Killer taunts victims family via the net

[Speedo]

http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/01/13/killers.online.ap/index.html

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (AP) -- Mary Kate Gach thought she had heard the last of Jack Trawick when he went to death row for murdering her daughter in 1992.

Instead, Trawick's twisted writings about how he beat, strangled and stabbed Stephanie Gach and killed other women are available to anyone who wants to read them on the Internet. Many of the writings were put there by a one-time pen pal and admirer of Trawick's.

The killer even taunts Mary Kate Gach by name.

"I'm mad as hell," she said. "Those people don't even have a right to speak my name or my child's name. There's got to be a way to keep them from funneling this stuff out of prisons."

Around the country, dozens of U.S. death row inmates have gotten their letters and artwork posted on the Internet, a practice that torments the victims' grieving friends and relatives.

"It's going on all over," said Nancy Ruhe, executive director of Parents of Murdered Children in Cincinnati. "People say to me all the time, 'When are these (victims) going to get over it?' They can't."

Experts say little can be done about Web sites featuring the writings of killers.

"It's the First Amendment," Ruhe acknowledged.

Typically, material from inmates makes it onto the Internet through an intermediary. Prisoners send letters to people or companies on the outside, where it is then posted online.

Alabama prison officials say it appears Trawick stopped sending out new stories about murder after Gach's mother and others complained last year. But Trawick's old writings are still on the Web, along with gruesome drawings of murdered women.

In one letter posted on the Internet, Trawick reveled in the Gach slaying.

"I would do the whole thing again knowing death row was waiting for me," Trawick, 56, wrote from Holman Prison.

Trawick confessed to kidnapping Gach, 21, from a Birmingham-area shopping mall in 1992. He took her to an isolated area where he beat her with a hammer, strangled her and stabbed her through the heart.

Gach's body was thrown off an embankment, where it was found the next day. Trawick was convicted in 1994, and he was convicted the next year in the slaying of Aileen Pruitt, 27, killed about four months before Gach.

Trawick has yet to exhaust his appeals, and no date for his execution has been set.

Gach's mother avoids listening to anything about Trawick. But it hurts her to know Trawick has a worldwide platform for his sadistic prose.

Free-speech protections prevent prison officials from blocking inmates' outgoing mail unless it presents a security risk or involves a crime in progress, said Amy Fettig, an attorney in Washington with the American Civil Liberties Union's National Prison Project.

"Certainly I would understand victims being upset, and prison officials have a right to read mail," she said. But "just saying nasty things or having bad opinions is not a crime."

In one test of inmates' rights, a federal judge in May struck down as unconstitutional an Arizona law that made it illegal for state inmates to send out material to be posted on Web sites. The judge ruled the law was not "rationally related to legitimate penological objectives."

In Alabama, Gach and other victims' relatives met with the state prisoner commissioner last year to protest inmate Web sites. Corrections spokesman Brian Corbett said Trawick's mail was screened extra closely for a time, but his writings have reappeared in new postings in recent weeks.

"I'm in shock. I feel like I have been here before," said Stephanie Gach's mother.

 

[cgannon64]

I cannot understand how someone would enjoy killing someone with a hammer, enjoy it enough to do it again.

And I never will.

 

[stalin006]

well, this is just like allowing neo-nazis parade in jewish neighborhoods, or burning the flag, the 1st ammendment will allow this to continue we like it or not

 

[amadeus]

Criminals in prison do not have the same rights. They should be immediately stripped of United States citizenship and all of it's privlages.

They tried to screw America, so we should screw back, double time.

 

[Perfection]

Well, it's not like he's forcing the family to view what he wrote!

 

[Mr. Cackle]

Originally posted by rmsharpe
Criminals in prison do not have the same rights. They should be immediately stripped of United States citizenship and all of it's privlages.

They tried to screw America, so we should screw back, double time.

In a sense, they are.

Anyone who has EVER been convicted of a crime is unable to vote. This excludes VAST amounts of the population, especially poor black males (as shown by a recent survey, not sure where tho) who have committed relatively minor crimes (shoplifting, credit card fraud, etc.) because they are impoverished and need money/items that the rich can easily get.

