Death Row Kids
Music Fence, quotes youths on life on death row
00:02:12.18
Lawrence Jacobs Jr.:
It’s not living. I don’t call it living. You just exist.
00:02:25.00
I haven’t had a hug in twelve years. I haven’t had a kiss in twelve years.
Text1:
The Huntsville Unit in Texas. Nearly every week a prisoner is executed here.
00:02:39.15
Prison Warden:
This is the actual death house here. The prisoner is brought here about six hours prior to the execution. About 5 or 6 hours. It is in this cell that the prisoner will receive his last meal. Most of them take a shower, get cleaned up. They can choose the clothes they wear to the execution.
00:03:06.19
Some will prefer to be in prison overalls , the things they wear all the time, others will choose to be executed in what we call ‘free world’ clothes.
00:03:20.12 02.08
This is the actual death chamber. A couple of straps. straps for the arms… straps for the ankles…a strap for the chest…
00:03:41.23 06.06
This room is the room where the witnesses will witness the execution.
00:03:46.12
The purpose of the microphone is that it will amplify his voice into this next room and the unit over here is where the witnesses will be witnessing the execution.
Text2:
Before that time comes the prisoners often wait for years on the so-called Death Row. In this brand-new complex in Livington around 450 prisoners await their execution. Including Oswaldo Soriano, who has been waiting 10 years.
00:04:28.02 02.22
Oswaldo: It’s just waiting for your number to come up. You know how them lotteries come up and the little round balls pop up? That is what you are.
00:04:34.20 02.15
You’re just a number. You’re have a number, that’s it. Society feels that we’re animals.
00:04:41.18
Prison tannoy: Time for the count.
00:04:46.22 05.04
-They feel we’re animals. They feel we don’t deserve nothing but execution.
Text3:
And here in Louisiana sits Lawrence Jacobs jr. He’s been in for 8 years, and was barely 17 when he was sentenced to death and arrived on Death Row.
00:05:18.05
00:05:20.05 02.00
Interviewer: Hello. Are you Lawrence?
00:05:23.09 03.04
I’m Robbert. Pleased to meet you.
00:05:23.09
Lawrence: I was depressed, I just wanted to sleep. I didn’t want to talk to nobody at first. Word just got out that I was young so they had some people who’ve been up there a long time. Some older people they came talk to me.
00:05:45.12
You know like they said: you should fight for your life. You just can’t lay down. You gotta fight, not just for you, for your family. It’s not a game. They’re killin’ people you know.
Text4:
Two American boys. Their life hanging by a thread. One fighting for his life in the court of Louisiana and the other in a deathcell in Texas. Both not yet 18 years old when the crime took place. One, Lawrence, can’t tell us much about what happened, because it can harm his case.
The other, Oswaldo, wants to tell his side of the story, which becomes clear from a letter he wrote on an internet website for death row prisoners.
We can talk to him on Death Row in the visitors area, which officially can’t be filmed. Oswaldo is in a cube behind thick glass. A guard gives a transmitter microphone to him. The interview itself happens through the phone. Openheartedly he tells us how he came to committing a murder.
00:06:52.09
Oswaldo:[background:There were two of us. My buddy and I. I didn’t know him. I moved from the country to the city.]
Went clubbing, hanged around with some friends.
00:07:08.23 03.06
I met some other people by the club. You know, being around girls, you want to have fun, you want to have a little bit of money. You’re doin’ drugs. They make you feel good.You like the style.
00:07:18.04
They bring excitement, desires and wants. You’re a kid. A teenager. The women say they wanted money if we were to still continue being with them and have fun and party. That’s why we went to the store. Me and my compadre.
00:07:41.00 03.01
And I didn’t know he had a gun. When we got inside the store he tells me: Here get this gun. I said: What do I do with the gun? He said: I want you to point the gun at the clerk like this. The clerk was standing there and I was here. So when I get to the counter, I point the gun at him. My compadre is arguing with the clerk, they’re arguing, they’re arguing.
