North Carolina Death Row Inmate Writes Letter About Life of 'Leisure'

A convicted murderer on death row in North Carolina wrote a taunting letter to his hometown newspaper about his life of "leisure" in prison and making a mockery of the legal system.

Danny Robbie Hembree Jr. was found guilty of murdering 17-year-old Heather Catterton in 2009 and was sentenced to death on Nov. 18, 2011.

Hembree, 50, is on death row at Central Prison in Raleigh, N.C., but he's not looking for any pity in the letter he sent to The Gaston Gazette.

"Is the public aware that I am a gentleman of leisure, watching color TV in the A.C., reading, taking naps at will, eating three well balanced hot meals a day," Hembree asked in the letter. "I'm housed in a building that connects to the new 55 million dollar hospital with round the clock free medical care 24/7."

He also asks if the public knows that the chances of his "lawful murder" taking place in the next 20 years, if ever, are "very slim."

Hembree has also been accused of killing two other women. One was 30-year-old Randi Dean Saldana, whose burnt remains were found near Blacksburg, S.C. in 2009. The other was 30-year-old Deborah Ratchford, whose body was found in 1992.

He admitted to taking drugs and having sex with Catterton and Saldana on the days they died, but told jurors he did not kill them or dispose of their bodies, according to ABC News' Raleigh-Durham affiliate WTVD. He is scheduled to go on trial for Saldana's killing in March.

Hembree confessed to killing the three women during recorded police interviews, but later said the confessions were an attempt to cover up a string of armed robberies, according to the Gaston Gazette.

In the letter, Hembree also mocks the judicial system.

"I laugh at you self righteous clowns and I spit in the face of your so called justice system. The state of North Carolina has sentenced me to death but it's not real," he wrote.

North Carolina State Representative Paul Stam told WTVD that the letter is a travesty of justice. He said that it is more likely that Hembree will die of natural causes than of the death penalty.

"His punishment does not fit his crime at all," Stam said.

Hembree tells the citizens of Gaston County, N.C., that they should petition that state and force them to carry out his "murder sentence."

The Gaston County District Attorney's Office did not immediately respond to request for comment.

"I am a man who is ready to except [sic] his unjustful punishment and face God almighty with a clean conscience unlike you cowards and your cowardly system," Hembree wrote. "Kill me if you can suckers. Ha! Ha! Ha!"

The letter is signed, "Sincerely, Danny Hembree."

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Florida Inmate Drops Pounds in Exchange for Early Release

A 345-pound man jailed for driving with a suspended license was freed nine days early thanks to a Lake County, Fla., judge's "lose-a-pound, gain-a-day" deal.

George McCovery, 37, dropped 25 pounds in 20 days -- a feat he credited to bland prison food and the judge's weight-loss challenge.

"She gave me a chance to prove myself, and I didn't want to let her down," he told the Orlando Sentinel.

Judge Donna Miller, whose courtroom proceedings are replayed in the TV show "Lake Courts," is famous for her unusual sentence deals. In her 17 years as a judge, Miller has ordered defendants to start jogging, take a dance class, tutor math and write Christmas cards, according to the Sentinel.

"I do what I do to try to change the person in front of me," she said, acknowledging that her self-improvement sentences won't be doled out to everyone. "If the person needs jail, they get jail."

Miller said she would check McCovery's weight after 20 days. And to her surprise, he had already shed 25 pounds.

"It's not easy to lose weight," Miller told the Sentinel. "I thought he'd lose 5, maybe, 6 pounds -- not 25."

Carrying extra pounds can raise the risk of chronic, debilitating and even life-threatening medical conditions such as heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes. And if waistlines keep expanding at current rates, experts predict half of the U.S. population will be obese by 2030.

McCovery, who takes medication for high blood pressure, said he wanted to lose weight during the trial. But it isn't easy. Obesity treatments, such as bariatric surgery, are effective, but many people are reluctant to undergo such an invasive procedure. And a dearth of drugs approved to treat obesity leaves few options for extreme weight loss short of strict diets and intense exercise programs.

But the benefits of weight loss are well worth the effort. According to an August 2011 report, if every obese person decreased his or her body mass index by just 1 percent (a loss of 2 pounds for a 200-pound adult), as many as 2.4 million diabetes cases, 1.7 million cases of heart disease and stroke and 127,000 cancer cases could be prevented.

Although McCovery lost more than a pound a day, experts say slow and steady weight loss is the best way to shed the pounds for good.

"There's a lot that goes on between losing that first pound and losing that 100, 50 or even 20 pounds," Lisa Cimperman, a registered dietitian at University Hospitals Case Medical Center, told ABC News. Aiming to lose 1 to 2 pounds per week can help you stay on track and power through the inevitable weight loss lulls.

Along the way, McCovery was encouraged by his detention deputies, the Sentinel reported.

"Studies have shown that support groups or just having someone else encouraging you will help make you successful," said Lisa Cimperman.

That encouragement and the promise of making it home in time for Thanksgiving was enough for McCovery, who earned a note of praise from Judger Miller on his release order that read, "Good job, Mr. McCovery!"

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