by Glynn Wilson

(LFJ) – The Eleventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta has ordered a new hearing before Chief U.S. District Judge Mark E. Fuller on the issue of whether former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman should be released from prison pending the outcome of his appeal.

A three-judge panel remanded the case back to Fuller, arguing that it appears as if Siegelman’s lawyers never properly filed a motion for his release on appeal. The ruling also seems to take the judge to task for discussing the issue of Siegelman’s release on appeal and not fully explaining why the former governor was jailed immediately instead.

“The district court made comments in the course of denying Siegelman’s motion to surrender voluntarily to prison which may reasonably be interpreted as a finding that Siegelman was ineligible for release pending appeal,” the ruling indicates. “Regarding Siegelman’s motion for release pending appeal, the Government’s response to the motion, and Siegelman’s reply to the Government’s response are hereby REMANDED on a limited basis, for expeditions consideration and disposition by the district court. The district court’s order should explain the reasons for the court’s ruling.”

According to Redding Pitt, one of Siegelman’s attorneys, Fuller would not allow the defense to even make a motion on the issue of his remaining free on appeal. The judge ruled Siegelman was not eligible under federal rules.

“The court at sentencing would not let us make the motion, much less make an argument in support,” Mr. Pitt said. “That is what the appeals court is referring to in a portion of the opinion.”

What the ruling means in lay terms, according to Siegelman supporter Pam Miles, is that “Judge Fuller denied release pending appeal on the day of sentencing. In sending Siegelman directly to jail, it is implied that Fuller must have had a good reason for his actions even though they have not been stated.

“Siegelman should have appealed to Fuller in writing instead of directly to (the) 11th circuit. However, the (appeals panel) states that they understand why Siegelman didn’t do this,” she says. “It is certainly implied that they are referring to the act of shackling and taking him to prison that night.”

“Accordingly,” she says, “the (appeals panel) is asking Fuller to formally rule on the appeal bond motions with a full explanation of his ruling.”

One source who is familier with this case, and how legal appeals work in the South, says it is likely that the appeals panel has indicated to Fuller that he better release Siegelman (and Scrushy?) – or they will.

AP: Appellate Judges Ask Trial Court to Decide on Siegelman Release

View the full order here:

Download Circuit_Order1.PDF

I have to admit to being more schooled in science than in art, having been forced in the Jefferson County, Alabama, public school system to choose only one art. I chose the high school band and played the drums. So I never got to take an art class.

Even in college, as a print journalism major and a political science minor, I never had to take an art appreciation class.

Into my master’s and Ph.D. years in the 1990s, I spent most of my time studying science and communications research.

But as I crest middle age and once again take up the camera, I find myself more and more interested in art.

What is art? What makes it special or mundane?

I learned something of art from my close friend Spider Martin, an artist turned photographer. He idolized the artistic genius Pablo Picasso, not only for his art but for his personal life as a renowned womanizer.

I can only know what I read about his personal life, but looking at his art work it is clear he has impacted the development of modern and contemporary art with unparalleled magnitude.

His prolific output includes over 20,000 paintings, prints, drawings, sculptures, ceramics, theater sets and costumes that convey a myriad of intellectual, political, social, and amorous messages, according to James Voorhies with the Department of European Paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Picasso’s creative styles transcend realism and abstraction, Cubism, Neoclassicism, Surrealism and Expressionism.

Photo by Glynn Wilson

Pablo Picasso’s depiction of the dying bull at the end of a Spanish bullfight

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Perhaps Alabama Governor Bob Riley has a heart after all, or maybe he just knows serious political pressure when he sees it.

Within a half hour of our posting the editorial below and sending it via e-mail to the governor’s office, “Cowboy boots” Bob granted a 45-stay of execution for death row inmate Tommy Arthur.

His justification?

Riley said a change made this week in the state’s lethal injection procedures, announced on Wednesday, were designed to ensure that the inmate is unconscious when given drugs to stop his heart and lungs. Arthur was scheduled to be executed at 6 p.m. today, but he would not have received the new lethal injection formula, Riley said.

AP: Alabama Governor Grants 45-Day Stay of Execution for Arthur

There was no word from the governor’s office on whether he will reconsider his decision not to push the state legislature for a post-conviction DNA testing law, which is the law in 42 of the 50 states.

We urge Governor Riley and the Alabama Legislature to immedietely change the law and allow DNA testing in any case where it is warranted to avoid any possibility of putting innocent convicts to death.

Alabama Governor Has A Chance Today to Do The Right Thing
He Can Order DNA Testing in a Death Penalty Case

Alabama’s Republican Governor Bob Riley has a chance today to do the right thing for once in his political career.

But he may find it difficult in his black heart, due to political pressure from the Christian Right for Republicans to be tough on crime and pro-death penalty.

