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Rdtf
CNO
Joined: 13 May 2004
Posts: 2209
Location: BUSHville
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 Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2005 2:35 pm Post subject: V.Veteran,now convicted killer buried in honor at Arlington |
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this will provoke a discussion!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/04/AR2005080402014.html
| Quote: | Jailed in Murders, Buried in Honor
Md. Veteran Interred At Arlington Cemetery
By Tara Bahrampour
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, August 5, 2005; Page B01
When the cremated remains of Russell Wayne Wagner, a 52-year-old U.S. Army veteran who served for three years during the Vietnam War, were laid to rest last week in Arlington National Cemetery, he was honored with military pallbearers, a bugler playing taps and a three-shot volley from a firing party.
After that, things got complicated.
Wagner was honorably discharged from the Army in 1972, but he spent the last 2 1/2 years of his life serving two consecutive life sentences for the 1994 murders of an elderly couple in Hagerstown, Md.
The couple's son, Vernon G. Davis, said he did not believe it when first his niece, and then a reporter from the Herald-Mail of Hagerstown, told him this week about the July 27 Arlington burial.
"I said: 'Nah, that ain't true. That ain't right,' " he said. "I just didn't want to believe it."
A veteran himself who served in an honor guard for President John F. Kennedy, Davis, 66, said that knowing someone was buried at Arlington would connote certain things for him.
"As a veteran, I would think that he loved his country, that he loved the people, that he loved the United States and was willing to die for it -- not to do what he done to Mom and Dad."
"There's no sense in him being down there like that," Davis added. "Not with the heroes we've got coming back from the war."
Wagner was convicted in 2002 in the stabbing murders of Daniel Davis, 84, and Wilda Davis, 80, in their Hagerstown home. A previous trial ended in a hung jury.
Wagner died Feb. 2 at the Maryland House of Corrections Annex in Jessup. A prison spokesman said that Wagner was found unresponsive in his cell and that foul play and medical conditions had been ruled out. Steven Kessell, deputy state's attorney for Washington County, said the cause apparently was a heroin overdose.
All that cemetery officials knew was that the sister of a deceased veteran had requested that her brother be buried there and that she had hand-carried the ashes to the cemetery.
Lori Calvillo, a spokeswoman for the cemetery, said that she first heard about Wagner's criminal past Wednesday and that Army officials were gathering details of the case and would decide whether his burial was appropriate.
She said it would not be difficult to remove his ashes from the columbarium, a structure for housing cremated remains. She added that the marble "niche cover," similar to a headstone, had not been delivered.
Davis, a retired maintenance mechanic who lives with his wife in Hagerstown, said he planned to go to the cemetery this weekend with his family to see the site and push for Wagner's removal. "What they do with him after they pull him out of there," he said, "that's up to them."
Vernon G. Davis holds a picture of his parents, whose killer was buried at Arlington. (By Ricky Carioti -- The Washington Post)
But the ashes might not be going anywhere. Although Wagner's criminal history came as a surprise to the cemetery, his crimes do not necessarily exclude him from an Arlington burial.
"A capital crime and being sentenced to life in prison without parole, or a death sentence, would preclude him from being buried in Arlington," Calvillo said. Anything lesser would not.
According to a spokeswoman at the Washington County judiciary, Wagner was eligible for parole.
Furthermore, as someone who served on active duty in the armed forces and was honorably discharged, he was eligible for a "standard" burial there (for "full" honors -- including a band, a caisson and a military escort -- more stringent requirements have to be met). For an Army private first class, as Wagner was, pallbearers for his service would have been provided by the 3rd Infantry at Fort Myer.
The cemetery does not do background checks on those buried there, Calvillo said, adding that it is up to their families to share such information. Wagner's sister could not be located for comment.
In the 1960s, the Department of Defense denied an Arlington burial to a decorated World War II veteran who had been chairman of the New York State Communist Party and had been convicted for advocating the overthrow of the U.S. government.
After a three-year legal fight by his family, he was buried at Arlington.
In 1997, Congress passed legislation barring those convicted of capital crimes from being buried in a national cemetery. The law was enacted to preclude any possibility that Oklahoma City bomber Timothy J. McVeigh, a Persian Gulf War veteran, would be buried at Arlington.
