The Case of Heath Stocks

a different episode for you today. A friend of a friend of mine reached out to me recently in the wake of a pair of episodes we did From Behind the Bastards on sexual abuse within the Boy Scouts of America, which was, if you're not aware, and endemic problem, with more than a hundred thousand victims having come forward in the last year alone. UM. And this is a case

that kind of ties into that. Uh. It's it's the case of a young man UM who committed murder and the young man who was also UM a victim of a terrible series of crime. So I wanted to kind of shine a little bit of light on the case of Heath Stocks today. UM. And to help me do that is Mr Michael Kaiser. Michael, welcome to the show, Good afternoon, Thanks for having me. Michael. Would you like to introduce is kind of your affiliation with this case

before we go over the broad strokes of it. Sure. Um, Again, my name is Michael Kaiser. I'm a criminal defense attorney with the Last and Cassinelli Firm in Little Rock, Arkansas. UM. This case started in the nineties and I was I'm

thirty two, so I was not practicing. Then I came into this case in the last two years after Heath has already I've been sentenced to three life sentences, and I assisted him in filing a petition for a commutation asking for the Governor of Arkansas to reduce those sentences to a term of years and giving him a chance

of parole while he is still alive. And and can we, uh, let's go over kind of what happened in this case the basis because this is this is a really sad story, UM, and it's one of those things where there's there's not a lot of I think, easy answers. But yeah, let's let's talk about sort of the broad strokes of what happened, and then we can drill into what what you're trying to achieve. Year. Sure, so the broad strokes are back in nine seven, UM, when Heath was a young man, UM,

just twenty years old. UM, he was arrested and charged with killing his entire immediate family, both his mother, father, UM, and his younger sister. He was quickly identified as the primary suspect, questioned, confessed, arrested, charged, and within I believe six months, had pleaded guilty to all three capital murders and received a sense of life without parole for each

each one of those, for a total of three life sentences. UM. Shortly after he was convicted, UM, it came to light that his longtime boy scout scout Master Jack Walls had been molesting Heat since he was around age nine or ten. UM that it was a serial sort of abuse, that he that Heath was not the only one. UM, that it was particularly brutal, and that his abuse didn't just

involve you know, sexual acts. UM, it was kind of a long term I hate to use the term brainwashing, but a lot of people have about what he did to those boys. UM. Heats is not the only life that was ruined. He's family is not the only families lives who were ruined. UM, but Heats is unfortunately the most extreme case UM where where he he ultimately committed

a crime against against his family. We'll get into the circumstances in a second, I just want to add a little bit of clarification that the Scout master, we're looking at between a hundred and a hundred and fifty victims, kind of conservatively based on what I've been reading. Yes, Yeah, and it's it's some of I mean, it's so this guy. Some of it's the stuff that you heard in a lot of these other cases. Some of it is is very unique to this guy. But he would basically he

would have people over, kids over camping on his land. Um, he would take them shooting, he worked for any munition company. UM, he would molest them. He would also like purchase prostitutes for them. And it was this, UM, I mean a lot of of really some of the worst abuse that I've read about in connection to any of these these boy scout sexual abuse cases. UM, it's it's pretty harrowing stuff when you read the stories of other kids, um,

who were kind of in the same position that Heath was. Yeah, Unfortunately, you're you're correct. It's you know, every time you think this can't get worse, or this case is so extreme, that you find some other element that's more offensive, more appalling, more victims, more more families ruined down the line even

um today thirty forty years fifty years later. M. Yeah, so how does the because I mean, one of the things about this is this is a pretty the initial crime here is pretty horrific, um, And I think it's it's one of those things where it is hard to have a lot of sympathy for he until you kind of learned about what this guy like, his his his role in the crime, because it was not just a

case of, um, you know, a kid committing murder. It was a case of a kid being um, very deliberately pushed into committing murder, and potentially I think that there's the allegations being made her that he was he directly helped with it as well. Yes, Um, so you know, at first glance, yeah, it looks it looks really bad for Heath, um. But over the years, um, what we have learned is that what what really happened is that Heath had been serially abused sexually, physically, emotionally and otherwise

by Jack for a period of ten plus years. His mother discovers the abuse and discusses it with her, her pastor another religious counselor. Uh. Heath informs Jack that you know, his mother is aware, and and Jack instructs Heath to do as he's been taught, UM, and and to kill the problem. UM. Jack was never convicted with anything associated

