Posted on 03/03/2006 3:18:29 PM PST by Former Military Chick
Time illustrates how New Jersey has a virtual death penalty that ends in the death of the accused, although it happens without midnight vigils and satellite trucks, under the media radar.
Four days before Christmas in 1981, Richard Williams participated in the murder of New Jersey State Trooper Philip Lamonaco. Because the murder took place prior to 1983 when New Jersey reinstituted the death penalty, Williams was sentenced to 30 years in state prison.
He also had been sentenced to 45 years in federal custody for his participation in an unrelated series of bombings as a member of the United Freedom Front. Among his targets were symbols of "oppression," including Union Carbide, General Motors, IBM and Army and Navy facilities.
Williams died Dec. 7. But who knew? The Easton (Pa.) Express-Times reported his death Sunday, nearly two months later. The Associated Press picked up the Easton story and put it on the wires the next day.
State Police Capt. Al Della Fave said the report of Williams' death was on the State Police Web site in December, but no one in the print media picked it up, he said.
If Williams had been sentenced to death, his story would have been retold often, through a seemingly endless series of appeals in state and federal courts. The convoluted legal process would have cost countless tax dollars.
Instead, Richard Williams just faded away, although not without sympathy. His death was lamented on the online edition of The Nation — a publication of the hard left.
According to author Dan Berger, Williams had been put into isolation in the Lompoc prison in California within hours of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Williams' health deteriorated; he suffered from a heart attack, cancer and hepatitis C, which caused liver failure and led to his death.
After Williams had returned to the prison's general population 10 months later he responded to questions submitted by the Santa Barbara (Calif.) News-Press.
"I do not support the actions of Sept. 11th. It is not something I would do, nor would I advocate it," he wrote.
Williams took credit for the bombings he participated in, telling the newspaper: "I took up revolution in this country because it is my country. I want to see change here. I do not hate the people of the U.S. I do hate the policies the government pursues. I feel it is criminal. And to not try to change it makes me, as a U.S. citizen, complicit in my government's crimes."
"Neither his post-9/11 isolation nor his death captured headlines," reported Berger, who contrasted his death to the death of another Williams — Stanley "Tookie" Williams — whose execution in California on Dec. 12 drew legions of protesters, including Jesse Jackson, Louis Farrakhan and Joan Baez.
Berger continued: "In less than one week, two prisoners have died — flawed men, each of whom had tried in some fashion to promote social justice. One was executed openly and deliberately . . . The other was killed slowly and quietly, because he fought quite literally against the pernicious acts of his own government on behalf of the oppressed people of South Africa and Central America."
Berger made only a passing reference to the murder of Philip Lamonaco.
When Williams was sentenced in 1992, Donna Lamonaco, the officer's widow, told the court: "He fought against the system, but the system fought back. Life in prison is the only life he is suited for, until death."
Williams would spend 13 years on his personal death row.
You could make an argument — in fact, I will make the argument — that Richard Williams suffered the worst fate, dying a forgotten, broken man, while Tookie Williams died a public death, a celebrated martyr to some.
When life in prison means life in prison, allowing nature to take its course, that is a far harsher penalty than death by lethal injection.
I offered my thoughts in comment 1, I was angry that someone would try and sway reader's that somehow it is bad that society has forgotten someone who had died in prison as compared to all the media attention the likes of Tookie received.
This guy really is off his rocker. I sent a letter to this paper, I doubt it will go anywhere as I am not a resident but it allowed me to vent.
The guy was given a trial, punished and he did exactly what he was supposed to do live out his remaining days behind bars. Why should we care as a society that he is no longer with us. The family of the victim should be notified, such notification must have been freeing.
If the convicted has family, they should remember, pay for the obit, if they feel he is worthy of paper send off.
But, to somehow say, shame on us, that this inmate/convict was forgotten upon his death?
SHAME on Mr. Rick Malwitz.
Oh and to add 9/11 to his argument, that was just well beneath the belt. imho
Instead, Richard Williams just faded away, although not without sympathy. His death was lamented on the online edition of The Nation — a publication of the hard left.
I do appreciate your point of view and insight. We will have to agree to disagree. I did not take away from this article what you did.
I see how you came to this conclusion but in the end there is nothing fair about being on death row/or sentenced to life.
