Arkansas Reporter

Arkansas Reporterhttp://www.arktimes.comen-US60Life and deathhttp://www.arktimes.com/Articles/ArticleViewer.aspx?ArticleID=158c42e9-dfc9-44bc-afbd-37cf1dc901bcNot many were shocked when Curtis Lavelle Vance was found guilty last week of capital murder, rape, residential burglary and theft of property in the October 2008 beating death of KATV anchor Anne Pressly.Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMTdavid@arktimes.com (David Koon)Not many were shocked when Curtis Lavelle Vance was found guilty last week of capital murder, rape, residential burglary and theft of property in the October 2008 beating death of KATV anchor Anne Pressly. In addition to presenting testimony about Pressly's severe injuries, prosecutors had been hammering home hard evidence for over a week by then: a hair found at the scene that was Vance's to the certainty of one in quintillions; DNA evidence recovered from Pressly's body that showed her rape had to have been committed by someone in Vance's paternal line; Vance's own videotaped confession, in which he admitted he'd committed ?a sick crime? by bludgeoning Pressly to death. When the jury came back with Vance's sentence, however, it was a different story. Though the spectators in the gallery followed Judge Chris Piazza's instructions and remained, for the most part, silent when the sentence of life in prison without parole was read, it was surely a shock to many. After all, the judge had just read a form signed by jurors saying that they had unanimously agreed that the prosecution's aggravating factors ? their case that the murder rose to the level of justifying the death penalty because of its cruelty and because he had committed a prior felony of force or violence in raping a teacher in Marianna in 2008? ? outweighed the mitigating factors put on by the defense. The defense spent a day and a half during the penalty phase charting Vance's life from the cradle to the courtroom, including gripping testimony on Vance's abused childhood at the hands of his crack-addicted mother and a tearful plea from his wife that the jury spare her three children's father. The idea that the prosecution could succeed in making the case for death to a jury that would then refuse to impose that sentence was confusing enough that after the trial, I tracked down Pulaski County Prosecutor Larry Jegley and double checked that was true before filing a report with the Arkansas Times blog. Yes, he said, that was the jury's province. The day after the Vance verdict, the Times spoke with Jegley again. Asked how he felt about the verdict, Jegley said that he respects the jury's decision, and was ?just fine? with it because Pressly's family and friends seem satisfied with the outcome. ?The main thing I care about is how the family and friends feel, and they're good,? Jegley said. ?I talked to Guy and Patti [Cannady, Anne Pressly's stepfather and mother] this morning.? Jegley understands the confusion over the idea that a jury could find that a crime justified death and yet not be able to impose death. He said that Vance ?left the skin of his teeth on the courtroom floor? in avoiding death, but reminded that the death sentence is not automatic. In order to impose the death penalty, each and every juror must agree in writing that the crime warrants death. Some jury members just can't do that, Jegley said.? ?Just because you find that the aggravators outweigh the mitigators, you're still not there,? he said. ?You've still got to pull the trigger.? In the Vance trial, the jury was made up of six white men, four black women, and two white women. Since the verdict, the Arkansas Times has talked to two jurors in the case, who spoke on the condition that identifying information be withheld. We'll call them Jurors A and B. Both Jurors A and B agreed that the case against Vance was strong, and said that the deliberations on whether he should be found guilty of capital murder were nowhere near as tense as those during the sentencing phase. It took the jury barely two hours to convict and one juror said the essential decision was reached much sooner, but the group wanted to take care to be deliberate. Both said that there were three firm holdouts against death. While Juror A did not want to talk about the race or gender of the jurors who favored life in prison without parole, Juror B said that the three were black women. We've been unable to reach other members of the jury. Vance's defense attorney had made a point early in the trial of saying race should not be an issue in the case, though Vance is black and Pressly white. Inevitably, though, race entered spectators' speculation on jury selection and the jury's ultimate decisions. From the jurors we interviewed, however, a maternal instinct may have had more impact on the decision against death than race. Juror A said that testimony by Vance's family and Pressly's family during the penalty phase had an effect. ?I know that it was emotional to hear about his family and his upbringing, but to hear from [Pressly's] family and her friends as well. I think that though we were all affected by all of that, we were still trying to make a smart decision about what to do.? While Juror A was for the death penalty, the juror said that there was no convincing the three holdouts to change their minds ?As a matter of fact,? Juror A said, ?one juror at one