European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 12, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse Convicted murderer Harold Lamont Otey Waves from the Nebraska state Penitentiary shortly before his execution last month. One searches our chronicles in vain for the execution of any member of the affluent strata of this supreme court Justice William o. Douglas writing in 1972 by Bob Egelko the associated press Ven if prosecutors had not declared that they would not seek the death penalty in . Simpson s Case it is unlikely that a convicted Simpson would have been executed. And it is also a Good bet that if Erik and Lyle Menendez Are convicted in their retrial they will not wind up on death Row. It is not a place for the Rich. In California every one of the 384 men and four women awaiting execution As of july 1 was poor enough to qualify for a lawyer at state expense said Lynn Holton spokeswoman for the state judicial Council. Nationwide no one seems to have made a systematic study of the finances of the executed or of the 2,700 condemned prisoners. But Veteran practitioners and scholars agreed they d never heard of a wealthy person on death Row. I Don t know of any affluent people who have been sentenced to death said Walter Berns a resident scholar at the american Enterprise Institute in Washington d.c., and author of the 1978 Book for capital punishment. The death penalty is for poor people said Stephen Bright director of the Southern Center for human rights in Atlanta and a defense lawyer in capital cases for 15 years. Wealthy people have faced capital charges Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold Young sons of wealthy families and the thrill killers convicted of murdering a Young boy were spared the death penalty in 1924 after an epic defense by Clarence Darrow that focused on their mental states. Texas oilman t. Cullen Davis charged with seriously wounding his estranged wife reserved for the poor Brothers Lyle left and Erik Menendez listen to testimony during their first murder trial which ended in a Hung jury. Priscilla and murdering her Lover and her 12-year-old daughter in 1976. Although his wife and two other eyewitnesses identified Davis As the gunman he was acquitted after a defense by prominent lawyer Richard Racehorse Haynes who attacked Priscilla Davis for her drug use and extramarital affairs. Joe Hunt Leader of a group of wealthy youths called the billionaire boys club convicted in 198.7 of murdering a Beverly Hills con Man whose body has never been found. A jury rejected a death sentence and chose life without parole for Hunt who is seeking a new trial. Like Simpson and the Menendez Brothers those defendants could afford to hire Good lawyers. That s the chief explanation offered by defense attorneys and organizations for the absence of the Rich on death Row. Trying capital cases is the Legal equivalent of brain surgery said Bright. In the South he said court appointed death penalty lawyers Are paid barely enough to cover costs Are usually inexperienced and often Don t put up much of a fight. I see cases tried with no experts for the defense no investigator at All and Seldom one who knows How to investigate the life and background of the defendant Bright said. One Georgia Case he described in a Yale Law journal article was a striking contrast to the Battles Over evidence in the Simpson Case. Gary x. Nelson sentenced to death in the 1978 rape and murder of a 6-year-old girl was represented by a lawyer who had never tried a capital Case was paid $15 to $20 an hour and had no investigator or experts. His closing argument was 255words Long. Later new lawyers working at their own expense found that crucial prosecution evidence a hair on the victim s body could not be validly compared to Nelson s hair a fact mentioned in an Fri report that had never been disclosed. Nelson was freed after 11 years on death Row. But in California for example defense lawyers exaggerate the extent of ineffective representation in death cases said state Deputy attorney general Dane Gillette death penalty coordinator in san Francisco. Probably the chief reason Rich people Aren t sentenced to die Gillette said is that they for the most part Don t commit these kinds of violent maybe so. Capital crimes Are mostly Street crimes a killing during a robbery or burglary. But some defense lawyers say they be seen wealthy defendants spared despite evidence that would doom a poor person. Bryan Stevenson a lawyer with the Alabama capital representation resource Center for 10 years described the Case of two wealthy Sisters charged with killing one sister s spouse. The prosecutor who sought the death penalty in other cases asked Only for life imprisonment despite considerable evidence Stevenson said. Much of their District attorneys support comes from affluent members of the Community who want someone who will protect them from the criminal element Stevenson said. People with no redeeming features those whose lives have no purpose or meaning it s easier for us to say let s kill pm " Bright said he knew of several cases where prosecutors declined to bring capital charges against lawyers accused of poisoning their wives. He also said mob Boss John Gotti and other organized crime figures could have been charged with capital crimes but Haven t been. Unlike most of his clients a Roselus Are in the High 60s