Freedom-Cry
Bill LaMorte
October 2007 - I received a letter yesterday from a lady who married a good friend, a man I met in my second year of incarceration. Dawn LaMorte wrote, "I have good and bad news. Bill LaMorte has passed on."
A Good and Gentle Man
July 4th
Dawn LaMorte told me in her letter that Bill LaMorte had transitioned on, during the 4th of July, having suffered from massive chest pain while working out in a gym at Fort Dix. He went to his cell but then collapsed. No resuscitation was possible. He is now at rest, his karma was fulfilled and he was at last at peace. She went on to say that it was ironic but fitting that he transitioned to a final resting place on the 4th of July, a day celebrating freedom.I think of this gentle and good man. We walked a spiritual road together, in prayer, in service, in studying the Discalced Carmelite path together. We studied meditation with a Buddhist priest and attended Kairos together.
Bill's Past
We were similar, both wealthy on the street.
His brother turned him in for something he did not do. Bill had been in the marijuana business but was out of it for more than five years. His brother was apprehended with drugs and turned Bill, even though he was not involved. They used the drug accusation to go back in time and bring charges of a continuing "Criminal Enterprise" for Bill's prior activities which were past the statute of limitation.
I saw Bill forgive his brother in the visiting room, in USP Lewisburg. Since then, the rest of Bill's family has also forgiven him.
Bill's wife, a trophy wife, left him right away when he was incarcerated. But Dawn began to visit him. It was a love story and they fell in love and married. Bill had done almost twenty years when he passed away. But ironically, before his release, he was released by death.
This distinguished, gentle, intelligent man who was loved by his family and everyone who had the privilege of knowing him. He was unjustly incarcerated. But the system is like that, once the justice system moves against you, unless you tell on someone else, there is no relief.
Bill's conviction, like mine, was for running a continuing criminal enterprise. The purpose of this law, which gives non-parolable sentences, is to catch the big drug king-pin. This usually resulted in nonsense convictions of people like Bill LaMorte and myself, who were not hardened drug king pins. But the politicians have sold the public on this anti-drug hysteria. In the twenty years of these draconian laws and their resulting sentences, not one gram of cocaine, not one ounce of marijuana has been decreased in the national consumption of illicit drugs.
As Dawn Lamorte has said,
Bill's earthly presence will be missed. But we, his family, his wife, his friends, thank God for his presence and know he is in a better place, prematurely but nevertheless in a far better place.
. As of January 2008, I have requested the United State Supreme Court make a decision as to why I am blocked on newly discovered evidence of my actual innocence. I am blocked also on the Richardson error (non-unanimity of jury) – a constitutional error in my trial. Is the US system of justice really only a copy of what existing in England before the Magna Carta?
I am legally innocent of the continuing criminal enterprise. I am a 67 year old man who has spent 20 years in prison and wants to be with his family again.
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