posted on August 19, 2002 11:01:48 AM new
This is the second article that I've seen recently about this incredible verdict in Alabama where a retarded black man was found guilty of killing a baby that there's no evidence ever existed. But Robert Keahey in the interview sounds like he is only emulating the Ashcroft plan for the American system of justice to champion distortion, ignorance, and bigotry.
When Justice Is Mocked
By BOB HERBERT
The jovial voice on the other end of the phone was that of Robert Keahey, the district attorney for the First Judicial Circuit of Alabama, which includes the tiny town of Butler in Choctaw County.
Mr. Keahey is the prosecutor who brought capital murder charges against three retarded individuals for the murder of an infant, despite the fact that he could not show that the infant had ever existed, much less been killed.
If there was anything about the case that bothered him, he didn't let on. He laughed frequently during the conversation, and it was difficult to resist the impression that he found the whole thing amusing.
All three defendants were black and indigent. It turned out that the woman who supposedly gave birth to the baby in 1999, Victoria Banks, had been sterilized in 1995. But Mr. Keahey would not drop the charges. With capital murder indictments looming over them, and the hostility of the local community apparent, all three defendants pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter.
I asked Mr. Keahey how it was first determined that Ms. Banks — who claimed she was pregnant in order to get released temporarily from jail in an unrelated case — was really pregnant.
"She came in weighing about 120 and she left weighing about 160," he said. "And the sheriff saw her grow from a thin woman to a fat woman with her belly poking straight out and her belly button turned inside out."
"Was there a pregnancy test done?" I asked.
"No." said Mr. Keahey, adding "There was no need for a blood test or anything like that. You could look at her and tell."
This was interesting, because a doctor who observed Ms. Banks at the time said he did not think she was pregnant. The doctor wanted to do a pelvic examination, but Ms. Banks would not allow it. When a second doctor reported hearing a fetal heart tone, Ms. Banks was released on bond.
That was in May 1999. When Ms. Banks was taken back into custody the following August, she did not have a baby and there was no evidence that she had given birth.
At that point, Mr. Keahey's prosecutorial power went into overdrive. Sol Wachtler, a former New York chief judge, once famously said that grand juries would indict a ham sandwich if a prosecutor wanted them to. Mr. Keahey managed to prove that not only can you indict the sandwich, you can convict it, and send it off to prison, too.
After intense and prolonged questioning without the benefit of counsel, Victoria Banks, her estranged husband, Medell, and her sister, Dianne Tucker, were all arrested and charged with murdering a baby that — based on the available evidence — was nothing more than a fantasy.
Mr. Keahey said all three defendants confessed to the crime, and that was enough.
I asked if there was any evidence, apart from the defendants' statements, that there ever was a baby.
"We have no physical evidence," he said.
After the three defendants pleaded guilty and were incarcerated for manslaughter, lawyers for Medell Banks raised enough money from churches and other charitable sources for an examination of Ms. Banks by a noted fertility expert, Dr. Michael Steinkampf of the University of Alabama School of Medicine. Dr. Steinkampf determined that the bilateral tubal ligation performed in 1995 had been effective, and that in his opinion Ms. Banks could not have become pregnant in 1999.
Based largely on that evidence, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals recently declared that "a manifest injustice" had occurred in this case and threw out Mr. Banks's guilty plea. But he continues to serve his 15-year prison sentence while awaiting further court action.
The jovial tone in Mr. Keahey's voice changed at the mention of Dr. Steinkampf. "He thinks he's God!" said the D.A. "Yeah, that's right. He don't believe any of the good, honest, law-abiding Christian people in Choctaw County when they say the woman was pregnant."
I pressed Mr. Keahey throughout the interview for any evidence he could offer that the child had ever existed. "They hid it from the rest of the world," he said.
