NCJ Number
166071
Date Published
1995
Length
7 pages
Annotation
A death row inmate tells his story and urges youth to consider the choices they are making and to recognize that the choices they make will affect both them and their families.
Abstract
The author has spent the past 13 years on Tennessee's death row. He shot and killed a man who had bought but not paid for 10 pounds of marijuana from the author's motorcycle club. The man shot the author four times. When the author was near death God he says appeared in a vision and made him realize that he had lived his life in the wrong way. His cell is now like a dungeon. After he became suicidal he decided to look back over his life and discover how he had come to his current situation. He had a learning disability and was unable to read and write. The teacher made him wear a dunce cap and stand with his nose pressed against a circle on the blackboard. He started associating with bikers, using drugs, and selling drugs. He was expelled from school, arrested, and jailed. He has seen beatings, stabbings, and killings both inside and outside prison. He recognizes that youth are under many pressures and that their friends may try to pressure them into doing stupid things such as taking drugs and alcohol. However, a good education is crucial to success. Youth should stay in school, obtain a good education, and make something of themselves.