If for some reason, you did not read yesterday's blog post, please go back and read that, so that you will understand where I'm going with this today.
I thought I would take it in the order that I described, the order of events. Yesterday I described the way the room was set up and the Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner were the 1st ones that spoke. Really it was the deputy commissioner that took control and spoke most of the time.
He rehearsed why were there and also why Daniel was there. He went over all the information concerning his crime. I won't get into a lot of detail at this point. I will mention in more detail when our home was burglarized by Daniel, but that comes in a different section when I gave my testimony. Daniel did burglarize our home and take a 22 caliber pistol that we use for target practice. We didn't even realize it was gone until the police came knocking on our door at 2 o'clock in the morning and told us that he was arrested for armed robbery of a liquor store. That is the main charge against him. He robbed the liquor store and he used a gun. He also fired the gun. Each one of these points increases the seriousness of the charge against him. I will tell you right now that he was guilty on all counts and Daniel said so and more.
After the deputy commissioner went through a long list of charges and all the ramifications there of, then he turned to what Daniel has done in the last 17 years while in prison. Just for the record because the number of people have asked, he was 17 years old when he committed the crime and I know you can do the math. He spent half his life in prison. I guess I should back up and tell you a little bit more information because many of you did not know that when he was 1st arrested they had a 707 hearing. This is to determine whether to try him as an adult or as a juvenile. There are 5 points that make up the criteria in the 707 hearing to determine if a juvenile is to be tried as an adult. Here are the 5 points:
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The degree of criminal sophistication exhibited by the minor.
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Whether the minor can be rehabilitated prior to the expiration of the juvenile court's jurisdiction.
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The minor's previous delinquent history.
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Success of previous attempts by the juvenile court to rehabilitate the minor.
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The circumstances and gravity of the offense alleged in the
petition to have been committed by the minor.
They determined
using these 5 points to try him as an adult. What I thought was
unfair was that during the trial by judge and jury 3 of the 5 points
were nullified. Which in my mind said that they should have struck
down the 707 hearing and sentenced him as a juvenile. At the most he
would've then been released at age 26. But, as they say that's water
under the bridge and we don't look back but we look forward.
So we're back to the
deputy commissioner talking to Daniel about his life in prison and
his behavior. They have rules that if you break them you get written
up in prison and he had to answer for each one of these offenses of
being written up. Unfortunately I didn't write the date down for the
1st offense, but I believe it was around 2006. It seems like I'm
always backing up and telling you more information because it's hard
to understand what goes on in prison. We see movies and television
programs but I must tell you that in real life it's a little bit
different than what you see on the big screen. Daniel did not do any
drugs or drink alcohol. But, I will tell you that those things are
rampant in prison. The reason is because the guards can make a lot of
money by smuggling in different things like drugs and even cell
phones. While Daniel was in Mississippi, they had cell phones that
were smuggled in by the guards and were sold at a premium. $600 for a
dumb phone. $1000 for smart phone and I'm not talking about an iPhone
or a Samsung galaxy 6. So they smuggle in a case of cell phones and
they can make $10,000.
Because of the
drug situation Daniel wanted to have a "cellie" that did
not do drugs. So when he got a new cellie that wanted to make wine
it was not that big of a deal yet it was breaking the law. I will just
tell you that Daniel got in trouble also and he was written up. He
explained the circumstances and that was that.
While in Mississippi
in 2010 he was involved in a riot at the prison. He explained the
circumstances it was all racial. By the way if you are not aware of
this prisons are the most racially divided that I've ever heard of.
It's divided up with the whites, the Blacks, the Mexicans and the
Orientals. Each group has to take care of their own business. If one
of the people in your ethnic group violates certain "standards
against another group", a leader of the other group will come to
leader of the perpetrator group and let him know what happened and
said you need to take care of it. If that leader within the group
that the perpetrator is in, if he does not take care of the problem and
beat up the offender, then the other ethnic group will do it. I know
it sounds kinda weird. But that's the way it is. So that's the type
of situation that was brewing. They had 2 tiers of cells and in the
middle there was a common area where there was a television. All the
cell doors were open and they had access to the center area and
Daniel said that when he heard that there was a commotion he went out
to see what was going on and then of course he ended up getting
caught up in the riot, defending himself against the people that were
the aggressors. He said that what he should have done is to go back into his cell and closed the door.
