Willie Horton

William R. Horton (born August 12, 1951 in Chesterfield, South Carolina) is a convicted felon who was the subject of a Massachusetts weekend furlough program that released him while serving a life sentence for murder, without the possibility of parole, during which he committed armed robbery and rape. A political advertisement during the 1988 U.S. Presidential race was critical of the Democratic nominee and Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis for his support of the program.

The political activities surrounding Willie Horton have overshadowed the man himself.

Criminal activity and incarceration

On October 26, 1974, in Lawrence, Massachusetts, Horton and two accomplices robbed Joseph Fournier, a 17-year-old gas station attendant, stabbing him 19 times after he had cooperated by handing over all of the money in the cash register. His body was dumped in a trash can. Fournier died from blood loss.citation |last=Simon |first=Roger |title=The killer and the candidate: how Willie Horton and George Bush rewrote to rules of political advertising |newspaper=Regardie's Magazine |date=1990-10-01 |url=http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-9217204_ITM] Horton was convicted of murder, sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, and incarcerated at the Concord Correctional Facility in Massachusetts.cite news |url=http://www.newsmax.com/kessler/released_killer_romney_/2007/11/29/53111.html |title=Released Killer Won’t Be Romney’s ‘Willie Horton’ |last=Kessler |first=Ronald |publisher=Newsmax |date=2007-11-29 |authorlink=Ronald Kessler]

On June 6, 1986, he was released as part of a weekend furlough program but did not return. On April 3, 1987 in Oxon Hill, Maryland, Horton twice raped a local woman after pistol-whipping, knifing, binding, and gagging her fiancé. He then stole the car belonging to the man he had assaulted, but was later captured by police after a chase. On October 20, Horton was sentenced in Maryland to two consecutive life terms plus 85 years. The sentencing judge, Vincent J. Femia, refused to return Horton to Massachusetts, saying, "I'm not prepared to take the chance that Mr. Horton might again be furloughed or otherwise released. This man should never draw a breath of free air again."cite news |title=Getting Away with murder |last=Bidinotto |first=Robert |date=July 1988 |publisher=Reader's Digest]

On April 18, 1996, Horton was transferred to the Jessup Correctional Institution (then called the Maryland House of Correction Annex), a maximum security prison in Jessup, Maryland, where he remains today. [cite web |url=http://www.dpscs.state.md.us/inmate/search.do?searchType=detail&id=78228 |title=Maryland DOC inmate locater |accessdate=2008-09-08]

Democratic Presidential candidate Michael Dukakis was the governor of Massachusetts at the time of Horton's release, and while he did not start the furlough program, he had supported it as a method of criminal rehabilitation. The State inmate furlough program was actually signed into law by Republican Governor Francis W. Sargent in 1972. However, under Governor Sargent, convicted first-degree murderers were not eligible for furlough. After the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled that this right extended to first-degree murderers, the Massachusetts legislature quickly passed a bill prohibiting furloughs for such inmates. However, in 1976, Dukakis vetoed this bill. The program remained in effect through the intervening term of governor Edward J. King and was abolished during Dukakis' final term of office on April 28, 1988. This abolition only occurred after the Lawrence Eagle Tribune had run 175 stories about the furlough program and won a Pulitzer Prize. [cite web |url=http://backissues.cjrarchives.org/year/95/2/pulitzers.asp |title=Columbia Journalism Review] Dukakis continued to argue that the program was 99 percent effective; yet, as the "Lawrence Eagle Tribune" pointed out, no state outside of Massachusetts, nor any federal program, would grant a furlough to a prisoner serving life without parole.

Horton in the 1988 presidential campaign

The first person to mention the Massachusetts furlough program in the 1988 presidential campaign was Al Gore. During a debate at the Felt Forum sponsored by the "New York Daily News", Gore took issue with the furlough program. However, he did not specifically mention the Horton incident or even mention Horton's name, instead asking a general question about the Massachusetts furlough program.cite web |url=http://mediamatters.org/items/200502160008 |title=Media Matters: Ingraham, Hannity revived claim that "Al Gore brought up Willie Horton" |date=2005-02-16 |accessdate=2008-09-09]

Republicans would pick up the Horton issue after Dukakis clinched the nomination. In June 1988, Republican candidate George H.W. Bush seized on the Horton case, bringing it up repeatedly in campaign speeches. Bush's campaign manager, Lee Atwater, predicted that "by the time this election is over, Willie Horton will be a household name."cite web |url=http://eightiesclub.tripod.com/id346.htm |title=the 80s club | accessdate=2008-09-08] Media consultant Roger Ailes remarked "the only question is whether we depict Willie Horton with a knife in his hand or without it." [cite news |date=1998-10-03 |first=Bernad |last=Weinraub |newspaper=The New York Times |url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE2DE103BF930A35753C1A96E948260 |title=Campaign Trail: A Beloved Mug Shot For the Bush Forces |accessdate=2008-09-08]

The index card

In April 1988, Lee Atwater asked aide Jim Pinkerton for negative research to defeat Dukakis. Pinkerton returned with reams of material that Atwater told him to reduce to a 3x5 index card, telling him, "I'm giving you one thing. You can use both sides of the 3x5 card." Pinkerton discovered the furlough issue by watching the Felt Forum debate. On May 25, 1988, Republican consultants met in Paramus, New Jersey holding a focus group of Democrats who had voted for Ronald Reagan in 1984. After giving the focus group the material Pinkerton provided on the index card, most of the voters switched from favoring Dukakis to favoring Bush. These focus groups convinced Atwater and the other Republican consultants that they should 'go negative' against Dukakis. Further information regarding the furlough came from aide Andrew Card, a Massachusetts native whom President George W. Bush later named as his Chief of Staff. [cite book |title=Whose Broad Stripes and Bright Stars: The Trivial Pursuit of the Presidency, 1988 |last=Germond |first=Jack W. |coauthor=Jules Witcover |isbn=0446514241 |pages=159–161 |publisher=Warner Books |date=1989 |authorlink=Jack Germond]

