By Michael Lambrix
The
first thing you’ve got to understand is that Billy’s biggest fault was that he
just couldn’t turn a friend down when asked no matter what the consequences
might be and for that, Billy had to die.
It’s just that simple and such naïve concepts as truth or fairness have
nothing to do with it, as if they did, Billy’s life would be spared. But in this cold and cruel world we have so
deliberately created, only death could purge this intolerable fault from our
midst…Billy had to die.
The
real irony in all of this is that in taking Billy’s life, the State of Florida
will have done something Billy never did; the State of Florida will have made a
conscious decision to kill, which, for those of us who actually knew Billy,
knew that perhaps Billy’s most admirable trait was that despite the tragic
history of his tortured life, that’s one line Billy chose not to cross, period.
When
the State of Florida carried out the state-sanctioned “execution” of William
(Billy) Van Poyck, it killed a man who has never killed. But under the rule of law, Billy was
convicted and condemned to death for the murder of Florida prison guard Fred
Griffis in a botched escape attempt in 1987.
Billy participated in the event and that made him criminally culpable
under Florida’s “felony murder” rule of law that demands that anyone who
knowingly participated in a criminal act that results in the death of another
is guilty of capital murder even if they do not commit the act resulting in
death themselves.
In
Billy’s case, the crime was an attempt to break a friend free from a prison
transport van. Billy and another friend,
Frank Valdes, had both been released from prison months earlier, but their
friend (James O’Brien) remained inside and was scheduled for medical transport
when Billy and Frank jumped the van as it parked at the doctor’s office. Things quickly got crazy and within that
eternal microsecond of chaos, Frank Valdes shot and killed FDOC officer Fred
Griffis. They then quickly fled the
scene leaving O’Brien in the van.
Both
Billy and Frank Valdes stood trial in the southeast Florida rural community of
Martin County, and the guards from the local maximum security prison (Martin
Correctional) showed up in force so the jury – many of whom knew or were related
to prison employees – would know with absolute certainty what was expected of
them. The jury found both Billy and
Frank guilty of capital murder of a law enforcement officer and had no problem
recommending both be put to death.
When
Billy’s case received its required review on “direct appeal,” the Florida
Supreme Court recognized that Billy did not kill officer Griffis, nor was there
any evidence of a preformed intent to kill, nor prior knowledge that anyone
would be killed, and the Florida Supreme Court vacated Billy’s conviction of “premeditated” murder. But in a twist that could only come from the
distorted “ends justify the means” logic our politically corrupted courts have
now become infamous for, the Florida Supreme Court turned around and said,
“kill him anyways” as under Florida’s “felony murder” law, it doesn’t matter
whether Billy intended anyone die as all that really mattered is that he
participated in attempting to free O’Brien from the prison van with Frank
Valdes, and although it was clear that Frank shot and killed Officer Griffis,
Billy had to pay too.
Even
in subsequent appeals, it’s almost certain that Billy would have had his death
sentence reduced to life, if not for another event involving Frank Valdes. In July 1999 a rabid pack of prison guards at
Florida State Prison went into Frank Valdes’ cell on the infamous “X-wing” and
brutally beat Frank to death. I was a
couple cells down from Frank and we all know it was just a matter of time, as
the courts later recognized in Valdes v Crosby, 450 f.3d.1276 (11th
cir. 2006), in the months proceeding the
murder of Frank, these pack of prison guards were given free rein to target and
brutally assault any prisoner they pleased with the blessing of Warden James
Crosby – who himself would subsequently be sent to Federal prison.
As
one of the few death-sentenced prisoners who had spent a considerable amount of
time on “X-wing” and as a result became personally acquainted with both Billy
and Frank Valdes, I knew that it was only too common for the guards to invent
reasons to enter their solitary cells and under the pretense of doing a cell
search, they would physically assault Billy and Frank, and openly promise both
that they would not live long enough to be put to death by the state and that
was a promise we all knew they would keep.
Months
after beating Frank Valdes to death a guard jury indicted two of the guards for
murder, and they eventually stood trial in Bradford County, which has only one
industry…the seven local prisons that provide the backbone of this rural
northeast Florida community centered around Starke. Every juror admitted to knowing or being
related to prison employees and it didn’t surprise anyone that after hearing
all the evidence, including other prison employees on testimony detailing the
murder of Frank Valdes, the jury still turned around and found all the guards
“not guilty.” When asked later how they could acquit the prison guards given
the overwhelming evidence, members of the jury could only stutter an implausible
explanation, that they had no doubt the guards killed Frank – but they just
didn’t know which one of the guards inflicted the fatal blow actually resulting
in death and so they found all of them “not guilty”…who says justice has to
make any sense?
