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Date: Fri, 09 May 1997 07:06:02 -0700
To: (Recipient list suppressed)
From: Paul Andrew Mitchell [address in tool bar]
Subject: SLS: SNET: State Kills RepoTexan (fwd)


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My comments embedded below.

/s/ Paul Mitchell
http://www.supremelaw.com


>From: "Mike Angwin" <mike.angwin@beginners.net>
>
>> 
>> DPS officials awaiting Justice of the
>> Peace to pronounce fugitive dead
>> 
>
>       I am upset, I am confused, and I feel frustrated as never before.
>  The constantly changing and contradictive reports from West Texas 
>  surrounding the death of Mike Matson, a man accused of no crimes, 
>  have a ring to them of horror.  Is there no remorse, are there to be
>  asked no questions, is this innocent man's life to simply be allowed 
>  to be traded off for catch words, cliches, and feble justifications 
>  for what was apparently an unnecessary and uncalled for death?
>       The reports we were given by the press, a product of the reports
>  the DPS itself gave to reporters, came to us in an odd and contradictive
>  sequence.  First we were told that dogs had been wounded but no other
>  shots were fired and noone was injured or threatened.
>       A short time later we were told that officers in a helicoptor had
>  fired on the barrel of a gun potruding from a "bunker", but no mention
>  was made of return fire fom the ground.
>       Later we were told that one of the "fugitives" has been killed and
>  one of the dogs was missing.
>       Finally we are told of a "shootout" first with reports the innocent
>  man, now reclassified by the press as a "fugitive, militant, militia 
>  member" or any number of other derragatroy descriptions, where the
>fleeing
>  Mike Matson had fired upon dogs "at close range" and had then been shot
>  by a dog handler.  As the wounded man staggered to his feet, he was then
>  said to have fired on a helicopter whose snipers then fired the final
>  fatal shots.
>       This morning we are given the justification as DPS officers explain
>  to us that the penalty for firing on a DPS dog is the same as firing on
>  a DPS officer.  In the case of Mike Matson, since a dog was allegedly
>  killed by him, the penalty was his own death.


"No person shall be deprived of life, 
liberty, or property, without due process 
of law."

The statements above, if true, constitute
probable cause to charge the DPS officers
with murder.  They are sworn to uphold
the Constitution, and they did not have
a death warrant, issued by a court of
competent jurisdiction, as far as I can
tell.  If there is such a state law in
Texas, I can tell you right now that it
is unconstitutional, for violating the
Fifth Amendment.

Dogs are used for hunting, and the hunted
has as much of a right to self-defense
as the hunter.  I am not aware that Mr. Matson
ever waived his fundamental Right to due process
of law.  I should think that he was not so
desperate as to do a thing like that.

/s/ Paul Mitchell
http://www.supremelaw.com

>
>       I have put all this together as best I could to see how this
>innocent
>  man must have felt, and I am not at all pleased with the results.
>       First Matson finds himself with McLaren shortly before McLaren
>  decides to surrender.  He knows he has commited no crimes, but he is
>  surrounded by hundreds of armed men seemingly intent upon his
>imprisonment.
>  Noone has taken the time to tell he he has no charges agaist him.  No
>  appeal has been made to this innocent man to surrender without fear of
>  being unjustly accused and unjustly imprisoned.  Rather than do as the
>  guilty do and suurender to authorities and accept responsibility for
>  their actions, Matson chooses to remain a free man, something, as an
>  innocent citizen he has every right to do, and simply disappear.
>      It must also be remembered that the second man who took flight, a
>  man who does have charges against him, left several hours later, and 
>  there is no indication Matson was aware authorities were looking for a
>  second man as well.  He must have believed all of this was strictly 
>  for his benifit.
>      For law enforcement officers who decide to pursue this innocent man
>  claiming he was wanted as a "witness", this is not good enough.  They
>  spend days relentlessly pursuing him.  Matson, viewing this pursuit,
>  must have become terrorized and the intensity with which he was being
>  hunted down.  He knew, of course, he was an innocent man, but he must
>  have believed that some great, albeit false, charges had beem levied
>  against him.
>      Finally he is tracked down not by one or two, but by a pack of dogs
>  unleashed by govermental agents.  The sheer terror of being faced with
>  having one's flesh torn apart by these professionally trained animals
>  must have been horrible for this man.  We know, from early reports, that
>  he did fire on these dogs, only wounding them, in an apparent attempt to 
>  escape their viscious pursuit.
>      Escaping momentarially, he appears to have attempted to flee, leaving
>  behind the meager supplies with which he has been sustaining his life.
>  Then he is surrounded again, "trapped" as news reports indicated, by a
>  pack of these dogs. Who can question the terror this innocent and 
>  persecuted citizen must have enfured.  In self defense he apparently 
>  fired, killing one of the dogs and a nearby "dog handler", with his
>  judgement clearly capable of being clouded by the loss of one of his 
>  prized animals fired on Matson bringing him to the ground.
>     From here stories conflict, but even those conflicts have no true
>  justification for what followed.  DPS officers claim that Matson, now
>  wounded, possibly mortally, rose slowly stagger to his feet, and as
>  a helicopter swooped down on him, he fired back in a last desperate 
>  attempt to fend off his attackers.  He was then killed by a sniper in
>  the helicopter.
>     While no bullet holes are in the helicopter itself, and therefore we
>  will never know if he was simply gunned down for killing a dog or not,
>  this changed little.  This man, accused of no crimes, was relentlessly
>  hunted like an animal, with animals, trapped, shot, staggered to his 
>  feet, and shot again.  
>  
>     There are those that argue officers may not have known if it was the
>  48 year old innocent man carrying only is hunting rifle, with bright
>  white hair, and wearing civilian clothes, or if it was the 21 year old
>  fugitive armed with an assault type weapon and wearing camoflauge.  I
>  doubt this.  The appearance, dress, and armaments of the two men were 
>  not at all similar.  How could such a mistake, in such open country, 
>  even be suggested?
>  
>     The press, to date, seems to have closed the book on this senseless
>  execution of an innocent man, but we cannot afford to let this stop
>  here.  Questions MUST be asked.  We need to know what law enforcement
>  officials did to let Matson know he was not charged with a crime. We
>  need to know what efforts were taken to assure he was not treated as
>  a fugitive from justice. We need to know was precautions were taken to
>  assure the identidy of the man being fired upon to make sure that it
>  was the man with charges pending against him and not the innocent Mike
>  Matson.  We must demand these questions be asked and discover who bears
>  responsibility for his death.
>
>    Is that responsibility centered upon the head of the DPS who failed
>  to take the precaustions necessary to prevent this from happening?  Is
>  that responsibility centered upon the Attorney General of Texas who
>  has done all he can do to incite confrontations such as this but would
>  rather go to conventions in Chicago than observe that the laws of 
>  Texas are being obeyed in a time of crisis?  Or is that responsibility
>  centered upon a Governor who has disassociated himself with this entire
>  affair, ignoring his constitutional obligation to oversee state 
>  operations, and who gave DPS officers an unrestricted green light to
>  do as they choose without his supervison, advice, or direction?
>   
>     Mike Matson's life has been taken from him and his only crime was
>  to love his native land.  He died for Texas and he died for Texas
>  independence.  He exchanged his life for his love of liberty, but Mike
>  Matson will not be forgotten.  He will one day be honored as the first
>  martyred hero of the new Republic. He is gone, but he will never be 
>  forgotten. 
> 
>                                             Mike Angwin 

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