McLaughlin's Beat; No. 312; Tommy Trantino: Ten More Years

<v John McLaughlin>Good evening, I'm John McGlocklin. <v John McLaughlin>We're here at the correction center in Yardville for next half hour. <v John McLaughlin>I'll be talking to Tommy Trantino, who has been in prison for 19 years. <v John McLaughlin>For his part in the slaying of two Lodi policeman, he lost  his most recent round <v John McLaughlin>with the state parole board, which means he'll probably be here for another five years <v John McLaughlin>and maybe as many as 10. <v John McLaughlin>Tommy, thanks for agreeing to talk with us. <v Tom Trantino>Thank you. <v John McLaughlin>As far as I know, this is the first time that you've- you're willing to talk publicly <v John McLaughlin>about this parole board decision. <v John McLaughlin>So why don't you just talk to me for a couple of minutes and tell me how you feel about <v John McLaughlin>it? <v Tom Trantino>Well, I'm very hurt and upset by it, <v Tom Trantino>not only for myself and the disappointment <v Tom Trantino>and the injustice that I feel has happened to me, <v Tom Trantino>but for what it has done to my family and what I think <v Tom Trantino>it does to society on the whole. <v Tom Trantino>What is being done to me is not an isolated <v Tom Trantino>incident. And I while I am an extreme example of

<v Tom Trantino>what is going on, I'm not an exception to the rule. <v Tom Trantino>I am what is the rule. <v Tom Trantino>There are hundreds upon hundreds of prisoners in this <v Tom Trantino>state, in the prisons and the county jails are being held <v Tom Trantino>beyond their legal dates that they're required to stay <v Tom Trantino>in prison because of the parole board's actions. <v John McLaughlin>Well, let's let's let's walk through your case a little, because it's it's a little bit <v John McLaughlin>complicated, to say the least. You were first eligible for parole in 1979, <v John McLaughlin>right? <v Tom Trantino>Actually, it was 1977. <v Tom Trantino>And the parole board found a way of making me do two extra <v Tom Trantino>years before I was able to see the parole board again. <v John McLaughlin>But you were initially rejected. And then finally in 1980, the board granted you <v John McLaughlin>parole with the proviso that you pay restitution to the families of the two dead <v John McLaughlin>policemen, then that the assignment <v John McLaughlin>judge in Bergen County was supposed to set the amount of that restitution. <v John McLaughlin>He said restitution is not applicable in a murder case that

<v John McLaughlin>was upheld by the appellate division. <v John McLaughlin>And then the case went up to the Supreme Court. <v John McLaughlin>The Supreme Court said restitution is fine, but <v John McLaughlin>the parole board ought to reconsider Trantino's case. <v John McLaughlin>So they remanded that the case back to the parole board. <v John McLaughlin>Then what happened? Why did a parole board turn it down? <v Tom Trantino>Well, the parole board turned me down on the basis of <v Tom Trantino>a psychological report, which they quoted out of context <v Tom Trantino>without citing the conclusions of that <v Tom Trantino>report or any other psychological report that was made on me <v Tom Trantino>over the last 20 years in prison. <v John McLaughlin>But you've been psychoanalyzed five times now in terms of your parole eligibility. <v John McLaughlin>And each time, as far as I can think about, the answer comes out the same way <v John McLaughlin>that you're not a threat to society and that you, that you could be released and <v John McLaughlin>that you wouldn't commit another crime.

<v John McLaughlin>But why the parole board did what it did in writing that decision? <v John McLaughlin>I don't really know because they had lots of other options. <v John McLaughlin>They could have said that we're what we're doing is what the Supreme Court told <v John McLaughlin>us to do was to reconsider Trantino in terms of whether he's been punished enough. <v John McLaughlin>No, he hasn't been punished enough. Therefore, he's got to stay in jail for 10 more <v John McLaughlin>years. <v Tom Trantino>Right. Well, if I may comment first on the 10 year part of it. <v Tom Trantino>The parole board became like a sentencing court in my case. <v Tom Trantino>This has never happened before in the history of this state, in the history <v Tom Trantino>of any state in the United States, in the history of South <v Tom Trantino>Africa or even Russia, John. <v Tom Trantino>They sentenced me to 10 years more. <v Tom Trantino>And I've got almost 20 years in prison with the stipulation that I do a minimum <v Tom Trantino>of five years before I'm eligible to be heard again. <v Tom Trantino>And who's to say that when I go back in five years or whenever <v Tom Trantino>they don't give me another 10, 10 years, 20 years, 100 years or whatever they want to do,