with the death of of the Stocks family. UM. However, his first set of life sentences for the many assaults that he was convicted of, UM, when they were reversed. It was because the judge in that in that sentencing hearing said, you know that the death of the Stocks family is also on your hands. And because he hadn't been formally convicted of that, he actually had his original life sentences reversed. Every sentencing he got essentially the same sentence,

multiple life sentences in additional years. UM. But yes, there there's there is a connection. UM. It wasn't known at the time, or at least it wasn't publicized, And if if it had been, I think the results of his case would be very different. I don't think you and I would be speaking right now. Yeah. And it's I mean, obviously like, this is this is this is a thoroughly

horrible situation. UM. And when somebody commits three murders, I think even people who are very critical of the criminal justice system should agree that, like something needs to be done, But I it just seems so unfair to lock this kit up for his entire life without kind of and and and acting as if this was just a thing he did on his own, rather than kind of the result of a pretty horrific I mean, one of the most one of the most horrific patterns of abuse and

exploitation of a of a child that I can imagine. UM And I don't know, I don't know what would actually like help other than getting him into a situation where he's not spending the rest of his life in a prison cell. Like I don't know what the long term for him looks like in terms of rebuilding this guy's potential to have a life, but it certainly starts with him not spending the rest of that life in

a jail cell. The problem we've encountered, UM with Heat's case is the parole board, and many just even just people that encounter the case wonder why would he attack and kill you know, his immediate family rather than his abuser.

And in the twenty five plus years or in the five years or so since this happened, I mean juvenile that our understanding of the juvenile brain, neuropsycho psychology in general, UM has has come leap leaps and bounds, and so we know that a serially abused child has brain damage from really about the time that that starts happening. And so in Heats crazy world, and we do have this

in our clemency application. We've had UM abuse specialists evaluate Heath and see how he you know, his actions conformed to our current understanding. Within the crazy world that he lived in. He actually was making dare I say, the reasonable decision. So Jack had demonstrated numerous times over the years he has physical, sexual, and and even control over heats life. He can end it at any time. He explicitly and implicitly threatens the boys all the time. He's

got weapons everywhere. He's a Vietnam veteran. He brings them out to his property, shows them how to shoot, shows them what he will do to those who you know, go against him. UM, So, within Heat's world, he actually made a somewhat reasonable decision. He uh, the bigger threat was was Jack. Um. He can't kill Jack, so he has to do the thing to appease Jack to avoid the more severe abuse. That's oversimplifying it, but that's something that I don't think we would have been able to

conceptualize back in the nineties. You had the element of there's it's it's mail on mail, and we're talking about a very small rural community um, Central Arkansas, and that element cannot be overlooked at all as well. That was a huge thing that Jack was counting on to keep these boys silent. Um. He explicitly told them, if you tell what happened to you, they're going to think that you are homosexual and a liar. So there's just there's

there's just so many horrible things in this case. Jack had decades of experience doing this, and unfortunately, because of his position in the community, the son of a prominent judge, UM, the longtime scout master, the community's man of the Year multiple times, UM, he had access to dozens and dozens of boys, in fact, entire generations of these of these boys in Lono County. Um Heat's case is just one of many. Unfortunately, it's the most extreme case and it's

kind of tests the bounds of our mercy. But the kid that discovered Jack, while he's a hero, ultimately he killed himself and he's not the only one. So unfortunately, the Stocks family are not the only people who lost their lives and not the only people whose lives, just

like he's, were completely destroyed by Jack Walls. Yeah, and this is this is an important thing to understand because when we're talking about kind of the lingering impacts of childhood sexual abuse, it can take a wide variety of forms and when we like but but it but it is important to understand that the damage it can do goes so much further beyond like the physical damage done by the abuse, like these are your your brain is still forming and growing when you're that young, and he

this is one manifestation of kind of what can happen UM at the more extreme end, admittedly, um as as the result like this is why it's such a heinous crime to abuse a child in this way. And it's just I don't know, like you're right, it is it It tests the limit of UM people's capacity for I don't know, forgiveness seems like the wrong word, but like Clemens, see,

you know, this again is a pretty heinous crime. Um. But at the same time, I can't bring myself to think that what he endured leading up to this shouldn't have an impact on what happens to him afterwards, right like it does. It does reduce his his complicity in this, And I just feel it feels so wrong to say that, like, well, he should spend the rest of his life behind bars, Like that's just not I can't imagine anything could help, Like I can't imagine that could help in any way. Um,

just writing this this person off forever. I don't know. It just is, it's it's fucked. What are the next steps for y'all, for your for the defense team. So at this point, we've already filed a petition with the Arkansas governor requesting a commutation. That's not a pardon, that's not something saying say that Heath is innocent. We're asking the governor to modify his sentences to a term of years. Forty year is in each case to be served concurrently,

