The following text is called Southern Justice, part 1. It was written by
Carzell Moore on death row in January 1996. It´s long but good, so if
you´re interested, just read it. You can also visit the Carzell Moore
Page at http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/3366 to get detailed
information on the case. (This is where you can find Southern Justice,
part II.)
Southern Justice I
It is funny... depressingly so... as I sit upon this hard, narrow bunk
with pen and pad in hand, that I can still hear that final, sharp "rap"
of the judge's gavel... a sound that to this day echoes as painfully in
my ears as it did a lifetime ago in that southern courtroom wherein I was
sentenced to die.
A lot has happened since then, and now my attention wanders dejectedly
and settles upon the rust splattered door across from me, its paint
peeling in hues of green and grey. The floor and ceiling are smooth
concrete, seemingly untouched by man's blemishes. Yet these calloused
walls cry out in compressed agony. These concrete slabs carefully and
painstakingly poured and mortared in to contain and wilt man's failing
spirits. Although I refuse to let it wilt mine. And etched into these
paint-splattered walls are the silent screams of those who have suffered
here before me.
I can smell the damp, musty odors from the rotting souls of men who
endured this same small cell for many years before I ever became
cognizant of the realities of capital punishment. I can still feel the
cold, dark air from this tomb-like abode seep into the very marrow of my
bones, bringing with it the stagnant poison of failed dreams and lives
lost to caged time.
Looking around this bleak environment, my soul feels weary and begins to
ache. There's an empty loneliness trying to claim me at this wee hour,
but I refuse to succumb.
The years drag by -- life or death, I really no longer know. Perhaps
both; perhaps neither. I find myself asking more and more often these
days, "is this life at which I'm gazing... or just a hopeless sketch of
time?"
Still, I have managed to rally forth in an environment that does
absolutely nothing to nurture any positive growth, yet does everything to
tear it down. Unfortunately, my hatred for southern justice may be a part
of this growing process that I may never grow out of because I was tried,
convicted and sentenced to die for the murder and rape of a young white
female of which I am innocent. I received two death sentences for the
crimes of murder and rape, respectively.
In the State of Georgia, as with the rest of the nation, a death penalty
trial consists of three major components: Jury selection, guilt-innocence
phase, and the penalty phase -- life or death -- which on average last
three weeks. In contrast, my entire trial lasted only three days.
The judicial system in Georgia, like it is in all southern states, is
inherently racist where the prosecutors are all white and predominantly
male and have total discretion in deciding who will be a candidate for
the death penalty.
On the other side of this debauchery -- where more often than not the
defendant is an impecunious African-American male and an occasional
female -- the judge goes about the business of appointing a couple of
local white attorneys to represent the defendant. (Georgia now requires
that two or more attorneys be appointed and/or retained to represent the
defendant in a capital case, but I was represented by a single attorney
at my trial back in June of 1977, since there was no such requirements
back then.)
These cases are very often tried in small towns where, as here, racism is
the norm rather than the exception -- where these local white attorneys
must maintain the status quo by ostensibly fighting diligently to save
the defendant's life because the attorney has a business to maintain
in that community.
In hindsight, it appears to have been some type of tacit understanding
that existed between my trial attorney, the prosecutors and the judge
that said it was going to be business as usual, as is often the case in
capital trials, and that the matter would be dealt with in very short
order, which of course it was. But I sat through the whole ordeal totally
helpless because I was oblivious as to what was going on at that point
and time.
And while there was considerable evidence in this case that pointed to my
possible involvement, this was only so to the extent of my association
with the co-defendant, Roosevelt Green, who was executed on January 9,
1985.
I had met Green when we were both in prison in Alabama [because of an
offense which is not related to this case], from where he escaped and I
made parole. Green, still on escape, came looking for me in Cochran where
I was working and trying to get on with my life, where I had just started
a baseball team and was planning to get married. He came asking for me on
December 11, 1976, the day before the Allen murder, and it was this
interlinkage of circumstances which led to my arrest on January 10, 1977,
and made me the chosen, and convenient, target for the State who needed a
culprit for these horrible crimes against the young white woman --
because Green, the prime suspect, escaped from the Monroe County jail on
February 14, 1977, exactly one day before we were both indicted. As a
result I was tried separately before a jury in the Superior Court of
Monroe County, Georgia.
