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How far will we go in the name of progress? Letter to the Editor, Where has my hometown gone? As I read the Press-Register Sunday I was appalled at the early release of convicted murderer Mark Daniel Melvin. For those of you that did not read the article I will give a brief synopsis. In 1992 Mark Daniel Melvin was charged with capital murder in the brutal slaying of an elderly couple on a dirt road in Bay Minette. Claude Pouncey, 73, was shot three times with a bolt action 12-guage shotgun. Macy Pouncey, 71, was stabbed to death inside the front door of their home. Melvin confessed to the murders and was given a life sentence plus 10 years. You are probably thinking that is exactly what he deserves. Wait, I'm not finished. Despite Gov. Bob Riley and Baldwin County District Attorney Judy Newsome's objections to his early release, he was freed. To think that spending less than twenty years in prison would rehabilitate a double murderer made no sense. I was wondering how the community he was being moved to would handle this news. As I continued the article, it stated that after he was released from the Easterling Correctional Facility in Clio in February, he is expected to spend seven months in Life Tech in Thomasville. Now that brings the story right to our front door. Life Tech was sold to the citizens of Thomasville as an opportunity for more jobs and to help rehabilitate and offer job training to non violent offenders before their release back into society. Is Mark Daniel Melvin a non violent inmate? How far will we go in the name of progress? Because Thomasville is a great place to raise a family, I moved back home after being away for twenty five years. I appreciate the environment the citizens of Thomasville have helped to provide for my family. The schools, parks, and hometown feel make us who we are proud to be. With all the changes we are accepting in the name of progress, I think that it will not be long before we are all saying "I never thought I would see the day in Thomasville, Alabama when …"
Watch out for your neighbors, lock your doors, and remember when the people of Thomasville agreed that double murder was a violent crime. Where has my hometown gone?
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