00:08:11.15
And by the time you knew it, I’m looking out the window to make sure nobody comes in. I didn’t want to hurt this man. I never held a gun before. I don’t want to hurt him, I know better than that. He came from behind the counter. I look and when I look this clerk thought that was the time to snatch the gun off me.
00:08:32.20
When he snatched the gun like that, I looked back and I pulled, and I shot him, I shot him. I dropped the gun, my compadre took and left me there by myself. I dropped the gun, went around the counter to see if he was alright. But I saw too much blood. I knew there were no way to call the police or get some help. I picked up the gun and ran.
Text5:
Lawrence was also convicted of armed robbery….
At the end of 1996 in Marrero, a suburb of New Orleans. A group of young men break into the house of Nelson Beaugh, age 45 and his mother Della, age 73. The boys force the inhabitants to give away valuable possessions. The tension builds and ends in the murder of Nelson and Della...
Lawrence is caught. In the court it becomes clear that the dye is cast. One of the prosecutors is wearing a necktie with the Grim Reaper on it and the other a picture of a gallow…The jury agrees and finds only one sentence suiting: death.
00:09:58.13
Lawrence: It was like the whole world just stopped. I couldn’t hear nothing, because my heart was just pounding. I couldn’t believe it.
Text6
Lawrence is barely 17 and at that time the youngest prisoner on death row.
00:10:27.20 03.00
Radio host: This is Crime Watch. Good morning, welcome to Crime Watch. It’s Saturday October 23rd, 2004.
Text 7
Crimewatch is a weekly radio-broadcast about crime in New Orleans. Today’s theme is juvenile crime. Guests are two candidate juvenile judges.
00:10:43.07
Host: Children are committing violent crimes at a much earlier age. I’ll start with you, Miss King, and then you, Miss Jenkins. How would you treat violent offenders …And what are your thoughts on the death penalty for juveniles?
00:11:00.14
Miss King: Well, I think they need to be locked up. If you commit murder, armed robbery, rape, arson you need to go to jail. Aggravated badly …because you took a weapon and you harmed someone. Basically I don’t have an opinion on the death penalty. I think that’s an issue that will come before a court and not a juvenile judge. I don’t have any opinion as to that.
Miss Jenkins: I respect the law of this state and our constitution and so if the law says that we have a death penalty then we do. The problem with the death penalty is that you have a disparate impact on poor people first. Some say it’s race first but it is poor people first, then you will get the race.
Text 8:
The death sentence for youths is politically so sensitive the candidate juvenile judges don’t dare to make clear statements.
00:11:55.22
Host: I wish you the best and until next week. I’m John Marie I’m off to the Baton Rouge. I’ll see you guys later.
Text 9:
The radio show is an initiative of the organisation Victims and Citizens Against Crime who stands up for the rights of victims.
00:12:15.24
Ed White: My sister in law was Pamela Kinamore. It received world wide attention in the news. She was one of the victims killed by the Baton Rouge serial killer July 12th, 2002.
Text 10:
Board member Ed White says members of his organisation strongly believe in the usage of the death sentence.
00:12:36.01
I think going back through our nation’s history our nation was originally founded on many
00:12:49.19 07.20
of the principles you find in Gods Word, the Holy Bible. And this is where the death penalty itself comes from in my judgement. By the way, I have given you a copy. There are several scripture references; Leviticus 24:17 where the scriptures are very clear it says: And he that killeth any man shall surely be put to death. And if someone is willing to commit first degree murder then..and especially if he’s 16, 17 years old, if they’re old enough to commit a that violent crime… then in the judgement of our judicial system the criminal justice system then they’re old enough to suffer the consequences of that, which in our society is death.
00:13:35.08
Linda White: My daughter Cathy was 26 at the time that she was sexually assaulted and murdered by two 15 years old boys.
