by Laurence Hammack | Jun 10, 2001 | Addiction/drug abuse
JONESVILLE — The morning sun had just cleared Wallens Ridge when a small army of deputy sheriffs assembled at the Lee County courthouse. They sat stiffly in bulletproof vests, the butts of their holstered handguns scraping against the wooden courtroom benches. A...
by Laurence Hammack | Jun 10, 2001 | Addiction/drug abuse
The bars of the Lee County Jail are all that keeps Emmanuel Ketron from injecting more OxyContin into his tattooed, needle-scarred arms. Ketron is so addicted to the prescription painkiller that he became a thief to finance his habit. He stole guns and tools from his...
by Laurence Hammack | Feb 25, 2001 | Courts/legal issues
BIG STONE GAP — Inmate No. 276923 sits locked inside one of the concrete closets they call a visiting area at Wallens Ridge State Prison. He is wearing a burgundy jumpsuit and shackles. One hand is chained to his waist. The other cradles a telephone handset. He...
by Laurence Hammack | Feb 4, 2001 | Courts/legal issues
MARTINSVILLE — It began with seven rapes, one after another, as a 32-year-old woman struggled with her attackers in the light of a pale moon. Then seven verdicts, one after another, as the black defendants were convicted by all-white juries in a tense...
by Laurence Hammack | Dec 10, 2000 | Courts/legal issues
GRUNDY — Eight years have passed since his ashes were scattered from a mountain ridge high above the stone courthouse where he was sentenced to death. But his last words still haunt this town. “An innocent man is going to be murdered tonight,” Roger...