July, 2009<\/p>\n
Trackin\u2019 Leland<\/p>\n
\tLeland Smart was released from prison eighteen months ago. I came to know him after he was imprisoned for shooting holes in abortuary windows and I wrote of him as follows in the July 1997 Life Advocate magazine:<\/p>\n
\tLucy Chatman is not Leland\u2019s legal stepmother; he had had lots of legal ones, however. Hailing from what in nineties nomenclature is called a \u201cdysfunctional family,\u201d he and his brother were bounced from one foster home to another, including a five year stay in the Boys Town orphanage in Florida from which Leland was sent by his father to the Army at age 17. While imprisoned for some form of thievery, he began to study the Scriptures at age 26. He became a Christian; and when he left prison, he went to live temporarily with the family of a fellow inmate and convert, Jeff Chatman. Jeff\u2019s mother Lucy is the only woman Leland calls mom. <\/p>\n
\tThe last time I saw Leland Smart was June of 1999. Arrangements were made with Chaplain Lewis to visit him (a.k.a. #07321-040) in Springfield, Missouri at the medical facility for the Federal Bureau of Prisons. I was out in Kansas on my way to Colorado and arranged for a few visits. I saw prisoners Shelley Shannon in Kansas and David Lane in Colorado. It was a busy summer at home – my eldest daughter was graduating from high school and heading off to college \u2013 and afar \u2013 the Pope was coming to Denver and plenty of anti-abortion activists were meeting there to conduct various anti-abortion meetings and interventions.<\/p>\n
\tIt was also the first time I saw him. He was thirty-nine years old, 6 feet one inch tall and weighed 250 pounds. He had been jailed since December 2, 1992 and would endure a total of 16 years and 27 days of incarceration distributed among several locations. In prison, inmates speak of their time in terms of months. Leland had been sentenced to do 235 months and was released on 29 December, 2008 in Michigan. From that date he is to report to authorities and be under their \u201csupervised probation\u201d for another five years.<\/p>\n
\t I would visit him for a total of two or three hours. I had faxed my social security number and pastoral credentials to the chaplain on June 4 so that I could arrange for a more humane clergy visit in the privacy of a small room to ourselves rather than in one full of other inmates along with their guests. He did not look well, but his appearance came as no surprise. Locked away in the federal prison system\u2019s singular medical facility, he was sleepy and spoke slowly and quietly. \u201cDrugged up,\u201d he seemed to be a member of that unfortunate prison club which does the \u201cThorazine shuffle\u201d – as we inmates commonly referenced those under the influence of a prison doctor\u2019s psychotropic drugs. Now, this is was not an encouraging situation as the prison rulers place a high priority on peace and good order. The temptation of officials to liberally administer drugs to the individual in order to bring peace to the general and closely quartered prison population by calming an unruly inmate is doubtlessly in play.<\/p>\n
\tGlad for the opportunity to see him, I tried to offer him some encouragement. But his condition was such that I was uncertain of any good I had accomplished. The years went by and my correspondence was irregular and infrequent as it has been with others imprisoned for the same kinds of actions taken in behalf of the innocent womb children. After a long hiatus, he wrote enthusiastically from Coleman, Florida on April 8, 2006 announcing wedding plans to a woman who has protested against the practice of abortion in America and recalling my visit:<\/p>\n
\tMaranatha! Sincere greetings and salutations in Jesus\u2019 name! [in place of exclamation points he inserted a cross symbol] How are you? Do you remember lil-ole me? I\u2019m sure you recall my only visit in years in Missouri several years back . . . I guess you could tell I was out of it, i.e. on forced psychotropic meds and isolation, solitary for a long time. All you do is sleep and sleep like in a catatonic state, with so-called human beings usin-n-abusin\u2019 you all the time. It\u2019s hard to hang on to your dignity and humanity in here. Since your visit, I\u2019ve been all over \u2013 Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Oklahoma, Colorado, Oklahoma, Florida . . .<\/p>\n
\tHe continues in that letter to state his wedding plans and states the desire of the couple that I perform the ceremony and preside over their exchanging of vows.<\/p>\n
\tSince then, marriage plans have been canceled. The probation office has prohibited Lee from associating with any anti-abortion activists.<\/p>\n
\tLeland sent the following to his fianc\u00e9e to circulate \u201cto whom it may concern\u201d:<\/p>\n
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:<\/p>\n
DATE OF CEASE and DESIST ORDER: JULY 1ST, 2009<\/p>\n
I (Leland Smart ) have been given a Direct Order to Cease and Desist any and all contacts, and\/or associations with anyone involved within the christian pro-life community.<\/p>\n
FURHTERMORE; I have been given a Order to Cease and Desist any communications, written, and\/or e-mail(S), letters, phone calls, etc., from anyone involved within the christian pro-life community.<\/p>\n
