Posted on 09/25/2005 3:12:41 PM PDT by wagglebee
WASHINGTON — The elderly couple, Daniel and Wilda Davis, opened their door to Russell Wayne Wagner on Valentine's Day 1994.
"He took Mom and Dad and sat them on a kitchen chair, tied their hands behind their heads and put a pillowcase over their heads, stabbed them 14-15 times and then he robbed them and then he left," their son, Vernon Davis, tearfully told the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee Thursday.
Wagner was convicted of the couple's murders and sentenced to two life terms with parole eligibility. When he died in prison, he was cremated and placed in the nation's premiere veterans' cemetery: Arlington National Cemetery.
That was "totally wrong," Davis told the committee, which is trying to determine how the rules governing cemeteries should be changed to prevent such burials in the future.
"It's an honorable place for people to go, not a murderer," Davis said. "I wish you'd change the law."
The couple's great granddaughter, a papergirl, found them the next day, he said.
Davis' powerful testimony came after Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, D-Md., requested a panel hearing to review the rules and regulations for who is allowed to rest in national cemeteries.
While Wagner was punished for his crime, he was rewarded with an inurnment with full military honors at Arlington Cemetery for his service as a Vietnam War veteran through a "parole loophole" in the current 1997 law dealing with who qualifies for national cemetery burial.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Ping.
It would seem that if you can be deprived of the 2nd amendment for a felony, that burial in a national cemetery
would be easy to stop.
I think his ashes should be evicted.
No, they shouldn't be allowed any type of military honor. My uncle all but killed his parents with his own hand. When he burned himself up (there is justice) the Air Force sent a plane over for his funeral. He was not honorable.
This is an outrage. What person stood by, knowing this man was a murderer, and allowed this to happen?
That's just wrong. They should dig this guy's ashes up and throw them in the trash heap, where they belong.
He should be dug up and thrown out of Arlington, the same way they dug up Clinton's Tomb Of The Unknown Donor, Larry Lawrence, and shipped his grisly 'Rat remains back to Kalifornia.
Calling a career serviceman or woman a 'lifer' is a grievous
insult...
imo
Uh, "life" in prison?
Maybe so, but I have heard it used. Usually in regards to a senior NCO. "Sgt. Rock is a lifer. He has hash marks from wrist to shoulder." I thought from the headline that the concern was about Arlington running out of room, and that the Senate was going to do something stupid. Glad to see I was mistaken.
This sounds like no one wanted to deny a murderer since his psychosis might be service related.
Oh brother are you right on! Whoever was Tnediserp in 1997 buried all kinds of felons in sacred Arlington. Some of their stinking remains were later exhumed in the dead of night, so stay tuned.
Convicted murderers do NOT belong in Arlington just because they served honorably in the military.
This makes me sick to my stomach. To have this animal laid to rest amidst the heroes is just sickening. Only those that have been honorable during their service AND their lives should be laid there.
Pull his ashes out and dump them down a toilet.
As I recall (growing up in the military) it was quite common. Don't really know if it was considered insulting, but it didn't seem to be.
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