Disinformation Book of Lists (9 page)

+ Crime and Punishment

At press time, the Innocence Project had secured the release of 141 people who were rotting in prison for crimes they didn't commit. Using DNA testing, the nonprofit group proves that the wrongfully convicted are not the ones who committed the crimes in question.

1

Steven Avery

Avery was sent up in 1986 on convictions for first-degree sexual assault, attempted murder, and false imprisonment. After serving eighteen years in hell, DNA uncovered the real perp.

2

Terry Chalmers

Chalmers is one of many poor saps who went to prison based solely on identification by the victim. The woman who was raped was unable to pick Chalmers out of a photo lineup the first time around. A month and a half later, she was shown another group of six photos. Chalmers was the only one whose picture was in both line-ups, and the victim chose him. In court, she reaffirmed that he was the one who raped and robbed her. Chalmers was sentenced to twelve to 24 years for rape, sodomy, robbery, and two counts of grand larceny. DNA tests performed in summer 1994 showed that he didn't do it, and he was released after spending seven and a half years in prison.

3

Lonnie Erby

In 1985, a series of rapes and attempted rapes of teenage girls in St. Louis had the city on edge. Police picked up Erby in the vicinity where a peeping tom had been reported, and prosecutors considered him a suspect in the attacks. All of the victims fingered him as their assailant. Even though he had alibi witnesses for the times of the attacks, he was sentenced to 115 years on multiple counts: kidnapping, armed criminal action, forcible rape, forcible sodomy, and stealing. The Innocence Project started working on his case in 1995 but wasn't able to force DNA testing until eight years later. The results showed that Erby could not possibly have committed any of the crimes.

4

Richard Johnson

Johnson was charged with raping and robbing a woman who later picked him out of a photo line-up and a live line-up. No other evidence was presented, and, unbelievably, his own attorney failed to submit evidence that would've immediately cleared Johnson (tests showed the victim had been raped by someone who secretes H antigens; Johnson does not secrete them). After four years in the clink, he was given his life back in 1996, thanks to DNA testing and the Innocence Project.

5

Larry Maze

In 2001, Maze became the one-hundredth innocent person to be released from prison based on DNA tests. A rape victim hadn't picked him out of two live line-ups but fingered him in a photo line-up. Based completely on this less-than-reassuring identification, Maze was given 80 years in the slammer. After the Innocence Project got involved, authorities said that the rape kit had been lost. When pressed, they finally located it, and it showed that Maze was not the rapist. He had served
21 years.
The Project reports: “Shockingly, after the new prosecutors on the case contacted the victim, she revealed that the police had hypnotized her prior to her identification of Mayes from the photographic lineup.”

6

Calvin Lee Scott

Scott was convicted of a rape that occurred in 1982. He started serving his sentence the next year, and it wasn't until 20 years later the real rapist was uncovered and Scott was freed.

7

Earl Washington

Police thought Washington had raped and killed a young mother in Culpeper, Virginia. When they picked him up for an alleged assault, Washington—whose IQ is in the neighborhood of 69—rapidly agreed with police that he was responsible for five different crimes, including the sexual assault/murder. The courts threw out four of those confessions when it became obvious that Washington had just told the cops what they wanted to hear. Yet the district attorney apparently was convinced that the fifth confession was genuine, even though Washington didn't know any of the details (for example, he said he knifed the victim two or three times when she had actually been stabbed 38 times). This obviously bogus confession was literally the only evidence against Washington, but it was enough to get him sentenced to death. After seventeen years, he was sprung when DNA showed the perp was someone else.

8

Bernard Webster

Three eyewitnesses (including the victim) and misleading scientific testimony were enough to get Webster sentenced to 30 years for rape and housebreaking. He went in as a 20-year-old and came out as a 40-year-old after DNA testing showed he could not have been the one who committed the 1982 crime.