Frankly when I did a search he hasn't done much coverage on the forgotten either. Hard to point finger's when you choose not to go that extra step.
Again, I do appreciate your thoughts, thank you.
The way Mr. Williams died sounds like JUSTICE to me. Tookie just happened to be in CA, near the celebrities. He got justice, in the end, as well.
Agreed.
I think others are reading somthing into this article.
Incredibly one of his cohorts walked away from a 45 year sentence after a few years:
Friday, August 6, 2004
Paroled radical to return to Maine
By GREGORY D. KESICH, Portland Press Herald Writer
Copyright © 2004 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
E-mail this story to a friend
Also on this page:
Raymond Levasseur:
Raymond Levasseur:
RAYMOND LEVASSEUR: BOMBINGS, THEN ON THE RUN
May 1977: Raymond Levasseur's name is placed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List.
November 1984: Seven years as a fugitive end with his arrest by the FBI in Deerfield, Ohio.
March 1989: Levasseur and five other radicals are tried in U.S. District Court in New York for numerous bombings at corporate offices and military installations. Levasseur is convicted and, a month later, sentenced to 45 years in prison.
August 2004: Police say Levasseur is about to be paroled to a federal halfway house in Portland.
SOME OF THE 22 bombings linked to Levasseur's groups:
April 1976: Suffolk County Courthouse in Boston.n May 1976: Central Maine Power's headquarters in Augusta.
July 1976: U.S. Post Office, Seabrook, N.H.
May 1983: Roosevelt Army Reserve Center, Long Island and Navy Reserve Center, Queens, N.Y.
September 1984: Union Carbide offices, Mt. Pleasant, N.Y.
To top of story
Self-styled revolutionary Raymond Luc Levasseur will soon return to Portland after serving 18 years in prison for his part in a string of terrorist bombings beginning in the 1970s, police said.
Levasseur, 57, is a member of a group dubbed the "Ohio Seven" after their 1984 arrest in Cleveland. The group, also known as the United Freedom Front, was believed to have been responsible for 19 bombings and 10 bank robberies over a nine-year period, as well as the murder of a New Jersey state trooper.
Levasseur was on the FBI's most wanted list for seven years before his capture. In 1986, he was convicted of bombing corporate offices and military installations in and around New York City and was sentenced to 45 years in prison.
But he is expected to be transferred to a Portland halfway house as early as today under federal parole laws, said Portland Police Chief Michael Chitwood.
"Am I concerned? Absolutely," Chitwood said. "This guy has been in prison for 18 years for extremely violent criminal conduct. This guy is truly a revolutionary. They don't like cops. I'm concerned."
Levasseur was known as the intellectual leader of the group that was opposed to racism and corporate capitalism and has a reputation of avoiding bloodshed. In the bombings he was convicted of, a warning was always issued, and no one was injured.
In 1989, Levasseur was acquitted of attempting to overthrow the government under little-used sedition laws. He defended himself against a $50 million prosecution in a trial that took 10 months.
The same jury could not reach a verdict on charges of racketeering, and a mistrial was declared.
Levasseur calls himself a political prisoner and continues to protest the capitalist system in essays posted on a Web site under the title "Letter from Exile."
In a 1992 essay, he describes his time on the run:
"During those years I joined efforts with others in attempting to build a revolutionary resistance movement," he said. "We sought to bring to the attention of the American people the horrendous crimes being committed by their own government and transnational corporations. We targeted the worst criminals because they are the ones who hurt the most people. . . . Now I am one of over 100 political prisoners held in the U.S. gulag."
MOLDED BY ARMY EXPERIENCE
Levasseur was born in Sanford, the son of immigrant mill workers from Quebec. He went to work in a shoe factory at 17 and joined the Army at 19.
Levasseur said his experience as a soldier radicalized him. "I saw intense racism directed toward the Vietnamese people, which recalled the anti-Franco bigots and white supremacy I'd encountered" at home, he wrote. "As I saw the culture and poverty of the Vietnamese ridiculed, I recalled the intolerant (people) of my youth."
After receiving an honorary discharge, he became an organizer for Vietnam Veterans Against the War. He was arrested for selling marijuana in Tennessee, and was sentenced to five years in prison.
After his release in 1971, Levasseur came to Portland, where he began working with another Vietnam veteran and ex-convict, Thomas Manning. The two worked for Statewide Correction Alliance for Reform, a prisoners' rights organization. They tutored inmates and opened Red Star North, a radical bookstore on Congress Street.
