Florida executes William Van Poyck

William Van Poyck

STARKE, Fla. — A man who orchestrated a prison van ambush in 1987 in an attempt to free a prisoner was put to death by lethal injection Wednesday night at the Florida State Prison.

The U.S. Supreme Court, through Justice Thomas, denied a last-ditch stay request.

William Van Poyck, 58, was executed at 7:24 p.m. for the murder of prison guard Fred Griffis. "Set me free," were his final words.

Van Poyck's execution was originally scheduled at 6:00 p.m. It was delayed untill 7:00 p.m. to allow Florida Governor Scott to return to the capital following a funeral in Illinois.

"He's finally free from those prison walls," Lisa Van Poyck, the inmate's sister, said as she stood among the protesters standing across the street from the building where her brother was executed.

Van Poyck's case garnered international attention because he published three books and maintained a blog while on death row.

Van Poyck and Frank Valdes ambushed a prison van outside a West Palm Beach doctor's office in a failed attempt to free James O'Brien. Griffis was fatally shot after he threw the van's keys into the bushes to foil the escape. Van Poyck and Valdes were captured following a car chase.

In his appeals, Van Poyck argued Valdes fired the fatal shots and if the jury had known that, he wouldn't have been sentenced to death. The Florida Supreme Court last week rejected Van Poyck's latest appeal involving Valdes' widow, who says her husband told her he was the shooter.

The justices noted Van Poyck planned the escape attempt and he and Valdes carried loaded weapons. Courts have rejected similar arguments in the past, including one from a former inmate who also said Valdes confessed to killing Griffis.

Van Poyck, Valdes and James O'Brien had served time together at various Florida state prisons for violent crimes.

In 1999, Valdes was stomped to death in prison. Seven guards were charged with his death, but none were convicted.

Following Valdes' death, Van Poyck was moved to Sussex State Prison in Virginia for his safety. That's where he wrote a 324-page autobiography, "A Checkered Past: A Memoir," saying his purpose was not to elicit sympathy but "to put a human face on me and convicts in general."

Van Poyck went on to write two novels. He won awards for his writing and had been keeping a blog since 2005 - he wrote letters to his sister Lisa Van Poyck and she posted them online.

"He is deeply remorseful for the ending of Fred Griffis' life," Lisa Van Poyck told The Associated Press on Tuesday. "He is guilty of a crime of trying to break somebody out of a prison transport van - he had no intention of hurting anyone."

"He's not the man that he was when this crime was committed," she said.

In his blog, Van Poyck wrote in recent entries that he has received dozens of letters a day regarding his pending execution.

"I am not unusual in wanting to believe, at the end of my line, that my life counted for something good, that I had some positive influence on someone, that my life made a difference, that I was able to at least partially atone for the many mistakes I made earlier in life," he wrote.

During interviews, the Griffis family said they were frustrated news stories constantly focused on Van Poyck, the crime and his writings and not their relative. They said  they didn't plan to attend the execution and would instead gather somewhere for quiet reflection about Fred Griffis' life.

"When he was murdered, it basically ripped a hole in the family's heart that's never really healed," said brother Ronald Griffis.

Van Poyck declined to eat a final meal. In addition to meeting with his sister and friends, he spent the day with his spiritual adviser, a Baptist minister.

Van Poyck becomes the 3rd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Florida and the 77th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1979. Only Texas (499), Virginia (110), and Oklahoma (103) have executed more inmates since the US Supreme Court re-legalized the death penalty in America on July 2, 1976.

Van Poyck becomes the 14th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1334th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977. 

Death Row Diary

Poyck has spent nearly 26 years on death row in solitary confinement. He has written to his sister about his life in prison, and in recent years she has published his letters to a blog called Death Row Diary. In these letters, Poyck writes about everything from the novels and history books he is reading and shows he has watched on PBS to the state of the world and his own philosophy of life–punctuated by news of the deaths of those around him, from illness, suicide, and execution. He also comments on the bill recently passed by the Florida legislature that will accelerate the schedule of executions in Florida. The excerpts selected here focus on the inhumane treatment he and other individuals on death row endure as they move ever closer to their own finalities. His last entry was written on May 28, when he had “15 days left to live.” Click here to read the full article and further excerpts from Van Poyck's diary.

February 25, 2012

Robert Waterhouse was scheduled for execution at 6:00pm this evening. In accordance with the established execution protocol he was strapped to the gurney and the needles were inserted into each arm about 45 minutes prior to his appointed time. Just before 6:00, however, he received a 45-minute stay which morphed into an almost 3-hour endurance test as he remained on the gurney as the seconds, minutes and then hours slid by at an excruciatingly slow pace, waiting for someone to tell him if hope was at hand, if he would live or die. Just before 9:00 he received his answer, the plungers were depressed, the syringes emptied and he was summarily killed. Here on the row we can discern the approximate time of death when we see the old white Cadillac hearse trundle in through the back sally port gate to pick up the body, the same familiar 1960′s era hearse I’ve watched for almost 40 years, coming in to retrieve the bodies of murdered prisoners, which used to happen on a regular basis back when I was in open population.  I’ve seen a lot of guys, both friends and foes, carted off in that old hearse. Anyway, pause for a moment to imagine being on that gurney for over three hours, the needles in your arms.  You’ve already come to terms with your imminent death, you are reconciled with the reality that this is it, this is how you will die, that there will be no reprieve.  Then, at the last moment, a cruel trick, you’re given that slim hope, which you instinctively grasp.  Some court, somewhere, has given you a temporary stay.  You stare at the ceiling while the clock on the wall ticks away.  You are totally alone, not a friendly soul in sight, surrounded by grim-faced men who are determined to kill you.  Your heart pounds, your body feels electrified and every second seems like an eternity as a Kaleidoscope of wild thoughts crash around franticly in your compressed mind. After 3 hours you are drained, exhausted, terrorized, and then the phone on the wall rings and you’re told it’s time to die…

May 22, 2013

I have 21 days left to live. The fickleness, the arbitrariness, the fleeting nature of life itself is on display daily throughout our world but as good an example as any occurred here on Monday morning when, as I was being dressed out here on Q-Wing for a visit, a sudden radio call brought the wing officers rushing upstairs where they found a prisoner (non-death row) hanging in his cell. After 20+ years in prison this guy (Earl) had finally given in to the utter hopelessness that can seize the heart and spirit of any man mired forever in an American maximum security prison. The irony wasn’t lost on me that while 3 of us on death watch are fighting to live, this poor soul, living just 10 feet above us, stripped of all hope, had voluntarily surrendered his life rather than continue his dismal existence. When nothing but a lifetime of suffering lays ahead – with no hope, no promise, no opportunity to change your fate – the idea of utter annihilation can come to look appealing in contrast. When everything has been taken from you, the one thing you have left, that nobody can take away, is the decision to live or die. In that context choosing death can look like freedom…

Today my neighbor, Elmer, went on Phase II of death watch, which begins 7 days prior to execution. They remove all your property from your cell while an officer sits in front of your cell 24/7 recording everything you do. Staff also performs a “dry run” or “mock execution”, basically duplicating the procedures that will occur 7 days later. This is when you know you’re making the final turn off the back stretch, you know your death is imminent, easily within reach, you can count it by hours instead of by days. Right now I’m on deck; when Elmer goes I’ll be up to bat (that’s enough sports metaphors for now)…

