EDWARD J. MORRISON Charge: Escape without violence In the weeks following enactment of the "three strikes" legislation in March, Edward Morrison had an increasingly tenuous grip on sanity, according to officials at the prison where he was incarcerated. What it was that triggered his "third strike" crime we may never know, but the results will probably be the same whether or not he has the presence to tell his own story. Unlike the other defendants profiled in this report, Edward Morrison was never interviewed by a researcher from the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice. Morrison was "in the hole" -- administrative segregation -- when his private investigator attempted to obtain his permission for our interview. At the time of our request, Morrison had been in isolation for more than five months. When the investigator asked him to sign the simple release form granting permission for a CJCJ researcher to interview him, Morrison was so paranoid that he refused to sign the form. "That's a lot of time to be in the hole," said Morrison's defense attorney, Jim Maguire. Morrison is and has been in isolation for so long because his third "strike" came when he was a state prison inmate. It is the policy of the California Department of Corrections (CDC) to place inmates who are accused of new offenses while in prison in administrative segregation until their cases are resolved. Because cases normally were resolved through guilty pleas prior to the advent of the "three strikes" law, this policy has not resulted in excessive overcrowding in segregation units statewide. "Third-strike" cases, which almost invariably result in trials and not guilty pleas, may change all that. On March 31, 1994, Edward Morrison left prison for less than one day. He had been acting increasingly "strange," according to prison staff, in the days leading up to his walkaway from the minimum-security section of the California Men's Colony in San Luis Obispo. According to a report written by Correctional Officer E.R. Geoiran: During the last two weeks Inmate Morrison E-72413, Dorm 20 Bed 43U has been observed to stay up all night and read and study his bible. He also prowl the dorm at night when possible and wakes up inmates telling them that he is blessing them. On March 31 at approximately 0300 hours he woke up his inmate neighbor and told him he was blessing him. He has been warned in the past and written a Disciplinary CDC-115 regarding his behavior. Morrison was also told to change his sleeping habits to sleep during the night instead of during the day. On March 26 at about 1300 hours he made what appeared to be an alter on his bed. He opened his bible and other religious books, set them up and stood back staring at them for an hour. He then took them down and walked out of the dorm. [Errors in original.] On the date of Morrison's "non-violent escape," as his offense is called, prison guard D. Peterson noticed Morrison within two feet of the prison's front gate. According to his report, "I yelled at him to get away from the gate. Inmate Morrison turned around and walked away, not saying anything." About seven hours later, at approximately 4:30 on the afternoon of March 31, Morrison was "out of place" when prison officials took their daily inmate "count." By 3:00 the next morning Morrison turned up at a gas station in Pismo Beach, less than 10 miles from the prison's gates. He had stopped to buy a pack of gum and answer a "help wanted" sign posted in the station's window. Because Morrison won't talk to us in his current condition, little is known about his background, and many mysteries remain about why a man in a minimum-security prison with little more than a month to serve on a six-month parole violation would risk a new felony conviction on an escape charge. Upon arrest, Morrison reported that he had escaped to see his mother in an old-age home where the woman's health was reportedly failing. But Morrison did not get to his mother's retirement home. Instead, he was spotted at two locations during his fewer than 12 hours in the free world -- at a garbage dump and at a gas station -- both times applying for work. At the Cold Canyon Landfill, Morrison ran into a truckload of inmates from the San Luis Obispo Honor Farm providing community service as part of their sentences. According to witnesses, Morrison joined the work crew on a volunteer basis. While at the landfill, he obtained a job application from the dump's managers. Morrison also picked up some discarded clothes at the dump and, ironically, a baseball cap emblazoned with the logo of the National Rifle Association. The NRA has emerged as one of the chief sponsors of the "three strikes and you're out" concept nationally, and is one of its largest financial backers in California. Also found on Morrison at the time of his arrest was a New Testament Bible and 17 cents. Morrison was found to have a blood blister on his toe from walking the 10 miles to Pismo Beach after his escape. Morrison's prior "strikes" are as mysterious as his current offense. In 1990, he was living as a homeless person in Huntington Park, Calif. He entered the 7-Eleven store on Slauson and Pacific streets -- a store he had frequented for years. Morrison attempted to purchase a single cigarette from the store's manager, Vichea Lim. Lim responded, "Eddie, you know we don't sell single cigarettes." Morrison then became angry and stormed out of the store. He stood outside soliciting single cigarettes from 7-Eleven customers. After about 10 minutes, Morrison's emotional state apparently deteriorated. He approached a 7-Eleven customer, demanding a cigarette, and slit the tires on her car with a box cutter when she refused. He then entered the store and took two Nestle's Crunch bars. When Lim confronted him and said, "Hey, Eddie, do you have money to pay for that?" Morrison waved the box cutter at Lim and left the store. Lim considered Morrison a "homeless bum" who had obvious mental problems and was often found sleeping on the street near Lim's store. "I didn't consider him dangerous and I wasn't afraid of him, although I could understand why some of the customers were." In fact, when questioned, Lim didn't recall Morrison ever threatening him. Edward Morrison was sentenced to serve six years in state prison for that offense. Upon his release from prison in 1993, he was placed on parole for three years. Morrison was in prison for a technical violation of parole when the walkaway took place. Morrison's previous "strike" before his 1990 conviction was for another robbery in January 1965, nearly 30 years ago. Defense attorney Maguire asserts that the voters "are not really getting what they're paying for" with the "three strikes" law. "I think that the `three strikes' law is outrageous as it applies to this guy," says Maguire. "There is a general acceptance that `three strikes' should be applied to the violent and the dangerous. What's happening in Morrison's case is very deceptive." Maguire believes that, had Morrison escaped a month earlier, before the effective date of "three strikes," he probably would have received between 16 months and 3 years on top of what was left of his current sentence. Maguire, who has entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity for Morrison, said, "I understand that he should do time on this, if he's convicted. But no one was harmed by him, and the property he stole in his last offense is very small. A judge should have the ability to look at this individual case and grant leniency. This law presumes that once someone commits a crime, they can't ever be changed and will never be worthwhile." Lim put it another way. "If Eddie was to get some help, a place to live and job training and skills, I think he could be out again and be OK. But if he's just gonna be out on the street, begging for money, sleeping in the street and drunk all the time, he's probably better off in prison where someone will take care of him." .