Toy Airplane Responsible for Fatal Fire?

The toy airplane is made of Styrofoam and hardly seems worth the $40.00 retail price at which it sold in 2006. Now Robert Tuten is asking the courts to consider this recalled toy may be the cause of the August 16, 2008, fire that claimed the life of Mason Scott.

Today Franklin County Circuit Judge Terry Dempsey refused to order a new trial for Mason's mother Christie Bray Scott, recently sentenced to death for the murder of the six year-old. Tuten and his associate Nick Heatherly only recently added the information concerning the recalled toy to their appeal of Scott's conviction. What are the chances that the Spin Master toy actually did ignite bedding in the room Mason shared with his younger brother Noah Riley?

According to experts, the chance that the Air Hogs RC Skywinder plane caused the fatal fire is infinitesimal. The source of the recall for the Toys-R-Us plane was the battery powered remote controller. No fires have ever been attributed to the device, but the small controller was found to emit heat in sufficient amounts to produce first degree burns on the hands of youngsters who operated the toy.

Further, only 7,500 of the planes produced by the Canadian toy company were involved in the recall. Since the toy in question was consumed in the fire, there can be no way to ascertain if Mason's plane came from defective stock.

Now, Christie Bray Scott has returned to her death row cell at the Julia Tutwiler Prison in Wetumpka where she awaits her next appeal, an appeal that will in all probability not be heard for six months or even a year. In the interim, her legal bills are mounting and her husband and son have begun a new life in another town. How can anyone doubt that life under such circumstances is a more effective punishment than a swift injection given under heavy sedation?


What's up with this: The city of Tuscumbia is considering new uses for its former downtown post office. No mention has been made of its historic mural from the Roosevelt Works Projects Administration era. Hopefully Tuscumbia town fathers are aware of the treasure and are prepared to save the art at all costs.

Shoalanda