Text 15656, 88 rader
Skriven 2005-09-25 08:25:00 av Jeff Binkley (1:226/600)
Ärende: Lifers
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http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,170327,00.html

Senate Considers Ban on 'Lifers' from National Cemeteries
Sunday, September 25, 2005
By Jacqueline Ruttiman

WASHINGTON  The elderly couple, Daniel and Wilda Davis, opened their door to
Russell Wayne Wagner on Valentine's Day 1994.

"He took Mom and Dad and sat them on a kitchen chair, tied their hands behind
their heads and put a pillowcase over their heads, stabbed them 14-15 times and
then he robbed them and then he left," their son, Vernon Davis, tearfully told
the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee Thursday.

Wagner was convicted of the couple's murders and sentenced to two life terms
with parole eligibility. When he died in prison, he was cremated and placed in
the nation's premiere veterans' cemetery: Arlington National Cemetery (search).

That was "totally wrong," Davis told the committee, which is trying to
determine how the rules governing cemeteries should be changed to prevent such
burials in the future.

"It's an honorable place for people to go, not a murderer," Davis said. "I wish
you'd change the law."

The couple's great granddaughter, a papergirl, found them the next day, he
said.

Davis' powerful testimony came after Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (search), D-Md.,
requested a panel hearing to review the rules and regulations for who is
allowed to rest in national cemeteries.

While Wagner was punished for his crime, he was rewarded with an inurnment with
full military honors at Arlington Cemetery for his service as a Vietnam War
veteran through a "parole loophole" in the current 1997 law dealing with who
qualifies for national cemetery burial.

The 1997 bill  enacted to prevent Oklahoma City bomber from being buried in a
national cemetery following his execution  prevents those convicted of a
federal or state capital crime and sentenced to life or death from being
interred in military cemeteries.

However, those convicted of a state capital crime and who are eligible for
parole could be buried alongside America's heroes at Arlington.

Wagner, who died Feb. 2 of a heroin overdose, would have been eligible for
parole review in 2017 and was honorably discharged from the Army in 1972, thus
qualifying him for burial at Arlington.

According to Arlington National Cemetery guidelines, honorably discharged or
retired military veterans may be buried in the ground or have their cremation
urns placed at the cemetery's Columbarium. Due to limited space, ground burial
guidelines are more stringent than cremation guidelines. No formal review is
done on prospective burials unless it is brought to the cemetery's attention by
family members or state and federal law officials.

With the law as is, the notorious "BTK" serial killer Dennis Rader (search)
could also be buried in a national cemetery. Rader received 10 consecutive life
terms with a minimum of 175 years in prison, but Kansas law under which he was
tried does not allow for capital punishment or a life sentence without parole.
He could be given parole in Feb. 26, 2180, according to the Kansas Department
of Corrections. Rader is an honorably discharged Air Force veteran.

Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee Chairman Sen. Larry Craig (search), R-Idaho,
pointed out this dilemma.

"If the 1997 law cannot prevent the interment of a notorious serial killer,
then what good is it?" said Craig.

Mikulski also testified at the hearing and expressed her outrage at this legal
loophole.

"Arlington National Cemetery and all our national cemeteries are hallowed
ground," said Mikulski. "They should not be tainted by the remains of a
convicted murderer."

Both Craig and Mikulski introduced bills after the hearing to strike the
"without parole" clause, prohibiting criminals sentenced to life imprisonment
from burial in national cemeteries. Craig's bill also would order the removal
of Wagner's remains from Arlington Cemetery.

"I'd rather see his ashes out," said Davis, a veteran and former honor guard
for President John F. Kennedy. "I'm waiting to see what happens here."

Capital News Service contributed to this report.

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