{"id":14627,"date":"2014-05-17T07:51:22","date_gmt":"2014-05-17T14:51:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/?p=14627"},"modified":"2015-02-08T13:16:50","modified_gmt":"2015-02-08T20:16:50","slug":"behind-the-badge-tesc-5-11-14","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/behind-the-badge-tesc-5-11-14\/","title":{"rendered":"Behind The Badge @ TESC 5-11-14"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"width: 627px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.keithlamar.org\/images\/keithhighscans1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"617\" height=\"375\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Keith LaMar (aka: Imam Saddique Hasan) &amp; family<\/p><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Olympia, WA \u00a0@ TESC &#8212;<\/strong>\u00a0Behind The Badge is a theatrical examination of police and prisons in America. It&#8217;s written and performed by Ben Turk, directed by Kate Pleuss with contributions from Colleen Hackett.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Mr. Turk admits he&#8217;s not a &#8216;professional&#8217; actor, but that&#8217;s not obvious after watching his excellent performance in TESC&#8217;s Lecture Hall 1, Wednesday afternoon as a police officer interrogating a &#8216;suspect&#8217; selected from the audience.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7sj-eSlrO_g\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The entire presentation was scheduled from 3:00 pm &#8211; 7:00 pm including roughly an hour&#8217;s live conversation between the audience and an Ohio death row inmate whose conviction stemmed from the Lucasville prison riot circa 4-11-93 and a well produced film, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TheShadowOfLucasvilleMovie\">The Shadow of Lucasville<\/a><span style=\"color: #000000;\">, a new documentary film by D Jones about the\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.lucasvilleamnesty.org\/\">1993 prison uprising in Lucasville Ohio<\/a><span style=\"color: #000000;\">,<\/span>\u00a0introducing the issues and participants surrounding the uprising. The film is not available online or CD, but a showing can be arranged through Mr. Turk and his organization. (<span style=\"color: #000000;\">Contact info: insurgent.ben@gmail.com or (614) 704-4699)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/WJHOU2st_mk\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #252525;\">On Easter Sunday, April 11, 1993, 450 Lucasville prisoners, including an unlikely alliance of the\u00a0<\/span><a style=\"color: #0b0080;\" title=\"Aryan Brotherhood\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Aryan_Brotherhood\">Aryan Brotherhood<\/a><span style=\"color: #252525;\">\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span><a style=\"color: #0b0080;\" title=\"Gangster Disciples\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Gangster_Disciples\">Gangster Disciples<\/a><span style=\"color: #252525;\">, rioted and took over the facility for 11 days. The main causes apparently were serious overcrowding and mismanagement of the facility and discontent in the general population that the authorities were going to force\u00a0<\/span><a style=\"color: #0b0080;\" title=\"Islam\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Islam\">Muslim<\/a><span style=\"color: #252525;\">\u00a0prisoners to undergo\u00a0<\/span><a style=\"color: #0b0080;\" title=\"Tuberculosis\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Tuberculosis\">tuberculosis<\/a><span style=\"color: #252525;\">\u00a0vaccinations in violation of their religious beliefs. Investigations conducted after the riot found that the gangs were also collaborating to murder inmates accused of being informants.<\/span><span style=\"color: #252525;\">\u00a0Nine inmates and one corrections officer were killed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/lWGQ3ekwmHA\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #252525;\">During negotiations, the inmates did not feel they were being taken seriously, and there was discussion of killing a guard in retaliation. Though the group never reached a decision on the killing, one of the prisoners decided it was time to take action. According to the prosecution, Officer Robert Vallandingham, who had been taken hostage, was handcuffed and strangled with a dumbbell from the prison weight room. However, testimony by Dr. Richard Fardal, Franklin County Deputy Coroner, disputed the claim that Officer Vallandingham was killed by a weight, saying that there was \u201cno injury to the voice box or the trachea\u201d and that \u201cMr. Vallandingham died solely and exclusively as a result of ligature strangulation.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"color: #252525;\">Testimonies vary as to which prisoner was responsible for his murder.<\/span><span style=\"color: #252525;\">\u00a0During those eleven days, representatives from the Sunni Muslims, Aryan Brotherhood, and Gangster Disciples met every day in an improvised leadership council.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/uKhiSe_Zw0A\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">During an interview shown in the above referenced film production, the Ohio State prosecutor who secured the capital convictions admitted it was unknown who actually strangled the corrections officer and it was unlikely it would ever be known. Nevertheless, several prisoners were sentenced to death based on their having debated\/discussed the possibility of executing one of the hostages.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/YdtEbaa9Mgg\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #252525;\">Four prisoners, Siddique Abdullah Hasan (Carlos Sanders), Jason Robb, George Skatzes, and Namir Abdul Mateen (James Were), were sentenced to death as a result. Keith LaMar (Bomani Shakur), unaffiliated with any of the above-mentioned groups, was sentenced to death for his alleged leadership of a group who killed inmates during the riot (he denies these claims and cites the State of Ohio suppressed evidence that could demonstrate his innocence). He was not present in L-6 during the majority of the riot, having been taken off the rec yard the first day by the State authorities and housed in the K block.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/X_ieyxyLCUQ\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>DEATH ROW<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #252525;\">The Southern Ohio Correctional Facility is the location where Ohio prisoners are executed; however, prisoners awaiting execution are not housed there on a long term basis. Since the riots, death row has been relocated three times. The first relocation was to the\u00a0<\/span><a style=\"color: #0b0080;\" title=\"Mansfield Correctional Institution\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Mansfield_Correctional_Institution\">Mansfield Correctional Institution<\/a><span style=\"color: #252525;\">\u00a0in\u00a0<\/span><a style=\"color: #0b0080;\" title=\"Mansfield, Ohio\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Mansfield,_Ohio\">Mansfield<\/a><span style=\"color: #252525;\">\u00a0with the majority of inmates being moved later to the\u00a0<\/span><a style=\"color: #0b0080;\" title=\"Ohio State Penitentiary\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ohio_State_Penitentiary\">Ohio State Penitentiary<\/a><span style=\"color: #252525;\">, a\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"mw-redirect\" style=\"color: #0b0080;\" title=\"Supermax\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Supermax\">supermax<\/a><span style=\"color: #252525;\">\u00a0facility in\u00a0<\/span><a style=\"color: #0b0080;\" title=\"Youngstown, Ohio\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Youngstown,_Ohio\">Youngstown<\/a><span style=\"color: #252525;\">\u00a0while a few remained at Mansfield. Currently, all but eight condemned inmates are housed in a new death row unit at the\u00a0<\/span><a style=\"color: #0b0080;\" title=\"Chillicothe Correctional Institution\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Chillicothe_Correctional_Institution\">Chillicothe Correctional Institution<\/a><span style=\"color: #252525;\">\u00a0in\u00a0<\/span><a style=\"color: #0b0080;\" title=\"Chillicothe, Ohio\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Chillicothe,_Ohio\">Chillicothe<\/a><span style=\"color: #252525;\">. Six high security inmates, most of whom were involved in the 1993 riots, remain at OSP with two others with serious medical conditions housed at the Franklin Medical Center in\u00a0<\/span><a style=\"color: #0b0080;\" title=\"Columbus, Ohio\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Columbus,_Ohio\">Columbus<\/a><span style=\"color: #252525;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 648px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Hasan describes himself as a 'political prisoner'.