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The Central Park Five

In a crime that became seared into our collective psyche, Trisha Meili was viciously raped and beaten almost to death while jogging in Central Park on April 19, 1989. Through intense, marathon interrogations, police obtained conflicting confessions from five teenagers: Yusef Salaam, Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Raymond Santana, and Kharey Wise. After they had served eight years, Matias Reyes—already in prison for rape and murder—said that he had committed the crime. DNA from hair and semen on the victim were tested and matched to Wise. A hair found on one of the boys, which had “matched and resembled” the victim's hair, was shown through mitochondrial DNA testing not to be hers. The five young men were freed in December 2002.

1

Frank J. Coppola

August 10, 1982; Virginia; electrocution.
Although no media representatives witnessed the execution and no details were ever released by the Virginia Department of Corrections, an attorney who was present later stated that it took two 55-second jolts of electricity to kill Coppola. The second jolt produced the odor and sizzling sound of burning flesh, and Coppola's head and leg caught on fire. Smoke filled the death chamber from floor to ceiling.

2

John Evans

April 22, 1983; Alabama; electrocution.
After the first jolt of electricity, sparks and flames erupted from the electrode attached to Evans' leg. The electrode burst from the strap holding it in place and caught on fire. Smoke and sparks also came out from under the hood in the vicinity of Evans' left temple. Two physicians entered the chamber and found a heartbeat. The electrode was reattached to his leg, and another jolt of electricity was applied. This resulted in more smoke and burning flesh. Again the doctors found a heartbeat. Ignoring the pleas of Evans' lawyer, a third jolt of electricity was applied. The execution took fourteen minutes and left Evans' body charred and smoldering.

3

Jimmy Lee Gray

September 2, 1983; Mississippi; asphyxiation.
Officials had to clear the room eight minutes after the gas was released when Gray's desperate gasps for air repulsed witnesses. His attorney, Dennis Balske of Montgomery, Alabama, criticized state officials for clearing the room when the inmate was still alive. Said noted death penalty defense attorney David Bruck: “Jimmy Lee Gray died banging his head against a steel pole in the gas chamber while the reporters counted his moans (eleven, according to the Associated Press).” Later it was revealed that the executioner, Barry Bruce, was drunk.

4

Alpha Otis Stephens

December 12, 1984; Georgia; electrocution.
“The first charge of electricity…failed to kill him, and he struggled to breathe for eight minutes before a second charge carried out his death sentence…” After the first two-minute power surge, there was a six-minute pause so his body could cool before physicians could examine him (and declare that another jolt was needed). During that six-minute interval, Stephens took 23 breaths. A Georgia prison official said, “Stephens was just not a conductor” of electricity.

5

Stephen Peter Morin

March 13, 1985; Texas; lethal injection.
Because of Morin's history of drug abuse, the execution technicians were forced to probe both of Morin's arms and one of his legs with needles for nearly 45 minutes before they found a suitable vein.

6

William E. Vandiver

October 16, 1985; Indiana; electrocution.
After the first administration of 2,300 volts, Vandiver was still breathing. The execution eventually took seventeen minutes and five jolts of electricity. Vandiver's attorney, Herbert Shaps, witnessed the execution and observed smoke and a burning smell. He called the execution “outrageous.” The Department of Corrections admitted the execution “did not go according to plan.”

7

Randy Woolls

August 20, 1986; Texas; lethal injection.
A drug addict, Woolls helped the execution technicians find a useable vein for the execution.

8

Elliot Rod Johnson

June 24, 1987; Texas; lethal injection.
Because of collapsed veins, it took nearly an hour to complete the execution.

9

Raymond Landry

December 13, 1988; Texas; lethal injection.
Pronounced dead 40 minutes after being strapped to the execution gurney and 24 minutes after the drugs first started flowing into his arms. Two minutes after the drugs were administered, the syringe came out of Landry's vein, spraying the deadly chemicals across the room toward witnesses. The curtain separating the witnesses from the inmate was then pulled and not reopened for fourteen minutes, while the execution team reinserted the catheter into the vein. Witnesses reported “at least one groan.” A spokesman for the Texas Department of Correction, Charles Brown, said: “There was something of a delay in the execution because of what officials called a ‘blowout.' The syringe came out of the vein, and the warden ordered the (execution) team to reinsert the catheter into the vein.”

