Death Row Artist James P. Anderson -
A Case Of Reasonable Doubt
By STEVE ARGUE
Artist James P. Anderson has sat in prison, mostly on death row,
for the past 22 years. From the prison cells where men are warehoused
to die at San Quentin State Prison, his paintings are a reaffirmation
of beauty and humanity. James P. Anderson's painting "Desire" seems
to me to show a pathway to his desire to live, dream, and create
under a system that simply wants him to die.
Anderson was convicted of the murder of two women in 1979, but
maintains he is innocent.
If James Anderson is innocent he's in good company. 100 death
row inmates in the United States have had their convictions overturned
as a result of new DNA evidence being brought to light. Still prosecutors
have fought against the use of DNA evidence to overturn old convictions,
even when the lives of innocent people are on the line.
James P. Anderson has not had the benefit of new DNA evidence coming
to light, especially with the crime scene never having been secured,
but a number of major questions do cast doubts on the prosecutions
version of events.
James P. Anderson is a black man. He was convicted by an all white
jury in Riverside County, California. All white juries do not understand
issues that Blacks face in America like police, prosecutorial, and
judicial racism. In addition death penalty juries are always more
likely to convict because all who oppose the death penalty are excluded
from these juries, making them juries that are more biased towards
supporting the prosecution. An all white death penalty jury is in
fact one that is likely to contain a number of people who think
that all Black people are criminals, making these jurors incapable
of weighing the evidence even if it is presented fairly. For a Black
man in racist America, an all white death penalty jury is not a
jury of his peers, and is a violation of his constitutional rights.
The wealthy have the benefit of being defended by the best legal
representation money can buy. James P. Anderson was defended by
a public defender, Keith Long, who was suspended from the bar while
working on his case. He was suspended after not showing up in court
for clients that had paid him to defend them. A couple reasons he
gave for not showing up were that he was an alcoholic and that he
often considered committing suicide. Incompetent attorneys are very
common in death penalty cases, but it is almost impossible to get
a new trial based on ineffective assistance. The systems message
is clear, the lives of the poor and working class are cheep in America,
justice is only for those who can afford it.
Anderson maintains that he was framed-up by the actual killer
who he says is Fred Anders. Anderson says Fred Anders, a white man,
was angered by the interracial relationship between Anders's sister,
Sheila Lynn Anders and James P. Anderson. In addition Anderson states
that Fred Anders had the additional motive to frame him because
Anderson had just found out about Fred Anders sexual assault of
a 9-year old girl.
The prosecution called only one eyewitness to the murders to testify,
Fred Anders. A crucial piece of police evidence does back up Anderson's
claim that it was Fred Anders who committed the crime, a piece of
the murder weapon was found in Fred Anders jacket pocket. That section
of the murder weapon was a 3 to 4-foot piece of rope that forensically
attached to the rope used to hang Louise Flanagan. Also found in
Fred Anders pocket was a knife. The prosecution never answered what
this was doing in Fred Anders pocket.
The District Attorney on the case, Thomas Douglas, told the hanging
jury that Fred Anders had passed a polygraph test with flying colors.
Later, under questioning, that same DA admitted he had lied, stating
that no polygraph was given, even though his statement during the
trial is part of the court record. This lie no doubt played a role
in the conviction of James P. Anderson and shows the prosecutors
dirty attitude towards the case and James P. Anderson.
Fred Anders was the brother of Anderson's girlfriend, Sheila Lynn
Anders. All three had been traveling together although Anderson
didn't really know Fred Anders. James Anderson informed this reporter
that it was while the three were driving that he found out the extreme
prejudice of Fred Anders. Detective B. Byers wrote in his police
report that Sheila Lynn Anders had stated that her blood brother,
Fred Anders, and not James P. Anderson, had committed the murders.
She later changed her story after the prosecution, in violation
of federal law, allowed Fred Anders to visit her in jail. Suddenly
she changed her story and backed up her brother, but she wasn't
called as a witness by the prosecution. Obviously her testimony
would have been useless to the prosecution with her earlier statements
of James P. Anderson's innocence being on record, but she was now
useless to the defense as an eyewitness.
