4. Read what a principal opponent of commutation has said. Judge whether it is unbiased. The next entry provides facts conveniently omitted here.
See below for a rebuttal to this letter.
It contains facts that Mr. Hughes has left out.
It contains facts that Mr. Hughes has left out.
May 28th, 2001
Kevin C Hughes
2182 Pima Drive
Sheridan, WY 82801
(307) 674-5477
Mr. Glenn Norton
Office of the Governor
State Capitol, second floor
Jefferson City, MO 65101
Dear Mr. Norton,
I am writing to express my opinion about any clemency that the Governor of the State of Missouri may consider for Ms. Patty Prewitt, convicted of capital murder, at any time in the future. I was the lead investigator of the murder that Ms. Prewitt committed upon her husband, Bill Prewitt, in Johnson County Missouri on February 18th, 1984. Twenty-five investigators from the Missouri Rural Crime Squad answered my call for help in this investigation and worked around the clock gathering evidence and interviewing hundreds of people. The following is a synopsis of the results of that investigation and the evidence presented at Ms. Prewitt's trial which can all be verified by reading the trial transcript:
Bill and Patty Prewitt had five children, lived outside of Holden, and owned and operated a lumber and hardware business. Bill's motivation in life was to love his family and be an honest, decent, good, and honorable man. Patty was motivated by greed and lust. While Bill only wanted health and happiness for his wife and children, Patty lusted after money and sex. Their youngest child was not Bill's and he knew it. Yet he raised and loved the child the same as he did all the others. He was known throughout the area as an honest man, sometimes to his financial detriment. He extended credit to people that he should not have but his good nature often won out over business sense. He truly did not have an enemy in the world expect for one he did not know that he had. The one he was married to and lived with, Patty Prewitt.
Over nine years prior to killing Bill, Ms. Prewitt began plotting his murder. She talked him into adding on life insurance until it was $170,000. She used her “charm” to engage numerous men, several concurrently, in sexual liaisons and then, when she felt that the time was right, she asked them to kill her husband so that they could be together. She told them that Bill beat her and that killing him was the only way out. She told them of her various schemes of how Bill could be killed without them being suspected. Three of those men testified at trial.
Bill was allowing his largest life insurance policy to lapse on 02-19-84. He could not afford the premium due to Ms. Prewitt's spending habits. Ms. Prewitt, being unsuccessful in engaging her multitude of paramours to kill for her and with the life insurance clock running out, took matters into her own hands. During the early morning hours of 02-18-84, she loaded a .22 semi-automatic rifle and shot Bill in the head as he lay sleeping. He continued to breathe so she shot him again. She then put on her boots and walked to a pond about 100 yards from the house and threw the gun in the pond. The barrel stuck in the mud of the bottom of the pond with the stock above the water line so she wadded out and pushed it below the water level. She returned to the house where she used a razor blade to make superficial cuts to her throat and then cut the telephone line to the house. She then woke the children telling them that the house was on fire, loaded them in the car and drove some distance to a neighbor's house where she reported that an “intruder” had broken into the house, killed Bill, and attempted to rape her at knife point
The investigation that followed revealed the most amazing evidence that I encountered in 327 murder investigations over a twenty year law enforcement career. Ms. Prewitt worked hard for over nine years to have Bill killed. She engaged in hundreds of sexual liaisons, sometimes three or four per day, in pursuit of her efforts to have Bill killed. She was motivated strictly by lust and greed. We kicked over every possible rock to find out if Bill had ever abused her. We found no evidence of that at all. Even Ms. Prewitt, in the twenty plus hours I spent with her over the course of the week following the murder and during her testimony at the trial, always maintained that Bill had never abused her or the children in any way.
Ms. Prewitt was found guilty by a jury after a change of venue to Pettis County in April of 1985. She was represented by a superb trial lawyer named Bob Beaird. I spoke to three jurors after their verdict. One of them was an elderly lady who told me that Ms. Prewitt was evil but that she did not think she would stay in prison for her entire term as she would be able to charm others, especially men, into helping her get out early. This lady's prophetic statement came back to me on a Saturday in January of this year when I received a call from Ms. Mary Ann Young, Prosecuting Attorney of Johnson County. She told me that she had received a call that day from Joe Bednar of the Governor's Office and that clemency was to be awarded to Ms. Prewitt on Monday. This was the first Ms. Young had heard of this and Bill's family had never been contacted. I tracked down Mr. Bednar that day and spoke to him on the phone. He was down right incensed that I had called him on a Saturday to voice my objection, yet he had first called Ms. Young on that same Saturday which was truely suspicious. During the course of our hour long conversation, it became apparent to me that the juror was right. Ms. Prewitt still had her charm. Mr. Bednar told me that Ms. Prewitt has continued to deny that she killed Bill but did tell him that her children were convinced of her innocence and she would not tell them anything different. (So apparently, she has continued to lie to her children so that her children will continue to aid her in seeking “justice” in an unjust cause.) Mr. Bednar told me that several Missouri State Representatives were supporting Ms. Prewitt and that she would receive clemency on Monday. I later talked to Mr. Bednar again. He told me that there had been a flood of complaints by Bill's family and others that had caused a change and Ms. Prewitt was not going to receive clemency at that time.
I have little doubt that Ms. Prewitt will eventually receive clemency as clemency is based upon politics and not the decision of jury. We ask juries to do a difficult job and they do it. Then, if enough politicians support overturning the jury's decision, clemency does just that. So much for being a government of laws and not men. Bill's family and others beat it back once but as we again saw recently at the national level, clemency is alive, well, and for sale in this country. Ms. Prewitt has not shown any contrition or remorse for her cold, calculated, and premeditated murder of Bill. She has continued to lie to her children so that they will support her, and has continued to punish Bill's family as they are the ones who have to continually fight for the justice the jury imposed. Patty Prewitt took the life of a good and decent man due to her lust and greed. She has attempted to destroy the children through her continued lies instead of telling them the truth. With the help of politicians who do not know one whit of the real facts, she came within a whisker of clemency in January. She'll receive it some day because she has too much charm that fools cannot resist. It speaks volumes about the state of our society when we have devalued human life to the point that Ms. Prewitt is even considered for clemency. I hope I am wrong. I hope that there is someone who can resist her charm and stand up for what is right. I hope that someone will will stand against the sleazy politicians who give no thought to the true meaning of justice. I hope that some day I have to apologize for these words but I'll bet that I don't.
I will be glad to answer any questions that anyone may have about this murder and can be reached at the above address and telephone number.
Sincerely,
/signed/
Kevin C. Hughes
This was re-typed from a photocopy of Mr. Hughes' letter, which contained his signature. [+/-] show/hide this post
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