THE VERNON WILLIAMS STORY
Summary
by Kay Lee
I know you hear it all the time, but it's true: Vernon "Skip" Williams, a 53 year old licensed pilot, is not a criminal, even though an Citris County jury did pronounce him guilty of trafficking in cannabis and condemn him to live for 15 years locked in a Florida state prison cell.
Do you doubt Skip William's innocence? Do you automatically assume he must be guilty because cops charged him with the crime? Or because a jury believed a tricky assistant state attorney who told them Skip was guilty? Do you subscribe to the oft told fallacy that ALL prisoners SAY they are innocent, but NONE are? Then it's time for you to learn that an estimated 15 to 25% of all United States prisoners ARE innocent.
Widespread innocence is a direct and unavoidable result of mass incarceration caused by the drug war and a growing list of various other laws that are sending more non-violent people to prison. Justice cannot prevail in a rush to incarcerate; Truth is trampled in the crowded police stations and muffled courthouses and buried almost irretrievably in the bulging prisons.
Many innocent people are now being released, not because the system works, but because someone on the outside takes up their battle and - DESPITE the system - exposes the truth. But many more innocent people languish behind bars, cut off from home and family, often becoming hopeless and angry over the years of injustice. I hope you will not let that happen to Skip.
WHO IS SKIP WILLIAMS?
"Skip" Williams is a 55 year old diabetic; an otherwise ordinary Florida citizen who has no prior record to overcome. He has steadily worked as a swimming pool contractor for the past 35 years, owning an unblemished reputation with his customers. Several of those people traveled far distances to be at his trial and sentencing to testify to his character. All who know him seem to regard him as a good honest man of high morals, hard working, "sometimes putting in 7 days a week, rarely taking a day off, even on holidays". The extraordinary quality of his work has been written up many times in numerous newspapers and magazines, publications that were proud to feature his expertise in building unusually beautiful swimming pools, spas and decks.
Skip has also been a licensed pilot during the past 4 1/2 years. Because it is an expensive 'hobby', he has to earn his flying time by occasionally renting a small aircraft for a single flight. That's what put him unwittingly in the middle of a crime.
...AND WHY IS HE IN PRISON?
About two months after 9/11, a man named Brian Hagan, who had worked for Skip on and off building pools for 9 or 10 years, approached him with an offer. "I'll pay for half the trip if you'll fly me to Corpus Christie, Texas." Skip had flown with Brian once before and again saw the offer as an opportunity to get in more flying time at half the cost. He needed a cross country flight in the piper aircraft and it seemed like an uncomplicated good deal, so he rented a piper and the trip was set.
The flight to Texas went well. The two men went their separate ways in Corpus, agreeing to meet a couple of days later for the trip home. The evening before leaving Texas, while Skip slept in a local hotel, Brian quietly stashed three duffel bags into the plane. The bags contained cannabis - marijuana as you more likely know it - maybe 65 pounds of it, all wrapped in plastic, shut in airtight containers and zipped into the duffel bags. The next morning when they boarded the plane together, no smell alerted Skip that an illegal substance was on board.
Getting home proved to be much more difficult than leaving. Skip lost radio control for awhile because of fog and got off course. Suddenly, over the gulf coast of Florida, 2 F-16`s appeared, one on each side of him. When he finally got radio help and alerted them, the F-16 pilots left. However the plane was searched when they landed in Florida.
Brian Hagan did not deny ownership of the pot, nor did he claim Skip owned it. Instead of lying, he pled the fifth amendment all the way through court. See, Brian knew the system well, having done time before for smuggling pot, a detail Skip was unaware of. As the cops explained it, the reason they charged Skip and let Brian go was because they knew they'd get Brian on any number of smuggling charges in the future (they did, just a short time later). The feds didn't think there was enough pot to warrant their time and effort, so the crime was turned over to Citris County, who knew forfeiture laws gave them the license to steal the plane, even though it was a rental.
From there on this is an incredible story of one injustice after another, including an attorney who didn't see the need to prepare, a prosecutor who chose to do everything Skip's lawyer said they couldn't do, and a jury who took two hours to deprive an innocent man of his freedom.