<v Tom Trantino>they are not following the law. <v Tom Trantino>Recently in an article in the Newark Star Ledger, <v Tom Trantino>this thing about the article was revealed. <v Tom Trantino>This thing about the psychological report that was used as a basis <v Tom Trantino>deny to deny me parole was revealed here. <v Tom Trantino>And the parole board chairman himself admitted that what the parole <v Tom Trantino>board did was unforgivable, what they did was wrong. <v Tom Trantino>So I want to ask you a question now. <v Tom Trantino>Why am I being punished again still <v Tom Trantino>for what the parole board does wrong? <v Tom Trantino>I have committed no crimes in 20 years, John. <v Tom Trantino>I want to really deal with that question you asked me, it's an important question. <v Tom Trantino>Because I'm not the only person that this happens to. <v Tom Trantino>There are many men in prison who are just like I am, who don't hurt people, <v Tom Trantino>who help people who are doing more time because of some

<v Tom Trantino>arbitrary reasons that the parole board decides to use. <v John McLaughlin>But but the Supreme Court said that the board should consider <v John McLaughlin>that kind of a crime it was, there were two policemen who were executed <v John McLaughlin>on their knees begging for their lives. <v John McLaughlin>That's that's a ho- is a horrible crime. <v Tom Trantino>Every crime is horrible. <v Tom Trantino>All murders are horrible and heinous. <v Tom Trantino>They are not they are not different than the crimes that happen to police. <v Tom Trantino>But again, the Supreme Court was misquoted <v Tom Trantino>by the parole board in its decision. <v Tom Trantino>The chairman lied about this. <v Tom Trantino>The Supreme Court didn't tell them to give me 10 years to punish <v Tom Trantino>me. They told them to reexamine my case, to see <v Tom Trantino>if the punitive aspects of my crime <v Tom Trantino>and my sentence had been satisfied. <v John McLaughlin>Well did you get the extra 10 years because every time your case comes up, hundreds of <v John McLaughlin>policemen come out and demonstrate because the families of the two dead officers talk to

<v John McLaughlin>the newspapers. <v Tom Trantino>No, that's not why the police come out. <v Tom Trantino>The police don't come out because of the families, nor did the families come <v Tom Trantino>out because of the crime directly. <v Tom Trantino>They came out because of lies and distortions about this crime <v Tom Trantino>and my participation in it. <v Tom Trantino>There were many lies which were only recently retracted <v Tom Trantino>by the media and by the PBA itself in regard to this crime. <v Tom Trantino>This is why the police demonstrated in front of a court of law <v Tom Trantino>in the state of New Jersey that was is supposed to be <v Tom Trantino>fairly and objectively adjudicating a case shouting <v Tom Trantino>kill because they were told lies about me. <v Tom Trantino>There was a person right on your show when I was on with him two years <v Tom Trantino>ago who admitted to lying to his own police about this. <v John McLaughlin>The lies are as follows and that the two officers

<v John McLaughlin>were made were forced to commit sex acts on you and your partner, Frank Falco, <v John McLaughlin>that policemen were urinated upon. <v John McLaughlin>[Tom Trantino: Right.] And there were. But but so much. <v John McLaughlin>Let's assume that that didn't happen. They were, in fact beaten. <v Tom Trantino>It's not an assumption. It did not happen according to the state, to the <v Tom Trantino>facts adduced by the state itself, separate from my involvement <v Tom Trantino>and participation in whatever happened that night. <v John McLaughlin>What- you have never admitted this crime? <v John McLaughlin>It seems to me it's a big product-. <v Tom Trantino>I didn't admit the crime because I di-. <v Tom Trantino>That is my problem, John. I didn't admit the crime because I did not commit <v Tom Trantino>the crime. However, John, I have never lied about <v Tom Trantino>my participation in a crime that evening. <v Tom Trantino>And I should be punished for what I did, not for what I didn't <v Tom Trantino>do. Now I've been punished, I was sent to the death house, forced to spend nine <v Tom Trantino>years in solitary confinement under a sentence of death. <v Tom Trantino>And I'm still in prison for something that I did not actually do.

