Write a letter for Glen Edward Chapman, please.
It won't take you long. It will take far less time than he spent in prison, on death row, for a crime he didn't commit.
Glen Edward Chapman was recently freed from death row, where he spent 15 years. Mr Brilliant and Emma met him at a recent book reading by M*A*S*H* star Mike Farrell. Farrell was advocating against the death penalty and Chapman attended. The former prisoner now lives in Asheville, where he is trying to put his life back together.
Through many efforts by a UNC professor and a lawyer in Asheville, it was discovered that police lied and concealed evidence to get a young, poor, black man convicted.
Police detectives lied at Chapman's 1994 trial for two deaths in Hickory. They covered up the existence of a confession by Betty Jean Ramseur's real killer, ditched the results of a photo lineup in Ramseur's case in which someone else was positively identified, hid witness statements in Tenene Yvette Conley's case that pointed to Chapman's innocence and altered other witness statements in Conley's case to make them better fit the officers' theory of guilt. Those fabricated statements were disclosed to the defense lawyers, to throw them off the track.
This gross corruption provided the prosecution with the cherry-picked evidence and false testimony and arguments it needed to try Chapman. The deceit was compounded by ineffective representation by the lawyers assigned to defend Chapman at his trial, as well as by other flaws, including forensic medical evidence that questions whether Conley's death was actually a homicide at all or was perhaps a drug overdose (since her body bore no lethal wounds).
Chapman passed a lie detector test in the Ramseur case after his arrest; his trial attorneys never arranged for him to take one in the Conley case.
When he was released, he was sent out the prison doors without compensation, without support for starting over. "He was released from death row with 10 minutes' notice, one outfit, no counseling, no money and no assistance from the state after being incarcerated for over 15 years for crimes he did not commit." As a friend who has gotten to know him here in Asheville said, he was "just let go without anything." As Nina said of him, "I know Ed and like him very much. He has a job as a dishwasher at a hotel, but could use the money to train at a job where he can make higher than minimum wage. Remarkably, he is not bitter about what has happened to him. I would like to see my friend make a fresh start. He's in his mid-forties."
We threw this man away once, and then once again. Let's not do it again.
A local church has been helping him get his feet on the ground. We–you and I–can help him too. Please do. If he can get an official pardon of innocence from the governor of North Carolina before he leaves office on January 20th, Ed will receive monetary compensation for each of the 15 lost years of his life. You can go to the church website and download some sample letters. Please use his full name (Glen Edward Chapman) if you write a letter to Governor Easley.
During this Thanksgiving season, let's help someone that our system failed. Can 37days readers generate thousands of letters by writing, reposting, pointing other people to this post? I think we can, from all over the world.
If you can participate, please do so before Thanksgiving Day (November 27 in the U.S.).
My deepest thanks to each of you. If we live in a flawed system, the very least we can do–I believe–is right the wrongs we discover.
(photo of Mike Farrell and Glen Edward Chapman at Malaprop's Bookstore, May 2008)
