Mike Moser "I Say" Published Aug. 12, 2005

Governor needs to take role in Bradley case

Enough is enough and it is time for the governor of Tennessee to step in and tell the Board of Pardons and Paroles to get their act together and stop victimizing a Cumberland County family. The survivors of John Bradley have suffered enough.

John Harrison Bradley, age 20, was helping a neighbor gather in his hay on a hot June afternoon in 1968 when he stopped for a break and happened upon a vehicle in a ditch near his Big Lick community home. Inside the vehicle were two Indiana prison parolees, Michael G. Phillips, then 22, and James Slagle, 31.

Bradley, in an act of Christian charity, offered to help. Guns were pulled on the unsuspecting Bradley, who was driven to a nearby house where he tried to protect four children who were in the residence. He hid them and then was confronted by the gunmen.

He begged the gunmen to take his vehicle, his wallet, and to leave. They shot him down in cold blood.

They were only captured after a kidnapping, a high-speed chase and a shootout with the sheriff. It was Phillips who ignored Sheriff Turner's order to stop, and who dared lawmen to shoot him. Turner did.

The pair were captured. Emotions ran so high in the county that the pair had to be housed in Cookeville for their own protection. They were tried out of the county and a jury sentenced the two men each to 99 years for murder, 99 years for kidnapping, 99 years for armed robbery, and three 21-year sentences for assault, all to be served consecutive, for a total of 318 years without parole.

A clerical error by the Department of Corrections in 1970, coupled with an appeals court ruling, have made it possible for the two inmates to have periodic parole hearings which could ultimately lead to their release from prison.

Despite the obvious intention of the trial jury to see that these two never be freed upon society again, here we go again.

Because of the Department of Corrections clerical error, members of the Bradley family have been forced to attend parole hearings in 1986, 1992 and 2003. Family members will quickly tell you the stress of the first parole hearing killed John Bradley's father, Elmo.

Elmo Bradley, a salt-of-the-earth fellow who was a highly decorated and three-times wounded WW II veteran, deserved better than to have two prison parolees kill his son, and ultimately, caused the stress that claimed his life.

Now Phillips is asking for another hearing and the Board of Pardon and Parole has set the hearing for Aug. 23 at Mountain City. Could the hearing be any further from the victim's family? In 2003, the parole board ruled that Phillips would not qualify for another parole hearing for 30 years. We wrote at the time that it may have been the last hearing the Bradley family and friends would be forced to endure. Here we are, two years later.

If not for the DOC screw-up, there would be no hearing. But the error opened the door and a following Tennessee Court of Appeals ruling has declared that inmates have to be given parole hearings every six years.

Phillips broke parole when he participated in the murder of John Bradley. He has killed an inmate in prison since that time. In 2003 Slagle showed remorse for his role in the murder. Phillips did not.

Why is the state of Tennessee even considering this man for parole, yet alone, making the victim's family drive to Mountain City for the hearing?

If ever there was a wrong within the Department of Corrections and in the state of Tennessee, it is this situation.

The parole board should hold its hearing at the facility closest to the victims, and in this case, every effort to correct the clerical error and stop this madness should be made.

Give the Bradley family some peace.

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Mike Moser is the editor of the Crossville Chronicle. His column is published periodically on Fridays.