It is one of those strange ironies in American politics that those who fight the hardest for “life” in the case of unborn babies seem to be the most ardent supporters of “death” when it comes to accused criminals – not to mention their support of American wars in the Middle East and elsewhere.

In the case of Thomas Douglas Arthur, who is scheduled to die tonight by lethal injection in Alabama’s famous Holman prison for the murder of Troy Wicker Jr., 35, who was shot in 1982 through the right eye while he slept in his home in Muscle Shoals, Riley seems intent on doing the wrong thing.

While Arthur’s case has not drawn the level of protest of some in the past, in part perhaps because he is white, the human rights advocacy group Amnesty International did call on Governor Riley to delay the execution.

Governor Riley Asked to Delay Execution

So far he has refused, and even the conservative Birmingham News, which has sung Riley’s praises for the past five years, has taken him to task on this issue.

Riley Fails Test, Again

The U.S. Supreme Court has signaled an interest in potentially overturning lethal injection as the primary method for sending death row inmates to their final breath, agreeing to take up two Kentucky cases. The defendants in those cases both argue that the pain that goes along with lethal injection’s three-drug cocktail constitutes unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment.

Supreme Court Agrees to Consider Lethal Injection

Ruling on Kentucky Case Revives Arthur Appeal

The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta had a chance to weigh in on this one, but the justices balked.

Appeals Court Denies Stay for Alabama Inmate

Governors in many states have ordered DNA testing in similar death penalty cases, including George W. Bush when he was governor of Texas and his brother Jeb as governor of Florida.

But for reasons he can only know in his heart, Riley has refused. Some anti-death penalty activists say this constitutes political murder.

“What we are witnessing on September 27 is not an execution, but is a murder,” Justice Denied Publisher Hans Sherrer says.

ThomasArthurFightForLife.com

Part of the problem is that unlike 42 other states in the Union, Alabama does not have a law requiring post-conviction DNA testing. So here, the decision is left to the governor.

Riley could have ordered DNA testing in Arthur’s case a couple of weeks ago without even delaying the execution date, according to the national Innocence Project, which fights the death penalty all over the country.

And in this case, even family members of the man who was killed would like to see the DNA evidence pursued.

“I would like to see this evidence subjected to DNA testing,” Peggy Wicker Jones said in a statement made public Aug. 21. “I would like to have as much information as possible about what happened on the day my brother Troy was murdered.”

Innocence Project co-director Peter Neufeld called it “unconscionable” that Riley would not insist on using the best science available to determine the truth before putting inmates to death.

We have long said that the state should not be in the business of killing people for any reason and urged the U.S. Supreme Court to once again overturn the death penalty as unconstitutional as it did in the 1960s. Bringing it back in the late 1970s was a mistake for a civilized society held up as a beacon of freedom for the world, especially since virtually all of the evidence shows the death penalty is no deterrent to violent crime and actually costs more to administer than a life sentence.

But at the very least, if the state is going to be in the business of killing convicted criminals, it should use every means at its disposal, including the best science on DNA testing, to avoid any chance of putting innocent people to death.

Governor Riley, are you listening? Only you can do the right thing in this case.

Under the Microscope
by Glynn Wilson

Where are the super heroes worthy of legend in our world today?

Greece and Rome had Hercules.

America had Superman. Lest we forget, he was by day the mild-mannered reporter for The Daily Planet Clark Kent.

Hercules is the Roman name for the mythical Greek hero Heracles, son of Zeus and the mortal Alcmena. He was made to perform 1200 great tasks to cleanse himself – after he went temporarily insane and killed his wife and kids, along with his entire village, an oft forgotten part of his heroic tale.

Photo by Glynn Wilson

Hercules at The Met

While he was a champion and a great warrior, Hercules was not above cheating and using any unfair trick to his advantage, historians say. Later, Hercules went mad with rage and slaughtered cows.

So much for the foibles of heroes.

In Roman works of art and in Renaissance and post-Renaissance art that adapts Roman iconography, Hercules can be identified as an example of action and masculinity. He embodies great strength, courage – and great appetites, including erotic adventures with both women and boys.

So much for the foibles of heroes.

Hercules was renowned for making “the world safe for mankind” since he supposedly destroyed many terrible beasts, including the snake-headed Medusa. His “self-sacrifice” obtained his welcome from the gods, as the half-son of Zeus, into Olympia, the Greek version of heaven.

Wiki Hercules

Superman, on the other hand, was born on another planet but became the savior of Metropolis and was known to stand for quaint things such as, “Truth, Justice and the American way.” Of course he would tell Louis Lane this right before taking her out for a late night flight around the city, and then back to her place for some super sex.

So much for the foibles of heroes.

Wiki Superman

I’ve never been one to put that much stock in heroes anyway, myself, as more than fantasy.

Even the biggest Superhero of them all for Christians, Jesus, who would save them all for their sins and assure them a nice seat on the grass in heaven, always struck me as lacking in ultimate authenticity.

