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Post by MXB on Jun 4, 2006 9:07:34 GMT -5
Skatzes from Death Row
Ed. April 11, 2003, was the tenth anniversary of the day on which the 1993 uprising at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, Ohio began. The following was written by George Skatzes, one of the five men sentenced to death for alleged activity during the 11-day disturbance.
This writing is dedicated to John "Free Byrd" Byrd and family.
First off, I would like to thank you for giving me the opportunity to be heard. It is time for all of us to unite and make a change in this Injustice System! We can do it together!
My name is George Skatzes. I am on death row for crimes allegedly committed during the Lucasville prison riot in 1993. However, this writing is not just about me. It is for every person on death row. It is about making a wrong right! It is time to push for at least a moratorium.
At this time 103 Death Row inmates nationwide have been exonerated! Still the powers that be continue to claim that the Injustice System is working. How can anybody make such a claim?
To say the Injustice System is flawed would be an understatement. Let's start at the very beginning of the process.
Indictment and Grand Jury When a prosecutor has his sights set on any given person for an alleged crime he will take his case before a grand jury, and ask for an indictment.
Let's say the grand jury is made up of twelve people. So you will have these twelve people in a room with the prosecutor. The prosecutor has the run of this show. He can feed these people any information he wants.
As a rule the grand jury proceedings are kept secret. The person the prosecutor wants to indict does not have a say in this process. This is pretty well the reason the prosecutor can get a "True Bill" on anybody. It is all a one-sided affair from the start.
Let's say a prosecutor has indicted a person for a capital crime. Of course he is likely to go for the Death Penalty.
Trial Fast forward to the trial. The accused, if indigent, is unable to hire his own attorney. The state will appoint counsel.
When they seat a jury you can bet the jury will be what they call "Death Qualified." [This means that any person who tells the judge that he or she is opposed to the death penalty under any circumstances will be excluded from the jury.] Without a single doubt this jury will be pro-prosecution! Again we have a one-sided affair! The accused does not stand a chance. It takes so very little for one to be convicted!
Appeal Moving on now after the conviction, the appeal process is started. This entire process is a joke!
Getting right to the heart of it, it really does not matter what issues a convicted person may have, the higher courts in Ohio will almost always uphold the lower courts. This is a fact. The judges in the higher courts will misrepresent the facts, will twist the law, will do whatever they need to do to uphold the lower courts.
Let's go back to the fact that 103 Death Row inmates have been exonerated. How could this happen? Most of the 103 had been through court after court but yet the judges let their convictions stand. In my opinion, not until prosecutors and judges can be held accountable for the injustice they serve and uphold will you see change! That is the way it really is!
In Closing This writing is only a very short version of what is wrong. I didn't touch on very important subjects like Plea Bargains, Immunity and Jailhouse Snitches. These are tools of the prosecutor to gain convictions.
I have been on Death Row now for seven (7) years. The Court of Appeals just heard and ruled on my first direct appeal. As a general rule I have not been much of a letter writer for all these years. I now feel that I must get up, get some life in my soul and fight this injustice! By no means do I think of myself only! It is all about every last man on Death Row! We can pull together and bring about change!
If anybody is really interested in working to make a change, please write me!
George Skatzes #173-501 PO Box 788, Mansfield OH 44901-0788
I will do whatever is needed to get this movement going! I have tons of good information. I only need to open up and get it together.
With utmost respect. In the struggle, George Skatzes
CLNews Builds Solidarity With Your Community Labor Movement! Email the Web Master
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Post by MXB on Jun 4, 2006 9:08:48 GMT -5
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Post by MXB on Jun 4, 2006 9:12:16 GMT -5
Black and White and Dead All Over: The Lucasville Insurrection by Staughton Lynd
In April 1993, an inmate rebellion broke out at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility (SOCF) in Lucasville, Ohio, near Cincinnati. Nine prisoners and one correctional officer were killed during the 11-day uprising.
In court proceedings following the end of the riot, five inmates were sentenced to death and are presently on death row at Mansfield Correctional Institution. They are: Siddique Abdullah Hasan (formerly known as Carlos Sanders), Namir Abdul Mateen (formerly known as James Were), Keith Lamar, Jason Robb, and George Skatzes. Hasan, Mateen, and Lamar are black. Hasan and Mateen are Sunni Muslims. Robb and Skatzes are white and are members of the Aryan Brotherhood.