Text 11
In Texas we talk with Linda White, of a different organisation, Murder Victims Families for Reconciliation. Her daughter left behind a child. The 5-year-old Ami was raised, and eventually adopted, by her grandmother Linda White. Both agree with the death penalty.
00:14:04.12
Linda White: It’s a visceral response to a horrid, horrid thing that is done to you. Nothing is going to be good enough. Nothing will ever feel right enough. And so I understand why people go that way, and I went that way for a little while but I got very uncomfortable with it. It felt to me like violence for violence, simply perpetuates violence. And it has become very apparent to me in the last I think, six, eight years. Because I have I met so many family members who’ve had loved ones executed or who were living with their loved ones being on death row.
00:14:56.06
Knowing that that could come any month, any year, any moment. I have found that knowing what it feels like to lose your child through homicide. I just can’t advocate doing that to another woman. Another mother, another father.
Text 12
The town Huntsville in Texas lives on the prison industry. Many of the inhabitants make a living in 1 of the 5 prison units in the area. They’re used to the prisoners in their white suits.
They’re not surprised by the demonstrators at The Walls anymore; the oldest prison in the centre of the city. Today another execution is planned. This time it’s Dominique Greene’s turn. He was just 18 when committing the crime so there’s no chance of a stay of execution for him.
00:15:57.00
Protestor 1: I wouldn’t kill a cockroach. I don’t kill anything I can’t eat. Simple as that.
00:16:04.08
Protestor 2: We need to make ourselves visible. Politicians and the government needs to know that there is a constituency and there are people who are opposed to the death penalty. And we need to keep sending that message.
00:16:16.12
Protestor 3: There’s a Puerto Rican leader, a revolutionary named Don Pedra Abizu Campos who said: When tyranny is law, Revolution is order. That’s what we feel, that’s unlawful. There are all types of laws that aren’t lawful, that aren’t just because they benefit the rich mostly and they benefit other people but they really don’t benefit the whole country.
Text 13
Outside the prison are two sons of the murdered victim. Oddly enough they also think Greene shouldn’t be executed. Son Andre even visited Dominique Greene the day before. Their first meeting and probably their last..
00:16:55.15
Andre: It took years to get over it. I thought about it for a while, I used to feel a lot of hurt and anger, mad that he was gone. But I’ve become closer to Christ, the older I get, the wiser I get. He’s a real person, I met him yesterday, and I’ve seen he really is a righteous person.
He don’t deserve to go down like this. Nobody really does. I would like to look forward to seeing him again, being able to meet him.
Text14
They road in front of the prison is closed. There’s a bizarre ambience. Dominique Greene is to be executed at 6 o’clock. But at the last moment his lawyer requests an appeal. Outside hope grows for a stay of execution...
00:17:41.23
Protestors: You strengthen us in the struggle for justice. Help us to work tirelessly for the abolition of state sanctioned death and to renew our society in its very heart. Amen.
Text15
6 hours pass, darkness settles. And all eyes are aimed at the road in front of the prison at all times. On the other side in the administrative office the witnesses of the execution wait for the result of the request… 19:47, the witnesses cross over. That can only mean one thing: Dominique Greene will be executed.
00:18:40.12 02.15
Andre: I don’t know what kind of words but I just feel bad about it because the person I met was a good person. He doesn’t deserve to die. I prayed that I’d look forward to seeing him again.
Maybe one day I’ll get to meet him again when God comes to judge me
Text 16
Dominique Green was buried in private. Many prisoners who went before him are never claimed by their family. For them there’s a special cemetary outside of Huntsville. Back to Oswaldo who was a close friend of Dominique Greene and knows the same fate awaits him.
00:19:31.17
Oswaldo: I knew him. We grew up here together. We grew up here together as kids, we developed as grown men. It affected me last night. I felt bad, you know. As you can see, it affects me now. I know someday I have to go that path, if the supreme court doesn’t do nothing, I will have to go that path. What his parents experience, sisters and loved ones, I know someday my parents will have that experience. And it’s an experience I don’t want to go through.
