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April 24, 2002
Tanya
Reinhart
Jenin,
the Propaganda Battle
Todd May
Drowning Children, Palestinians and American
Responsibility
Alexander
Cockburn
The
Loneliest Road
Nir Rosen
The Broken Home:
Revisiting Israel
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
A
Big Blow to Big Tobacco
April 23, 2002
Brian Wood
Where Is the Aid for the Victims in
Jenin?
John Chuckman
I,
George:
Gomer as Claudius
Norman Madarasz
French Presidential Elections
Absenteeism and Le Pen
Dr. Susan
Block
Bernard
Parks, Goodbye:
A Farewell to My Chief
Joan Smith
Who Will Rid Us of
These Pedophile Priests?
April 22, 2002
CounterPunch
Wire
EPA
Ombudsman Resigns
in Protest
Dave Marsh
DeskScan: What's Playing
at My House This Week
Ron Jacobs
A20
in DC: Taking the
Message to the Beast's Belly
Kathy Kelly
An Open Letter to
Israeli Soldiers
Irit Katriel
Word
Games and Body Bags
Rep. Cynthia McKinney
We Come for Peace
Daniel
Bar-Tal
Is
There a Way Out?
Occupation, Terror
and Understanding
David Wilson
A Week of Coups, But Now
The Freedom Train Hits Town
Shaik
Ubaid
Today
I Was a Palestinian
April 21, 2002
Michelle Campos
Suckered Again in Israel
Mike Leon
200,000
in DC Protest Say:
"We Are All Palestinians Today"
C.G. Estabrook
Sex and Power in Catholicism
Kathy
Kelly
Gimme
Some Truth Now
A Walk Through Jenin
April 20, 2002
Philip Farruggio
Drowning in a Sea of Apathy
Kristen
Schurr
Leaving
Nablus
Bernard Weiner
Israel and the Intifada
for Dummies
Jean-Guy
Allard
A
Coup Signed by Otto Reich
Chris Floyd
The "Grandeur" That Was Rome:
A Letter from the Front
April 19, 2002
Eric Flint
Free
the Books!
David Krieger
A Peace Proposal:
Bring in the Children
Jeff Paterson
Advice
to Recruits from
a Gulf War Vet
Jeffrey St. Clair
From Sen. "Lunkhead" to
Bush Energy Czar: A Year in the Life of Spencer Abraham
April 18, 2002
Tom Turnipseed
Latin
America's Dilemma:
The Propaganda of Otto Reich
Sam Bahour
Bush is Playing Russian
Roulette with Palestinians
M. Shahid
Alam
A
Colonizing Project
Built on Lies
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
Complete
Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
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How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The New Crusade:
America's War on Terrorism
By Rahul Mahajan
The Memphis Blues Again:
Six Decades of Memphis Music Photographs
Photos by Ernest Withers
Text by Daniel Wolff
The New Intifada:
Resisting Israel's Apartheid
Edited by Roane Carey
A Pocket Guide to
Environmental Bad Guys
by James Ridgeway
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The
Phoenix Program
by Douglas Valentine
Al Gore:
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Reviews of Gore:
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April 24, 2002
Save the Life of
an Innocent Man
Clemency for Ricky Johnson
By Kevin Alexander Gray
Richard Charles Johnson is scheduled to be executed
by the State of South Carolina on May 3, 2002 for a crime, according
to a co-defendant, he did not commit. Johnson, convicted of killing
S.C. Highway Patrol trooper Bruce K. Smalls in 1985, has exhausted
his last appeal and now it is up to Governor Jim Hodges whether
he lives or dies.
The killing of Smalls occurred in 1985
on I-95 near Hardeeville when the trooper pulled over a motor
home in which Johnson was riding. The motor home was owned by
C. Daniel Swanson of Fairfax, Va., who Johnson was traveling
with prior to picking up hitchhikers Connie Sue Hess and Curtis
Halbert. Swanson's body was later found in the back of the mobile
home, shot in the back of the head. Hess later confessed that
Halbert pulled the trigger on Swanson.
In October 1999, just hours before Johnson
was previously scheduled for execution, his co-defendant, Connie
Sue Hess, confessed to killing Trooper Smalls. Although the execution
was stayed at that time, South Carolina still seeks to execute
Johnson even though Hess has never retracted her confession and
no jury has ever heard this or other evidence relevant to his
innocence.
Professor Barry Scheck of the Cardozo
Law School Innocence Project, who is also assisting in the clemency
proceedings, argued before the South Carolina Supreme Court that
Johnson's trial has all the earmarks of a trial in which the
risk of an innocent person being convicted is at its very highest.
The evidence presented was slim at best and favorable information
was withheld from the jury.
Ricky Johnson was sentenced to death
solely based on the testimony of two co-defendants who walked
out of jail the day after they testified, and a career jailhouse
snitch with a history of testifying falsely against inmates.
The only physical evidence available points to his innocence.
When his hands were tested for gunpowder within the critical
time frame, no gunpowder residue was found. Moreover, prosecutors
failed to test Hess and Halbert within the critical time frame.
On June 11, the S.C. Supreme Court, in
a 3-2 decision, denied Johnson's request for a retrial based
on Hess' statement that she was the killer. Justices said it
was unlikely that a jury would deliver a different verdict even
with Hess' confession, because of inconsistencies in her statements
to police. But in the previous two trials (the Supreme Court
overturned Johnson's first conviction because of evidence wrongly
allowed at the trial) Hess' testimony helped convict Johnson
of slaying Smalls. So, if Hess was credible enough to convict
Johnson, why isn't she credible enough to exonerate him?
Johnson and Swanson had traveled together
for a day or so but within hours of picking up Hess and Halbert,
people began to die.
Johnson's blood alcohol level at the
time of his arrest was extremely high. So high that he passed
out soon after his arrest. So high as to raise question as to
his ability to outmaneuver a trained state trooper. According
to the state's own toxicologist, Johnson's blood alcohol level
was approximately 0.23. Furthermore, Johnson's behavior did not
fit with what one would expect of someone leaving the scene of
a crime. He never fled the scene, but simply wandered aimlessly
down the highway in plain sight. When a marked police car drove
past him, according to the officer, he just stared "real
funny." When the arresting officers stopped on the highway
to question Johnson, he did not try to flee but just stood there
with a "glazed look in his eye."
Johnson had no history of violence before
his conviction and has none since. In fact, his prison record
does not contain one single disciplinary incident in the sixteen
years he has been on death row.
Margaret Hazel of Beaufort, Smalls' mother-in-law,
said she has long since put the tragedy behind her. Hazel said
she has tried to move on. "I never really pushed for execution,"
Hazel said. Smalls' mother, Thelma Blue, has also asked that
Johnson's life be spared and has signed an affidavit stating
such.
Because of the extremely high possibility
that Johnson may be innocent, Governor Hodges should spare his
life. It is not a matter of where the Governor stands on the
death penalty. It a matter of having to courage to say there
is doubt in this case. The Governor has the power of life and
death for Ricky Johnson. Hopefully, he will find the political
and moral courage to spare Ricky's life.
Please send an email to Governor Hodges
requesting that he grant clemency for Ricky Johnson at this address:
Governor@govoepp.state.sc.us
Kevin Alexander Gray is a longtime civil rights organizer and CounterPunch
contributor from Columbia, South Carolina. He can be reached
at: kagamba@bellsouth.net
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