<v Tom Trantino>I'm being punished and I was punished for something I did not do. <v John McLaughlin>Why didn't you take the easy way out and just lie about it? <v John McLaughlin>Say yea, I did do it, you might be out of here by -. <v Tom Trantino>Yes, I could do that. And my family and many friends, many <v Tom Trantino>people call me just say you did it. <v Tom Trantino>They'll let you go. Bow your head, bend the knee. <v Tom Trantino>Submit to them. But there is something more important. <v Tom Trantino>And believe me, John, you think that I don't want to come home. <v Tom Trantino>I want to come home with my whole heart and soul. <v Tom Trantino>And I certainly have thought about it and I just can't do it. <v Tom Trantino>There's something more important here than Tommy Trantino <v Tom Trantino>or Tommy Trantino's case or the case at Bar. <v Tom Trantino>It's what this case represents to this system. <v Tom Trantino>It is a very difficult case. <v Tom Trantino>And there have been people who are who have sworn to uphold the laws of this state, <v Tom Trantino>who will break the laws of the state because of hysteria, <v Tom Trantino>because of distortions of facts.

<v Tom Trantino>And this does not allow me to have a fair adjudication. <v John McLaughlin>Tom, are you 100 percent sure you didn't commit that murder? <v John McLaughlin>You and Frank Falco were in the bar? <v John McLaughlin>[Tom Trantino: Yes.] You had been drinking and taking uppers for something like 12 hours, <v John McLaughlin>maybe 14 hours. [Tom Trantino: Yes.] OK. <v John McLaughlin>The two policemen came in and you admit that you helped disarm, one <v John McLaughlin>of them. <v John McLaughlin>And then you say that Falco did- shot the two <v John McLaughlin>policemen. <v Tom Trantino>No, I don't say that Falco shot them. <v Tom Trantino>[inaudible] fact let the facts of the case. <v Tom Trantino>I say that I left before there was a murder committed. <v John McLaughlin>Are you sure you left before it? <v Tom Trantino>I know. I did not kill anyone. <v Tom Trantino>If, John, people I have been tried by the media <v Tom Trantino>retried over and over again by the media, and I'm not trying <v Tom Trantino>to attack you in any way or any individuals, I know it's a difficult thing. <v Tom Trantino>The parole board has retried me over and over again. <v Tom Trantino>I have sought a new trial for 20 years.

<v Tom Trantino>Why don't they just give me a new trial and allow the facts- <v Tom Trantino>I'm not afraid for the facts of the case to emerge, to allow <v Tom Trantino>these facts to be weighed fairly and impartially, not in the sensationalistic <v Tom Trantino>way, not in a way where the community-,. <v John McLaughlin>A lot of the witnesses or some of the witnesses are probably dead or gone. <v Tom Trantino>But the witnesses, as far as I know, are not dead. <v Tom Trantino>They're all alive and would have to be made available. <v John McLaughlin>Tommy, when you come up again. <v John McLaughlin>In either 1987 or 1992, do you expect this to happen to you again? <v Tom Trantino>Yes. I don't expect- [John McLaughlin: Do you expect to be here?] I don't expect I have a <v Tom Trantino>life sentence, John. And if they gave me six months at a time to bleed me <v Tom Trantino>that way or 10 years at a time, as they're starting to do now, giving me parole, <v Tom Trantino>taking it away, it doesn't seem to make any difference. <v Tom Trantino>The parole board is a state agency. <v Tom Trantino>It's violated its trust and they will not

<v Tom Trantino>grant me my rights. <v Tom Trantino>The justice that I merit, John, I hurt no one. <v Tom Trantino>I, I help people. <v Tom Trantino>In all my years in prison have not raised my hand to a human being. <v Tom Trantino>Why is this being done to me? <v Tom Trantino>Well, why are you saying I have to keep turning around the questions that are asked <v Tom Trantino>of me? What? Even if what you said yourself. <v Tom Trantino>Let us assume that the implications of your earlier question <v Tom Trantino>was that I did commit this crime. <v Tom Trantino>Let us say that I did. <v Tom Trantino>And so I committed a murder. <v Tom Trantino>And that's a serious crime. I don't deny that. <v Tom Trantino>But there are laws in this state and the laws say that everyone must be treated <v Tom Trantino>fairly and impartially and equally. <v Tom Trantino>There are others who have been committed, convicted of the same crimes <v Tom Trantino>that I have been convicted of, who are home, who were in the death house with me <v Tom Trantino>for the same crimes or worse, who even had more