10

Stephen McCoy

May 24, 1989; Texas; lethal injection.
McCoy had such a violent physical reaction to the drugs (heaving chest, gasping, choking, back arching off the gurney, etc.) that one of the witnesses (a male) fainted, crashing into and knocking over another witness. Houston attorney Karen Zellars, who represented McCoy and witnessed the execution, thought the fainting would catalyze a chain reaction. The Texas Attorney General admitted the inmate “seemed to have a somewhat stronger reaction,” adding: “The drugs might have been administered in a heavier dose or more rapidly.”

11

Horace Franklin Dunkins, Jr.

July 14, 1989; Alabama; electrocution.
It took two jolts of electricity, nine minutes apart, to complete the execution. After the first jolt failed to kill the prisoner (who was mildly retarded), the captain of the prison guard opened the door to the witness room and stated: “I believe we've got the jacks on wrong.” Because the cables had been connected improperly, it was impossible to dispense sufficient current to cause death. The cables were reconnected before a second jolt was administered. Death was pronounced nineteen minutes after the first electric charge. At a post-execution news conference, Alabama Prison Commissioner Morris Thigpen said, “I regret very, very much what happened. [The cause] was human error.”

12

Jesse Joseph Tafero

May 4, 1990; Florida; electrocution.
During the execution, six-inch flames erupted from Tafero's head, and three jolts of power were required to stop his breathing. State officials claimed that the botched execution was caused by “inadvertent human error”—the inappropriate substitution of a synthetic sponge for a natural sponge that had been used in previous executions. They attempted to support this theory by sticking a part of a synthetic sponge into a “common household toaster” and observing that it smoldered and caught fire.

13

Charles Walker

September 12, 1990; Illinois; lethal injection.
Because of equipment failure and human error, Walker suffered excruciating pain during his execution. According to Gary Sutterfield, an engineer from the Missouri State Prison who was retained by the State of Illinois to assist the execution, a kink in the plastic tubing going into Walker's arm stopped the deadly chemicals from reaching Walker. In addition, the intravenous needle was inserted pointing at Walker's fingers instead of his heart, prolonging the execution.

14

Wilbert Lee Evans

October 17, 1990; Virginia; electrocution.
When Evans was hit with the first burst of electricity, blood spewed from the right side of the mask on his face, drenching his shirt and causing a sizzling sound as blood dripped from his lips. Evans continued to moan before a second jolt of electricity was applied. The autopsy concluded that Evans suffered a bloody nose after the voltage surge elevated his high blood pressure.

15

Derick Lynn Peterson

August 22, 1991; Virginia; electrocution.
After the first cycle of electricity was applied, and again four minutes later, prison physician David Barnes inspected Peterson's neck and checked him with a stethoscope, announcing each time: “He has not expired.” Seven and one-half minutes after the first attempt to kill the inmate, a second cycle of electricity was applied. Prison officials later announced that in the future they would routinely administer two cycles before checking for a heartbeat.

16

Rickey Ray Rector

January 24, 1992; Arkansas; lethal injection.
It took medical staff more than 50 minutes to find a suitable vein in Rector's arm. Witnesses were kept behind a drawn curtain and not permitted to view this scene, but they reported hearing Rector's eight loud moans throughout the process. During the ordeal, Rector (who suffered from serious brain damage) helped the medical personnel find a vein. The administrator of the state's Department of Corrections medical programs said (paraphrased by a newspaper reporter): “The moans did come as a team of two medical people that had grown to five worked on both sides of his body to find a vein.” The administrator said: “That may have contributed to his occasional outbursts.” The difficulty in finding a suitable vein was later attributed to Rector's bulk and his regular use of antipsychotic medication.

