Deaf Awareness Week – Day 6, Felix Interview Section 7

Image courtesy of Pat Bliss

I’m glad to be able to finally bring you the 7th installment in our series with Felix Garcia, in prison, and being interviewed by Jim Ridgeway and Pat Bliss. As always, this intellectual property is under the explicit copyright of Jim Ridgeway and cannot be shared, downloaded or reblogged, but you are by all means, encouraged to share the link.

Producing these videos represents a tremendous amount of work, by all concerned, and it is for that reason that they take so long for us to make available to you.

In keeping with Deaf Awareness Week, and the fact that Yesterday, September 28th was Felix’s 51st birthday – his 30th behind bars, I would be deeply grateful if you would take just a moment to sign our petition, after viewing this moving and informative video.

http://deafinprison.wordpress.com/2012/09/28/deaf-awareness-week-day-5-happy-birthday-felix/

Links to the petition also can be found in both sidebars, and here’s a link to the actual petition site page.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/453/783/026/felix-garcia-should-be-granted-a-full-pardon/

So, without further ado, here’s Felix #7:

Felix Garcia Interview Part 7 – cap

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• After a Break; Felix Part Five (deafinprison.wordpress.com)
• A Letter From Felix Garcia to HEARD (deafinprison.wordpress.com)
• International Week of the Deaf 9-24-12 to 9-30-12 (schoolpsychscholar.com)

Deaf Awareness Week – Day 5 **Happy Birthday, Felix!**

The following is a letter that will be sent to the Attorney General, two influential cabinet members and the Governor of Florida regarding a full pardon for Felix Garcia. Those of you who have been following this site, know that Felix is an innocent Deaf man who has served over 30 years for a crime he never committed.

Here’s the link to where you can go to sign this letter and the associated petition.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/453/783/026/felix-garcia-should-be-granted-a-full-pardon/

 

Image Courtesy of Pat Bliss

Office of Cabinet Affairs

The Capitol

Tallahassee, FL 32399

Dear [Attorney General Pam Bondi] [CFO Jeff Atwater] [Commissioner Adam Putnam]:

I am writing to ask you to recommend to Governor Rick Scott that Felix Garcia be granted a full pardon. New evidence has made it clear that Mr. Garcia, a deaf man framed for murder, has been unjustly held in prison for more than three decades. Felix’s story of unjust imprisonment by Florida authorities has been put into the national spotlight by James Ridgeway, one of America’s premier investigative journalists, in an article for Mother Jones. It is time for you to act on this new evidence.

In 2006, Frank Garcia, Felix’s brother, finally confessed in court that Felix had nothing to do with the murder and armed robbery of Joseph Tramontana in Hillsborough County on August 3rd, 1981. Frank’s 2006 testimony stated outright that the crimes had been committed by himself and Ray Stanley alone, and that Felix “had nothing to do with it.” During the 1981 trial, Frank, his sister Tina, and Tina’s boyfriend (Ray Stanley) conspired to lie under oath that Felix killed Tramontana. The three of them planned the crime together and then took advantage of Felix’s deafness to pin the crime on him.

There is overwhelming reason to believe that Felix Garcia, who entered jail in 1981 at the age of 19, is innocent. Frank’s fingerprints were found at the scene of the crime, while eyewitness testimony puts Felix five miles away, watching a movie and eating pizza at his girlfriend’s house. Physical evidence proves this: Felix signed a receipt for a pizza that was delivered to his girlfriend’s house at the time of the crime. Furthermore, Felix’s girlfriend and her mother testified in court that Felix was with them that night.

Nonetheless, during the 2006 review of Felix’s case, a judge denied freedom for Felix, stating that he “couldn’t discern the truth.” His confusion rested on the one piece of physical evidence linking Felix to the crime, a pawn ticket (for Tramontana’s pinky ring) which Frank asked Felix to sign because Frank told his brother that he “forgot his ID.” Frank’s 2006 testimony, however, makes it clear that the pawn ticket is irrelevant.

In your consideration of whether to recommend pardon for Felix after 31 years of unjust imprisonment, please consider that at the 1981 trial, Felix was not given the proper accommodations due a deaf person. As a result, Felix understood very little of what was said. Worse, in the 30 years since then, Felix has suffered the physical and mental abuse common among deaf inmates: rape, isolation, and neglect.

Please recommend that Felix Garcia be fully pardoned. Please do not thwart justice by keeping an innocent man in prison any longer. Let Felix have his life back.

