THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 4, 1995 TAG: 9506020013
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 40 lines
Willie Lloyd Turner, finally executed on May 25, was a cold-blooded murderer who shot down William J. ``Jack'' Smith on July 12, 1978. Mr. Smith's only crime - for which Turner sentenced him to death, granted him no appeal, and immediately and coldly executed him - was having the audacity to own assets that Turner felt should belong to him.
No amount of U.S. patents, no number of escapes (or accessory to escapes) and no gun hidden in a typewriter will change the fact that Turner ruthlessly, callously and viciously blew Mr. Smith away from his family, his store and his community.
For days I have had to see Turner given front-page coverage by your paper as he continues to manipulate the media from his grave. I am sick of the media's treatment of Turner as some kind of folk hero who was victimized by the system.
If your paper wants to write about real victims, why not send some of your reporters to the Smith family in Franklin? Ask family members how many patents Jack Smith has been able to apply for since 1978. Ask them how many hugs his kids and grandkids have gotten from him since the dark day that Willie Lloyd Turner decided that Smith had lived long enough. Ask them if they even care that Turner was ``slick'' enough to help other killers escape, make bogus weapons or hide a real gun on death row.
Please, give us a break! Willie Lloyd Turner was a thief and a cold-blooded murderer who just happened to be skillful with his hands. He was nothing else. Your treatment of his story and his life sickens me, as I'm sure it does most clear-thinking folks who are forced to continually read the Willie Lloyd Turner saga on the front page of your newspaper.
A. C. BLACK JR.
Chesapeake, May 27, 1995 by CNB