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Reports show inmate's emotional ups and downs
BY JOHN MCCARTHY
Associated Press Writer

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Death row inmate J.D. Scott suffers from mental illness to the
point that he hallucinates that he is hearing voices and has had bouts of psychotic behavior
when he is not under medication, according to documents his lawyer provided on Thursday.

Scott, convicted of aggravated murder for the slaying of a Cleveland delicatessen owner
during a 1983 robbery, is scheduled to be executed on April 17.

Scott, 48, has appealed to Gov. Bob Taft to reduce his sentence to life in prison without the
possibility of parole. A clemency hearing before the Ohio Parole Board is set for Tuesday.
The board then will make a nonbinding recommendation to Taft on whether to spare Scott's
life.

On May 6, 1983, Scott and an accomplice entered the V&E Delicatessen in Cleveland and
ordered something to eat from owner Vinnie Prince.

After Prince prepared their food, the 74-year-old woman was shot in the chest at near point-blank
range during an attempted robbery.

Sentenced to death for the crime in 1984, Scott is close to becoming the first Ohio death-row
inmate to be put to death against his will since 1963. His lawyers on Thursday provided scores
of documents to Taft's office, Attorney General Betty Montgomery and others questioning Scott's
mental state and whether jurors were aware of his background.

The release of the documents was an attempt at delaying Scott's execution, Montgomery
spokesman Joe Case said.

``Scott's attorneys are following the strategy they telegraphed back in February. We tried
to expedite the whole issue of his competency,'' Case said.

Scott is a schizophrenic whose life should be spared because of his illness and other factors,
his attorney, Timothy F. Sweeney said. Before Scott was sentenced, the jury never heard
about his illness or upbringing because his then-attorneys never introduced it into evidence
during the mitigation phase of the trial, said Sweeney, who does not question Scott's guilt.

Scott is one of 11 children, whose parents both were alcoholics. One of is brothers was shot
to death, another was paralyzed by gunfire and a third also suffers schizophrenia, Sweeney
said. The jury never learned about it because the defense lawyers ``evidently believed'' that
disclosures about Scott's past, including criminal behavior, would have swayed the jury
toward the death penalty.

``In order to put the jury into a position to where they can begin weighing mitigating evidence,
you've got to put something in front of them,'' Sweeney said.

Sweeney, who was appointed with another lawyer to take over Scott's defense in 1996, won
a reversal on the sentence in federal court but then had the reversal overturned in the 6th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Scott's appeal and the Ohio
Supreme Court set Scott's execution date on Jan. 31.

Evidence that Sweeney has sent to Taft and to the parole board includes medical evaluations
of Scott from defense consultants, and staff at Mansfield Correctional Institution, where he is
currently housed, and the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, where he began his wait on
death row.

Dr. Margarette B. Rogler, a psychiatric consultant at Mansfield, evaluated Scott on April 10, 1996.
She found he had stopped taking medication for his schizophrenia.

``He was actively hallucinating and the voices were telling him to harm himself. I checked
throughout his chart and I really don't understand how this patient stopped having medication.
He was taking his medication faithfully through January 30th when it expired,'' Rogler wrote in
her report.

``He was setting a fire, flooding toilets, etc. He once again flared up and I don't know what is
going on that he exacerbates in this manner. ... There is a possibility of some substance or
alcohol abuse but I don't know.''

On March 9, 1995, Rogler wrote that Scott was displaying paranoid behavior, though she had
doubts about his motive.

``At this time, there is a clear indication of strong paranoid ideation. He felt that they were
southern people who didn't like black people and 'treated people like they were picking
cotton,''' she wrote, but added, ``The possibility of malingering for goal oriented aim of
removing himself from SOCF is strongly suggested.''

Taft's lawyers are studying the documents and will consider them after the parole board
makes its recommendation, said Kevin Kellems, the governor's spokesman.

``The governor takes very seriously this responsibility. Assuming he receives a report and
recommendation from the parole board at some point, he will take great care and spend a
significant amount of time and attention studying the case and reviewing the request,'' Kellems
said.

Taft allowed the execution of Wilford Berry, who killed his boss during a robbery, to proceed
in February 1999. Berry, known as ``The Volunteer,'' had dropped his appeals in the case and
became the first person executed in Ohio in 36 years

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PRISONERS AT "SUPER MAX" BEGIN HUNGER STRIKE
Youngstown, March 15.