May 28, 2013

Tomorrow Elmer will be executed and I’ll be next up to bat, with 15 days to live. A situation like this tends to make you reflect on the elusive nature of time itself, which some folks – physicists and metaphysicists alike – claim is an illusion anyway. Real or not it sure seems to be going someplace quickly!…

This may be my last letter to reach you before you begin your journey down south to be by my side for my final days. These many visits I’ve recently received from those who love me have been a blessing for me. I’m acutely aware that some guys on death watch have absolutely nobody to help them bear their burden during their last days and hours on earth, not a soul willing to share some love. It’s a terrible thing to die all alone…

I read in a recent newspaper article that the brother and sister of Fred Griffis, the victim in my case, are angry that I’m still alive and eager for my execution. These are understandable human feelings. I have a brother and sister myself and I cannot honestly say how I would deal with it if something happened to you or Jeff at the hands of another. I have thought of Fred many times over the years and grieved over his senseless death. I feel bad for Fred’s siblings though if seeing another human being die will truly give them pleasure. I suspect when I’m gone, if they search their hearts, they will grasp the emptiness of the closure promised by the revenge of capital punishment. There’s a lot of wisdom in the old saying “An eye for an eye soon makes the whole world blind.”…

Sources: AP, CounterPunch, Rick Halperin, June 12, 2013

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Texas executes Billy Galloway

HUNTSVILLE, Texas — A South Dakota parolee condemned for killing an Army officer during a robbery and beating in Texas has been executed.

Billy Galloway's lethal injection Thursday evening comes a day after his former cellmate was put to death for the same crime.

Galloway (left)  had a long, violent history culminating in the slaying of 37-year-old David Logie in September 1998. The Army major from Fayetteville, N.C. was bludgeoned with a hammer and a tree limb behind a building in Greenville, about 50 miles northeast of Dallas.

It was one of two slayings blamed on Galloway and Kevin Varga during a cross-country rampage of crime.

The 41-year-old Varga was executed Wednesday evening. Twenty-four hours later, the 41-year-old Galloway became the ninth prisoner executed this year in the nation's most active death penalty state.

Galloway becomes the 18th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1206th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.

Source: AP, May 13, 2010

Texas executes Kevin Varga

Forty-one-year-old Kevin Varga (left) was given lethal injection Wednesday evening. His clemency request had been rejected by the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and his court appeals were exhausted.

Kevin Varga was upbeat and smiling as the lethal drugs were delivered into his arms.

"I know I took someone very precious to you," he told the parents and friends of David Logie as they watched through a window. "I wish what was torn from you was not."

He said he loved them, asked them for forgiveness but said he didn't require it "because God has forgiven me."

"I hope you find peace," he said.

He turned his head toward his mother, who watched through a window in an adjacent room, and told her he would "go to sleep and wake up with Jesus."

"This is the only way God could save me, Mom," he said.

After thanking the warden, a chaplain and God, he uttered a loud sigh as the drugs began taking effect.

"Oooh! Thank you Jesus," he said. "I'm going, Mom."

He was pronounced dead 7 minutes later, at 6:19 p.m.

Varga's lethal injection was carried out after his court appeals were exhausted and a clemency request rejected.

"We took our best shot," said his lawyer, Robin Norris.

Billy Galloway, 41, Varga's former cellmate in South Dakota and his partner in Logie's 1998 slaying was set to die Thursday in the same chamber. Like Varga, Galloway's appeals were exhausted.

Weeks after Varga and cellmate Billy Galloway were paroled in 1998 from a South Dakota prison, they and two girlfriends drove south from Sioux Falls. Over the next week, the group robbed and killed a man in Wichita, Kan., then did the same to 37-year-old Major David Logie of Fayetteville, N.C. Logie was beaten to death behind a building in Greenville, about 50 miles east of Dallas.

Galloway is set to die Thursday for the same crime.

Varga becomes the 8th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Texas and the 455th overall since the state resumed capital punishment on December 7, 1082. Varga becomes the 216th condemned inmate to be put to death in Texas since Rick Perry became governor in 2001.

Varga becomes the 16th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1204th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.

Source: AP, May 12, 2010

More on Kevin Varga on this website (including a 23-minute video interview with Kevin Varga).

Kevin Varga's "Death Watch Journal" may be read on Thomas Whitaker's website "Minutes Before Six". Thomas Whitaker is currently incarcerated on Death Row in the state of Texas.

Kevin Varga and Bill Galloway set to be executed one day apart by the state of Texas

Texas is scheduled to execute two people this week. On Wednesday, May 12, Kevin Varga (left) is set to die. He has a sixth grade education.

Thursday, May 13, Billy Galloway (left) is set to receive a lethal injection. Galloway also only completed the sixth grade in school.

If he is executed, Varga will be the 455th person executed in Texas since 1982 and the 216th person since Rick Perry became governor. Galloway will be the 456th since 1982 and the 217th under Perry. They will be the 8th and 9th executions in Texas in 2010.

Use the Governor's email form to contact Perry to express your opposition to this execution. Or call Perry and leave a voice mail at 512 463 1782. If you live in Texas, call your state legislators and let them know that you support a moratorium on executions. Find out who your legislators are here.

More on Kevin Varga on this website (including a 23-minute video interview with Kevin Varga).

Kevin Varga's "Death Watch Journal" is currently published on Thomas Whitaker's website "Minutes Before Six". Thomas Whitaker is currently incarcerated on Death Row in the state of Texas.


From the Houston Chronicle (05/11/2010):

Kevin Varga and Billy Galloway, who shared a prison cell in South Dakota, are set to be executed in Texas for the 1998 robbery-slaying of a man during a cross-country crime spree.

Varga was scheduled for execution Wednesday evening, while Galloway was set to die 24 hours later. Both were 41 years old. The back-to-back lethal injections would be the eighth and ninth this year in the nation's busiest capital punishment state.

Robin Norris, Varga's attorney, said Tuesday the seven-member Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles unanimously rejected his request that Varga's sentence be commuted to life. A companion request for a reprieve attracted only one vote, he said. No last-day appeals were planned.

Mick Mickelsen, Galloway's lawyer, said his legal efforts also were exhausted.

Varga and Galloway and two women — one of them only 17 at the time — left Sioux Falls, S.D., on Sept. 1, 1998. Evidence showed that over the following week, they robbed and fatally beat a man in Wichita, Kan., then robbed and killed David Logie, 37, an Army officer they met at a motel bar in Greenville, east of Dallas. Logie, from Fayetteville, N.C., was in Texas on business.

The four fled in Logie's car and were arrested days later in San Antonio. The two women were picked up at a Wal-Mart parking lot in the stolen car. The two men were at a strip club.

Their Kansas victim, David McCoy, 48, of Wichita, was found wrapped in sheets in Galloway's SUV abandoned a few blocks from the hotel where he'd been killed.

Varga and Galloway had been cellmates in prison in South Dakota.

Varga, a native of Kalamazoo, Mich., served about half of a 10-year term for grand theft then was paroled in May 1998. Galloway, originally from Onondaga, N.Y., was serving time for theft, parole violation and attempted robbery. He was paroled in June 1998, three months before the spree.

"I have no misconception or doubts about what my future holds," Galloway told The Associated Press. "I'm gone."

Varga declined an interview request from The Associated Press.