Sincerely,

CC:  Governor Rick Scott

Felix turns 51 today, and they haven’t been good years. What better way to celebrate both his birthday, and Deaf Awareness Week, than to show him our support in his Sisyphean struggle to receive justice.

 

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• A Brief Update (deafinprison.wordpress.com)

Deaf Awareness Week – Day 4

This is a fun post for me, because I get to feature lot’s of pictures of gear.
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/multi-way/91372-altec-lansing.html

A member of HEARD, or perhaps a visitor to their site, wrote an interesting piece on the fact that emergency horns – to alert residents to everything from hurricanes to invasions – cannot be heard by the Deaf, and that there’s nothing in place to provide for their safety.

It reminded me of something I’ve been learning and re-learning since I started the DeafInPrison.com project.

We in the hearing world take for granted just how much difficulty the Deaf and HoH have in simple, day to day life. So much of our world is based on the ability to hear. Even in some cases, your basic safety. Hearing can be the difference between life and death.

Tell ya what. If you can’t hear this – you’ll still feel it in your bones.
http://www.theaudioannex.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=1167&start=90

We cross streets while texting away on our iPhones, all the while blissfully aware that we’ll hear any threat. We know the subway’s coming, because we hear it a half mile away. We can tell if a dog is friendly because we can hear his growl, and we know our cats are happy because we can hear them purr.

Imagine what a scary place our planet would be if all that were suddenly taken away.

These are the horns I have – for my 1 – 3K section. Altec 8-11B. They’re classics.
http://www.oaktreevintage.com/Altec_Speaker_Parts.htm

Deaf Awareness Week is a good time to stress some of these issues. And DeafInPrison.com is a good place, because just doing this project has opened my ears to a whole world of understanding. It’s more than just speech, and even music – although one of the things I have also learned is that many Deaf can and do enjoy music.

Once, for an experiment, I tried to go a whole day blindfolded. Just to see what it was like, and if I could get along without my sight. Well, I’m here to tell you, it ain’t easy. But none of us ever question a world without our ears. Many Deaf tell me that if given the choice, they’d opt for blindness.

Someone wrote – somewhere – Deafness is worse than blindness, because the blind are cut off from things, but the Deaf are cut off from life. I’m paraphrasing, of course – and probably not too well – but I think the sentiment is valid.

As an athlete, I often wonder what life would be like as a paraplegic. I can’t help but admire those brave individuals who overcome that kind of disability and go on to perform incredible feats. The guys who run marathons in wheelchairs – that sort of thing. But, I’ve learned – only recently – that when I see a beautiful piece of artwork, read a stirring blog entry, or hear a stunning score created by someone who’s deaf, I’m witnessing an even more impressive feat.

Here’s your closing shot.

Neve console. For 30 years, I called this “home.”
http://www.aesproaudio.com/

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Individuals with Disabilities and the Issue of False Confessions

One way to get a confession
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Torture_Chamber_of_the_Inquisition_v2.PNG

False confessions are more common than expected. The most common explanations are that the suspect experiences fear, intimidation, frustration and “just wants to go home.”

Deaf individuals as well as other vulnerable groups are at risk for making false confessions because of their communication differences and disabilities, youth, and personality characteristics.  In one case I worked on the detectives did not use a sign language interpreter with a deaf woman suspect but instead used written communication and lipreading.  The detectives were not aware that the deaf woman had a second grade reading level, could barely write an English grammatical sentence, and was guessing and reading body language to try to determine what the detectives were asking her.

And here’s another
http://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/t/torture_chamber.asp

Furthermore, police officers are often trained in using coercive techniques, asking complex questions, repeating questions, making false promises, or threats, or using confusing and ambiguous language to force the false confession. In this article, Individuals with Disabilities and the Issue of False Confessions, published in the Champion, July 2012, p. 34-42, Dr. Vernon and I provide recommendations that can be adopted such as mandatory video recording so that vulnerable populations such as deaf individuals are provided their Constitutional Rights and to ensure there is documentation that the confession is reliable and voluntary.

[Sadly, the link to this article is unavailable, as the Champion has chosen to place it in their protected area. I have included links to their membership page, should you want to join and access it that way. Guest memberships cannot access the protected area. --BitcoDavid]

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[***Update - Dr. Andrews was kind enough to e-mail me a PDF of the full article. Here's the link. - BitcoDavid]

False Confessions

 

Deaf Awareness Week – Day 3 PetFinder.com

This is Marlee. She’d give some lucky Human an awful lot of love.
http://www.petfinder.com/petdetail/10866056

PetFinder.com has set up a whole Web site devoted to finding homes for deaf dogs and cats, in celebration of Deaf Awareness Week. Page after page of wonderful, loving, rescue animals that need a little extra attention, because they’re deaf. Research has shown that teaching deaf dogs to follow basic Sign language commands isn’t difficult at all.

