hearing sworn testimony behind closed doors. It may determine how serious the charge will be -- first-degree murder, second-degree murder, or manslaughter. Thomas Lehner, the Vermont Court administrator, said the grand jury is still in use in some states, but many abandoned the system because of abuses in the 1940s and ‘50s. In Vermont, grand juries fell into disuse years ago The last to go were those concerning homicides; They disappeared a dozen years ago. The grand jury was created in the United States with the ratification if the Fifth amendment 200 years ago this month. Grand juries were important in Vermont’s early days because state’s attorneys weren’t always lawyers, according to Albert Barney, retired chief justice of the Vermont Supreme Court. The grand jurors saw themselves as having equal power, Barney said. Other values O’neill said there is a positive side-effect to grand juries. He said he found that grand jurors came away with a better understanding and a deeper appreciation for the criminal justice system. “They also get an understanding about the extent of crime in Vermont,” O’Neill said. The grand jury provides a valuable way to obtain or preserve testimony. “It was a very legitimate way to obtain testimony from those who did want to testify,” O’Neill said. He said witnesses may be subpoenaed if they refuse to speak to investigators. The testimony is provided under oath, thus exposing the witnesses to a perjury charge if they lie. O’Neill said the grand jurors can tell you if you have a problem or a hole in your case. Jurors take on homicides The grand jury actions in Vermont Superior Court during the past three months include -Sept. 12: A first-degree murder charge against Rebecca S. Durenleau, 39, of Franklin. She is accused of aiding a boyfriend in the killing of her husband outside an Essex Junction bar. She allegedly assisted Harmon Olmstead by setting up Michael Durenleau to be killed July 12, 1985, outside Veronica's Tavern on Park Street. -Oct. 1: An involuntary manslaughter charge against Rebecca Anne Emmons, 18, of Burlington in the May death of her 11 1/2 -month-old baby. Scot A. Bombard Jr. died in the Medical Center Hospital of Vermont for a head injury. -Oct. 30: A ruling of justifiable homicide in the June 15 fatal shooting of John Darling, 20, said he shot his older brother by accident. He said he was trying to protect his 14-year-old brother, Joel, from John Darling. The jury voted 15-5 that it was not a criminal act. -Dec. 4: Three involuntary manslaughter charges against Stephen Converse Brooks, 37, of Pearl Street in connection with the carbon monoxide poisoning of three people at his former home in December 1988. The indictment came less than a week before the statute of limitations would have expired. A pregnant woman, Linda Cifarelli, 26, her husband, John, 34, and their daughter, Nina, 23 months, were found dead in the house Dec. 10, 1988. -Dec. 5: An involuntary manslaughter charge against Brain Draper, 1, of Highgate for the Oct. 17 fatal shooting of a Franklin County farmhand. Michael Pigeon, 16, was shot in the head at the farm off Tarte Road in Highgate. 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. Goad, Samuel 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 Grand Jury Sees Action Description An account of the resource In recent months, the court system in the state of Vermont has seen a revival of the Grand jury. While the practice of calling for a Grand jury is legitimate, some question whether affording the prosecution such a powerful tool to indict does not overstep the boundaries of prosecutorial misconduct. Several lawyers, officers, and experts argue the implications of this new wave of Grand jury indictments. 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 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Burlington, VT Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Donoghue, Mike Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The Burlington Free Press Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1991-08-12 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 2 JPGs 300 DPI Subject The topic of the resource Grand jury--United States Legal aid Prosecutorial misconduct https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/52494e485716d967b479f0c8406024c7.jpg f12f0ae9883b922756a309cb101638d6 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. Lockett, Darron Notes Additional information regarding your item. This content will not be viewable in the Public View. No newspaper publisher available. No exact date is explicitly listed, but context in the article (twelve years after Ferbuary 1979) places the article around 1991, with the month and day remaining open to speculation. Present information in the metadata claims the publisher is The Miami Herald, but that data is not present in the article. Text Any textual data included in the document RICHMOND, Va. – Let me ask a favor. Take a couple of minutes, if you will, to read a letter from Joe Giarratano. He is on death row in Virginia’s prison at Boydton. On Oct. 1, the Supreme Court turned down his last appeal. His legal roads have run out. If Gov. Doug Wilder refuses to interview, Joe will be executed before the end of the year. By way of background: On the unchallenged record, Joe Giarratano was the product of a sordid childhood. He had a limited high school education. Those facts do not excuse, but they help explain. In February 1979, Giarratano was 21 years old, a drug addict, a drunkard, a drifter working on a fish boat out of Newport News. No man is worthless in the eyes of God, but in 1979, Joe was right at the bottom of the heap. The ugly details of the crime are now irrelevant. Joe was charged and convicted of the rape-murder of a 15-year-old girl and the murder of her mother. The only evidence against him came from five separate confessions he signed in the hours immediately after the arrest. The confessions were internally inconsistent; they