Source: Texas Moratorium Network, May 11, 2010

Family of condemned man shares last full day

Death row inmate Kevin Varga didn’t get the reprieve he wanted, but he did get the forgiveness he needed from at least 1 person.

Varga's 20-year-old stepson, Stephen Smith of Rapid City, said he and his younger brother, Richard, aren't the same kind of victims as the family of David Logie, but their lives also were forever changed by the murder.

"I would never say I think of myself as a victim like the families of the people who were lost," Stephen said. "But we were definitely victims, because we lost our father. He left us up in South Dakota to do whatever he wanted to do. That's how I feel victimized."

On Tuesday, in what will almost certainly be Varga's last full day of life, his sons and his mother, Beth Varga, spent the day with their dad and son inside the Polunsky Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (left). That imposing structure of concrete and concertina wire sits about 5 miles outside of Livingston and holds the 319 men on death row. There, Stephen asked the only father he has ever known the question that haunted his childhood: "Why me and Richard weren’t enough for him?"

Why, he always wanted to know, did his father choose to leave his kids for a trip to Mexico that turned into a crime spree that David Logie robbed and beaten to death.

"I've finally forgiven him. That's the one thing I told him today -- that I've finally forgiven him for that," Stephen said. There was no answer, but the power of that forgiveness brought tears and a sense of peace to both father and son, he said.

"When you forgive them, you kind of get that piece back from them that they took from you," he said. "It was a relief on both our parts."

Kevin Varga lost his final appeals for clemency on Monday night, when the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole unanimously denied his attorney's plea for a commutation to a life sentence, as well as his request for a short reprieve to give Robin Norris time to explore other appellate issues. One member of the 7-member board voted in favor of a reprieve for Varga, leaving little official leeway for Gov. Rick Perry to make any last-minute stay of execution today.

After 10 years on death row, Varga will make the 40-mile trip from Livingston to the death chamber in Huntsville sometime after noon today. He will travel through countryside that looks remarkably like scenes from the George Clooney prison-break movie, "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" It is lined with thick woodlands and dotted with Baptist churches as it crosses the impounded Trinity River that forms massive Lake Livingston.

Beth Varga will witness her son's execution today at 6 p.m., but Varga's sons will not attend. "If Kevin has 2 seconds of life left in him, they're my 2 seconds. He's my son," she said.

Richard Varga, 18, said the final hours he is spending with his dad have been filled with memories and family stories. "Everyone in my family is pretty good at hiding their emotions. In my family, everyone's got a big mouth and just won't shut up," he said. "To be honest, part of me just doesn't want to know what he’s feeling."

The family jokes that "We're not the Brady Bunch," but said they are "savoring" what little time they have left together.

"We just kind of reminisce about the good times that we did have, because we don't really have anything left other than that," Stephen said.

Stephen lives in Rapid City with his uncle, Sean Varga. He bears an uncanny facial resemblance to both his uncle and his father, despite having no biological connection to them, said Beth Varga. Stephen was 11 months old when Kevin Varga came into his life. "I'm here because these guys are all I have," Stephen said of Beth, Richard and Sean.

Richard has a baby face and a tough shell of detachment that comes with having a father on death row. Because he inherited his father's build, he also inherited the suit that Kevin Varga last wore at his sentencing for the robbery/murder of David Logie in 1998.

"I didn't hide it, but it didn't come up much," Richard said. "If people asked, I told them my dad was in prison."

Both young men kept in periodic contact with their dad while he has been on death row, but visits have been limited by long distances and lack of money. They spent the summer of 2002 living in Texas with their grandmother and visited regularly, but since their return to South Dakota, contact has been sporadic.

"Writing letters was hard. Too hard," said Stephen. He recently discovered his dad's death row blog and said he wasn't surprised by the reflection and writing he found there.

"I've always known Dad to be a smart man," he said.

Richard barely knew his father, who has been in prison most of his young life. He refuses to feel sorry for himself, he said.

"There's persons worse off than me. I know I'm not the 1st person to go through this," he said.

To cope with an absent father, Richard turned to a circle of friends in Sioux Falls.

"Because my dad did this, I have a way bigger family than I would have had otherwise," he said. "My best friends are my family."

Stephen and Richard have done stints at the South Dakota Department of Corrections youth facility in Custer. Both are unemployed, and both said they want to make better choices than their father did.

"I try to stay on the straight and narrow. I stray off some times. Grandma helps me a lot," Stephen said.

On Tuesday, Beth Varga drew her spiritual strength from Psalm 146. Like that scripture, which warns "do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men, who cannot save," she has put her faith in God. It goes on to promise that the "Lord sets prisoners free" and "sustains the fatherless."

Her son and grandsons will need both those promises today.

Source: Rapid City Journal, May 12, 2010

Texas town pays little notice to executions in its midst

Located about 70 miles north of Houston’s suburban sprawl, Huntsville is a curious mix of college town and the crown jewel of the Texas criminal justice system.

It is the home of Sam Houston State University and 17,000 college students. Just blocks away from the university sits the Huntsville unit of the Department of Criminal Justice (left) where about 1,700 men are incarcerated. It is also home to the state’s death chamber, where seven men have been executed so far this year.

If former South Dakota residents Kevin Varga and Billy Galloway are executed as scheduled on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively, they will be the eighth and ninth people to die there in 2010. That number is expected to rise to 11 before the month is over. Varga, along with fellow South Dakotan Galloway, were sentenced to death a decade ago in connection with the slaying of Maj. David Lawrence Logie on Sept. 9, 1998.

Locals estimate that more than half of Huntsville is probably employed by the state’s criminal justice department. That makes its economy somewhat recession-proof, but it also limits its growth because of low wages, said Jerry Register, a local attorney and a regular at the Cafe Texan, a well-known eatery in Huntsville famous for its chicken-fried steaks, black-eyed peas and mixed greens with bacon.

Huntsville is a scenic town set on the “western edge of the Southern Pine forests,” said John Williford, another Cafe Texan patron. Williford calls it the “Athens of east Texas” for the cultural opportunities that the local university brings to an otherwise small, rural town. It has plenty of friendly people, but none of the oil wealth that surrounds it.

Away from the central downtown district, heavily weighted with antique shops and a massive Walker County Courthouse, Huntsville has the usual run of strip malls, fast-food places and plenty of pawn shops.

At the Texas Prison Museum on the north edge of town, Huntsville pays tribute to its penal system heritage. More than 24,000 visitors came through the museum last year and its most popular exhibit is the capital punishment display, including “Old Sparky” -- an electric chair. The Witness to an Execution exhibit features a running monologue of justice department workers speaking about how many executions they have witnessed. The numbers are often high, including the 89 executions that Jim Willett, museum director and former Huntsville warden, has to his credit.

But there is also a thoughtful photo essay of black and white portraits of family members affected by death row crimes -- both the victims of crimes and the families of the condemned prisoners -- on display. On Monday, Jim Jones and his wife, of San Antonio, spent an hour perusing the museum while vacationing at nearby Lake Conroe. “I agree with it, but it does have to be applied judiciously. I think Texas does that,” Jones said.

Few of the regulars at the Cafe Texan, or anyone else in Huntsville, will pay much attention to Varga (left) or Galloway's execution, locals said. Only a few high-profile cases garner media interest here anymore.

Today, there are 329 people on death row in Texas: 10 women and 319 men.