point, he said: if we stay here until 5 o'clock tomorrow morning, are you going to change your mind? The answer was no. And so, we just realized that there was no point in us staying and deliberating it. It wasn't going to be unanimous, therefore we had to give a life sentence.? Like Juror A, Juror B said that the case against Vance was strong. Juror B said that while everyone on the jury was fairly convinced that Vance committed capital murder by the time they reached the jury room, they wanted to take their time and go through the evidence carefully. ?To me, I didn't want to jump out in 30 minutes and say: Wow, we've got it already. We took our time and really talked about it. We made sure we understood. There's 12 people who can hear 12 different versions of things, and with some of the evidence, people understood it differently.? When it came to the penalty phase, Juror B was not swayed by the testimony put on by the defense about Vance's possible brain trauma and his childhood. ?Did he have a rough life? You bet. Did he get abused? You bet,? Juror B said. ?But I think, as the prosecutor said, he made a choice to go back into that house. He admitted stealing the purse and the laptop, then he decided to go back in. He made that conscious choice.? Deliberations grew more tense when it became clear that three female jurors wouldn't sentence Vance to death. ?People were just saying, he had it rough and he didn't have a chance, and his mother didn't love him,? Juror B said. ?It kept coming back up: his mother didn't love him, and can you imagine what it would do to you? I remember one lady saying that. She said that's the part that really stuck with her.? Juror B said that another juror at one point revealed that he was for death because his life had been touched by violent crime. ?One of the gentlemen had an aunt or something who had gotten killed by a guy who got out of prison early who was in for life,? Juror B said. ?So he was like: You are not going to talk me out of the death penalty, because if that guy would have been dead, he would have never have killed my aunt, or something to that effect.? Juror B speculated that possibly the ?motherly instincts? of the three holdouts kicked in after hearing about Vance's hard childhood. Juror B also speculated that maybe the three women had relatives whose situation reminded them of Vance. ?There's poorer areas of Little Rock,? Juror B said. ?If they had a cousin and he was leading a rough life, [maybe they were] thinking, ?What if this happened to him? Where would I stand?' ? In the end, Juror B said the personal decision to vote to give Vance the death penalty came down to Vance's own personal decision to kill. Vance's childhood, Juror B insists, didn't make Vance commit murder.? ?His mother was a piece of work, in my opinion,? Juror B said. ?It sounded like she rode him pretty hard. But people get rode hard all the time. I don't like people to make excuses about, they had a tough life. So do lots of people.? ? ? A boy and his flaghttp://www.arktimes.com/Articles/ArticleViewer.aspx?ArticleID=2f5d7a3b-c72a-446b-8d20-3823aa79c021Will Phillips isn?t like other boys his age. Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMTdavid@arktimes.com (David Koon)Will Phillips isn't like other boys his age. For one thing, he's smart. Scary smart. A student in the West Fork School District in Washington County, he skipped a grade this year, going directly from the third to the fifth. When his family goes for a drive, discussions are much more apt to be about Teddy Roosevelt and terraforming Mars than they are about Spongebob Squarepants and what's playing on Radio Disney. It was during one of those drives that the discussion turned to the pledge of allegiance and what it means. Laura Phillips is Will's mother. ?Yes, my son is 10,? she said. ?But he's probably more aware of the meaning of the pledge than a lot of adults. He's not just doing it rote recitation. We raised him to be aware of what's right, what's wrong, and what's fair.? Will's family has a number of gay friends. In recent years, Laura Phillips said, they've been trying to be a straight ally to the gay community, going to the pride parades and standing up for the rights of their gay and lesbian neighbors. They've been especially dismayed by the effort to take away the rights of homosexuals ? the right to marry, and the right to adopt. Given that, Will immediately saw a problem with the pledge of allegiance. ?I've always tried to analyze things because I want to be lawyer,? Will said. ?I really don't feel that there's currently liberty and justice for all.? After asking his parents whether it was against the law not to stand for the pledge, Will decided to do something. On Monday, Oct. 5, when the other kids in his class stood up to recite the pledge of allegiance, he remained sitting down. The class had a substitute teacher that week, a retired educator from the district, who knew Will's mother and grandmother. Though the substitute tried to make him stand up, he respectfully refused. He did it again the next day, and the next day. Each day, the substitute got a little more cross with him. On Thursday, it finally came to a head. The teacher, Will said, told him that she knew his mother and grandmother, and they would want him to stand and say the pledge. ?She got a lot more angry and raised her voice and brought