Now that Gov.-elect Asa Hutchinson stands poised to take his oath of office in a couple of days, I'm using today's space to appeal yet again for him to review the travesty of a conviction in Carroll County nearly 20 years ago.
I believe Hutchinson knows me well enough that he understands I'd not be bringing the case of Belynda Goff to his doorstep if I wasn't among many convinced that she deserves his pardon, at the very least.
All I'm asking is that Hutchinson, as a former U.S. attorney, defense attorney and once among the top law enforcement officers in the nation, ask trusted members of his staff to spend enough time on Goff's 1996 murder conviction to understand all there is about it that's so troubling to anyone who examines it, and do the right thing.
As with other flagrant travesties I've explored over my career including Shelby Barron, Ronald Carden, Marvin Williams, David Michel, James Dean Walker and on to the late Janie Ward, I can assure the governor-elect that the facts of her arrest, conviction and life-without-parole sentence will leave him shaking his head.
I'd prefer not to begin detailing every grotesque and revealing flaw about Goff's conviction in the court of public opinion in coming weeks. My preference is to rely upon Hutchinson's integrity and character to recognize them and take the right steps by justifiably granting this woman a pardon or clemency.
Everyone from those who know Goff well, to Little Rock private investigator Michael West, to Karen Thompson of the Innocence Project of New York have taken a whiff of the stench surrounding this case and come to the same conclusion: Belynda Goff simply did not beat her late husband Stephen Goff to death on the night of June 11, 1994. It's equally apparent to many that she did not receive a fair trial for several reasons.
Last week I received the following letter from a female inmate. I hope the new governor will take a couple of minutes to read today's column and this lady's relevant comments:
"My name is Undrea Jones ... I'm currently housed at the McPherson's Unit on a 30-year sentence for first-degree murder, a crime I did commit.
"I've been in prison since 1999, a teenager charged as an adult. I have had the privilege of meeting Ms. Belynda Goff many years ago.
"She reached out to me, a lost youth struggling to survive in a foreign world. I will never been able to express in mere words the effect Belynda's had on my life. But my accomplishments during my incarceration are proof enough.
"An inmate is responsible for her own rehabilitation. Due to many time/sentence length and charge restriction guidelines, that is very difficult to accomplish for a person with an extensive sentence. You are ineligible for many rehabilitative programs and classes.
"Belynda has filled that gap for myself and many others, teaching us character training and life skills. The most important thing that she has given me besides hope is 'how to be responsible.'
"Because of that gift I've never sought to be excused or relieved from my deserved sentence. What I mean by that is by Belynda's influence I've been able to face the consequences of my heinous actions. She doesn't make you feel subhuman because she isn't guilty and you are. She shares her hope with you.
"I personally know the heavy weight of the regret that taking a life carries daily, a weight that even a blind person can see is absent in Belynda. Honestly, because of her innocence that a guilty one sees in her, it brings more conviction upon the guilty!
"Even though society has labeled her a murderer, she has unselfishly given of her life to me for almost two decades in order that I can walk a new life with purpose in and out of prison.
"Herein lies the unjust irony of the total miscarriage of justice. I, a confessed and convicted murderer, will have a second chance in society according to the judgment that the courts gave me. Not Belynda, who has maintained and professed her innocence from the arrest at her home till this day. She is sentenced to die in prison."
[Goff refused a plea bargain at trial, saying she would not plead to a crime she didn't commit, regardless of consequences.]
"Lastly, I am overjoyed that the free world is finally catching up with the rest of the prison population [about Goff's case].
"There's never been a secret confidential inmate that has ever come forward to say that she confessed to the crime ... which she is accused of. That is because we see the truth every day we see her.
"I am in agreement that she does deserve mercy (clemency). Yet, it would still be a miscarriage of justice if she receives anything apart from exoneration.
"Thank you for taking up the torch and shining light in a very dark place."
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Mike Masterson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at [email protected].
Editorial on 01/10/2015