\" src=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-bjVXhQ_k1ek\/UWxBkSWpAoI\/AAAAAAAAB4Y\/H5Co8KkV1E8\/s1600\/portrait-bomani.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"638\" height=\"926\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Keith LaMar (aka: Imam Saddique Hasan)<\/p><\/div>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9-zUqPgm8nU\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">At one point during the Q&amp;A session, the condemned man (Keith LaMar) on speakerphone was asked if he regretted the deaths of the correction officer and inmates murdered during the riot, what he would say to their families if he had the opportunity. His response may have been driven by the fact he \u00a0had one appeal left currently undergoing consideration in Ohio courts and any &#8216;remorse&#8217; might be taken as an admission when his appeal is based upon a claim of innocence, not extenuating circumstances. He seemed agitated by the question and continued to focus on his own circumstances, history, and what had let up to them. He expressed anger and annoyance regarding the term &#8216;regret&#8217;. He also sounded nervous\/scared as the days slipped by between his appeal and anticipated execution date. It was a sobering exchange for the audience. No decent human being minimizes the suffering associated with an impending execution date, yet there was little talk or consideration expressed about the suffering the inmates murdered as &#8216;snitches&#8217; or the prison guard must have felt&#8211;the terror of their last moments, the tears of their families and loved ones. It was all about the injustice the condemned man felt, none of his limited time on the phone was used to express &#8216;regret&#8217; over their fate. His words\/reaction can, of course, be heard in the associated video captured during the event.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/enquirer.com\/editions\/2003\/04\/06\/vwidow.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"627\" height=\"963\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Prosecutors have called it &#8220;the longest prison riot in U.S. history.&#8221; More accurately, the director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (ODRC) refers to &#8220;the longest prison siege in U.S. history where lives were lost.&#8221; A 1987 rebellion at the United States Penitentiary in Atlanta seems to have lasted a few hours longer.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/enquirer.com\/editions\/2003\/04\/06\/lbody.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"626\" height=\"382\" \/><\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 627px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.dispatch.com\/content\/graphics\/2013\/04\/06\/vallandingham-art-gpom7hgq-103-lucasville-20-clh-jpg.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"617\" height=\"476\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bobby Vallandingham holds a picture of his father, Robert, outside his home in Wheelersburg, Ohio.<\/p><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The uprising took place in April 1993 in Lucasville, Ohio, a small community just north of the Ohio River. Two populations, approximately equal in number, confronted one another there. On the one hand were the maximum security prisoners at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility (SOCF), mostly black, mostly from cities like Cincinnati and Cleveland. On the other hand was the all-white population of the town. Almost everyone in Lucasville worked at the facility or knew someone who did.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/S-bKqM1yZWQ\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In the course of the 11-day occupation, one correctional officer and 9 prisoners were murdered by inmates.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Those 11 days in April 1993 coincided with the much-publicized siege of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas. Most Americans were barely aware of the Lucasville disturbance.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/39OT7YHaV6k\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In 1996 a supermaximum security (or\u00a0\u201csupermax\u201d) prison was being built in Youngstown. A\u00a0community forum was organized at a church near the site to explore the question:<br \/>\n\u201cWhat is a supermax prison?\u201d Jackie Bowers from Marion, Ohio, testified about the experience of 23-hour-a-day isolation. She is the sister\u00a0of George Skatzes (&#8216;Big George&#8217;), one of the five men condemned to death after\u00a0the Lucasville events.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7zZz9Osncyo\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">A couple of retired attorneys took an interest in Big George&#8217;s case (post conviction), became convinced of his innocence, and volunteered to assist his post-conviction counsel. As retired attorneys, they had more time than busy\u00a0practicing lawyers to read 5,000- or 6,000-page transcripts. Little by\u00a0little they came to be researchers for several of the Lucasville Five\u00a0defense teams.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Two things caught their attention at the outset.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8SWsZV3Qcic\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">First, there has been an extraordinary degree of solidarity among\u00a0the five men condemned to death. They have shared legal materials\u00a0to a greater extent than have their attorneys. The condemned men have expressed\u00a0concern about one another\u2019s health problems. Together, they have\u00a0engaged in a series of hunger strikes protesting their burdensome conditions\u00a0of confinement. Yet two of the five were at the time of the\u00a0uprising members of the Aryan Brotherhood, an organization\u00a0thought to endorse white supremacy, and the other three are African\u00a0Americans. I sensed a dynamic quite different from the unchanging\u2014even unchangeable\u2014racism that many historians have recently\u00a0ascribed to white workers in the United States.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Second, emotions in southern Ohio have run so strongly about\u00a0the Lucasville events that truth had gotten lost in the shuffle.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PbOb9dsWCmc\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Columbia Journalism Review published an article about the\u00a0irresponsible speculations of the media during those 11 days. \u201cGlaring\u00a0mistakes were reported as fact, and were never corrected,\u201d the Review\u00a0declared. \u201cReporters &#8230; vied for atrocity stories. They ran scary tales\u2014totally false, it was later found\u2014that spread panic and paranoia\u00a0throughout the region.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_14640\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/?attachment_id=14640\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-14640\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14640\" class=\"wp-image-14640 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3062crp-1024x758.jpg\" alt=\"IMGP3062crp\" width=\"640\" height=\"473\" srcset=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3062crp-1024x758.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3062crp-300x222.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-14640\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ben Turk, playwright\/actor (Behind The Badge)<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_14641\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/?attachment_id=14641\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-14641\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14641\" class=\"wp-image-14641 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3064crp-1024x717.jpg\" alt=\"IMGP3064crp\" width=\"640\" height=\"448\" srcset=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3064crp-1024x717.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3064crp-300x210.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-14641\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ben Turk w\/Brad Collins, student organizer of TESC&#8217;s ACAP (Abolish Cops And Prisons)<\/p><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Among the examples recounted were these:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u2022 Six days into the riot, a front-page story in the Cleveland Plain\u00a0Dealer, citing anonymous sources, reported that along with seven\u00a0inmate deaths, 19 other people in the prison had been killed,\u00a0including \u201csome pretty barbarous mutilations of the dead.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u2022 A reporter for Channel 4 told viewers that as many as 172 bodies\u00a0were piled up in the prison. This body count turned out to be a head\u00a0count of inmates in one of the blocks not involved in the riot.