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Hello Seth, Thank you for the letter. I will move this over to my blog and answer it there. Thank you for your concern and insight.



Tim
I sent this through Prisonwives id website. Since I thought it might be
public I made sure to dramatize the issue. Sorry for the redundancies. I did
not have time t6o fully edit.
If clemency is the only resort now I guess moral indignation at the courts
is probably
noit a wise approach-- but it is certainly warranted.
If nothing else it may be edifying to Deion to know that a 'psychologist"
in NY thinks that SHE is the victim.
Hopefully your appearance on Larry King will help. You could probably get
on MSNBC as well, Rachel Maddow etc
SF




>
> Tim,
> I spoke to you earlier--Sunday about 7 P.M.(NY time). As you may recall I
> am a psychologist and a writer in NYC.
> I forgot to get your email address. I think we are in philosophical
> agreement--the prison-industrial complex's primary goal is to provide jobs and
> make money, not to serve the needs of society, and certainly not to
> rehabilitate inmates.
> I was appalled that a young woman was put in prison for life w/o parole
> for a murder she did not commit. I did not know the salient details until
> I spoke to you.
> You said her lawyer was a divorce lawyer, and thus unqualified. But he
> must have also been stupid and/or corrupt. As I understand it the state's
> only witness against Deion was the man who committed the murders! And who
> had to blame Deion or be put to death. He should have had no credibility as a
> witness whatsoever. Correct me if I am wrong but Deion had no intention of
> killing anyone. The only witness claiming Deion had intent to kill was the
> man who pulled the trigger.
> It seems to me that Deion has been a scapegoat of a noxious male
> chauvinist culture, of which the court system in Tennessee was one virulent and
> powerful agent. Like the ACLU, I believe that "felony murder" is always a
> bogus charge and should be taken off the books, but in Deion's case,
> convicting her on the basis of the murderer's testimony is particularly egregious.
> The scapegopating of Deion for this crime constitutes a case of legal
> rape, a legal gang-banging compounding the physical rape she was subjected to
> repeatedly in Huntington. It reminds me of the women centuries ago who were
> demonized and accused-- by women-hating male clergy-- of being witches and
> burned at the stake. Deion's trial was A WITCH TRIAL. There was no due
> process. This was an ugly male chauvinist hate crime.
> I hate to sound psychological but I have to say that I believe that the
> "justice system" and the community of Tennessee were unconsciously trying
> to absolve themselves of their own feelings of failure as caretakers of
> their own children and youth, by scapegoating a young woman--Deion-- by
> depicting her as the personification of evil when she was just doing what she
> had learned she had to do in order to survive: what the men told her to do.
> The fact that Deion still feels responsible for the crime committed by her
> ex-boyfriend indicates the degree to which she has internalized the
> perspective of those around her-- that women are to blame. For
> everything--particularly for men's crimes. That's why I asked you to convey to Deion that I
> believe that she is a victim now--in the words of the US constitution--of
> "cruel and unusual punishment" by the courts.
> I am sorry to hear she has exhausted her appeals. Can it not be taken to
> a federal court? To depend upon a Governor
> who probably rarely gives pardons to disadvantaged minorities (in this
> case a woman from a poor home) seems rather bleak.
> I have a lot of friends who are political activists in the Green
> Party--in which I used to be active. If it would be any help I could send out a
> description of her case (if you could werite a few succinct paragraphs) to a
> couple hundred people who are activists against injustice, including a
> couple lawyers. You could probably get more publicity up here--but if your ONLY
> recourse is to appeal to your Governor I suppose that would not help? Have
> you spoken to legal experts at the ACLU? Or better yet speak ASAP to legal
> authorities at the National Organization of Women (NOW).
> It seems to me, as I indicated above, that this IS a political case, and
> you may be able to get some help, or play some legal card, based on those
> grounds. (But of course you may have explored all that already.) Believe me
> I am NOT the type who is inclined to readily cry "sexist," but in this
> case (taking into account the background I read in your blog) it screams out
> to me. I think many people here in NY would agree with me that Deion was
> victimized by well to do powerful white MEN in the Courts who for complex
> psychological and sociological reasons
> convicted her of a crime she did not commit, and deprived her of all her
> opportunities that are supposedly our heritage as Americans. These men who
> charged a poor disadvantaged young woman with a capital offense and
> sentenced her to life without the possibility of parole have no conscience, no
> heart. If these men--the judges and the prosecutors--had any decency, any
> responsibility as authority figures, they would have seen that Deion pled to a
> minor charge, and was given probation and psychological counseling. I do
> not mean to exonerate the jury--they too bear responsibility for the legal
> murder (life without the chance of parole) committed by the state of
> Tennessee against a poor young woman.
> Keep me informed.
> Sincerely, Seth
> Seth Farber, Ph.D.
> www.sethHfarber.com
> PS Feel free to use or quote from this letter.
>

In the hope that something positive may come from all this discussion I will publish a portion of the codicil (attachment) to my will. The chances of dying a violent death are small but current circumstance brings me to give consideration for the welfare of my family was I to suffer death from violence. Everyone may wish to consider these words and do their own family a favor. The discussion is valid. Thank you all for participating.