So in effect, one single sentence of forty years. Uh. Well, in Arkansas, you're actually at the time he was convicted, he'd be parle eligible at se So that's twenty eight years. That's not a guarantee of parole, that is just what it means, parole eligibility. So that's what we've asked for. Um, we think his institutional record speaks for itself, and if and when he is a candidate for parole, he hopefully will make parole. He's he's done everything within his power

UM to do so. UM. If this fails, it's right now. Uh. We in Arkansas at first goes to the parole board, who makes a non binding recommendation to the governor. They have recommended that the governor deny it. UM, which is unfortunate, but again it's not binding. UM. The governor now has I believe until February or March of two to issue his decision. UM. He has not yet. UM. We have requested a sit down with the governor. I don't know if we'll actually sit down with Governor Asa Hutchinson. We

will sit down with his criminal justice coordinator. UM. We're thankful and lucky to have the support of all of the remaining victims family members. So both sides of Heat's family. UM, you know we have we have extensive support. UM. It wasn't they they A lot of them had to work to get to this point, a lot of them had to understand the true impact of the abuse. But at this point, we have extensive support from both sides of

his family. UM. As far as we know, there are no objections to his commutation application from from victims family members. The only ones that there have been are from the sentencing judge or from the sentencing court. It's actually not the same judge and the sentencing or the prosecutor from that from that county, again a different person, um, but they felt the need to object it. Should this fail,

we will seek additional post conviction remedies um uh. In Arkansas, we have something called a petition for writ of ericorum nobis um. You can file it. You have to ask the Supreme Court, Hey, is it okay if I file a petition back in the trial court asking them to consider something that, if we had known back in ninety eight, would have affected the outcome of the litigation. In this case,

we would point to the we we've had heath evaluated. UM. It will point to that neuropsychological evaluation UM as as new evidence. UM. We couldn't fully make a connection at the time between his abuse and the offense to answer that question why he killed his family rather than his abuser. We now can, and so that's what we're going to allege, is that is that new evidence UM. Whether the court will will find that it is remains to be seen. When Heath tried this on his own about five years ago,

the court denied it. He alleged the new evidence was the fact of the long term sexual abuse of him by Jack Walls, and the court in a in an opinion that really does not um you know, shows shows the lack of understanding of long term juvenile sexual abuse, found that well though you personally were aware of all of that in your own mind because it had happened to you, So that was not new evidence. And I mean, we know that the average male who makes this sort

of disclosure, it occurs deep into adulthood. So it's just at every level of the system. Even today, we're still feeling the effects of kind of that old school mentality about about this, and it's unfortunate. We could talk about kind of the the car serile state and this idea that like penalty is the way to respond to any kind of crime. But even if you believe that, even if you believe that, like you have to punish people with incarceration when they commit crimes. He's done twenty five years,

Like that's no one. No one is discussing the possibility of Heath not being punished for the murder, you know, because it's he has been not just with time behind bars, but the fact that his family has gone. The idea that the state could do anything that's worse to him than than the scout Master did, to be honest, is kind of absurd in my head. But UM, where is there anything that, like, I don't know, I'm trying to determine, like what can be done to help in this situation?

Is there any way people can actually help outside of like you and the team that's that's working to try and sit down with the governor? Yeah? Um, I mean public support is is wonderful. The more people that are out the problems in Heath's case and with his sentences and that are reaching out to the governor, UM, the better we think our chances are. UM. I apologize, I don't have the email address on me, but the governor has several publicly accessible UM accounts, as does his criminal

justice coordinator. Even just getting on Facebook UM and and bringing it up. UM, there's a Facebook account managed by one of Heath's friends. I'm in Florida called at Hope for heat Stocks. UM. It's a there's also a website. I think it's Hope for heat stocks dot info. It's probably the most extensive trove of resources in this case. It has almost all original documents. It's where I still go to access things when I need them, even though you know, I am his attorney. So there's a lot

out there. There's a lot of ways to support the cause, even just telling other people about it. Um. We do have a documentary in the works. UM. I actually don't think it has a producer at this point, but we're hopeful to have something out in early to make fith, to make Jack, to make this case more of a household name. UM. The hopes that you know, if any sort of um, you know, if there's more support out there, more pressure on the governor, it will increase the odds

