The last resting place of James Harper, 7.
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Mother Rachel Summers described nightmares she’s experiencing about her former husband chasing her and her 7-year-old son, James.
“James is always screaming and crying, saying, ‘He’s gonna get me, he’s gonna hurt me,’” Summers explained. “And in the end, there is nothing I can do.”
Summers is helpless because she killed son, James Lee Harper III, Jan. 19, 2004 after arguing with her husband about her son’s behavior.
James, a second-grade student at Christiana Elementary School, died after his mother beat his head with a table leg, fed him rat poison and smothered him at their Ebb Court home.
Summers is serving a life term in prison for murdering her son. Her husband, Ed, is serving a 20-year sentence for helping in the murder.
When Ed Summers entered a best interest plea two years ago, the agreement specified he would be eligible for parole after serving about six years. But Ed Summers, 30, has a date Oct. 13 for possible release with the Tennessee Board of Probation and Parole.
Rachel Summers won’t be there to oppose his release but she wrote a letter to the parole board outlining how her ex-husband physically abused her son.
“James never did anything right in his eyes,” the mother wrote in the letter.
Rachel Summers blamed herself for not leaving Ed Summers but accused him of threatening to kill her, James, their daughter Madeline, and her family if they left. Madeline was adopted after her parents were incarcerated.
Ed Summers’ plea
After Rachel Summers pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, a sheriff’s detective charged Ed Summers with murder and conspiracy and solicitation to commit murder for his role in James’ death.
Assistant District Attorney Trevor Lynch filed motions seeking a life sentence without parole against Ed Summers. Afterwards, Lynch and Ed Summers’ attorney Brad Hornsby reached a plea agreement Ed Summers took.
During the April 3, 2007 plea, Lynch said Ed and Rachel Summers discussed giving James rat poison. Also, Rachel Summers told sheriff’s detectives her husband tried to strangle James but she pulled him off and smothered him. Her husband told detectives he knew about James’ injuries but didn’t call for help.
“Ed Summers could have stopped it and he didn’t,” Lynch said.
Hornsby said Ed Summers denied hurting James. If the case had gone to trial, jurors would have to decide if Ed Summers helped. Instead of going to trial, his client took the state offer to plea to facilitation with a reduced sentence of 20 years.
District Attorney William Whitesell said Ed Summers sentence showed he would be eligible for parole after serving 30 percent of his sentence or after serving six years.
“He was involved in a crime that resulted in the death of a child and although there were problems with proving exactly what he did, there’s no question in my mind he has had a hand in the death of that child,” Whitesell said.
The prosecutor couldn’t answer why Ed Summers is eligible for parole after serving less than 2-1/2 years.
“I am surprised that a person involved in a violent crime would be considered for some type of early release,” Whitesell said. “I’m aware the state is facing a financial budget situation that’s not good. I have never understood emptying the prison to solve a financial problem.
“To me, one of the basic rights we have is the right to public safety,” Whitesell said. “It distresses me if that’s what’s happening in this case.”
District attorneys were assured in the past the Department of Correction would not release violent offenders early.
“I hope we haven’t gotten to that in this state,” Whitesell said.
Parole process
Corrections spokeswoman Dorinda Carter said the department has a safety valve in effect to reduce overcrowding.
“It allows for 40 percent release on most offenses except for sex offenses,” Carter explained.
Spokeswoman Melissa McDonald of the Tennessee Board of Probation and Parole said the board sets hearings for offenders based on notification from the Department of Corrections, whose employees keep the time served for offenders.
Just because someone is eligible for parole doesn’t mean they will be released.
“The board’s grant rate is only about 30-35 percent of the eligible offenders they consider,” McDonald said. “When determining whether an offender is suitable for parole, the board considers factors like the seriousness of the offense, time served, the offender's behavior record in prison, letters of support or opposition to the parole, victim impact (including any testimony offered at the parole hearing), etc. They use all of that information to reach a decision.”
Pat Carr, who is assistant victim witness coordinator for the district attorney’s office, said James’ maternal grandmother Janet Pursley of Rutherford County was notified in September about Ed Summers’ parole hearing.
Carr called the board and learned because of the prison overcrowding, convicts may be released sooner.
Pursley asked Whitesell to write a letter opposing Ed Summers’ release, which the D.A. did.
Pursley and her husband, Will, learned they can oppose Ed Summers’ release through a video broadcast from Nashville with the Whiteville Correctional Facility in West Tennessee where he is incarcerated.
“I’m very upset and very angry about it,” Pursley said with anger visible in her tone. “He needs to stay in there the full 20 years and then some.”
She believes Ed Summers instigated her grandson’s death.
“He is a cold-blooded monster and he will do this to another child,” Pursley said.
She’s asked family and friends to write letters opposing Ed Summers’ release.
Her son, Jason Cline, urged people to write letters to the parole board.
“People should respond because after what Ed helped do or did, 2-1/2 years is not long enough,” Cline stated in an e-mail message. “He should, in my opinion, serve the entire sentence of 20 years.”
James’ murder affected and hurt many people, including children, in the Christiana community and Rutherford County, he said.
“Anyone that does what he did, doesn't deserve to be free,” Cline stated.
“I feel the justice system is letting me down,” Cline wrote. “We had been told by the D.A. (district attorney) that it would be seven years before he got a chance at parole, maybe less depending on few things, but not much less. Now out of the blue we get a notice in a month that he is up for a parole hearing.”
People should oppose his release because they should not want a man like him to be walking around, free, Cline stated.
“James didn't have a choice on what happened to him, but I have a chance to help keep Ed in prison as long as I am alive,” Cline stated. “The more letters and people that sign the petition, the better chance they will deny his parole.”
In writing about her reason to oppose her ex-husband’s parole, Rachel Summers said she’s sure people would say she has no right to comment. She responds to her critics.
“I made several mistakes in my life,” Summers wrote. “That doesn’t change the fact that I loved my son or daughter.”
She knows she let James down and failed to protect him.
“The only thing I can do now is speak up for him, speak up and beg people to listen to myself and my family, to help us keep Ed locked up as long as possible,” Summers wrote.
Lisa Marchesoni may be reached at 869-0814 or at lmarchesoni@murfreesboropost.com.
People who wish to comment about Ed Summers’ release or the release of any inmate with a chance of parole may contact the Tennessee Board of Parole and Probation. Comments should include the inmate’s name, hearing date and victim’s name.
• Web site at www.tn.gov/bopp. Open the tab entitled “For crime victims.” Click on “victim statement” and write in the Adobe document and submit.
• E-mail at victim.witness@tn.gov.
• Fax letter to 741-5337.
• Mail letter to Board of Probation and Parole, 404 James Robertson Parkway, Suite 1300, Nashville, Tenn., 37243-0850. |
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