No one expects much media attention to be paid in Texas to Varga’s death. He will be, after all, the 455th person to die by lethal injection in the state of Texas since 1982, when the state resumed executions after the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty.

In 2009 the state held 24 executions. It looks like it will top that in 2010. Those numbers dwarf South Dakota’s own recent execution statistics. Elijah Page was executed at the South Dakota State Penitentiary in 2007 for murdering Chester Alan Poage in 2000. Before that, the state’s last execution was in 1947.

Like many in Huntsville, Mary Rainwater is matter of fact about executions.

Rainwater is a 33-year-old newspaper reporter at the Huntsville Item. After only one year on the job, she is already a seasoned veteran of the execution beat.

Rainwater said she knew attending executions was part of the job description. She records the inmate’s last statement, if there is one, and sits through any press conference held by the victim’s family. She has attended “seven, maybe eight,” executions to date and said that the clinical nature of the event makes it less stressful for her than people might expect.

“People always ask me that, but it honestly doesn’t bother me. You can see a lot worse ways for people to die on ‘CSI.’”

A short story in the next day’s local paper may be the only notice paid to Varga’s death here in Huntsville, said Robin Norris, Varga’s appellate attorney for the past 10 years.

“These things just tend to happen, and then you read about them in the paper,” Norris said, with all the resignation of a criminal defense lawyer who has represented more than 15 Texas death row inmates in the last 14 years. “Nobody gets very excited about it. Well, not nobody, but not the majority of the people of Texas, unfortunately.”

Nathan Reeves, 21, is a junior broadcast student at Sam Houston State who grew up in Huntsville and considers himself a death penalty proponent. He has been in the death chamber twice for school trips, but said execution days are something he doesn’t give much thought.

“We’re pretty immune to what happens at the prison,” Register agreed.

That doesn’t mean the town’s citizens are all death penalty proponents. Register’s coffee partner and fellow attorney, Jim Hurst, wants to see it abolished because of the many inequalities in the way it is applied.

But Hurst said he never notices executions, either, except for a newspaper story or two, and said abolitionist protests are pointless.

“That’s not where change happens,” he said of the few protestors who might show up to picket an execution. “Change happens at the Legislature in Austin.”

Source: Rapid City Journal, Mary Carrigan, May 10, 2010

More on Kevin Varga on this website.

Kevin Varga's "Death Watch Journal" is currently published on Thomas Whitaker's website "Minutes Before Six". Thomas Whitaker is currently on Death Row in the state of Texas.

Kevin Varga's family clings to hope

Beth Varga (left, pictured with her son Kevin) isn't hanging her hopes for a stay of execution for her death-row inmate son on anyone but God.

Varga's hope is not in appellate attorney Robin Norris. It is not in Texas Gov. Rick Perry, or the slim chance that he might offer a 120-day reprieve before the May 12 scheduled execution. Nor is it in any federal or state court judge, in any clemency committee or any death penalty opponent -- not even Pope Benedict XVI and his plea for a commutation to a life sentence that the Vatican has submitted in the Varga case.

"My hope is in God," Varga said. "I don't know how God is going to do it ... but I quit hoping in any person long ago."

If that hope is dashed on Wednesday and Kevin Varga is executed for the 1998 murder of David Logie, his mother said she'll be angry with the state of Texas for being the "instrument of God's will," but not with God. "If God takes Kevin's life through lethal injection ... I'll be devastated. I'm not sure I'll be normal anymore, but I won't be angry at God."

At the Rapid City Wal-Mart, where Varga has worked nights for the past three years as an overnight shelf stocker, she shared her situation openly with co-workers and found support, sympathy and a sense of community there, she said. Her supervisor, Teresa McNabb, said she knows Varga as a good employee with a strong faith.

"People were supportive of her. If she wanted to talk, then we were there for her," McNabb said.

McNabb helped Varga transfer two months ago to a Wal-Mart in Greenville, Texas, to allow her to be closer to Kevin as his execution date approached. Greenville is also the town where her son and 3 other South Dakotans robbed and beat Logie to death on Sept. 9, 1998, one day after they are accused of doing the same thing in Wichita, Kan., to David McCoy.

At the time of her son's crime, Beth Varga was living in Mobridge. To this day, she maintains her belief that although Kevin was involved in the robbery/murder, another man, Billy Galloway, committed the actual murder of Logie.

"The fact is that Kevin did not kill anyone. He's not a murderer. He's stupid, is what he is," she said.

Beth Varga moved to Mobridge from Michigan in the mid-1980s to attend the now-closed Central Indian Bible College, after hearing a teacher from the school speak at her church in Michigan. "I knew when I heard him that was where I was supposed to be," she said.

She graduated from the Bible college and remained in Mobridge after marrying Larry Taylor, who died in November 2001.

Blair Schepp, now of Phoenix, remembers Beth Varga as an intelligent, engaged student who earned good grades and became a friend as well as a student. He met her son, Kevin, several times when he came to Mobridge to visit his mother and stepfather. He lost touch with the Vargas about the time of Kevin's conviction for capital murder but contacted Beth recently to tell her he is praying for them.

"I just told her that I was praying for her and Kevin ... . Praying for a stay of execution and also for them both to be strong."

Now, Varga stays with friends in Greenville, pinches her pennies and makes the 4-1/2-hour trip one way to the death-row unit in Livingston, Texas, each week. Every Friday, she has a two-hour visit with Kevin that is conducted with a wall of glass between them.

"I haven't had physical contact with my son since the night he was sentenced to death," Varga said. She hugged him goodbye that day in a Texas courtroom and hasn't touched him since.

Family members will spend Monday, Tuesday and part of Wednesday with Kevin Varga at the death-row Polunsky Unit in Livingston, Texas, which is 40 miles east of Huntsville, where he will be taken for execution at 6 p.m. Wednesday. According to prison protocols, all pre-execution visits are done through a glass partition.

"I feel so sorry for Stephen. Stephen was so wanting to hug his father," his grandmother said. "He's grief stricken over this."

Stephen Varga, 20, and his younger brother, Richard, 18, left Rapid City on Saturday for a trip to Texas that, barring an intervention by God or a reprieve by Perry, will leave them fatherless on their return flight home. Stephen is employed by Perdue Furniture in Rapid City, and Richard lives in Sioux Falls, where Kevin Varga's ex-wife lives.

The Varga family connection to Rapid City also includes Kevin's brother and Beth's only other son, Sean, who decided not to travel to Texas or to speak publicly about his brother's impending execution. A stepsister, Erica Davis, lives in Mobridge. Beth Varga credits Davis with making it possible for her grandsons, who have few financial resources, to fly to Texas for whatever time they have left with their dad. "She went to great lengths to make sure the boys could get there," Beth Varga said.

During an interview at his death-row unit last week, Kevin Varga said that a falling out with his estranged brother has been mended, but he continues to be concerned about his younger son. Some family members worry as they watch him make some of the same bad choices his father once did.

"I have talked to my son; he visited me in August," he said. "I understand he is hurting, and I would like to talk to him again, to tell him not to follow in my footsteps, to get an education and don't be stupid."

In a clemency petition to the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole, Richard Varga made an emotional plea to spare his father's life while acknowledging his guilt.

"There is no doubt in my mind that my father either directly or indirectly had a hand in the crimes he has been accused of. However, as a 17-year-old, I've hardly seen my father and would like to see him, even if it's only while he's incarcerated," he wrote. "Even though my father has been in prison the majority of my life, I believe my father loves me and regrets ever getting into the truck that night. My father is a kind, loving man with a big heart."

