Florida Muslim Man Alleges Religious Bias at Leon Jail
TALLAHASSEE - A man involved in the 1993 murder of a British tourist has accused Leon County jail officials of discriminating against him because he is now a Muslim, a Florida newspaper said Tuesday.
Deron Spear was sentenced last month to life imprisonment for an unrelated armed robbery of a Tallahassee supermarket. He had been held in the Leon County Jail on that charge since December 1999, the Naples Daily News said quoting a report by the Associated Press.
Spear converted to Islam in the jail shortly afterward, the report said.
In a federal civil rights complaint made available Monday, Spear says that jail deputies did not allow him and other Muslims to pray in a special room set aside for religious activities.
The complaint said deputies also insulted the Muslim inmates, calling them "pawns" and asking them why they practiced a religion that "labeled black people as monkeys."
Spear said the discrimination began in April 2000 and persists to the present. Spear, 24, was convicted last year of two counts of armed robbery with a firearm in the holdup of the Winn-Dixie in July 1999.
Because the new crime occurred within three years of his release from prison, Spear was subject to a Florida law that requires him to return to prison for life for a new offense.
Spear gained international attention in British tourist Gary Colley's robbery and murder at an Interstate 10 rest stop in Jefferson County. Spear served two years for driving the getaway car. Two teens who fired the shots were sentenced to life, the report said.
