"HIS ARTICLES HAVE COVERED EVERYTHING FROM NEW YORK CITY'S ANTIQUATED WATER TUNNELS TO THE ARYAN BROTHERHOOD PRISON GANG TO THE SEARCH FOR THE GIANT SQUID. HIS STORIES HAVE ALSO BEEN CHOSEN FOR MANY ANTHOLOGIES AND HAVE APPEARED IN THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE, THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY, THE WASHINGTON POST, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, AND THE NEW REPUBLIC, WHERE HE IS ALSO A CONTRIBUTING EDITOR."
BIOGRAPHY; THE MICHAEL KELLY AWARDS.
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Background: (Wikipedia); Cameron Todd Willingham (January 9, 1968 – February 17, 2004), born in Carter County, Oklahoma, was sentenced to death by the state of Texas for murdering his three daughters—two year old Amber Louise Kuykendall, and one year old twins Karmon Diane Willingham and Kameron Marie Willingham— by setting his house on fire. The fire occurred on December 23, 1991 in Corsicana, Texas. Lighter fluid was kept on the front porch of Willingham’s house as evidenced by a melted container found there. Some of this fluid may have entered the front doorway of the house carried along by fire hose water. It was alleged this fluid was deliberately poured to start the fire and that Willingham chose this entrance way so as to impede rescue attempts. The prosecution also used other arson theories that have since been brought into question. In addition to the arson evidence, a jailhouse informant claimed Willingham confessed that he set the fire to hide his wife's physical abuse of the girls, although the girls showed no other injuries besides those caused by the fire. Neighbors also testified that Willingham did not try hard enough to save his children. They allege he "crouched down" in his front yard and watched the house burn for a period of time without attempting to enter the home or go to neighbors for help or request they call firefighters. He claimed that he tried to go back into the house but it was "too hot". As firefighters arrived, however, he rushed towards the garage and pushed his car away from the burning building, requesting firefighters do the same rather than put out the fire. After the fire, Willingham showed no emotion at the death of his children and spent the next day sorting through the debris, laughing and playing music. He expressed anger after finding his dartboard burned in the fire. Firefighters and other witnesses found him suspicious of how he reacted during and after the fire. Willingham was charged with murder on January 8, 1992. During his trial in August 1992, he was offered a life term in exchange for a guilty plea, which he turned down insisting he was innocent. After his conviction, he and his wife divorced. She later stated that she believed that Willingham was guilty. Prosecutors alleged this was part of a pattern of behavior intended to rid himself of his children. Willingham had a history of committing crimes, including burglary, grand larceny and car theft. There was also an incident when he beat his pregnant wife over the stomach with a telephone to induce a miscarriage. When asked if he had a final statement, Willingham said: "Yeah. The only statement I want to make is that I am an innocent man - convicted of a crime I did not commit. I have been persecuted for 12 years for something I did not do. From God's dust I came and to dust I will return - so the earth shall become my throne. I gotta go, road dog. I love you Gabby." However, his final words were directed at his ex-wife, Stacy Willingham. He turned to her and said "I hope you rot in hell, bitch" several times while attempting to extend his middle finger in an obscene gesture. His ex-wife did not show any reaction to this. He was executed by lethal injection on February 17, 2004. Subsequent to that date, persistent questions have been raised as to the accuracy of the forensic evidence used in the conviction, specifically, whether it can be proven that an accelerant (such as the lighter fluid mentioned above) was used to start the fatal fire. Fire investigator Gerald L. Hurst reviewed the case documents including the trial transcriptions and an hour-long videotape of the aftermath of the fire scene. Hurst said, "There's nothing to suggest to any reasonable arson investigator that this was an arson fire. It was just a fire."