Jumping the gun

Although commercials about Willie Horton were not run until the fall campaign, Bush first mentioned him at the Texas Republican convention on June 9, 1988. The following week at the Illinois Republican convention in Springfield, Bush began to press the argument against Dukakis by declaring that Dukakis had let Horton loose to 'terrorize innocent people' and continued support of the furlough program until the Massachusetts legislature changed the law. Bush again mentioned Horton at the National Sheriffs Association in Louisville, Kentucky and declared himself in favor of 'life without parole' for convicted murderers.fact|date=September 2008

Over the Fourth of July weekend in 1988, Atwater attended a motorcyclists' convention in Luray, Virginia. Two couples were talking about the Horton story as featured in "Reader's Digest" the previous fall. Atwater joined them and never once mentioned who he was. Later that night, a focus group in Alabama had turned completely against Dukakis when presented the information about Horton's furlough. Atwater used this occurrence to argue the necessity of pounding Dukakis about the furlough issue (see Germond, pp. 159–165). ^{[Book title?]}

The fall campaign

Beginning on September 21, 1988, the Americans for Bush arm of the National Security Political Action Committee (NSPAC), under the auspices of Floyd Brown, began running a campaign ad entitled "Weekend Passes", using the Horton case to attack Dukakis. The ad was produced by media consultant Larry McCarthy, who had previously worked for Roger Ailes. After clearing the ad with television stations, McCarthy went back and added a menacing mug shot of Horton, who is African American. He called the image "every suburban mother's greatest fear." Additionally, although Horton actually went by "William", the campaign changed his name to "Willie." ["Crime, Risk and Insecurity" ed. Tim Hope and Richard Sparks, p. 266] The ad was run as an independent expenditure, separate from the Bush campaign, which claimed, as is legally required, not to have had any role in its production.cite web |url=http://www.insidepolitics.org/ps111/independentads.html |title=Independent Ads: The National Security Political Action Committee "Willie Horton" |accessdate=2008-09-09]

On October 5, 1988, a day after the "Weekend Passes" ad was taken off the airwaves, and also the date of the Bentsen-Quayle debate, the Bush campaign ran its own ad, "Revolving Door", which also attacked Dukakis over the weekend furlough program. While the advertisement did not mention Horton or feature his photograph, it depicted a variety of intimidating-looking men walking in and out of prison through a revolving door. [cite web |url=http://www.insidepolitics.org/ps111/candidateads.html |title=Candidate ads: 1988 - George Bush |accessdate=2008-09-08] The commercial was filmed at an actual state prison in Draper, Utah, but the individuals depicted — thirty in all, including three African Americans and two Hispanics, were all paid actors.

Attempting to counter-attack, Dukakis' campaign ran an ad about a murderer named Angel Medrano who raped and killed a pregnant mother of two after escaping from a federal correctional halfway house.cite news |url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE7DE1F3AF936A15753C1A96E948260 |date=1988-10-25 |first=Maureen |last=Dowd |accessdate=2008-09-08 |title=Bush Says Dukakis's Desperation Prompted Accusations of Racism |newspaper=The New York Times |authorlink=Maureen Dowd] Unlike Horton, Medrano (who according to Arizona Department of Corrections records, has been found guilty of 16 major and eight minor violations of prison rules and conduct between 1982 and 1999 including assault with a weapon) was not already serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. Dukakis' ad ignored this fact and displayed Medrano's name and showed his photograph. According to Elizabeth Drew of "The New Yorker", several Hispanic congressmen in the Southwest asked Dukakis to delete Medrano's name, which was done.fact|date=September 2008

The controversy escalated when Vice Presidential candidate Lloyd Bentsen and former Democratic candidate and civil rights leader Jesse Jackson called the ad racist - a charge which was denied by Bush.

In 1990, the Ohio Democratic Party and a group called "Black Elected Democrats of Ohio" filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission alleging that NSPAC had coordinated or cooperated with the Bush campaign in airing the ad, which would make it an illegal in-kind campaign contribution. Investigation by the FEC, including deposition of officials from both organizations, revealed indirect connections between McCarthy and the Bush campaign (such as his having previously worked for Ailes), but found no direct evidence of wrongdoing, and the investigation reached an impasse and was eventually closed with no finding of any violation of campaign finance laws.

ee also

*Daisy (television advertisement)
*Wayne DuMond

References

External links

* [http://www.insidepolitics.org/ps111/independentads.html Independent Ads: The National Security Political Action Committee "Willie Horton" ]
* [http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/1988/willie-horton "Willie Horton" advertisement via American Museum of the Moving Image]
* [http://mediamatters.org/items/200502160008 Ingraham, Hannity revived claim that "Al Gore brought up Willie Horton"]
* [http://www.rogersimon.com/archive/2004_03.html Roger Simon Tells About Dukakis' Own 'Horton' Ad On March 17, 2004]
* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE7D7133AF933A1575BC0A96F948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1 Anthony Walton's 1989 essay, "Willie Horton and Me"]