A Letter From Ray Jasper: About to be Executed in Texas
From Gawker:
Last month (as we did last year),
we sent letters to all of the U.S. death row inmates who have execution
dates in the upcoming year. Today, we have our first reply: Ray Jasper,
who is scheduled to be put to death in Texas in March.
Jasper was convicted of the 1998 murder of a recording studio owner. Jasper was 18 years old at the time. He has been in prison for the past 15 years.
Mr. Nolan,
When I first responded to you, I
didn't think that it would cause people to reach out to me and voice their
opinions. I've never been on the internet in my life and I'm not fully aware of
the social circles on the internet, so it was a surprise to receive reactions
so quickly.
I learned that some of the responses
on your website were positive and some negative. I can only appreciate the
conversation. Osho once said that one person considered him like an angel and
another person considered him like a devil, he didn't attempt to refute neither
perspective because he said that man does not judge based on the truth of who
you are, but on the truth of who they are.
Your words struck a chord with me.
You said that my perspective is different and therefore my words have a sort of
value. Yet, you're talking to a young man that's been judged unworthy to
breathe the same air you breathe. That's like a hobo on the street walking up
to you and you ask him for spare change.
Without any questions, you've given
me a blank canvas. I'll only address what's on my heart. Next month, the State
of Texas has resolved to kill me like some kind of rabid dog, so indirectly, I
guess my intention is to use this as some type of platform because this could
be my final statement on earth.
I think 'empathy' is one of the most
powerful words in this world that is expressed in all cultures. This is my
underlining theme. I do not own a dictionary, so I can't give you the Oxford or
Webster definition of the word, but in my own words, empathy means 'putting the
shoe on the other foot.'
Empathy. A rich man would look at a
poor man, not with sympathy, feeling sorrow for the unfortunate poverty, but
also not with contempt, feeling disdain for the man's poverish state, but with
empathy, which means the rich man would put himself in the poor man's shoes,
feel what the poor man is feeling, and understand what it is to be the poor
man.
Empathy breeds proper judgement.
Sympathy breeds sorrow. Contempt breeds arrogance. Neither are proper
judgements because they're based on emotions. That's why two people can look at
the same situation and have totally different views. We all feel differently
about a lot of things. Empathy gives you an inside view. It doesn't say 'If
that was me...', empathy says, 'That is me.'
What that does is it takes the
emotions out of situations and forces us to be honest with ourselves. Honesty
has no hidden agenda. Thoreau proposed that 'one honest man' could morally
regenerate an entire society.
Looking through the eyes of empathy
& honesty, I'll address some of the topics you mentioned. It's only my
perspective.
The Justice system is truly broken
beyond repair and the sad part is there is no way to start over. Improvements
can be made. If honest people stand up, I think they will be made over time. I
know the average person isn't paying attention to all the laws constantly being
passed by state & federal legislation. People are more focused on their
jobs, raising kids and trying to find entertainment in between time. The thing
is, laws are being changed right and left.
A man once said that revolution
comes when you inform people of their rights. Martin Luther King said a
revolution comes by social action and legal action working hand in hand. I'm
not presenting any radical revolutionary view, the word revolution just means
change. America changes as the law changes.
Under the 13th Amendment of the U.S.
Constitution all prisoners in America are considered slaves. We look at slavery
like its a thing of the past, but you can go to any penitentiary in this nation
and you will see slavery. That was the reason for the protests by prisoners in
Georgia in 2010. They said they were tired of being treated like slaves. People
need to know that when they sit on trial juries and sentence people to prison
time that they are sentencing them to slavery.
If a prisoner refuses to work and be
a slave, they will do their time in isolation as a punishment. You have
thousands of people with a lot of prison time that have no choice but to make
money for the government or live in isolation. The affects of prison isolation
literally drive people crazy. Who can be isolated from human contact and not
lose their mind? That was the reason California had an uproar last year behind
Pelican Bay. 33,000 inmates across California protested refusing to work or
refusing to eat on hunger-strikes because of those being tortured in isolation
in Pelican Bay.
I think prison sentences have gotten
way out of hand. People are getting life sentences for aggravated crimes where
no violence had occurred. I know a man who was 24 years old and received 160
years in prison for two aggravated robberies where less that $500 was stole and
no violence took place.
There are guys walking around with
200 year sentences and they're not even 30 years old. Its outrageous. Giving a
first time felon a sentence beyond their life span is pure oppression.
Multitudes of young people have been thrown away in this generation.
The other side of the coin is there
are those in the corporate world making money off prisoners, so the longer
they're in prison, the more money is being made. It's not about crime &
punishment, it's about crime & profit. Prison is a billion dollar industry.
In 1996, there were 122 prisons opened across America. Companies were holding
expos in small towns showing how more prisons would boost the economy by
providing more jobs.
How can those that invest in prisons
make money if people have sentences that will allow them to return to free society?
