Not a good example of a love story
Last Friday the Chronicle ran this story on the front page, telling us about a little girl whose father is on death row:
A bright-eyed girl with braided hair and a nose that crinkles when she smiles, Gabbie Green is not the only child in Texas who has a father on death row.
But she may be the only one who was conceived there.
"People always want to know, 'How can you have a 5-year-old-child with a man who has been incarcerated for 12 years?' " said Tameika East-Green, the condemned inmate's wife.
"I tell them I used to work at the prison."
The genesis of this unusual family began in September 1998, when Tameika East was a correctional officer at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's Ellis Unit in Huntsville, which then housed the state's more than 400 death row inmates.
Edward Green had been on death row for five years, appealing a capital murder conviction for his role in the 1992 deaths of Edward Perry Haden, 72, and Helen O'Sullivan, 63, who were shot as they sat in a car at a stop sign in Houston.
East-Green, 26, says she immediately was drawn to the articulate young man with a boyish face and engaging smile who had grown deeply religious, introspective and remorseful about his past.
"I just fell in love with him," she said in a recent interview. "He didn't hide his feelings like most men."
Why in the world did the Chronicle decide to run this story on the front page, or at all? Are we supposed to feel sorry that this family cannot be together? The two adults made some terrible choices and the one to suffer the most will be the little girl, of course.
Wednesday's Chronicle has a letter to the editor that really takes the Chronicle to task for this story:
I was shocked to read the Sept. 24 Page One article "Girl's life began where her father's may end / Her mother, then a security guard, conceived her with an inmate who is on death row."
Published as a beautiful love story, it was, in fact, an example of unethical behavior on the part of a state of Texas employee that added yet another fatherless child to the civic burden of our society.
In my criminal justice ethics and corrections classes, I teach that it is absolutely unethical for a professional to have sexual relations with clients.
The psychologist must not have a love affair with clients, nor may a minister sleep with church members.
A university professor must not make love with a student; nor may a correctional officer have sex with an inmate.
The reason for this ethical rule is that in each of these relationships there exists a power differential between the parties.
There is also a responsibility of one for the other.
Therefore, sex between professionals and clients is akin to the crime of rape.
The Legislature recently determined that breaching this principle is a felony offense for many persons in positions of trust — myself included.
In the case presented in the article, having sex with inmates has been a crime for prison guards for some time.
For the mother's and daughter's sake, I hope the statute of limitations on the mother's crime has expired.
The Chronicle should avoid publishing articles in which the message and the underlying ethical and legal facts are so diametrically opposed.
EDWARD J. SCHAUER
assistant professor, Prairie View A&M University
Well said.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/29/04 03:21 PM | Print |
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