No, we should not strip every prisoner of his/her rights. They are humans, and as humans have "certain inalienable rights" which means that no matter what they do, who leads them, they cannot be removed.

 

[carlosMM]

what the hell has that to do with the first amendment - it doesn't figure into this, as it doesn't pretect you from a fine if you call someone an as*hole to his face!

1st amendment guarantees the right to speak your mind, but not to harrass, torture verbally and insult others! Why do so many Americans NOT understand that a right is only avaiable as long as it does NOT interfere with the rights of others!

 

[stormbind]

Originally posted by carlosMM
Why do so many Americans NOT understand that a right is only avaiable as long as it does NOT interfere with the rights of others!

 

[thestonesfan]

Originally posted by Mr. Cackle


In a sense, they are.

Anyone who has EVER been convicted of a crime is unable to vote.

Wrong. Only felons have restricted voting rights.

This excludes VAST amounts of the population, especially poor black males (as shown by a recent survey, not sure where tho) who have committed relatively minor crimes (shoplifting, credit card fraud, etc.) because they are impoverished and need money/items that the rich can easily get.

How many cases of shoplifting include milk, eggs, or bread? Oh, that's right - people shoplift things like cigarettes, beer, and CD's. Things they need or they'll die.

God, how does someone form such moronic opinions?

No, we should not strip every prisoner of his/her rights. They are humans, and as humans have "certain inalienable rights" which means that no matter what they do, who leads them, they cannot be removed.

To quote Dirty Harry:

"What about the rights of that little girl?"

 

[Akka]

Spreading such trash is hardly "free speech"...

 

[carlosMM]

Originally posted by thestonesfan

How many cases of shoplifting include milk, eggs, or bread? Oh, that's right - people shoplift things like cigarettes, beer, and CD's. Things they need or they'll die.

God, how does someone form such moronic opinions?

moronic? rather, humane. as opposed to your aggressive pose of Übermensch! You know quite well that people want 'luxuries', and these are usually easier to steal than food.

To quote Dirty Harry:
"What about the rights of that little girl?"

yeah, go throwing rapists, murderers, tax fraud manager types and chewing gum lifting teens into just one category, hell, why not just kill them all, why not just hang everyone who runs a stop sign....

 

[thestonesfan]

Originally posted by carlosMM
moronic? rather, humane. as opposed to your aggressive pose of Übermensch! You know quite well that people want 'luxuries', and these are usually easier to steal than food.

Humane? Don't make me laugh. Justifying theft by saying "people want luxuries and rich people won't let them have them" is not humane.

You can't always get what you want.

There are a lot of 'luxuries' I want, but I'm not going to steal them.

People steal because they are weak, stupid, and morally vacant, not because they are poor.

yeah, go throwing rapists, murderers, tax fraud manager types and chewing gum lifting teens into just one category, hell, why not just kill them all, why not just hang everyone who runs a stop sign....

Obviously, that's what I was saying.

We should kill this guy, that's for sure. What a sick SOB.

 

[carlosMM]

Originally posted by thestonesfan


Humane? Don't make me laugh. Justifying theft by saying "people want luxuries and rich people won't let them have them" is not humane.

tsk tsk, nice rethorics, but I wasn#t justifying theft in any way, so don't bring that BS claim again.

You can't always get what you want.
There are a lot of 'luxuries' I want, but I'm not going to steal them.
People steal because they are weak, stupid, and morally vacant, not because they are poor.

indeed, you can't. But, if someone gets the feeling he can NEVER get ANYTHING he wants - isn#t it understandble that he will take it?

as you please to intentionally misunderstand posts, I will clarfy one thing now, though it should be unneessary: especially for thestonesfan: by 'understandable' I do not mean 'tolerable' or 'legal' or whatever BS turn-it-on-its-head interpretation you will come up with.