If people were being rehabilitated and sent back into the cities, who would
work for these corporations? That would be a bad investment. In order for them
to make money, people have to stay in prison and keep working. So the political
move is to tell the people they're tough on crime and give people longer
sentences.
Chuck Colson, former advisor to the
President once said that they were passing laws to be tough on crime, but they
didn't even know who the laws were affecting. It wasn't until the Watergate
scandal and Colson himself going to prison that he learned who the laws were
affecting. Colson ended up forming the largest prison ministry in America. He
also foreseen in his book THE GOD OF SPIDERS & STONES that America was
forming a new society within its prisons. Basically, that prison would become a
nation inside this nation. He predicted that over a million people would be
locked up by the year 2000. The book was written in the 8O's. Now, its 2014 and
almost two million people are locked up. It's not that crime is the issue.
Crime still goes on daily. It's that the politics surrounding crime have
changed and it has become a numbers game. Dollars & Cents. You have people
like Michael Jordan who invest millions of dollars in the prison system. Any
shrewed businessman would if you have no empathy for people locked up and you
just want to make some money.
I don't agree with the death
penalty. It's a very Southern practice from that old lynching mentality. Almost
all executions take place in the South with a few exceptions here and there.
Texas is the leading State by far. I'm not from Texas. I was raised in
California. Coming from the West Coast to the South was like going back in
time. I didn't even think real cowboys existed. Texas is a very 'country'
state, aside a few major cities. There are still small towns that a black
person would not be welcomed. California is more of a melting pot. I grew up in
the Bay Area where its very diverse.
The death penalty needs to be
abolished. Life without parole is still a death sentence. The only difference
is time. To say you need to kill a person in a shorter amount of time is just
seeking revenge on that person.
If the death penalty must exist, I
think it should only be for cases where more than one person is killed like
these rampant shootings that have taken place around the country the last few
years. Also, in a situation of terrorism.
If you're not giving the death
penalty for murder, then the government is already saying that the taking of
one's life is not worth the death penalty. Capital murder is if you take
someone's life and commit another felony at the same time. That's Texas law.
That makes a person eligible for the death penalty The problem is, you're not
getting the death penalty for murder, you're actually getting it for the other
felony. That doesn't make common sense. You can kill a man but you will not get
the death penalty......if you kill a man and take money out his wallet, now you
can get the death penalty.
I'm on death row and yet I didn't
commit the act of murder. I was convicted under the law of parties. When people
read about the case, they assume I killed the victim, but the facts are
undisputed that I did not kill the victim. The one who killed him plead guilty
to capital murder for a life sentence. He admitted to the murder and has never
denied it. Under the Texas law of parties, they say it doesn't matter whether I
killed the victim or not, I'm criminally responsible for someone else's
conduct. But I was the only one given the death penalty.
The law of parties is a very
controversial law in Texas. Most Democrats stand against it. It allows the
state to execute someone who did not commit the actual act of murder. There are
around 50 guys on death row in Texas who didn't kill anybody, but were
convicted as a party.
The lethal injection has become a
real controversial issue here of late because states are using drugs that
they're not authorize to use to execute people. The lethal injection is an old
Nazi practice deriving from the Jewish Holocaust. To use that method to kill
people today, when it's unconstitutional to use it on dogs, is saying something
very cruel and inhumane. People don't care because they think they're killing
horrible people. No empathy. Just contempt.
I understand that it's not popular
to talk about race issues these days, but I speak on the subject of race
because I hold a burden in my heart for all the young blacks who are locked up
or who see the street life as the only means to make something of themselves.
When I walked into prison at 19 years old, I said to myself 'Damn, I have never
seen so many black dudes in my life'. I mean, it looked like I went to Africa.
I couldn't believe it. The lyrics of 2Pac echoed in my head, 'The penitentiary
is packed/ and its filled with blacks'.
It's really an epidemic, the number
of blacks locked up in this country. That's why I look, not only at my own
situation, but why all of us young blacks are in prison. I've come to see, it's
largely due to an indentity crisis. We don t know our history. We don't know
how to really indentify with white people. We are really of a different
culture, but by being slaves, we lost ourselves.
When you have a black man name John
Williams and a white man name John Williams, the black man got his name from
the white man. Within that lies a lost of identity. There are blacks in this
country that don't even consider themselves African. Well, what are we? When
did we stop being African? If you ask a young black person if they're African,
they will say 'No, I'm American'. They've lost their roots. They think slavery
is their roots. Again, its a strong identity crisis.
You take the identity crisis, mix it
with capitalism, where money comes before empathy, and you'll have a lot of
young blacks trying to get money by any means because they're trying to get out
of poverty or stay out of poverty. Now, money is what they try to find an
identity in. They feel like if they get rich, legal or illegal, they've become
somebody. Which in America is partly true because superficially we hail the
rich and despise the poor. We give Jay-Z more credit than we do Al Sharpton.
