VETERAN ATTORNEY SAYS LAW OFTEN FAILS TO SERVE JUSTICE

Mason City, Ia. - Clayton Wornson, an old lawyer who loves the law, spends
a lot of time these days thinking about justice.

Even in a civilized society, Wornson knows the law and justice aren't
always the same thing.

He prosecuted dozens of criminals back in the 1960s and 1970s, when he was
Cerro Gordo county attorney. And if he had to put some dumbbell in jail for
holding up a store, that's too bad.

It's the law.

Like throwing a murderer in jail for life is the law.

But now, after thinking about it a bit, the 87-year-old Wornson is
convinced it may not be justice.

"I prosecuted and sent people to prison for years," said Wornson, who gave
up private practice two years ago. "I'm sure now that society isn't being
served by having them stay there forever."

This isn't some late-in-life guilt about causing trouble for the downtrodden.

"I did my job," he said. "I followed the law."

Now, he is moved by a sense of right and wrong. And that includes sending
off the occasional letter, supporting a parole or commutation of sentence
for somebody he prosecuted a quarter century ago.

"There was a case here where I prosecuted a young woman for the murder of
an old man," Wornson said, sitting in the downtown office he still visits
every morning. "She hit an old man in the head with a crescent wrench and
stole a clock. Then she set his house on fire to try to cover up the crime."

Wornson said he had no doubt the 27-year-old woman did it. Her palm print
was on a refrigerator next to the body, along with other evidence that
brought the conviction. So she was sent to jail for life.

"I always wondered if she was coerced by her boyfriend into committing the
crime," Wornson said. "She had a baby girl. I thought maybe the boyfriend
threatened the child and that's why she did it."

Wornson's letter to the governor expressing support for a commutation of
sentence had no effect. The woman is 50 years old now and still in prison.
Wornson believes she is of no danger to anyone.

"Who is being served by the fact she's in prison?" he said. "I can't imagine."

Wornson remembers another case.

Some people were drinking heavily at a fishing cabin, and a man clobbered
his wife with a chair. She announced to the crowd of partiers she was going
to kill him. The couple loaded their 10-year-old son in the car and headed
home. They stopped for gas, and the woman told people at the gas station
she was going to kill her husband.

"When they got home, she took a shotgun and killed him," Wornson said. "I
prosecuted the case, and the boy, who'd seen and heard every bit of it, was
a primary witness. It was clear-cut, premeditated murder. She told people
she was going to do it and she did it. I had no qualms about prosecuting."

So the dad was dead, the mom went to prison for life and a young boy was
left behind.

"That boy had a rough time of it," said Wornson. "He used to come and see
me, asking my advice about things. He didn't have anybody. He eventually
committed suicide."

Wornson always wondered about the value of the woman, who has since died,
spending life in prison.

"She had never demonstrated any violence prior to that night," he said.
"She'd never caused a problem for anybody. There was never any indication
she'd ever do anything like that again. I probably would have written on
her behalf if she'd lived."

It goes to the talk of justice and what's really right and wrong, what's
best for society.

"I started thinking about this when I was county attorney and prosecuted
drug possession cases," he said. "Kids were going to jail for three and
four years for having just a small amount of marijuana. I thought about all
those young people in jail, the wasted lives, the wasted intelligence. It
didn't make any sense."

Wornson is more convinced than ever that prison does little to
rehabilitate. It destroys people.

"Prison turns people into animals and at a great dollar cost to the
taxpayer," he said. "They're left to rot. There's something very wrong
about that."

Wornson isn't sure he can do any good for some of the people he prosecuted
so many years ago. But he won't stop trying.