Wednesday, April 15, 2015
Making Plans
October 18, 2017.
You can put that date in your calendar. It's when they plan to murder Melvin Bonnell.
It was in Cleveland, November 28, 1987. That's when Bonnell shot Robert Eugene Bunner twice. Bunner died. Four months and a day later, March 29, 1988, Bonnell was sentenced to be killed for the murder.
Years passed. There were appeals. New claims. DNA testing. Litigation over whether there would be more. May 14, 2010. Not quite 22 1/2 years after he murdered Brunner, just over 22 years since the court said he should be killed for it,* the prosecutor asked the Supreme Court of Ohio to set a date for the killing.
This morning, they did. They scheduled the murder 2 1/2 years from now.
October 18, 2017.
That's 29 years, 10 months, and 20 days since Bonnell killed Bunner.
And then.
Off with his head!
Or whatever method we use then. Unless, of course, he gets a stay. Or they run out of drugs. Or bullets. Or air. Or electricity. Or whatever we use to kill folks 30 monts from now.
30 months. Do you know where you'll be that day? Do you know where you were 30 months ago?
Melvin Bonnell? H can tell you. He was in prison 30 months ago. On death row. Where he'd been for for about 25 years.
30 months from now? On a gurney.
October 18, 2017.
You can put it in your calendar. If Bonnell has a calendar, it's probably in his.
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* Pause, here, for the Ghandian koan: We kill to show that it's wrong to kill.
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He didn't kill nobody.. know ur facts..
ReplyDeleteDid? Didn't?
DeleteI don't know now. I didn't know 5 years ago when I wrote this.
I know that prosecutors apparently hid key evidence and then lied about it for years - evidence that terrific attorneys from the Ohio Public Defender's office just found in the government's files - right where the prosecutor's said they looked for it but couldn't find it. See https://www.clevescene.com/scene-and-heard/archives/2020/03/30/lawyers-discovered-long-hidden-evidence-at-the-cuyahoga-county-prosecutors-office-now-a-death-row-inmate-may-get-another-shot-at-justice
But facts are tricky things. Unless you were with him at the time of the killing - or were the person who did the killing - what you know is what you believe based on what you understand of him and the witnesses and the system. Juries are told about proof beyond a reasonable doubt, but that's really just what they end up believing from what they're told and see in the courtroom (assuming they aren't further influenced by stuff from the outside).
Me? I've represented folks who were factually guilty and folks who were factually innocent. Sometimes I'm certain which camp my client was in. But my certainty isn't knowledge.
Melvin Bonnell did it. That's the verdict which for purposes of the law and the process is the fact - true or false - until some court says otherwise. Me? I didn't study the case before I wrote that 5 years ago. I hadn't talked with his lawyers about it until a couple of times this year.
And I wasn't writing about that anyhow. It was about time. At the moment (he just got another reprieve) he's due to be murdered by the state of Ohio in just under a year. My best guess is that it won't happen then. I hope it doesn't happen at all.
And if he didn't do it, I hope he gets out and then successfully sues the state of Ohio for millions of dollars. He's got four terrific lawyers working for him (disclosure, they're all friends).
Fingers crossed.
I don't care who u talked to or what u think u know(which is nothing at all). There are people out here who do years in prison for nothing. Because of people like u. Like I said before know ur facts go talk about someone else family. And leave mine alone. My uncle has been fighting for innocence for years and he will get it with or without u.HE DID NOT DO IT PERIOD. I DONT CARE THE COURTS ARE WRONG THATS Y THEY R FINDING AND COMING UP WIT WITH NEW STUFF.. IF THEY KNOWN 100% THEY WOULDNT EVEN CONCEDER GIVING HIM A NEW TRAIL. HE WOULD OF BEEN DEAD BY NOW. THANK YOU U FOR MINDING UR OWE BUSINESS.
ReplyDeleteFree melvin bonnell.
ReplyDelete