For most convicted criminals, however, there are no restrictions.
So does this mean that others among the 290,000 people buried in the cemetery could be convicted killers?
"It is definitely a possibility," Calvillo said. "If you're eligible, you're eligible." |
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Rdtf
CNO
Joined: 13 May 2004
Posts: 2209
Location: BUSHville
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| Posted: Wed Aug 10, 2005 1:30 pm Post subject: |
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/09/AR2005080901287.html
| Quote: | Murder Case May Prompt Change at Cemetery
Senate Committee to Examine Rules That Permitted Killer's Burial at Arlington
By Tara Bahrampour
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 10, 2005; Page A02
Russell Wayne Wagner, the convicted murderer whose ashes were deposited last month in Arlington National Cemetery, probably will not be going anywhere soon. But the controversy surrounding his final resting place might make it harder for others convicted of similar crimes to be buried there.
Wagner, 52, died in February while serving two life sentences for the 1994 murder of Daniel Davis, 84, and Wilda Davis, 80, in Hagerstown, Md. After their son objected last week to his parents' killer being interred in Arlington, the Army and the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee said they will take a deeper look at the issue.
Russell Wagner was a private in the Army during the Vietnam War and was convicted of a 1994 double murder in Hagerstown, Md. (Kevin G. Gilbert - Photo By Kevin G. Gilbert/herald)
Congress passed a law in 1997 barring those convicted of capital crimes from being buried in a national cemetery. The law was designed to block the possibility of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, a veteran, being buried at Arlington.
Wagner, an Army private first class, served during the Vietnam War and was honorably discharged in 1972. He was eligible for parole at the time of his death, which made him eligible for an Arlington service.
His sister contacted the cemetery, and on July 27, his ashes were placed in a columbarium as a bugler played taps and soldiers fired a salute. Army officials said there are no legal grounds to remove his remains.
But some now wonder whether the restriction should cover a broader range of criminals.
"This case certainly does present a question as to whether the existing policy would be sufficient," said Jon Towers, a spokesman for the Veterans Affairs Committee. "It can get pretty complicated, the more you try to swoop in on certain crimes that you want excluded."
Towers said his office received calls this week from veterans uncomfortable with the idea of a convicted murderer being laid to rest at Arlington, with some saying they would not like to be near such a person in death. He said the committee would examine the issue after the August recess.
When the original legislation was being considered, some veterans associations objected to placing any restrictions on veteran burials. The American Legion was one of these, said spokeswoman Ramona Joyce. She added that although the organization now supports the law, it does not want the eligibility bar raised.
"It's tragic what he did, but his military service is why he's there, and his military service is honorable," she said.
Joyce warned that tightening the restrictions could disqualify many veterans who commit crimes because of conditions related to post-traumatic stress.
"If they're going to start cherry-picking and move that line, they're not just pushing legislation, they're reacting to something," she said, referring to the publicity over Wagner's interment.
Vernon G. Davis, the son of Wagner's victims and a veteran himself, wants the ashes removed and the law changed. He said he spoke yesterday with the cemetery's deputy director, who he said was sympathetic but unable to help.
"His hands were tied," Davis said, adding that the only person who could remove Wagner's remains now would be his sister. She could not be located for comment.
In the meantime, Davis wants the restrictions tightened -- the line moved. "It surely can't be drawn where it is now, because it was made for one person," he said.
Joe Davis, a spokesman for the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States, said that his organization supported the 1997 legislation and would not necessarily support changing it.
"He served his country honorably in uniform. What he failed to do was to serve society honorably as a citizen," he said of Wagner, adding that the two sides posed a problem.
"If you looked up 'conundrum' in the dictionary," he said, "this should be the example for one." |
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coldwarvet
Admiral
Joined: 03 Jun 2004
Posts: 1125
Location: Minnetonka, MN
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| Posted: Wed Aug 10, 2005 2:51 pm Post subject: |
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I guess we are left speechless on this topic.
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becca1223
PO3
Joined: 23 Aug 2004
Posts: 293
Location: Colonial Heights, VA
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