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    Scott NonaHamilton Nolan
    1/15/15 2:06pm

    Thanks again for an interesting sociological survey.

    I think most of us are smart enough to be suspicious of claims of innocence, despite the pearl clutchers trolling with the "and where's the victims response?" every single freaking letter. Every. Freaking. Letter.

    We get it. Some of you think people that commit crimes aren't people and deserve sudden and horrible death and think this glamorizes crime.

    But we're not all morons. It is entirely possible to think of a criminal as human, and want to know how such a person thinks and feels, while still thinking that such person is a terrible person who may deserve the most drastic penalties we have available.

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      FredExDeliversScott Nona
      1/15/15 2:14pm

      Agreed, but this letter specifically just seemed like it was all about his innocence not necessarily any type of look into the mind of a man on death row. I certainly understand why Mr Wogenstahl would want to plead his innocence and get his website out to a grander audience, but this letter didn't really lead me to any sort of connection.

      Anyway I've done my part now for the bounce and engagement rates on this post hahaha

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      bingggScott Nona
      1/15/15 2:17pm

      What's wrong with asking to give the victim's family a voice as well?

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    damnmrmannHamilton Nolan
    1/15/15 2:07pm

    I am someone who is staunchly anti capital punishment, mainly because the state sanctioning of murder makes us all a more barbaric as a society. Yet, these are my favorite posts on gawker, I think that it is because it opens you up to an experience you will never have and shows how a person should never be treated. I may have missed it, but what do you write to these inmates?

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      Hamilton Nolandamnmrmann
      1/15/15 2:09pm

      I send all of these inmates a pretty standard letter just explaining who I am with a short list of questions about their background, how they got where they are, what their life in prison is like, and what their thoughts on the criminal justice system, and I ask them for any further thoughts they want to share as well.

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      Scott Nonadamnmrmann
      1/15/15 2:17pm

      I feel much the same way. Or I hope I never get caught up in one of these vast conspiracies and end up on Death Row despite my innocence.

      As an aside, I have a prison pen pal. Little brother of a guy I went to school with who committed murder in a fit of rage. I try to ask, because I'm so intensely curious about his experience, but more often than not we just end up keeping it light, to sports and kids, because he needs to be valued by someone on the outside more than me asking again about prison food.

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    IndianaJoanHamilton Nolan
    1/15/15 2:12pm

    I'm against the death penalty, but after reading the court's recap, holy shit I'm glad this guy is locked up. I think these letters would be more interesting and might elicit less of a volatile reaction if the convict didn't use it as a platform to proclaim their innocence, but rather just talked about their experience on death row is like and what their thoughts on their impending death are.

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      Hamilton NolanIndianaJoan
      1/15/15 2:24pm

      In my letters to these inmates I do try to steer their responses towards their life in prison and their general thoughts their experience of the criminal justice system, because we are obviously not equipped to re-try their cases on the internet. But it's fairly understandable that many of them want to talk about what they perceive to be injustices in their cases, also.

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      corndogIndianaJoan
      1/15/15 2:38pm

      Isn't it interesting, though, that they remain so focused on avoiding blame? It's mind boggling. They are already caught and convicted, it's pretty clear that they are guilty, but they are still so invested in trying to shift blame away from themselves. Refusing to accept blame must be a big part of the criminal personality. After reading all these letters, I've learned to be very wary of people I meet who have a similar blame-shifting focus. This series has been very educational.

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    Pink SkullHamilton Nolan
    1/15/15 2:11pm

    For the curious, DNA tests found Amber Garrett's blood in his car. He's guilty as sin. And this is an absolutely heinous murder.

    Having said that, I'm still not a fan of the death penalty as punishment. If it's wrong to take a life, it's wrong to take a life. I think if the person wants to die rather than rot in jail for 20 years, it should be allowed, but I don't like it when people replace justice with vengeance.

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      squarksPink Skull
      1/15/15 2:14pm

      There was also pubic hair found in the murdered girl's panties. The hair came from Wogenstahl.

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      KittyRipper Pink Skull
      1/15/15 4:00pm

      "Rotting in jail" for 20 years is vengeance as well, is it not?

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    ratchedHamilton Nolan
    1/15/15 5:47pm

    I am not a DP proponent. I have spoken on your articles from inmates on DR before, Hamilton. I was immersed in max. security Texas inmates and the BOP penitentiary inmates, the worst of the worst, for about five+ years. I have also gone to the Polunsky Unit in Texas, (Death Row), for reasons related to my profession (medical).

    There HAVE been innocent people killed under the DP, and that is one of many reasons why I oppose the DP. HOWEVER, the majority of inmate's communications read just like this guy's. It's like boilerplate "I didn't do it" stuff.

    Inmates have NOTHING to do all day but learn to spin and spin they do. They become past masters at it. I have rarely spoken with an inmate who admits his crimes.

    They can really make you doubt their guilt but you also have to think like an inmate. (CAVEAT: Not all inmates do this.) I can't tell you how many inmates would talk to me about their cases and they decry police tactics and poor investigations and the biggest reason: "This murder was a big deal in my town and they had to find *someone* to blame, so they pinned it on me so people would feel like justice was done." Uh...Your name just came up in the let's-throw-him-in -jail lottery?

