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 
There's a new website devoted to the Christie Bray Scott murder case, but this one doesn't question either her quilt or future eternal resting place. Created by her husband Jeremy, the site fails to provide the public with much new information or reason to believe the Scott jury reached an incorrect decision. Christie Scott Is Innocent maintains that the case against the Russellville insurance agent was an amalgam of politics and bad police work. While we doubt that politics were involved more here than in any other case, certainly the lost electrical boxes present a picture of Keystone Kops at their worst.
The basic surprises of the site are the revelation of juror misconduct and photographs of injuries Scott received from the two fire investigators who conducted an interview with the suspect two weeks after Mason's death. It seems alternate juror Sherye Price spoke openly of her opinion of Scott early in the trial, but Franklin County Circuit Judge Terry Dempsey failed to declare a mistrial due to relative certainly Price would not be among the final voting jurors in the case.
The injuries Scott received from Jay Edwards and Dalan Gasset are much more troubling. It's understandable the officers did not wish Scott to interrupt a similar concurrent interview with her husband when she demanded to leave; however, two men using strong physical force on a woman who had not yet been charged does not make for good PR for the State's case at best, and opens the county up to a serious lawsuit at worst.
Many "irregularities" in the Scott case that the site present are quite a stretch. Once section questions the validity of Terry Dempsey's election to office due to differences in notary signatures found on campaign finance disclosures. We're guessing a notary picked up the wrong seal and hurriedly decided the best way to handle the problem was to use a matching signature. Perhaps it wasn't the best thought out answer to the problem, but we doubt any such act would nullify Dempsey's claim to the judgeship.
We suggest Jeremy Scott would better utilize his time by finding a good counselor for his son whom he says is so traumatized by having a mother in prison. Noah Riley deserves to have a father who is there for him, not one who is obsessed with proving the innocence of his wife at all costs.
Correction: Our apologies to Todd Putman, whom we incorrectly identified as Tom in a previous column. Todd is a member of the Grown Folks Band--check them out!
Shoalanda
.jpeg)
.jpeg)