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u2022 The Akron Beacon Journal reported about the murder of Officer\u00a0Robert Vallandingham \u201cthat his eyes had been gouged out, that\u00a0his back, arms and legs had been broken, and that his tongue had\u00a0been cut out.\u201d Not one of these details was accurate.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_14642\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/?attachment_id=14642\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-14642\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14642\" class=\"wp-image-14642 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3066crp-1024x803.jpg\" alt=\"IMGP3066crp\" width=\"640\" height=\"501\" srcset=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3066crp-1024x803.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3066crp-300x235.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-14642\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Home Made Stage Lighting<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_14643\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/?attachment_id=14643\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-14643\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14643\" class=\"wp-image-14643 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3067crp-1024x736.jpg\" alt=\"IMGP3067crp\" width=\"640\" height=\"460\" srcset=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3067crp-1024x736.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3067crp-300x215.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-14643\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Brad playing a suspect being interrogated<\/p><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Even on the tenth anniversary of the uprising, in April 2003,\u00a0media coverage in Ohio dealt almost exclusively with persons outside\u00a0prison. The highest award given to Ohio correctional officers for\u00a0bravery was renamed for Officer Vallandingham; his widow, Peggy<br \/>\nVallandingham, accepted the Vallandingham Gold Star Award for\u00a0Valor in his name; and flags at Ohio prisons flew at half-mast. News\u00a0stories conveyed next to nothing about the men [convicted killers] on Death Row.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">This was not wholly the fault of the media. Applying what\u00a0appears to be a permanent policy, in mid-February 2003 ODRC\u00a0Director Reginald Wilkinson informed a reporter for the Columbus\u00a0Dispatch that \u201cno inmates convicted of riot crimes will be permitted<br \/>\nto speak to\u201d reporters.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/?attachment_id=14644\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-14644\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-large wp-image-14644\" src=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3068crp-1024x735.jpg\" alt=\"IMGP3068crp\" width=\"640\" height=\"459\" srcset=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3068crp-1024x735.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3068crp-300x215.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/?attachment_id=14645\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-14645\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-large wp-image-14645\" src=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3069crp-1024x718.jpg\" alt=\"IMGP3069crp\" width=\"640\" height=\"448\" srcset=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3069crp-1024x718.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3069crp-300x210.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Both historians and lawyers claim to\u00a0be devoted to the search for truth. And because historians and\u00a0lawyers commonly turn their attention to events after they have\u00a0occurred, one might suppose that history and law would correct the\u00a0mistakes of journalists reporting in the heat of the moment.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Yet from a historian\u2019s point of view, official narratives about what\u00a0happened at Lucasville are disturbing in many ways. For example, a\u00a0historian writing about these events would almost certainly begin by\u00a0exploring the causes of the riot. But as later explained more fully, in the Lucasville capital cases the defense was forbidden\u00a0to present such evidence, while the prosecution was permitted to\u00a0expand on this theme at length.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_14646\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/?attachment_id=14646\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-14646\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14646\" class=\"wp-image-14646 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3070crp-1024x667.jpg\" alt=\"IMGP3070crp\" width=\"640\" height=\"416\" srcset=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3070crp-1024x667.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3070crp-300x195.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-14646\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Officer Friendly<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_14647\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/?attachment_id=14647\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-14647\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14647\" class=\"wp-image-14647 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3071crp-1024x670.jpg\" alt=\"IMGP3071crp\" width=\"640\" height=\"418\" srcset=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3071crp-1024x670.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3071crp-300x196.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-14647\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pleading for Rapport<\/p><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Indeed, one&#8217;s belief in the integrity of truth-seeking in the law might be\u00a0shaken by the Lucasville judicial proceedings. The idea the adversarial process promotes truth-seeking may\u00a0be as misleading as the assumption that the free-market competition of\u00a0profit-maximizing corporations will produce adequate public health.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_14648\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/?attachment_id=14648\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-14648\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14648\" class=\"wp-image-14648 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3072crp-1024x692.jpg\" alt=\"IMGP3072crp\" width=\"640\" height=\"432\" srcset=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3072crp-1024x692.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3072crp-300x202.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-14648\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Stockholm Syndrome<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_14649\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/?attachment_id=14649\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-14649\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14649\" class=\"wp-image-14649 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3073crp-1024x677.jpg\" alt=\"IMGP3073crp\" width=\"640\" height=\"423\" srcset=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3073crp-1024x677.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3073crp-300x198.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-14649\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sympathy for the Devil<\/p><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">What follows are the facts of the Lucasville disturbance as\u00a0best as can be discerned. This is the untold story that the State of Ohio\u00a0doesn\u2019t want you to hear.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">A central thesis is the State of Ohio and its citizens\u00a0need to face up to the State\u2019s share of responsibility for what happened\u00a0at Lucasville.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_14650\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/?attachment_id=14650\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-14650\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14650\" class=\"wp-image-14650 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3074crp-1024x678.jpg\" alt=\"IMGP3074crp\" width=\"640\" height=\"423\" srcset=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3074crp-1024x678.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3074crp-300x198.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-14650\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Family Man<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_14651\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/?attachment_id=14651\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-14651\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14651\" class=\"wp-image-14651 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3075crp-1024x723.jpg\" alt=\"IMGP3075crp\" width=\"640\" height=\"451\" srcset=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3075crp-1024x723.