    The majority of inmate think goes like this. "Miss Ratched, I shouldn't be here. If you will just review my case, you will see I was wrongly convicted and they manufactured evidence to try to get me." Fine, that happens for sure, but this is an example of why they think they got a shoddy trial: "Miss Ratched, that dude said he saw a dark green car leave her house that night and my car is dark blue blue, not green, hear what I'm sayin'? To convict me after getting the car color wrong is just bullshit!" Or, "Miss Ratched, they are saying I shot her, and I didn't. My home boy did. I just helped bury her, so you can see that they should throw the whole case out." Never mind that they have plaster casts of his tire tracks, DNA in the house, (and/or on a victim), no alibi for where they were at the time, a strong motive, positive fiber analysis and so forth. To many of them, the fact that there are some minor discrepancies from eyewitnesses, or that some testimony changes a bit through the years proves the conspiracy that they were a victim of the DA needing someone to try. Human testimony naturally changes through the years. It's human nature. They want to take the focus off the positive, incontrovertible evidence and hone in on those minor inaccuracies. Et voila, he didn't do it.

    EVERY trial is going to have inaccuracies from witnesses, particularly eyewitnesses as it can sometimes take a year or more to take the case to court. It would be much more suspicious if a witness can robotically have the EXACT same statements and recollections as they did when the case was new.

    That said, it's obvious that a really, really low percentage are in fact innocent, or at least they did not participate in the crime in the way it was charged. One of my favorite causes is Barry Scheck's Innocence Project, and I haven't looked for a while, but it used to be kind of the Maury Povitch of Prison Inmates. He would take on cases where the guy said he just didn't do it, "Please do a DNA for me". Inmate#76389, I am going to pull the results of the DNA test out now. Ready? Inmate#76389, you...ARE the criminal!"

    Don't fall in the trap of romanticizing these people.

    One last ramble. I got a good lesson on typical inmate think one day, that made me almost faint when I realized I had semi-projected my own life experiences on inmates until this day. This older inmate came in medical for some recurring medical problem so we knew each other. He started telling me his story. "Miss Ratched, I'm in here (prison, not medical) because I killed a man. He was trespassing on my property (acreage), so I shot him. I walked past his truck and I saw a little girl, (I think he said about 3 or 4 y/o.) and Miss Ratched, I knew I had to shoot her too because what kind of life would she have after seeing her father killed in front of her?" He told me this so I would see him in a positive light because he spared the little girl the horror of seeing her father killed. He was SO proud. I wanted to vomit.

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      ohstewardessratched
      1/15/15 9:07pm

      This is the best comment on this thread. Thanks for your insight.

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      Vulcan Has No Moonratched
      1/16/15 12:09am

      I read somewhere that the Innocence Project likes to tout how many innocent people they freed but they carefully never mention that the number of guilty cases they verify with DNA/forensics are ten times that number. Any truth to that?

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    filmgirlHamilton Nolan
    1/15/15 2:24pm

    Playing devil's advocate here, what if the evidence was planted? Not taking his side but "what if".

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      Interstellar Felinefilmgirl
      1/15/15 2:32pm

      What if we're all just a collection of sprites in a The Sims game?

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      filmgirlInterstellar Feline
      1/15/15 2:57pm

      Thanks for having a quality discussion.

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    MimiladyHamilton Nolan
    1/15/15 2:16pm

    Shit I meant to click on show pending. Anyway, all I can say is that prison sounds horrible and I was touched by his description of how he spends his time, looking out the window and appreciating small things. I know nothing about his case so I won't venture there.

    To think that I feel like I'm in prison because I have to be at work every day... I should count my blessings.

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      PoopadelicMimilady
      1/15/15 2:44pm

      Count your blessings that you didn't rape a 10 year old girl and bash her head in with a car jack?

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      titania126Mimilady
      1/15/15 2:44pm

      My guess would be he spends all his time in his cell because he raped and murdered a child, and people who do that tend to get raped and murdered themselves by their fellow inmates. But if you want to delude yourself into thinking he's in there being introspective, by all means!

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    PopChipsHamilton Nolan
    1/15/15 2:10pm

    The most difficult jury I ever served on was one in which we had to decide whether or not to recommend the death penalty. I found it very stressful and am not convinced a random group of 12 strangers (especially the ones who didn't understand mitigating v. aggravating circumstances) should make this decision or recommendation.

    People may get upset with this but I now try to avoid jury duty with legitimate excuses when I can. I don't ever want to go through that experience again.

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      D.S.Hamilton Nolan
      1/15/15 2:24pm

      There are a lot of haters in here... HamNo clearly stated that they don't publish these "... to re-litigate their cases, or to take a position on their guilt or innocence, but to give a voice to a group of people who are rarely heard from."

      Personally, I like these letters. Guilty or innocent, to me it is interesting to see what they have to say. For instance, this guy is on death row. He is more than likely going to die in prison. The damage has been done, yet he still claims he is innocent. He even threw in some stuff about watching birds, and smelling flowers, trying to convince anyone that reads it that he is a good person. He spends all of his time alone, trying to figure out a way to get free.

      There is more to it than, he killed a kid and now he is on death row. No reason to hate on Hamilton/Gawker for this type of stuff. It was an interesting read, and besides, you all clicked the link, so....

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        kc2775D.S.
        1/15/15 3:13pm

        The most interesting thing about this one was how ham handed this guys attempts to garner sympathy were. His tone is just off putting. He should have read the Ray Jasper letters to see how to do it properly. Jasper was so eloquent I almost forgot that part of his rationale was that the victim died from stab wounds someone else gave him before he could die from Jasper slitting his throat (badly).

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      VillingsHamilton Nolan
      1/15/15 2:57pm

      would it KILL you to use paragraphs?

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