Let's face it, even by contemporary US standards, both Florida and Texas have a ruthless and callous record on human rights issues. To start with, both states lead the nation, in numbers of people on death row; in numbers of people executed, and in numbers of innocent people, wrongly convicted. Add to that list: abuse of power by TSA agents, and Taser happy police.
Could it be the influence of the Bush Brothers? After all, the Bush family is notoriously known for its historic abuse of power. However, Texas and Florida were not exactly panaceas for humanitarians before the Bush brothers assumed leadership.
Anyway, once again, the state of Florida provides a shining example for all. Meg McClain spoke out about TSA abuse and "random" selection and the almighty TSA agents from Hell called in twelve police officers, and seven TSA agents; handcuffed her to a chair; gave her a 30-minute lecture on terrorism, and ripped up her plane ticket! Then, this poor girl, who couldn't even put on her shoes, was escorted out of the airport by 19 thugs security officials.
"Paul had no idea about anything other than hanging out with me and Alessi when he came with us. --- ...5 months later I pleaded guilty... I admitted to it, the champagne bottle and all." -- Richard Kondian
If after reading about Paul William Scott's life, you don't feel at least a tinge of existential guilt, or moral outrage, you never will.
From the moment Scott was born - with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome - saying the odds were stacked against is clearly an understatement, for that was just the beginning of a long journey marked with continuous tragedy.
Scott's formative/developmental years consisted of physical, sexual and emotional abuse by a father who abandoned him at 7-years of age. After his father left, things got even worse as he spent the next decade subject to the ravages of living in the ghettos of Long Beach, CA with a mother who could barely take care of herself, let alone her children, one of them with a significant disability. So, the abuse continued, only it was compounded by poverty and Scott's growing dependence on drugs (Since the age of 7 Paul was hooked on drugs: first legal (thorazine), then illegal (heroin)).
Finally, at the age of 21, having no money, no friends or family, and nowhere to go, Scott left California to look for his father in Florida which turned out to be a big mistake. His father threw him out after Scott refused to allow his father to molest his girlfriend, Bernadine. Once again, Scott found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time and with the wrong people.
In 1979, 22-year old Scott met 18-year old drug user, Richard Kondian. Together, one night, they went to visit drug user/dealer, James Alessi in West Palm - a man that Kondian had met the night before - to use and purchase drugs.
While Scott was lying down in another part of Alessi's house, Kondian claims a naked Alessi tried to rape him. Scott heard Kondian’s cry for help and rushed to his side, where both men tried to beat Alessi off of him but Alessi, much bigger than either Scott or Kondian would not stop. Kondian then smashed him with a bottle, leaving Alessi dead.
Kondian, on the other hand, hired David Ross, the country’s top criminal defense attorney in the 1970s, pleaded guilty to second degree murder, received 45 years in prison and served 14 years before being released in 1994.
During the struggle, Kondian cut his hand with the cork wire from the bottle, and a circle of blood from the bottle was left at the murder scene. At Scott's trial, the prosecution withheld this blood evidence. Two witnesses to the murder have also come forward to exonerate Scott. In addition, upon being informed of these irrefutable truths, nine of Scott’s former jurors have expressed shock and dismay in being misled, lied to and tricked into coming forward with a guilty verdict and a death sentence. Eight of these jurors signed sworn statements.
Fr. Ed McElduff
Below is a song written by Bob Pauley, who also wrote a book about the case entitled A Circle of Blood.
A PRISONER'S LAMENT
It's been two years since I've felt the light of day
When that judge said you've a lifetime boy to pay
The view here from my prison cell is but an empty wishing well
For me to wish this wasted life away
Cause I'm here for murder in the first degree
And yet a spark of hope still flickers inside me
For with that jury's final word I swear the truth was never heard
Do I die tonight or will they set me free
Oh, I could climb these walls to freedom and escape this deathly place
But then I'd know no one would listen, deaf ears still haunt my case
Past the guards' eternal rounds, the barbed wire and barking hounds
But what's the good of freedom if I can't show my face
I was guilty in their eyes before my plea
Yes the governor made it clear with his decree
The lights grow dim they test the chair, the smell of death is in the air
But I'm innocent! And that's what's killing me
Oh, I could climb these walls to freedom and escape this deathly place
But then I'd know no one would listen, deaf ears still haunt my case
Past the guards' eternal rounds, the barbed wire and barking hounds
But my name would still be whispered and I couldn't show my face
It's been two years since I've felt the light of day
When the judge said you've a lifetime boy to pay
The lights grow dim they test the chair,
the smell of death now fills the air
But I'm innocent! And that's what's killing me
I'm innocent! And that's what's killing me
I'm innocent! And that's what's killing me
Copyright 1980 Bob Pauley Music
There are no wealthy murderers on death row. Over 90% of defendants charged with capital crimes are indigent and cannot afford an experienced criminal defense attorney. They are forced to use inexperienced, underpaid and overworked lawyers who, many times do not even meet theminimum standard of qualifications.
Juan Ramos grew up in Cuba and came to Florida in the 1980 Mariel boat lift. Within a year, he was married, and working in a steel factory. In June 1982, police arrested him for raping and murdering Sue Cobb, 27, who lived a block away. There was no physical evidence that linked Ramos to the homicide, but the police dog, after sniffing an empty pack of Ramos' cigarettes, and subsequently put in a room with five knives and five blouses, stopped at blouse No. 5, the victim's bloody blouse, then licked knife No. 3, the bloody knife that had killed her. However, only that knife and that blouse had blood on them, which only proved that the dog liked blood. That was enough for a jury to convict Ramos, who barely spoke English, and for a judge to overrule its recommendation of life and sentence him to death.