All
of that left Billy in a really bad way.
After the guards murdered his co-defendant Frank, the governor’s office
ordered Billy transferred to a Virginia prison for his own safety and from
there Billy continued to pursue his appeals.
Having come to know Billy pretty well through the years prior to his
transfer, I never expected to see him again as it seemed certain that Billy’s
death sentence would be reduced to life given both the Florida Supreme Court’s
own recognition that Billy did not kill anyone, and the evidence that showed
Billy did not intend anyone to be killed, as well as the overwhelming evidence
of Billy’s tragic life history that his sentencing jury was never allowed to
hear.
But
that’s not how justice works here in American – someone has to pay and with
Frank Valdes now already dead, that only left Billy. To hell with the evidence as only the
hopelessly disillusioned would still believe that the inconvenience of truth
had anything to do with the administration of “justice,” especially down here
in the deep South, where the genetically predisposition towards a good old
fashioned lynching is the only way to respond to a crime that upsets the
community and so his fate was sealed – Billy had to die, as “justice” demanded
no less, especially when Governor Rick Scott is preparing to run for
re-election and desperately needs the political support of the prison guards in
the upcoming election and although Governor Scott has spent the last three
years screwing prison guards out of all he could, by throwing Billy to the
wolves, they would now gladly line up to vote for his re-election next
November, and he knew it.
Perhaps
the greater tragedy in the sacrificial murder of William Van Poyck is that few
actually came to know Billy for the person he is and as too many all but openly
celebrate his state-sanctioned lynching, they will only know the grossly
distorted “facts” of his crime. As with
all those condemned to death, our society does not want to know anything about
the person they have decided to kill – the less they know, the better, as God
forbid “we, the people” should recognize any measure of humanity within those
condemned by our own hand.
But
I did know Billy as the person and not the perception of the alleged crime and
so I am not at all surprised to see that ultimately Billy must die because he
could not and would not turn his back on a friend. And when his close friend James O’Brien
remained in prison with little hope of ever seeing the real world again, and
the opportunity presented itself to give his friend that chance, Billy went
along as only a true friend would.
Those
of us who actually knew Billy came to realize that Billy just wasn’t cut from
the same cloth as most prisoners. Only a
few years older than me, Billy was already doing seriously hard time before I
even made it into my first year of high school.
Back then, doing time meant surviving in the jungle that most maximum
security prisons were before this new generation of politically ambitious
prison administrators invented the concept of mass confinement of any and all
inmates who dared to show any inclination of violence or anything less than
absolute submission.
Billy
came of age doing hard time in some of the worst prisons our society created,
back when violence and death were served as cold and predictable as the
cockroach infested grits each morning in the prison chow hall. It wasn’t enough to be physically strong to
survive, as strength meant nothing when another crept up behind you and drove
the blade of a homemade knife deep down into your flesh. It didn’t matter how big you were, and
physically, Billy wasn’t that big of a guy and some might have described him as
even small in stature. But as they say
down here in the South, it’s not the size of the dog but the size of the heart
in the dog and Billy had a lot of heart and even against the odds, would stand
his ground against anyone if he knew he was right, and all too often Billy
would put his own life on the line to stand up for those who couldn’t. That’s just the kind of person he was.
I’ve
know a lot of convicts through the too many years I’ve spent in prison – and a
lot more who only too quickly will call themselves “convicts” even though they
are not worthy. Billy was old school,
and he earned his stripes the hard way.
In this world we live in, prison can break the best of them and anyone
who tries to tell you it can’t is full of – well, you know. It takes someone with incredible inner-strength,
and courage to rise above this cesspool of humanity and remain their own man
despite the forces perpetually pushing at you from all sides.
I
doubt there would be any words to describe that intangible essence of the inner
self that provides that measure of strength within that allows the very few to
maintain their own sense of self when others all around them slowly become part
of that environment. But anyone who has
done hard time will recognize that unique quality and respect of the man who
can master it.
It
is that measure of the man within that best describes just who Billy was as a
person. Billy was a truly gifted writer
who often found his means of detaching and compartmentalizing the trauma of his
life experience by writing stories about his experiences. One of Billy’s stories, “Death by Dominoes” was posted here on Minutes Before
Six. This particular story is a
reflection of not only the horrific experiences Billy endured while doing time,
but also how he found the strength to rise above it, and despite the probable
consequences of intervening in behalf of another prisoner who Billy felt might
not be able to stand up for himself, Billy put his own life on the line to do
the right thing while the vast majority of inmates around him crawled up under
their bunks and did nothing.
