{"id":57,"date":"2024-06-11T14:48:11","date_gmt":"2024-06-11T14:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsandviews101.com\/?p=57"},"modified":"2024-06-11T14:48:11","modified_gmt":"2024-06-11T14:48:11","slug":"family-fights-for-justice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsandviews101.com\/?p=57","title":{"rendered":"Family fights for justice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By John Vincent<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ENTERPRISE<\/em> CORRESPONDENT<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

LAKEVILLE — After seeing one of the killers of their son, Jason Burgeson, acquitted in federal court, family members are lobbying for a change in the federal carjacking law to make sure that future criminals get the penalty they deserve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kenneth Day was sentenced to four life sentences in state court, but Burgeson’s mother says if he had only been sentenced to one life sentence, he could be out on the street in 20 years, far too lenient a sentence for the brutal execution-style killing of her son and his friend, Amy Shute, on a Rhode Island golf course in June 2000. She said not only do the federal courts allow for the death penalty, but they also make people serve out the full sentence. That’s why they have placed letters in several local stores for people to sign and send to Howard Coble, chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security, urging a change in the law, so that the prosecution would not have to prove the criminal intended to kill the person at the moment when they car-jacked them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to published reports, Shute, 21, of Coventry, R.I., and Burgeson, 20, of Lakeville, were carjacked in downtown Providence on June 9, 2000, and driven in Burgeson’s Ford Explorer to the Button Hole golf course, where Gregory J. Floyd shot them in the head with a .40-caliber handgun. The five men involved split $18 in change taken from the couple, and Floyd and Harry Burdick spent the rest of the night riding around in Burgeson’s SUV.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe way the carjacking law is now, if you were carjacked and murdered they would have to prove that they intended to kill you at the time they took you and that\u2019s pretty hard to prove because you don\u2019t know what anybody\u2019s thinking when they take you,\u201d said Nadine Burgeson, Jason\u2019s mother.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of the 20 to 25 years a person receives from the state, \u201cI don\u2019t think that\u2019s sufficient for murder,\u201d Burgeson said. \u201cBut under federal law, if they got life, they\u2019d have to serve life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Jason\u2019s cousin, Justine Kingsley, started contacting congressmen to force a change in the federal carjacking sentencing law two years ago, the Burgesons were behind her all the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Kingsley was successful in getting Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., to sponsor legislation to change the law, Jason\u2019s sister, Kelly Surdis, recently took up the mantle and circulated letters for people to send to the Judiciary Committee when it looked like it wouldn\u2019t be voted on this year. It must be voted on by November or the bill will expire and have to be reintroduced next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The letters have been in Savas, Starr\u2019s Nature\u2019s Pantry and the LeBaron Hills Country Club, and ask that the bill be voted on rather than left to die in committee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frank says that\u2019s just what he thinks is going to happen this year, but he will not give up the fight if that is the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s still in Judiciary Committee,\u201d Frank said. \u201cIt\u2019s basically too late \u2026 I\u2019m going to bring it up next year. Nothing\u2019s happening to it at all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI pushed and at first I had some indication that people would support it,\u201d Frank said, adding that unfortunately it hasn\u2019t come up for a vote yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI agree with the Burgesons, or else I wouldn\u2019t sponsor it,\u201d Frank said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt often takes a couple of years to go through,\u201d he said, noting that the Judiciary Committee was tied up for most of the year dealing with Homeland Security issues. He said he had hoped to attach it to another crime bill, but there wasn\u2019t one to attach it to, noting bills don\u2019t usually go through on their own but get packaged with other ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ll reintroduce it and keep pushing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to published reports, all five defendants were charged in federal court to try them under the death penalty, which Rhode Island doesn\u2019t have. All but Day pleaded guilty to avoid a death sentence. Floyd, Samuel Sanchez and Burdick are serving life sentences, and Raymond Anderson is serving a 30-year sentence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Day went to trial in federal court and was acquitted in February 2002.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Day was later convicted in state court and got four consecutive life sentences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Burgeson said she will keep pushing for the change, but she feels that even with the intent section of the law, Day should have been convicted in federal court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you went out with a gun, what are you going to do with that gun? If a man goes out and he goes hunting and he takes a gun with him, wouldn\u2019t you think he\u2019s going to kill something? He\u2019s not going to just shoot in the air.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf a person goes out with a gun and they say they are going to jack someone, what are they going to do with the gun?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She also said with the testimony given in court that Day had urged Floyd to kill Jason and Amy, the intent was clear. Never-the-less, she feels it proper to remove the intent standard, saying justice should come to murderers whether they intended to kill their victims at the outset of the crime or merely decided to do so during the course of the carjacking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying, but who knows because it\u2019s an election year, so everyone\u2019s tied up. But if you don\u2019t try, nothing will change.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kingsley said she just felt she couldn\u2019t sit by and do nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAfter (Day) was acquitted, I was just a little bit upset. I decided to research the carjacking law,\u201d Kingsley said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said she found out that the carjacking case that prompted the law would not have even been able to be successfully prosecuted under federal law. She said that case involved a person who drove off in the car without making sure they left the driver behind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey took off and dragged her to her death. Soon after that, the federal carjacking law was instituted,\u201d she said, but she noted they wouldn\u2019t have been able to prove intent to kill in that case, either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The law that\u2019s on the books does not do what it was intended to do, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow can you prove the intent if Jason and Amy are dead and they can\u2019t tell you? \u2026 I don\u2019t understand why there should be an intent requirement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said the bill Frank is sponsoring, H2565, merely states that a person can be convicted in federal court for \u201ccarjacking, death resulting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The point was \u201cto remove the intent to cause death,\u201d she said, which she felt shouldn\u2019t make any difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt shouldn\u2019t matter when they decided for it to happen, it should only matter that it happened\u201d Kingsley said. \u201cWith Day\u2019s case, he basically had his federal charges thrown out because of the intent requirement \u2026 and with the federal government, whatever the sentence the federal government gives is what you serve \u2026 in the state sentence, life can just be 20 years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said she\u2019s worked for two years to effect a change and is still hoping to see some action soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMarc Pacheco was a big help, he got in touch with Barney Frank and Kerry. Kerry wasn\u2019t running for president yet, but once he was, I figured he wouldn\u2019t have the time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said Rhode Island Senators Jack Reed and Lincoln Chaffee both declined to sponsor the bill in the Senate. \u201cThey said it was really good, but they wouldn\u2019t initiate it. It didn\u2019t make sense.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf it doesn\u2019t pass, I\u2019m going to try again in Rhode Island, the crime occurred there,\u201d Kingsley said. \u201cIt\u2019s just frustrating.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article originally appeared in the Brockton Enterprise.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By John Vincent ENTERPRISE CORRESPONDENT LAKEVILLE — After seeing one of the killers of their son, Jason Burgeson, acquitted in federal court, family members are lobbying for a change in the federal carjacking law to make sure that future criminals get the penalty they deserve. Kenneth Day was sentenced to four life sentences in state […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","hide_page_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archivearticles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsandviews101.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsandviews101.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsandviews101.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsandviews101.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsandviews101.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=57"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsandviews101.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58,"href":"https:\/\/newsandviews101.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57\/revisions\/58"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsandviews101.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=57"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsandviews101.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=57"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsandviews101.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=57"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}