Lawrence: It’s hard for me because me and my family are a real close family. We do everything together. It’s hard for me being on death row because your family is taken away from you. I dream about how I used to wake up early in the morning and hearing the birds chirp in my window and how my little brother rushed through the door trying to give me a hug, and jump on my bed while I’m still in the bed. The bonding with me and my father. And my mother’s smile, just seeing her smile. Missing my grandma kissing me on my cheek. My auntie, her laughter. All those things together, it take a toll. I try to be strong for them as they’re trying to be strong for me.
Oswaldo: I grew up knowing I’d have to die, for a crime. But that’s not going to stop me.
00:21:28.08
Oswaldo: We all have to die. One days they might stick a needle in me…put what they have to put inside my veins. But I know I don’t continue in those ways of life. I’ve changed for the better. I’ve tried. I forced myself, that’s what I look for.
Ed White: I believe if a person gets to that point where they’re not only involved in other felonies, because that is what they have to be to be convicted of first degree murder, but now they’re taking the lives of innocent people on purpose, and that is an important point - it’s not an accident, it’s not manslaughter, it’s not vehicular homicide. This is the wilful, deliberate act of taking another human being’s life. When a person gets to that point, then yes, I believe the odds are extremely high that he is not going to be able to be rehabilitated.
00:22:35.06
Interviewer: If you got the chance to talk to the victim’s family what would you tell them?
00:22:48.03 05.03
Oswaldo: I’d tell them that…I’m deeply sorry. That it wasn’t me that killed their loved one… that it was the drugs. The kid that lived on the street. A person with no morals or values in life. No consideration. A lot of hatred. Id tell them that I am sorry, that I regret taking a loved one away. That no matter what I can’t replace him but he gave me a gift. He made me live. I’m still alive. That’s true. That’s how I would tell them.
00:23:42.03 04.08
I can’t tell them more. Sorry.
Text 17
The supreme court of the US can bring a change for Oswaldo and Lawrence. They can decide that young men below the age of 18 can’t be sentenced to death. New cerebral research shows that control over impulsive behaviour and judgement is too lacking in youths so they shouldn’t be sentenced as adults.
00:24:24.11
Linda White: That age group a young person is far too impulsive, they don’t have the same control……not that all of us are able to attain that amount of control… But they certainly haven’t had the chance to develop that.
00:24:40.22
Linda White: And I’m not saying they don’t know right from wrong but depending upon where you grow up, how you grow up, that may make an impact as well.
Ed White: Scientists and academics tell us someone after about six or seven years old a person is at the age of reason and they can within reason know right from wrong. By the time a person is 16 or 17, in my judgement, they know right from wrong, they really do. There may be circumstances which causes violent behavior, I’m not denying that, but the point still remains that in my judgement a person by the time they get to 16, 17 they know what they’re doing.
00:25:24.20 02.01
Oswaldo: I’ve been here 12 years already. I’m not asking you to let me go today, or tomorrow, or 3 years from now. I’m just asking you to give me a chance to rehabilitate further down the road. So when I’m 30, 35, 40, years old I have the opportunity to step down.
00:25:44.20
Prison tannoy: Attention, all officers, all stations it is now count time, it is now count time.
00:25:50.02
Oswaldo: To step down and be an asset to somebody in society. A kid. Why kill me now? I know I can help someone down the road. Many kids are out there doing the same thing. Why kill me? Why kill someone else. Help them, let me teach them. Let me be a role model for them. Every day when you wake up it’s as if you’re looking death in the eyes. Every time you see someone past your cell on death row there’s a look of..a sad look. You can’t push that away. You just try to keep up, and be strong. You pray that the outcome isn’t death. You should be strong for yourself. For yourself, for your parents, your loved ones.
00:27.03.04
I have to give my microphone. Thank you very much.