PetFinder. com is a huge organization, and I applaud them for using Deaf Awareness Week as an opportunity to help not only these wonderful and needy animals, but to help us as well. Deaf or hearing, there’s nothing in this world that can love you like a dog. These animals have 50 millennia of breeding specifically for that purpose – to love Humans.

I’m glad to help support them in this worthy cause – and at this most propitious of times.

“Milo”
http://www.petfinder.com/petdetail/9979382

The good news is that as I click through these links, I find a surprising number of animals that have already been adopted. So, although that means the pool is diminishing, it also means that these forgotten members of our society have been saved. And in the world of animal rescue, where there are far too few no-kill shelters, those dogs and cats that aren’t adopted quickly – are far too often, destroyed.

I have always been a supporter of PetFinder. com, but I really love the idea of having a drive to rescue deaf animals during Deaf Awareness Week. It speaks volumes as to the amount of heart this organization’s executives have.

Congratulations, PetFinder.com – DeafInPrison.com gives you two thumbs up.

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Deaf Awareness Week – Day 2: Deaf Art Exibit – From Jean F. Andrews

Susan Dupor Revival of the Deer. Image courtesy of Jean F. Andrews.

This is a PowerPoint document, containing art works by Deaf artists in Texas. The exhibit was funded by the National Endowment of the Arts, VSA Arts, Southeast Texas Arts Council and the Texas School for the Deaf, in Spring 2008 at Lamar University and Texas School for the Deaf.

View this document on Scribd

Randy Garber Blue Jay Blues. Image courtesy of Jean F. Andrews.

In putting together this post, I saw some of these works – and believe me, they’re worth the effort.

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Editorial Recommends More Police Training in Dealing with Disabled Suspects

Houston Police Department (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In a scathing editorial in today’s Houston Chronicle (Tues. Sept. 25, 2012, the editor urged the Houston Police Department to undergo more training in the handling of suspects with mental illness. Referring to a tragic accident where a police officer shot an unarmed double amputee in a wheelchair who also had mental health issues who threatened him with a silver pen, the editor wondered why a taser or baton were not used instead of a gun with bullets. The man was shot and killed. (“Killing Sparks cry for HPD reform,” Monday Sept 24, 2012.
The editor recommended more police training in dealing with disabled Americans. To the editor’s suggested training needs, we also need more police training in how to effectively handle deaf and hard of hearing suspects with low language levels.

BitcoDavid just couldn’t resist inserting this shot. [A 1952 Ford Customline patrol car that was in use by the Houston Police Department. It is now on display at the Houston Police Museum in Downtown Houston. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)]

Day 1, Deaf Awareness Week

Deaf students in the classroom. Baghdad, Iraq (April 2004). Photo by Peter Rimar. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Did you know this is Deaf Awareness Week? Well it is. One thing that I wanted to do to help commemorate this milestone in Deaf Culture, is to post this little spelling test.

The test comes to DeafInPrison.com, courtesy of Dan Schwartz via Lipreading Moms and Dads.

It’s an mp3 file of a simple spelling test, where the words are filtered to sound the way they would if you suffered from one type of hearing loss. Give it a shot. It’s much harder than you might think – and it gives a great insight into what life is like for those with hearing loss. Now try and imagine the struggle faced by the profoundly Deaf.

I’m working hard on getting Felix – 7 ready for you, and it should be up in a day or so. Little I can think of, gives better insight into the struggles of the Deaf – especially in prison – than this open and outspoken man, who 30+ years ago was sentenced to life for a crime he never committed.

Graphical representation of frequency- and loudness-dependence of human hearing loss. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Pat Bliss and I have been working on posting a letter that will automatically send to certain administrators within the Florida government, asking for Felix’s release. The letter would work in conjunction with one of the cause sites, and each of you will be able to click and send a copy. I hope to have that worked out this week as well.

So Deaf Awareness Week will be a busy one for us, here at DeafInPrison.com.

There but for the grace of God, go I.

Sir Joshua Reynolds – Self-Portrait as a Deaf Man – Google Art Project (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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