*Originally published online for The Columbus Dispatch on Nov. 2, 2017*
Many studies confirm the detrimental effects on brain formation when children have adverse childhood experiences, also known as ACEs. There are ten primary ACE factors, some of which include sexual abuse, physical abuse, physical and emotional neglect, household mental illness, and incarcerated parents just to name a few. A 2014 article in American Academy of Pediatrics entitled “Adverse Childhood Experiences and the Lifelong Consequences of Trauma,” supports the findings that ACEs can contribute significantly to negative and physical mental health outcomes.
Alva Campbell, the next man to be executed in Ohio, experienced all of these ten adverse childhood experiences. In my 33 years working with high-risk children I have never experienced a case as horrific as Alva Campbell’s.
Campbell’s clemency report describes his home as a “house of terror.” Both parents were severe alcoholics, his father physically abused Alva’s mother, and when he was done beating her, he sexually and physically abused his children. The abuse was a daily occurrence. Some of this aggression included playing the “electric game,” where he would remove a light bulb and stick his finger into the socket without turning off the electricity. He would then call his children and force them all to join hands and hold onto the kitchen faucet so they would feel the electricity painfully course through their bodies. The only positive experience with his father was receiving praise for stealing, thus creating warped values system. His father was finally arrested and incarcerated for raping his own daughter.
Alva met the criteria for every ACE, and he endured them repeatedly. Additional ACEs include extreme prejudice and cultural identity issues, to which Campbell also suffered. He was not accepted by his white father’s culture nor his black mother’s culture and was abused for being biracial. This issue alone can cause great trauma for a young person who is struggling with identity and acceptance, especially when your own parents do not accept you.
Mr. Campbell was victimized by his father and state systems that failed to intervene. His father was left to abuse his family for far too long, and his trauma from his childhood was never addressed or treated. As a result, Mr. Campbell was diagnosed with PTSD and demonstrated severe symptoms that often cause dissociative behavior when under stress. It is common for prisoners with untreated PTSD to become dissociative and reoffend upon release.
I have worked with many children of similar backgrounds, but what makes this case so remarkable is that there were several opportunities for positive interventions that could have changed the course of Alva Campbell’s life, and ultimately spared his victims. Not only was he abandoned, abused and neglected by his family system, he was abandoned, abused and neglected by every community system thereafter. The educational, mental health, judicial and correctional system has failed Alva Campbell, and thus has failed us all.
In my professional opinion, anyone of us who experienced a childhood like Alva Campbell’s, without the opportunity for therapeutic interventions and safe living environment, would fare worse than Campbell. It’s remarkable that Campbell has been a model prisoner while incarcerated and expressed remorse, despite never having the opportunity for a productive life.
Based on the facts of this case, the omission of his ghastly upbringing in his original trial, the failings of many state systems to intervene, and his terminal illness, clemency for Mr. Campbell is appropriate.
Mercy is reserved for those rare cases of extreme childhood abuse and neglect. Alva Campbell is the rare case where a governor can grant mercy.
Lynn Hensler
Social worker
Cincinnati