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3075crp-300x211.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-14651\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Getting to Know Big Brother<\/p><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">It might be argued the authorities have already conceded\u00a0their part in the sequence of cause and effect. Prisoners not involved\u00a0in the disturbance later sued state defendants for negligence in connection\u00a0with the rebellion. The prisoners\u2019 suit alleged in part:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">17. In 1990, following an investigation at SOCF, a State Senate\u00a0Select Committee determined that the security policy and procedures\u00a0at the institution were \u201cwoefully inadequate,\u201d and recommended\u00a0various reforms. . . .<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">18. Also in 1990, in order to rectify overcrowded conditions and\u00a0to maintain proper security within SOCF, defendants &#8230; announced\u00a0the implementation of \u201cOperation Shakedown\u201d pursuant to\u00a0which the entire population of the prison was to be single-celled.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">19. As of April 11, 1993, single celling had not yet been instituted\u00a0at SOCF; one thousand eight hundred and twenty (1,820)\u00a0inmates were still housed in the prison (a number far in excess of\u00a0the institution\u2019s design capacity).<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_14652\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/?attachment_id=14652\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-14652\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14652\" class=\"wp-image-14652 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3076crp-1024x758.jpg\" alt=\"IMGP3076crp\" width=\"640\" height=\"473\" srcset=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3076crp-1024x758.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3076crp-300x222.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-14652\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">In the Belly of the Beast<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_14653\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/?attachment_id=14653\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-14653\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14653\" class=\"wp-image-14653 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3077crp1-1024x758.jpg\" alt=\"IMGP3077crp1\" width=\"640\" height=\"473\" srcset=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3077crp1-1024x758.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3077crp1-300x222.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-14653\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">What Am I Doing Here?<\/p><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Rather than\u00a0defend against these and other allegations, the\u00a0authorities settled with the prisoners for $4.1 million. The correctional officers taken hostage, together with the widow and son of\u00a0Officer Vallandingham, likewise sued the authorities \u201cfor numerous\u00a0torts before and during the siege.\u201d The state once again settled, for\u00a0more than $2 million.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_14654\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/?attachment_id=14654\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-14654\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14654\" class=\"wp-image-14654 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3077crp2-1024x758.jpg\" alt=\"IMGP3077crp2\" width=\"640\" height=\"473\" srcset=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3077crp2-1024x758.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3077crp2-300x222.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-14654\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Friend Who Searches Body Cavities<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_14655\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/?attachment_id=14655\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-14655\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14655\" class=\"wp-image-14655 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3078crp-1024x758.jpg\" alt=\"IMGP3078crp\" width=\"640\" height=\"473\" srcset=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3078crp-1024x758.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3078crp-300x222.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-14655\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Just Between You and Me&#8211;Off the Record<\/p><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In addition to the state\u2019s role in causing the riot, there were several\u00a0ways in which its negotiators heightened the peril for the correctional\u00a0officers held hostage in L block.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u2022 Sergeant Howard Hudson, who was present throughout the negotiations,\u00a0conceded that state negotiators deliberately stalled.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u2022 On April 12, apparently in response to communication between\u00a0prisoners and the media, Warden Arthur Tate cut off water and\u00a0electricity in L block. This action unnecessarily created a new\u00a0conflict between the occupiers and the authorities, and the failure<br \/>\nto resolve it was the occasion for Officer Vallandingham\u2019s murder.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u2022 On the morning of April 14, a state spokesperson named Tessa\u00a0Unwin denigrated the prisoners\u2019 demands and said that the prisoners\u2019\u00a0threat to kill a guard was \u201cjust part of the language of negotiation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Officer Vallandingham was killed the next day while an\u00a0anguished George Skatzes, negotiating over the telephone, pleaded\u00a0with the authorities to restore water and electricity.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_14656\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/?attachment_id=14656\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-14656\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14656\" class=\"wp-image-14656 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3079crp-1024x712.jpg\" alt=\"IMGP3079crp\" width=\"640\" height=\"445\" srcset=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3079crp-1024x712.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3079crp-300x208.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-14656\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Keeping It Light<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_14657\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/?attachment_id=14657\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-14657\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14657\" class=\"wp-image-14657 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3080crp-1024x754.jpg\" alt=\"IMGP3080crp\" width=\"640\" height=\"471\" srcset=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3080crp-1024x754.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3080crp-300x221.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-14657\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Directed by Kate Pleuss<\/p><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">None of this impressed the Supreme Court of Ohio. In affirming\u00a0one of the death sentences, the court stated:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em>Nor was DRC\u2019s alleged refusal to \u201cnegotiate in good faith\u201d relevant\u00a0in the guilt phase. Let us be clear: The authorities in lawful\u00a0charge of a prison have no duty to \u201cnegotiate in good faith\u201d with\u00a0inmates who have seized the prison and taken hostages, and the\u00a0\u201cfailure\u201d of those authorities to negotiate is not an available\u00a0defense to inmates charged with the murder of a hostage.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Some believe these words to be profoundly misguided. To be sure, the\u00a0authorities negotiated under duress. Moreover, if Sergeant Hudson\u00a0and Ms. Unwin helped to cause the death of Officer Vallandingham,\u00a0<strong>this does not mean the leaders of the uprising were necessarily\u00a0free of guilt.<\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_14658\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/?attachment_id=14658\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-14658\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14658\" class=\"wp-image-14658 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3082crp-1024x758.jpg\" alt=\"IMGP3082crp\" width=\"640\" height=\"473\" srcset=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3082crp-1024x758.