Alabama Scene
People have a right to see public records
by Bob Martin

Bob Martin is editor and publisher of The Montgomery Independent E-mail: bob@montgomeryindependent.com

The people of Alabama have a right under state law to know whether prison guards or inmates beat a prisoner to death. Gov. Bob Riley and his prison commissioner Richard Allen are refusing to turn over prison records on the death of convicted murderer Farron Barksdale, even after a Montgomery circuit judge told them to release the records immediately. The state has appealed the ruling.

Barksdale killed two Athens police officers in 2004 and had just started serving a life sentence for the murders when he was found dead in his cell in August 2007.

Another inmate, in a letter to the court, has said he witnessed a group of prison guards beating Barksdale. The letter was sent to Montgomery Circuit Judge Eugene Reese who had issued the ruling for the records to be released. The letter named three guards and indicated there was a fourth.

Prison Commissioner Allen says the department is disputing Reese's ruling and lawyers asked him not to allow any release of records until the case is decided on appeal. He says release of the information "would subject inmates and correctional staff to various levels of harm."

But attorneys for an Atlanta law center has filed a motion saying the department has sufficient latitude because Reese's order allows it to redact sensitive information that it believes could threaten a person or "jeopardize a pending criminal investigation."

The main issue here is the state's public records laws which clearly state that these records are public. The law center says the issue is about the department's refusal to release any records regarding any incident that happens in any Department of Corrections facility. The Department is required to report the death of a prisoner and how the prisoner died. To refuse to do so is certainly an abuse of the law.

Christian Coalition gets it right

Most won't even know what I'm talking about when I mention the words Freedom's Watch. Sound's like a really legit group promoting core American values. Well, not quite. It is an advocacy group funded by casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, who owns the Las Vegas Sands Corporation, now also operating in Hong Kong.

But if you ask the campaigns of Montgomery Mayor Bobby Bright and State Sen. Parker Griffith of Huntsville, both Democrats running for Congress, they will give you a quick heads-up. The casino magnatespent millions trying to defeat them with socalled negative "issue-oriented advertising." Adelson contributed over $30 million to Freedom's Watch in 2007 and 2008, but has had to cut back on his philanthropy as his net worth - estimated at $36 billion in 2007 - has shrunk by an estimated $30 billion.

In Alabama he also ran into trouble with the state's Christian Coalition. The global economic downturn and the rapid expansion of Adelson's casino empire in Asia have coincided with a split between Adelson and Christian evangelicals who had aligned themselves with the neoconservative foreign policy interests promoted by Freedom's Watch.

Tensions between the Christian right and Adelson's business interests boiled over in September when the Christian Coalition of Alabama's president, Dr. Randy Brinson of Montgomery, denounced casino-owner Adelson as "not sharing our values as Alabamans." Adelson's casino interests in a Chinese gambling enclave near Hong Kong has called attention to his expanding casino empire and his backroom politicking on behalf of the Chinese government who the Christian right, including Brinson, are quick to criticize for its human rights violations, restrictions on religion, and the government's communist identity.

Here's what the Christian Coalition of Alabama said in an Oct. 27, 2008 news release relating to Freedom Watch's ads against Griffith: "Given the nature of the attacks on Griffith, it is especially important to note that the person funding and directing the decisions at Freedom's Watch is casino baron, Sheldon Adelson. Adelson has made billions of dollars in the Las Vegas casino industry and through his gambling investments in China. His casinos have been fined $1 million for rigging games; he is under investigation by the federal government for coercing employees into giving up health insurance; and he spearheaded and funded the lobbying effort to secure the Olympics for China in the face of the public outcry over China's human rights record and persecution of Christian missionaries."

Under Dr. Brinson's leadership, The Alabama Christian Coalition has finally figured it out.