Pubdate: Sun, 08 Mar 2009
Source: Starkville Daily News (MS)
Copyright: Starkville Daily News 2009
Contact:  http://www.starkvilledailynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1760
Author: Brian Hawkins

PROSECUTOR: EX-MSU FOOTBALL STAR'S RELEASE FROM PRISON RAISES CONCERNS

The scheduled release of a former Mississippi State football player
from prison this week has local prosecutors voicing renewed concerns
about the inadequacies of the state's correctional system.

Dontay Walker, 29, is scheduled to be released from a Mississippi
Department of Corrections facility on Tuesday after serving four
years of a 25-year sentence for his 2005 conviction on charges of
possession of more than an ounce of marijuana and possession of more 
than an ounce of crack cocaine.

Walker, according to a letter sent by fax from MDOC officials to
Judge Jim Kitchens, the District Attorney's Office and Starkville and
Oktibbeha County authorities, will be placed under house arrest. The 
decision has prosecutors in the District Attorney's Office unhappy.

"Apparently there's nothing we can do about it," said Assistant
District Attorney Frank Clark, who prosecuted Walker.

"It's getting to the point of being absurd. The penitentiary is
getting to be like the car dealer that advertises on TV - 'We're
turnin' 'em loose' - because that's all they seem to be doing these
days. It doesn't matter what the judge sentences somebody to serve,
the penitentiary is going to let them go whenever they're ready,"
Clark said.

Walker, a starting running back for the MSU football team until he
left the team late in the 2002 season, and another man were arrested
on Aug. 28, 2003, after Oktibbeha County sheriff's deputies and
Starkville  police officers recovered felony amounts of crack cocaine
and marijuana, various drug packaging paraphernalia from the gray
1980s model Chevrolet Caprice in which the two had been traveling.

A sheriff's deputy had stopped the Caprice on Lafayette Street
between Main and Lampkin streets because the car's window tint was
darker than what is allowed by state law.

Another deputy and a Starkville police officer soon  arrived on the
scene as backup. As the two deputies  talked with the drive, the
police office said he  approached the passenger side of the car to
speak with  the passenger - soon identified as Walker - whom he had 
encountered on previous traffic violations.

The officer said he noticed Walker's hands were  shaking, that he
would not make eye contact and that he  appeared to be kicking
something under the passenger's  side seat with his foot while acting
in a nervous  manner and talking on a cellular phone.

The officer said he then had Walker get out of the car and began to
search the car on the belief that drugs were hidden inside. He found
a purple insulated lunch bag hidden under the seat where Walker had
been  sitting, and inside were "large amounts" of marijuana and crack
cocaine, including an unbroken crack cocaine "cookie," the officer
said.

Walker later waived his rights and allowed himself to be questioned
about the drugs, and gave a videotaped statement of confession.

Following his arrest, Walker fought the charges and, after his
conviction, appealed to the state Court of Appeals and Supreme Court
multiple times, only to have his conviction sustained by judges in
each attempt. That's why Walker's release is frustrating for 
prosecutors and local authorities, Clark said.

"I understand budget problems and I understand a limitation of space.
If we have to be paroling people, can't we at least be paroling
people who stood up in court and admitted their crime? This guy
fought it and tried to get out of it every way he could," said Clark.

"He had 97 individual rocks of crack cocaine and a whole lot of
individual bags of marijuana. You tell me what he what he was going
to do with it. And now we're letting this guy back out on our streets
after little more than four years of a 25-year sentence. We wonder 
why nobody has faith in the justice system any more," Clark said.

Attempts to contact MDOC officials Friday to discuss Walker's release
were unsuccessful.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin