We published the last dictated message of double murderer Scott Dozier in the Mirror. Then hours later the Sun newspaper plagiarised it.
1 January 2019
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/us-news/death-row-murderer-tells-reporter-13826163.amp
In the website version, the story included a chilling audio recording of a conversation between Paul Martin and the condemned man.
The same day the Sun, the biggest popular-newspaper rival to the Mirror, simply hijacked the story – and, on its website, it also brazenly used all the same audio of two interviews I had done with Dozier.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8142646/death-row-inmate-scott-dozier-prison-final-message-suicide/
” ‘LIFE’S NO LONGER WORTH LIVING’ Death Row inmate’s chilling final message before prison suicide reveals how evil double murderer looked forward to dying,” was the headline online.
So the essence of The Sun’s story is the “chilling final message”. It did acknowledge after several paragraphs that an audio recording came from The Mirror, but it then laid out the entire first-person piece word for word (without acknowledging where it came from). Incidentally The Sun compounded its rip-off by implying that it was a transcript from the audio recording. It was not.
The Sun had no legal or moral right to make use of professional work done by an independent journalist and provided to The Mirror for an agreed fee, lawyers have confirmed to correspondent.world.
It is obvious that each newspaper and especially each freelance journalists has a right to protect its or his original work from being ripped off.
In general (apart from reporting a short quote, on which the newspaper wishes to make some editorial comment) reproducing someone else’s work without permission is tantamount to theft. But it is especially egregious in the case of freelance journalists.
There is a strong commercial value for a freelance in knowing that he or she sells a story or audio or video to one newspaper or media outlet, it remains with just that one outlet. That allows the freelance journalist to “re-version” the precious content (or use some of its content alongside other material he or she has) for another media outlet the next day or in future.
It is part of a pattern of what amounts (in popular terminology) to plagiarism – at which newspapers and particularly newspaper websites are becoming outrageously adept.
In the coming months we will be revealing more of the outrageous practices that ride roughshod over the work of independent or freelance journalists and investigative journalists and documentary film-makers.
Watch this space…
This is The Sun’s article, supposedly by its staff member:
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By Neal Baker
7th January 2019, 11:49 pmUpdated: 7th January 2019, 11:56 pm
THE chilling final message left by a notorious Death Row inmate who hanged himself in prison reveals the double killer felt life was “no longer worth living”.
Scott Dozier, 48, was found dead at Ely max security facility in Nevada on Sunday after repeatedly telling authorities he’d rather die than live out his years locked up.
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His execution had been postponed twice and he told the state to “get to it”
The killer had tried to take his own life several times after two scheduled lethal injections were postponed.
He was convicted in 2007 of the murders of 22-year-old drug dealer rivals Jeremiah Miller and Jasen Greene, 26.
Greene was killed in Phoenix and was found buried in concrete in the desert in 2005 – while Miller was robbed, murdered and dismembered in Las Vegas in 2002.
Dozier’s last planned execution was postponed in 2017 after concerns an untried cocktail of drugs could leave him suffocating, conscious and unable to move.
This prompted him to write a letter to a state judge saying: “I’ve been very clear about my desire to be executed … even if suffering is inevitable.”
He later told reporters: “Just get it done, just do it effectively and stop fighting about it”, a month after a different judge stopped his execution at nearly the final hour.
Now, an audio recording of Dozier’s final message obtained by The Mirror reveals his thoughts on his fellow prisoners, his granddaughter and his crimes.
In one chilling segment, he says: ” There are 48 cells for 48 of us on Death Row, and I have to live around murderers, talking about the finer points of raping someone.”
Another part of the nine-minute clip says: “I accept the unknown of death rather than the known of this life.”
Revealing his contempt for his fellow inmates, Dozier says: “I’ve had to continue to smile and be courteous to people I consider reprehensible.”
And explaining why he refused to meet his young granddaughter, the killer says: “I have a granddaughter, just turned two. But I’ve refused to see her – ever.
“I remember my wonderful grandfather and I don’t want my granddaughter to know her grandfather only across a prison table. That would be heart-wrenching.
“A grandfather-grandchild relationship should be interactive and cool.
“But I cannot show her anything like I experienced – exploring cars and exploring trees, and that sort of thing.
“When I’m dead, I’d rather she imagines who I am, not remembers me as that man she had to meet inside a jail.
“I’ve explained to my family I’d rather be dead than this and my family believe me.”
He rounds off the recording with a haunting message: “Now I, Scott Dozier, say: Let’s get it done. Good-bye.”
‘Let’s get it done’ – Killer Scott Dozier’s chilling final words before Death Row suicide
MY life is no longer worth living.