that that will do the right thing here. Yeah, I mean, this shouldn't be a political issue. There shouldn't be a left or right thing. Like everyone should be able to see this is uh, this is the result of abuse, and that should have an impact on the what we actually what's actually what our society actually does to this

kid in the wake of the crime. Perhaps it's like foolish to hope for some sort of rationality as regards a case like this, But I would hope that we could be rational about this and everyone agree, yes, this kid deserves some the more than what he's gotten. UM. I don't know. It's it's a bleak one though. That's

putting it lightly. New York recently recently passed a law that kind of acknowledged kind of where you're at with it for victims of domestic or sexual abuse who then committed crimes um that weren't necessarily during the course of that specific abuse UM. And it allowed people like Heath to apply for resentencing if they met certain statutory qualifications um for things that mitigated their crime didn't justify it, but that didn't come out originally. Unfortunately, in Arkansas, we

don't have a similar process. The only thing we have available is this clemency commutation process. And unfortunately, as you said, it should be a political but it's not. It's it's explicitly political. The parole board are all appointees by our governor. The governor is an elected official. There's a reason we filed it in the last year of his last term

in Arkansas. He has term limited, so we're trying to get him at a point where he's as free from the politics to do what he actually thinks is correct. But to think that politics will be removed is I mean, yeah, it never is. No, this is this is the United States inies, you know, politics is is a factor here, and there's a deeply divisive case in the state and especially in Lono County. Well, it's hard I can imagine it being hard to talk with people about just because again,

the nature of the crime is is horrific. And so if you talk about like, well, we we think this guy should have another chance at life, and you're like, well, but he killed three people, he killed his sister, and yes, that is the case, but that's not the only thing

going down here. And you just have to I think, if you're if you're at all, even if you're not coming at this from kind of politically where I am in regarding you know, the car serial state, you have to acknowledge that, like, this is not a race Heath's ribes, but Keith's cribes were also the result of not just the scout master's abuse, but of a number of failures on a on a wide level in our society that allowed that abuse to occur. Um and so I don't know.

I I feel like there's a lot of reasons why it behooves us to give this kid another chance. I don't know. That doesn't make it easier to convince anyone else, But yeah, well, how would this case play out if it happened today versus in even in a more rural part of Arkansas. I think our understanding of several of the issues here it is so has come so far that my hope is Heath would have received a term

of years rather than being charged with capital murder. They originally we're seeking the death penalty, and he made a deal for multiple life sentences, both as someone under twenty one and as a victim of long term sexual abuse. I would like to think that if this happened today, even in that county, what we're asking for is something close to what what would what would happen? I hope, I would hope so that That's why, again we didn't ask for a pardon. We didn't ask let him out today.

We said let him earn it, let him still feel the weight of of what he has done, but give him that light at the end of the tunnel, because you know, there is no one in the Arkansas Department of Correction. Even with the there's just not a victim like him there, and there's not someone who who could be an advocate for victims like him were he to be released. So yep, well, all right, Michael, is there anything else you wanted to get into with this or

any other ways people might be able to help? Check out the website again, post on social media. Um. Uh. The one thing I think we didn't focus on here is Heath himself. Um. Heath is a deeply spiritual individual. He's someone who lives with this on his conscious almost every moment of the day. This is not not someone who you know, feels he's skated by by avoiding the

death penalty. Um. This is someone who has had to learn about trauma, mostly on his own, because with those life sentences, he is ineligible for so many of the programs of the scant programs and resources that we have in the Department of Correction because they don't give it to people who don't have parole dates. So he's had to do a lot of this on his own. He's

come a remarkable way. He's still someone that needs um probably extensive treatment and therapy to deal with his own trauma as well as to deal with the effects of what he did on himself. Um. But he's a remarkable individual. He's a great self advocate. I wish you could speak with him as well. Um. He's someone I'm proud to represent. Not just that I do because I get paid. Um, this is why I got into the practice of law. Is this type of case. Um, he is not innocent,

but he is not. Uh, he should not be bearing the full weight of what occurred. While you know, Jack is serving a life sentence. I think he should have one or two or three more for his role in this. I mean heats youth and heats brain damage. Because of that, sexual abuse should have and now should be considered. And we just hope the governor will Yeah, yeah, hopefully so. And again if you want to learn more, there's Heath stocks dot info. Um. There's a lot of good about

Jack Walls on there as well. UM, and you can there's a link to make a donation to Heath's defense. Um. All right, well, Michael, thank you so much for coming on today. UM, and I hope you have a good rest of your week. Now that's well, it could happen.

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