In what is generally considered a civilized world, justice is fair, humane, credible, and issued by those who are given the authority to administer it. But not everyone lives in that world. In the barbaric world behind bars, justice is swift, ugly, violent, and issued by those who seize the authority to carry it out. These very different worlds frequently collide, causing the perception of justice and injustice to become blurred. When legal justice meets prison justice, justice is in the eye of the beholder.
Katie Collman was a ten-year-old distant cousin of Jared Harris. In 2005, little Katie was found dead in a stream; her lifeless hands handcuffed behind her back. She had been kidnapped, brutally raped, and left to drown in a cold Indiana creek. Biological evidence taken from Katie’s body pointed to Anthony Stockelman, who had recently submitted a DNA sample to authorities. Weaseling his way out of a certain death penalty, Stockelman pleaded guilty to the vicious crime in order to receive the sentence of life in prison. He has since recanted his confession, citing he had taken antidepressant drugs, alcohol, and marijuana the day of the murder, causing him to lose all memory of the event.
To avenge his cousin Katie, inmate Jared Harris is alleged to have snuck into the cell housing Anthony Stockelman, and threatened him with physical violence unless Stockelman permitted Harris to tattoo him. Feeling a strong arm wrapped tightly around his neck, Stockelman complied with the unusual “request,” and allowed the soft, white flesh on his forehead to be deeply imbedded with dark, black ink. When the brutal attack was over, the forehead of Anthony Stockelman read like a scarlet letter for all to see—“KATIE’S REVENGE.”
Prisoner violence against fellow inmates is extremely common, and none are targeted more than a sick, sadistic sex offender. When a newly convicted criminal is put behind bars, his fellow inmates who want to know what his offense is quickly interrogate him. Those that have committed atrocious crimes against women or children try to avoid eating their just desserts by not answering questions, or giving false information. However, once the convict’s revolting crimes are discovered, he is a marked man with few options other than requesting the shelter of protective custody. Those who don’t manage to make it to safety are often beaten, sometimes resulting in death. Prison guards have been known to facilitate these attacks on more than one occasion.
Should convicted sex offenders and child murderers like Anthony Stockelman be awarded the safety of protective custody inside prison walls after they have stripped the safety of innocent people while outside those walls? Ironically, society often answers, “yes” to that question—electing to protect the very people who commit crimes against it. The Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits the cruel and unusual punishment of prisoners. Yet, an important facet of this sacred law goes largely overlooked by the general population of America. According to the United States Supreme Court, punishment must be both cruel and unusual in order to be deemed unconstitutional. While allowing prisoners to be abused by other inmates may indeed be cruel, it is not at all unusual. In fact, the organization known as Human Rights Watch estimated in a 2001 report that as many as 70% of all prisoners are assaulted by their fellow inmates each year, and prison officials are largely unsympathetic to the abuse.
Constitutional law does not tend to become a factor in conflicts that occur between prisoners. One of civilization’s oldest recorded laws does, however—the lex talionis, or the law of retribution. The lex talionis was the basis for all criminal law in the Code of Hammurabi; a series of laws set forth by King Hammurabi to govern the citizens of Babylon in 1760 BCE. The law of retribution is also common in the Old Testament of the Bible; mentioned in Exodus 21:23-21:25, Leviticus 24:18-24:20, and Deuteronomy 19:21-19:21 under the commonly-known ideal of “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.”
It is unfortunate that Anthony Stockelman did not receive the lex talionis in a court of law for his horrific crimes against young Katie Collman. He was given an opportunity that he denied poor Katie—an opportunity to bargain for his life. While Stockelman’s life may have been spared in a civilized court of law, he is now branded as a baby killer in the brutal world behind bars. His remaining days and nights will be left to spend wondering, “Who else is going to sneak into my cell?” Time will tell what final sentence Anthony Stockelman receives from a jury of his new peers.
