Posted Date: June 25, 2008

After Three Decades In Prison Suffolk Man Seeks Parole

By Leonard E. Colvin
Chief Reporter
New Journal & Guide

   For the past 34 years Vernon Joe has sat in the Virginia State prison system.
Incarcerated in 1974 after he was convicted of rape, he served 10 years for that offense.
    But while he was serving out his sentence at the Southampton  Correction Facility in Capron, Va., he said he was falsely connected to an unsuccessful plot by two inmates he did not know, which led to the death of a corrections officer.
    Joe said he was tried and found guilty based on untrue statements by other inmates who later recanted in legal documents and letters to state prison and political officials.
    Since 1991, Joe has unsuccessfully appealed his sentence in state and federal courts. He has been interviewed 18 times by the State Board of Parole, which has consistently denied his requests.      
    Even one of the guards who was subdued by the two would-be escapees has submitted a statement declaring that the statements linking Joe to that fatal incident were false and unjust.
    “Every time  he goes before the parole board, they say ‘it was the nature of the crime’ and say no. Each time the courts say there is enough evidence against him not to declare him innocent,” said Catherine Joe, his mother, who is 87 and was recently hospitalized for a heart ailment.
    “Everyone who is still alive and recalls what happened that night in March 1975, says my son had nothing to do with the planning or carrying out the escape attempt that resulted in Officer Barnes’ death,” she continued.  
   “I think the fact that a correction officer was killed during the incident is why they’re being hard on him. But even the friend of the dead officer says that my son had nothing to do with the incident. I wonder when justice will be done. I hope before my life time ends. I am 87. I do not have much more time.”
   When Vernon Joe entered prison, the internet, cell phone and the personal computer were gadgets of dreams and science fiction.

However, restrictions prevent state inmates from having access to all three. So, he has never operated a cell phone.
  Six men have been elected president, since he was incarcerated. Gas cost $1.70, which was said to be high then, rather than $4 today.
So he has never had the chance to realize any of his childhood dreams, as he sat and waited for justice from the courts, in a series of prison homes around the Commonwealth.  He is frustrated, but not bitter and angry as one might suspect. He just hopes that justice will done and he will be released to experience and pursue opportunities in a world he fears is passing him by every day he remains behind bars.
“The Parole Board has not demonstrated interest in a person’s self improvement,” Joe said in his letter to this reporter.  ”It only cares about  keeping parole grant rates at an all time low.”
Joe said this has been both an “emotional and financial strain on his family, especially his mother, who I hope to see before she leaves this earth. What more can I do to prove my innocence?”
     Joe’s story began on the night of March 23, 1975 when two inmates launched a plot to break out of the Southampton facility where Joe was being held. The men were Michael Cross and another inmate who preferred that his name not be used for this story.
    To execute their plan they attacked two guards on patrol in  the cell block of the facility.
  Cross reportedly jumped  from a second floor balcony, falling on to Guard Ronald Barnes which resulted in the officer’s head being crashing against a wall so severely that he was knocked unconscious. He later died. 
   According to transcripts from the trial, and a recanted eyewitness account of what took place, after Officer Barnes was rendered unconscious, his attackers dragged him through  the passageway to cell 130 where Joe said he was sleeping after being administered a Valium to help him sleep.

One of the would-be escapees took the  guard’s keys and opened the door to Joe’s cell where he deposited the second officer named Alfred Lynch.  Joe said he was frightened and  to avoid any hostility from Cross quickly followed orders to take all of the items from Lynch’s pockets and toss them outside the cell. 
Then Cross ordered him to leave his cell and Joe ran to another part of the cell block where he said he stayed until he was found by guards.
The two would-be escapees did not get far before they were rounded up and returned to their cells.
       The next morning after order was restored at the Southampton County jail facility,  Joe, Cross and the another unnamed  planner of the failed  March 23, 1975 event were transferred to the Powhatan Correctional Center nearby.

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