I cannot move five yards without some a**hole telling me where to go or not go.
There are 48 cells for 48 of us on Death Row, and I have to live around murderers, talking about the finer points of raping someone.
I was convicted in Nevada of killing a 22-year-old man and cutting up his body.
This man was a fellow criminal.
Society now treats me the same as those f***ing monsters.
By the time you read this, I will almost certainly be dead.
Some say I’m courageous, others that I’m a coward.
Unlike me, there are people on Death Row fighting tooth and nail to stay alive.
One old guy’s been here since 1979. I’m the only one putting himself up on the chopping block.
I’ve had to continue to smile and be courteous to people I consider reprehensible.
I have a granddaughter, just turned two. But I’ve refused to see her – ever.
I remember my wonderful grandfather and I don’t want my granddaughter to know her grandfather only across a prison table. That would be heart-wrenching.
A grandfather-grandchild relationship should be interactive and cool.
But I cannot show her anything like I experienced – exploring cars and exploring trees, and that sort of thing.
When I’m dead, I’d rather she imagines who I am, not remembers me as that man she had to meet inside a jail.
I’ve explained to my family I’d rather be dead than this and my family believe me.
It’s like having cancer, I’ve told them, and not wanting treatment.
I hate the claims in court hearings that I turned out this way because I was abused as a child, or there were suicides in the family. (My favourite grandfather did kill himself.)
I take responsibility for my own actions. And, actually, I had quite a decent childhood, then a short spell in the US army and a short marriage.
There’s a photo in my Death Row cell of me with a beret, and my young wife.
I accept the unknown of death rather than the known of this life.
I may just be walking myself into a s***storm, but I’ve always been one to walk toward things.
I’m told there could be great things after death. Although I’m an atheist, I’m excited to discover what comes next.
Probably nothing.
I did everything possible to make sure the State of Nevada would kill me – but I did not like the way it proposed using dubious fatal drugs.
Rather than be strapped to a gurney and injected, I’d far prefer to have been shot by a firing squad and be able to look the executioner right in the eye.
A firing squad is definitive and it’s cheap.
Yes, in here, I can do my art and watercolours. Yes, on most days, I can make a couple of phone calls and listen to heavy metal.
Occasionally I give myself a haircut and I work-out.
But that’s not a life. What I miss is an endless list.
I cannot have any intimate relationships. Everything in my life is a bare minimum.
Now my last moments are arriving.
But I will not be saying much – whatever the means is that I exit this world. I’m not going to give anyone the satisfaction of telling what really happened when these two guys died.
I don’t owe it to the State and I don’t owe it to the two men I’ve been convicted of killing.
I do feel genuine sorrow, though, for these men’s families.
The State has the right to kill me – if you f*** with some entity bigger than you, you get f****d. I chose to live outside the law.
Ever since high school, I chose to make money, which they say is the root of all evil, by selling drugs. That gave me freedom to pursue my lifestyle.
You may find it hard to believe, but I’ve always had a strict moral code.
It’s important to me that no one’s ever accused me of killing children or women, only other criminals.
When you are operating outside the law, you have to act disproportionately to others who also operate outside the law. It’s the only way to protect yourself.
What bothers me is the State claimed I had stolen $12,000 that he’d brought to buy some drugs.
Not true. I would never steal.I’m not even sure why I’m doing this final piece. I’m not campaigning for any reforms.
Nothing is going to change.
But I do know this – I’ve never been one to hide or cower.
I believe you must stand on your feet, not live on your knees.
Now I, Scott Dozier, say: Let’s get it done. Good-bye.
Dozier’s tried several methods to kill himself in recent months, including attempting to obtain drops of a deadly drug on a piece of paper sent through prison mail, legal documents revealed.
The filings were in a lawsuit that challenged Dozier’s housing on suicide watch in an isolation cell.
The state insisted the isolation was to protect Dozier from self-harm, but his lawyers argued he was deteriorating due to unconstitutional treatment.
They said he was denied prison yard recreation time and the ability to read, communicate with his family or effectively consult with legal counsel.
Dozier’s lawyers also revealed that he apparently cut his neck and wrist with a razor in October.
Prison officials reported that Dozier somehow obtained razor blades behind bars and that they had intercepted mail from Dozier’s sister with instructions on how to cut the jugular vein in his neck.
Dozier was not on suicide watch Saturday, Santina said.
He was found at 4:35pm at the prison in Ely, about 250 miles north of Las Vegas.
The prisons spokeswoman said she didn’t immediately know when Dozier had last been seen by guards.
Santina said that would be part of investigations by the department’s inspector general and White Pine County sheriff’s office.
Parts of this article originally appeared on the New York Post
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