A friend's injustice

At 2100 hours last night (17 November 2009), a patriot and dedicated American veteran died at the hands of the State. He was executed in the Virginia electric chair after a nine year struggle to prove his innocence for a double murder committed in Manassas, Virginia. Bill was pronounced dead at 2109 after a single jolt from one of only four US States who still use "old sparky" to kill its citizens.

Bill, an old and close friend of over twenty years, was an Army Counterintelligence Agent with such an extraordinary background that he rose through the ranks to become "THE" Department of Defense expert on all matters pertaining to the use or discovery of hidden electronic monitoring devices. In DoD jargon, he was the Chief of the Army Technical Security Countermeasures (TSCM) program. Over my own career I called upon him on numerous occasions to "sweep" areas such as hotel rooms, cars, etc. in which I would be interviewing highly sensitive sources from the now defunct Warsaw Pact countries. At times he was called upon to install such devices but that is far too sensitive a topic for this discussion. He was highly decorated for his merit and expertise and has met with numerous Heads of State or allied intelligence chiefs to discuss his expertise or to divulge his discoveries. He was cleared for the highest levels of information on a par with the clearance provided to the President and his immediate staff. His background investigation was spotless to a fault.

In the late nineties, he became involved with a young women of questionable traits. He was wrong and totally out of character in this affair. He admitted this to me on numerous occasions after his incarceration. I would be willing to discuss this affair on an individual basis but for now simple note it was stupid, out of character and a total shock to those who knew him best. She was divorced and had lost custody of her two children to her former husband and his new wife. This couple were well known to the Manassas police as a main source of drug trafficking in the area. Bill's "friend" wanted her children back and asked him to conduct whatever surveillance or background investigations he could to gather information that would enable her to regain custody of her children. He often spent endless hours in the early morning before dawn, observing the house of the former husband to count the number of late night visitors, (probable drug customers) and similar activity surrounding the residence. He obviously became known to the neighbors as the man in the green Toyota pickup who was often seen in the area.

On one evening someone broke into this couples home and brutally murdered them with multiple gunshot wounds and then left the area.  Neighbors heard the gunshots around 0500 hours and then noted a black man running away from the area of the house wearing a white "hoodie". 

Earlier that evening Bill had been near the house but had to leave early. He had to prepare for an early morning meeting at his office at Ft. Meade. MD (55 miles away). The police evidence has him making this journey in morning beltway traffic in less than forty five minutes. His electronic entry badge has him logged into his office at 0545 hours.

Two days later Bill was brought in for questioning based on neighbors reports about the green Toyota and confirmatory identifying data from his paramour. Following twenty hours of interrogation he was arrested for the murders based on circumstantial evidence and while awaiting what the police were certain to be more definitive data following the "CSI" results. He waived council during his interview. According to my conversations with him he did this out of a deep seated belief in the American jurisprudence system. If he were innocent. There simply was no way he could be found guilty so why would he need a lawyer. That demonstrates his true sense of patriotism. He believed in our system of government without reservations. In the end, it cost him his life.

He was tried twice. The first trial being tossed out due to jury misbehavior. He was founds guilty in his second trial and sentenced to death. His attorney on both trials was selected alphabetically from the  phone book and promptly cleaned Bill out of over $300K$ in personalwealth. After his finding if guilty, the attorney refused to handle his appeals since Bill did not have another $350K to offer him. I testified in both trials and was totally amazed at the ineptitude of his counsel and told the counsel and Bill of my trepidations. Bill settled in to his small cell on death row. After four years, The Bill Gates Foundation conducted a review of the entire trial and determined that there was far more evidence indicating innocence than there was indications of guilt and took up the battle with a multi-million dollar war chest. They determined and proved that considerable information had been withheld from the trial which would have exonerated Bill. Considerable evidence used to convict him was now lost and could not be found. Outright lies were recorded as truths as were numerous physical impossibilities. Even a casual review shows that the paramour had lied repeatedly in her statements to the police and in the trial. There was strong indications of her direct involvement in the death of her former husband and his new wife. However police careers had been made on the case not to mention the reputation of prosecution team. In the end, through manipulation, refusal to provide information and outright lies, his conviction was upheld and he died. He chose the electric chair for reasons he did not discuss with me in our previous night conversations. He died with dignity and courage.

The Gates Foundation has decided to continue their efforts to prove his innocence and I have been named as one of the "advisors" to assist them in this effort. In our final conversation the night before he died, he told me he had no reason to lie or to withhold any information from me.  He adamantly noted his innocence and the fact that the State was wrongly taking a human life in a manner that indicated that none of us are fully secure in our homes if overzealous police and court officials decide to "prove" our guilt for almost any crime including capital offenses.

Thanks for allowing me to vent…