Codicil March 13, 2010

Recent circumstance bring me to add this to my will.

Should I meet a violent death or even an untimely but unintentional death at the hands of another person or persons, I wish my family to hold no malice, seek no convictions, and grant forgiveness to those responsible. The State will prosecute according to their will and their employment in the interests of public safety. I would not have my own family burdened with vengeance. Vengeance only destroys and I have spent my own life building.

Deion is happy to get mail and will respond as she has time. Write:
Teresa Deion Harris 233590
Tennessee Prison For Women
Unit 2 North B-37
Nashville, TN 37218-3302

Deion has no internet access so I post for her. She sent this.

3,4,10 Deion’s letter for blog

I don’t want to cause further pain for Dennis Brooks’ family, my family or anyone else who has been affected by all this. Regardless of what I say in writing this I know people will be affected and I know the hatred everyone holds toward me.
Yes, the Brooks family is the victims. I don’t even consider myself worthy of their forgiveness. I never will until I can change what happened that horrible night and that is not possible. During my entire incarceration I’ve tormented myself to find the courage to reach out to the Brooks family. With the advice of my attorneys, family and friends I was instructed that it would not be the appropriate thing to do. So being the coward I am I never did until now.
Not a day goes by that I don’t think about my children which remind me of my responsibility that led to the death of Dennis. I don’t know why I receive the privilege to talk to my children when Mr. and Mrs. Brooks will never hear the voice of their son again. All I can say is that I love my children and God’s mercy gives me the strength to continue on.
No one likes to relive the past especially when it has been tragic. I’m not trying to justify the murder of Dennis by what happened to me in the past. Reliving my past has led me to months of depression and physical sickness. It’s not something I want to do but I’ve got to understand how I got myself in the situation of that July night and why I didn’t have the courage to prevent it from happening.
It’s not easy to tell a parent that you’ve been sexually abused by family members and it’s not easy for the parent to deal with, especially if it’s a close relative that denies it happened. This causes conflict and families are forced to choose sides. This does not mean I hate my parents or anyone in my family. I have forgiven everyone who has hurt me. In the past year I agreed to visit with my cousin who raped me and I told him I had forgiven him for what happened. We had several nice visits and I do plan to visit with him more in the future.
Again my past abuse does not justify this senseless murder. It helps me to better understand why I could not control the situation that July night and why I let men dominate my life. With understanding who I am I can admit who I was and forgive myself and continue to try and prevent my children from becoming the person I was.
My daughter and husband are not defending the person I was. They are defending the person I am today. I give my deepest remorse and regrets foremost to the Brooks family and all the others that are affected also to my children and family and others for stigmatizing the family name.

Deion Harris

DEION TO THE RESCUE

This incident came from Deion by letter, 7/3/00. Deion was a High School senior, age 16 at the time of the incident. Curt was her nephew whom she doted on. She wrote:

Once when Curt was about four he called me crying and screaming, “My dad is killing my mom.” I was so scared. I got my mom, and we drove to their house. When I got to the house, Curt was hiding in the living room. When I got to my sister, Tony had wrapped a cord around her neck and she was blue in the face. I ran toward him. He turned around picked me up and threw me across the room. He did the same thing to my mom. He hit my sister a couple more times and stormed out of the house.

Swimming Party

“Maybe some parent will read this and keep their daughter away from men like Tony.”
Deion February 2006



Hello little girl
Come here and set.
This is alcohol.
This is sex.
I’ll teach you to choose them,
Want to or not.
I’ll ruin your life,
Why haven’t you fought?