smacked of police coaching. Following a brief non-jury trial, a judge sentenced him to death. That was almost 12 years ago. He has been in prison ever since. He has spent his time studying law and remaking his life. I learned of the case three years ago. I spent hours reading the record and came away deeply troubled. I am not sure whether Joe is guilty; I am not sure he is innocent; but I have spent 50 years covering courts and I am certain of this: He was not convicted beyond a reasonable doubt. Now to the letter. It is dated Oct. 7, 1990: “I truly appreciate the efforts you have made on my behalf, and for bring my plight to the attention of the public through your columns. Knowing that folks really care has been a real boon for my morale. “Overall I am holding up well, and I remain hopeful. The news from the U.S. Supreme Court came as no surprise, though it is a terribly frustrating to see that procedural default mechanisms can outweigh the truth-finding process in such an obdurate fashion. Even though I understand the judiciary’s frustrations with capital cases, I really find it impossible to reconcile that imbalance with the constitution (state or federal). The ball is now in the governor’s court, and I can only hope that he will exercise his executive authority. “In the meanwhile my chin is up, and I keep fairly busy. I’ve recently completed and article for the Yale Law journal (‘A Cautionary Tale; Fallibility vs. Finality’). It is in the final editing stages. And I am in the process of co-authoring another law review with Professor Mike Mellow (Vermont Law School). The subject is the ‘forgotten’ Ninth Amendment of our Constitution. “Early in November, 50 law students from Georgetown and Maryland will be coming to the prison, and I plan to talk with them about the ninth Amendment and Lockean political theory and its role in the formation of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. I’ve given two talks like this in the past, and I was amazed to discover how little is known about the historical underpinnings of the Constitution. Amazed isn’t the proper word because my ignorance was on par with theirs until just a couple of years ago. “Anyway, I have rambled on enough. I simply wanted to send you a note of thanks. If things work out for me I hope we can one day meet. Please do not feel obliged to respond to this letter. I know that you are a busy man. Be well, and keep telling it like it is.” A personal note: I am not opposed to the death sentence. Given a killer in the weird mold of Ted Bundy, I see no reason for society to keep such a monster alive. The prospect of capital punishment may not be a deterrent to rape or murder – I doubt that it is, but that issue defies resolution. In truly heinous cases, a death sentence out to be available to a jury as an option. But let me ask: what would be the point in killing Joe Giarratano now? In all of my instincts, I am a man of the law. The judgments of a court ought not to be flouted. But Joe was convicted 12 years ago by a single trial judge on evidence of doubtful reliability. The confused, suicidal drug addict of 1979 is gone. In his place one finds a young man with a good mind and healthy outlook on life. How would killing him avenge the victims or sustain respect for judicial process? Some useful purpose ought to be served by putting Joe to death. I see no useful purpose and all. 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 Senseless Punishment Demands Justice Subject The topic of the resource Capital punishment Description An account of the resource Columnist James Kilpatrick writing on death row inmate Joe Giarratano's court case; questioning conviction. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kilpatrick, James 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 1991 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 300 DPI 1 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 Law, Human Rights, Capital Punishment, Supreme Court Cases 1979 1991 capital punishment Human Rights Supreme Court 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/8a511095d19e3fde76afbbd768ab042e.jpg bbae588c2ddf046545cd601a100865f9 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 A letter from death row Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Subject The topic of the resource The prospect of capital punishment Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Newspaper Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 1 jpg. Language A language of the resource English 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 Let me ask a favor. Take a couple of minutes, if you will, to read a letter from Joe Giarratano. He is on death row in Virginia’s prison at Boydton. On Oct. 1 the Supreme Court turned down his last appeal. His legal roads have run out. If Gov. Doug Wilder refuses to intervene, Joe will be executed before the end of the year. By way of background: On the unchallenged record, Joe Giarratano was the product of a sordid childhood. He had a limited high school education. Those facts do not excuse, but they help to explain. In February 1979, when this sad chapter began, Giarratano was 21 years old, a drug addict, a drunkard, and a drifter working on a fish boat. The ugly details of the crime are now irrelevant. Joe was charged and convicted of the rape-murder of a 15-year-old girl and the murder of her mother. The only evidence against him came from five separate confessions he signed in the hours immediately after the arrest. The confessions were internally inconsistent: they smacked of police coaching. Following a brief non-jury trial, a judge sentenced him to death. That was almost 12 years ago. He has been spent his time studying law and remaking his life. I learned of the case three years ago. I spent hours reading the record and came away deeply troubled. I’m not sure Joe is guilty: I’m not sure he is innocent; but I’ve spent 50 years covering courts and I am certain of this: He was not convicted