Earlier: Writers, Released Murderers, And Recidivism—How Often Did This Happen?
From the Washington Post opinion section:
Freed after years in prison, Pennsylvania brothers become political fodder
By Radley Balko
Columnist
September 20, 2022 at 7:00 a.m. EDTPolitics has a way of flattening things. It shreds nuance and context and crudely reframes morally knotty conundrums into simplistic questions of good or evil, right or wrong, us or them.
As the 2022 midterms enter the homestretch, it seems clear that Republicans plan to scare voters with a lot of crass demagoguery about crime. But behind every sensationalist commercial or hyperbolic news release, there are real people whose stories are far more complicated. There’s no better example than Pennsylvania brothers Lee and Dennis Horton. ...
As the brothers have told it in court documents, their lives were abruptly upended during a family cookout in May 1993 when Lee asked his brother to go with him to get some beer. On the way back, Lee spotted an old friend named Robert Leaf. The friends chatted for a bit, after which they decided Leaf would ride with the brothers back to Lee’s house. The Hortons say they weren’t aware of it at the time, but Leaf was fleeing police. He and at least one other man had just robbed a bar and, in the course of the robbery, shot up the place, killing one and wounding several others.
The three were stopped by the police, arrested and charged for the robbery and murder. Police offered the Horton brothers a deal: testify against Leaf, and they’d get the lesser charge of third-degree murder, punishable by up to 10 years in prison if convicted. They refused — because, they say, they weren’t guilty and hadn’t seen Leaf commit the crime. Leaf got a similar offer. He would end up testifying against the brothers. He was paroled in 2008.
The Hortons were convicted based on Leaf’s negotiated accusation and eyewitnesses who claimed the brothers were part of the robbery team. Eyewitness testimony is notoriously unreliable, but ideally, a witness identifies a perpetrator from a photo or in-person lineup of similar-looking people. In this case, all three eyewitnesses were asked to look inside a police wagon where Leaf and the Hortons had been detained. Not surprisingly, they identified the three men, though their accounts would be inconsistent and contradictory.
The police initially believed Leaf was the gunman, but later changed their narrative to make Dennis Horton — a man with no prior convictions and no history of violence — the shooter. The Hortons were convicted and given life sentences. They were incarcerated for almost 28 years, nearly 13 years longer than Leaf.
Over time, the Hortons and their attorneys would discover police notes identifying Leaf as the shooter, a prisoner who claimed Leaf had confessed to him and exonerated the Hortons, and incriminating statements Leaf made to police. None of that was enough to move the courts.
Amid all this, the Hortons were model prisoners. …
In 2020, led by Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, the Pennsylvania Board of Pardons unanimously recommended that the Hortons be granted clemency. Gov. Tom Wolf agreed, and in February 2021 the two men were released on parole. Since then, they’ve continued to mentor and counsel current and former prisoners and have participated in a violence interruption program.
Fetterman, who was moved to tears by the brothers’ testimony before the pardon board, later announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate. He hired the brothers to work on his campaign.
Last month, right-wing media got hold of the brothers’ story, and the attacks began. Fetterman’s opponent, Mehmet Oz, accused him of paying “two convicted murderers.” …
I don’t know whether the Hortons are innocent. But if they are, it wouldn’t be the first time conservatives have made political hay of “convicted killers” who turned out to be innocent. There’s certainly plenty of reason to question their guilt.
In any case, innocence aside, the Hortons’ story should inspire difficult conversations about justice, absolution and rehabilitation. Instead, we’re getting the Republican narrative, which amounts to screaming “Murderers!” while wildly gesticulating in the general direction of crime.
That’s what politics does. It flattens everything in its way.
Just because the Hortons are clearly guilty, at minimum, of Felony Murder is no excuse for calling them “murderers.” Where’s the nuance? Show some deference: the Hortons are Upper-Case Americans!
From Ann Coulter’s Unsafe Substack a week earlier:
FETTERMAN’S MURDEROUS CAMPAIGN AIDES: HOW IT REALLY HAPPENED
Dr. Oz should never shut up about the Horton brothers.
Ann Coulter
Sep 14Dr. Mehmet Oz, Republican Senate candidate in Pennsylvania, recently attacked his opponent, the ridiculous Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, for a pro-criminal record that would embarrass George Soros. Specifically, he criticized Fetterman for employing as aides on his campaign Dennis and Lee Horton, who spent 27 years in prison for a horrific armed robbery murder.
Drunk on his own self-righteousness, Fetterman sanctimoniously responded: ”Does Dr. Oz believe that the wrongfully convicted should die in prison?” He added that the brothers “spent 27 years in prison for a crime they didn’t commit.”
Members of the media, who fervently believe our prisons are just bursting at the seams with completely innocent men, didn’t need to hear more. Suddenly, the entire media-big tech-entertainment conglomerate was screaming at Oz: HOW DARE YOU, YOU MORALLY BANKRUPT DOUCHEBAG! THESE TWO MEN WERE PROVED INNOCENT!
Were they now?