my mom and my grandma up,? Will said. ?I was fuming and was too furious to really pay attention to what she was saying. After a few minutes, I said, ?With all due respect, ma'am, you can go jump off a bridge.' ? Will was sent to the office, where he was given an assignment to look up information about the flag and what it represents. Meanwhile, the principal called his mother.? ?She said we have to talk about Will, because he told a sub to jump off a bridge,? Laura Phillips said. ?My first response was: Why? He's not just going to say this because he doesn't want to do his math work.?? Eventually, Phillips said, the principal told her that the altercation was over Will's refusal to stand for the pledge of allegiance, and admitted that it was Will's right not to stand. Given that, Laura Phillips asked the principal when they could expect an apology from the teacher. ?She said, ?Well I don't think that's necessary at this point,' ? Phillips said. After Phillips put a post on the instant-blogging site twitter.com about the incident, several of her friends got angry and alerted the news media. Meanwhile, Will Phillips still refuses to stand during the pledge of allegiance. Though many of his friends at school have told him they support his decision, those who don't have been unkind, and louder. ?They [the kids who don't support him] are much more crazy, and out of control and vocal about it than supporters are.? Given that his protest is over the rights of gays and lesbians, the taunts have taken a predictable bent. ?In the lunchroom and in the hallway, they've been making comments and doing pranks, and calling me gay,? he said. ?It's always the same people, walking up and calling me a gaywad.? Even so, Will said that he can't foresee anything in the near future that will make him stand for the pledge. To help him deal with the peer pressure, his parents have printed off posts in his support on blogs and websites. ?We've told him that people here might not support you, but we've shown him there are people all over that support you,? Phillips said. ?It's really frustrating to him that people are being so immature.? At the end of our interview, I ask young Will a question that might be a civics test nightmare for your average 10-year-old. Will's answer, though, is good enough ? simple enough, true enough ? to give me a little rush of goose pimples.? What does being an American mean? ?Freedom of speech,? Will says, without even stopping to think. ?The freedom to disagree. That's what I think pretty much being an American represents.? Somewhere, Thomas Jefferson smiles. An apple todayhttp://www.arktimes.com/Articles/ArticleViewer.aspx?ArticleID=b1237372-8a89-4e3a-8acf-f425c9a94f5bFall is upon us, and it is time to think of apples. Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMTarktimes@arktimes.com (Michael Dougan)Fall is upon us, and it is time to think of apples. In 1919 Arkansas raised five and a half million bushels of apples; now that figure stands at about 67,000 bushels. One way to reverse this decline is to have an official state apple, and one particular apple at that, the Arkansas Black. The state that ranks eighth in obesity needs a state apple far more than it needs a state fish or a state bacon. Properly done this action could set in motion a brighter future for orchardists, retailers, restaurants, consumers, tourists, agri-tourism, and state pride. Urgency is required. Today China raises 1.4 billion bushels of apples, seven times that of the United States and one-half of the world's supply. While Chinese apples are rated as too toxic to enter America, their apple juice appears in virtually every supermarket brand. American orchardists worry that China apples will drive them out of business, a fate that has already overtaken American garlic producers. Growing and eating our own apples is one response to the Chinese threat to take over America. Apples are not native to the Americas but formed a major component in what is called the Colombian Exchange ? America's plants to Europe, and European plants to the Americas. In 1634 Lord Baltimore, the founder of Maryland, ordered apples, especially ?Pipins, Pearmans and Deesons.? George Washington ordered trees from England but by 1800 local nurseries began to fill the void. In early 20th century Arkansas some 75 percent of the apples in Washington and Benton counties were the Ben Davis or its near cousins. (The popular but tasteless Ben Davis inspired jokes. In one story, a blindfolded expert identified correctly every apple he was given. Finally, his challenger supplied a piece of cork. The export thought it must be a Ben Davis, but if it was, ?it's the best tasting Ben Davis I've ever eaten.?) A large number of apples carried the name ?Horse,? indicating that other animals shared an interest in the fruit. ?I find more old trees of the Horse than any other variety,? Southern apple historian Creighton Lee Calhoun Jr. observed. Most eating apples have to mature after being picked before reaching full flavor. In an age before refrigerators, apples were preserved for the winter in several ways: by drying (home evaporators were universal), making them into cider, vinegar, and apple butter, or storing them in root cellars for future use. The Arkansas black was a good keeper that could hold its flavor for months.? In the 19th century apple cross-pollination and genetic mutation resulted in a Darwinian host of varieties. In his 1995 book ?Old Southern Apples,? historian Calhoun describes about 1,600 varieties that were grown or originated in the South. Arkansas's 50 varieties included 12 that carried the name ?Arkansas,? the most unusual being one named Arkansas Baptist. John Chapman (?Johnny Appleseed,? 