<v Tom Trantino>bodies or more time. <v Tom Trantino>And they have been released on parole. <v John McLaughlin>But the board, it seems to me, at least at one point, wanted to let you out. <v Tom Trantino>They did parole me on a number of occasions. <v Tom Trantino>This is what is so unjust and <v Tom Trantino>crazy about the whole thing. <v Tom Trantino>I was paroled on a number of occasions. <v Tom Trantino>The parole was later rescinded. <v John McLaughlin>Is that political pressure? <v Tom Trantino>That I-I think there is no question there is political pressure. <v Tom Trantino>If you remember a few years ago when I was going up for parole, <v Tom Trantino>John Degnan was the attorney general of New Jersey. <v Tom Trantino>He was running for governor. <v Tom Trantino>He was wanted to take a strong stance on crime. <v Tom Trantino>Here I was readily available to be used <v Tom Trantino>as a whipping boy for an issue that deeply concerns the public. <v Tom Trantino>And he sent a letter to the parole board. <v Tom Trantino>Right while I was in there with a state trooper to tell the parole

<v Tom Trantino>board interfering with a legal procedure that was going <v Tom Trantino>on to tell them not to give me parole. <v John McLaughlin>Tom are you uh, you're suggesting here that you may stay in jail for the rest of your <v John McLaughlin>life.[Tom: yes] How are you going to handle that psychologically? <v Tom Trantino>John, in a way, unfortunately, I don't like to speak about it, because <v Tom Trantino>then it gives people the opportunity who want to punish me and make me suffer <v Tom Trantino>a greater impetus to continue to make me suffer and punish me. <v Tom Trantino>I can deal with anything now after what I've been through in my life and <v Tom Trantino>the things that I've seen and all that, I do not <v Tom Trantino>want to harm myself. I do not want to harm other people. <v Tom Trantino>I have learned how to deal with my problems and the problems <v Tom Trantino>that are around me. And I work to try to solve those problems so I could deal with <v Tom Trantino>it no matter what is done to me. I was able to deal with the death house. <v Tom Trantino>I'm intact. I'm a human being.

<v John McLaughlin>How do how do other prisoners here react to you? <v John McLaughlin>Do they they resent the fact that you're something of a celebrity? <v Tom Trantino>No, no, no, I don't. I'm not a celebrity. <v Tom Trantino>I don't consider myself a celebrity. <v Tom Trantino>And I will not let other prisoners consider me as a celebrity. <v Tom Trantino>I work very hard here. <v Tom Trantino>I work I was called a psychopath by by the parole board here. <v Tom Trantino>And yet I'm assigned to work with juveniles in this prison. <v Tom Trantino>Person- young men who have very serious problems. <v Tom Trantino>I counsel them. <v Tom Trantino>This is what the state corrections authorities know <v Tom Trantino>about me. What I'm capable of doing. <v Tom Trantino>[John: But you don't-] how I really am. <v John McLaughlin>You don't really do what they would like you to do, which is to take part in these <v John McLaughlin>rehabilitation programs, which are not run by prisoners, which are run by by the system. <v John McLaughlin>You won't do that. <v Tom Trantino>That's not true. That is also a distortion of what is the truth. <v Tom Trantino>First of all, I spent nine years on death row. <v Tom Trantino>There was nothing there at all except the <v Tom Trantino>insanity of that confinement.

<v Tom Trantino>I was then released to Roarway. There were what programs, you tell me about <v Tom Trantino>rehabilitation programs there were then. <v Tom Trantino>What programs are there now? This is one of the things that I and so many other prisoners <v Tom Trantino>labor very hard to do. And we don't work against officers <v Tom Trantino>here or staff members here or the politics of things. <v Tom Trantino>We try to work in ways to solve a problem that we know confronts <v Tom Trantino>everyone. And we want real programs. <v Tom Trantino>We don't want this that the public is continuously lied to. <v Tom Trantino>The overwhelming majority of people in prison need not be in prison. <v Tom Trantino>I'm sorry, John. That's the truth. <v Tom Trantino>They hurt no one. They are being kept here for political reasons. <v Tom Trantino>The economy is rotten and you don't want young men on the streets. <v Tom Trantino>They're building more prisons to get them off the streets. <v Tom Trantino>There's a very definite threat that people in power <v Tom Trantino>in the system feel here and they are punishing. <v Tom Trantino>As usual, the poor and the working class people of this state.