17

Donald Eugene Harding

April 6, 1992; Arizona; asphyxiation.
Death was not pronounced until ten and a half minutes after the cyanide tablets were dropped. During the execution, Harding thrashed and struggled violently against the restraining straps. A television journalist who witnessed the execution, Cameron Harper, said that Harding's spasms and jerks lasted six minutes and 37 seconds. “Obviously, this man was suffering. This was a violent death…an ugly event. We put animals to death more humanely.” Another witness, newspaper reporter Carla McClain, said: “Harding's death was extremely violent. He was in great pain. I heard him gasp and moan. I saw his body turn from red to purple.” One reporter who witnessed the execution suffered from insomnia and assorted illnesses for several weeks; two others were “walking vegetables” for several days.

18

Robyn Lee Parks

March 10, 1992; Oklahoma; lethal injection.
Parks had a violent reaction to the drugs used in the lethal injection. Two minutes after the drugs were dispensed, the muscles in his jaw, neck, and abdomen reacted spasmodically for approximately 45 seconds. Parks continued to gasp and violently gag until death came, some eleven minutes after the drugs were first administered.
Tulsa World
reporter Wayne Greene wrote that the execution looked “painful and ugly [and] scary.” “It was overwhelming, stunning, disturbing—an intrusion into a moment so personal that reporters, taught for years that intrusion is their business, had trouble looking each other in the eyes after it was over.”

19

Billy Wayne White

April 23, 1992; Texas; lethal injection.
White was pronounced dead some 47 minutes after being strapped to the execution gurney. The delay was caused by difficulty finding a vein; White had a long history of heroin abuse. During the execution, White attempted to assist the authorities in finding a suitable vein.

20

Justin Lee May

May 7, 1992; Texas; lethal injection.
May had an unusually violent reaction to the lethal drugs. According to one reporter who witnessed the execution, May “gasped, coughed and reared against his heavy leather restraints, coughing once again before his body froze…” Associated Press reporter Michael Graczyk wrote: “Compared to other recent executions in Texas, May's reaction was more violent. He went into a coughing spasm, groaned and gasped, lifted his head from the death chamber gurney and would have arched his back if he had not been belted down. After he stopped breathing, his eyes and mouth remained open.”

21

John Wayne Gacy

May 10, 1994; Illinois; lethal injection.
After the execution began, the lethal chemicals unexpectedly solidified, clogging the IV tube that lead into Gacy's arm and prohibiting any further passage. Blinds covering the window through which witnesses observed the execution were drawn, and the execution team replaced the clogged tube with a new one. Ten minutes later, the blinds were then reopened and the execution process resumed. It took eighteen minutes to complete. Anesthesiologists blamed the problem on the inexperience of prison officials who were conducting the execution, saying that proper procedures taught in “IV 101” would have prevented the error.

22

Emmitt Foster

May 3, 1995; Missouri; lethal injection.
Seven minutes after the lethal chemicals began to flow into Foster's arm, the execution was halted when the chemicals stopped circulating. With Foster gasping and convulsing, the blinds were drawn so the witnesses could not view the scene. Death was pronounced 30 minutes after the execution began, and three minutes later the blinds were reopened so the witnesses could view the corpse.

According to William “Mal” Gum, the Washington County Coroner who pronounced death, the problem was caused by the tightness of the leather straps that bound Foster to the execution gurney; they were so tight that the flow of chemicals into the veins was restricted. Foster did not die until several minutes after a prison worker finally loosened the straps. The coroner entered the death chamber 20 minutes after the execution began, diagnosed the problem, and told the officials to loosen the strap so the execution could proceed. In an editorial, the
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
called the execution “a particularly sordid chapter in Missouri's capital punishment experience.”

23

Richard Townes, Jr.

January 23, 1996; Virginia; lethal injection.
This execution was delayed for 22 minutes while medical personnel struggled to find a vein large enough for the needle. After unsuccessful attempts to insert the needle through the arms, the needle was finally inserted through the top of Townes' right foot.