[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

June 22


NEW ZEALAND:

Kiwi's affair with death row killer


Viv Mason spent only 100 minutes with her "lover" before he was executed
by lethal injection.

With two-and-a-half years of emotional letter writing behind them, she met
convicted killer Karl Eugene Chamberlain at the Allan Polunsky Unit, in
Livingston, about 90km north of Houston, Texas.

Standing in separate metre-square cells, with Chamberlain handcuffed and
dressed in white overalls, the pair talked on phones, separated by thick
glass.

They pressed palms together and said their last goodbyes just before noon
on June 11. Chamberlain's parting words were "love you, love me". 6 hours
later he ate a final meal and was executed.

The 37-year-old Oklahoma man had been on death row for more than a decade
after killing his 30-year-old neighbour, Felicia Prechtl, in August 1991.

Texas newspapers reported he taped her hands and feet, before raping and
shooting her.

Viv, 34, decided to research death row prisoners on the internet after
watching a documentary more than 2 years ago. She was "intrigued" by
Chamberlain's website requesting penfriends and wrote to him for
friendship and fun.

About a year ago they "fell for each other", reading poetry and weekly
letters - "keeping New Zealand Post in business", she joked.

It was then she started carrying around his prison photo in her wallet
with the message penned on the back, "To my darling Viv, Love Karl."

They found common ground in motorbikes, music, animals, travel and jokes.

Viv said she wanted the public to know she wasn't a "nutter", just a girl
from Whakatane who moved to the Waikato and unexpectedly fell for a
"friend".

The couple's love came to light through a death notice placed in a handful
of papers last week.

Viv described Chamberlain as her "best friend, soul mate and the better
part of me". She thanked him for sharing his sorrows and joys and allowing
her into his life. She signed off, "Miss you, love you, love me forever
please, Viv."

With tears streaming down her face, Viv yesterday explained how she came
to know and love Chamberlain - and how she took out a $3500 loan so she
could see her "partner" just before he died.

The week of the execution was the 1st and last time they met. Over 3 days
they spent about 100 minutes together and never touched.

Viv wanted to be a witness at the execution - at Chamberlain's request -
but she was unable to get the paperwork completed in time.

Instead she sat alone in a nearby motel room and cried.

"Karl's mum [Muina Arthur] came to see me after she had finished washing
her son's body down _ the first time she had touched her son in 12 years,"
said Viv.

Chamberlain's mother, his sister Liberty Chamberlain, 3 chaplains and
eight penfriends from around the world, including Viv, saw Chamberlain in
his final hours.

Viv got home from her 10-day visit on Tuesday. She wants other Kiwis to
petition against the death penalty in Texas because "violence shouldn't
solve violence".

Chamberlain admitted to the murder and told his victim's family he was
"terribly sorry".

Viv said he had an appalling childhood, and while nothing could condone
his crimes, they were "something he did, not who he was".

She even mooted marriage, but Chamberlain was not keen.

He had more than 100 penfriends, including another close girlfriend who
was with him on his last day also.

Viv has written to another death rower in the past and may write to
another. But, for now, she is holding onto Chamberlain's letters piled in
her tidy white bungalow.

One friend told her Chamberlain got "his just deserts". Viv knows other
Kiwis will think her friendship unusual, but doesn't care. Other friends
and her South Island-based mother have supported her.

Liberty Chamberlain said Viv was "courageous to have taken the risk to
know someone like Karl who has so openly been condemned by everyone in
America".

On Chamberlain's website lifeforkarl.net there is a section on "Karl's
friends worldwide". He did not have access to a phone, email or TV, but
had a small radio and was allowed to write letters.

A journalist from The Santa Fe Reporter, Dave Maass, who had written about
Chamberlain's execution, said many people worldwide wrote to death rowers.

Many women had flocked to Livingston to be close to the 250 death rowers
who live in single cells.

Their "friends" are inmates in cells to the left or right. They "live for"
the letters they received from people on the outside, usually opponents of
the death penalty.

(source: New Zealand Herald)