<v John McLaughlin>But it's true, is it not, that the great many prisoners who were released from places <v John McLaughlin>like Yardville and Rahway go out and do it again? <v Tom Trantino>Unfortunatly, I did-, John. I am a victim of this system, <v Tom Trantino>too. I did time in New York before this <v Tom Trantino>for a robbery. I was a dope addict, all of those things. <v Tom Trantino>And I did do those crimes. <v Tom Trantino>And what the system did was grind me up and turn me into <v Tom Trantino>a no good person. <v Tom Trantino>I was worse when I came out than when I went in. <v Tom Trantino>The system is not geared to helping people solve their <v Tom Trantino>problems. Their sole purpose is to control <v Tom Trantino>the sardines in these cans. <v John McLaughlin>Ok, but you've solved-. You solved your own psychological problems, haven't you? <v John McLaughlin>To your own satisfaction? <v Tom Trantino>I've had to. I've been a very, I'm blessed by God. <v Tom Trantino>I'm blessed that I have a family and many friends who support me <v Tom Trantino>and help me and who love me and who care about me.

<v Tom Trantino>That is an exception in prison. <v Tom Trantino>Most of the men here have no families have no one who cares about them <v Tom Trantino>at all. <v John McLaughlin>Tommy, when you went up to the last hearing before the parole board, you had an <v John McLaughlin>opportunity to present witnesses on your behalf and you didn't do that. <v John McLaughlin>Why not? <v Tom Trantino>No, because I made a presentation. <v Tom Trantino>I didn't. I didn't. It was a farce. <v Tom Trantino>What was that to do? All of that evidence was a sensational <v Tom Trantino>attempt by the parole board to distort the facts of the case. <v Tom Trantino>I have always comported with the law, with the standards my attorneys <v Tom Trantino>have. My friends have. I'm a media person, too, John. <v Tom Trantino>I have access to the media directly and indirectly. <v Tom Trantino>I felt that that was would be inappropriate <v Tom Trantino>to do. I have many famous people, so-called real celebrities. <v Tom Trantino>That's why I'm not a celebrity who would be more than happy to testify, who have <v Tom Trantino>supported me in the past. And would continue to. <v John McLaughlin>Was it because you figured you were going to lose in any event?

<v Tom Trantino>No. No, I didn't. No, I actually believe I was so naive, <v Tom Trantino>even after 20 years, that there's such a thing as justice in this world and that I would <v Tom Trantino>get justice regardless, that I wanted only to argue the facts <v Tom Trantino>and not be diverted by things that had no substance or importance <v Tom Trantino>or relevance. <v John McLaughlin>You've been married since you've been in jail. <v John McLaughlin>How often do you get to see your wife? <v Tom Trantino>Once a week. <v John McLaughlin>She comes here? <v Tom Trantino>She comes here in the crowded, inhuman conditions that <v Tom Trantino>exist here and not through anybody's fault, but for the reasons I said these problems <v Tom Trantino>are very serious. John, I hate to keep harping on them to you. <v Tom Trantino>The problems that the parole board is presenting to me are <v Tom Trantino>presented to the system. <v Tom Trantino>It's not just me. It's many men and women and juveniles in the entire <v Tom Trantino>system. They cannot provide rehabilitation programs. <v Tom Trantino>Now, they can't provide the space that's necessary because these places <v Tom Trantino>are overflowing. They are coming out through the cracks here.