In 1975, Levasseur was arrested in Connecticut on a firearms violation. He jumped bail and began life as a fugitive.
Levasseur, Manning, their wives and children and other allies spent the next nine years moving from place to place in the Northeast. They were indicted in a bank robbery in Portland, a charge that was later folded into the sedition and racketeering prosecution. They were also blamed for numerous bombings that targeted businesses that worked with South Africa's apartheid government.
TROOPER KILLED IN TRAFFIC STOP
They were often rumored to return to Maine. Portland's deputy police chief, William Ridge, then a young patrolman, said the department was always on guard when they heard those reports.
"The biggest fear was that you would pull someone over for a traffic stop and get shot," Ridge said. "When we heard they were around, we didn't make a lot of traffic stops."
The search for the group intensified after the murder of New Jersey Trooper Philip Lamonaco, who was killed after pulling over a car on the New Jersey Turnpike. Manning later admitted to killing Lamonaco, but claimed it was done in self-defense.
Levasseur, his wife, Patricia Gros, and three others were arrested in Cleveland in November 1984. Manning and his wife, Carol Ann, were captured in Norfolk, Va., in April 1985.
Levasseur was sent to New York for trial in a bombing case. He and co-defendant Richard Williams were both convicted and sentenced to 45 years in prison.
Manning was convicted of felony murder for the death of Lamonaco. He was sentenced to 80 years in prison, in addition to 53 years for a separate bombing conviction.
Because he was convicted before sentencing laws changed in 1987, Levasseur is eligible for parole, which means he can serve part of his sentence outside of prison if he meets certain conditions.
"Mr. Levasseur will be under strict supervision. He can stay in the community as long as he remains a law-abiding citizen," said Claire Cooper, chief of the Maine office of federal Probation and Parole.
CONSIDERED A LOW CRIME RISK
His first stop will be the Pharos House shelter on Grant Street, where he will live with other federal inmates making the transition to life outside prison. Although he would not comment about Levasseur, Pharos House director Bob Feener said only inmates deemed to present a low risk of committing new crimes are eligible for the program.
Chitwood said federal parole officials informed him that Levasseur would spend about three months at Pharos House, and then move into a West End apartment with his second wife, Jamila Levy Levasseur, a few blocks from his old bookstore.
Federal officials should have consulted with the city before resettling someone with Levasseur's history, Chitwood said.
"I would have objected," he said. "I don't want him in the city of Portland. He hasn't shown that he is rehabilitated."
Not everyone is worried. The man who will probably become Levasseur's new landlord said he would be happy to rent to him.
"He has suffered enough, he deserves a break, " said Fred Clarke. "I feel very, very positive about this."
Staff Writer Gregory D. Kesich can be contacted at 791-6336 or at:
gkesich@pressherald.com
I ain't no English major, but... This seems awfully disjointed and confusing. Was this a paid writer?
Incredibly emoting over this bum has spawned a small cottage industry. Read on:
Inmates questions post-September 11 treatment
Wednesday, September 11 2002 @ 04:16 PM PDT
Contributed by: Admin
Views: 306
Submitted by BREAKTHECHAINS:
Inmates questions post-September 11 treatment
Richard Williams, at Lompoc for ten years, has been segregated since attacks
7/1/02
By Raul G. Gil
Santa Barbara News-Press
newspress.com (805)564-5185
Mere hours after two planes smashed into the
World Trade Center towers last September, guards came and hustled Richard Williams out of his cell at the Lompoc Federal Penitentiary.
He and 10 other men, most of Middle Eastern or Arab descent, were moved into a special administrative detention unit.
According to the Department of Justice, the move, which took place in concert with similar shuffles at prisons around the country, was necessary for the safety and security of the prisoners, and to continue the orderly running of the penitentiary.
During the next few weeks, all except Mr. Williams were returned to the general prison population. He remained alone and under constant supervision, until February 11 - five months after the attacks - when he was returned to his old cell among the general population.
Then, on April 30, he was sent back to the special housing unit, where he remains today, said his attorney, Lynne Stewart.
The inmate, a self-described "anti-imperialist" convicted of numerous bombings and the murder of a state trooper, was among the "high profile" federal convicts nationwide who were segregated into special units - which outsiders describe as a euphemism for solitary confinement - after the attacks.