 

[allhailIndia]

What is a prison's role?
While some of its inmates do deserve death and life in it, there are a large number out there who deserve a second chance. Just because they came from a poor family, due to which they had to steal, due to which they could'nt go to school, due to which they ended up in a gang and on drugs, does it mean that society can get rid of its mistake, without bothering to correct it.
It is easy for us sitting in front of a computer, coming from good, well to do families and talk about how criminals should be punished, but have we ever bothered to find out what makes a criminal?
Do any of us know what it is not to be able to get a couple of meals a day? Do any of us here know what it is to face humiliation at every turn in life? Do any of us know what it is to be denied opportunity?
I think not.
Before we judge somebody, let us put ourselves in their lives, not just their feet and think judge our actions. Some no doubt, commit crimes out of sheer sadism and lust and should deservedly be punished as hard as possible, but what about the boy who had never seen a world beyond his slum, never known anything but deprivation and humiliation and never been given an opportunity and saw guns or drugs or thieving as an opportunity?
It is said that a liberal is a jailed conservative, only if we know the other side can we find out the truth.

 

[thestonesfan]

Originally posted by carlosMM
tsk tsk, nice rethorics, but I wasn#t justifying theft in any way, so don't bring that BS claim again.

Mr. Cackle was, clearly. And you defended his statement as humane.

 

[thestonesfan]

Originally posted by allhailIndia
What is a prison's role?
While some of its inmates do deserve death and life in it, there are a large number out there who deserve a second chance. Just because they came from a poor family, due to which they had to steal, due to which they could'nt go to school, due to which they ended up in a gang and on drugs, does it mean that society can get rid of its mistake, without bothering to correct it.
It is easy for us sitting in front of a computer, coming from good, well to do families and talk about how criminals should be punished, but have we ever bothered to find out what makes a criminal?
Do any of us know what it is not to be able to get a couple of meals a day? Do any of us here know what it is to face humiliation at every turn in life? Do any of us know what it is to be denied opportunity?
I think not.
Before we judge somebody, let us put ourselves in their lives, not just their feet and think judge our actions. Some no doubt, commit crimes out of sheer sadism and lust and should deservedly be punished as hard as possible, but what about the boy who had never seen a world beyond his slum, never known anything but deprivation and humiliation and never been given an opportunity and saw guns or drugs or thieving as an opportunity?
It is said that a liberal is a jailed conservative, only if we know the other side can we find out the truth.

Of course people deserve second chances. But second chances shouldn't interfere with justice. How is justice being served if a murderer is free to taunt his victims family?

 

[amadeus]

Originally posted by Mr. Cackle
...VAST amounts of the population, especially poor black males

Are you saying that black men are genetically predisposed towards crime and failure?

...because they are impoverished and need money/items that the rich can easily get.

And there was no theft in the Soviet Union? No theft in Romania? No theft in Vietnam? Give me a break.

 

[RoddyVR]

Originally posted by rmsharpe
Criminals in prison do not have the same rights. They should be immediately stripped of United States citizenship and all of it's privlages.

They tried to screw America, so we should screw back, double time.

i will apologize in advance for nitpicking at your Wording if that is all it is. and i didnt read the thread past this post because it just bugs me so much.

The rights granted by the US constitution and laws are NOT for US citizens. they are for HUMANS. when will all the idiots that say "once/since he's not a citizen, the bill of rights dont apply" get it beaten into their heads that being a US citizen gives you NOTHING other then the right to vote.

 

[thestonesfan]

Originally posted by RoddyVR

The rights granted by the US constitution and laws are NOT for US citizens. they are for HUMANS. when will all the idiots that say "once/since he's not a citizen, the bill of rights dont apply" get it beaten into their heads that being a US citizen gives you NOTHING other then the right to vote.

Pretty sure they only pertain to American citizens...

After all, North Koreans don't have free speech, a right protected in our constitution.

 

[RoddyVR]

ofcourse the US constitution does not grant rights to people living outside the country (or maybe it does, but no real way of enforcing that). what i'm saying is that the millions of people IN THE US that are NOT US citizens (everyone from illegal immigrants to visiting tourists to foreign citizens living in this country just for the hell of it) is entitled to the rights granted by the US constitution and laws while IN the US.

and unless you plan on making prisons like embassies (ie in one country but officialy the lands of another county) even the bast@rds in prison are protected by those rights. though i dont actualy think it SHOULD apply to murderers and such, i'm tired of people thinking "take away his citizenship and then do anything you want to him, and we're fine as far as the constitution is concerned".