197 reasons to help fund the production of Dead Man Waiting

Dead Man Waiting by Christian Bruyere — Kickstarter

What we need to film now to complete DEAD MAN WAITING is our stylistic, visceral recreations of Tommy on death row as he and those closest to him describe these experiences. We also need to interview prosecutors, detectives, jurors, and witnesses, who tell us why they believe Tommy should be executed, or why they now believe he is innocent and should have a new trial. We’ll even interview the man who had the greatest motive for the murders.

via Dead Man Waiting by Christian Bruyere — Kickstarter.

Filmmaker Christian Bruyere also needs to interview incarcerated innocents Gary Bennett, Crosley Green, Jeff Abramowski and John Dobbs (at a minimum), and exonerees Juan Ramos, Wilton Dedge and William Dillon.

Among many other things, interviewing Gary will clue him in to just how dark Jeff Ashton’s character is, and how confident he is that the Bar will never hold accountable for a bit of his blasphemous prosecutorial misconduct … misconduct that includes leveling the same lurid lie at Gary as he had at Tommy years earlier. Gary will endure a 30th anniversary of his frame-up in January.

Again, among many other things, interviewing Crosley will clue him in to half-hearted out-of-state legal representation of death row inmates, representation that doesn’t fit the criteria of assigning death row defense attorneys. Crosley’s attorney was appointed by the Florida Bar Association. If Tommy’s was, too, it would explain a great deal. Crosley, no longer on death row, will endure a 25th anniversary of his frame-up in December.

Yet again, among many other things, interviewing Jeff Abramowski will clue him into the misrepresentation of the import of DNA tests being acceptable to Florida’s 5th District Courts of appeals on an ongoing basis. Jeff will endure a 7th anniversary of his frame-up on Halloween.

And still again, among many other things, interviewing John Dobbs will clue him in to the mainstream media’s role in facilitating Central Florida’s false convictions, including ones that deserved acute media attention when Trayvon Martin was murdered. John endured a 6th anniversary of his frame-up last month.

Interviewing exonerees – Juan, Wilton and William -will confirm the extent of the untenable trial tactics in use in Central Florida (coached jailhouse informants, misrepresented evidence, witness intimidation, phony forensics experts, etc.), as well as the likelihood that Gerald Stano and Linroy Bottoson’s executions were wrongful. Juan served five years on death row; Wilton and William served 22 years and 27 years in general population, respectively. Gerald served 17 years before being executed in 1998; Linroy served 21 years before being executed in 2002.

Combined, these men have served 175 years of actual murderer’s sentences and 22 years of an actual rapist/slasher’s sentence … 197 years in all. There are additional incarcerated innocents, there are victims of of vicious beat-downs and suicides by cop, and then there are people like me, who’ve never been suspected of or charged with a crime, but have had our lives virtually ruined by Central Florida public servants, most within the knowledge of Florida governors dating back to Jeb Bush (or further), evidenced by my electronic correspondence beginning in 2004. With the least reason, Rick Scott seems the most confident in continuing the corruption, perhaps because he has successfully “pled the fifth” before.

Individual tales like Tommy’s are compelling and must be told, so I’ll add my contribution to the production of Dead Man Waiting before the 58 remaining days of the Kickstarter campaign are up. And I hope that readers will, too.

But I hope that Christian Bruyeve will tell Tommy’s tale in context – 197 years of it.

When there’s a sinking ship on a sea as vast as that of Central Florida’s corruption, attempting to toss a sole life ring to one specific man adrift – instead of lowering all your life boats – seems to have little odds of saving him, or anyone else.

The Lovely Ms. Maxine – Gary Bennett’s mother – just asked me via Facebook how to go about contributing to the Kickstarter campaign, although she has little more than lint left in her pockets after almost 30 years of fighting back (and predatory prison venders). If you have more than lint, please donate to the Kickstarter campaign, too.