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3082crp-300x222.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-14658\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">You Won&#8217;t Look at My Family Pictures?<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_14659\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/?attachment_id=14659\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-14659\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14659\" class=\"wp-image-14659 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3083crp-1024x758.jpg\" alt=\"IMGP3083crp\" width=\"640\" height=\"473\" srcset=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3083crp-1024x758.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3083crp-300x222.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-14659\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cop Losing It<\/p><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">What&#8217;s questionable in the decisions of the\u00a0Ohio Supreme Court is the attitude that prisoners in rebellion are\u00a0\u201cenemy combatants\u201d toward whom the authorities have no obligations\u00a0at all. For example, one Court of Appeals held that under the\u00a0plain language of the law existing in 1993, the state had illegally\u00a0eavesdropped on the conversations of prisoners in L block, and that\u00a0this crucial evidence should therefore have been excluded at trial. On\u00a0further appeal, the Ohio Supreme Court held that enforcement of the<br \/>\nstatute for the benefit of rioting prisoners would be \u201cabsurd\u201d.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Such a holding, and the attitude prompting it, oversimplify a tangled\u00a0sequence of cause and effect. Perhaps the law itself is prone to\u00a0such rigidity. Perhaps legal practitioners are driven to view the world\u00a0superficially by the desire to win. History, with its constipated analysis,<br \/>\nhas serious problems of its own. But, history at least stands\u00a0for the proposition that an event can have more than one cause, and\u00a0sometimes what happens in life is not a melodrama, with\u00a0clearcut villains and heroes, but a tragedy in which we all have played<br \/>\na part. Is it too much to ask that before sending five more men to\u00a0their deaths, we pause and seek to determine what really happened?<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_14660\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/?attachment_id=14660\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-14660\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14660\" class=\"wp-image-14660 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3085crp-1024x728.jpg\" alt=\"IMGP3085crp\" width=\"640\" height=\"455\" srcset=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3085crp-1024x728.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3085crp-300x213.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-14660\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Perils of Power&#8230;and Being Hated<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_14639\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/?attachment_id=14639\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-14639\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14639\" class=\"wp-image-14639 size-large\" title=\"Making Certain the 'Bad Guy' Gets What He Deserves--&quot;You may beat the Rap, but you WON'T beat the Ride!&quot;\" src=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3087crp-1024x743.jpg\" alt=\"IMGP3087crp\" width=\"640\" height=\"464\" srcset=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3087crp-1024x743.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMGP3087crp-300x217.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-14639\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Judge, Jury, &amp; Executioner<\/p><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Finally, there is the state\u2019s misconduct after the prisoners surrendered\u00a0on April 21. At that point the agency charged with investigating\u00a0what had occurred\u2014the Ohio State Highway Patrol (OSHP)\u2014\u00a0and the special prosecutorial team appointed to try the Lucasville\u00a0cases were free to act calmly and with circumspection.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Instead, in the absence of\u00a0physical evidence the State, through its various agencies, targeted\u00a0those whom it believed to have led the uprising and built cases\u00a0against them by cutting deals with prisoners willing to become\u00a0informants. The government threatened prisoners with death if they\u00a0declined to \u201ccooperate.\u201d It appears the prosecution put<br \/>\nwitnesses on the stand to offer testimony the state knew to be\u00a0false. Like Emile Zola in his celebrated expos\u00e9 of the Dreyfus case, the State stands\u00a0accused the of deliberately framing innocent men.<em> [The chief prosecutor, while being interviewed for the film referenced above, fecklessly admitted he rolled up a newspaper and repeatedly whacked one of the State&#8217;s witnesses every time the inmate would start a sentence with, &#8220;I won&#8217;t lie to you&#8230;&#8221; The State&#8217;s prosecuting attorney seemed oblivious to the appearance of coercion, arguing this hardly amounted to &#8216;beating testimony out of a witness&#8217; or witness tampering.]<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Arguably, Ohio should be guided by the experience of the\u00a0State of New York after the rebellion at that state\u2019s Attica prison in\u00a01971. During the years 1975\u201376 it came to light prisoners had\u00a0been induced to present perjured testimony, and prosecutors were<br \/>\nintentionally suppressing evidence of misconduct by State personnel\u00a0during the assault on the prison. In the end, New York Governor\u00a0Hugh Carey declared an amnesty for everyone involved in the Attica\u00a0tragedy\u2014both prisoners and persons involved in the state\u2019s assault on\u00a0the recreation yard\u2014and extended clemency to prisoners who had\u00a0already been convicted or had previously entered into plea bargains.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Ohio should do likewise. The pattern of prosecutorial\u00a0misconduct should cause Ohio\u2019s governor to pardon all Lucasville\u00a0defendants found guilty of rebellion-related crimes.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Some of those who helped assembled these researched facts include:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Frances Goldin, friend, literary agent, and negotiator\u00a0extraordinaire, and Peter Wissoker, senior acquisitions editor for\u00a0Temple University Press. There were a number of diligent\u00a0lawyers, among them Niki Schwartz, who represented\u00a0the prisoners in L block in settlement negotiations at the\u00a0end of the disturbance; Dale Baich, who worked on the Lucasville\u00a0cases while employed by the Office of the Ohio Public Defender;\u00a0Richard Kerger, one of the lawyers for the supposed principal leader\u00a0of the rebellion, Siddique Abdullah Hasan; Palmer Singleton of the\u00a0Southern Center for Human Rights, which represents capital defendants in Georgia and Alabama; and Professor Jules Lobel of the\u00a0University of Pittsburgh School of Law.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In addition to the five men condemned to death, at least eighteen prisoners contributed relevant memories, documents, and insights. They are not named lest doing so expose them to retaliation. They know who they are, and they will find their contributions in these pages.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In most cases, the information provided to me offered no benefit to the\u00a0prisoner who shared it. In at least one instance, a prisoner conveyed\u00a0information to clear his conscience at considerable peril to himself.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Like the women who attended Jesus at the cross after the disciples\u00a0fled, three women\u2014Jackie Bowers, sister of George Skatzes; Angela\u00a0Merles Lamar, wife of Keith Lamar; and Vincenza Ammar, beloved\u00a0friend of Namir Abdul Mateen\u2014provided whatever assistance was in\u00a0their power to give.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Attorney Alice Lynd, spent approximately three years poring over the transcript of the capital proceedings against George Skatzes, indexing and cross-indexing, and identifying issues for appeal. Later, her time was almost wholly taken up by litigation concerning conditions at the supermax prison that opened in Youngstown in 1998. Most of the prisoners who were found guilty of crimes or rule violations connected with the Lucasville uprising, including those sentenced to death, have been housed at the supermax.