Particularly damaging to the defense of James P. Anderson was
the testimony of Deborah Baros claiming that she was an eyewitness
to another murder committed by James P. Anderson in 1978. This was
a murder of a gas station attendant named Jack Mackey. Yet while
the prosecution claims that her statements were consistent with
evidence, the fact of the matter is that she gave 2 different versions
as to what happened in taped interviews. In addition Deborah Baros
claims that James P. Anderson communicates with her telepathically,
she states that she remembers many things through dreams, and claims
that her imaginary son Anthony was riding with them in the car when
they committed the murders. The prosecution admits that Deborah's
son Anthony was imaginary based on various evidence, but considered
her a good witness even with her unable to state one version of
what took place. Obviously Deborah Baros could not differentiate
between reality and her own dreams and hallucinations, and her testimony
should not have been allowed.
Deborah Baros is under the powerful medications premarin, Tylenol
with codeine, fioricet, xanax, darvocet, amitriptyline, mellaril,
mebaral, and prophenol. She is taking these medications as a result
of "mental anguish" caused by a New Hampshire court taking her real
children away in 1987 for her alleged sexual abuse of them.
It is very damaging to have someone come forward and claim to
be a witness to the defendant carrying out a similar crime to the
one they are being accused. This is true even when the witness is
not very credible and other evidence in the crime are purely circumstantial.
The accusations of similar crimes weigh heavy in the minds of the
jurors, making them less apt to rule in favor of any reasonable
doubts they may have.
For police and DA's motivated by racism, other political motivations,
corruption, or just a desire to close a case the manipulation of
mentally vulnerable people for false testimony has occurred in other
cases. In the case of Leonard Peltier the FBI coerced a mentally
ill South Dakota woman named Myrtle Poor Bear to testify against
him in order to gain Leonard Peltier's extradition from Canada.
Myrtle Poor Bear says that the FBI threatened to take her children
away. She says the FBI also showed her pictures of Anna Mae with
her hands cut off. Anna Mae was an Indian activist who is widely
believed to have been murdered by the FBI. Myrtle Poor Bear says
that after the FBI showed her the gruesome pictures of Anna Mae
the FBI told her that she would look even worse when they were done
with her, that they would put her through a meat grinder and no
one would even be able to recognize her.
Under this kind of intimidation Myrtle Poor Bear testified that
she was the girlfriend of Leonard Peltier, even though they had
never met, and that she was a witness to Peltier's involvement in
killing two FBI agents, even though she was not. Myrtle Poor Bear
later recanted this testimony.
There is no evidence of such manipulation in the particular case
of the testimony of Deborah Baros, but we should understand that
someone like Deborah Baros would be susceptible to manipulation.
The fact that the prosecution lied about a polygraph test that was
not given to Fred Anders shows that prosecution was capable of anything.
The use of only two eyewitnesses: one who does not even know the
difference between reality and dreams, and another who potentially
carried out the two other murders and who was carrying a piece of
the murder weapon in his pocket raises serious questions in this
case. The fact that the prosecution did not call a third eyewitness,
Sheila Lynn Anders, because she originally had said that James P.
Anderson was innocent, is also telling of the weak case against
James P. Anderson.
The standard for guilt is supposed to be guilty beyond a reasonable
doubt, yet an all white pro-death penalty jury raised on the prejudices
of the mainstream media does not usually have a proper grip of reality
to understand what a reasonable doubt is and why it is important.
The fact that juries are selected in death penalty cases, eliminating
all who have the sense to oppose the death penalty, is one more
reason why the death penalty should be abolished.
The flimsy evidence used to convict James P. Anderson and how
unreliable convictions really are should make everyone question
the death penalty. Death is permanent.
When I spoke to James P. Anderson on the phone from San Quinton
he told me that before all this happened he had no idea how corrupt
the system really is. Really the death penalty is a weapon of terror
held by a racist system, and nobody is safe. Adding to the inhumane
treatment of being on death row, James P. Anderson has not been
able to get proper medical attention for a condition that has impaired
his sight and gives him constant headaches.
While the abolition of the death penalty will not assure justice,
there will be no justice as long as there is a death penalty. The
death penalty must be abolished! Death penalty juries must be abolished!
We demand proper medical attention for James P. Anderson! Free James
P. Anderson!
Please publish this article and use James P. Anderson's artwork.
James is desperate to have his case more widely known. For info
on publication contact Steve Argue at steveorchid@yahoo.com.
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