The evidence against me was solely circumstancial, with no eyewitnesses
and no fingerprints. In addition, several of the prosecution's witnesses,
including its "star" witness, clearly committed perjury under oath,
unreliable forensics work, conspiracy, cover-up, and unlike O.J. Simpson
and other wealthy people, I was unable to retain the services of the
sharpest groups of defense lawyers and expert witnesses that money could
buy. And the judge denied my defense motion to have experts appointed to
assist us in examing the forensics work and preparing a proper defense
strategy.
In our modern society truths don't matter. The illusion of the truth, the
appearance of the truth, indeed, let us say the application of the
techniques of fiction playing like searchlights upon a fancied facade of
the truth, would entirely suffice. Life and truth have been turned into
diverting, gripping, convincing scenarios. All they require is a command
of an extensive research facility and a fixed target upon which to
project the new truth.
Item: Exactly one month to the day of my conviction and death sentence
the girlfriend of my co-defendant told the F.B.I. that he admitted to her
that he killed the victim in this case. The prosecutor deliberately
withheld this pertinent information from my defense in clear violation of
the judge's order that I be provided with any favorable evidence that the
prosecutor was aware of that could help to exonerate me of these charges.
Thus, the prosecution was allowed to try me as the so-called
"trigger-man" by using the perjured testimony of a jailhouse informant,
who was also the State's star witness against me. My co-defendant,
Roosevelt Green, escaped from jail prior to my trial but was recaptured
and tried as the "trigger-man" the following year. His girlfriend
testified for the State at his trial where he was convicted and sentenced
to death.
I did not learn of the existence of his girlfriend's testimony until a
decade after the trial. She was the State's star witness at Green's
trials (his original death sentence was overturned on appeal but they
sentenced him to death again a year later and his girlfriend testified
against him at both trials), but she should have been (and would have
been had my defense been made aware of her testimony) the key witness in
my defense had the prosecution not conspired to withhold the information
that they had in their files on her a month prior to my trial. This was a
major blow to my defense efforts.
Item: The State's star witness in my case testified that I allegedly
admitted to him that I killed the victim while Green took her car to be
gassed up. However, the service station attendant on duty at the time
testified that he distinctively remembered the victim's car coming in for
gas that night but he said that he saw two black males in the car. He
further stated that one of the men got out of the car and went to the
rest room and asked if he had any gum, while the other one remained
in the car as he filled it up with gas. It was unfortunate for me that he
was not able to identify either of the two men in the victim's car.
Whichever version of the above testimony that was given the most
credibility and weight, by my jury, is unclear. What is clear is the fact
that a major conflict exists here and it very strongly indicates that
there was more than one perpetrator involved in these vicious crimes --
but I was not one of them because I did not murder, rape, or rob anyone.
Yet, the authorities closed this case after Green, and I, was convicted
and sentenced to death.
It is worthy of note that the State's star witness, Thomas Pasby, was
also a prime (and the very first) suspect in this case. Pasby was the
central figure in the State's case as well. In fact, without Pasby's
testimony, it is doubtful whether the case would have gone to the jury.
There were no eyewitnesses to the robbery of the Majik Market or to the
kidnapping, rape, and murder of the victim, Teresa Carol Allen, as she
worked at the convenience store (Majik Market), and the physical evidence
and expert opinion testimony the prosecution presented *merely suggested*
that I *could have been* a perpetrator of these crimes.
The state had a much stronger case against Roosevelt Green; he had been
caught red-handed in South Carolina with the murder weapon and the
victim's car, and several witnesses placed him in Cochran, Georgia, on
the day the crimes were committed. Green could have explained how he
obtained possession of the murder weapon and Ms. Allen's car, why he was
in Cochran on the day of the crime, why he had Pasby's telephone number
in his possession, and why he called Pasby's home after he was arrested
in an effort to inform me and Pasby that he was in jail in South
Carolina. But Green was unavailable as a prosecution witness [in Carzell
Moore's trial]; he was a fugitive, having escaped from the Monroe County
jail prior to the trial. Green's availability as a witness depended on
his being apprehended and on his willingness to testify.