His letter concludes with these words: "In the end, killing someone on purpose is murder, whether for profit or justice. I don't condone my father's actions, but why tear another father, son, brother and uncle from a family that loves him?"

Beth Varga clings to the remote possibility that a clemency committee may be persuaded by the results of a test that she underwent Friday in an effort to determine if Kevin suffers from a specialized form of mental retardation caused by fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. In 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that it was unconstitutional to execute mentally retarded inmates.

Kevin Varga's court-appointed appellate attorney, Robin Norris, has represented him for about 10 years now. Norris has made a specialized mental retardation claim part of a pending clemency petition to Gov. Perry and the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole. He is asking for a commutation of Varga's sentence to life in prison or, alternately, a 120-day reprieve to allow further exploration of a new argument that Kevin may suffer a form of mental retardation caused by fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.

He previously has undergone thorough neurological and psychological tests that included standard measurements of his verbal and adaptive IQ, Norris said. Those tests show that he is of average intelligence; one performance IQ test even put his score at 126. Those fall far out of the range of the standard diagnostic criteria for mental retardation, which is typically considered an IQ of about 70, coupled with significantly sub-average intellectual functioning.

"Mental retardation has always been ruled out for him," Norris said. Adaptive behavior tests show that Kevin Varga does have some significant mental deficits that include poor judgment, impulsivity and short-term memory loss.

"It is exceedingly improbable at this point that any court in Texas would accept a claim that he qualifies for a claim of mental retardation," Norris admits. "Nevertheless, Kevin does have them, and they are very real."

That claim is based on Beth Varga's history of problems with alcohol.

Beth Varga, 61, describes herself as a born-again Christian who quit drinking when she was 32. She says only that she was a heavy binge drinker from the time she was a teenager until she had a spiritual conversion to Christ.

"I got saved when I was 32. Prior to that, I don't like to think about," she said. "How much I drank when I was pregnant with Kevin is anybody's guess."

Her sobriety came 2 years after the death of her 6-year-old son, Philip, from leukemia in 1980. "I became a raging drunk when Philip died."

Another son, Richard, was shot to death at the age of 18 in Texas.

A single mother, Beth Varga raised her children alone. Kevin's father is now deceased, but he abandoned the family when Kevin was 6 months old.

In the death-row blog "Minutes Before Six," Kevin Varga wrote about his mother's inability to cope with his little brother's illness and death and his own behavior problems that began about that time. Those quickly led to his 1st stay in a juvenile facility at the age of 10. He has been in and out of the correctional system ever since.

Beth likens her parenting skills to "trying to be a ballerina when you can't stand on your toes."

"My children were my whole life ... even though I did it pretty badly," she said.

This week, as Beth Varga faces the impending death of a third son, she seems paralyzed by the prospect of making post-execution plans. She doesn't want to think past May 12.

"Your mind wars with itself. My faith says this isn't going to happen, that God will save Kevin's life," she said. "My practical mind tells me that I should make some plans."

Kevin Varga hopes his mother will return to South Dakota to be with family.

"I want her to go back and to be with my children," he said last week. "Even though they are grown, I hope that they will be raised better than I was. They still need guidance."

Source: Rapid City Journal, May 9, 2010

Kevin Varga's "Death Watch Journal" is currently published on Thomas Whitaker's website "Minutes Before Six". Thomas Whitaker is currently on Death Row in the state of Texas. Kevin Varga's journal can be read here.

Click here to sign a petition to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and Governor R. Perry to commute Kevin Varga's death sentence to life in prison.

TX death row inmate Kevin Varga: No justice by execution

LIVINGSTON, Texas -- Both family and time are heavy on the mind of 41-year-old former South Dakota resident Kevin Scott Varga, who sits on death row in the Polunsky Unit in Livingston, Texas.

In just a week, Varga will make what is likely to be his last journey, to Huntsville, Texas, where he faces lethal injection on Wednesday for his part in the murder of a Greenville, Texas, man in 1998.

Varga, along with fellow South Dakotan Billy John Galloway, were sentenced to death row a decade ago in connection with the slaying of Maj. David Lawrence Logie on Sept. 9, 1998.

The two were joined on a road trip by Deannee Ann Bayless and Venus Joy Anderson, also of South Dakota, all participating in the robbery-murder of Logie. The four also were accused, with Varga and Galloway, of the slaying of David McCoy of Wichita, Kan., in 1998.

"I was outvoted," Varga said about how the four ended up in Texas. "We were going on a road trip. I wanted to go north and they wanted to go south. It was three against one."

In a Wednesday interview, Varga stated that he has never claimed to be completely innocent in regards to his part in the murders, but does maintain that he did not actively participate in their deaths.

"I am not saying I am innocent, but I did not take an active part in the deaths," he said. "I don't believe I am a total innocent as that would indicate no culpability at all.

"It was my idea to rob the men, but I maintain that I never intended for anyone to die," he said. "I am guilty in that I did not do anything to stop it."

Criminally negligent homicide, Varga said, would have been a more appropriate charge for his part in the robbery-murder -- a charge that, if convicted, carries a maximum prison sentence of two years in Texas.

"I have served my time four times over now," he said. "This is not even close to being a just punishment for me.

"It is ironic because Texas considers South Dakota to be a backwater place, yet I find the opposite to be true," he continued. "The moral standings and ideologies of people here are foreign to me.

"The fact that Texas still maintains (the death penalty) with such fervor indicates to me a backwards way of thinking."

While all appeals have run out in Varga's case, there may be one more opportunity for clemency in the works to stop his execution. He gets updates on clemency efforts from his mother, who moved from Rapid City to Texas to be near her son.

"I have friends all around the world praying for me," Varga said. "Many have written petitions on my behalf and have even brought my case to the pope. That the pope knows my name -- that blows me away."

During his 10-year stint on Texas' Death Row, Varga has maintained contact with his family back in South Dakota, which includes two sons: Richard, 18, in Sioux Falls, and Stephen, 20, in Rapid City. A brother also lives in Rapid City and a stepsister lives in Mobridge.

To the families of the Logie and McCoy, Varga said he felt that his death would not bring them justice, but only serve as vengeance for their loved one's death.

"I apologize for the pain and anger," he said. "I know they feel I should die for what they consider to be my actions and what I consider to be my inactions.

"But justice won't be done by my execution, only vengeance," he added. "If my execution were able to bring back their loved one, I'd willingly drop my appeal and bring them back."

Varga's execution will be the eighth death by lethal injection to take place in Texas this year. Galloway, also 41, is scheduled for execution the next day. Bayless and Anderson entered pleas to reduced charges and received lesser sentences.

Source: Rapid City Journal, May 5, 2010

Kevin Varga's "Death Watch Journal" is currently published on Thomas Whitaker's website "Minutes before Six". Thomas Whitaker is currently on Death Row in the state of Texas. Kevin Varga's journal can be read here.

Click here to sign a petition to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and Governor R. Perry to commute Kevin Varga's death sentence to life in prison.

U.S.: Rapid City mom puts last hope in pope's letter for son on Texas' death row

A Rapid City mother whose son will be executed by the state of Texas on May 12 said Wednesday that she has little hope that a possible plea for clemency from Pope Benedict XVI to Gov. Rick Perry will convince the Texas governor to spare her son's life.