When Deion was eight her mother slipped and fell in a Huntingdon grocery store. She broke her hip and for over a year was in and out of hospitals. Eventually, hospital and convalescent homes gave out on funding. The large metal hospital bed was sent to the double wide on McAdams Road. Putting the bed in the bedroom seemed out of the question. The living room became the permanent abode of the invalid. Over several months Wilma lay in the bed. There was a portable toilet next to the bed but Deion never remembers it being used. “Momma always had me emptying the bed pan. I had to bring it, dump it, clean it, and wipe her too,” said Deion during visitation in 2006.
The house got dusty with no one cleaning. Deion would dust the front room as her mother watched television. “It makes you mad, doing her work, particularly when you know she could help, but she doesn’t. I did every small thing for her.” Deion was nine, her mother 37, and the child must parent the adult, if they can.
From across the driveway, Helene tended to her daughter-in-law with a certain forbearance. Deion was in the house when Helene came to get Wilma up. “She came in and told momma she could not stay in bed her whole life. She ordered her to get up and try to walk. She held her hand and had me get the crutches.” Helene was small in size, strong willed, religious, and purposeful. She worked her son’s wife every day forcing her to walk. First one step, then two. “Momma would never have walked again if grandma hadn’t made her.”
Deion took fright as her mother argued resisting every help and encouragement. Denise seemed never to be there. Deion wanted to be away herself and missed her sister’s presence in the house to mitigate her mother’s constant demands. But Denise found her refuge.
At fourteen years of age, eighth grade, Denise took up with a neighboring fellow, Tony Taylor, who lived one mile away and was five years older. Sex was assumed and influenced Tony’s father, a farmer/preacher, to declare “they ought get married before she’s expecting” as this man declared Denise to be “the cutest little thing.”
Denise would stay with Tony and Deion would visit when she could for the security of her older sister and to get away from her mother in the front room of her home. Tony would take the nine year old Deion in his lap but she would later relate “There was something wrong. I knew how he held me wasn’t right.”
It was a summer evening in 1980. The Rose was playing at the drive-in between Huntingdon and McKenzie. Denise was packing food and drinks for the evening. Deion was watching her as this took place in Tony’s bedroom in his parent’s home on Chapel Hill Road. Her fourteen year old sister was engaged to be married soon and she seemed so grown up. Deion nagged Denise to go with her. Denise, perhaps fearful that Deion would tell about the drinking, told Deion she could only go if she drank a glass of mint drink. This mint drink was peppermint schnapps. With Denise’s encouragement and the fear of being left behind, nine year old Deion drank the foul sweet tasting fluid. She soon was drunk and sick the whole time at the drive-in. Tony and Denise recounted and laughed triumphantly the next day. A nine year old girl hanging out the door and vomiting was funny to them. It was a rite of passage for the little girl. In 2002 when I visited Deion in prison and Tony and Denise came as well to be interviewed, the incident came up. Both laughed heartily as the episode was recaptured never connecting the early introduction to alcohol with her eventual addiction and imprisonment.
Denise and Tony were married with ceremony on August 8th, 1980. Denise was a month past fifteen and her mother signed for the court’s permission. It was a year after Wilma’s accident and, thanks to Grandma Smith, she went up the church stairs on crutches “managing quite well."
Even while the newly-weds lived at home in Tony’s parent’s home Deion continued to “hang out” with her sister. Tony’s interest in his small sister in law continued in the form of putting his hand down her shirt or pants. Deion complained and resisted but it was futile. Exclusion from her sister’s life was her only choice and that meant being in the morbid home with her mother, that overwhelming and frightening experience.
As Deion passed through fifth and sixth grade there were many memorable incidents with the Taylor family, all involving sex and alcohol. After the drive-in incident Deion dutifully paid her price to associate with her big sister, she drank and learned to smoke. For several years she nursed beer and hard liquor never liking the taste but knowing it was required duty. As she grew to ten and eleven years old Tony’s interest in her sex escalated. One summer Deion found herself in a field with Tony, Billy P, and Billy’s son, slightly older than she. Deion thought she was safe from Tony’s groping hands but the two men soon began talking about sex. The man said his son had never had sex and Tony told the boy to take Deion right then and there in front of them. The two men soon joined a chorus to get the boy and Deion to have sex. Deion was humiliated and embarrassed and the boy was a bit embarrassed too. The boy wanted to please his dad, the "men," so he took Deion off into a treed area behind the pickups where no one could see. They did nothing and the men were visibly disappointed.
Tony and Denise had a small brick house built on his parent’s farm less than two years after their marriage. This house became “the party center” of the county said Deion. “If those walls could talk the stories they would tell.” Many beatings, rapes, unwanted pregnancies, and humiliations took place there. Deion’s were only a small part.
