BY ABE BONOWITZ

On February 27, 1985 in Enterprise, Alabama, George was living
his little piece of the American Dream. Husband of Charlene and father
of Tom and Christie, he was a successful, business-degreed executive,
Sunday school teacher, little league coach and PTA president -- a yuppie
in southeast Alabama. That evening everything changed.

When George, vice-president of Townsend Building Supply, Inc.,
and his wife, Char, stopped at his store after business hours, they thought
they were doing a favor for a man who urgently needed an item for an
emergency home repair. Instead, they experienced firsthand the insanity
and horror of murder. A masked gunman entered the building and shot
the pair repeatedly during an armed robbery. George suffered gunshot
wounds to his left arm, thigh and abdomen during a struggle with the
gunman. Following emergency surgery, George survived. His wife was
not so lucky. Char was pronounced dead at the hospital after sustaining
two gunshot wounds to the head. Tom and Christie were only twelve
and five at the time of their mother's death. The nightmare had only just
begun.

Sixteen months later George was charged with the murder of his
wife. The State sought the death penalty, and, following a trial that was
later characterized as a mockery and a sham, George was convicted and
sentenced to life in prison. Incarcerated for a total of two years, one
hundred and three days, the conviction was overturned in 1989. George
remained in legal limbo for nearly three more years. On April 10, 1992,
the prosecution asked that the charge be forevermore dismissed when the
proof of George's innocence finally surfaced. The trial court so ruled.
The ordeal had lasted for more than seven years.

As a survivor of a violent crime, husband of a murder victim,
suspect, accused, indigent defendant, convicted murderer, and innocent
man exonerated, George understands fully how easy it would be to
advocate revenge. However, as a family the Whites reject the death
penalty as a solution to heal the wounds of their loss. George says, "I
believe that society's laws must offer relief for a victim's anger and loss,
and we must be afforded protection from those who would harm us;
however, one cannot stop the shedding of blood by causing more blood
to be shed. No amount of killing would restore Char to my family or
take away the pain of losing her. What began with a horrible act of
violence should not be memorialized with an act of vengeance."

George is a co-founder of Citizens United for Alternatives to the
Death Penalty and is on the board, serving as treasurer, of Murder
Victims Families for Reconciliation. He is also on the board the The
JOURNEY OF HOPE... FROM VIOLENCE TO HEALING, Inc. He
has worked as a Mitigation Specialist, Investigator, and Qualified
Paralegal, and is a full-time speaker and lecturer. Now living in Arkansas
City, Kansas, George is active in the First Baptist Church.