Christopher Scarver

Christopher was a victim of racism during his youth and that had a deep impact on his mind. He was never a good student and was addicted to drugs and alcohol from his high-school days. He had a girlfriend who was pregnant when he was thrown out of his house by his mother. His girlfriend gave birth to a son, also named Christopher, whom she brought up as a single mother, while Scarver was in prison.

Scarver kept in touch with his son through letters from the prison. He encouraged him to study hard and take up sports. As a result the boy graduated with a degree in sociology from ‘Bethany Lutheran College’ in Mankato, Minn, and also took up the sport of basketball. He was given a two-year scholarship from the ‘University of Wisconsin,’ Milwaukee, and adequate support from the ‘Creative Corrections Education Foundation,’ which helps students whose parents are criminals serving sentences.

In 2005, Scarver filed a civil-rights suit against the prison officials for keeping him in solitary confinement for 16 months and subjecting him to inhuman punishment after his second conviction. However, the Court upheld the prison official’s actions as justified.

Christopher Scarver was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, US, on July 6, 1969. He was the second-eldest of the five children of his parents. He studied at the ‘James Madison High School’ but had to drop out in the eleventh grade due to poor performance in academics and discipline issues.

Thereafter, he took to alcohol and drugs. This made his mother throw him out of the house to fend for himself, as he was a bad influence on his other siblings. During his youth, he had experienced immense racial discrimination in his neighborhood, and that had left a deep impression on his mind. He had a girlfriend who was pregnant at the time he had to move out of his house.

Scarver was employed as a trainee carpenter under the ‘Wisconsin Conservation Corps’ job program. He was told by his supervisor, Edward Patts, that his job would become permanent on completion of his apprenticeship. His mother still hoped that her son would get on the right track with a regular job. However, Edward was sacked, and Scarver did not hear anything more about his permanent job.

When Scarver learnt that he was not getting the job promised to him by Edward Patts, he went to Edward’s replacement, Steve Lohman, and demanded money from him at gunpoint. Lohman did not have much on him at that time and offered him $ 15, which Scarver considered to be a joke.

In a fit of rage, he shot Lohman in the head and caught hold of the site manager, John Feyen. He then demanded more money from him. Scarver shot Lohman two more times, killing him on the spot. Feyen managed to get away after handing over a cheque of $ 3,000 to Scarver. The incident happened on June 1, 1990, when Scarver was just 19 years old.

In 1992, he was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment at the ‘Columbia Correctional Institute’ in Portage, Wisconsin. While in prison, he claimed to be experiencing messianic delusions and was diagnosed with schizophrenia. He claimed that he was the “Chosen One” and was being guided by God. He believed that everything was eventually going to be for the good of mankind and that he was an instrument of God.