Introduction and Chronology I. Anatomy of an Uprising
II. A Riot, a Race Riot, or a Black-and-White Insurrection?
III. A Travesty of Justice
IV. On Death Row
V. Epilogue
V. Epilogue
On September 5, 1997, a disturbance occurred in DR-4, the area of Ohio's Death Row where the Lucasville Five and thirty-two other condemned men are housed.
The Media Version
Initial Reports of the disturbance told a relatively straightforward story. The incident began at 5 p.m. when inmates overpowered three guards, took their keys, and freed other death- row inmates. Several hours later, a prison tactical squad fired tear gas into the unit and regained control. Three guards and four inmates were said to have been injured, but there were few details. Authorities indicated: "We're not sure what triggered it. Nor do we know the leaders." Cleveland Plain Dealer, Sept. 6, 1997)
Spin control started in Columbus, the state capitol. The Columbus Dispatch began its story: "Those responsible for the deadly 1993 Lucasville prison riot were among Death Row inmates who took control." The Dispatch went on to quote the first of many misleading statements from warden Ralph Coyle: "Some of the injuries may have been afflicted [sic] by other inmates before prison officials regained control, Coyle said." The story added without comment: "Wilford Berry, who has volunteered to become the first inmate executed in the state since 1963, was also housed in the same area." (Columbus Dispatch, Sept. 6, 1997)
Within twenty-four hours Berry's presence in DR-4 had given rise to a full-fledged official theory:
An inmate who has volunteered for execution may have provided the spark that touched off a five-hour riot Friday among the most dangerous prisoners on death row... Berry, 34, suffered severe injuries at the hands of his fellow Death Row inmates during the uprising, Coyle said.
Skatzes' sister Jackie Bowers told the paper that Berry was unpopular but that "her brother isn't among those who dislike Berry. She said he told her feels that Berry doesn't have the mental ability to make decisions about his appeal." Bowers also said that tensions had been mounting on Deat Row because of the conditions thast prompted the summer hunger strike. "They just keep taking things away and punishing them and punishing them," she said, adding that after the fast the Five had lost the right to receive "sundry boxes" from relatives. Warden Coyle denied any connection between the fast and the disturbance, claiming that he had granted the Five more privileges after the hunger strike ended. (Columbus Dispatch, Sept. 7, 1997.) The controversy about the fast and the riot continued elsewhere. Sonny Williams of the Ohio Prisoners Rights Union
said prison administrators have ignored warnings for months that there could be problems of death row. He said inmates are not provided with proper medical care and some death row inmates have been denied privileges granted to others on death row, such as access to televsions and radios. Coyle said there were no warning signs... (Youngstown Vindicator, September 7, 1997)
As the hours passed it became clear that all injuries to guards had been minor, whereas several inmates had been seriously hurt. Richland County Prosecutor James Mayer, Jr., entered DR-4 shortly after the riot ended. "You had to be careful because there were very few places where there wasn't any blood," he told the local paper. Mayer also confessed puzzlement as to how the state could punish those responsible. "I can't think of anything else we could do to them. They're already facing the worst the state can give them." (Mansfield News Journal, Sept. 7, 1997.) Warden Coyle concurred that if the most dangerous prisoners were involved in the riot, there wasn't much more that could be done to punish them. "You really can't do much more," he stated. (Columbus Dispatch, Sept. 9, 1997)
What George Says
When George Skatzes was interviewed on September 10, his public defender reported visible lacerations over both eyes and on one ear, where guards had banged his head against a wall. By September 16 Skatzes' wounds had healed and he was ready to tell his story. He carefully distinguished between what he had seen, what he had heard from others, and what he inferred to be true.
The disturbance began about 5 p.m. when supper trays were brought in. George was locked in his cell at the time. Abot half an hour later inmates came to George's cell and unlocked it. He told them that he wanted no part of what was going on, and asked to be left alone. He remained in his cell throughout the disturbance.
Inmates were milling around in the public area of the pod. "No one was doing anything," George says. Inmates tried to arrange themselves two or three in a cell in case there should be violence.
At any time the guards could have come in and peacefully regained control, according to Skatzes. He saw no inmate-ro- inmate violence whatsoever. He saw no shanks or clubs. The only object that could be considered a "weapon" was a body chain, after it was unlocked. "All they [the guards] had to do was come in," Skatzes insisted.
