Florida
is at it again: A manhunt in Central Florida is over after two Florida inmates,
both serving life sentences, were caught together in a motel in Panama
City. Charles Walker and Joseph Jenkins
were both let out of prison when court papers, which weren’t questioned at all by
prison authorities, came in purporting to reduce their sentences. Both sets of papers had the signatures of
Orlando-area State Attorney Jeffrey Ashton and Judge Belvin Perry. They both
bore the seal of the Orange County clerk of court’s office. Both sets of papers essentially commuted life
sentences for convicted murderers down to sentences of less than a decade.
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| Convicts let free on forged comments caught |
As
stated before, no one from the State of Florida Department of Corrections
thought to make a call to the judge’s office to see if the papers were real or
to confirm. No one apparently thought
there was such a thing as photoshop or Xerox machines and that legal papers are
available online, making it really pretty easy to find the signatures of
judges, lawyers, and seals of clerks of court.
CNN reports that: The state
Department of Corrections -- which mistakenly released the men though it has
insisted through no fault of its own -- said little about the arrests.
The killer fugitives knew enough
to use a good deadpan. They reported to
prison officials to register as convicted felons after release. Their plan went awry when their own family
members were notified of the release and questioned it, as well as the family
members of their victims. Then, and only
then, did the Department of Corrections look into the documents. Then the U.S. Marshalls got involved. The killers’ families denied involvement, and
apparently aren’t implicated. The
families themselves knew it was a matter of time before the Marshalls got to
the men, pleading for them to give themselves up.
It doesn’t look like they
did. But once the news of the escape by
forgery hit the news late last week, it wasn’t long before the Marshalls found
the men in a motel room, where they gave up without a fight. Hope they had fun on their time out. With a sentence of life without parole, there
wasn’t much to lose if they didn’t kill anyone while they were out. Escape is
not generally a capital offense, if the prisoner is not shot on the way over
the fence and doesn’t put up a fight when the Marshalls arrive.
Protip to the Florida Department
of Corrections though: when someone with a life sentence or any other long sentence
suddenly gets a commutation, you can always call the court or check the clerk’s
online records to make sure that the release order is real. You probably should.
Full story and photo credit,
CNN.com: http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/19/justice/florida-inmates-mistakenly-freed/
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