Maybe it’s just that I’ve never met a real hero in person.

Photo by Glynn Wilson

Jesus on the cross depicted in centuries-old art at The Met

Oh, I’ve interviewed a few who drew the title, for saving kids from burning buildings, being wounded for their country in a war. But even most wars seem of questionable validity when you look closely at their political genesis.

In today’s pop culture, we often refer to rock stars as our heroes, along with football players, race car drivers and movie actors. But some of us seem to bitch like hell when an actor comments on the state of the world or politics.

I mean, look at the Dixie Chicks? Natalie Main is my hero, for saying what she did and taking the heat and coming back to win the big Grammy.

What about politicians? Do you know of a politician you would call a hero? I don’t, and I’ve been covering politics for almost 30 years.

John McCain was a bona fide war hero, serving years in a North Vietnamese prison camp. Until recently, when he decided to run for president, he was seen as a maverick, tell it like it is statesman. But no more.

John Kerry is a larger than life kind of character, all rich and smart from Massachusetts, with that big face and his own Vietnam bona fides. But nobody in the American South saw him that way in the 2004 race, because the old Wallace anti-Ivy League Yankee liberal label still works for the likes of Karl Rove, George Bush and the GOP.

Maybe he should have shot his duck hunting companion back during that campaign. It would have made him seem more manly, like Dick Cheney.

I certainly don’t know of any heroes alive from my home state of Alabama, with the possible exception of E.O. Wilson, and he lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts now too.

Where are the media heroes?

Now that’s where the story gets interesting.

Scott Horton is the last of the crusading New York lawyers with an interest in justice and the South, specifically Alabama and the case of railroaded former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman.

The folks over at The Nation Institute seem genuinely interested in what’s going on down here, and have a long-term project going on all about “purple America,” where the liberals and conservatives are mixed in all over the place, even here in Alabamaland.

It’s sort of nice to be back in the bunker with my computer wall working, although I would trade it all in, in a New York heartbeat, for a loft in the West Village or SoHo. That is if I didn’t have familial responsibilities here – and if someone would pay me enough to live and work there.

I suspect I could write and drink with the best of them. I did it in New Orleans, and never had to publish one correction in four years.

You see, I’m sort of like Superboy. I take this American journalism shit seriously, maybe too seriously at times. I’ve been called a “true believer” right up there with Jill Simpson.

Maybe if we had a few more true believers – who were willing to do what it takes to be a superhero – we could straiten this old world out.

Hey, it’s not like I’m countin’ on it. Yet I have no choice but to fight. It’s in my genes.

If I have to do that living on the road cowboying out of a van, so much the better. It’s a great way to actually see the country.

Most people in New York, Washington and LA only see it from the air, which means they don’t see it at all.

The good news is they need someone down here on the ground to tell them what is up in the South. As it turns out, that’s my specialty.

So, for now I can definitely report that global warming is real and happening now in the American South.

See that red sun in the photo below? It was as hot as it looked coming down out of the Appalachians and into the foothills around Ft. Payne, Alabama, just northeast of Rainsville.

It was a nice two week break up the East Coast. Maybe fall will hit here soon and we can spot some migrating birds.

Photo by Glynn Wilson

The final sunset on our Washington, New York trip, looking out over Ft. Payne, Alabama, in the foothills of the Applachian Mountains.

Photo by Glynn Wilson

We pulled into the Smoky Mountain campground just in time to catch the moon – with a long exposure on the tripod – through the trees at old number 84 by the creek…

by Glynn Wilson

GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS, Tenn., Sept. 24 – Imagine waking up every morning with a view of a different creek, lake, river or ocean. The picture window of life on the roads of America can be far better than any suburb, although the campgrounds on the East Coast can have similar annoyances.

There are so many people escaping the cities in RVs that the campgrounds stay busy. And some people bring along their loud kids and barking dogs and leave behind their trash.

But hey, that’s America.

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Photo by Glynn Wilson

A view from the canoe in Hungry Mother Lake…

HUNGRY MOTHER STATE PARK, Va., Sept. 23 (LFJ) – It is cool again here in the mountains at night, but there’s no Wi-Fi in range. Too bad more of these RV travelers don’t have satellite hook ups with wireless routers, open for the taking.

Photo by Glynn Wilson

Nathan’s Famous Hotdog stand at Coney Island

The Coney Island humidity was rising as I left the Brooklyn end of Long Island over the Statin Island bridge during rush hour Friday afternoon. Not a bad crawl in a van with a majestic view of big water.

The Potomac humidity was so high in College Park, Maryland, Saturday afternoon that I just wanted to hit the mountain road south with the AC blasting and Big and Rich on the stereo.

As the sun began to set in the Appalachians, the purple peaks and pink sky lay out as far as you could see, one rolling hill after another along the old Indian trail winding through the gap.

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