But because the government hasn’t linked him to the recent terrorist acts, Mr. Williams, his family and attorney are all questioning the reasoning behind his treatment. Ms. Stewart, a high-profile attorney who is the subject of an FBI investigation, says he is being singled out because of her legal difficulties.
His children, concerned about his health, want their father to have some stability. The Department of Justice demands security - and isn't talking.
The Bureau of Prisons says the inmate's housing change is part of post-Sept. 11 Department of Justice policy changes designed to protect the nation from potential threats domestically and internationally. The government can determine if prisoners should be placed under "special measures," such as being housed in special units, transferred, or given restricted access to visitors and mail.
His attorney says Mr. Williams, who has been in the Lompoc prison since 1992, was kept out of the general population longer than any other similar inmate in the United States. The day after being placed back in his old cell in February , he suffered a mild heart attack.
"I was in this prison 10 years prior to Sept. 11th and at no time have I ever threatened or done any violence to anyone, staff or prisoner," Mr. Williams, 54, wrote in response to queries by the News-Press. “I have no connection to any groups or people that could in the least be considered violent....I do not support the actions of Sept. 11th. It is not something I would do, nor would advocate it."
In the early 1980s, Mr. Williams was reportedly among a group of seven men and women who formed the United Freedom Front. They were all arrested in Ohio after a three-year manhunt that Mr. Williams' attorney described as more extensive than the hunt for the Lindbergh baby kidnappers. Though authorities say otherwise, Mr. Williams said he never admitted to participation with the UFF , but instead supported an "armed clandestine movement."
The UFF was accused of a series of about 18 bombings in protest of the U.S. relationship with South Africa's apartheid government and the U.S. government's Central America policies in the early 1980s. Among the targets were South African Airways, IBM Corp. and Union Carbide.
"I took up revolution in this country because it is my country," Mr. Williams wrote. "I want to see change here. I do not hate the people of the U.S. I do hate the policies the government pursues. I feel it is criminal. And to not try to change it makes me, as a U.S. citizen, complicit in my government's crimes. "
According to numerous reports, no injuries or deaths are associated with the UFF bombings.
In 1986-87, Mr. Williams was tried on 1bombing counts, and convicted of five - at an Army Reserve Center, a Naval Reserve Center, a Navy recruiting office and General Electric and Union Carbide Corp. laboratories. He received a sentence of45 years.
He was also convicted in a later trial, along with UFF member Tom Manning, of the murder of New Jersey state trooper Philip Lamonaco. Mr. Williams, whose first trial in that case ended in a hung jury, was sentenced to 35 years to life for that crime.
DIFFERENT KIND O F TERRORIST
The federal Bureau of Prisons releases little information about prisoners, citing privacy concerns, and because it could compromise safety and security, said Sven Jones, a Bureau spokesman in Washington, D.C. He would say only that Mr. Williams has a projected release date of Nov. 11, 2018; after that, he would serve the murder sentence in New Jersey. He is one of 1,147 men in Lompoc’s maximum-security penitentiary.
Mr. Jones rebuts the characterization of special administrative detention units as solitary confinement or isolation, the term frequently used by Mr. Williams' supporters.
"It serves many purposes," Mr. Jones said. "It's for behavioral purposes, or the safety and security of an inmate. That’s not infrequent. Sometimes inmates are being moved from one place to another, and they're not put in the normal population.”
Mr. Williams' son, Netdahe Williams Stoddard, 24, takes it as a personal affront that the Justice Department considers his father a possible terrorist.
Mr. Stoddard, who lives in Vermont, has visited his father in the penitentiary for the past seven years, including some visits that involved months-long stays on the Central Coast. He was used to relatively open access to his father, including the chance to hug, or hold hands.
Since Sept. 11, the visits have been more limited in time and contact.
"He's never been a threat to you or I," said Mr. Stoddard, during a recent visit to Lompoc. "He has been, and is especially in ideology, a threat to how the government stands. He's really aware of that."
His sister, Henekis Williams Stoddard, was just a toddler when their father was first incarcerated. Now 22, she visited him about a week ago for the first time in five years.
