Crime
Such name changes raise complex questions about a person’s right to move on with their life after paying for their crimes.
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — For years, sisters Jennifer McCulloch and Erica Duncan inserted James Covington’s name into an online inmate database to confirm that their mother’s killer remained incarcerated.
When a routine search last May yielded no results, they panicked. And even after confirming he was still behind bars, their fears took on a new form: his new name.
Unbeknownst to the sisters, Covington had changed his first name six months earlier to Jamauri, telling a judge that he had worked hard to correct his wrongdoing and was seeking a “fresh start” decades after strangling his ex-girlfriend Debra Duncan and left his body. in a cemetery.
Another judge later overturned the change, but Covington is now trying to rename himself Jamauri Abdul Haleem. While that petition is pending, lawmakers have addressed the issue with legislation that would make it more difficult for certain convicted felons to change their names.
“It is very important that victims’ families are informed of potential changes in an offender’s status so that we can do our part in the future, continuing to fight for justice and our own safety,” McCulloch said in a press release. recent interview.
Under current law, those who are incarcerated, on parole or probation, registered as sex offenders or as offenders against children must convince a court that a name change is necessary, but there is no requirement to inform the victims or their closest relatives. A bill sent to the governor Thursday would require people convicted of certain violent crimes, including murder, and those convicted of crimes against children to also appear before a judge. It also gives victims or their family members the opportunity to give their opinion.
That’s something Donna and Gordon Packer didn’t understand when the man who killed their daughter in 1989 changed his name from Peter Dushame to Peter Stone nine years later. Ten-year-old Lacey was on the back of her father’s motorcycle, returning from a Toys for Tots fundraiser when Dushame, drunk, crashed into them.
“No one from the state has contacted us to ask for our advice,” Donna Packer wrote to lawmakers. “At the time, we would not have supported his request to change his name because it seemed very disingenuous, as if he was trying to avoid responsibility. It was as if my daughter’s death meant nothing to him.
Released from prison in 2002, Stone became a licensed drug and alcohol counselor. In 2021, he was charged with five counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault under a law that criminalizes any sexual contact between patients and their therapists or health care providers. His accuser, Bonnie Sitomer, spoke anonymously to The Associated Press in 2022 about her discovery of Stone’s past, but she has now gone public with her support for the legislation.
“I want to help create change that prevents something like this from happening to other victims,” she said this week.
“I felt like the state was taking away my right to know what I was facing,” Sitomer said. “I did some research on his new name, but it didn’t help me because he had a clean slate. The state allowing him to do this took away my right to protect myself.
Such name changes raise complex questions about a person’s right to move on with their life after paying for their crimes. But New Hampshire is not alone in imposing restrictions. Rep. Katelyn Kuttab, the bill’s sponsor, said about half of states already have similar laws.
“Ten states don’t allow you to change your name at all if you’re currently incarcerated, so this is what I think is a happy medium,” said Kuttab, who said she thought of her own family when she wrote the bill.
“As a mother, it was a big safety issue for me to think that someone could commit a violent crime, murder someone, and then just change their name and walk away with a clean slate so no one would know their past,” she said.
Debra Duncan’s two daughters, the Packers and Sitomer, were at the Statehouse for Thursday’s vote, alongside advocates from the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence. Gov. Chris Sununu has not yet taken a position on the bill, but spokesman Benjamin Vihstadt said Wednesday he supports efforts to safeguard victims’ rights.
Meanwhile, Covington, whose first parole date is 2028, is making a third attempt to change his name. His first request was granted, but the state sued to overturn the change. He then filed a new petition, arguing that he feared retaliation from a former prison staff member upon his release. This was refused in March, but in April he filed another petition seeking to change his name to Jamauri Abdul Haleem “so that I can live my Islamic faith through practice and worship in daily life.”
He claims that refusing this request would violate his constitutional right to freely exercise his religion. His victim’s daughters remain opposed. Victims and their families don’t have quick ways to erase the past, and neither do criminals, Erica Duncan said.
“People deserve to know who they really are and what they are capable of, and changing their name allows them to walk away from their crime and essentially be a new person,” she said.
Boston
