NEWS BULLETIN -- Bodybuilder Sally McNeil, life prisoner, expects imminent Appeal ruling
By Wessex Man

 
        Sept  6th -- Bodybuilder and strength athlete Sally McNeil should
hear imminently if her appeal to the 9th Federal Circuit in San Francisco
against a life sentence for murder has succeeded.
        "I could possibly know something in a week or so, or maybe more.
I hope not much more. Inside of my head I'm going crazy," she told me.
"We're coming down to the wire. Most of my family have given up hope
though my daughter Shantina still has hope for me. The rest of the family
are afraid of getting their hopes up."
        Oral arguments to three appellate judges by her lawyer about five
months ago seemed to go well. Two of the judges (a majority) were clearly
sympathetic, but the court's summer vacation has delayed the process,
sources in California said.
        As Sally approaches her 43rd birthday on September 30th, and
after more than seven years behind bars, she's facing another turning
point in a tumultuous life.
       
        HOW SALLY LOST SUPPORT, UNDERSTANDING
 
        She was sentenced to 19 years to life in a San Diego Court back
in 1996 for the shotgun killing of her second husband Ray McNeil, himself
a bodybuilder holding the Mr California title. She shot him on St
Valentine's Day 1995 at home in front of the two children by her previous
marriage.  At her trial she claimed provocation as the severely battered
wife of a constantly philandering muscleman who often assaulted her
during bouts of roid (steroid) rage. But she won no sympathy. The
original court and the bodybuilding fraternity both turned against her.
More lately her legal team have been delving into important
precedents favouring the causes of battered wives.
         "I sure hope when I go back to court they make a deal with me
for Involuntary Manslaughter. Then I'd surely get 'time served' (i.e.
immediate release). I don't believe they can charge me with Voluntary
Manslaughter because I was found not guilty of that."
          Sally feels she's the victim of double standards. "If the cops
had shot and killed Ray the outcome would have been Justifiable Homicide 
-- because Ray was carrying a total of five different steroids inside his
system at the time."
          "So why was it against the law for me to protect myself from
Ray ? I felt awful for what I did but they (the prosecution) took
advantage of my misconstrued feelings of being a horrible person. I was
in shock."
            Sally realises she faces the possibility of  retrial, a
circus for which she's prepared. She's served her time in the modern but
overcrowded Valley State Prison for Women (VSPW) near Chowchilla, a fruit
growing area about 35 miles north of Fresno, California.  Her life there
has been grim. Twice thrown into solitary, shackled and humiliated, and
forever housed in  cells with 6-8 inmates, mostly the dregs of society.
              In its favour, however, the regime at VSPW does manage to
provide a wide range of constructive activities for its several thousand
inmates. They're not locked up for 23 hours a day. Sally describes quite
a busy life which involves vocational training and genuine job
assigments. She's also free to take exercise. She runs track for about
100 miles per month and never ceases to work out with pull-ups, dips,
press ups and abdomnial crunches. Weight lifting equipment was removed
from the jail some years ago.
 
          BOXING COULD BE HER NEXT CAREER  -- JACK DEMPSEY'S GIRL
 
          "I'm planning to box when I get out, that is if I win my
appeal. I'll try to bulk up to 170 lbs of solid muscle." Sally weighs a
diminshed 130-135 lbs right now. "We'll see how I can put the weight back
on. I want to box the big names. I hope I don't sound crazy. I think I'd
become a very good draw -- especially if I use my maiden name Dempsey
again. Like the famous boxer Jack Dempsey."
          "I'd have to win a lot of fights in order to get matched
against the big names. But even if I didn't win in the top league the
loser's purse would be just fine. When I boxed Tigra and she quit after 4
rounds she weighed like 172 or 162 pounds and I only weighed 132 with
almost literally no training." 
           "....I believe my running and exercising have left me looking
younger than I really am.  My friends here call be Mustang Sally because
I run fast every day. When I run in the walk-a-thon they call me the
Golden Girl."
           "I can also make wrestling videos about my experiences in here
and I'd do well just at that. The sky's the limit on what I can do."
            Sally's pre-jail record points to a huge future. She was a
National level bodybuilder, twice winner of the U.S. Armed Services
Physique Championships (middle weight, as Sgt McNeil), and placed second
in the annual Women's Strength Extravaganza.
 
           Sally can be contacted at the following address:
 
           Sally M.McNeil, # W62688,
           V.S.P.W.,    D2-7-3UP,
           P.O. Box 92,
           Chowchilla, California 93610-0092,
           United States of America.