Here’s how the media tells “the actual story,” as somberly delivered by MSNBC’s Chris Hayes, who majored in “Easily Fooled” studies at Brown University:
According to brothers Dennis and Lee Horton [and who would know better?], on Memorial Day 1993, they were out for a joyride when they picked up their friend, a guy named Robert Leaf.
What they did not know was that Leaf had just murdered Samuel Alemo and was currently being pursued by the police [sketch that scene for me, Chris]. They were pulled over and all three men were arrested.
The police involved with the case were accused of using a whole host of problematic tactics during the investigation [yes, they were “accused”—accusations laughed out of court by Democratic judges]; eyewitnesses changed their story [they did not] after prosecutors tried to pin the crime on all three of them—the Hortons as well.
And the district attorney’s case file, which was not made available till 2018 [I think we know why, Larry Krasner!], included a note stating Leaf is the shooter and a police note indicating Leaf acknowledged his role—all seeming to clear the Hortons. [total B.S.]
The Horton brothers, who are black, refused a plea agreement because they said they didn’t want to plead guilty to a crime they did not commit.
[Transcript: All In with Chris Hayes MSNBC, September 2, 2022 ]
Below, I have edited Hayes’ description to include only those parts that are relevant and actually true:
- “on Memorial Day 1993...
- “a guy named Robert Leaf
- “They were ... pulled over and all three men were arrested.
- “The Horton brothers ... are black.”
Luckily for people interested in knowing the truth—a group that decidedly does not include Chris Hayes—the Horton brothers spent their years in prison clogging up the courts with frivolous appeals, so it’s possible to find out how these innocent lambs were somehow convicted of A CRIME THEY DIDN’T COMMIT!
In dismissing their most recent appeal, here’s how the Pennsylvania Superior Court summarized the “evidence adduced at trial”—that is, evidence presented in open court, supported by physical evidence and eyewitness testimony, subjected to cross-examination, and believed by 12 members of a jury:
On May 31, 1993, [Dennis Horton], his brother Lee Horton (’Lee’), and a co-conspirator Robert Leaf (’Leaf’) robbed Filito’s Bar located at 5th Street and Hunting Park Avenue.
During the course of the robbery, [Dennis Horton], who was carrying a rifle, shot Samuel Alemo multiple times. Alemo later died from his gunshot wounds. [Dennis Horton] also shot Luz Archella and her daughter Luz Martinez, injuring both. Leaf brandished what appeared to be a black pistol while Lee took money from bar patrons. After leaving the bar, the three men fled in a blue automobile.
A passerby was able to supply police with a description of the vehicle and a partial license plate number. A radio call was sent out, which included a description of the three assailants, their vehicle, and the last four digits of the license plate. A police officer observed the vehicle a short time later only a mile from the crime scene, and placed [Dennis Horton] and his companions under arrest.
Police recovered a .22-caliber semiautomatic rifle from the backseat of the car, as well as a black pellet gun under the front passenger seat. Ballistics testing identified the rifle as the same weapon used during the robbery at Filito’s. [Horton], Lee, and Leaf ... were taken to the hospital where Martinez and her daughter, as well as another bar patron, Miguel DeJesus, identified them as the robbers.
(The judges, incidentally, were all Democrats, including the only black woman on the 38-member appellate court, who subscribes to the theory that prison is “The New Jim Crow.”)
As you can see right away, one problem with the media’s version of events is: What the hell happened to the other two guys?
This was a daytime robbery of a bar, where two of the perpetrators walked around, taking the patrons’ wallets at gunpoint—not a nighttime mugging witnessed from 20 yards away. The victims had plenty of time to observe the perps. However much criminal defense lawyers attack eyewitness testimony, the patrons certainly knew it was three guys, not one; that they were black, not white; and they were male, not female.
But more important, right after the murdering thieves sped off, a passerby called the police with a description of the car, including four of six numbers from the license plate. Within minutes, that very car was stopped by the police a mile from the bar. And you’ll never guess what they found in that car … three black guys and a recently fired rifle!
Explain, again, how the Horton brothers happened to be in that car?
Right after their arrest, all three men were positively identified at the hospital by the people they’d shot at earlier that day. But even without that identification, again: They were caught in the getaway car, mere minutes after the crime.
So if I understand it correctly, the media’s theory of the crime is as follows:
Immediately after the robbery—and I mean immediately!—Leaf told his REAL accomplices: I’ve got a fantastic idea! You guys get out of the car. I know these two brothers—the Hortons—who look exactly like you and I’m pretty sure are wearing the exact same clothes. Also, their car is identical to yours and—you’ll never believe this—their license plate number is only off by two digits. I’ll just call them to come pick me up and wait here by the side of the road with the long-barreled—and easy to conceal!—rifle we just fired—OH CRAP! IT’S THE POLICE!
Look, it would be one thing if Fetterman defended his years-long PR campaign on behalf of the murdering Horton brothers by saying, They’ve served long enough! Everybody deserves a second chance. I would disagree, especially because the brothers continue to deny their guilt—but in that case, at least Fetterman would only be a gullible fool, and not a despicable, bald-faced liar.
