The PEW Research Center survey asked: “Do you think the use of torture against suspected terrorists in order to gain important information can often be justified, sometimes be justified, rarely be justified, or never be justified?”

The answer for 62% of Evangelicals was sure. 55% of unaffiliated stated no way on the torture debate. Don’t you think it is interesting when people are asked whether it is justified or not to violate the law? Ask ex-Sheriff James Parker of San Jacinto County, TX. He and three deputies were sentenced to ten years for waterboarding a suspect.

1. Murder Conviction Overturned on Appeal (1922):
After being convicted of murder in the state of Mississippi and sentenced to death, defendant Gerrard White appealed his murder conviction based upon arguments that his original confession was coerced through the use of the “water cure.” White won his appeal.

Judge Holden wrote the following description of how the “water cure” was administered in the Supreme Court of Mississippi appeals court ruling: “[T]he hands of appellant were tied behind him, he was laid upon the floor upon his back, and while some of the men stood upon his feet…upon appellant’s breast and…upon his neck. While in that position what is described as the ‘water cure’ was administered to him in an effort to extort a confession…

Gerrard White had his murder conviction overturned because his confession was coerced through the use of the water cure. (White V. State)

The ‘water cure’ appears to have consisted of pouring water from a dipper into the nose of appellant, so as to strangle him, thus causing pain and horror, for the purpose of forcing a confession.”

Sources:
- Apr. 7, 2008 e-mail to ProCon.org from Peter Miller, research assistant to Darius Rejali, author of Torture and Democracy.
- White v. State, 129 Miss. 182; 91 So. 903 (1922)

2. Murder Conviction Overturned on Appeal (1926):
In 1926, John Fisher, a man convicted of murder in Clarksdale Mississippi, had his murder conviction overturned on appeal due to the fact that his original confession had been coerced through the use of the “water cure.”

In the appellate court ruling, the Sheriff is referenced as testifying “that he was sent for one night to come and receive a confession of the appellant in the jail; that he went there for that purpose; that when he reached the jail he found a number of parties in the jail; that they had the appellant down upon the floor, tied, and were administering the water cure, a species of torture well known to the bench and bar of the country…Several persons were introduced by the appellant who testified as to the presence of the parties in the jail and the administering of the water cure to Fisher and others jointly charged with the offense with him.”

John Fisher had his murder conviction overturned because his confession was coerced through the use of the water cure. (Fisher v. State)

Sources:
- Rejali, Darius. Torture and Democracy, Princeton University Press, 2007.
- Fisher v. State, 145 Miss. 116; 110 So. 361 (1926).

More recently, Texas Sheriff Convicted of Torture (1983):
In 1983, James Parker (Texas Sheriff for San Jacinto County) and three of his deputies were charged by the Department of Justice with committing torture because of their use of water torture on prisoners. The four were convicted of “water torture,” which was upheld on appeal. They were sentenced to 10 years each. The case name was United States v. Parker et al.

Sheriff Parker & three deputies were convicted of “water torture.” The conviction was upheld on appeal (United States of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Carl Lee, Defendant-Appellant).

In the indictment the officers were charged with subjecting prisoners to “a suffocating ‘water torture’ ordeal in order to coerce confessions. This generally included placement of a towel over the nose and mouth of the prisoner and the pouring of water in the towel until the prisoner began to move, jerk, or otherwise indicate that he was suffocating and/or drowning.”

Sources:
- “Around The Nation; Texas Sheriff Is Guilty of Torturing Prisoners,” The New York Times, Mar. 20, 1983.
- Wallach, Evan. “Drop By Drop: Forgetting The History of Water Torture In U.S. Courts,” The Columbia Journal of Transnational Law, 2007.
- Wallach, Evan. “Waterboarding used to be a Crime,” Washington Post, Nov. 4, 2007.

And of course, all of these cases took place in South. So this only adds credence to the poll taken by the PEW Research Center.