Dr. Benjamin Gilmer who has waged a decade-long fight for justice for Dr. Vince Gilmer.Photo: Cappy Phalen
Dr. Vince Gilmer had been living in a Virginia prison for close to 18 years after being convicted for the murder of his father when he learned the life-changing news in January 2022 that he was being pardoned.
When he first heard he would be released, “he became like a joyous child,” says the man behind the fight to free him,Dr. Benjamin Gilmer(despite their shared name the two doctors are no relation). Vince, who suffers from Huntington’s, a neurodegenerative disease that can affect movement and frontal lobe function, had a simple dream for the moment he was finally free, Benjamin says: “Mellow Mushroom pizza, and to hug everyone he knows.”
But one year later, instead of celebrating with a pizza party, Vince Gilmer is still behind bars — and his mental and physical health is deteriorating. “He’s been waiting and waiting and he’s heartbroken,” Benjamin, 52, tells PEOPLE of the long delay. “This man is dying in prison.”
Dr. Vince Gilmer in a Virginia jail in 2005 before his sentencing.Andre Teague/Bristol Herald Courier/AP
As Benjamin enlisted a team of lawyers and made the case for clemency based on Vince’s condition, the two doctors developed an unlikely friendship (Benjamin’s family, including his two children, now 15 and 13, spent Thanksgivings at the prison with Vince, pre-pandemic). Benjamin, whose book on their relationship,The Other Doctor Gilmercomes out in paperback March 7, eventually became Vince’s legal guardian.
Last January, the two Drs. Gilmer believed they’d overcome the final hurdle in their quest for justice for Vince, when Gov. Ralph Northam granted a pardon. But since then, they’ve encountered roadblock after roadblock from the penal and healthcare systems.
As a condition of his release, Vince must be transferred into a psychiatric hospital, but Benjamin was told that the state of Virginia, where he was convicted and held, would not accept him into a state institution. “Everyone is so risk averse these days,” Benjamin says. “Part of it, I think, is political. They no longer want to be responsible for him. They don’t want to have him in their system forever, to keep paying for him.”
The paperback version of Benjamin Gilmer’s book is out March 7.Courtesy Random House Publishing Group
Benjamin decided to bring Vince back to his home state of North Carolina, but in order to be eligible for a bed in a publicly funded facility, Vince needs to be a resident of the state. So Benjamin went in search of a private facility in North Carolina willing to take Vince for a few weeks while he applied for Medicaid and Medicare, and for space in a state-run hospital.
After setting up aGoFundMe pagethat raised more than $100,000 to pay for Vince’s short-term care in a private hospital, Benjamin spent months calling and meeting with regional facilities. Several times, he says, promises or hopes fell through. “It’s been torturous for Vince,” says Benjamin. “I’ve told him on five occasions, ‘Okay, we’re one week away from getting you out.’ I don’t even know if he trusts me anymore.” So far, he hasn’t found one private or public hospital willing to accept Vince, even for a few weeks.
“This lands close to the cruel and unusual,” Benjamin says. “What other person in this country has been in prison for more than a year after clemency?”
In prison, the effects of Vince’s disease have worsened. He relies on a wheelchair to get around and struggles with daily activities like bathing and eating, but is getting no physical therapy. He battles depression and has trouble swallowing, a symptom of Huntington’s.
Benjamin worries that without a hospital willing to step up to help soon, Vince may lose hope. “It’s been hit after hit after hit,” he says. “It’s tearing him apart.” But, Benjamin is not giving up. “Vince’s story has shined a light for me on the shameful lack of mental health care in this country,” he says. “But we’re so close.”
source: people.com
