Verlaat opnieuw de gevangenis zonder te betalen

Vorig jaar schreef ik ook al over veroordeelden die met behulp van vervalste papieren de gevangenis uitliepen. Tot mijn verbazing gebeurde het afgelopen maand weer:

In September 1998, Jenkins killed Roscoe Pugh Jr. during a home-invasion robbery attempt.
Six months later, Cedric Slater was gunned down on an Orlando street corner -- shot dead, a jury determined, by Walker.
Both killers were convicted and sentenced to life behind bars without the possibility of parole within two years of their crime. While it's not known whether they knew each other, they were at the same prison in North Carrabelle in Florida's Panhandle.
Jenkins left there on September 27, and Walker left on October 8, according to authorities. They had motions indicating the sentences had been reduced as well as court orders granting the request. Investigators later discovered these documents were forged.
The legal-looking documents contained bogus reproductions of several key players' signatures, including those of the Orlando-area State Attorney Jeffrey Ashton or the assistant state attorney and Judge Belvin Perry. They bore the seal of the Orange County clerk of court's office.

Opmerkelijk hierbij is de verklaring die rechter Perry aan CNN geeft voor het gebruik van zijn handtekening:

Perry told CNN his signature is easy to find online on documents related to the high-profile trial of Casey Anthony. Anthony was acquitted in the death of her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee.

Dat is dus een van de redenen waarom het CPB hier zegt dat documenten waar handtekeningen opstaan, niet online gezet mogen worden.

Volgens CNN is hier trouwens sprake van een "cottage industry", die al minstens een andere ontsnapping en verschillende andere pogingen daartoe tot gevolg had.

"We know today of five other instances" in which Florida convicts used forged documents in an attempt to shave some time off their sentences, said Jerry Bailey, commissioner of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. State officials have been investigating the issue for about a year and had warned prosecutors about the schemes over the summer, he said.
"We have a confidential source that has advised us that there was a cottage industry, if you will," Bailey said. "An individual was able to construct these documents for $8,000."

Ondertussen zijn de twee ontsnapte moordenaars weer opgepakt en heeft rechter Perry verordonneerd dat de gevangenissen iedere keer contact met zijn kantoor op moeten nemen als iemand op basis van een door hem getekend document vrijuit mag gaan.

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Een jaar of twee geleden zijn twee Amerikaanse gevangenen de gevangenis uit gewandeld op basis van vervalste documenten. De Wisconsin State Journal beschrijft de gevangenen als volgt:

• Baldwin, 32, was convicted of reckless homicide in Milwaukee and received a 73-year sentence. He was released Jan. 19, 2010, with paperwork that appeared to reduce his sentence. He was taken into custody again on Jan. 26, 2010.
• Evans, 56 at the time, was released on his scheduled release date. However, paperwork appeared to reduce his supervision time from 13 years to one year. Also, paperwork was sent to Louisiana appearing to eliminate a sentence he was to serve there. Consequently, Louisiana sent authentic paperwork to Wisconsin lifting an order that would have kept Evans incarcerated.
• Spencer, 25, was convicted of armed robbery in Milwaukee and was serving a sentence of 12 years in prison and 12 years of supervision. He was not released, but paperwork was received that would have released him on Feb. 3, 2010.

Het is blijkbaar nog niet duidelijk hoe de vervalsing plaats heeft gevonden. Gevangenen komen volgens de Chicago Tribune zelf blijkbaar nooit in aanraking met hun "release papers"

Prison inmates never touch authentic release forms, which are mailed directly to the prison and not sent to inmates.
The criminal complaint states that Evans had committed similar forgery while he was incarcerated in Louisiana, and had knowledge of how to perform forgeries.
[...]
The altered forms looked like authentic documents, state Corrections Department officials have said. The criminal complaint lists minor changes that state how the forged papers differ from authentic documents.

Maar QWOW zegt iets heel anders:

All of the documents had been delivered to the prison through the U.S. Postal Service. Evans' and Spencer's fingerprints were found on Baldwin's paperwork. Because of that, authorities believe there were at least four people involved in the conspiracy: the three inmates and someone on the outside.
During the course of the investigation, WQOW News 18 obtained documents that shed light on how this could've happened. According to one investigator's interview with an "unnamed source" Evans would allegedly take his own court documents, make changes, and then mail those to someone on the outside who would send the documents back to the prison through certified mail.
One informant said inmates could use white-out tape to cover up the length of their sentence, run that through a copy machine in the prison and then use a typewriter to fill in the blank.

Zo simpel kan het dus zijn, al ontkennen de autoriteiten dat gevangenen documenten kunnen kopiëren zonder toezicht.

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