THE TAYLOR WELLS CASE

Post taken from One Night for life

Like Diogenes with his lantern, Taylor Wells and his assorted advocates have looked for honesty and fairness within the criminal justice system. Like Diogenes, we’ve all come up short.

Taylor’s case has been bandied about by judges, and they basically hang him all over again because of one item—a single document, a statement he gave, without an attorney present, to law enforcement officials shortly after Taylor’s associates robbed an individual of marijuana.

One of these associates shot a person present in the residence that night. Taylor, as most who’ve read this blog know, was convicted of first degree murder, under the felony murder rule. He spent the entire duration of the crime in his car, listening to the radio. His associates affirm, in writing: Taylor Wells did not plan the crime, participate in the crime (other than, under duress, giving one of the participants a ride that night), or benefit from the crime, other than to get enough pot to roll a few joints.

For his role, Taylor received a sentence equal to the sentence of a man who shot a boy in cold blood. Several of the young men who planned the crime, fingered the alleged dealer, and who took the majority of the marijuana are either free, will be free, or received a far lighter sentence than Taylor Wells.

I’ve written many groups about Taylor’s case—the ACLU, the Libertarian party, the media. The media is the only entity that has tried to help. The trend in American culture is to bash the media. But without reporters—and newspapers like the Orlando Sentinel—who’ve made an attempt to bring the truth to light, Taylor’s situation would have been completely hidden.

He phoned me tonight. How this man stays sane is beyond me. He explained that one of the young men who planned the crime has already been released from prison. One of the others, a principal player, should be released within months. Yet another, who was the major player—he conceived the crime, benefited from the crime, and insisted on Taylor providing him a ride that evening—would go home soon if he were able to stay out of trouble in prison.

Taylor received a sentence equal to the sentence given the young man who shot an innocent in cold blood.

What Taylor did or did not know about the plans that evening is really not relevant. I’ve read hundreds of documents, and here’s the impression I’ve formed:

On the night of April 29, 1993, Taylor Wells gave two young men a ride to a house another young man fingered as a drug dealer. Taylor was told—he explains this in his damning statement-- they were going to “pick up some weed.” Taylor was a senior in high school. He’d never been in trouble with the law. Other actors in the crime traveled in two cars.

Taylor had moved into his own apartment. He was working part-time, going to school and planning his future. But picture this: he’s in an apartment, hanging out, and these guys want to go pick up the weed. And these very tough guys, these guys Taylor is fascinated by, tell him he needs to drive a couple of them to get the weed. So he does. He doesn’t drive the shooter. He doesn’t drive the guy who fingered and led the others to the dealer. He doesn’t drive a single guy who fires a shot.

When he arrives at the beach house, Taylor parks the car, turns it off and listens to the radio. If he was a getaway driver, he surely wasn’t an efficient one.

What he doesn’t know: the others go in, put on masks and hold the occupants and visitors at gunpoint. One of the men, Juan Sanchez, a fugitive from New York authorities for a previous killing, shoots a young man in cold blood. Taylor’s passengers return to the car, toss a bag of pot in and a gun and tell him to drive away fast. Within days, Taylor tells police everything he knows, without an attorney present. At the end of his interview, Taylor doesn’t know it, but he is doomed.

I’ve always been a law and order type. You hurt someone, you pay a price. You take property, you pay a price. I believed completely in the criminal justice system—the truth will out.

I’m here to tell you it doesn’t. Well, maybe it does if you're a celebrity, or if you have a bank account fat enough to hire a celebrity attorney.

That a young man is sitting in a Florida prison doing life—doing the same sentence as a man who shot another in cold blood—should scare the hell out of every single one of us. That no one in Florida government will make the hard choice to do something about it should scare the hell out of every single one of us. That there is no group that will help seek justice for this young man should scare the hell out of every single one of us. That several “actors” in the evening’s events are free or will soon be, well, you get the idea.

Taylor Wells doesn’t deserve life in prison for whatever he might have known that night, and it is my opinion he knew very little other than he’d likely be hurt if he didn’t drive his car as instructed.

I tried to obtain a tape of his statement. A very nice man at the Brevard County Courthouse told me making a copy of the tape would be very expensive and cost a lot of money but I could come and listen to it there. I plan to make the time to do that.

I invite anyone reading this to send a letter to Governor Jeb Bush and his cabinet. We live in a country that is supposed to be based on fairness for all, on honor. We are a just nation, right?

There is no honor in the sentence Taylor Wells is serving. There is no justice either.

Punishment should fit the crime. Taylor’s doesn’t even come close.

As a taxpayer, I am angered that I am paying to keep a man incarcerated, when he could be working for a living. As a mother, I am infuriated that a boy who played a minor role got a harsher sentence than those, who by their own admissions, played a major role. As a citizen, I am afraid.

If it happened to Taylor Wells, it could happen to any one of us.

Taylor Wells, as Russell Crawford, an attorney who wrote a definitive book on criminal justice attested, was guilty of naiveté. For that, he got life in prison, with no possibility of parole.

Democrats and Republicans love to talk about the constitution.

All I can say is, have you read it?



(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today)