"A Different Kind of Cell: The Story of a Murderer Who Became a Monk," is the story of my pilgrimage with Clayton A. Fountain, widely regarded as the most dangerous and violent murderer in the history of the US federal prison system. Clayton's deadly spiral began in a violent fight with his sergeant in Vietnam. His attempt to escape prosecution involved an amazing stand-off with a SWAT team. Following his eventual capture, incarceration at Fort Leavenworth was far from successful, with Clayton engineering a daring escape. This book details how Clayton's transfer into successively heightened security prisons merely intensified his apparently untouchable incorrigibility -- landing him at Marion, "the end of the line."
Even in solitary confinement at the highest security prison in the nation, Clayton's "special forces" Marine training served him well as he managed to kill four more persons in succession--with his bare hands. The prison authorities had had more than enough and declared Clayton totally beyond their ability to control. The "solution" was to have an underground steel and concrete containment cell constructed especially for Clayton, next to the criminally insane wing of the Federal Medical Center in Springfield, Missouri. Convinced that Clayton's punishment would ultimately be a complete mental breakdown, the key, in effect, was thrown away--leaving Clayton in total isolation for the rest of his life.
My background could not be more different from Clayton's. Academically oriented, I taught at Yale, Princeton, and Saint Paul School of Theology. I was born, raised, and ordained as a Protestant, later becoming a Roman Catholic priest and a Family Brother of Assumption Abbey (Trappist). I am presently the Resident Director of the Hermitage Spiritual Retreat Center in the Ozarks. Yet I was pulled, in spite of myself, into the vortex of Clayton's unfolding drama--functioning first as his unintended spiritual director, gradually becoming a companion and eventually a friend in his unbelievable spiritual pilgrimage.
His transformation began in experiencing "love" through correspondence with a woman he never could meet. She was on her own spiritual quest, and encouraged Clayton to pursue one as well. When she felt that his probing had gone beyond her ability to help, she encouraged him to seek a spiritual director, suggesting inquiry at a Trappist monastery that she had visited several times. Clayton began finding a new kind of determination, earning a GED and then teaching himself to type so that he could begin earning funds to begin a college correspondence course.
This is where I entered, first in occasional sharing by letter, then in a deepening theological exchange. In time, the warden permitted a guard to hand a phone in to Clayton through his meal slot so that he might call me -- a practice that eventually became weekly. During this time, he acquired his college degree with top honors. Finally I was permitted to visit him on occasion, passing through nine guarded gates -- to converse through the meal slot in his double steel door. Clayton was baptized in shackles, making for a bizarre ceremony, and soon he began to feel a call to the priesthood. To this end he began correspondence work on a PhD, at the time of his death being well on his way with all "A's." In addition, he would have needed a special dispensation from the Pope, because murder bars a person from ordination.
My relationship with Clayton forced me to ponder graphically the issue of the death penalty. Had the current federal law been in effect at the time, Clayton would long ago have been executed, sealing his life as the most deadly of murderers. Many in the federal system regretted not being able to execute this fate, for they were never convinced that what was happening to Clayton was anything more than "an amazing con job." I too began as a skeptic, but as our relationship deepened, I became convinced that this ongoing conversion was authentic. Clayton Fountain was in fact becoming a gentle, caring person.
My purpose through this book is to pose for others the same conundrum that encountered me. If Clayton's transformation was authentic, then is anyone beyond the mercy of God? My monastery struggled too, eventually permitting me to bless Clayton's cell as a monastic hermitage and accepting him as a Family Brother. When he unexpectedly died under strange circumstance, a cross bearing his name was placed in our monastic cemetery, where one day I will be buried.
In her Forward, Sr. Helen Prejean (author of "Dead Man Walking") declares that this book presents "what may be the most powerful case of all against the death penalty." The case is contained in Clayton's own confession: "If I can be forgiven, then no one is beyond God's forgiveness." To execute anyone, no matter how heinous the crime, becomes an arrogant limiting of the power of God to change persons.
A Different Kind of Cell: The Story of a Murderer Who Became a ...
Monk's story gives new reason for death penalty opposition ...
The Buddha actually converted a mass murderer, Angulimala. He became a monk and a saint. The Buddha recognized his enlightenment when he was beaten almost to death by the family members of people that he murdered...you can read more about it here: http://www.tricycle.com/essay/shakyamuni-buddha-a-life-retold-0
Gee, you think a murderer should be prevented from hearing the intimate details of people's private lives?
The real argument against the death penalty is the difficulty of being 100% sure that the convicted person is rightfully convicted.
I am glad he found God. I do not, however, think that that makes up for the people he killed.
How many reasons do you need to execute, or not execute, someone? It still comes down to whether each of us wants to do it, and whether we agree to do it, and whether we choose to do it. I find it morally repugnant to execute Clayton or anyone else. That's just a reaction, certainly informed by the conscious reasons and thoughts floating around in my head, but still ultimately just an irrational emotional reaction. I would never get selected for a death penalty jury.
However, how many people have been exonerated in the last 10 years? Enough to make me very uneasy. The system is biased against the poor and minority, and that should give thoughtful people pause.
Did his victims' families forgive him? Does a person have the right to feel forgiven simply because he believes that God has forgiven him, and without the explicit forgiveness of those whom he has harmed?
"To execute anyone, no matter how heinous the crime, becomes an arrogant limiting of the power of God to change persons."
As God established the death penalty, do you think He would possibly agree to that statrment? Of course not. It's ridiculous and based in humanism.
Jesus: Now one of the criminals hanging there reviled Jesus, saying, “Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us.” The other, however, rebuking him, said in reply, “Have you no fear of God, for you are subject to the same condemnation? And indeed, we have been condemned justly, for the sentence we received corresponds to our crimes, but this man has done nothing criminal.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” (Jesus) replied to him, “Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” Luke 23: 39-43
It is not the nature of our deaths, but the state of salvation at the time of death which is most important.
Jesus: “So Pilate said to (Jesus), “Do you not speak to me? Do you not know that I have power to release you and I have power to crucify you?” Jesus answered (him), “You would have no power over me if it had not been given to you from above.” John 19:10-11
The power to execute comes directly from God.
Federal executions, under the current law, are extremely rare and there is no way of knowing if Clayton would have been executed.
No one doubts that some folks can have meaningful conversions, just as no one doubts that con jobs are familiar territory for cons.
Look at the great con job the "innocent" Roger Keith Coleman put on his closest advisors, spirtual and otherwise, as well as so many others.
Had Clayton been executed after his first murder, four innocents would have avoided their murderous fate at the hands of Clayton. It is a classic example as to how many errors the prison systems can and do make, allowing violent offenders to harm and murder, again.
Living murderers harm and murder, again, in prioson, after escape and after improper relese.
As you stated, it is a big "IF" that Clayton was truly rehabilitated. What we do know is that he was incredibly dangerous, alive and no longer is, in death.
Not surprisingly, Sr. Prejean finds this an excellent arguement against the death penalty.
Ridiculous, of course.