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Hospitality to the Imprisoned ˜ 181
in Savannah, Georgia, a free man. Gary spent thirteen years on Georgia’s death
row for a crime he did not commit. His case is yet another reminder of how easily
a mistake can be made and how hard it is to undo a mistake after the fact.
Gary was arrested in Savannah in 1978 for the rape and murder of six-year-old
Valerie Armstrong. As he entered the Chatham County Jail, he passed Earl
Charles in the hall. Earl, another young African American man from Savannah,
was being released that day after three and a half years under death sentence for
a crime he did not commit. Out went Earl; in came Gary. Almost two years
later, Gary stood trial for the murder. His attorney, appointed by the court, was,
to put it mildly, incompetent. He did not want to defend Gary and did it poorly.
After the jury convicted Gary and the time came for them to sentence him to
life or death, the attorney offered an eight-sentence argument in which he explained
that a life sentence was worse than death because Gary would have to
live with the memory of Valerie Armstrong. The jury voted for death. In 1984,
the attorney was disbarred. Gary stayed on death row. We know now that during
Gary Nelson’s trial the prosecution concealed evidence that could have
proven his innocence, and two police officers and a Georgia Bureau of Investigations
microanalyst lied in their testimony.
In 1981, Emmet Bondurant, one of Atlanta’s prominent criminal attorneys,
volunteered to take Gary’s case pro bono. Bondurant, Edward Krugman,
Suzanne Forbis, and James Kimmel, along with other staff of the Bondurant,
Mixon, and Elmore law firm, soon were convinced of his innocence. It took
them ten years to prove it to the satisfaction of the court. Over that period, Bondurant’s
firm spent four hundred thousand to five hundred thousand dollars on
expenses (transcripts, expert witnesses, travel, etc.) and legal time. Gary X. Nelson
is alive and well. He has a job and an apartment and lives now (as he did in
prison) a quiet, disciplined life. He is a Muslim and centers his life in his faith.
He enjoys visits with his family but is well aware that much has changed since
he went to jail thirteen years ago. Who can count the cost of endless years on
death row with the constant threat of death by electrocution What does that
experience take away from a human being that can never be repaid For years
Gary’s legal identity was The People v. Gary X. Nelson. What can we “the People”
say now “We’re sorry! It was just an honest mistake!” What can we give Gary X.
Nelson to repay our crime against him
In ancient Israel, the law said that if anyone lied against a criminal defendant
in court that person would then receive the penalty reserved for the crime.
Should we then consider executing former District Attorney Andrew (“Bubsey”)
Ryan the two Savannah police officers the GBI microanalyst And what about
the victim—Valerie Armstrong Is it not reasonable to assume that if the Savannah
and Chatham County law-enforcement authorities sought the conviction of
Gary Nelson, knowing he was not the murderer, they made an implicit decision