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The pool of prisoner witnesses to what happened in 1993 was thus near at hand. And Alice has had an uncanny ability to retrieve documents that had once examined but thereafter seemed to have disappeared.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The five men condemned to death\u2014the \u201cLucasville Five\u201d\u2014have\u00a0been extraordinary collaborators. Throughout the process, each of\u00a0these men has been confined alone in a small cell, with little access\u00a0to any of the others. A meeting including all five around<br \/>\na table has never been permitted. Disagreements among the Five\u00a0could not be ironed out face to face. Prison mail presented many\u00a0frustrations. Despite these physical obstacles, all five have shared\u00a0their legal papers with each other, responded to\u00a0requests, and reviewed manuscripts in various stages of its preparation.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">One at a time, probing their recollections, considering\u00a0documents that very often they had provided, when it have came to\u00a0conclusions different from what some of these men remember, those were\u00a0discussed with mutual respect and effort to\u00a0establish the truth.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Mumia Abu-Jamal has played a special role. He is probably the\u00a0best-known prisoner in the United States, if not in the world. During\u00a0the period in which I put this book together, Mumia and his attorneys\u00a0were in the midst of cross appeals from the decision of a federal<br \/>\njudge who had for the moment set aside Mumia\u2019s death sentence\u00a0(although he remained on Pennsylvania\u2019s Death Row), but left the\u00a0jury verdict of guilt intact. Mumia stepped back from these pressing\u00a0personal concerns to help with this book.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Mumia knew of George Skatzes, and there existed respect at a distance\u00a0between the former Black Panther who has remained silent\u00a0about the events surrounding the death of Officer Daniel Faulkner in\u00a0Philadelphia, and the former member of the Aryan Brotherhood who\u00a0has declined the state\u2019s invitation to accuse other prisoners of murdering\u00a0Officer Robert Vallandingham (see Chapter 5). Mumia said\u00a0he felt a book was \u201cdoable.\u201d Pennsylvania prison regulations\u00a0prohibited direct correspondence between Mumia and the<br \/>\nLucasville Five, but through correspondents, he offered encouragement.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In an unpublished essay on the Lucasville events, Mumia shares\u00a0his views about what happened there:<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Lucasville<\/strong><br \/>\nThe name is evocative. People who hear it, who may know\u00a0very little about its recent role in Ohio history, seem to recognize\u00a0its penal roots.<\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">It has become a site etched upon the American mind that\u00a0means prison, like Sing Sing, Marion, or Lewisburg.\u00a0The name evokes an aura of fear, of foreboding.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In this essay Mumia contrasts what happened at Lucasville with\u00a0the much greater loss of life at Attica in 1971. The Lucasville Five,\u00a0he writes,<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em>worked, against great odds, to prevent an Attica (where over thirty\u00a0men perished when the state unleashed deadly violence against\u00a0the hostages taken, and falsely blamed it on the prisoners). They\u00a0sought to minimize violence, and indeed, according to substantial<\/em><br \/>\n<em>evidence, saved the lives of several men, prisoner and guard alike.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Mumia is particularly struck by the extent to which\u00a0these five men overcame \u201ceasy labels\u201d\u2014Muslim and Aryan, black\u00a0and white\u2014and began to perceive each other\u2019s humanity.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em>They rose above their status as prisoners, and became, for a few\u00a0days in April 1993, what rebels in Attica had demanded a generation\u00a0before them: men. As such, they did not betray each other;\u00a0they did not dishonor each other; they reached beyond their<\/em><br \/>\n<em>prison \u201ctribes\u201d to reach commonality.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">It is a sentiment appropriate\u00a0to all persons, in whatever country,\u00a0on Death Row for political reasons.<\/p>\n<h1 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>A Long Train Of Abuses<\/strong><\/h1>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: justify;\">The uprising at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility\u00a0(SOCF) in Lucasville began on Easter Sunday, April 11, 1993. As\u00a0prisoners returned from recreation in the yard at about 3 p.m., they\u00a0overpowered correctional officers on duty inside L block.\u00a0After the release of certain badly injured officers, eight continued to\u00a0be held as hostages.<\/h3>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: justify;\">In the course of the occupation, two more hostages were set free,\u00a0and one was murdered. Eventually, with the help of attorney Niki\u00a0Schwartz, the State and the prisoners came to a 21-point agreement.\u00a0On Wednesday, April 21, 407 prisoners surrendered and the five\u00a0remaining hostages were released.<\/h3>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: justify;\">In subsequent legal proceedings, three negotiators and spokesmen\u00a0for the prisoners\u2014Siddique Abdullah Hasan, formerly known as\u00a0Carlos Sanders (hereafter \u201cHasan\u201d), Jason Robb, and George\u00a0Skatzes\u2014were found guilty of the aggravated murder of Officer\u00a0Robert Vallandingham. So was Namir Abdul Mateen, also known as\u00a0James Were (hereafter \u201cNamir\u201d). All four were sentenced to death,\u00a0along with Keith Lamar, alleged to have organized a \u201cdeath squad\u201d\u00a0that killed five supposed prisoner informants in the early hours of the\u00a0uprising. Hasan and Namir are Sunni Muslims; Robb and Skatzes\u00a0were at the time members of the Aryan Brotherhood.<\/h3>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: justify;\">At this time, the five capital cases are making their\u00a0way through the courts. Hasan, Robb, and Lamar are at the last (federal\u00a0habeas corpus) stage of appeals.<\/h3>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>KING ARTHUR<\/strong><\/h3>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: justify;\">What makes human beings rebel?<\/h3>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: justify;\">Often rebellion seems not to be in the personal interest of the\u00a0insurgents. This was true in Philadelphia in 1776, where Benjamin\u00a0Franklin is said to have joked about the need for the signers of the\u00a0Declaration of Independence to hang together lest they hang separately.\u00a0It was equally true in Lucasville, Ohio, in April 1993. At least\u00a0two of the five men later sentenced to death for their alleged roles in\u00a0the uprising were within sight of release from prison when the \u201criot\u201d\u00a0began. Hasan, the supposed mastermind of the rebellion, was in the\u00a0SOCF honor block.<\/h3>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: justify;\">The words <strong>\u201ca long train of abuses\u201d<\/strong> come from the Declaration of\u00a0Independence. The American\u00a0Revolution is the rebellion about which we know most. \u00a0Why did some tenant farmers support the\u00a0patriot cause while others hoped for a British victory? (Answer: It\u00a0depended on the politics of your landlord. You opposed what the landlord\u00a0was for, in the hope that if he lost you could obtain ownership of\u00a0your farm.) Why did city artisans, who were radical Sons of Liberty\u00a0before 1776, vote in 1787 for a constitution drafted by conservatives\u00a0like Alexander Hamilton? (Answer: Before and after independence,\u00a0the artisans were concerned to keep British manufactured goods out\u00a0of America.) And how did it come about that these advocates of\u00a0inalienable human rights set up a government that protected slavery?\u00a0(Answer: Both northerners and southerners expected the population\u00a0in their own part of the country to grow more rapidly than that of the\u00a0other section, allowing it to dominate the Congress and resolve the\u00a0issue of slavery in its own interest.)<\/h3>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: justify;\">In writing about the Lucasville uprising, it can be viewed it as a\u00a0rebellion like the American Revolution. The comparison is encouraged\u00a0by the following words from the country\u2019s leading\u00a0authority on prison riots, Bert Useem: \u201c[T]he principles underlying\u00a0collective behavior against authorities appear to be fundamentally\u00a0the same whether one is examining revolution against monarchies\u00a0and empires or riots against prison authorities.