Music Fence, quotes youths on life on death row
00:02:12.18
Lawrence Jacobs Jr.:
It’s not living. I don’t call it living. You just exist.
00:02:25.00
I haven’t had a hug in twelve years. I haven’t had a kiss in twelve years.
Text1:
The Huntsville Unit in Texas. Nearly every week a prisoner is executed here.
00:02:39.15
Prison Warden:
This is the actual death house here. The prisoner is brought here about six hours prior to the execution. About 5 or 6 hours. It is in this cell that the prisoner will receive his last meal. Most of them take a shower, get cleaned up. They can choose the clothes they wear to the execution.
00:03:06.19
Some will prefer to be in prison overalls , the things they wear all the time, others will choose to be executed in what we call ‘free world’ clothes.
00:03:20.12 02.08
This is the actual death chamber. A couple of straps. straps for the arms… straps for the ankles…a strap for the chest…
00:03:41.23 06.06
This room is the room where the witnesses will witness the execution.
00:03:46.12
The purpose of the microphone is that it will amplify his voice into this next room and the unit over here is where the witnesses will be witnessing the execution.
Text2:
Before that time comes the prisoners often wait for years on the so-called Death Row. In this brand-new complex in Livington around 450 prisoners await their execution. Including Oswaldo Soriano, who has been waiting 10 years.
00:04:28.02 02.22
Oswaldo: It’s just waiting for your number to come up. You know how them lotteries come up and the little round balls pop up? That is what you are.
00:04:34.20 02.15
You’re just a number. You’re have a number, that’s it. Society feels that we’re animals.
00:04:41.18
Prison tannoy: Time for the count.
00:04:46.22 05.04
-They feel we’re animals. They feel we don’t deserve nothing but execution.
Text3:
And here in Louisiana sits Lawrence Jacobs jr. He’s been in for 8 years, and was barely 17 when he was sentenced to death and arrived on Death Row.
00:05:18.05
00:05:20.05 02.00
Interviewer: Hello. Are you Lawrence?
00:05:23.09 03.04
I’m Robbert. Pleased to meet you.
00:05:23.09
Lawrence: I was depressed, I just wanted to sleep. I didn’t want to talk to nobody at first. Word just got out that I was young so they had some people who’ve been up there a long time. Some older people they came talk to me.
00:05:45.12
You know like they said: you should fight for your life. You just can’t lay down. You gotta fight, not just for you, for your family. It’s not a game. They’re killin’ people you know.
Text4:
Two American boys. Their life hanging by a thread. One fighting for his life in the court of Louisiana and the other in a deathcell in Texas. Both not yet 18 years old when the crime took place. One, Lawrence, can’t tell us much about what happened, because it can harm his case.
The other, Oswaldo, wants to tell his side of the story, which becomes clear from a letter he wrote on an internet website for death row prisoners.
We can talk to him on Death Row in the visitors area, which officially can’t be filmed. Oswaldo is in a cube behind thick glass. A guard gives a transmitter microphone to him. The interview itself happens through the phone. Openheartedly he tells us how he came to committing a murder.
00:06:52.09
Oswaldo:[background:There were two of us. My buddy and I. I didn’t know him. I moved from the country to the city.]
Went clubbing, hanged around with some friends.
00:07:08.23 03.06
I met some other people by the club. You know, being around girls, you want to have fun, you want to have a little bit of money. You’re doin’ drugs. They make you feel good.You like the style.
00:07:18.04
They bring excitement, desires and wants. You’re a kid. A teenager. The women say they wanted money if we were to still continue being with them and have fun and party. That’s why we went to the store. Me and my compadre.
00:07:41.00 03.01
And I didn’t know he had a gun. When we got inside the store he tells me: Here get this gun. I said: What do I do with the gun? He said: I want you to point the gun at the clerk like this. The clerk was standing there and I was here. So when I get to the counter, I point the gun at him. My compadre is arguing with the clerk, they’re arguing, they’re arguing.
