Posted on 12/26/2006 8:12:00 PM PST by NotJustAnotherPrettyFace
HAGERSTOWN, Md. - The cremated remains of a convicted murderer must be removed from Arlington National Cemetery under a new federal law.
The provision ordering the removal of Russell Wayne Wagner's remains was included in a veterans' health care and benefits bill that President Bush signed into law on Friday.
Wagner, a Vietnam veteran, was convicted in 2002 of stabbing to death Daniel Davis, 84, and Wilda Davis, 80, in their home in 1994. He was sentenced to life in prison.
Wagner died in 2005 of a heroin overdose in prison at age 52. Because he was honorably discharged from the Army in 1969, he qualified for interment at Arlington. His remains were placed there July 27, 2005, at the request of his sister.
Vernon G. Davis, the son of the victims, objected to the honor for Wagner and has since tried to get the remains removed from the cemetery.
A 1997 law prohibited people convicted of capital crimes and sentenced to death or life imprisonment without parole from being interred at military cemeteries.
Wagner would have become eligible in 2017 for a review that could have led to parole, according to the Maryland Division of Corrections.
In January, Bush signed into law a ban on burial at national cemeteries for veterans convicted of capital crimes, which eliminated the loophole that allowed Wagner's remains to be placed at Arlington.
The law Bush signed Friday includes a specific order to remove Wagner's remains from the cemetery.
The ashes must either go to Wagner's next-of-kin or the Army must "arrange for an appropriate disposition of the remains," according to the bill.
"Wayne"
But with space in such short supply at Arlington, I can see the point of the law. To have this man taking up space there is a slap in the face to the family of the victims. And having served in the military is not a "once saved, always saved" proposition (although John F'n Kerry seems to think so.)
The elderly couple, Daniel and Wilda Davis, opened their door to Russell Wayne Wagner on Valentine’s Day 1994.
“He took Mom and Dad and sat them on a kitchen chair, tied their hands behind their heads and put a pillowcase over their heads, stabbed them 14-15 times and then he robbed them and then he left,” their son, Vernon Davis, tearfully told the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Thursday.
Wagner was convicted of the couple’s murders and sentenced to two life terms with parole eligibility. When he died in prison, he was cremated and placed in the nation’s premiere veterans’ cemetery: Arlington National Cemetery.
Yep. That's no good. Anybody with that middle name needs somebody to check in on them from time to time, lest they have a coed languishing in a pit in their basement.
Died of a heroin OD in prison?That's some great contraband control at that prison.Can't say he didn't deserve it though.....
I agree with the removal of his remains from Arlington.
Thank you for posting some more background to this story.
Are you expecting anyone to say that he deserves a space in our most hallowed cemetary?
If Bush signed a law eliminating a loophole in January 2006 and Wagner was buried there [using the loophole] in July 2005, it is a post-factum law. Ought to apply to the future burials only.
Well, I'll be the first to say it..
It's Bush's fault that they're digging up graves!
He'll probably end up in the same room in Hell as John WAYNE Gacy.
I noticed that.
However, for the specific case cited, I seem to remember something about "No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed." in some dusty old historic document.
Like it or not.
See the post right below yours....
Probably the regulations are more relaxed for "cremains" because they take up so much less space, and this guy sifted through the cracks.
reactions and comments
Fine with me.
I'll bet that it would be fine with all other Vets there, too.
(you'll probably get a few "PTSD victim" apologists here, too)
It's not an ex post facto law. That would be criminalizing something you did which was legal at the time.
This is more like changing the zoning laws. You'd agree those can be changed, I'd think.
Live victims and dead heroes should trump dead murderers. Perhaps no one objected to a moral decision based on a loophole fix.
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