\u201d<\/h3>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: justify;\">So what made prisoners at Lucasville rebel? What were the causes\u00a0of the uprising?<\/h3>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: justify;\">To answer these questions, we must turn to studies conducted\u00a0both before the disturbance and after it ended; to deposition and\u00a0court testimony, especially in a subsequent civil suit by victims of the\u00a0rebellion; and to the collective memory of the rebels themselves.<\/h3>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: justify;\">The drafters of the Declaration of Independence charged King\u00a0George III with \u201ca long train of abuses\u201d against their rights. Similarly,\u00a0prisoners at Lucasville had multiple grievances against Warden\u00a0Arthur Tate, whom they called \u201cKing Arthur.\u201d<\/h3>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville was\u00a0opened in September 1972 to replace the old Ohio State Penitentiary\u00a0in Columbus, where there had been riots in 1968.<\/h3>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: justify;\">According to John Perotti, who was a prisoner at SOCF, \u201cLuke\u201d\u00a0acquired a reputation as one of the most violent prisons in the\u00a0country. Prisoner Emanuel \u201cBuddy\u201d Newell, testifying in the trial of\u00a0a fellow prisoner after the surrender, agreed. When he heard the commotion\u00a0begin in L block on April 11, he said, he first assumed that it\u00a0was a \u201cnormal fight.\u201d<\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Q. When you say a \u201cnormal fight,\u201d what are you talking about?<br \/>\nA. You know, just inmates, just some inmates fighting, maybe two\u00a0or three inmates fighting.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Q. Okay.<br \/>\nA. Officers trying to break it up, like all the time.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Q. Is that uncommon at Lucasville?<br \/>\nA. No.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Perotti says that most of the guard-on-prisoner brutality took\u00a0place in J block, which housed Administrative Control and Disciplinary control (\u201cthe hole\u201d). In 1983, Perotti continues, 12 guards\u00a0beat to death Jimmy Haynes, a mentally disturbed African American<br \/>\nprisoner. While nurses stood watching, one guard jumped on Haynes\u2019s\u00a0neck while another guard held a nightstick behind it. Two other black\u00a0prisoners, Lincoln Carter and John Ingram, were alleged to have touched\u00a0white nurses. They were beaten by guards and found dead in their\u00a0cells in the hole the following day. No criminal charges were pressed.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">A group of prisoners known as the \u201cLucasville 14\u201d sought to give up\u00a0their United States citizenship and emigrate to other countries. Three\u00a0of these prisoners cut off one or more fingers and mailed them to\u00a0President Carter and other officials to prove that they were serious. The\u00a0United States refused to allow them to renounce their citizenship.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Some prisoners organized a branch of the Industrial Workers of\u00a0the World to demand the minimum wage for prison labor, Perotti\u00a0relates. The courts rejected this demand. Perotti also helped to prepare\u00a0a 38-page petition to Amnesty International. The petition described<br \/>\ninstances in which prisoners were chained to cell fixtures, subjected to\u00a0chemical mace and tear gas, forced to sleep on cell floors, and brutally\u00a0beaten, all in violation of United Nations Minimum Standards for the\u00a0Treatment of Prisoners. The petition was confiscated as contraband,\u00a0and its authors were charged with \u201cunauthorized group activity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In 1989 Warden Terry Morris asked the Correctional Institution\u00a0Inspection Committee (CIIC)\u2014a body appointed by the Ohio legislature\u2014to prepare a summary of concerns about SOCF to be used by\u00a0him in discussions with unit managers and department heads. The\u00a0CIIC based its response on letters from 427 SOCF prisoners received\u00a0between August 21, 1987, and November 1, 1989. Many of these\u2014180, or 42 percent\u2014expressed concerns about personal safety. The\u00a0CIIC report mentioned the murders of prisoners Tim Meachum in\u00a0December 1988 and Billy Murphy in January 1989, and the stabbing\u00a0death of prisoner Dino Wallace.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In more than a hundred subsequent interviews with CIIC staff,\u00a0prisoners\u2014years before April 1993\u2014\u201crelayed fears and predictions of a\u00a0major disturbance unlike any ever seen in Ohio prison history.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em>It was\u00a0alleged that knives have been and can be bought or provided\u00a0from staff, and that a staff person allegedly provided a gun that is\u00a0reported to be hidden in the institution (whereabouts unknown).\u00a0Inmates claimed staff were approaching them with suggestions or\u00a0<\/em><em>offering to make it worthwhile if they would stab another inmate.\u00a0Certain inmates are reportedly allowed to stash or transport knives.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">One victim of a stabbing\u00a0claimed that he knew it was\u00a0coming, because of a reported\u00a0pattern in such matters. His\u00a0cell was targeted for daily consecutive\u00a0shake downs reportedly\u00a0to ensure that he had no\u00a0weapon when the inmates\u00a0stabbed him. A security staff\u00a0person reportedly apologized\u00a0to him afterwards, explaining\u00a0that he has a family. Incidents\u00a0were cited in which staff\u00a0reportedly were present when\u00a0verbal death threats were relayed<br \/>\nfrom one or more inmates\u00a0to another, (in one case when\u00a0the inmate also displayed his knives by raising his shirt) yet staff\u00a0were reportedly silent. In another case, after a stabbing, a staff person\u00a0reportedly approached the inmate who stabbed the inmate and<br \/>\nsaid, \u201cWhy didn\u2019t you kill the son of a bitch?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Another prisoner at SOCF in those days, part\u2013Native American\u00a0\u201cLittle Rock\u201d Reed, describes the events that led to the appointment\u00a0in 1990 of a new warden, Arthur Tate.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em>Operation Shakedown was the extreme and unjustified result of\u00a0a horrible incident in which a mentally unstable prisoner killed a\u00a0young, beautiful school teacher who worked at the prison assisting\u00a0prisoners to achieve their high school diplomas. Although the prisoner had a documented history of mental instability including\u00a0violence against women, the administration carelessly assigned\u00a0him to work as the teacher\u2019s aide, where he would be in a room\u00a0with her at times alone, with no supervision. The prisoner took her hostage and ultimately cut her throat with a coffee can lid,\u00a0nearly ripping her head from her shoulders. Many prisoners\u00a0thought highly of the young teacher, and were outraged at her\u00a0senseless and brutal death. . . .<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em>Nevertheless, immediately following the incident, the prison\u00a0was placed on lockdown [\u201clockdown\u201d means confinement of each\u00a0prisoner in his cell]. The guards came into each cell block, armed\u00a0in full riot gear, and systematically ransacked every prison cell\u00a0while the prisoners could only stand helplessly and watch. . . .Meanwhile, local citizens banded together in front of the prison\u00a0demanding that the prisoners be stripped of all privileges, holding\u00a0placards with such proclamations as \u201cKill the killers.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">SOCF housed both maximum security prisoners and prisoners\u00a0classified as \u201cclose security,\u201d a status intermediate between \u201cmaximum\u201d\u00a0and \u201cmedium.\u201d However, prisoners agree that once Arthur Tate became\u00a0the warden, the whole complexion of the penitentiary changed for\u00a0everyone imprisoned there.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">One of the Lucasville Five, Keith Lamar, remembers that Tate\u00a0\u201cimmediately scrapped all the programs, supposedly as a way to cut\u00a0down on inmate traffic. Lines were painted on each side of the hallway\u00a0floors, and we were ordered to stay within those lines as we walked\u2014military style\u2014to and from the kitchen, gym and work areas.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Chrystof Knecht, another Lucasville prisoner, has similar memories:\u00a0\u201cUnder Tate\u2019s regime, SOCF prisoners were told how and when\u00a0to eat, sleep, talk, walk, educate, bathe and recreate. Privileges were\u00a0taken away on a regular basis. New rules were enforced daily, disregarded,\u00a0then re-implemented weeks later.