Georrge advised others of the Lucasville Five not to get on the phone to negotiate, lest, as in 1993, this cause them to be viewed by the authorities as ringleaders.
Time ticked away. Inmates conjectured that the authorities were hoping "for the body count to pile up," so that inmates could be severely punished. But there was no body count, and unlike 1993, there were no hostages.
About 10 p.m. George looked through the window of his cell into the corridor and saw men in gas masks. Then came a loud banging, followed by a noise like the firing of shotguns. A canniset came through the cell window, shattering the glass, striking George directly, and causing minor cuts on George's arms. At least five cannisters were shot into his cell. One of the cannisters lodged on his top bunk, among his legal papers.
He felt as if gasoline had been poured over him and set afire. The hair on his arms stood straight up, and turned white. He couldn't breathe. He lay down on the floor, thinking he was going to die. He could not see his hand in front of his face.
After about fifteen minutes, as if by miracle the fog of tear gas lifted. George got up and leaned toward the hole in his cell window to get some air. A guard sprayed liguid mace through the hole. George told him, "You don't have to do that. I'm no threat to you."
George put a blanket on the floor, sat down on it, and waited. Everything in the cell was white from the tear gas.
About an hour later "bunches" of masked guards, wearing black ninja suits, came into DR-4. Two of them told George to stand and put his face to the wall. His hearing is not good, and had been affected by the shotgun-like sounds when the teargas was first fired, but as soon as he understood what was wanted, he complied.
The guards went into Jason Robb's cell next door. Hason was told t strip to his underwear. He was then beaten very badly (but did not lose an eye, as the prisoners' grapevine first reported). George could hear beating, screaming, mumbling from the cell next door. A man who was with Jason in the cell told George later that Jason didn't say a wrd to provoke the assault.
When the guards came to George's cell, they told him to get down on his knees, with his hands behind his head. At least three of them then opened the door and stormed in. They asked no questions but "started beating on me." George did not resist, but rolled himself into a tight ball, trying to protect his head. The guards pulled his arms and legs in different directions, trying to make him straighten out, face down. They succeeded.
The guards got his left hand behind his back and put on a plastic handcuff. They bent back his wrist and fingers, trying (George believes) to break the bones. One guard hit George several times with his fist on the left side of the head, causing cuts on his jaw and above his eye. Another put his foot on George's neck.
George's right arm was still under his body. He was told to "get your right arm around here." He told them he was sorry to be angry but they didn't need to do all this. When they took hold of his right arm they tried (he believes) to break his right index finger and right arm.
George was handcuffed behind his back, "ungodly tight." A guard tried to stomp on his private parts. He squeezed his legs together. The guards picked him up by the cuffs and half walked, half dragged him out of the cell. George thought he was walking to his death. He saw thick gobs of blood on the floor.
The guards forced the handcuffs up as high as they could, so that George was bvent over like an old man as he moved. A guard told him, "You are going to stand up and walk out of here." It was impossible for George to stand up. Another guard took him by the hair, and slammed his head against the wall of Jason's cell. George thinks he was "out on his feet" for a time.
The next he knew he was at an exit door from DR-4, a guard on each side, bent over with his arms up high behind him. In front of O17 a guard hit George in the head. He rolled with the punch. There were more punches. They walked him out.
For half an hour he was put in a cell with Hasan and two other inmates who complained they could not breathe because of the tear gas on George. The two officers, one female, the other male, walked George to the warehouse. The female officer who is from Mansfield said, "This man is saturated with that nuts." The male guard (who George thinks is from Mansfield) told him, "You're a good man." When the guards cut off the plastic handcuffs to put on an orange jump suit and then recuff George, the female guard remarked on how swollen his hands were.
The inmates from DR-4 lay in rows in the warehouse floor for about three hours. A nurse gave medical attention to the most seriously injured. There was no opportunity to wash off the tear gas and mace, now would there be any shower for five days.
George found himself on the floor next to an inmate named Combs, a man with only one arm--and therefore "totally defenseless"--who had been sprayed with gas and severely beaten. "His head was a mess," George recalls.
At this writing (September 17) George and the others from DR-4 are housed in Security Control Investigation in very burdensome conditions. All their personal property was left behind in the cells, and much appears to be missing. Everybody's commissary is gone. They have been given toothbrushes cut off after the bristles, apparently on the theory that the toothbrush handle could be a weapon. No one has shoes (although George has hospital slippers). Food is even more inadequate than before. Neither coffee nor cigarettes are permitted.
