I who am numbered C-65304 and caged in 3-EB-82 find myself struggling for
something while being held in one of America's most cherished, most prized, and
most financially secure institutions.
It's the prison industrial complex, the death row section. What I am struggling
for at this point and time in my life is more than just my innocence, more than
just my freedom, more than just my life. I am struggling for the truth.
Not just my truth, and especially not just the State of California's truth,
but "whole truth" concerning my case, because if the "whole truth" is ever told
concerning my case, then my innocence, my freedom, my life will not be denied
or taken.
As a man of African descent, an African American, a poor person, I truly
understand, now more than ever, that "Struggle" is our people's middle name.
There has never been a time in life that we, as a people, haven't had to
struggle for something, especially for our existence in this world and in this
country.
This is most certainly true whenever we have had to deal with corporate America
and all that it represents. From its mainstream news media to its police and
criminal justice system and any other institutions that are owned and operated
by "rich white men." Who has, by the way, historically had his foot on our
throats, and in some cases had our throats in his noose. Understanding this, I
am not surprised that the mainstream news media, who occasionally report on my
situation, refuse to tell the whole truth concerning my case.
Though I at times speak to certain reporters personally, and they in turn speak
to my attorneys, sometimes for hours. They still decide to tell, or to write,
or report, or cover only one side of the story, which is the state's side. In
doing so, they are purposely telling a one-sided story, and not the whole truth.
Whenever I tell these people that I am innocent of the murders that I was
convicted of, it falls on deaf ears. Whenever I tell them that I have been
framed by certain members of the San Bernadino County Sheriff's department, I
am ignored. Whenever my attorneys tell them about all the evidence we have to
show that what I am saying about my innocence and being framed may be true,
they are ignored.
Why is this? Could it be because the mainstream news media wants to believe the
state? Could it be that the mainstream news media wants to believe that I am
guilty? Could it be that, like most Americans, the mainstream news media wants
so badly to believe in the "system" that they are willing to turn a blind eye
to the truth whenever the truth is something that they don't want to hear or
know?
Could it be that the mainstream news media wants to believe the jury that found
me guilty, even though the jury didn't know or wasn't told the whole truth
about my case either?
I am not sure why the whole truth in my case won't be told, but I do know that
as long as it isn't, all the corruption in my case will never be known. Don't
these people know about what happened in L.A. with the Rampart police? Do they
care? Don't they know about what happened in Illinois and in other states where
innocent people were freed after being imprisoned and who, in some cases,
where sentenced to death for crimes that they didn't do? Do they care?
When I say that I was framed in 1983 for murdering four people, and that here
in the year 2000 this framing is still gong on, I must have good reason to say
this, and I may have proof to back up what I am saying, yet I am not believed.
I know that whenever Black people are convicted of murdering white people,
which I am convicted of, everyone who is part of the "system" must do their
part in upholding that conviction, even if it is based upon lies, withholding
of evidence, destruction of evidence, fraudulent criminalists, heroin addicted
police, and much more. All of which are a very real part of my case, which no
one in the mainstream news media will acknowledge.
Whenever a society seeks to take a life by means of the death penalty, but does
not know the whole truth as to why they are going to take that person's life.
Then society does not get to know both sides of the story and is in fact being
lied to as well as mislead by the very people/system that they all want so
badly to believe in, but at the same time claim not to trust--the politicians,
the government, the police, and yes, the mainstream news media.
My struggle for the whole truth is the same struggle that many people in this
country have for justice in all the different forms and levels that justice can
be found.
I will continue to struggle to get the whole truth told concerning my case or
die trying, because I have no choice if I want to live. As an innocent man on
America's death row, I have found that truth, justice and fairness are like
beauty, they are in the eyes/hands of the beholder. In most cases, that means
the rich, the powerful, the people who play god and have the power over who
lives and who dies in this country--the rich white man and his corporate
America.
Yet I struggle on...