\u201d Bill Martin, also a SOCF\u00a0prisoner, thinks the \u201cmost bizarre\u201d rule was the one \u201crequiring prisoners\u00a0to march to chow, recreation, chapel, work, school, commissary, etc.\u201d\u00a0King Arthur wanted prisoners not only to walk within the lines, \u201cbut\u00a0walk in double-file formations. Prisoners who hated each other were<br \/>\nforced to march next to each other. Everybody deeply resented this.\u201d\u00a0According to Martin, there were repeated massive shakedowns of\u00a0prisoners\u2019 personal property and constant transfers of prisoners from\u00a0one part of the facility to another.<\/p>\n<h1 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>SNITCH GAMES<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">A prisoner who becomes an informant is known behind bars as a\u00a0\u201csnitch.\u201d In its report to Warden Morris, the CIIC concluded that the\u00a0main concern of SOCF administrators should be \u201csnitch games,\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em>the common denominator reported to be related in one way or\u00a0another to past or present circumstances of the large majority of\u00a0inmates. They spoke of the relationship between snitch games and\u00a0unit management, violence, gangs, racial tension, drug, gambling,\u00a0sex and extortion rings, job assignments, cell assignments, unit\u00a0moves, lack of personal safety, fear of other inmates and distrust of\u00a0staff.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Yet, according to Keith Lamar and an influential Muslim prisoner,\u00a0Taymullah Abdul Hakim, also known as Leroy Elmore, after Warden\u00a0Tate\u2019s appointment SOCF continued to encourage \u201csnitches\u201d: \u201cthe\u00a0only way you could work where you wanted to work, or cell where\u00a0you wanted to cell, was to be in cahoots with the administration. This\u00a0served to increase the snitch population exponentially.\u201d Taymullah\u00a0declares that Tate \u201cpromoted informing on guards and prisoners.\u00a0Prisoners were fitted with \u2018wires\u2019 (recording instruments) and sent at\u00a0guards to entrap them in criminal activities. Flyers were printed up\u00a0instituting a \u2018snitch line\u2019 where prisoners and visitors could write to\u00a0inform on criminal activities inside Lucasville.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Warden Tate\u2019s invitation to snitch was conveyed in a memorandum,\u00a0a copy of which is before me as I write. It is dated May 31, 1991,\u00a0and directed to \u201cAll Inmates And Visitors.\u201d The memo states in part:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em>Due to my concern about violations of laws and rules of this institution,\u00a0I feel it necessary to make myself available for persons\u00a0wishing to pass this information on to this office concerning these\u00a0things. . . . I have established a post office box at Lucasville, Ohio\u00a0for information which could assist our departmental efforts in\u00a0eliminating violation of institutional rules and criminal conduct.\u00a0Your letter will be intercepted by this office and will not be\u00a0processed through normal institutional mail. Your information<br \/>\nwill be held in strict confidence. . . . The address is as follows:\u00a0Operation Shakedown, P.O. Box 411, Lucasville, Ohio 45648.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Prisoners view snitches much as striking workers perceive scabs,\u00a0only more so. It should not have come as a surprise that at least eight\u00a0of the nine prisoners later killed in the uprising were perceived by\u00a0others as \u201csnitches.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em><strong>L\u2019\u00c9TAT C\u2019EST MOI (I Am the State)<\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: justify;\">What did Warden Tate intend? In a document entitled \u201cSituation at\u00a0the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility as it led up to the riot,\u201d dated\u00a0July 5, 1993, an anonymous prisoner states that he believes that Tate\u00a0would have liked to lock down the whole institution permanently\u00a0\u201cand make it another Marion, Ill. supermax\u201d (a prison in which prisoners\u00a0are confined in single cells for 23 or more hours a day).<\/h3>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: justify;\">There is evidence for this theory. The most comprehensive of the\u00a0post-uprising studies, Southern Ohio Correctional Facility: Disturbance\u00a0Cause Committee Findings (sometimes called \u201cthe Mohr Report\u201d after\u00a0its chairperson, Gary Mohr) contains in its appendix a memorandum\u00a0dated March 22, 1993\u201420 days before the uprising began. The\u00a0memo, from Tate to Eric Dahlberg, South Region Director is entitled<br \/>\n\u201cRequest to Construct a Maximum Security Unit at SOCF.\u201d\u00a0Although Tate speaks of constructing a \u201cmaximum security\u201d unit,\u00a0SOCF was already for the most part a maximum security prison, and\u00a0his request must be understood to seek supermaximum conditions of\u00a0confinement. The memo states in part:<\/h3>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em>Over the past several months I have expressed my concerns relative\u00a0to the need for a maximum security unit at this facility which\u00a0is suitable to house those prisoners who are high security risks\u00a0requiring maximum levels of supervision as well as a physical\u00a0structure designed to effectively house them. . . . [I]nmates in the\u00a0highly assaultive, predatory category requiring maximum security\u00a0confinement, will continue to increase due to lengths of sentences.\u00a0<\/em><\/h3>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: justify;\">Recognizing that the department was unable to finance the construction\u00a0of a new supermaximum security prison at that time, Tate\u00a0asked permission to build a \u201chigh security unit\u201d at SOCF.<\/h3>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: justify;\">Whether or not Warden Tate consciously wanted to turn SOCF\u00a0into a supermax, it is certain that he insisted on absolute obedience.\u00a0Like Bourbon kings before the French Revolution, he acted as if he\u00a0believed that \u201cI am the State.\u201d Bill Martin offers an example of Tate\u2019s\u00a0mindset.<\/h3>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em>King Arthur followed Otto Bender\u2019s advice of closing all the windows\u00a0<\/em><em>during the summer because SOCF was designed to have a\u00a0<\/em><em>flow-through ventilation system to keep the institution cool.\u00a0<\/em><em>Without any investigation, King Arthur signed Bender\u2019s decree\u00a0<\/em><em>which ordered all the windows closed. . . . My supervisor, Pat\u00a0Burnett, subsequently went into King Arthur\u2019s office and inquired\u00a0about his \u201cwindow decree.\u201d King Arthur .. . had the institution\u2019s\u00a0blueprints on his desk and, as he was gently patting them, he told\u00a0Burnett, \u201cI have it all right here. The institution was designed\u00a0with flow-through ventilation. It will keep the institution cooler\u00a0if the windows are kept closed.\u201d Burnett then informed King\u00a0Arthur that the flow-through ventilation will not work because\u00a0most of the blowers on the roof are burnt out. . . . [You would think\u00a0that King Arthur would have rescinded] his \u201cwindow decree.\u201d But\u00a0he did not want to appear foolish&#8211;so all suffered through a very\u00a0hot summer.]<\/em><\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Similar hard-headedness about the best way to test for tuberculosis\u00a0would trigger the April 11 uprising.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Behind the Badge is on tour with\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TheShadowOfLucasvilleMovie\">The Shadow of Lucasville<\/a><span style=\"color: #000000;\">, a new documentary film by D Jones about the\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.lucasvilleamnesty.org\/\">1993 prison uprising in Lucasville Ohio<\/a><span style=\"color: #000000;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Olympia, WA \u00a0@ TESC &#8212;\u00a0Behind The Badge is a theatrical examination of police and prisons in America. It&#8217;s written and performed by Ben Turk, directed by Kate Pleuss with contributions from Colleen Hackett. Mr. Turk admits he&#8217;s not a &#8216;professional&#8217; &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/behind-the-badge-tesc-5-11-14\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14627"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14627\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16500,"href":"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14627\/revisions\/16500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}