Death in the desert

The jury in the case of Charles Long had come perilously close, several times, to deadlock. Finally, they had a verdict.

Keith Morrison, Dateline correspondent: When you were finally ready and you came back into court to deliver the verdict, what did it feel like?

Betty Tucker, juror: It didn’t feel good.  It didn’t feel good at all.

After six weeks of testimony and seven days of deliberations it came, finally, to this: Charles Long, savior of lost children, was convicted of killing one. 

The jury’s painful compromise was to find Long guilty of a lesser charge: not murder, but reckless manslaughter. They also found him guilty of aggravated assault, for threatening one of his young charges with a hunting knife. Charles Long would be spending the next six years of his life in a prison cell.

Jack Patton, juror: We did our civic duty.  But I don’t think there’s anybody on that jury who actually can say, “Well, we sent him to jail and I feel good about that.”

Charles Long finally speaks out
When we finally had a chance to speak to Long we hardly recognized him. Just shy of his 60th birthday, we found him grayer and 40 lbs. lighter after five months in Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s jail.

Dateline correspondent: Arpaio, a fan of yours.

Charles Long: I was a fan of his.

Morrison: And now you’re in his jail.

Long: Jesus ended up in Caesar’s jail. 

Morrison: Are you saying you’re equivalent?

Long: No. Oh, no, no.  But I’m a good study of Jesus, though.

Long, who once presided over boot camp graduations with Joe Arpaio, was now in a unique position to experience the sheriff’s version of tough love.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio: He’s eating the bologna, wearing the pink underwear and everything, like everybody else. So, he’s not getting any favoritism.  Ask him how he likes the bologna sandwiches.

Long, meanwhile, insists he was railroaded.

Long:  In Arizona, guys who look like me represent three percent of the entire population here. Now, if this had happened to me in Detroit, in Chicago, in Philadelphia, in Washington D.C. — I’d have got a better mix on that jury.

Morrison: And you think you might not have been convicted?

Long: That’s correct. I would not have been convicted.

We remembered those days back in the desert when he told us so forcefully about the importance of personal responsibility.

Morrison: You talked about honor.  You talked about character.  You talked about taking responsibility for what you are responsible for.

Long: Amen.

Morrison: And you’re not doing it, are you?

Long: Why am I not doing it?

Morrison: You say you’re not guilty, you don’t deserve to be here.

Long: Well, my peers said I’m guilty.  That’s America’s justice system.

Morrison: What the jury decided was somebody has to pay for this young man’s death.  So it should be the person who was responsible for the behavior of those in the camp to which people are sent.

Long: That a that’s a catch-22 question.  Somebody has to pay for this child’s death.  This child shouldn’t have died to begin with. His mother should have never put him in the camp.  In a boot camp.  Because boot camp is gonna pull a child one way.  I got the drug pulling the kid another way.  I mean, come on.  Darling, you don’t have to be a graduate from Harvard University Medical School to realize that don’t work.

Morrison: Where does the buck stop?  Does it stop with you?  Or does it stop somewhere below you or with mother or somebody—

Long: Good question.  I like this question.  I like this question.  I’m gonna—

Morrison: It looks like you’re scattering the blame—

Long: No, sir.  I’m not scattering the blame.

Morrison: Are you trying to tell me that his mother should be in jail?

Long: No sir.  I’m not gonna wish that on nobody.  I swear to God, I can’t.  You know Jesus taught me to forgive.  “Lord forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And I gotta go with that.  I gotta stay with that.  That’s my salvation.  That’s what’s gonna help me.

But if part of the old colonel is still determined to wage his own personal battle... the rest of him has taken up a new opportunity his current address affords: In prison, there is a ready supply of lost souls to save.

Morrison: What are you doing in here with the other inmates?  Are you trying to help them?

Long: (Laughter): I mean, I’m being accused of running a boot camp in here.  Bible study boot camp.

Morrison: A bible study boot camp?

Long: Yes sir.

Morrison: Now look, Chuck...

Long: You’re asking me what I’m doing in here.

Morrison: I know.  How can you—

Long: We pray.  We pray a lot.

Morrison: How  can you have a Bible study boot camp?  The two are—

Long: Because there’s a lot of young people. I don’t want people in here losing hope.  I’m a guy that says: “Hey, you don’t know Jesus.  And you never gave God a chance.  Then maybe you might want to think about it.  Because it can give you some peace. If I can help you find some peace in your heart and your soul, then you can get through this.”  Because I believe that none of this will last forever.  None of it.

Except of course, what happened to that troubled boy named Anthony Haynes. Some things can’t ever be undone.

Charles Long’s boot was seasonal and in turn exempted from Arizona state regulations that govern year-round programs. Since Anthony Haynes’ death, the law in Arizona has changed. Now all boot camps must comply with state regulations.

Meanwhile, Charles Long is appealing his convictions.

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