Pasby was the only witness the State had who purported to outline the
case. Pasby testified that I allegedly confessed to him that I had raped
and murdered Ms. Allen and described how the crimes were committed. He
went on to say I allegedly told him that Green entered the Majik Market
and distracted Ms. Allen so that I could enter the store without the
30.06 caliber hunting rifle (the alleged murder weapon) being noticed,
and that after robbing the store, Green and I abducted Ms. Allen and
drove away in her car with me driving the car. Pasby went on to say I
allegedly told him that Green first raped Ms. Allen, after which we
exchanged places, and I allegedly raped Ms. Allen. Pasby said that some
time later I allegedly told Green to stop the car; at which point I
allegedly got out of the car with Ms. Allen and told Green to go to a gas
station to get gas for the car. Pasby alleged that after Green left, I
allegedly pointed the gun at Ms. Allen and shot her in the abdomen, and I
allegedly picked her up and threw the body into the bushes when Green
returned from gassing up the car. Pasby also alleged that he assisted me
in stealing the murder weapon in downtown Cochran a month prior to the
murder and rape of Ms. Allen.
The remainder of the prosecution's case was principally devoted to
corroborating Pasby's testimony; none of it, independently or
circumstantially, placed me with the victim at any time during the
robbery, kidnapping, rape, or murder with the certainty required by the
criminal law.
Apparently the trial judge also had some reservations about this because
he indicated, in the standard questionnaire that judges are required by
law to complete at the conclusion of the trial as part of the record,
that there still remained reasonable doubt as to my guilt.
To obtain my conviction, the prosecutor obviously had to convince the
jury to accept Pasby's testimony. To accomplish this task, he had to
confront Pasby's criminal record, which posed a substancial threat to his
[Pasby's] credibility if fully comprehended and exploited by defense
counsel. The prosecutor's handling of Pasby's criminal record, especially
prior to my trial when the court, in response to my Brady and Giglio
motions, instructed him to disclose that record and any promises the
State may have made to Pasby for his testimony, was clearly improper,
indeed reprehensible in that the prosecutor deliberately withheld this
information from the jury and from my defense as well.
Such information, if fully comprehended and exploited by my defense
counsel, might very well have led the jury to conclude that Pasby
testified against me because the State had given him immunity from all
prosecution, or because he thought the State had given him such immunity
-- and that his testimony was thus not worthy of belief. And indeed
Pasby's testimony was false and should never have been believed because
he flat out lied on me. I know it, he knows it, and the State knows it as
well.
The prosecutor, and Pasby himself, withheld from the jury that he was on
probation at the time he testified against me and that he was arrested on
stolen weapon charges on January 4, 1977, and that he remained in jail
until after I was convicted and sentenced to die on June 9, 1977. He was
in jail when I was arrested on January 10, 1977, and he was still there
after I was sent here to death row; albeit we were in separate jails
after January 14, 1977.
What me and my attorney, and more importantly the jury, didn't know was
that probation revocation proceedings had been instituted against Pasby,
and that he faced a possible ten-year prison sentence if his probation
was revoked.
Pasby freely admitted engaging in conduct which, at the very least,
should have caused the revocation of his probation for violating the
criminal law: he admitted that he had associated with me, an ex-convict
on parole, and with Green, an escaped convict, both before and after the
Allen murder. Yet, the conduct went unpunished. In fact, Pasby was
successfully discharged from having completed his probation in the summer
of 1977, and he was later given a $ 2,000 reward for his role in helping
the State convict and sentence me to die.
In addition, my defense learned of a "deal" between the State and Pasby
years after I was here on death row, and I am in the process of trying to
win a new trial so that I can then put it [the deal] to proper use.
However, I was never tried for the charges of robbery and kidnapping in
Bleckley County (Cochran, Georgia), because the State does not want to
risk giving me another possible avenue through which to attack my murder
and rape convictions. Also, the State cannot try me on these charges now
because it would be in violation of my right to a speedy trial. But I
welcome a trial on the charges of robbery and kidnapping because I am
innocent of these charges as well.
