By Associated Press
Montgomery, AL – A bill awaiting the governor's signature says prison inmates convicted of capital murder or first-degree rape who want to sell artwork or writings about their crimes will have to give the proceeds to the victims or the victims' families.
The bill by Democratic Sen. Zeb Little of Cullman passed the Legislature last week.
The bill was inspired by the Internet postings of death row inmate Jack Trawick. Trawick obtained notoriety for his sexually explicit writings and drawings. The Internet writings describe raping and killing women, and one of his drawings shows the nude body of a woman with one arm and both legs hacked off and knives stuck in her torso.
Gov. Bob Riley's communications director, Jeff Emerson, said the governor plans to sign the bill.
"It is despicable and a sad commentary on our society that murderers are actually finding buyers for this filth," Emerson said.
Trawick, 62, who did not sell his artwork and writings but had them posted on the Internet, is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection June 11 at Holman Prison in Atmore.
Trawick was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death in 1994 for the abduction and killing of Stephanie Gach of Birmingham. He was also convicted in 1995 of killing 27-year-old Aileen Pruitt of Birmingham about four months before Gach.
Prosecutors said Trawick abducted Gach, a 21-year-old college student, in the parking lot of her apartment complex on Oct. 9, 1992. She was strangled, stabbed through the heart, beaten with a hammer and her body discarded along a road.
Gach's mother, Mary K. Gach, said Monday she was pleased that the bill passed, but hopes the next step will be national legislation to go after the operators of Web sites where such drawings and writings are displayed. She said Trawick never made a profit from his artwork and writings.
"He wanted the attention and publicity. He won't be around for long, but there will be others like him. I want them to go after these horrible, horrible people who put these Web sites up," Gach said.
Little and Rep. Cam Ward, R-Alabaster have been working for several years on legislation to stop criminals from profiting from their crimes. An initial version of the bill would have barred inmates from even producing such material. Ward said the bill that passed last week was seen as a way to keep the inmates from profiting, without saying they could not produce the art, which he said would be a violation of their First Amendment rights.
Little said he hopes the legislation will provide some relief to family members of murder victims.
"I can't imagine what these families had to go through losing loved ones to violent acts," Little said. "To have to relive that because of someone creating pornographic art is just awful."
The bill was a top legislative priority for organizations that represent crime victims.
Miriam Shehane, who founded Victims of Crime and Leniency in 1982 after her daughter was abducted, raped and killed in 1976, said she believes the legislation will mostly stop inmates from creating the artwork.
The legislation was also a top priority for Alabama Attorney General Troy King, who said he made a promise to Mary Gach "to try to stop the desecration of Stephanie's memory."
King said he's glad the bill passed before the date of Trawick's scheduled execution.