I have just written Governor Parson again about the case for clemency for Patty Prewitt. I have written him before and blogged here several times to attest to her innocence. Examples below.
[https://wtucker.edublogs.org/2021/08/12/dear-governor-parson-please-consider-patty-prewitt/] [https://wtucker.edublogs.org/2020/12/18/pride-without-prejudice/] [https://wtucker.edublogs.org/2022/07/05/reversals-the-just-and-the-cruel/]
The case for the murder of her husband in 1984 was deeply flawed and, in fact, the jury was deadlocked at first. If a 36-year old case still feels relevant to pardon, here are the details: [ https://www.stlmag.com/news/33-and-counting-new-documentary-aisha-sultan-patty-prewitt/]. There was no physical evidence, except muddy boots (her neighbor says they were clean after the crime) to link her to the crime. She was tested negatively for gun powder residue.
But the story of Patty’s service to incarcerated women over the past 36 years is more eloquent testimony to her innocence. She offered compassion to women through Residents Encounter Christ, Restorative Justice Project, and Prison Performing Arts, where she’s served as a leader. I first met her when she performed with fellow inmates in May, 2019 in an adaptation of Pride and Prejudice: First Impressions. Women’s Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correction Center (WERDCC) in Vandalia MO. Embedded within the play, each actor told the story of her first reading or viewing of this drawing-room comedy of young, white, privileged women seeking love in early nineteenth century England. What I witnessed was not only a hilarious rendition of Pride and Prejudice, but a testimony of transformed literacy and identifying with characters so distant from the ways of the inmates as one galaxy from another.
It’s true I am a sucker for student performers, having taught high school for twenty years, but never did such heartfelt performances say so much about character and the need for a free life for these vulnerable women. Following the show, I wrote a poem I shared with the acting company through Prison Performing Arts about my “first impressions” of the performance. The entire poem is at https://wtucker.edublogs.org/2019/05/23/first-impressions/, but here are the final lines:
And how do I explain the pathos
That squeezed tears from me
Over a comedy of manners?
Because
I could not forget where I was
Who these dauntless women were
How much confronted and overcome,
How much risked and renounced
To deliver a two hundred-year old drawing room comedy
With spirited excess.
Two dozen stories, within this story,
Grabbing at my heart.
Patty has continued grabbing at my heart over these three years, as I have written her personally and watched the stirring documentary 33 and Counting by Aisha Sultan and finally today watching another review of her case on The Dr. Phil Show [https://www.drphil.com/shows/36-years-and-counting-clemency-for-patty/]. You cannot hear her or her eldest daughter speak of her life after that fateful night without being drawn to her humble, patient and tender spirit. She has suffered injustice for too long.
If you are determined to do something in the merciful spirit of Christmas, check out some of the above links about Patty Prewitt. If you find Patty as compelling as I do, please write Governor Parson today at: https://governor.mo.gov/contact-us/mo-governor
https://governor.mo.gov/contact-us/mo-governor