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Publisher's note: David Grann's New Yorker story on the Cameron Todd Willingham case - "trial by Fire" - has already had a huge impact on the death penalty in the U.S.A. As a fellow journalist, I was naturally interested in the background of the man behind the story. We get some sense of who he is from from the Web-site for the award set up in honour of the late Michael Kelly who was Editor and Chief Editorial Advisor for the Atlantic Media Company. David Grann is described as a 2009 finalist for the award which goes to a writer who exemplifies a quality that animated Michael Kelly's career, "The fearless pursuit and expression of truth."
Harold Levy...Publisher of the Charles Smith Blog.
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Citation
"The Brand" by David Grann documents the rise and potential demise of the Aryan Brotherhood, a murderous gang that has spread its tentacles throughout the federal prison system and beyond. In his fearlessly reported and brilliantly written feature, Grann vividly depicts the brutal subculture of America's maximum security penitentiaries. He also tells the inspiring story of how a gutsy prosecutor named Gregory Jessner took on the gang, at great personal risk. Grann shows how by indicting the Aryan Brotherhood, Jessner is striking a blow for the rights of some of the least sympathetic victims in our society -- convicted, violent criminals who have become prey inside our prison walls.
Excerpt
"The Brand"
February 16 & 23, 2004
There are hundreds of gangs in this country: the Crips, the Bloods, the Latin Dragons, the Dark Side Nation, the Lynch Mob. But the Aryan Brotherhood is one of the few gangs that were born in prison. In 1964, as the nation's racial unrest spread into the penitentiaries, a clique of white inmates at San Quentin prison, in Marin County, California, began gathering in the yard. The men were mostly motorcycle bikers with long hair and handlebar mustaches; a few were neo-Nazis with tattoos of swastikas. Together, they decided to strike against the blacks, who were forming their own militant group, called the Black Guerrilla Family, under the influence of the celebrated prison leader George Jackson. Initially, the whites called themselves the Diamond Tooth Gang, and as they roamed the yard they were unmistakable: pieces of glass embedded in their teeth glinted in the sunlight.
Before long, they had merged with other whites at San Quentin to form a single band: the Aryan Brotherhood. While there had always been cliques in prison, known as "tips," these men were now aligned by race and resorted to a kind of violence that had never been seen at San Quentin, a place that prisoners likened to "gladiator school." All sides, including the Latino gangs La Nuestra Familia and the Mexican Mafia, attacked each other with homemade knives that were honed from light fixtures and radio parts, and hidden in mattresses, air vents, and drainpipes. "Everything was seen through the delusional lens of race-everything," Edward Bunker, an inmate at the time, told me. (He went on to become a novelist, and appeared as Mr. Blue in "Reservoir Dogs.")
Most prison gangs tried to recruit "fish," the new and most vulnerable inmates. But according to interviews with former gang members-as well as thousands of pages of once classified F.B.I. reports, internal prison records, and court documents-the Aryan Brotherhood chose a radically different approach, soliciting only the most capable and violent. They were given a pledge:
An Aryan brother is without a care,
He walks where the weak and
heartless won't dare,
And if by chance he should stumble
and lose control,
His brothers will be there, to help
reach his goal,
For a worthy brother, no need is
too great,
He need not but ask, fulfillment's
his fate.
For an Aryan brother, death holds
no fear,
Vengeance will be his, through his
brothers still here.
Biography
David Grann, 38, has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since July 2003. His articles have covered everything from New York City's antiquated water tunnels to the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang to the search for the giant squid. His stories have also been chosen for many anthologies and have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and The New Republic, where he is also a contributing editor. Before joining The New Yorker, Grann was a senior editor at The New Republic, and, from 1995 until 1996, executive editor of The Hill newspaper. Grann holds master's degrees in international relations from The Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy as well as in creative writing from Boston University. He graduated from Connecticut College in 1989. He lives in New York with his family.
Articles
"The Brand"
How the Aryan Brotherhood became the most murderous prison gang in America.
The Michael Kelly Award site can be acessed at:
http://www.kellyaward.com/mk_award_popup/grann_d.html
Harold Levy...hlevy15@gmail.com;
