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ONE VOICE UNITED
LifeLines Ireland Vol.4 No.4 - Winter 1998
My name is William Duane Elledge and I am an American Political Prisoner and a victim of a cruel and unusual inhuman criminal justice system. I will not pretend to be wrongfully convicted. For I am without question or doubt guilty of criminal acts committed in August of 1974. I was then a young man of 24. I was also an alcoholic and addicted to drugs.
The fact that I was under the influence of drugs and alcohol at the time of my crimes does not absolve me of my guilt and the truth is that I plead guilty to my crimes.
So how can I claim to be a political prisoner if I am in fact guilty? A prosecutor with political aspirations to become chief of state attorney decided to use my criminal case as his platform in the bid for his political office by getting me the death sentence to show himself as being tough on crime.
The problem is this case should never
have been deemed to be a death qualified capital murder. So to insure that
I was sentenced to die this prosecutor misused his power and manipulated
the law to suit his political goals.
And so I was in fact sent to death
row in April of 1975. Since then I have been resentenced three times because
the same prosecutor has repeatedly violated my rights. He has twisted,
abused and manipulated the law in my case.
Yet not once have these been brought
to light.
This, by the way, is the very same person who prosecuted Sonja (Sunny) Jacobs and Jessie Tafero. Sonja was freed via the help of a childhood friend. Jessie was murdered by the state on this man's word and abuse of the law. So are my claims baseless? Not if you read the dissenting opinion of United States Supreme Court Justice Bruyer'. (See below)
People, I am but one voice that the world cannot hear. But if you unite, the voices of the anti-death penalty organizations around the world will be echoed by the United Nations. Maybe your voices will force the US government to practise the human rights that they preach to other nations and countries.
It's time to become One Voice for all of man and and womankind.
Pax
William Elledge
“To Flightless Fallen Angels”
- By William Elledge
To flightless fallen angels
Wings wilting in the sun
Find today a cause to smile
For you need not fear-
Nor turn and run
The wordman comes to call today
Whom seeks to bring you joy
To warm the sweetness of your soul
With verbal wits that he employees
He’ll whisper softly pen in hand
Dear Lady feel my touch
Know that he doth understand
The ache within to delve and such
He’ll share your path of introspect
While striving to yes enlighten
I share my truths to say I care
Not to shock or even frighten…
William Duane Elledge
Aka The Wordman
Criminal law-Sentencing-Cruel and unusual punishment
Death penalty Execution after twenty-three year delay
WILLIAM D. ELLEDGE
v. FLORIDA. U.S. Supreme Court. Case No.98-5410.
Decided October 13.1998.
On Petition for Writ of Certiorari to the Supreme Court of Florida.
The petition for a writ of certiorari is denied.
(Justice Breyer, dissenting.)
The petitioner in this case has spent more than 23 years in prison under
sentence of death. His claim-that the Constitution forbids his execution
after a delay of this length-is a serious one.
The Eighth Amendment
forbids punishments that are "cruel" and "unusual." Twenty-three years
under sentence ofdeath is unusual-whether one takes as a measuring rod
current practice or the practice in this country' and in England at the
time our Constitution was written. See, e.g., P. Mackay, Hanging in the
Balance: The Anti-Capital Punishment Movement in New York State, 1776-1861,
p. 17 (1982) (executions took place soon after sentencing in 18th century
New York); Pratt vs. Attorney Gen. of Jamica [1994] 2 App. Cas. 1,17 (P.C.
1993) (same in United Kingdom); see also T. Jefferson, A Bill for Proportioning
Crimes and Punishments (1779), reprinted in The Complete Jefferson 90,
95 (5. Padover ed. 1943); 2 Papers ofJolin Marshall 207-209 (C. Cullen
& H. Johnson eds. 1977) (petition seeking commutation of a death sentence
in part because of lengthy 5-month delay).
Moreover, petitioner
argues forcefully that his execution would be especially "cruel." Not only
has he, in prison, faced the threat of death for nearly a generation, but
he has experienced that delay because of the State's own faulty procedures
and not because of frivolous appeals on his own part. His three successful
appeals account for 18 of the 23 years ofdelay. A fourth appeal accounts
for the remaining 5 years-which appeal, though ultimately unsuccessful,
left the Florida Supreme Court divided 4-2.706 So. 2d 1340 (1997); see
Brief in Opposition 12 (conceding that "[a]ll delays were a result of[petitioner's]
'successful litigation' in the appellate courts of Florida and the federal
system").
As Justice Stevens has
previously pointed out, executions carried out after delays of this magnitude
may prove particularly cruel. Lackey v Texas, 514 U.S. 1045 (1995) (Stevens,
3., respecting denial of certiorari). After such a delay, an execution
may well cease to serve the legitimate penological purposes that otherwise
provide a necessary constitutional justification for the death penalty.
Ibid. Moreover, British jurists have suggested that the Bill of Rights
of 1689, a document relevant to the interpretation of our own Constitution,
may forbid, as cruel and unusual, significantly lesser delays. Riley v.
Attorney Gen of Jamaica [1983] 1 App. Cas. 719,734-735 (P. C. 1982) (Lord
Scarnian, joined by Lord Brightman, dissenting). See generally Harmelin
v. Michigan 501 U.S. 957,966-967 (1991) (Scalia, J.,concurring injudgment)
(on the relevance ofthe 1689 Bill of Rights to the interpretation ofour
own Constitution).
Finally, a reasoned answer
to the "delay" question could help to ease the practical anomaly created
when foreign courts refuse to extradite capital defendants to America for
fear of undue delay in execution. See Soeringv. United Kingdom, 11 Eur.
H. R. Rep. 439 (1989) (holding that the extradition of a capital defendant
to America would be a violation of Article 3 of the European Convention
on Human Rights, primarily because of the risk of delay before execution.)
For these reasons, and for the additional reasons set forth by Justice
Stevens in Lackey', supra, I would grant the petition for certiorari.
William Elledge appears before
Broward Circuit Judge Charles
Greene appealing his ordered
execution. (JUNE 2002)
William's Penpal Request:
I am 49 years old as of June 27th 1999.
My interests are art, music, writing,
poetry, reading, and the study of the
law. I love the out of doors and nature, love kids and criminals.
I'm Cherokee Indian and French. I'm 5'8" tall, 180 lbs, blue eyes
and brownish graying hair. I am legally divorced, I have 3 grown
children all in their mid to late 20's. I enjoy catchy, one liner
sayings like
"I feel like a one legged dog in a
million dollar race." One thing I would ask
of any penpals is that they know I
will need minor monetary and stamps if
and when possible as 25 years has found
me void of help from the free world.
William Elledge #046625
Union Correctional Institute
PO Box 221, P22025
Raiford,FL. 32083-0221
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