George wants everything to be told 100 per cent truthful. What George saw was totally uncalled for, he says.
Introduction and Chronology I. Anatomy of an Uprising
II. A Riot, a Race Riot, or a Black-and-White Insurrection?
III. A Travesty of Justice
IV. On Death Row
V. Epilogue from RACE TRAITOR #8, Winter 1998
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Staughton Lynd is a historian, attorney, and longtime activist, who lives in Youngstown, Ohio.
A support bulletin for the Lucasville Five is published monthly by George Skatzes Supporters, P.O. Box 1591, Marion, OH 44301-1591. People wishing to receive it should write to that address.
from RACE TRAITOR #8, Winter 1998
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Post by MXB on Jun 23, 2006 5:50:42 GMT -5
The prosecutions case against George Skatzes and his appeal status, taken from website of Ohio Attorney General Jim Peto.
Death Penalty Appeal - Detail
Skatzes, George County: Montgomery
Summary of Crime: During the riot at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility ("Lucasville"), Skatzes, with the help of other inmates, murdered prison guard, 40-year-old Robert Vallandingham, and two prison inmates, 31-year-old David Sommers and 41-year-old Earl Elder.
Skatzes was a member of the prison's Aryan Brotherhood, who along with other prison inmates, held prison guards and inmates hostage. On 4/15/93, muslim inmates strangled Mr. Vallandingham to death with a cord and baseball bat.
Skatzes also directed another inmate to stab Mr. Elder numerous times with a shank. On 4/21/93, Skatzes stabbed, choked and beat Mr. Sommers to death with a baseball bat.
Skatzes received a death sentence for the aggravated murders of Mr. Sommers and Mr. Elder. At the time, Skatzes was serving a life sentence for a 1983 aggravated murder conviction.
Jason Robb, Carlos Sanders and James Were also received death sentences for their involvement in the murders. Ohio / State Procedural History
Original Trial Indictment: 07/29/1994 Sentence: 01/30/1996 First Review of Original Trial (Direct Appeal) Court of Appeals Decision: 01/31/2003 Supreme Court Decision: 12/08/2004 First U.S. Supreme Court Review:
(Post-Conviction Action) Filed in Trial Court: 10/06/2003 Trial Court Decision: Court of Appeals Decision: Supreme Court Decision: Second U.S. Supreme Court Review: Re-Examine First Review/Original Trial ("Murnahan" Appeal) Court of Appeals Decision: 09/30/2003 Supreme Court Decision: 04/06/2004 U.S. / Federal Procedural History Request Writ of Habeus Corpus U.S. District Court in Columbus Judge: Prisoner's Notice of Intent: Prisoner's Petition: State's Return of Writ: Prisoner's Traverse: Evidentiary Hearing: District Court Decision: Review of Habeus Corpus Decision U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals Notice of Appeal: Prisoner's Final Brief: State's Final Brief: Oral Argument: Court of Appeals Decision: Third U.S. Supreme Court Review U.S. Supreme Court Certiorari Petition: Brief in Opposition: Supreme Court Decision: Current Status: (as of: 12/31/2005)
Status In State Courts: Case is in post-conviction, currently pending a decision in the trial court on Skatzes' motion for discovery.
Status In Federal Courts: No proceedings currently pending in federal court.
Case Notes:
On 12/8/04, the Ohio Supreme Court affirmed Skatzes' conviction and death sentence on direct appeal.
Meanwhile, on 10/6/03, Skatzes filed a post-conviction petition and a motion for discovery in the trial court.
On 2/25/04, the State filed a motion to dismiss.
On 7/16/04, Skatzes filed a memorandum in opposition. On 2/16/05, the State filed a reply.
(Note: The case was tried in Montgomery County following a change of venue from Scioto County).
Days Since Death Penalty Imposed: 3623 (as of: 12/31/2005)
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Post by carolinem on Jan 8, 2007 14:54:55 GMT -5
Posting this for our very dear friend George Skatzes: www.ipetitions.com/petition/GeorgeSkatzes/Please read and sign then pass to as many as possible. I will soon have George's entire case online with his own webpage. Thanks Karen www.torley.orgPlease sign this petition, George needs help from all of us....Caroline & Reese
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