But
“Death By Dominoes” is only one of countless stories that collectively create
the colorful tapestry that is Billy, and there are many of us in prison today
who could share similar stories of Billy’s character.
I
first came to know Billy not long after he was sentenced to death. Back then, any prisoner who assaulted or
killed a prison guard would automatically be kept in a concrete box of a cell
on Florida State Prison’s infamous “Q-wing” (later relabeled as “X-wing”). Nobody has really done hard time until you’ve
done time on Q-wing and even a short stay on one of those 24 crypts often broke
the prisoner forever.
I
had been sent to Q-wing after being charged with the infraction of “other
assault” for beating a “runner” down with a food tray after the runner got it
in his head that I might be his new romantic interest. I wasn’t proud of what I
did, but it had to be done, as I had to live in this cesspool and any sign of
weakness would result in a fate even for worse than death.
They
moved me up to 3 West, with Billy two crypts away – and I deliberately call
these cages “crypts” as that is exactly what they are. Unlike regular confinement cells that are
“open” (a wall of steel bars) at the front so you can see outside the cell and
communicate with your neighbors, each crypt on Q-wing was fully enclosed by
thick concrete walls and a solid steel door that when shut – and often it
stayed shut – closed out all light, isolating the prisoner just as if he was
cast down into a crypt.
Within
each crypt was a concrete slab that was the “bunk” and it was not uncommon at
all for them to refuse to provide even one of the rodent-infested, generously
urinated prison “mattresses,” leaving the prisoner within to sleep on the cold
concrete, with the water deliberately shut off and the only means to urinate was
to all but blindly feel for that hole in the center of the floor, then remove
whatever you stuffed down into it to keep the rats and roaches from coming into
the crypt, and remembering to again stuff that newspaper or whatever back in
when done.
Few
people could possibly imagine the uncompromised hell that Q-wing was, by
deliberate design and intent. Its
purpose was to unofficially retaliate against those who had dared to assault or
kill a prison guard, and the physical conditions was only a small part of it,
as it was unwritten policy that the guards assigned to Q-wing, each handpicked
by the warden, were all but strongly encouraged to physically abuse the
prisoners housed on Q-wing, and they only too often gleefully obliged the
warden’s wishes.
I
had already known who Billy was, as there aren’t too many secrets in this small
world we live in, and we had mutual friends.
Billy was easy to get along with and it wasn’t long before we were
“talking” for hours – and I mean that’s only in the most abnormal way as it
wasn’t easy to talk to anyone on Q-wing.
But once you adjusted, it was possible, and we did.
The
first thing that caught my attention was Billy’s completely unexpected sense of
humor, which was second only to never-ending drive to fight the fight. Where
most who find themselves cast down into the depths of hell that Q-wing truly
is, would either lay down on their slab of concrete and roll up into a ball in
a futile attempt to shut reality out, or simple go mad until the guards get the
psych shirts to tranquilize them into a state of mortal numbness, Billy did
neither, instead finding his strength in standing his ground by using his
knowledge of law to challenge his confinement.
But for Billy, being who he was, it wasn’t enough for him to only fight
his own fight, but to take on that fight for those around him regardless of the
all but certain consequences of his actions.
That
was one of the bonds that created a sense of communion between me and Billy
that lasted the better part of 20 years – our mutual unquenchable thirst to use
our knowledge of law to fight the fight not only for ourselves, but to help
those around us and with all respect, I must bow down to Billy’s obviously
superior ability and uncompromised tenacity.
It
wasn’t long after my relatively short stay on Q-wing when Billy won the law
suit he filed on behalf of all those on Q-wing and it forced the prison to
finally release these prisoners from their long term Q-wing confinement, and
Billy, Frank Valdes, and Thomas Knight were transferred to the regular
death-row confinement wings, where they would be in open-front cells and be
allowed the privileges extended to death row, such as use of a T.V., radio,
buying “canteen” each week, receiving regular “contact” visits and going to rec
yard. It was a big victory, but not
without consequence, and as the years passed it would become common for Billy,
Frank and Knight to be targeted for fabricated disciplinary actions and
returned to Q-wing for shorter stays under the pretense of imposing discipline.
Within
a few years of Billy’s victory in that lawsuit, our paths once again crossed as
both me and Billy began contributing to and became instrumental in the growth
of what eventually evolved into Florida’s top prisoner newsletter, known as
“Florida Prison Legal Perspectives,” which provided prisoners throughout
Florida the means with which to stay informed on changes in prison rules,
changes in law relevant to both challenging convictions and parole, and a
general information platform on what was going on around the State’s
prisons. For years both me and Billy
served on the Board of Advisors for FPLP and it thrived, despite prison
officials deliberate targeting of the handful of prisoners whose names were
associated with FPLP, and even as a number of prisoners who were willing to
contribute to FPLP died under suspicious circumstances, such as Enrique Diaz,
Billy never backed down from the greater cause and stood his ground to fight
the fight on behalf of all prisoners.