00:08:11.15
And by the time you knew it, I’m looking out the window to make sure nobody comes in. I didn’t want to hurt this man. I never held a gun before. I don’t want to hurt him, I know better than that. He came from behind the counter. I look and when I look this clerk thought that was the time to snatch the gun off me.
00:08:32.20
When he snatched the gun like that, I looked back and I pulled, and I shot him, I shot him. I dropped the gun, my compadre took and left me there by myself. I dropped the gun, went around the counter to see if he was alright. But I saw too much blood. I knew there were no way to call the police or get some help. I picked up the gun and ran.
Text5:
Lawrence was also convicted of armed robbery….
At the end of 1996 in Marrero, a suburb of New Orleans. A group of young men break into the house of Nelson Beaugh, age 45 and his mother Della, age 73. The boys force the inhabitants to give away valuable possessions. The tension builds and ends in the murder of Nelson and Della...
Lawrence is caught. In the court it becomes clear that the dye is cast. One of the prosecutors is wearing a necktie with the Grim Reaper on it and the other a picture of a gallow…The jury agrees and finds only one sentence suiting: death.
00:09:58.13
Lawrence: It was like the whole world just stopped. I couldn’t hear nothing, because my heart was just pounding. I couldn’t believe it.
Text6
Lawrence is barely 17 and at that time the youngest prisoner on death row.
00:10:27.20 03.00
Radio host: This is Crime Watch. Good morning, welcome to Crime Watch. It’s Saturday October 23rd, 2004.
Text 7
Crimewatch is a weekly radio-broadcast about crime in New Orleans. Today’s theme is juvenile crime. Guests are two candidate juvenile judges.
00:10:43.07
Host: Children are committing violent crimes at a much earlier age. I’ll start with you, Miss King, and then you, Miss Jenkins. How would you treat violent offenders …And what are your thoughts on the death penalty for juveniles?
00:11:00.14
Miss King: Well, I think they need to be locked up. If you commit murder, armed robbery, rape, arson you need to go to jail. Aggravated badly …because you took a weapon and you harmed someone. Basically I don’t have an opinion on the death penalty. I think that’s an issue that will come before a court and not a juvenile judge. I don’t have any opinion as to that.
Miss Jenkins: I respect the law of this state and our constitution and so if the law says that we have a death penalty then we do. The problem with the death penalty is that you have a disparate impact on poor people first. Some say it’s race first but it is poor people first, then you will get the race.
Text 8:
The death sentence for youths is politically so sensitive the candidate juvenile judges don’t dare to make clear statements.
00:11:55.22
Host: I wish you the best and until next week. I’m John Marie I’m off to the Baton Rouge. I’ll see you guys later.
Text 9:
The radio show is an initiative of the organisation Victims and Citizens Against Crime who stands up for the rights of victims.
00:12:15.24
Ed White: My sister in law was Pamela Kinamore. It received world wide attention in the news. She was one of the victims killed by the Baton Rouge serial killer July 12th, 2002.
Text 10:
Board member Ed White says members of his organisation strongly believe in the usage of the death sentence.
00:12:36.01
I think going back through our nation’s history our nation was originally founded on many
00:12:49.19 07.20
of the principles you find in Gods Word, the Holy Bible. And this is where the death penalty itself comes from in my judgement. By the way, I have given you a copy. There are several scripture references; Leviticus 24:17 where the scriptures are very clear it says: And he that killeth any man shall surely be put to death. And if someone is willing to commit first degree murder then..and especially if he’s 16, 17 years old, if they’re old enough to commit a that violent crime… then in the judgement of our judicial system the criminal justice system then they’re old enough to suffer the consequences of that, which in our society is death.
00:13:35.08
Linda White: My daughter Cathy was 26 at the time that she was sexually assaulted and murdered by two 15 years old boys.