"Who knows whether it will mean anything to Gov. Perry?" Beth Varga said of the attempt by a Rome organization that opposes the death penalty to involve the Vatican.

Kevin Varga, 41, is scheduled to die on May 12 at the Huntsville State Prison in Texas for the 1998 beating murder of David Logie during a robbery.

An Italian woman, Stefania Silva, asked the Vatican to intervene on Varga's behalf. Silva received a letter from the office of Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Bertone dated April 21 promising that her request had been forwarded to the Papal Nuncio in Washington, D.C., who may forward a clemency plea in the name of Pope Benedict to both the governor and the Texas Board of Pardons. Varga's case has garnered attention in the Italian media because of efforts by Silva and her Comitato Paul Rougeau, an anti-death penalty group.

The letter, translated from Italian, states: "I want to inform you that this matter has been brought to the attention of the Papal Nuncio in Washington indicating the possibility to ask in the name of the Holy Father clemency to both the Governor and the Board of Pardons."

"I wouldn't have had the guts, or the pull, to write the Pope," said Beth Varga, who is not Catholic. Her family, Jewish by birth, and has lived in Mobridge, Sioux Falls and Rapid City over the years, she said. Varga has lived in Rapid City and worked at Wal-Mart for the past three years until moving to Texas a month ago to be near her son as his execution date approaches. Kevin Varga's brother, Sean, and his son, Stephan, 20, currently live in Rapid City.

"I'm trying to save his life," said Varga, who is resigned, but not prepared, to witness her son's execution. "You're never prepared for this. I've already buried two children, and you're never prepared for it."

Varga lost a 6-year old son to leukemia and her eldest son, Richard, was shot to death at the age of 18 in Texas. Kevin was 16 when his older brother died and he soon fell into a life of crime, his mother said. "Kevin's been in and out of trouble his whole life."

Convicted of capital murder, Varga maintains that he was present at the robbery but not involved in the beating death of Logie. He and three other people were convicted in Logie's death in Texas. They committed a similar robbery-murder in Wichita, Kan., prior to Logie's death. Billy Galloway is scheduled to die the day after Varga for his role in the murder.

"One of the reasons we're trying so hard to save his life is that Kevin was found guilty of being there, and the death penalty seems too harsh a punishment for that," Beth Varga said.

Varga is opposed to the death penalty in all cases, even for Galloway, who she believes did the actual killing of David Logie.

She is not expecting a stay of execution, but she is hoping for a miracle. "From everything we know now, Kevin will die very soon," she said. "But if God wants to spare Kevin's life, then nothing Gov. Perry can do will prevent that."

"This is my opinion of Gov. Perry. He and Hitler are going to share a little spot in Hell. The man kills people... and then washes his hands of it," she said.

Source: RapidCityJournal, April 28, 2010

Kevin Varga's "Death Watch Journal" can be read here.

23-minute interview with Texas death row inmate Kevin Varga

Kevin Varga is currently incarcerated on death row in Texas. He is scheduled to be executed in Huntsville, Texas, on May 12, 2010.

Kevin Varga's "Death Watch Journal" can be read here.

Condemned Duo Scheduled For Lethal Injection One Day Apart

Two condemned Hunt County killers have been given execution dates. Kevin Scott Varga and Billy John Galloway, both 39, are scheduled to die by lethal injection within one day of each other this May, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

Varga and Galloway were convicted in the 1998 beating death of a man while they robbed him for his wallet and rental car. Prosecutors said the duo and one other person beat the victim with their fists, feet, a hammer and a tree limb—killing him.

They were arrested during a routine traffic stop in San Antonio in the victim’s rented vehicle.

Varga, a former construction worker, was originally from Michigan and had a 6th grade education, according to TDCJ records. Prior to the capital murder conviction, Varga spent 13 years in a South Dakota prison for two separate sentences of burglary and grand theft.

Prior to this sentence Galloway also spent time in the South Dakota Department of Corrections for grand theft, parole violations and attempted robbery. He was paroled and let of jail early in 1998 just three months before the Hunt County murder. Galloway was from New York and also had only a 6th grade education, court records show.

Source: nbcdfw.com, Feb. 21, 2010

HELL HOLE NEWS #4, November 25, 2008

Well, it’s been another lovely two weeks under the guns of senator Whitmire’s little inquisition. This fellow is a real turd. It must really make him feel powerful to attack and smash on death row prisoners who’re restrained and defenseless. Who’ve done nothing to deserve it.

We were put on lockdown yet again, for 5 more days, searched, strip searched, wanded, scanned, strip searched again, had all our property confiscated, even our mattresses and bedding. We were put in empty cells with vents blowing ice cold air all night and left like that until 2:30 AM the next shift. Now many of the guys are sick. Ol’ man Woody was trying to talk to the rank about his property while in cuffs and being held on the run by two field force officers with another behind him. They tried to jerk his eyeglasses out of his hand and slammed him face first into the wall. Captain Bryant walks up and tells him “what the f---k is your problem?” Woody tells him what’s up and the captain gives him grief, the field boss tells Woody “you need to shut the f—k up” and they slammed him again then dragged him to F-pod level III. I’m told Lieutenant Duff even was shocked at Bryant’s actions and said “what’re you lockin’ him up for?” Bryant supposedly said, “What, did I stutter or something?” This is typical of the sorts of unnecessary uses of force going on here now. Woody says they upgraded him to Level II, now.

The property officer, D. Smith is continuing her depredations on death row prisoners’ property. Confiscations unfounded, for reasons not even listed on the form, calling new property “altered” etc. I’m told she’s making a killing at the flea market selling prisoners books, boots, fans, radios, hot pots. Selling the radios to some electronics shop in Livingston.

Meanwhile, the media continues to print Michelle Lyons’ lies and half truth issued from TDCJ’s public information office. They’re issuing false, aggrandized and/or embellished statements about criminal matters they allege occurred as if they’re absolute truth or fact instead of the as yet untested and unproven allegations they are. Even death row prisoners accused of new crimes are entitled to the presumption of innocence guaranteed by the U. S. Constitution unless and until they are convicted in a court of competent jurisdiction by a jury of their peers. Michelle Lyons, who used to be a reporter for a small time newspaper, should know to use works like “accused”, “alleged” or “believed” in making allegations against prisoners in this fashion. Lawsuits will follow her slanderous and libelous words, which also constitute s blatant denial of due process.

All of this, merely in effort to lick Whitmire’s boots and cater to his campaign of hate. What’s more sad is that Whitmire, a politician and lawmaker, is encouraging TDCJ heads and investigators publicly to violate the law and violate not only prisoners’ rights but the citizens’ rights too. You voters out there need to wake up and see this clownish buffoon for what he really is.

For all you visitors, the Ombudsman’s office issued a statement saying that “due to reasonable suspicions” that a visitor may smuggle contraband into the unit, all visitors will now be searched This is 100 % illegal and in direct contravention of controlling federal and supreme precedents.

In the first place, the “reasonable suspicion” standard is what’s applied to prisoners outside of random cell searches, which require no suspicions. This standard is applied to prisoners only, because “criminal convictions and lawful imprisonments permit some limitations on constitutional freedoms, compatible with incarcerations.”