<v John McLaughlin>What about the old penal code versus the new penal code? <v John McLaughlin>It's a big factor in your case. The court said that because your crime was committed <v John McLaughlin>prior to 1979 when the new penal code went into effect, that the board <v John McLaughlin>could apply the old standards to you. They could make a judgment as to whether you had <v John McLaughlin>been punished enough. Now, when when someone is convicted of a crime and sentenced, <v John McLaughlin>he gets a date certain, a firm date for his parole. <v John McLaughlin>And unless the state can prove that he's substantial, a substantial risk to society, <v John McLaughlin>he goes free. <v John McLaughlin>How did the prisoners feel about the new rule? Are they satisfied with that? <v Tom Trantino>Not any longer. Because what they're doing to me is scaring other prisoners. <v Tom Trantino>They say that the laws are saying one thing and is supposed <v Tom Trantino>to be following the laws this way. It's supposed to be a more progressive way, <v Tom Trantino>intelligent way to deal with problems. <v Tom Trantino>And people are being punished and doing more time actually now. <v Tom Trantino>But they're not being released at the time <v Tom Trantino>they're supposed to be released. And what they're doing to me, imagine how all the other

<v Tom Trantino>lifers in this system feel. Imagine how all the other men in this system who <v Tom Trantino>are doing a lot of time, feel. <v Tom Trantino>This could happen to them. You think it's going to stop with me? <v John McLaughlin>Tommy, if you had been sentenced under a new penal code, would probably have to do a <v John McLaughlin>minimum of 40 years in jail. Do you agree with that? <v Tom Trantino>No. <v John McLaughlin>Well, you would've gotten-. <v Tom Trantino>This is a preposterous assumption that the chairman of the parole <v Tom Trantino>board is making. First of all, it's just like saying that I would have been convicted <v Tom Trantino>on two separate counts of murder and would have to have done 50 years or whatever. <v Tom Trantino>How do they know I would be convicted? <v Tom Trantino>How do they know-. <v John McLaughlin>Because you were convicted in 1963. <v Tom Trantino>No. But why was I convicted? <v Tom Trantino>I was not convicted fairly. <v Tom Trantino>I was railroaded, John. I have never ceased from making that <v Tom Trantino>point. And I am not condemning this. <v Tom Trantino>The criminal justice system in New Jersey, they wre very- please <v Tom Trantino>let me make this point. I'm sorry, John. <v Tom Trantino>They're very honest people in this system.

<v Tom Trantino>I have met them. I know they're honest and believe in justice and damatic- <v Tom Trantino>democratic principles of law. <v Tom Trantino>But they have allowed hysteria, as <v Tom Trantino>has happened in many serious cases, to overcome their better judgment. <v Tom Trantino>And they've allowed a small group of people who I feel are corrupt and <v Tom Trantino>ignorant and incompetent and insecure to <v Tom Trantino>presumptively take away the rights of everyone endanger the <v Tom Trantino>system itself and society. <v John McLaughlin>Tommy, you didn't necessarily get an unfair trial. There were witnesses at the trial who <v John McLaughlin>testified that you were there when the shooting occurred. <v Tom Trantino>Soviet Russia could learn a lot from what happened to me <v Tom Trantino>at my trial. <v Tom Trantino>There were these lies put out about me. <v Tom Trantino>Nooses were hung. I was hung in effigy. <v Tom Trantino>There are people trying to kill me. <v Tom Trantino>I was isolated from everyone. <v John McLaughlin>That's why you surrendered, wasn't it? Because-. <v Tom Trantino>No, I surrendered to fate. <v Tom Trantino>People didn't say I killed anyone until I surrendered.

<v Tom Trantino>I surrendered to face the charges that were lodged against me, not because I was afraid <v Tom Trantino>of anything. I really have confidence in <v Tom Trantino>the idea of justice. And law. <v John McLaughlin>Why weren't you afraid? Your partner was shot to death in a Manhattan hotel room by half <v John McLaughlin>a dozen cops. <v Tom Trantino>He was. He was not shot to death. <v Tom Trantino>He was murdered. And that's an interesting point too how that has been <v Tom Trantino>ignored by the media and people in authority. <v Tom Trantino>He was murdered. The American Civil Liberties Union and many others scream <v Tom Trantino>bloody murder, literally when he was murdered, was shot about 18 <v Tom Trantino>times. <v John McLaughlin>He was unarmed. <v Tom Trantino>And they said he was unarmed and they demanded an investigation. <v Tom Trantino>And Governor Rockefeller, who brought you the Rockefeller laws, the draconian <v Tom Trantino>laws in New York, and former Mayor Wagner and Police Commissioner Murphy <v Tom Trantino>all hit the media saying, what are you worried about this murderer? <v Tom Trantino>What about these cops? Which is a totally diversion <v Tom Trantino>from reality and the issues that took place.

