Posted on 01/25/2004 9:13:02 AM PST by Pharmboy
BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Jan. 24 — Mary Kate Gach thought she had heard the last of Jack Trawick when he was sent to death row for murdering her daughter Stephanie in 1992. Instead, Mr. Trawick's writings about how he beat, strangled and stabbed Stephanie Gach and killed other women are available on the Internet. Many of the writings were put there by a onetime pen pal and admirer of Mr. Trawick's.
"Those people don't even have a right to speak my name or my child's name," said Mary Kate Gach. "There's got to be a way to keep them from funneling this stuff out of prisons."
Dozens of death row inmates in the United States have had their letters and artwork posted on the Internet, a practice that torments the victims' friends and relatives.
"It's going on all over," said Nancy Ruhe, executive director of Parents of Murdered Children in Cincinnati. But experts say little can be done about Web sites featuring the writings of killers. "It's the First Amendment," Ms. Ruhe acknowledged.
Typically, prisoners send letters to people or companies on the outside, which are then posted online.
Alabama prison officials say that it appears Mr. Trawick stopped sending out new stories about murder after Ms. Gach and others complained last year. But Mr. Trawick's old writings are still on the Web, along with gruesome drawings of murdered women.
In one letter posted on the Internet, Mr. Trawick reveled in the Gach killing.
"I would do the whole thing again knowing death row was waiting for me," Mr. Trawick, 56, wrote from Holman Prison in Atmore, Ala.
Mr. Trawick confessed to kidnapping Stephanie Gach, 21, from a Birmingham-area shopping mall in 1992. He took her to an isolated area where he beat her with a hammer, strangled her and stabbed her through the heart.
Free-speech protections prevent prison officials from blocking inmates' outgoing mail unless it presents a security risk or involves a crime in progress, said Amy Fettig, a lawyer in Washington with the American Civil Liberties Union's National Prison Project.
"Certainly I would understand victims being upset, and prison officials have a right to read mail," she said. But "just saying nasty things or having bad opinions is not a crime."
Barbara Streisand
Amendment V
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.Amendment VIII
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
According to the fifth amendment rights may only be denied to after due process of law. This murderer has had due process of law. He does not enjoy all the consitutional rights that those of us who have never been convicted of a felony and are not serving time in prison enjoy. Restricting his right to free speech is not "cruel and unusual punishment".
A quick execution would stop it.
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