1774-1845), who established nurseries in the Midwest, apparently never visited Arkansas. In Arkansas the first recorded nursery was in 1827 and the first man to describe himself in the census as a nurseryman was Jacob M.J. Smith, who in 1836 located north of Fayetteville. The first large orchard in Benton County was reportedly set out by a Cherokee woman in 1840. The Shannon Pippin appeared on Granville D. Shannon's orchard near Boonsboro in Washington County between 1833 and 1843. One Shannon exhibited in Fayetteville in 1869 weighed 27 ounces, and the apple won more premiums at the New Orleans Exposition in 1884 than any other Southern apple. Another early apple was the Stevenson Pippin or the Dwight Apple. Brought to Arkansas by the Cherokees it was recognized for its value by the missionaries at Dwight Mission, near present-day Russellville. The apple was taken up by James G. Stevenson of Crawford County and became common in farm family orchards in the northwest. The Arkansas Black made its appearance sometime between 1843 and 1870. Calhoun's ?Old Southern Apples? claimed it originated on the farm of a Mr. Brattwait. Roy C. Rom, Arkansas's leading pomologist, in his 1986 article in the Arkansas Naturalist located his farm northwest of Bentonville. The Arkansas Black found a niche. In 1903 a young black man, Arthur ?Rabbit? Dickerson, was photographed with a pile Arkansas Black Apples. The next year, Arkansas sent 10 train cars of apples to the World's Fair at St. Louis. Then the local firm of McHenry and Bryan used Dickerson's picture in their produce calendars. Today, some viewers might find the graphic offensive, but Dickerson lived the rest of his life in Bentonville, had his portrait painted by Ralph H. Lawson, and was the town's ?Man of the Year? in 1977.? This one picture appears to be the entire marketing strategy for the Arkansas Black. Unlike Washington State orchardists, Arkansas growers failed to unite and promote. In addition diseases and the coddling moth increasingly became problems, with the result that between 1910 and 1940 eight times as much insecticide was needed: ?more sprays, stronger sprays, heavier applications,? as Thomas Rockrock recalled. And Arkansas's climate allowed for three generations of pests instead of only two that Michigan orchards endured. Arkansas apple growers got no help from the state with their problems. The state's agriculture department (Mines, Manufactures and Agriculture) was abolished in 1935 and the Arkansas Farm Bureau, the voice of corporate interests and row-crop agriculture in Arkansas, frustrated attempts to revive the department.? Hence, while West Coast apple producers organized marketing schemes and state governments provided support, Arkansas government was inactive and the University of Arkansas abandoned apple research as well as work on other fruits such as blueberries and strawberries. The State Horticultural Society withered on the vine, effectively ending its independent existence by merging with the Oklahoma organization. The official supermarket apple became the Red Delicious. The apple that reaches a majority of consumers in the modern supermarket has been picked green, then shellacked, waxed, and stored indefinitely. But there has been a decline in the production of Red Delicious apples. In 1992, this apple made up more than 61 percent of the State of Washington's apple production; by 2006 it had fallen to 36 percent. The Arkansas Black apple appears only at a few surviving independent orchards or local roadside stands. Probably 90 percent of Arkansans have never even seen an Arkansas Black. Yet the apple survives. All the major national nurseries carry it. For years this author distributed apples at Arkansas State University. Then, in the fall of 2008, Ann Williams, Jonesboro city councilwoman and proprietor of the Edge coffee shop, tried some. One bushel turned into 10. Not only did they go into quiches, soups and apple butter, but individual apples were for sale at the counter. Customer reaction was encouraging, beginning with interest and then ?followed by crunchy euphoria of glee.? Sales were steady, with many repeat customers. Using local products can give an advertising edge to businesses. Giving the Arkansas Black Apple official state status is the first step. Highway signs reading, ?Arkansas, Home of the Arkansas Black Apple? would be friendlier than the ?No Tolerance? signs currently in place. The state Department of Agriculture should create a labeling program. The first ?Made in Arkansas? program started in 1938. It's time for another. One day in November ought to be made Arkansas Black Apple Day in the public schools, with each student getting an apple. Although apple trees take work, it is possible for schools with strong 4-H or Future Farmers programs to undertake establishing mini-orchards on school grounds. Re-establishing apple research at Fayetteville is needed. Our apples need to be in school lunchroom programs. The great faith-healer and revivalist Brother A.A. Allen of