UPON penalty of further incarceration within the Federal Bureau of Prisons, I Declare that I ( Leland Smart ) have been issued a Cease and Desist Order, and have been Ordered not to have any associations and\/or contacts with anyone within the christian pro-life community. I will not associate and\/or communicate with anyone within the christian pro-life community. <\/p>\n
\tANY MAILINGS, e-mails, AND\/OR communications will not be responded to. <\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t Respectfully<\/p>\n
\tLeland Smart
\n \tDated e-mail of July 2, 2009<\/p>\n
\tThat order essentially prohibits his attendance of any legitimate church service (where, in fact, such misfits of society ought to be found in abundance). Such restrictions are typical for anti-abortion activists when they exit jail. My own case is exceptional in that I had enough support in personal and church relationships so that even a by-the-book probation officer literalist following bizarre instructions from the Attorney General\u2019s office\u2019s U.S. Probation Office was replaced by a more humane and flexible officer who permitted me to associate with Christians (i.e. anti-abortionist).<\/p>\n
\tJohn Brockhoeft, for example, reported on the Notice of Action (NOA, dated February 1, 1995) in which he was ordered as follows:<\/p>\n
As a condition of mandatory release you shall refrain from all associations, in any manner or form, with persons or groups protesting or campaigning against abortion…. You shall engage in no activity, writing, publication, membership or speech concerning the subject of abortion while you are under mandatory release supervision and you shall attend no meetings or communicate in any way with any persons who are themselves thus engaged. . .<\/p>\n
\tMarjorie Reed was similarly restricted and we may fairly assume by their lack of communication and general isolation that all others who have completed their jail time are likewise impounded.<\/p>\n
\tMy report in Life Advocate also included the following disclosure which indicates the probable cause for the abuse of Smart in Leavenworth and his subsequent transfer and seclusion: <\/p>\n
\tLeland Smart was minding his own business in Leavenworth. He had completed five of his 20-year sentence; lots of time to go. One way to pass the time is to make a little hooch. (No crime, Christian friends. He wasn\u2019t making a fortune bootlegging like those plutocrat Kennedys who made theirs during prohibition.) It isn\u2019t just the drinking of it that makes the heart merry, but the making of it. It requires stealth and skill to produce it in jail. Got to get some yeast from the mess hall, some sugar, a little fruit. Got to hide the whole process. The making of it is a balm for prison life. It is the working with one\u2019s hands. Something to do, something to make, to pass the time.<\/p>\n
\tBut he got nailed and thrown in the hole (isolation) for five days.<\/p>\n
\tWhile in the hole, an issue of Dave Leach\u2019s Prayer and Action News came in the mail. That is the publication which reproduced the AOG manual and features similar writings unpopular with the Clinton Administration. Prison officials did not release him after the five days, but charged him with \u201cattempted escape\u201d for receiving the publication. He remained in the hole for five months, has not been allowed to have visits, and was shipped to the medical prison for federal prisoners in Springfield, Missouri in April.<\/p>\n
What happened to him is not clear.<\/p>\n
Leland Smart had been residing in the Leavenworth penitentiary since September of 1993. He was jailed and charged in December of 1992 for shooting up the bullet-proof glass of the Grand Rapids Planned Barrenhood. He testifies that his use of \u201c45 caliber, 240 grain hollow points\u201d had rendered the abortuary such that \u201csoftball-sized holes were punched through every window at 5 a.m. with no witnesses or evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThe federal government under the zealous abortion-rights-guaranteeing Clinton administration and by means of Attorney General Janet Waco Reno had established a task force known as VAAPCON (Violence Against Abortion Provider Conspiracy). This mission of the federal government took the form of three grand juries – in Portland, Alexandria, and Norfolk – in which hundreds of subpoenas were issued. Central to the probe were questions about the \u201cArmy of God Manual\u201d and anyone who knew of its origins or its circulation. And everyone subpoenaed to the grand jury was required to bring any copies of said manual and surrender them to their inquisitors. This \u201cwitch hunt,\u201d as the \u201ctargets\u201d called it because it subpoenaed witnesses into virtual a star chamber on the basis of no evidence, proceeded to seek evidence to prosecute activists and destroy the anti-abortion movement. It trampled over the rights of Christian opponents to childslaughter by focusing their attention upon anyone through whose hands a book had passed. The contents of the book were taken by the anonymous author from various other \u201charassment\u201d literature (easily accessible from publishing houses no more obscure or illegal than communist or anarchists publishing houses). But the tenets of this material, hated by the pro-abortion Clinton administration, were alleged to provide inspiration and knowledge for effective destruction of abortuaries. Therefore anyone who had handled such literature was fair game for subpoenas and interrogations.<\/p>\n