However, free world citizens (visitors) retain the full panoply of constitutional rights and protections. The constitutional guarantees of the fourth amendment protect citizens from all unreasonable, suspicionless, searches and seizures. Before TDCJ or any other law agency can search you, there must be individualized suspicion amounting to probable cause. TDCJ cannot lay a blanket of suspicion on all visitors because of the actions of one or, TDCJ’s otherwise unfounded beliefs. In short, their “new policy on visitor searches” seeks to treat you as if you are convicted prisoners and you should not stand for it! It’s egregiously violative of your constitutional rights. You should all get together and hire an attorney to file suit on TDCJ and or call your local ACLU office for assistance. That’s what they’re there for.

Thanks to ilanziv.wordpress.com and executionchronicles.org for pointing out the obvious about the recent accusations leveled against me and Mark. I’m not sure about the cover up, but I’m of the opinion it’s definitely retaliation against me and Mark for our writings. There’s virtually no doubt of that. As to the things I’ve alleged in my previous New Hell Hole News articles (three, 3 of them) I have proof of them otherwise I’d not have written it. You should see the inept, inane responses TDCJ officials (V. L. Brisher, Lindy Richey and Kevin Mayfield) have made to my grievances at Step 2. They’re merely quoting policy, not making any substantive factual responses to the evidence at all. Of course I know the policy already – I’m alleging direct violations of the policy resulting in violations of my constitutional rights. They’re making such non-responsive answers because they well know they cannot answer on the merits, unless it were to concede the validity of my claims and rule in my favor -- which, of course, they’re not about to do. Deny, lie, deny, and deny some more. It’s the TDCJ way.

I’ve read in the papers that Whitmire was very rude to witnesses, interrupting, overtalking them, being belligerent and asking non-material question. Some think he just doesn’t know how to run a decent hearing. I think otherwise. I think he’s using these tactics to limit the record and prevent any witness who testified from revealing the truth about his little inquisition -- like him, it’s a shame.

Best regards to all,

Hank

P. S. Anyone who wants to respond can do so at hwskinner@yahoo.com or write me at my hard mail address:

999143 Polunsky Unit
H W Hank Skinner
3872 FM 350 South
Livingston TX 77351-8580

Please click on the 'Hank Skinner" tag below to read previous 'Hell Hole News' bulletins by Hank Skinner on this blog.

Hank's Hell Hole News, Nov. 10, 2008

November 10th, 2008

Hi Folks!

I’ve read a lot of stories here lately, and a transcript of the special session of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee run by Mr. Whitmire. I’d liken it to Torquemada during the inquisistion, to say the least.

Lots of things come to light and we see the agit propaganda nature of this; the radical distortion by the news media is sickening. Some people just love to kick someone when they’re down, don’t they. Those on death row are about as “down” as they can get – “among the lowest of the dead” as David Von Drehle says.

Some of them are sadistic indeed and I’ve watched and witnessed their depravity firsthand. It’s particularly galling since I’m not guilty of the crime I’m here for. That aside, the guilty shouldn’t be treated like that either.

Charles Nealy was tortured relentlessly before he was executed, to the point he broke down and cried for days. He suffered that at the hands of our good captain here, assisted by one of his lieutenants. He’s only one of many subjected to that fate.

More recently, in the wake of the Tabler phone fiasco, this same captain sent escort officers to talk to another prisoner by the name of Weathers, to tell him OIG wanted to talk to him. Weathers said he was invoking his Miranda and fifth amendment rights, standing on the first and fourteenth amendments. So the good captain ordered Weathers to be gassed excessively (order the UOF video and watch it. “UOF” is use of force). The goon squad “run-in” on him and beat him up. For good measure they took all his property and to date have yet to give it back, over 15 days later. This is Torquemada at his worst. In the U.S. even a condemned man has the right to remain silent and may not be punished for it.

This situation with the phones was caused by unit administration to begin with. Billy Hirsch installed a non-mailroom employee in the mailroom named William Cook to pore over prisoners’ mail and glean from it. You’re not behaving like Warden Hirsch thinks you should? You live for your mama’s visits, you wrote her and said? Well, Warden Hirsch will just take your mama (or your brother, wife, sister, friend, etc.) off your visit list over some spurious, imaginary rule violation. That’ll teach you, won’t it.

He and Warden Simmons did this very thing to my wife in June of this year. She’d done nothing wrong but had previously challenged his misapplication and outright violation of policy concerning special visits, and won. It was also written about in the media, to Hirsch’s detriment. My wife is French. We’ve been together almost 13 years now, she’s visited regularly for 10 or 11 of those years and never had a problem in all that time, until now.

Texas holds DR prisoners in prolonged and profound isolation 23 hrs a day. If you were about to die and they were killing your contemporaries all around you, 2 or 3 a week, would you want to call or visit your loved ones and family before they killed you too? Think your mama would want to talk to you before you die? 2,800 calls in 30 days, not a single threat.

Carey Steve Staples was warden to death row in 1997. He instituted draconian policies and treatment just as Gestapoesque “shakendown team” to terrorize prisoners. They run off in these guys cells, a whole row at a time and just destroy virtually everything they have. They tear up the prisoners’ meager belongings, throw everything all over the cell, tear in half or walk all over prisoners’ photos of loved ones; when they’re done it looks like a tornado tore thru your cell. Everything is ripped up, apart, broken, poured out, etc. I was subjected to this on October 20th most recently, as were several others.

The confiscated stuff is virtually impossible to replace on a lockdown as there are no commissary purchases allowed, except stamps and hygiene but I can’t even buy that. In ’98 this caused an escape. Now phones or suicide are the only options. Back in July Hirsch had his goons “run in” on me and wrote me up for “assaulting” a riot shield. Ha/ha. The property officer, Smith, took all my property and destroyed much of it while “searching” it. She also destroyed my I.D. card which I must have to make commissary purchases. Although I’ve filled out a form a month ago (finally, previously they wouldn’t give me a form, even) to get a new card. I still don’t have one, as the warden has to sign off on the form and apparently he refuses to do so. So, you know, these are the kind of things that lead to extreme measures. I’m not going to be held incommunicado so I have to come up with stamps some way. Now claiming they must be contraband since I last made commissary in July and she didn’t find them last time she and her compadres ransacked my cell. She destroyed my I.D. card. That’s why I haven’t made commissary since July. Now she wishes to punish me for her own misconduct?

Stamps denial implicates violation of first amendment rights.

Well, let me get on to Tabler, the phone, this is the oddest thing. It’s so contrived and manufactured it’s beyond belief. I’m sitting here reading these stories and I’m agog at the blatant lies they’re telling. To give you some examples, I’ll go with the ABC News story by Emily Friedman and Tracey Gudwin, 10.30.08 “Death Row Wireless Crime Spree probed” and “Texas Prisons on lockdown over illicit cell phones paid for by European Women” – the title itself is both slanderous and libelous. (1) What “crime spree”? No one on DR has been accused of anything but talking on a phone while possessing one. While that is crime, it’s hardly a “spree”. Secondly nobody has been arrested for paying for anything except Tabler’s mother and she is a resident of Georgia not a “European” woman. Ditto his sister, a resident of Temple, Texas. They’re not “European women”, but U.S. residents!!

The story itself says investigators are “probing” whether women in Europe gave money to death row inmates to buy prohibited phones that were allegedly used to direct crimes from behind bars.

