I’m back! I didn’t write a column last week because I was away with my wife and son for our first vacation since Quinn was born. We went to Old Orchard Beach in Maine. The weather wasn’t great. It rained hard for a couple days, the remnants of some hurricane giving us one last hurrah before going out to sea. But we got to go to the beach two days.
It was really nice to be with my 13 month old son around the clock for a whole week and for me and my wife to get to watch him grow, play, toddle, and sleep. Quinn liked the sand and the beach but I think the ocean scared him a little bit. Big, loud waves and cold Maine water can be pretty intimidating to a little guy. Don’t worry, by the time he’s a teenager I’ll have him whipped into Penguin Plunger shape and he’ll be jumping into the cold water right at my side.
Last week a federal judge ruled that the Massachusetts Department of Correction must provide expensive sex reassignment surgery to a male inmate, a convicted murderer serving a life sentence, who is in the process of changing his gender to female.
My fellow legislators and I immediately began to communicate by phone and email, outraged at the judge’s decision and convinced we needed to act in some way. Senate Republican Leader Bruce Tarr (R-Gloucester) took the lead in drafting a letter that I signed along with over 50 of my fellow representatives and senators of both parties.
A copy was also sent to the Governor and Attorney General. I have included the text of our letter below:
Dear (DOC) Commissioner (Luis) Spencer:
We write this letter in response to the recent decision from the United States District Court in the case of Kosilek v. Spencer. We are greatly troubled by the Court’s findings that the Eighth Amendment requires the state and the Department of Correction to provide sex reassignment surgery to a convicted murderer. We urge you and the department to vigorously pursue every available appellate option to reverse the Court’s mistake.
Michelle Kosilek is imprisoned for life for murdering his wife, Cheryl McCaul. The nature of his punishment – life imprisonment without the possibility of parole – sheds light on the heinousness of the crime. The defendant strangled his wife with a wire and left her body in the car at a local shopping mall.
Since his imprisonment for murder in the first degree Kosilek has argued and now successfully convinced a court that he is at high risk of serious harm if he does not receive sex reassignment surgery. We find such a suggestion to be unjustifiable, against the better judgment of the citizens of this state, and offensive to the family of Cheryl McCaul. We urge you to continue your appropriate stand against such a procedure until every option of appeal has been pursued.
The Court’s decision, if left standing, will compel an absurd action by your department. Clearly the Eighth Amendment provides important protections when a person enters our prison system, but it cannot be fairly said to require the state to accommodate every last need and want of convicted murderers. A decision that suggests the failure to provide sex reassignment surgery to a first degree murderer equals “unnecessary and wanton infliction of pain” is a decision that must be overturned and therefore must be subjected to appellate review. We ask that you seek that review.
Sincerely,
Senator Bruce Tarr, Representative Don Humason, Senator Mike Knapik, Representative Nick Boldyga, Representative Todd Smola, et al.
On a different topic, I have jury duty in Springfield on Monday. It seems like I just had it in Holyoke a few years ago. I’ll let you know if I get impaneled again and what the case was about. If you need to contact my office my Chief of Staff, Maura Cassin, will be available to assist you until I get back from jury duty. She may be reached at 568-1366. My office is located in downtown Westfield at 64 Noble Street. My website is www.DonHumason.org.
I want to conclude my column by mentioning the eleventh anniversary of the terrorist attacks on our country September 11, 2001. Thankfully, citizens across America continue to gather and recall the awful events over a decade ago and remember the victims and heroes of that day. Westfield continues to remember with a ceremony at the Fire Department Headquarters in the morning and at the Sons of Erin in the evening.
I just wanted to say thank you to all the people of our city that continue to memorialize that infamous day and keep all those impacted in their prayers. Westfield lost three of our own. We will never forget.
Have a great week.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not the staff, editor, or publisher of the Westfield News.
Representative Don Humason and his Chief of Staff Maura Cassin may be reached at their Westfield District Office, 64 Noble Street, Westfield, MA 01085, (413) 568-1366.
Representative Don Humason may be reached at his Boston office, State House Room 542, Boston, MA 02133, (617) 722-2803.
Email address: [email protected]
Website: www.DonHumason.org