\tThis mad pursuit of anyone who had possession or contact with this book and the confiscation of it from its prompted musician prisoner sympathizer, and free speech lover David Leach, of Des Moines, Iowa, to photocopy the book and reproduce it in his monthly PRAYER & ACTION News (January, 1996 A.D.) As a service to all those jailed for the sake of womb children, Leach sent a free subscription of his newsletter to all such prisoners.<\/p>\n
\tPrisoners, already captive and available for interrogation, do not require the courtesy nor the juridical energy of the subpoena process. So when Leland Smart\u2019s prison guards in Leavenworth received a reprinted copy of notorious \u2018the Army of God Manual,\u201d they went to work on him. As I reported in Life Advocate, they charged him with \u201cattempted escape\u201d for receiving the publication. He remained in the hole for five months, has not been allowed to have visits, and was shipped to the medical prison for federal prisoners in Springfield, Missouri in April.<\/p>\n
\tHe was a prisoner who received unsolicited reading material \u2013 not outlawed books or illegal and immoral publications \u2013 and was charged with attempted escape!<\/p>\n
\tHe was kept in isolation for five months!<\/p>\n
\tThe reader is invited to do his own investigation into what psychologists say about what that kind of \u201ctherapy\u201d and \u201ccorrection\u201d does to human beings.<\/p>\n
Waterboarding doesn\u2019t come close as a measure of torture and abuse.<\/p>\n
\tAt present, his step-mother and \u201caunt\u201d (the only parents he has ever known as a child who grew up in foster homes) report that he has been before a judge with his parole officer appealing for a ruling that he be \u201cfettered.\u201d She (the parole officer) reported in federal court in Grand Rapids on June 30 that she had received many calls from abortion rights fanatics regarding the presence of Leland in Grand Rapids and she recommended that a monitoring device might be attached which would signal authorities if Smart came within a 1000 feet of an abortuary. The judge said that he would not require such a device but would allow it if Smart would agree. Should he not agree, further proceeding would be required before he would be compelled to wear the device.<\/p>\n
\tIt looks like the persecution of Leland Smart is long from over. <\/p>\n
Contact information for Lucy Chatman (step mother) and Leland Smart:<\/p>\n
[Removed]<\/p>\n
AUTHOR: Michael Bray is the author of A Time to Kill, an ethical treatise on the use of force generally and in defense of the child in the womb particularly. The book was cited as a cause to include Bray as a defendant in the $ 1.4 billion Planned Parenthood complaint filed against Mr. Bray and 13 other defendants in the U.S. District Court of Oregon in the fall of 1995. He spent four years in federal prison (1985-1989) in connection with the destruction of several abortion facilities in the D.C. area. Prevailing defendant in the Supreme Court decision known as Bray v. Alexandria. Appearances on numerous radio and TV talk shows discussing the justification for protecting the “fetus” with deadly force. Pastor of Reformation Lutheran Church in Bowie, MD, 1984-2003. Hosted with Reformation Lutheran Church the annual White Rose Banquet since 1996. The Banquet, held in Washington D. C., honored convicts for their anti-abortion deeds. Co-founder of Bowie-Crofton Pregnancy Center in 1982.<\/p>\n
Motion to execute judgment order to seize home in partial fulfillment of $8 \u00bd million judgment from Planned Parenthood v ACLA (1995) came before United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio Eastern Division in early July of 2005. Surprise execution of judgment upon the residence with eight at-home children on 1 October, 2007 was evaluated by Judge Terence Kemp in a hearing four weeks later. Plaintiffs were directed to return exempt books and other items belonging to family members and to valuate Bray\u2019s \u201cwritings, published and unpublished\u201d before forcing the sale of the house. In the meantime, Bray has not been ordered to write no more, nor to turn every written item over to the court or to Planned Parenthood. Therefore, you may buy the above writing and personally participate on the outer edges of this historic adventure (sarcasm intended). <\/p>\n
(Publish at your own risk. Planned Parenthood may take you to federal court and seize your property. Welcome to the new political order we have entered over the past century where the politically incorrect are persecuted for their forbidden beliefs.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
July, 2009 Trackin\u2019 Leland Leland Smart was released from prison eighteen months ago. I came to know him after he was imprisoned for shooting holes in abortuary windows and I wrote of him as follows in the July 1997 Life Advocate magazine: Lucy Chatman is not Leland\u2019s legal stepmother; he had had lots of legal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=287"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":299,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287\/revisions\/299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}