I was very fortunate to get my two death sentences overturned on appeal
in 1987; and now some nineteen-years after the original trial, the State
is in the process of seeking the death penalty against me again. In fact,
we are, at this writing, holding a series of motions hearings which will
carry over into early December [1996]. The subsequent sentencing trial
will commence sometime early next year [1997].
Now with these new proceedings and the new trial ahead, another mystery
witness comes crawling out of the woodwalk with yet another rendition of
the crimes from their alleged inception.
This latest witness, Marion Cloud, contacted the Monroe County
authorities with his incredible tale regarding this case some
twelve-years after the crimes occurred. The prosecutor just made
available to the defense at our August 4, 1995, motion hearing the nature
of Cloud's testimony. The prosecutor went on to report that Cloud called
him several years ago and told him that he (Cloud) could identify me as
being the man he saw in the store when the robbery, kidnapping and all
took place.
How convenient that Cloud waited twelve years after the crimes but only
one year after I won a new sentencing trial -- which he mentioned having
read about in a newspaper article in his seven-page statement that he
sent to the Monroe County prosecutor in April of 1988.
In his seven-page statement, Cloud goes on to say that he and a friend
drove up to the store when the robbery and kidnapping were in progress.
So he entered the store and bought a pack of cigarettes while Green and I
allegedly robbed the store.
Cloud says that he never saw a weapon inside the store and that he tried
to buy some time by starting a conversation with Ms. Allen, in hopes that
the police would come by.
He then says that he left and went out to the car and tried to get his
friend to go call the police because there was a robbery in progress.
According to Cloud, Green and I brought Ms. Allen out of the store then,
and put her in on the driver's side (front seat) of her car, then Green
got in under the wheel. A technical impossibility as Ms. Allen's car had
two separate seats in the front, not one large bench. So where in the
the passenger's seat, which was allegedly occupied by myself.
At this point Cloud writes that I went around to the side of the store
and picked up a rifle and then got into the car on the passenger's side
and we allegedly sped away, with Green driving, as the police came up and
gave pursuit. But we got away, according to Cloud, and he drove on
home to Perry, Georgia, and called the Cochran police the next day to
report the robbery, but was told that they already knew about it; he
allegedly called back a few days later, with the same results. And when
he allegedly called a third time, having heard about arrest having been
made in the case, he allegedly was again told that he and his testimony
were not needed because they already had enough evidence to convict the
perpetrators.
All of this amounts to so much nonsense which is clearly discredited from
the record in this case. In the first place, the victim's body was
discovered two days later in Monroe County, but it wasn't until January
4, 1977, that they arrested their first suspect -- Thomas Pasby, the
crimes having occurred on December 12, 1976.
Mr. G. Hancock, the friend who according to Marion Cloud was with him and
drove the car that evening of December 12, 1976, when interrogated on
October 26, 1995, confirmed that the two of them (he and Cloud) were in
Cochran that day. He said they are still friends, but he stated that he
does not recall or remember any of the events related by Cloud about the
robbery and the kidnapping.
Cloud's whole story is too incredible to be believed; but it is the same
type of frame-up the State used to convict me and sentence me to die in
1977. Today, almost nineteen years later and right on time for my
upcoming new sentencing trial, they are back trying again. The prosecutor
knows that this is all untrue, but he is more concerned with sending me
to my death for a crime I did not commit than with caring what means he
uses to attain his purpose.
What you have here is a classic example of the injustice of Southern
Justice.
Anyone interested in learning more about the insidious nature of the case
being brought against me is urged to contact me directly, immediately.
Carzell Moore, January 1996
(Carzell´s jail address and part II of the text -- which deals with the
political involvement of the death penalty -- can be found at the Carzell
Moore Page, http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/3366 )
Carzell Moore is a damn liar and you are a fool for believing a murderer condemned for a murder he admitted to. You all claim racism to cover up what actually happened. I worked on Georgia's death row for 6 years and was intimately involved with this lying, sorry excuse for a human being!. I read the trial transcript. He shot this innocent girl through the stomach and then fired another shot to her face to keep her from being identified. This young woman was working to put herself through college and two selfish scumbags took her life from her, but not before abusing her for their own sick, twisted lust. Carzell Moore is a damn liar and you are an idiot for believing the lies of a convicted murderer!!!!