Controversy
sparked over death row pen pals Dave Summers, WKYC Cleveland,
November 20, 2004
MANSFIELD -- They were sentenced
to die for their crimes. So why are some of Ohio’s
most notorious criminals looking for companionship on
the internet?
Death row inmates share with Fr. Neil Kookoothe their
art through drawings and their lives through letter writing.
The Penpal program is about one
human being reaching out to another, death row inmates
looking for contact through
Kookoothe’s website, Ohiodeathrow.com
The 200 plus men on death row in Mansfield, Ohio can solicit
pen pal companionship from anyone.
What’s the value to the
prisoner?
“ When you establish a relationship with a man on
the inside and someone on the outside, it is a quality
of life issue,” said Fr. Neil Kookoothe of St. Clarence
Church.
Cleveland convicts, Darryl Durr and Eugene Woodard are
looking for pen pals.
Durr wants legal help. Woodard wants friendship.
Their photographs were taken inside
prison walls and placed on Fr. Kookoothe’s web
site.
“ Didn’t we put them behind bars so they can’t
reach society?” Kookoothe was asked.
“ It’s that mind set of what we think an inmate
is like,” Kookoothe replied. “The inmate has
to be manipulative. The inmate has to be no good. It’s
just not the case.”
What you may or may not know is that Durr was convicted
of the kidnapping, rape and murder of a teenage girl.
Court records indicate Eugene Woodard car jacked a motorist
and killed him for a radio.
Assistant County Prosecutor Brendon Sheehan calls such
public access a slippery slope.
Sheehan’s father, Tim, was
shot and killed by Frank Spisak two decades ago at Cleveland
State University.
Spisak followed the thinking of Adolf Hitler all the way
down to his moustache.
The death row inmate sees himself much differently now.
Spisak continues to seek legal
help and is lobbying for a sex change, not in the courts,
but on Kookoothe’s
web site.
Kookoothe doesn’t know many times the circumstances
of their crimes and doesn’t ask.
“ We gather here as a people in need of redemption
a people asking God’s mercy,” Kookoothe said.
He knows the fate of such inmates and life they have behind
these walls.
Bret Vinocur,
a victim’s
advocate in Columbus who created findmissingkids.com, is
organizing
a boycott
of all websites, like Fr. KooKoothe’s.
Advocate Bret Vinocur says there’s
no purpose to websites that promote artwork and prison
personal ads.
Citizens who abuse information
to threaten, intimidate or harass registered sex
offenders could potentially end law enforcement's
ability to do community notification. Abuse of this
information to threaten, intimidate or harass registered
sex offenders is illegal and violators' can be prosecuted.
This web site is for informational purposes only.
Any person, agency or entity,
public or private, who reuses, publishes or communicates
the information available from this web site shall
be solely liable and responsible for any claim or
cause of action based upon or alleging an improper
or inaccurate disclosure arising from such reuse,
re-publication or communication, including but not
limited to actions for defamation and invasion of
privacy. This web site is for informational purposes
only.
All pictures of Danielle van
Dam and Samantha Runnion on this site are the property
of the van Dam and Runnion Families. The families
have given Find missing Kids, Inc. expressed written
permission to use these pictures. Please contact
the van Dam and Runnion families for the use of any
of Danielle or Samantha’s pictures.