<v Tom Trantino>So his murder is still an unsolved murder. <v Tom Trantino>Why was that murder allowed to go unpunished? <v Tom Trantino>Why? I must ask to again, it refers to what is being done to me. <v Tom Trantino>People were chanting, kill, kill me. <v Tom Trantino>These are policemen. But I don't blame them. <v Tom Trantino>They were lied to. Why? <v Tom Trantino>These are terroristic acts. <v Tom Trantino>Who is punishing these people? <v Tom Trantino>Who polices the police? [John: Gloria-] who judges, the judges? <v John McLaughlin>Gloria Soto, who was a member of the parole board, said of you that <v John McLaughlin>one has to wonder how much anger is seething inside of Tommy Trentino and what <v John McLaughlin>would result from that. How angry are you? <v Tom Trantino>I'm not an angry man. I'm not an embittered man. <v Tom Trantino>My life is literally an open book. <v Tom Trantino>I've lived a goldfish bowl existence for 20 years. <v Tom Trantino>People have observed me. I don't use drugs. <v Tom Trantino>I don't use alcohol. I have not had one incident of violence <v Tom Trantino>throughout my stay in prison under the most inhuman

<v Tom Trantino>criminal conditions imaginable. <v John McLaughlin>What do you do to keep your head together, Tommy? Do you do yoga? <v Tom Trantino>I- no. I do meditate myself. <v Tom Trantino>I have my own form of meditation. I do review my daily activities. <v Tom Trantino>At the end of each day before I come out of my cell in the morning, I talk <v Tom Trantino>to myself, which is supposed to be crazy. <v Tom Trantino>Maybe that's why they say I'm crazy. <v Tom Trantino>I get answers, too. And my answer is that I am a good person <v Tom Trantino>and I do good. And that's what I do, John. <v Tom Trantino>And the proof is in the pudding, which seems to be unconstitutional as somebody once <v Tom Trantino>said. <v John McLaughlin>You once saved the life of a young child while you were in prison. <v John McLaughlin>Tell me how that happened. <v Tom Trantino>Well, it was not actually while I was in prison. <v Tom Trantino>It occurred while I was at Wharton Track, which is a full minimum facility, <v Tom Trantino>and before rec trips were abolished because of someone escaping <v Tom Trantino>from Yardville, actually, we were permitted to go out on rec trips <v Tom Trantino>from the full minimum facilities and it would take guys to the mall or in the summer

<v Tom Trantino>take them to the beach. <v Tom Trantino>And then while- [John: tell your story in about 30 seconds.] While we were at the beach, <v Tom Trantino>a young girl was drowning and I saved her. <v Tom Trantino>And that was it. <v John McLaughlin>And you've done a lot of work also with young kids and -. <v Tom Trantino>I work with Juveniles. My wife and I have devised the college program, which is now in <v Tom Trantino>effect at Jamesburg, its the only one of its kind in the entire country. <v John McLaughlin>Are you going to change anything between now and your next parole date? <v Tom Trantino>I am trying to change the sentence that I was given by the parole board. <v John McLaughlin>And you, of course, you plan to appeal this. <v Tom Trantino>Yes. <v John McLaughlin>Do you think you have a realistic shot? <v Tom Trantino>Yes. I still believe in the courts. I still believe in justice. <v Tom Trantino>And I believe I'll get it. <v John McLaughlin>Tommy, thank you very much. <v Tom Trantino>Thank you. <v John McLaughlin>When it reverse itself and denied Tommy Trentino release from jail. <v John McLaughlin>A state parole board clearly made a political judgment, at least in the way it explained <v John McLaughlin>what it did. It justified what it did by quoting selectively from a psychological <v John McLaughlin>report. That report described Trantino as narcissistic and <v John McLaughlin>schizoid. And it said he uses intellectualization as his major defensive

<v John McLaughlin>style. In other words, he likes himself a lot. <v John McLaughlin>He ignores reality from time to time. <v John McLaughlin>And he knows how to put the blame on someone else. <v John McLaughlin>I don't know about you, but I know a lot of people like that and some of them I've even <v John McLaughlin>voted for. I'm John McLaughlin.