MONDAY, AUGUST 16, 2004
News
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Dead man walking away from jail
Former Kansas City death row inmate gets a second chance
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — For nearly two decades, Joe Amrine was known as prisoner number CP48 — the 48th person sentenced to capital punishment in Missouri since the death penalty was reinstated in 1977.
Now, his grandnieces and nephews call him "sucker Joe," he says, admitting he once spent $117 at a convenience store on ball caps and candy for them.
It's been just more than a year since Amrine was freed from death row and walked out of jail with all his possessions in two plastic garbage bags. The prosecution's case fell apart when the former inmates who testified against Amrine in a prison stabbing trial recanted. One of Amrine's attorneys, Arthur Benson, is preparing a wrongful imprisonment suit.
After 26 years in prison, 17 of them on death row, the 47-year-old Kansas City resident is tasting freedom — something that once scared him more than being executed. Amrine said he knows how much is riding on his success.
"For me to screw up, that would really be a terrible blow all around," he said. "So, I feel a lot of pressure. I mean a lot."
A grant of about $30,000 allows him to work full-time for the same attorneys who helped free him. He speaks at gatherings of anti-death penalty activists and reviews claims from inmates seeking help from the Innocence Project at the University of Missouri-Kansas City's law school.
"A lot of the cases the guys claim they are innocent despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary," said Kent Gipson, an attorney with the Public Interest Litigation Clinic in Kansas City. "I think (Amrine's) developed some insight being in prison that long."
The high school dropout also is studying for his GED and wants to become a paralegal. He sometimes sits in on court cases, scribbling notes.
calls until he stopped accepting them, wracking up a phone bill of $875 his first month out of prison and $1,500 the next month.
But despite the grant, there are bills he struggles to pay. Former inmates flooded him with collect
His nine siblings say he moved into his own apartment too soon. They question the new furniture and 60-inch television he bought. Amrine said he doesn't mind the bills.
Amrine was just 20 when he started serving a 15-year sentence for robbery, burglary and forgery. With an older brother already in prison and another brother recently released, Amrine made friends quickly and often found himself in the middle of trouble.
Had he behaved, he said he probably would have been paroled long before 1985 when fellow inmate Gary Barber was stabbed to death. Armeine, who by
"Actually, I love it," he said. "I love the idea of having the responsibility of paying these bills every month — whether I'm late or whether I can't pay it or not. Just the idea of being in the position to try and do it. I love it. I love it to death."
his own admission wasn't a "model inmate by a longshot," was questioned and charged with the killing.
Key testimony against Amrine came from three former inmates, who later said they lied to win special protection for themselves. When he was sentenced to death, he had between 18 months and seven years left to serve.
The other inmates who helped Amrine were Doyle Williams, who beat a man who could have testified against him in the burglary of a small-town doctor's office in 1981; Roy "Hog" Roberts who was convicted of holding a prison guard from behind during a 1983 riot as other inmates repeatedly stabbed him; and Stephen K. Johns who was sentenced to death for killing a gas station clerk during a 1982 robbery that netted $248.
Williams was executed on April 10, 1996; Roberts on March 10, 1999 and Johns on Oct.24, 2001. He said he used to support the death penalty. But not after living it.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
State schools seeing benefits from cuts
The Aug. 30 hearing about a challenge to the state's school finance formula is nearing, raising the question of which is more important: funds or focus.
TOPEKA — Good news: Most Kansas schools are making progress toward state and national goals for student achievement.
But the fact that fewer school districts and schools appeared on a preliminary list of those failing to reach yearly targets suggests most schools are adept at doing more with less.
Even more good news: Despite several years of budget cuts, school districts are becoming leaner and more focused.
Kansas has a tradition of strong academic performance and high standards, while being fiscally frugal.
A key Kansas education official believes the gains the state is seeing are the results of changes in 2000 designed to ensure that
teachers cover material in the classroom that will appear on state tests.
Since then, districts have been forced to make significant cuts in spending following four years of tight state budgets and rising costs for items such as utilities and insurance.
"If you look at the areas that the districts are cutting to keep their teaching staff, they are cutting preschool, after-school programs — the additional time," said Alexa Pochowski, assistant education commissioner for learning services.
She said the gains will level off in coming years as the effects of program cuts emerge.
"There is a relentless focus," Pochowski said. "What they are doing now does not require a great deal of resources."
States have improved achievement by aligning curriculum with the standards by which students are measured.
While that takes time and money, it doesn't take a huge infusion of dollars.