While the story says that it’s only being investigated, the title incorrectly states it as a fact. The cited reason for this belief is merely that the prisoners called overseas. Well, they made domestic calls, too. One of them called Senator Whitmire. I don’t see that as any “evidence” he paid for one of the phones, do you? So why attack “European women”? This smacks of a story “planted” in the media by Wardens Simmons, Hirsch, OIG Moriarty and P/O spokeswoman Michel Lyons. As I said before, ever since my wife challenged Hirsch on his mistreatment of prisoners and violations of the visitation policy, he’s had a real problem with “European women”. This is the second such derogatory story he’s contrived. The first appearing last year in the Dallas Morning News. This story and the one before it are the basest agit propaganda. (see the “death row news” section on my website for the previous story).

Onward with this ABC story… No phones have been used to “direct crimes from behind bars”. Moriarty cites an instance where drug smuggling and solicitation of a capital murder were thwarted by prison officials, but the context implies this happened in population somewhere. It certainly didn’t happen on D.R., because if someone here were arrested for it, we’d have heard about it by now. Instead of vagaries, Moriarty should be called upon to provide verifiable facts.

Moriarty says “cell phones are a direct threat to public safety” – well maybe, if some lonely prisoner talked you to death. TDCJ is installing a pay phone system for all general population prisoners to use, except D.R. and ad seg prisoners. Is this then not also a direct threat to public safety? Of course not, long as TDCJ makes $$$ off it. Ultimately the issue is not phone use, cellular or payphone landline, but TDCJ’s desire to control, suppress, subjugate, censor, restrict and deny the expression of free speech. Why? Because they don’t want these prisoners to be able to tell you what’s really going on in here, what these conditions are like, what barbaric and draconian physical and psychological tortures go on daily behind these walls and closed doors, that’s why.

I’m wondering who put Tabler up to calling Whitmire? I seriously doubt he’d have done it on his own. Where would he get the number? Someone had to give it to him. Someone told me the phone he had couldn’t dial information and didn’t have any Internet capability. If that’s true, then someone had to give him the number, didn’t they? Someone who had access to it. No guard would’ve done that. Anyone with even a modicum of intelligence would instantly recognize the disastrous effect of giving such information to someone like Tabler. No other prisoner would have done it either. You see why I believe this whole thing was set-up, contrived? Had to be.

The quoted passages show Tabler didn’t “speak flippantly” or “arrogantly brag about how easy it was to get a phone”; he merely succinctly and calmly answered Whitmire’s questions: “how’d you get a phone?” A: “$2100 Dude”. “How are you charging it?” A: “I have a charger”. He didn’t say anything about how easy or hard it was, but merely that it cost a lot.

No guard gave Tabler that phone. When his cell was searched the first time, he didn’t “hand it of to a guard” either. As I’ve told you before, for the most part we have honest, humane guards here. If you tried to hand one of them a phone, they’d be so shocked they’d have a hemorrhage on the spot. Tabler didn’t pay $2100 for a phone to any guard. Whoever put him up to calling Whitmire gave him the phone to use, to do it, I’d bet money on that.

Back to the “European women”. If they, or anyone else, gave prisoners funds for legal or other legitimate expenses and the prisoner or others misallocated the funds to pay for cell phones, how could that be the fault of “European women”?

My wife was interviewed for this story. ABC News wrongly implied she wasn’t aware and didn’t care where their donations go. That’s not what she said at all. What she said was “ I don’t judge people, they do what they need to with it” speaking of funds. What she was saying was “if you think funds have been misused, you need to be talking to those responsible for such misuse, not me.” Texas judiciary and legislators are always harping on “personal responsibility” for one’s own actions but I suppose this concept doesn’t apply when you want to blindly blame good-hearted “European women” for other’s actions, right? Obviously.

I cannot speak for Myriam Stubbe, but I really rather doubt she actually said all the things attributed to her in quotes. I’d bet money her words have been liberally adulterated and misused out of context to achieve the desired results.

Now we’ve been on lockdown for a month and fed nothing but 2 sandwiches 2 times a day, one of which is always peanut butter cut with something else. For breakfast we’re given usually 2 greasy, burnt-to-a-crisp pancakes with no syrup or, cereal with no milk and another peanut butter sandwich. One of my friends down the run says that he got a letter from his loved one saying the warden told her we’re being fed hot meals now. That is a blatant lie. As of Monday last week we’re being fed one hot meal (lunch) every 3 or 4 days. The kitchen captain defends this starvation diet by saying the warden ordered him to feed us only 1200 calories per day on this lockdown. 1200 calories per day, according to USDA guidelines. , is for active female children 4 to 8 years old. Grown, sedentary men 30-50 years old require 2200 calories per day and over 50 2000 calories per day. (2) I’d bet you that we’re not actually getting more than 800-1000 calories per day. For example, tonight for supper we got a biscuit with breaden fish patty (sewer trout, we call it. It’s tough as shoe leather and largely inedible. My stomach is still hurting from eating it) and one hamburger bun with a plop of peanut butter on it, about 1/8” thick. If that was more than 300 calories I’ll eat my hat (really I don’t have a hat or would have already eaten it. Ha/ha). I’ve lost over 15lbs at least on this month long peanut butter diet. It’s obvious the warden is using this as a form of punishment in addition to the prolonged lockdown and triple shakedown. I myself have been shook down more than anyone five times in less than seven days and the only things they took from me were items I’m allowed to possess on my level. Of course I’ve been filing grievances and inciting activism on the outside again, so they’re hating on me. I have ample documentation to back that up.

But don’t let anyone tell you I’m a “troublemaker”. Prior to this latest terror wave, I’d not done a run-in since December 16th, 2003. For almost 5 years I sat in my cell and minded mine. I discouraged others from making waves and I counseled my friends on the outside to do likewise. Little by little though, things continually got worse and worse. So now I guess we’re back to square one.

We were already on lockdown since October 13th when Governor Perry ordered this “massive lockdown prison sweep, the first in over a decade” ha/ha. We get put on lockdown once very 6 months for a major shakedown that lasts anywhere from 2 weeks to a month and that’s system wide I’m told, so how the hell is this “Governor ordered” lockdown the “first major prison sweep in over a decade”?!! The result of this is we’re still on lockdown, we were on lockdown and being shaken down a full week before the rest of the system and now, according to my sources, we’re one of the last 6 or 7 units still on lockdown and as of Monday or Tuesday when other units come off lockdown we’ll be one of the last 3 still on lockdown. Likely we’ll be the last unit still on lockdown.

For breakfast we were given 2 greasy pancakes (I’d challenge any person out there to actually eat one of these things and if they could do it without gagging, I’d give them $50!) and one dobie biscuit smeared with peanut butter, 1 oz of bran flakes, no sugar, syrup, butter or milk. Just dry cereal, dry pancakes and a damn biscuit. The condiments are the only things that allow you to choke this shit down, with some water. Without them, you simple cannot eat it. A month into the lockdown (28 days today 11/10/08), even the guys on level I, who had commissary, now no longer have any other food to eat and those of us on level II and III have had nothing anyway. I had a little salad dressing and sliced pickle but that wench Smith robbed me of that and a half bag of chips on 10/20/08. So… More starvation in store, I suppose.

More later,

Hank

http://www.hankskinner.org/

999143 Polunsky Unit

H W Hank Skinner

3872 FM 350 South

Livingston TX 77351-8580

(1) http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=6122607&page=1

(2) http://www.mypyramid.gov/global_nav/pdf_food_intake.html