Miracle Valley, Ariz., a native of Sulphur Rock, remembered the arrival of the ?Big Apple barge? coming down the White River. ?It pulled in loaded with ?Arkansas Blacks.' The friendly skipper, laughing through his yellow teeth, would toss us each a couple of the juicy black apples from his cargo, and we'd munch them all the way home, wishing he would dock at least three times a day every day.? It's time to recapture the spirit of those days and teach the rising generation as well as those now living about the joys of eating and cooking with a really good apple. ?? Historian Michael B. Dougan is the Integrated Scholar at the J.V. Bell House in Jonesboro. ? One more time aroundhttp://www.arktimes.com/Articles/ArticleViewer.aspx?ArticleID=1f0be041-fb41-4f43-8568-fb045294f3d8You may remember the huge Freedom From Religion Foundation-sponsored billboard that stood over the Main Street Bridge in North Little Rock last winter.Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:00:00 GMTgerard@arktimes.com (Gerard Matthews)You may remember the huge Freedom From Religion Foundation-sponsored billboard that stood over the Main Street Bridge in North Little Rock last winter. The board said, ?Beware of Dogma? and was sponsored by the Arkansas Society of Freethinkers (ASF), a group made up of the Freethinkers of Central Arkansas and Arkansas Atheists. The general impression was that the billboard was somewhat of a retaliation. ASF had asked the Secretary of State's office for permission to put up a ?Winter Solstice Holiday Display? at the state Capitol building near the nativity scene and was rejected. This year, they're trying again. Last year, the group sent two letters to Secretary of State Charlie Daniels describing the display and asking for permission to set it up. After follow-up phone calls went unanswered, the group received a written response that said, ?At this time we are unable to fully determine the appearance or qualities of your proposed display.? ASF had submitted a written description but no pictures. This year, though, the group came prepared, submitting a written proposal complete with a website that shows exactly what the structure will look like. Rita Sklar, executive director of ACLU Arkansas, has taken an interest in the case. ?We're taking a look at the regulations, just in terms of what it needs to look like and what they need to do,? Sklar says. ?If they're in compliance, we would hope that they would be treated like the people who sponsor the Christian nativity scene that's been there for years.? The display looks like a miniature house. It is four-sided, four feet wide, four feet deep and eight feet tall. It is covered with a plywood roof. Each side has a different display. One side describes the history of winter solstice festivities. Another describes what a ?freethinker? is. The third side, or the ?Wall of Knowledge,? is a collage of the covers of books written by freethinkers. The final side describes human history and the origins of the universe. According to Natasha Naragon, spokesperson for Charlie Daniels, state law charges the office with preserving and maintaining ?proper order and decorum on the State Capitol grounds.? The state displays a creche on the Capitol grounds every year. Naragon cites a 1989 Supreme Court decision that says the crucial determination in evaluating the constitutionality of a particular display is whether the display has the appearance or effect of endorsing religion. ?In making this determination,? Naragon said in an e-mail, ?the particular setting is critical, and must be judged on its own facts. The office maintains that the [nativity] display does not have the effect of endorsing religion since it is located on the periphery of the Capitol grounds (not in the Capitol building itself).? Sklar says the court rulings on these types of displays are ?ridiculously complicated.? ?So we got into it with them a little bit,? Sklar says, ?maybe about 16 years ago. And they have since tried to comply with the incredibly complicated and confusing decisions coming out of the Supreme Court on this issue. One of the key questions, Sklar says, is what kind of forum the Capitol creates. ?Are they creating an open forum? An open forum means that they are creating a place, where everyone has a fair shot if they follow the rules and they can't discriminate based on content or viewpoint.? LeeWood Thomas, one of the founding members of ASF, says the display they are proposing could hardly be considered offensive. ?A lot of the constituents that Daniels serves probably aren't going to agree with what we're doing,? Thomas says. But it's exercising the same freedom that the people who put up the nativity scene are exercising. Any time you have two different viewpoints there's the possibility for conflict.? Thomas said the group tried its best to get their request in early this year, so it would have plenty of time to prepare and build a display. ASF sent its request to the SOS office in mid-October. Naragon says they have received the request, it is currently under review and the group will have a response soon. For Thomas, he says it really just comes down to the adage ?the more the merrier.? ?I think the rest of the community, like the Jewish community could participate. And maybe that would encourage other groups to come out and we could all celebrate the holidays together.?