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| Mass. Inmate Says Prison Rules Too Strict |
| By Boston Globe |
| Published: 08/26/2002 |
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Gary Lee Sampson, who is charged with three slayings, has complained to a federal judge that unfair prison rules are ruining his attempt to make amends with his family as he awaits trial on federal carjacking charges that possibly carry the death penalty. ''I am the only inmate in [Massachusetts] facing the death penalty and if I am to be sentenced to death for my crimes against society than [sic] I would like to be able to make peace with my family,'' Sampson wrote in a letter released recently. He is allowed to make only one personal telephone call a month from the maximum-security prison in Walpole, where he is being held without bail until trial. The limited phone access has also hampered contact with his defense attorneys, Sampson said. ''I'm a model inmate who is sueject [sic] to live like I have a violent institutional record inside this facility ... but I'm actually a very quiet inmate,'' Sampson wrote. The letter was packed with typos that Sampson explained were due to the fact that he had never used a typewriter before. US Attorney Michael Sullivan has made several moves to preserve a death penalty case against Sampson. After prosecutors and Sampson's defense team present arguments at a special hearing in Washington, D.C., on August 19, Attorney General John Ashcroft will make the final decision about whether to seek the death penalty in the case. In Sampson's letter, addressed to US District Judge Mark L. Wolf, he recited a list of grievances about conditions at the Walpole prison. When he asked to call his lawyers, Sampson wrote, he was told the phones were all broken. The maximum-security block where he is held does not have a full-service store for inmates, as do other parts of the prison, he added. Sampson devoted most of his letter to describing the personal toll of prison conditions. |
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