Wimbledon Bookfest – making the right connections!
Wimbledon BookFest is an annual festival that runs for ten days at the beginning of October on the common that brings new ideas and stories to the community. One of the primary functions of the festival is to come to learn. However, what I found interesting this year was the connections it allowed people to make. This was highlighted to me when hearing the story of Zachary Witman who was convicted of murder at the age of just fifteen.
I met up with local residents Shoshanna and Brian Foster who have been regular attendees at the festival over the years after their visit to Anne Wormsley’s event about prison book clubs and reading groups with. They had chosen this event particularly because of its relevance to a very personal story. I asked them to tell me about their nephew’s story Zachary Witman.
In October 1998 in New Freedom, Pennsylvania her eldest nephew, Zach aged 15, was home from school and waiting for his younger brother, Gregory 13, to return. Zach was upstairs in his room when he heard Greg come home from school. When Zach comes downstairs he finds his younger brother lying on the floor in a pool of blood. Shoshanna tells me “Zach, scared and shocked turned his brother round to see that he was almost decapitated through knife type stabs. Of course Zach doesn’t know what to do, he gets on the phone to 911.”She continues, “three police come and see Greg on the floor and Zach there with blood on his hands, there is nobody else around and they say the older brother did it.” I asked Shoshanna why she felt Zach was immediately accused. “New Freedom Pennsylvania doesn’t have murderers; it’s a little typical American small towns with no problems. So when this comes up for the police to handle, who are not experienced with it, they want to wrap things up.” She explains, “In the US, politics is always involved, everything is voted for. The community wants a quick answer; with no witnesses it’s the easy option. They begin to make up excuses, that Greg was better than Zach and Zach was jealous so he killed him, that type of thing.’”
Zach was put under house arrest at just fifteen for years old and at the age of sixteen was trialled in an adult court. It appears that the family got very weak support from their attorney-they were so confident he wasn’t guilty. There were no character references submitted, no witnesses and no DNA tests. The prosecution convinced the jury that he killed Greg. Since then some of the evidence has been refuted by proper witnesses but it’s too late as he’s been called guilty and put in prison. “So Zach got jailed for life without parole.” Shoshanna tells me and “a re-trial looks very unlikely,” Ina state like Pennsylvania it would be the same judge who originally convicted Zack. Shoshanna tells me ‘the state don’t want to bring it back up again as they don’t want to think there could be another person who did it. Brian adds, “His prison is moderate, it is not open but it is not the worst. Now, if the parents try to get a wave of anger going they fear the state would say that they will send him to a tougher jail further away from them.”
Zach has now spent 15 years in prison and he won’t be coming out. In Pennsylvania life means life. Although Barack Obama new legislation explains juveniles won’t be in jail for the rest of their lives Pennsylvania have chosen as a state not to make this retrospective. Prison wardens don’t believe he committed the crime-‘he’s simply not a criminal’. The family tell Shoshanna he spends his time teaching other prisoners to read and write continuously showing his engagement with his, and others, education. I asked them if this is why they had come to the Anne Wormsley event, who is an expert on prison book clubs and was at the festival to talk about her recent book about prison reading groups? They explained they were keen to meet Anne especially because of her North American heritage making her familiar with the American set up. Shoshanna highlights the relevance “We have being trying to create links to get some attention to the case. We met up with her afterwards and gave her some information.” Shoshanna and Brian managed to make a connection with Anne. “She said she would give us contacts which we are really interested about, she knows some writers that she thinks might be interested in telling his story.” They felt this was great news for the case as they feel Zach’s only hope of receiving parole is by drawing attention to the case.
This news comes at a time when a high profile celebrity Oscar Pistorius has been let out of prison in South Africa for murder after only one year and will serve the rest of his five year sentence under house arrest while Zachary Witman is condemned to a life in a jail for a crime he didn’t commit.
Kitty Toon, Ursuline High School