"I don't have any bad feelings about it," she said. "It's great to have somebody like him. I’m totally proud of him, 100 percent. I support what he believes in. I take a very drastic, very different approach to life, how I view things. That doesn’t negate what he does. I really respect that.”
The government’s action, Miss Stoddard maintains, “is just vengeance. Just straight-up fear they have of whatever, and they take it out on whoever they have captive. He said to us, ’I haven’t done anything wrong except what I was convicted of 20 years ago.’ Nothing new has happened, except he’s gotten a little older, a little mellower... He’s the same person he was before Sept. 11.”
Though the federal Bureau of Prisons will not confirm his status, Mr. Williams' children believe he is about to be classified as a high-level security risk. If that occurs, he will be transferred to an ultra-high security penitentiary in either Florence, Colorado or Marion, Illinois.
"He's got this resolve: 'These people cannot break me and I will not let them,"' Mr. Stoddard said, after visiting his father. He's being reclassified to a more secure level without any behavior problems. He's being penalized a second time for crimes he committed 21 years ago. "
A PRISONER OF CONSCIENCE?
Mr. Williams is among more than 100 men and women called "political prisoners" by various human rights activist organizations, largely because his crimes were directed at U.S. government policy. He - as well as others with whom he was arrested - are regularly mentioned on Web sites and in letter-writing campaigns to elected officials.
UCSB professor Diane Fujino, and her husband Matef Harmachis, a Dos Pueblos High School teacher, are members of the Interfaith Prisoners of Conscience group, and have written letters to Rep. Lois Capps, D-Santa Barbara, seeking help with the case.
Mrs. Capps' office made an inquiry to the penitentiary, and received a response simply detailing Mr. Williams' status, said Marla Viorst, spokeswoman for Mrs. Capps.
Ms. Fujino, Mr. Harmachis and several other Central Coast residents visit or correspond with Mr. Williams.
"He's a political prisoner, incarcerated because of his political actions, beliefs and associations," said Ms. Fujino.
Ms. Fujino understands some people may question her support of a man the government might consider a domestic terrorist.
"The reason I support him, they took great care not to hurt any people," she explained. "They were symbolic actions against U.S. imperialism. He was not fighting for his own self-interest. He was really trying to break down racism and imperialism in the U.S. This was the way they thought made sense to do it. "
Mr. Williams appears mystified as well to the reasons behind his segregation and possible transfer.
“The fact that I am singled out for special punishment even after 17 years in jail for no concrete reason that the authorities will give puts proof that they feel I’m a threat,” he wrote. “It is not a physical threat, as they pose, but an intellectual threat, which they will never admit.”
“I am an unrepentant revolutionary. They cannot stand it.”
By Raul G. Gil
Santa Barbara News-Press
newspress.com (805)564-5185
".... But who knew?....."
My question is, who cares? Not me.
The world is a better place without him.
LMAO!!! But still, the electric chair would have been much more satisfying.
Oh well. Time to see what's for dinner. . . .
Newsflash: Thousands of people die every day without any note other than a brief obit.
What journalist does not know that?
and hepatitis C, which caused liver failure and led to his death.
2nd breaking news.. He contracted Hep C how?
Yes, to use that fine old Russian phrase 'make them know they are really dying'.
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
In other words, he suffered the natural death he likely would have suffered had he never committed his crimes. For him, this was like living to a "ripe old age". He went when it was his time to go. This was thus an injustice. He took a life and was allowed to keep the rest of his. He did not have much life left when he was sentenced, but what little there was should have been taken from him.
The killer lived WAY too long.
He should have been put to death no more than two years after his conviction.
Two words: reading comprehension.
The writer has done us all a disservice reminding us that this puke even existed.
What I get out of this article... is a variation of the old 'Please don't throw me in that briar patch!' theme.
I suppose, if enough writers who are against the death penalty generally could successfully convince enough others (particularly those who are otherwise not similarly anti-death penalty) that life in prison is actually 'much worse' than the death penalty, then such writers might then make a second argument on the heels of the first... that the 'death penalty' is then 'no longer needed', so as to accomplish what they wanted in the FIRST place - to get rid of the death penalty.
I find the following, which I believe was posted earlier elsewhere on FR, to be a GREAT DEAL more pursuasive: ...that 'The death penalty is unique in its 'success rate' in that once the sentence has been carried out, those receiving it, will ALWAYS have a ZERO recidivism rate.
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