A number of prisoners at the Ohio State Penitentiary (OSP) have begun a hunger
strike in an effort to improve conditions there.
The "supermax," as it is colloquially known, houses between 400 and 500 prisoners
from all over the State. They are locked alone in their cells for a minimum of 23 hours
a day.
Prisoners report that since the filing of a class action law suit on January 9, 2001, some
conditions have improved. At least one mentally disturbed prisoner has been transferred
out. Some but by no means all of those who urgently require medical care have received
long-requested "round trips" to see specialists in Columbus.
Other problems remain, however. Judging from letters received by prisoner advocates
outside the walls, the following are major problems:

1. A number of prisoners have been recommended for a decrease in security status and
transfer out of OSP. These recommendations by persons at the supermax who are familiar
with the prisoner and his record at the facility are often vetoed by Columbus. Even those who
eventually leave may have to wait many months before they actually "ride out."
2. The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction appears to have no education and
treatment plan for the increasing number of Hepatitis C cases.
3. Most supermax prisoners receive state pay of $9 a month. In many cases this sum is reduced
by medical copayments or deductions for property damage and penalties. Little may be left to
buy hygiene supplies, postage and writing materials, and other needed items. This is a particular
hardship for pro se litigants who find that they miss court deadlines or are unable to serve required
papers because they have so little money.
4. Two-thirds of OSP prisoners are black or Hispanic. Yet there is currently no imam for Muslim
prisoners, and Muslims believe that their special needs for diet, books, and prayer apparatus
required by their religion, are neglected.
5. Unlike most supermax prisons in the United States, OSP provides no outdoor recreation.
The prison administration calls certain cells "outdoor recreation" because of a grating that lets
in outside air, but in approximately half of these cells the grating has recently been covered with
plastic.
6. Mental health counseling is conducted with the prisoner sitting on a concrete stool in a locked
room, handcuffed behind his back and chained to the floor, and yelling to a counselor outside the
cell.

The extent of the spreading hunger strike is difficult to determine. Understandably, in a setting
where there are so few gratifications, many prisoners show their solidarity with the fast by joining
in just for a day. Only one man has consistently gone without food
since the first of the month, it seems. Attorney Staughton Lynd of Niles is a lawyer "of counsel" in
the class action law suit. He states that the prisoners have asked him to inform the media of their
protest. "I understand their frustration," Lynd says. "A law suit takes a long time. When a prisoner
cannot meet with other prisoners, cannot visit with reporters, cannot in most cases leave the prison
to appear in person in court, he may come to feel that the only way he can call attention to his
problem is to deprive himself of food. A fast is really a cry for help."

UPDATE AS OF MARCH 21

On March 15, a prisoner wrote us that "twenty-five prisoners so far" are participating in the fast.
We hear that at least two of the men who are fasting have Hepatitis C, and are planning to go
without food for as long as they can despite what they consider a danger to their health. A third
man writes: "HCVs [people with Hepatitis C Virus] cannot safely miss meals without severe
bodily havoc."
In one of these cases, the prisoner has for two years in a row been recommended for a reduction
in security level and transfer out of OSP only to have the recommendation denied by Central
Office in Columbus.

It would be appreciated if messages could be sent to the Director of ODRC and the OSP Warden
stating:

1. All prisoners with Hepatitis C should be informed, in writing, that ODRC (a) will give them the
appropriate tests to determine how far the disease has progressed, (b) will monitor their condition
by a specialist, not by the general practitioner in charge of medical
services at OSP, and (c) will communicate to them, in writing, what course oftreatment ODRC
recommends and what ODRC is prepared to do to give immediate attention to their needs.
2. ODRC should make it known that a prisoner who has been free of conduct reports for years,
has completed those programs available to him at OSP, and has complied with his behavioral
management plan, will NOT be denied an opportunity to transfer out when the transfer has been
recommended by the reclassification committee and the OSP warden. In particular, OSP should
assure prisoners that they will not be denied transfer on the basis of conduct in the distant past
that they can no longer do anything to change.

The addresses of the Director and Warden are:

Reginald A. Wilkinson
Director, Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction
1050 Freeway Drive North
Columbus OH 43229
Phone: 614-752-1164
Fax: 614-752-1171

Todd Ishee
Warden, Ohio State Penitentiary
PO Box 1436
Youngstown OH 44501-1436
Phone: 330-743-0700
Fax: 330-743-0841

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Incarceration rates slow in the US which has
25% of the world's prisoners and 5% of the
world's population. One in 8 of US black males
are imprisoned.

(AP) The Detroit News On Line
http://detnews.com/2001/nation/0103/26/a03-204232.htm

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