I just caught a glimpse of the movie “Midnight Express” and decided to look up info about Billy Hayes. Unforunately, the information available through google is (suprisingly) sparse.
My two main questions are:
What are (were?) the rules in Turkey which allow a sentence to be extended as it was in Hayes’ case? (I’m correct in thinking nothing like this can happen in the US, right? What other nations have procedures which allow for extensions of sentences?)
In the movie he killed the warden and then escpaed, making his way over land to Greece. In the book on which the movie was based, he was transferred to another prison where he escaped by sea.
New York (and other states) has laws that can be used to involuntarily confine some sex criminals after they have completed their sentences of incarceration.
The prison he was moved to was on an island. He stole a rowboat and rowed to shore, then travelled by land until he reached the Greek border. He couldn’t get across, because he didn’t have a passport, so he swam across the river.
The book is a lot better than the film. Oliver Stone created an entirely different story, fabricating most of the violence and painting a picture of Turkey that most people found offensive.
I recall a similar case involving an American girl in her late teens or early twenties who was given a life sentence for smuggling a small amount of hashish around the same time as Hayes. I believe her name was Kathleen Zenz. Not positive about the name but the photograph of her reaction to the sentence is etched permanently in my memory. I have no idea of what became of her. Perhaps she’s still imprisoned. Anybody know of the case?
The only cite I can find is [url=http://www.colemansrock.com/Oregon.htm. Someone’s describing the story in order to explain part of the process behind their having written some song or other.
It basically just says Kathy Zenz was sentenced to 45 years in prison because she was driving a tourbus that had hashish stuffed in its panels. There was another girl driving a bus, and a guy who had hired them both, who both recieved the same sentence. (It was 45 years, then was increased to Death on appeal, then commuted back to 45 years on a second appeal.)
The guy who hired them told the authorities the two girls didn’t know anything about the drugs. Its scary to think that might be true.
[ur]=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C05E7D91739F931A15751C0A967948260&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fSubjects%2fS%2fSmuggling]here the NYT says they were transferred to an American prison in 1981, eight years into their sentence. It says they had just 16 years to go at that point, so I guess they’re out now.
Thanks for the update Frylock. And not to be preachy or anything, but you’d better watch your step when travelling abroad everybody. American citizenship does not give you immunity to the host country’s laws and your “rights” here in the USA do not transfer overseas. If you wouldn’t do anything to put you in jail here, you *damn sure * don’t want to do anything that will put you in jail elsewhere.