Text 11
In Texas we talk with Linda White, of a different organisation, Murder Victims Families for Reconciliation. Her daughter left behind a child. The 5-year-old Ami was raised, and eventually adopted, by her grandmother Linda White. Both agree with the death penalty.
00:14:04.12
Linda White: It’s a visceral response to a horrid, horrid thing that is done to you. Nothing is going to be good enough. Nothing will ever feel right enough. And so I understand why people go that way, and I went that way for a little while but I got very uncomfortable with it. It felt to me like violence for violence, simply perpetuates violence. And it has become very apparent to me in the last I think, six, eight years. Because I have I met so many family members who’ve had loved ones executed or who were living with their loved ones being on death row.
00:14:56.06
Knowing that that could come any month, any year, any moment. I have found that knowing what it feels like to lose your child through homicide. I just can’t advocate doing that to another woman. Another mother, another father.
Text 12
The town Huntsville in Texas lives on the prison industry. Many of the inhabitants make a living in 1 of the 5 prison units in the area. They’re used to the prisoners in their white suits.
They’re not surprised by the demonstrators at The Walls anymore; the oldest prison in the centre of the city. Today another execution is planned. This time it’s Dominique Greene’s turn. He was just 18 when committing the crime so there’s no chance of a stay of execution for him.
00:15:57.00
Protestor 1: I wouldn’t kill a cockroach. I don’t kill anything I can’t eat. Simple as that.
00:16:04.08
Protestor 2: We need to make ourselves visible. Politicians and the government needs to know that there is a constituency and there are people who are opposed to the death penalty. And we need to keep sending that message.
00:16:16.12
Protestor 3: There’s a Puerto Rican leader, a revolutionary named Don Pedra Abizu Campos who said: When tyranny is law, Revolution is order. That’s what we feel, that’s unlawful. There are all types of laws that aren’t lawful, that aren’t just because they benefit the rich mostly and they benefit other people but they really don’t benefit the whole country.
Text 13
Outside the prison are two sons of the murdered victim. Oddly enough they also think Greene shouldn’t be executed. Son Andre even visited Dominique Greene the day before. Their first meeting and probably their last..
00:16:55.15
Andre: It took years to get over it. I thought about it for a while, I used to feel a lot of hurt and anger, mad that he was gone. But I’ve become closer to Christ, the older I get, the wiser I get. He’s a real person, I met him yesterday, and I’ve seen he really is a righteous person.
He don’t deserve to go down like this. Nobody really does. I would like to look forward to seeing him again, being able to meet him.
Text14
They road in front of the prison is closed. There’s a bizarre ambience. Dominique Greene is to be executed at 6 o’clock. But at the last moment his lawyer requests an appeal. Outside hope grows for a stay of execution...
00:17:41.23
Protestors: You strengthen us in the struggle for justice. Help us to work tirelessly for the abolition of state sanctioned death and to renew our society in its very heart. Amen.
Text15
6 hours pass, darkness settles. And all eyes are aimed at the road in front of the prison at all times. On the other side in the administrative office the witnesses of the execution wait for the result of the request… 19:47, the witnesses cross over. That can only mean one thing: Dominique Greene will be executed.
00:18:40.12 02.15
Andre: I don’t know what kind of words but I just feel bad about it because the person I met was a good person. He doesn’t deserve to die. I prayed that I’d look forward to seeing him again.
Maybe one day I’ll get to meet him again when God comes to judge me
Text 16
Dominique Green was buried in private. Many prisoners who went before him are never claimed by their family. For them there’s a special cemetary outside of Huntsville. Back to Oswaldo who was a close friend of Dominique Greene and knows the same fate awaits him.
00:19:31.17
Oswaldo: I knew him. We grew up here together. We grew up here together as kids, we developed as grown men. It affected me last night. I felt bad, you know. As you can see, it affects me now. I know someday I have to go that path, if the supreme court doesn’t do nothing, I will have to go that path. What his parents experience, sisters and loved ones, I know someday my parents will have that experience. And it’s an experience I don’t want to go through.