In October 1985, 20/20 exposed the unreliability of scent-tracking dogs, including the German shepherd that put Ramos behind bars. The dogs and their trainer, several times, identified suspects who were innocent.
In August 1986, the Florida Supreme Court granted Ramos a new trial because of the prosecution's improper use of evidence and at retrial, Ramos was acquitted. O n April 24, 1987, after spending five years on death row, where he learned to speak English, Ramos walked out a free man.
Anthony Ray Peek was twice convicted of murder and sentenced to death, the first time, on May 3, 1978 for the rape and strangulation of a Winter Haven nurse, despite witnesses who supported his alibi. The white judge who presided over the trial demonstrated prejudgments when he said,
"Since the nigger mom and dad are here anyway, why don't we go ahead and do the penalty phase today instead of having to subpoena them back at the cost of the state." [Debating the Death Penalty, p. 87]
Peeks remained on death row in Florida for nine years, from 1978 until 1987.
It was later shown that the prosecution's expert witness had lied about test results and that the hair found at the scene did not match Peek's hair. His conviction was overturned and he was acquitted at his third retrial in 1987.
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Delbert Tibbs, was born in what he describes as Apartheid Mississippi, before the coming of "the King and Mrs. Parks". He moved to Chicago at the age of twelve with his widowed mother. He attended Southeast City college and Chicago Theological Seminary. After dropping out in 1972, Delbert began what he has described as his "Wilderness Experience", walking around the U.S.A.
Mr. Tibbs, who was a black theological student at the time of his arrest, was sentenced to death for the rape of a sixteen-year-old white girl and the murder of her companion.
He was convicted by an all-white jury on the testimony of the female victim whose testimony was uncorroborated and inconsistent with her first description of her assailant. The conviction was overturned by the Florida Supreme Court because the verdict was not supported by the weight of the evidence
Wilbert Lee and Freddie Pitts were beaten, denied legal counsel, and threatened with death if they didn't sign "confessions" for the 1963 robbery and murder of two Port St. Joe gas station attendants.
Within 28 days, an all white jury, white judge, white prosecutor, white policeman -- convicted both of them, sending them off to die in Florida's electric chair. While all this transpired, the real killer, Curtis Adams Jr., a white man who had already been convicted of another murder continued his killing spree.
Florida's governor Reubin Askew, who served from 1971 through 1978, in 1975 approved a full pardon for Freddie Pitts and Wilbert Lee, who had spent 12 years in prison, eight of them on death row for another man's crime . Despite their innocence, news that he was considering the pardon was poorly received in the Panhandle and cost him votes in his 1974 re-election.
At the time, Pitts, 31, and Lee, 40, walked out of prison. The state gave them $100 each.
Pulitzer-prizewinning Reporter Gene Miller of the Miami Herald began an investigation that helped win a new trial for Pitts and Lee in 1972. The two men were so hopeful about the outcome that just before their second trip to court, they passed up a chance to join a jailbreak. But Adams refused to repeat his confession on the stand, the tape made by the lie detector expert was barred as hearsay evidence, and the all-white jury took only 90 minutes to find Pitts and Lee guilty of murder all over again. They would have been convicted, said a shaken defense attorney, even "if the Twelve Apostles testified for them." Refusing to give up, Miller* and others continued to fight until Governor Reubin Askew agreed to order a new investigation a year and a half ago. Askew personally participated in part of the inquiry and sent his legal aide to talk with Adams. He confessed again, recanted and then confessed a third time to Florida Attorney General Robert Shevin.
"I thought there was our case and maybe a few others like it. But last fall I went to a conference at Northwestern University in Illinois and found 30 others who were innocent and got released. I was shocked! And there are others. Who knows how many didn't get out because they couldn't get the legal help or had no outside support?" - Wilbert Lee
Correction: The Florida Commission on Capital Cases issued a study that listed 23 inmates on death row in Florida who were wrongfully convicted. One more died while on death row who was innocent. And one was released shortly after the study was finished. That makes for 25 wrongfully convicted persons on Florida's Death Row, according to authorities. Frank Lee Smith was not included amongst the 23.
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This can only happen in George Bush's "Born Again Christian" America.
MIAMI (Reuters) - Police in Florida have arrested an activist for feeding the homeless in downtown Orlando.
Eric Montanez, 21, of the charity group Food Not Bombs, was charged with violating a controversial law against feeding large groups of destitute people in the city center, police said on Thursday.
Montanez was filmed by undercover officers on Wednesday as he served "30 unidentified persons food from a large pot utilizing a ladle," according to an arrest affidavit. The Orlando area is home to Disney World and Universal Studios Florida.
The Orlando law, which is supported by local business owners who say the homeless drive away customers but has been challenged in court by civil rights groups, allows charities to feed more than 25 people at a time within two miles of Orlando city hall only if they have a special permit. They can get two permits a year.
Police collected a vial of the stew Montanez was serving as evidence.
Police spokeswoman Barbara Jones said in an e-mail it was the first time anyone had been arrested under the feeding ban.
