Rick Halperin
Tue Aug 16 12:14:04 2005
June 6 TEXAS: Commentary: Don't accept insanity plea The column today is going to tackle the hard topic of the death sentence with regard to the mentally ill. I have a strong sense of justice. Having been forewarned, feel free to lay the newspaper down, walk out to your garden and think peaceful thoughts instead. Unfortunately, the world can be a violent place. We've had several trials in Texas in the last couple of years involving an insanity plea for murder. In the process, people seated on the juries of our state criminal justice system make some gut-wrenching decisions. This subject should be of interest to each one of you because this task could fall to you some day. On May 19, The Dallas Morning News ran an article on the execution of Kelsey Patterson. Gov. Rick Perry refused to grant a reprieve and at 6:20 p.m. on May 18, he was declared dead by lethal injection. Mr. Patterson had a history of paranoid schizophrenia. After being previously ruled incompetent in two nonfatal shootings, he killed the owner of an oil company. He then turned his gun on a secretary, Dorothy Harris. The daughter of Ms. Harris watched the execution. Sobbing, she thanked the governor for "giving me a chance to start again and have an end to such a horrible time in my life. I started the day off very pessimistic, but it ended as I prayed it would." It ended as it should. Murder is a horrific crime with ripple effects that are both linear and multidimensional for society. The linear effect extends to the generations on both sides of the deceased. Someone has lost an aunt, niece, mother or daughter. The act of murder can decimate a family tree in a way that is hard to conceive. The multidimensional effects of murder can be more subtle. Some lost a boss, employee or church member. But beyond that, civilized society decides what must be done for the common good. This is the most important aspect for consideration. The way a jury responds will set the stage and the mood for the next murder trial and how we view crime and punishment. The verdict of a jury measures societal response as to the value we place on human life. A life prematurely taken is untapped potential. What was that life worth? Ask the family and they will tell you. Murder demands a strong societal response. A society that does not have the backbone to deal with these criminal situations can quickly fall into disarray, even anarchy. The court system is also in place to provide a barrier to revenge. By applying law and penalty, the family and friends are freed from a need for retribution. By rendering a guilty verdict, the jury is saying, "We took care of it for you." I have done psychiatric nursing across all age groups. I have cared for people who see hands coming out of walls to grab them and receive commands from a dog's eyes to jump from a window. They deserve compassionate care. But I have also cared for those with homicidal impulses. They are dangerous. These are the ones you do not turn your back on. They will take a meat cleaver to your head and then calmly sit down to eat a sandwich and watch a football game 10 minutes later. They will kill their offspring while the daddy is at work or asleep. You will be asked to judge this type of individual. For once, instead of a plea of "not guilty by reason of insanity," I would love to see a plea of "guilty by reason of the jury's sanity." The jury is not to be a boxed set of 12 mindless cretins. Weigh the physical evidence of the crime. Was a murder committed? Make your decision. I hope the victim's family will have reason to thank you. (source: Commentary, Tammy Swofford, Dallas Morning News) ************************** Father is charged in death of son, 4 ----Missing child found beaten and strangled in trunk of car Marcus Savage, a 4-year-old Lewisville boy reported missing several days ago by his father, was beaten and strangled, the Dallas County medical examiner's office said Saturday. Micheal Savage, 26, was charged with capital murder of a child under the age of 6 after his son's body was found in the trunk of a car Friday night at an Addison apartment complex, Lewisville police Officer Richard Douglass said. Mr. Savage was being held Saturday at Denton County Jail in lieu of $1 million bail. He called 911 about 2 p.m. Wednesday and said Marcus, described as a shy, polite boy, had wandered away from the family's apartment home at 1000 Valley Ridge Blvd. in Lewisville. Mr. Savage kept his head down in the back seat of a patrol car Saturday morning during his transfer from city jail and did not respond to questions from reporters. Previously, he had said he had nothing to do with his son's disappearance. Mr. Savage's mother, Emma, reportedly fainted Friday night after hearing the news of Marcus' death and the subsequent arrest of her son. She and other relatives declined to comment Saturday. The mother of the child, Shonda Holt, 24, could not be reached for comment. Mr. Savage's and Ms. Holt's two other children - ages 5 and 8 - were voluntarily placed in the custody of Mr. Savage's parents Friday night, said Marleigh Meisner, a spokeswoman for Child Protective Services. She said CPS had received no reports of child abuse regarding Marcus' parents. Several neighbors said Mr. Savage appeared to be a good father in a happy relationship with Ms. Holt, his Lewisville High School sweetheart. Addison ties But a friend of Ms. Holt said Mr. Savage had another girlfriend who lived at the Addison apartments in the 16400 block of Addison Road near Westgrove Road, where Marcus' body was found. Another neighbor said she recognized the hoodless car where Marcus' body was found as the one Mr. Savage used to drive before it was battered in an accident. "The closure of actually finding Marcus Savage is going to be very hard for everyone to take because it didn't turn out the way we wanted it - that the child wandered off or was just playing," Officer Douglass said. Several friends and neighbors of Mr. Savage said they were struggling to reconcile the death with what they had thought they knew about the man. "He always came out here to play with his kids, to play with our kids," said Ketti Duckworth, a neighbor and friend of Ms. Holt's. Ms. Duckworth, whose son Jalen, 2, shared his toy trucks with Marcus, said she helped search for him the first day. But after that, she sensed something was amiss and stopped looking. Friend defends man But Greg Dich, a longtime friend who was stunned to learn that Mr. Savage had been arrested shortly after he left Mr. Dich's home Friday night, insists that Mr. Savage is innocent. When Marcus was a toddler, his father would send Marcus and his siblings to the corner instead of spanking them, Mr. Dich said. "I've known all three of their kids since they were little bitty," he said. "His past is his past; he had some troubles. But when it came to his kids - I have never, ever seen that man raise a hand against them." Said Angie Davis, a neighbor who is a mother of three: "I've been crying all night." The case turned from a missing person report to a potential homicide investigation after Mr. Savage failed a polygraph test, Officer Douglass said. "We are looking at the father; we are looking at the family members, the mother. We are looking at everybody that is close to Marcus to find out what has happened," Officer Douglass said Friday. Marcus' mother, who has not been accused of any crime related to the disappearance of her son, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge in 1997 of assault/family violence. She was sentenced to one year of probation and 80 hours of community service, Denton County records show. Mr. Savage was charged with unlawfully carrying a weapon in 1997 and again in 2002, and with marijuana possession in 1997. Mr. Savage was arrested Thursday night on unrelated warrants from Denton and Dallas counties and had posted bail before being arrested again just before midnight Friday. In his 911 call to police, Mr. Savage told the operator, "Hello, um, we need to fill out a missing kid's report. I mean, uh, how do we go about doing that?" He said Marcus had gone out to play "and he hasn't came back in. I've walked all around the complex and everything." Marcus' uncle Milton Savage, 31, declined to talk about Micheal but thanked the public for assisting in the search and for supporting the family with food, water, flowers and messages of support. "I just want to thank everyone for what they've done," he said. (source: Dallas Morning News)