Lawrence: It’s hard for me because me and my family are a real close family. We do everything together. It’s hard for me being on death row because your family is taken away from you. I dream about how I used to wake up early in the morning and hearing the birds chirp in my window and how my little brother rushed through the door trying to give me a hug, and jump on my bed while I’m still in the bed. The bonding with me and my father. And my mother’s smile, just seeing her smile. Missing my grandma kissing me on my cheek. My auntie, her laughter. All those things together, it take a toll. I try to be strong for them as they’re trying to be strong for me.
Oswaldo: I grew up knowing I’d have to die, for a crime. But that’s not going to stop me.
00:21:28.08
Oswaldo: We all have to die. One days they might stick a needle in me…put what they have to put inside my veins. But I know I don’t continue in those ways of life. I’ve changed for the better. I’ve tried. I forced myself, that’s what I look for.
Ed White: I believe if a person gets to that point where they’re not only involved in other felonies, because that is what they have to be to be convicted of first degree murder, but now they’re taking the lives of innocent people on purpose, and that is an important point - it’s not an accident, it’s not manslaughter, it’s not vehicular homicide. This is the wilful, deliberate act of taking another human being’s life. When a person gets to that point, then yes, I believe the odds are extremely high that he is not going to be able to be rehabilitated.
00:22:35.06
Interviewer: If you got the chance to talk to the victim’s family what would you tell them?
00:22:48.03 05.03
Oswaldo: I’d tell them that…I’m deeply sorry. That it wasn’t me that killed their loved one… that it was the drugs. The kid that lived on the street. A person with no morals or values in life. No consideration. A lot of hatred. Id tell them that I am sorry, that I regret taking a loved one away. That no matter what I can’t replace him but he gave me a gift. He made me live. I’m still alive. That’s true. That’s how I would tell them.
00:23:42.03 04.08
I can’t tell them more. Sorry.
Text 17
The supreme court of the US can bring a change for Oswaldo and Lawrence. They can decide that young men below the age of 18 can’t be sentenced to death. New cerebral research shows that control over impulsive behaviour and judgement is too lacking in youths so they shouldn’t be sentenced as adults.
00:24:24.11
Linda White: That age group a young person is far too impulsive, they don’t have the same control……not that all of us are able to attain that amount of control… But they certainly haven’t had the chance to develop that.
00:24:40.22
Linda White: And I’m not saying they don’t know right from wrong but depending upon where you grow up, how you grow up, that may make an impact as well.
Ed White: Scientists and academics tell us someone after about six or seven years old a person is at the age of reason and they can within reason know right from wrong. By the time a person is 16 or 17, in my judgement, they know right from wrong, they really do. There may be circumstances which causes violent behavior, I’m not denying that, but the point still remains that in my judgement a person by the time they get to 16, 17 they know what they’re doing.
00:25:24.20 02.01
Oswaldo: I’ve been here 12 years already. I’m not asking you to let me go today, or tomorrow, or 3 years from now. I’m just asking you to give me a chance to rehabilitate further down the road. So when I’m 30, 35, 40, years old I have the opportunity to step down.
00:25:44.20
Prison tannoy: Attention, all officers, all stations it is now count time, it is now count time.
00:25:50.02
Oswaldo: To step down and be an asset to somebody in society. A kid. Why kill me now? I know I can help someone down the road. Many kids are out there doing the same thing. Why kill me? Why kill someone else. Help them, let me teach them. Let me be a role model for them. Every day when you wake up it’s as if you’re looking death in the eyes. Every time you see someone past your cell on death row there’s a look of..a sad look. You can’t push that away. You just try to keep up, and be strong. You pray that the outcome isn’t death. You should be strong for yourself. For yourself, for your parents, your loved ones.
00:27.03.04
I have to give my microphone. Thank you very much.