During
the same period of time a small handful of us on Florida’s Death Row decided it
was time to challenge the “totality of conditions,” and despite receiving no
assistance from lawyers, we initiated a comprehensive federal lawsuit with
Billy contributing countless hours handwriting legal memorandums, and many
sleepless nights spent talking about what had to be done, and thanks to the
relentless work, we got that case to the Federal Court.
The
thing is, we already knew we couldn’t win.
We already knew that none of the typical legal organizations such as the
ACLU, NAACP, or others were willing to help Florida’s Death Row prisoners as
they often did in the other states because they knew the politically corrupted
courts in Florida would be hostile to any such action. We went into this project knowing that we
were passing into a gale force wind, and there would be hell to pay. But with Billy at the helm, we pushed
forward.
We
put every ounce of our strength into that lawsuit and the state threw their
best lawyers at us. Each of us willing
to put our names to it were targeted by both the guards and other Death Row
inmates who would do as the guards asked of them (all the while calling
themselves “convicts”), but we didn’t sacrifice a single inch of ground and
slowly that iceberg itself gave way.
Because
of our excellent legal work, our small group of determined souls forced the
Federal Court to deny the State’s motion to dismiss/motion for summary judgment
(Lambrix/Teffeteller v Duggar, Case No. 89-840-J-as, US Dist Ct and the Federal
Court ordered the case into pretrial discovery and suddenly there we were (me,
Billy, Robert Teffeteller and Amos King) celebrating the David over Goliath
victory. We had won and it was good.
As
a result of the Florida prison system now facing a very real threat of being
found in violation of laws governing basic living conditions on Florida’s Death
Row, and possibly even having Florida State Prison itself condemned and forced
to close due to the deplorable conditions, suddenly they took us seriously and
began not only re-constructing the Death Row wings at Florida State Prison, but
announcing they would build a brand new “modern” Death Row unit at the cost of
almost 20 million dollars!
By
December 1992 Florida opened its new “modern” Death Row unit at nearby Union
Correctional, which had 336 single man confinement cells exclusively for Death Row
and the majority of Florida’s Death Row were then transferred to the new unit
where we actually had a clean environment to live in that was not infested by
rodents and cockroaches, and although still unbearably hot in the summer, it
had a heating system that kept us from freezing.
But
Billy would not be transferred – he would never set foot in this new unit, and
was kept at Florida State Prison until late 1999 when he was transferred to
Virginia after guards killed Frank Valdes.
Billy would be returned to Florida in 2008 and again at Florida State
Prison. Not long after that I was moved
back to Florida State Prison under the pretense of “security” reasons, and was
able to get a cell next to Billy up until the summer of 2012, when because of
my physical disability (disabled veteran) I was moved back to the main death
row unit of Union Correctional.
Billy
knew his days were numbered as both the State and Federal Courts summarily
denied his last appeals, and yet true to his character, Billy was not broken or
gave into despair. Instead, he stood his
ground and took the punches, never giving an inch.
Perhaps
ultimately that is what really angered those who wanted Billy dead the most –
no matter how much hell they put Billy through, they could never break him, not
even once. Many of the guards came to
hold great respect for Billy and would come to his cell to ask legal advice or
just talk and Billy never showed any anger or bitterness towards them, not even
when one sergeant who previously worked Q-wing and took part in a particularly
violent assault upon Billy was temporarily assigned to the Death Row wing. Billy treated him as if it never happened.
It
is the nature of the beast that prison will inevitably break the majority of
those who are caught in its grasp. But
then there are those few who possess supernatural inner-strength and will never
be broken, instead remaining who they are consistently and standing their
ground unconditionally. Billy was by no
means a perfect man, and by society’s standards, Billy probably was an “outlaw”
as it’s the only life he ever knew. But
for those of us who actually knew Billy for the person he was, by his strength
and sense of character, he inspired us.
For the even fewer who could call Billy a friend, we were truly blessed
by his generous spirit that touched each of our lives. The world that I continue to live in is a
small, small world, but it is a better world because of Billy’s willingness to
put himself in the line of fire to make it a better place.
In
closing, I dedicate a song to Billy that I know will make him smile, as well as
all those who have been blessed by knowing Billy…Billy the Kid by Billy Dean.
 |
| Michael Lambrix |
Michael Lambrix #482053
Union Correctional Institution
7819 NW 228th Street (P3226)
Raiford, FL 32026-4400
USA
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