I've learned early
on and I mean from the very beginning when Daniel was taken to
Lancaster and he got in trouble within the 1st month I called the
prison and talk to a lady and she made it real clear that sometimes
when people get in trouble they have to do it because they're
protecting themselves or defending themselves. If you are not willing
to defend yourself then you become a floormat and everybody wipes
their feet on you. Just saying.........................
It's important for
you to remember these 2 items that Daniel was written up about
because later on when the representative of the district attorney had
a turn to speak he brings these points up and uses them as a point of
fact that Daniel has not reformed.
After the deputy
commissioner grilled Daniel over all these points then he started on
a more positive note and reviewed all his files as to his positive
accomplishments during his imprisonment. I've written them down so
that they are accurate. Daniel has 42 certificates. He sent me copies
of each one of these and they are for completing different courses
such as electric shop, upholstering shop, things that are building
certain technical skills. Like typing classes and so on. Daniel also
had 50 self-help classes that he has attended which would be like
AAA, OS AP (which I can't remember what that stands for). The
commissioner asked him if you don't have any problem with alcohol and
you don't drink how can you went to the AAA class? Daniel told him
that a friend of his that was in one of the classes that he was
attending was the vice president of AAA and he asked if Daniel would
come and join the class because Daniel knew how to type and they
needed a secretary. Daniel did mention that he learned a lot from
that class. Daniel most recently joined the Toastmasters club which
is a organization that helps you to learn how to publicly speak. It
is really helped him and I must say that he did very well in his
presentation. He was very sharp and accurate in his responses and it
was duly noted at the very end of the hearing because the deputy
commissioner mentioned that. Daniel also has 7 associate degrees, one
bachelor's degree and one Masters degree, plus he's completing his
8th associate degree in the next week.
All these things are
very important. During the end of the hearing when the deputy
commissioner was explaining why they gave Daniel a parole, they made
these comments. Most prisoners have a parole hearing and they fall
short of meeting the expectations for someone to be released. Usually
they must tell them that if you get with the program, then maybe at
the next parole hearing you'll be eligible. He called it "dangling
a carrot" before the prisoner. But the deputy commissioner said
that you didn't need that. You've obviously done a lot of work and
the work that you've done is not only a huge volume of work but the
depth of your work is notable.
But I digress
because I've gone to the end of the story and I need to fill it in.
Daniel also has done 20 book reports and the deputy commissioner
questioned him about the books that he read and what he's learned and
which one was his favorite. I've got to tell you that Daniel's memory
is very sharp because he could draw on the books that is read and
anyway I thought he did really well.
One of the things
that was interesting is that they mentioned that he's learned to read
and write and speak French while in prison. We purchased a series of
CDs for Daniel and a course for him to study because he wanted to
learn that language so he could read books in French and I'm
referring to history books. He want to read them in the original
language that they were written. So the deputy commissioner asked him
about it and it was kind of funny because he said you probably don't
get a whole lot a chance to speak to anybody in French while in
prison and Daniel said that's true and he said I'm really looking
forward to when I get out that I would like to buy the Rosetta Stone French
program and really learn how did speak well in the French language.
At this point Daniel's attorney who is Diane, turned to Daniel and
said something in French (this was totally unrehearsed) and Daniel
responded immediately in French and I was taken back because I've
never heard him speak in that language. I was impressed and I assume
that the commissioners were impressed also. I talked to Diane
afterwards and she said that she grew up in Montréal Canada and she
speaks French and as she said it's a little bit different than the
French that they speak in France, but close enough.
Well, I guess that's
enough for today. I will try and pick up tomorrow morning where
Daniel gives a closing statement. One of the things that I find
interesting is because I'm planning on getting a transcript of the
hearing and then I will run it through the OCR (optical character
recognition program) and then I will put it on the blog. And we'll
see how my memory is in relationship to what really happened. This is
a disclaimer all things are as I remember them and may have really
happened or maybe not so much. I know that in the case of my
testimony there are things that I had wanted to say but didn't say,
but as you know sometimes, well good intentions.
God bless you and tomorrow is Sunday and you'll be in the house the Lord!
Remember that every day is the Thanksgiving day!
Maranatha,
Frank and Harriet
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