When I asked about the possibility of hospital birth records, he burst out laughing. "She didn't go to a hospital," he said. He laughed harder. "If she had gone to a hospital, that would have made it easy."
posted on August 19, 2002 11:14:41 AM new
This is at the top of the injustice list. Just an amazing story. This guy is still in prison? Could be a major lawsuit. But then again, that is a dangerous place for a black man to sue white authorities. Isn't that where Billy Joe McAllister jumped off the Tallahachee bridge?
posted on August 19, 2002 11:24:19 AM new
What a sad, hard to believe story Antiquary. Justice for poor black people seems scarce, but to hear about someone feeling jubilant about a winning a case such as this leads me to wonder who the true retards are.
posted on August 19, 2002 11:30:17 AM new
stusi - You will probably find it hard to believe - but when that song came out they were forced by local opinion to go out and drag the river looking for a corpse. The ignorant mentality that prevails in the area has no room in it for the concept of fiction. They take their Bible and newspaper literally no matter how convoluted the needed thinking to accomadate such literal view. I have lived in a similar area when going to school - and the people had a very difficult time dealing with the idea of movie actors not actually being the characters they portrayed. Several older people got upset at me for reading science fiction books because they were full of "lies" and felt the library should not be buying such trash. I'm very happy to live far from such areas now.
posted on August 19, 2002 12:02:02 PM new
The saddest injustice that I read of beforehand was a black youth who threw a brick through a plate glass window of a business and was sent to jail for it. Fourty-five years later, he was still there, incarcerated for the crime that he had committed in his youth. It was a "Do-Gooder" group who had pressured the governor of that southern state to let them go through the prisons looking for just such injustices. This poor gentleman wasn't the only one that got released either. The last note on the story was that the only way that the state would release these wrongfully-convicted prisoners was if they each signed a waiver of their rights to sue the state, country, or city that participated in their incarceration, which they all did to get free. Not a one ever received a penny for the injustices done to them.
Happens all the time here in America. When during the Clinton Adminsitration, just such a group made their way through all the state prison systems and this state - Oregon. They said that Oregon had the highest rate of wrongfully incarcerated people in the entire united states and that the system here was a complete disgrace to the name of justice. The end effect? No change here at all.
posted on August 19, 2002 12:17:12 PM new
>>>"Was there a pregnancy test done?" I asked.
"No." said Mr. Keahey, adding "There was no need for a blood test or anything like that. You could look at her and tell."
This was interesting, because a doctor who observed Ms. Banks at the time said he did not think she was pregnant. The doctor wanted to do a pelvic examination, but Ms. Banks would not allow it. When a second doctor reported hearing a fetal heart tone, Ms. Banks was released on bond.<<<
Reeks of a set-up, or a cover-up, based on the info provided. Sad to hear places still exist where incarcerating a black is as exciting as getting an eight-pointer.
BTW, "Black Boy" is on my topten list of greatest books I've ever read.
posted on August 19, 2002 12:58:10 PM new
stusi, I think that he's still in jail because Keahey is appealing the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals decision; whatever the exact process is I'm unsure but it was mentioned in the first article that I read.
"The jovial tone in Mr. Keahey's voice changed at the mention of Dr. Steinkampf."He thinks he's God!" said the D.A."Yeah, that's right.He don't believe any of the good, honest, law-abiding Christian people in Choctaw County when they say the woman was pregnant."
That statement is especially significant I think. God is on Keahey's side, not evidence, or science, like that of the evil Dr. Steinkampf. If this attitude continues to grow in the nation, as I believe it is, such a verdict might not even be overturned in another ten years. Except for a white defendant perhaps, if he or she isn't a pinko, fascist, christ-killing, queer, slant-eyed, spic-loving, atheistic, Pope-kissing, tree-hugging liberal. Eventually the characteristics of the evildoers all run together and it'll be too much trouble and too expensive for public servants like Mr. Keahey to try to distinguish in the effort to bring them all to justice.
KD, yes, it is sad. At least the retarded have some excuse.
gravid, that's an excellent descriptive summation of a certain set of attitudes, but I wonder if it's less geographically confined than it was in the past, as in Borillar's example. I'm not sure how anyone can tell for certain; we never have the wisdom of polls to give us the truth on these issues. The voting in the last presidental election might be an indication, though I think quite a few people were duped about what they thought were moderate stances on issues.
The voting in the last presidental election might be an indication, though I think quite a few people were duped about what they thought were moderate stances on issues.