Deion was about eleven and over at Denise’s new house. Tony was there and kept telling a fellow named Landon "Why don't you take Deion for a ride?" His intimation to L. was to take her for sex. Deion knew something odd was happening but did not know what. Finally, after Tony urged several times Landon, about 18, drove her out in his truck. They parked and talked but did nothing. When they returned Tony met them with an expectant gleam in his eyes. He was disappointed to learn nothing happened. Landon later had sex with Deion after others did. He was one of the few who took birth precautions by using a condom. He refused to talk when approached to help Deion get out of prison.
Denise gave birth to her first child, Kurt, thirteen months after her marriage. The partying continued.
It was summer of 1982. Deion was eleven, Denise turned seventeen. After a hot day working the farm Tony and Denise took the afternoon off to have a swimming party. Deion and friend Angie tagged along. Kurt was left with grandparents.
There was a swimming hole on highway 423 downstream of three small bridges over Guin Creek, also called Sparks Creek, on this road a few miles from the Taylor farm. The creek is slow moving without rain and the seasonal storms create swimming holes and sand bars. One must follow the sand bars, skipping over rivulets, or trek though cotton fields to find the “right spot,” secluded and deep enough to swim. Deion, Angie, Denise and Tony drove to the swimming hole in a pickup. Sufficient beer was taken and perhaps a few bags of chips. KC E. was there as well as the Chase brothers who likely were not driving but came on a two or four wheeler. Shortly after arrival Tony took off Denise’s bathing suit and began having sex with her in the water which, while up to her neck, was still in view of others. Denise said nothing but had a rather distant, disassociated look on her face. Tony bragged and called attention to what he was doing as this took place. After sex Tony and KC began playing with the water toss, throwing others into the air from the water. Denise was recruited as the acrobat but she still did not have on her bathing suit. Even so, Tony and KC threw hereinto the air several times and each time she crossed her arms in front of her to cover her breasts. She displayed no emotion during all this. After some time Tony tried to get Deion over for the water toss. Denise crawled to the bank for another beer and was likely happy to no longer be the center of the boy’s attention. Deion did not want her suit taken off and she refused to join them staying away in other waters. Angie, perhaps sensing trouble, had retreated to a small waterfall out of reach of the men in the water and closer to the safety of the road. Finally, Tony enticed Deion to the water toss by promising not to take off her suit. Once she was within his grasp he of course did attempt to remove her bathing suit. Deion struggled and as KC held her shoulders and arms Tony tried to take off the bottom of her two piece suit. Deion kicked and struggled and Tony, being in the position of Deion’s feet, received an accidental kick to the crotch. He was disabled in pain and fell back in the water. KC pulled and rested Tony on the water’s edge. After he recovered enough the swimming party ended. Tony, with much cursing and anger, got in the truck with Denise driving, Deion and Angie along. Tony may have wanted to hit Deion but with Angie present would have been reluctant. Back at the house he recovered.
The public interest of Tony Taylor in a woman’s sex continued throughout Deion’s association with him. Often Tony would approach his wife in front of relatives and friends and grab her breasts or put his hand down her pants. Sometimes Denise would try to laugh it off, if friends were around. Often, if only Deion was present, she would angrily snarl for him to leave her alone. This unwanted attention extended to Deion as well. During the prison visit Tony smiled and said it was all in fun. But Deion found little fun in it and was particularly upset when using the bathroom at Denise’s house. Tony would open the bathroom door when Deion was on the toilet or showering. “He’d just stand there and stare” remarked Deion at a later date. She would object loudly to Tony’s intrusions and Denise would shout as well but to no avail. “I finally stopped showering over there whenever he was a round” said Deion. “I wouldn’t use the bathroom if he was in the house.”
Deion recounts that her whole consciousness while Tony was in the house was focused on keeping track of him. “I had to know where he was at all the time. The hallway was small and he used every opportunity to grab me. I had to know when he was out of reach to use it.” Life in the home of a sexual predator makes great demands on children, to the banishment of normal growing experiences.
Deion was eleven. She had not started menstruating and certainly had not developed a woman’s body. Still, the stage was set for her introduction to men and the use of her sex.

Mother In Prison, Mother Can't See

I wanted Savannah to do something fun so I got tickets to Nysic, a group of young boys singing hip hop or pop music. They were having a concert in Memphis and I got two tickets, one for Savannah and one for Angie, my brother Lin’s wife. I figured Savannah would enjoy it most with her. Tickets were $30 each, I sent money for gas, about $20, money for food, About $20, and$50 spending money for Savannah to buy a T-shirt at the concert and other things. They had money for film and I asked for pictures both before and after they went. Drew did not want to go and asked for the money just to spend himself so I sent him $50 I think. It was about $300 total, a months wages at the time ‘cause I was working lots of overtime at Tenn Care. They never took pictures. I got nothing. Savannah told me of her trip next time I saw her. I still wanted pictures. My photo album is all I have. I don’t get to see the kids doing things and growing up.

Deion, visitation 2004