beyond a reasonable doubt. Now to the letter. It is dated Oct. 8, 1990: “I truly appreciate the efforts you have made on my behalf, and for bringing my plight to the attention of the public through your columns. Knowing that folks really care has been boon for my morale.” “Overall I am holding up well, and I remain hopeful. The news from the U.S. Supreme Court came as a surprise, though it is terribly frustrating to see that procedural default mechanisms can outweigh the truth-finding process in such obdurate fashion.” “Even though I understand the judiciary’s frustration with the capital cases, I really find it impossible to reconcile that imbalance with the Constitution (state or federal). The ball is now in the governor’s court, and I can only hope that he will exercise his executive authority.” “In the meanwhile my chin is up, and I keep fairly busy. I’ve recently completed an article for the Yale Law Journal. It is in the final editing stages. And I in the process of co-authoring another law review with Professor Mike Mello (Vermont Law School). The subject is the ‘forgotten’ Ninth Amendment of our Constitution.” “Early in November, 50 law students from Georgetown and Maryland will be coming to the prison, and I plan to talk to them about the Ninth Amendment and Lockean political theory and its role in the formation of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.” “I’ve given two talks like this in the past, and I was amazed to discover how little is known about the historical underpinnings of the Constitution.” A personal note: I am not opposed to the death sentence. Given a killer in the weird mold of Ted Bundy, I see no reason for society to keep such a monster alive. The prospect of capital punishment may not be a deterrent to rape or murder – I doubt that it is, but that issue defies resolution. In truly heinous cases, a death sentence ought to be available to a jury as an option. But let me ask: what would be the point in killing Joe Giarratano now? In all my instincts I am a man of the law. But Joe was convicted 12 years ago by a single trial judge on evidence of doubtful reliability. The confused, suicidal drug addict of 1979 is gone. In his place one finds a young man with a good mind and a healthy outlook on life. How would killing him avenge the victims or sustain respect for judicial process? Some useful purpose ought to be served by putting Joe to death. I see no useful purpose at all. Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Hunter-Sowers, Ruby 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 A letter from death row Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kilpatrick, James K 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. Subject The topic of the resource Capital punishment Description An account of the resource A newspaper article regarding capital punishment which includes a letter written by death row inmate Joe Giarratano. The Ninth Amendment is referenced addressing constitutional law and the existence of "unenumerated" rights outside those expressly protected by the Bill of Rights. Giarratano references in his letter the Lokean political theory which provides additional inquiry. Columnist James K. Kilpatrick expresses concern with the brief, non-jury trial, Giarratano had along with a case for reasonable doubt. Language A language of the resource English Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1990-10-08 capital punishment Joe Giarratano Joseph Giarratano Mike Mello Ninth amendment https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/ddd8b810aa9b1c0257a185eb73c81ea3.jpg 437c0f4bcd01a189dfc1106144026903 https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/de7ef593840f8d9a08a767c458ee2efd.jpg 0e1a266dae62230697bb9923702dddd7 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. – Small wonder that Joseph M. Giarrantano was feeling depressed. He had just spent another sleepless night on death row composing the arguments that he hoped would keep him from the electric chair. With his last appeal coming up before the U.S. Supreme Court, Giarratano, 33, a convicted murderer and legal scholar whose case has become and international causee celebre, is increasingly haunted by his impending execution. “It’s not so much that I’m scared to die,” Giarratano said as he sat handcuffed in a visiting cell at the Mecklenburg Correctional Center last week. “But the whole death ritual – of being moved into this cell, strapped into a chair, and fried to death – that’s frightening, and I don’t know how I’m going to deal with that.” Two factors make Giarratano’s case unusual. The first is the former junkie’s transformation into a respected jailhouse lawyer who has won important prisoners’ rights cases and serves as a consultant to lawyers in capital cases nationwide. The second is the discovery of evidence that casts doubt on Giarratano’s guilt in the murder of a 44-year-old Norfolk woman and the rape and murder of her 15-year-old daughter – evidence the courts have declined to consider because of procedural technicalities. The result, Giarratano’s supporters fear, is that a possibly innocent man – whose rehabilitation is virtually unquestioned – may be put to death. “It would be an extraordinary tragedy, really just an incredible loss – personally to me, but really to the legal community and to Virginia,” said Michael A. Mello, an assistant professor at Vermont Law School in South Royalton, Vt. “Joe is a person who has made one of the most remarkable metamorphoses of any person I have ever known,” said Richard H. Burr 3d of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, one of Giarratano’s lawyers. “I don’t know of another case that has gone to the Supreme Court that presents more serious questions about innocence.” But Bert L. Rohrer, a spokesperson for Virginia Attorney General Mary Sue Terry, who has successfully opposed Giarratano’s bid for a new trial, said last week that rehabilitation was “really not an issue to us.” “We