Indigenous man dies in US prison following 30-year fight to come home

Melbourne-born man Russell Moore has died in a US prison following a three-decade fight to be returned to Australia.

Moore, also known by his adoptive name James Hudson Savage, died at Apalachee Correctional Institution in Florida on June 2.

Russell Moore died in Florida on June 2.

Russell Moore died in Florida on June 2.CREDIT:DANIELLE SMITH

His US lawyer Richard Bourke, who spent decades working to help return Moore to his birth country, said the 58-year-old had a medical emergency.

“I am profoundly saddened by Russell’s passing and my heart goes out to his family and his community for their loss, made all the more bitter by our inability to have his sentence transferred and have him returned home before his death,” Mr Bourke said.

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“Russell had applications to be transferred to serve his life sentence in Australia denied in 2007 and 2012, despite the support of the Australian and Victorian governments.

“Preparations for a third application to return were interrupted by the pandemic.”

Born in Fitzroy North in 1963, Moore was a First Nations person from the stolen generations.

Moore was adopted as a newborn before moving to the US with his adoptive parents as a seven-year-old.

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He was sentenced to life in prison without parole in 1991 for the murder, robbery and sexual assault of 57-year-old Barbara Barber outside her decorating shop in the Florida city of Melbourne, south-east of Orlando, in November 1988.

His birth mother Beverley Whyman, from Swan Hill, spent years campaigning for her son to be returned to Australia. She died in 2017.

Russell Moore, also known as James Savage, during his time at the Washington Correctional Institute, Florida.

Russell Moore, also known as James Savage, during his time at the Washington Correctional Institute, Florida. CREDIT:DANIELLE SMITH

Chris Loorham was working as a lawyer with the Aboriginal Legal Service in 1989 when Australia first learned of Moore’s murder case.

They tracked down Moore’s birth mother, who knew nothing of her son’s whereabouts or new identity, and together boarded a plane to the United States.

Moore in more recent times.

Moore in more recent times. CREDIT:FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS

There in the room when Moore met his birth mother for the first time, Mr Loorham said it was a moment he’d never forgotten.

“The thing that really struck me about the whole experience was witnessing the tremendous love that was shown between Beverley and Russell after they met. It was even remarked on by the prison authorities,” Mr Loorham said.

“Russell, he didn’t know who he was. He had no sense of identity. And there was a lot of talk before the trial, before the plea, about how that would have affected a young teenage boy growing up in Florida.

“He did not fit in in America.”

Mr Loorham, now a consultant in regional Victoria, said he met with Moore most days during those few months leading up to and during the court proceedings.

He said Moore had a fair trial, initially sentenced to the death penalty it was overturned on appeal to life without parole.

But he’s never been able to shake the things he learned about Moore.

Russell Moore with his adoptive parents, Nestor and Graham Savage.

Russell Moore with his adoptive parents, Nestor and Graham Savage.CREDIT:DANIEL ADAMS

“I met people in America who knew him as friends and who said the only ambition he had in his life was to return to Australia, even though he knew nothing about it. One man who was in rehabilitation with him at one stage said that part of the program was saving money, so instead of spending on drugs, they put money aside for their ambition,” he recalled.

“Russell generally failed his rehabilitation but his ambition was always to return to Australia.

“The crime was obviously a very serious crime, I’m not detracting from the seriousness of that; he was found guilty and he had a fair trial.

“But when I returned to Australia I had every expectation that he would be repatriated to Australia to complete his sentence here. Sadly that did not occur.”

Mr Loorham said he hoped Moore could now be laid to rest in Swan Hill alongside his birth mother.

“I think that would be very important for his family and for Aboriginal people in this country to have his body returned,” Mr Loorham said.

Indigenous Australian singer songwriter and stolen generations Archie Roach wrote a song about Moore and his birth mother in 1990 titled Munjana, meaning trouble.

Featured on his Charcoal Lane album, Roach wrote: ‘Had a lovely child way down in old Fitzroy. Then the Welfare came and took her baby boy. Baby Russell was his name’.

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