or Low 70s, you re talking about people Rich defendants who have their lives together who have the ability to make Money Bright said. You would think those would be the cold calculated murders most fit for the death penalty. But the death penalty is for poor people.". Prison hard time i getting harder by Adam Nossiter the new York times s politicians around the country try to keep Pace with the Public s fury at criminals and crime shows few signs of abating state and county officials Are cracking Down on a new target lawbreakers already behind bars. From California to Florida elected officials have proposed to make prison life harsher than it has been in years and in some cases they have succeeded. On the table or already on the books Are edicts taking away televisions Tennis and basketball courts weight rooms pornography and More. Prison experts warn however that the wave of get Tough on prisoner actions is less Likely to deter crime than to make the inmates angry and therefore harder to handle. If inmates Aren t kept Busy when you take away All those activities they will find something to do with their time and it probably will not be in the Best interest of i Tiff trying to Monitor their activities said Mike Quinlan director of the Federal Bureau of prisons from 1987 to 1992. No state has gone further than Mississippi in enacting new restraints on its prisoners. In August the Mississippi legislature held a special session to Deal Mth prison overcrowding but it quickly became embroiled in a visceral debate Over the passage of a Law taking away prisoners amenities. There was talk of restoring fear to prisons of caning of making prisoners smell like a prisoner of burning and trying of returning executions to the county seat and of making Mississippi the capital of capital punishment As Cov. Kirk Fordice a Republican put it. By. The time the legislature adjourned scenes of inmates relaxing in front of big screen televisions spurred a drive to take away some of the comforts of prison life. Not reality had come close to the rhetoric. There will be no More private televisions for inmates and no radios record players tape or compact disc players computers or stereos. Weight lifting equipment too will be eliminated. For the first time in More than a Quarter Century prisoners Are to be dressed in striped uniforms As in the Days of the Chain gangs and the word convict will be emblazoned on the Back. When you see one of these boogers Loose you la say i did t know we had zebras in Mississippi " rep. Mack Mclnnis a Democrat told his colleagues on the floor of the state House. While Mississippi has taken the biggest Steps in making life harsher for inmates officials in at least eight other states also took or proposed measures cutting Back on convicts privileges this year. Wisconsin s governor ordered an end to free weights and Tennis in prison by oct. 1. Seven Florida counties eliminated or Cut Down on television watching in their jails. California narrowed its 1975 inmate Bill of rights now allowing the prison authorities to bar inmates from receiving obscene publications among other things. And eight jails in los Angeles county did away with weight lifting equipment. In Louisiana legislators passed a Law Banning martial arts in state prisons and considered a ban on television before state corrections officials lobbied against it. In new York North Carolina South Carolina and Ohio legislators have proposed bans on variously Cable television All television basketball courts weight rooms boxing and wrestling. Even the recent Federal crime Bill in the a Mississippi Penitentiary uses a no frills Boot Camp approach to handling inmates. Version that passed the House of representatives contained an amendment prohibiting weight lifting equipment in Federal prisons. The amendment however was not included in the final version of the Bill. Elsewhere overcrowded conditions threaten to impinge even further on prison life. In Delaware inmates have been sleeping on floors in booking and receiving areas and plans Are afoot to move them into a refurbished weight lifting room. In Philadelphia City officials moved to overturn an 8-year-old decision by a Federal judge that limited the number of prisoners allowed in City jails provoking concern from one prison advocate that bad conditions would Only get worse. Many of the legislative proposals. Restricting prisoners amenities appear to be merely symbolic. Louisiana s state prisons for example do not even have any martial arts programs according to the state corrections department. And the hew Mississippi Law bars individual air conditioners for inmates even though no inmate apparently now has an air conditioner a state corrections spokesman said. politically the idea of getting Tough on prisoners seems to have caught on. Several legislators m Mississippi and officials elsewhere spoke of a popular clamor for such measures and outpourings of support once they were passed. It s just a cry from the people out Here said state rep. Charles Smith a Mississippi Democrat. I Don t know if we did right but we want to make prisons a place you Don t want to go to. It used to be you d pick Cotton and people weren t too crazy about going to prison. Nowadays if you want to Lead a life of luxury sit around and watch to you can go to 16 the stars and stripes wednesday october 12, 1994 the stars and stripes 17