have taken the position… that there is no new evidence,” only “old evidence in new wrapping,” he said. Giarratano, a sometime scallopboat worker who says he spent years in a cocaine- and Dilaudad-inducaed haze, fled to Florida and turned himself in to Jacksonville police in 1979. He said he had found Barbara Kline, known as Toni, and her daughter, Michelle, dead in the apartment that he shared with them and believed he had committed the murders. Giarratano gave police five conflicting confessions and turned down an offer of a life sentence in return for a guilty plea because he felt he deserved to be executed. Despite a suicide attempt, he was judged competent to stand trial, convicted and sentenced to death after a morning long, non-jury trial. Giarratano, who was given the powerful tranquilizer Thorazine by prison authorities, said he had little will to live and kept dropping his appeals. In 1983, tormented by voices in his head, he let himself come within 24 hours of being electrocuted. “I had just given up completely. [I believed] I was rotten, evil, sick individual, and I deserved to die,” he said. “What I didn’t count on happening was Marie Deans.” Deans, now executive director of Virginia Coalition on Jails and Prisons, which provides legal assistance to indigent inmates, told Giarratano that his life “was worth living, that I was worth something,” he said. “That’s something I had never heard from anybody.” As Deans gained his trust, he revealed horrific details of his childhood in Jacksonville. “Both myself and my sister were sexually abused by my stepfather. Both of us were physically abused by my mother,” Giarratano said last week. “And the abuse was rough – she would use things like cattle prods. I got the hell beat out of me with a steel-handled broom for buying the wrong brand of potato chips.” By age 11, he had begun a descent into alcohol and drug addition. He quit school in the eight or ninth grade. At 15, after slashing his wrists and attempting a drug overdose, her was hospitalized, he said. At 17, to punish him for escaping from reform school, Giarratano was sent to prison, where he had a brief encounter – with his natural father, also a junkie. His father offered to help him obtain more drugs, he said. By 21, he was in Virginia, living with the Klines. One day, he awoke in the apartment and went to the bathroom. “And that’s when I saw them – Toni laying in the bathroom. There was just blood splattered everywhere,” he said. Giarratano says he has never had any memory of killing the Klines. Nor did he have a motive. But, believing he must have been the perpetrator, he made up the confessions and managed to convince the authorities of his guilt, he said. With conseling and encouragement from Deans, Giarratano has come into his own as a person and as a legal scholar. In Giarratano v. Bass, he obtained for prisoners the right to confidential communications with their lawyers and paralegals. In Murray v. Giarratano, he won a decision guaranteeing inmates the right to counsel after their first round of appeals. The ruling was struck down last year by the U.S. Supreme Court, 5-4. But it was not until last year that Giarratano became convinced of his innocence in the Kline murders. Deans, with the backing of a German art gallery owner who had heard of the case, had hired an investigator to explore Giarratano’s past. The investigator returned with doubts about his guilt. Now, Giarratano and his attorneys argue that physical evidence on the scene – bloody footprints, unidentified pubic hairs, fingerprints – points away from Giarratano. They say Michelle Kline was strangled by a right-handed person, while Giarratano is left-handed. At the very least, they argue, Giarratano was incompetent to stant trial. And they say they have unearthed a more likely suspect – a boyfriend of Barbara Kline’s with a felony record that includes sexual violence against women. So far, however, the authorities have declined to pursue the matter. “I didn’t want to hear anything about innocence,” said Giarratano. “Now, it seems like all of this has been a lie….It’s all premised on my accepting responsibility for something I didn’t do.” Still, Giarratano is facing death – as early as June, he says, unless the Supreme Court orders a new trial or Virginia Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, a one-time death penalty opponent, commutes his sentence. Meanwhile, Amnesty International has taken up his case. And ever since 1986 British television documentary featuring him, Giarratano has received increasing press attention – first in Europe, then in the U.S. media, and, finally in Virginia, where editorialists across the state are calling for a new trial. Lawrence C. Lawless, who prosecuted Giarratano, remains convinced of his guilt. “If they needed a volunteer to push the button, I’d do it off-duty on the weekend,” he has told Richmond Times-Dispatch. With his final appeal brief due April 24, Giarratano said he was almost afraid the think of a life outside of prison, which might include law school and a career as public-interest lawyer. “I was doing better,” he said. “Now, I’m really feeling the pressure.” Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Mocarski, Casey 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 He's a jailhouse lawyer-and a condemned man Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Language A language of the resource English Subject The topic of the resource Death row Joseph Giarratano Jailhouse lawyer Description An account of the resource With new evidence, a man on death row may be released. He was convicted of the murder and rape of two women, confessed, and has withdrawn his confession to pursue his innocence. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource The Philadelphia Inquirer Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1990-04-08 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 Giarratano Jailhouse lawyer Joseph Joseph Giarratano Kline murders