What has Jay-Z done besides get rich? Yet we see dollar signs and somehow give
more respect to the man with the money.
A French woman who moved to America
asked me one day, 'Why don't black kids want to learn?' Her husband was a high
school teacher. She said the white and asian kids excel in school, but the
black and hispanic kids don't. I said that all kids want to learn, it's just a
matter of what you're trying to teach them. Cutting a frog open is not helping
a black kid in the ghetto who has to listen to police sirens all night and
worry about getting shot. Those kids need life lessons. They need direction.
When you have black kids learning more about the Boston Tea Party than the Black
Panther Party, I guarantee you won't keep their attention. But it was the Black
Panther Party that got them free lunch.
People point their fingers at young
blacks, call them thugs and say they need to pull up their pants. That's fine,
but you're not feeding them any knowledge. You're not giving them a vision. All
you're saying is be a square like me. They're not going to listen to you
because you have guys like Jay-Z and Rick Ross who are millionaires and sag
their pants. Changing the way they dress isn't changing the way they think. As
the Bible says, 'Where there's no vision the people perish'. Young blacks need
to learn their identity so they can have more respect for the blacks that
suffered for their liberties than they have for someone talking about selling
drugs over a rap beat who really isn't selling drugs.
They have to be exposed to something
new. Their minds have to be challenged, not dulled. They know the history of
the Crips & Bloods, but they can't tell you who Garvey or Robeson is. They
can quote Drake & Lil Wayne but they can't tell you what Jesse Jackson or
Al Sharpton has done. Across the nation, they gravitate to Crips & Bloods.
I tell those I know the same thing, not to put blue & red before black.
They were black first. It's senseless, but they are trying to find a purpose to
live for and if a gang gives them a sense of purpose that's what they will
gravitate to. They aren't being taught to live and die for something greater.
They're not being challenged to do better.
Black history shouldn't be a month,
it should be a course, an elective taught year around. I guarantee black kids
would take that course if it was available to them. How many black kids would
change their outlook if they knew that they were only considered 3/5's of a
human being according to the U.S Constitution? That black people were
considered part animal in this country. They don't know that. When you learn
that, you carry yourself with a different level of dignity for all we've
overcome.
Before Martin Luther King was killed
he drafted a bill called 'The Bill for the Disadvantaged'. It was for blacks
and poor whites. King understood that in order to have a successful life, you
have to decrease the odds of failure. You have to change the playing field. I'm
not saying there's no personal responsibility for success, that goes without
saying, but there's also a corporate responsibility. As the saying goes, when
you see someone who has failed, you see someone who was failed.
Neither am I saying that advantages
are always circumstancial. Sometimes its knowledge or opportunity that gives an
advantage. A lot of times it is the circumstances. Flowers grow in gardens, not
in hard places. Using myself as an example, I was 15 when my first love got
shot 9 times in Oakland. Do you think I m going to care about book reports when
my girlfriend was shot in the face? I understand Barack Obama saying there is
no excuse for blacks or anyone else because generations past had it harder than
us. That's true. However, success is based on probabilities and the odds.
Everyone is not on a level playing field. For some, the odds are really stacked
against them. I'm not saying they can't be overcome, but it's not likely.
I'm not trying to play the race
card, I'm looking at the roots of why so many young blacks are locked up. The
odds are stacked against us, we suffer from an identity crisis, and we're being
targeted more, instead of taught better. Ask any young black person their views
on the Police, I assure you their response will not be positive. Yet if you
have something against the Police, who represent the government, you cannot sit
on a trial jury. A young black woman was struck from the jury in my case
because she said she sees the Police
as 'intimidators'. She never had a good experience with the Police like most
young blacks, but even though she's just being true to her experience, she's not
worthy to take part as a juror in a trial.
White people really don't understand
how it extreme it is to be judged by others outside your race. In the book
TRIAL & ERROR: THE TEXAS DEATH PENALTY Lisa Maxwell paints this picture to
get the point across and if any white person reading this is honest with
themselves, they will clearly understand the point. I cannot quote it word for
word, but this was the gist of it...
Imagine you're a young white guy
facing capital murder charges where you can receive the death penalty... the
victim in the case is a black man... when you go to trial and step into the
courtroom... the judge is a black man... the two State prosecutors seeking the
death penalty on you... are also black men... you couldn't afford an attorney,
so the Judge appointed you two defense lawyers who are also black men... you
look in the jury box... there's 8 more black people and 4 hispanics... the only
white person in the courtroom is you... How would you feel facing the death
penalty? Do you believe you'll receive justice?
As outside of the box as that scene
is, those were the exact circumstances of my trial. I was the only black person
in the courtroom.
Again, I'm not playing the race
card, but empathy is putting the shoe on the other foot.
The last thing on my heart is about
religion and the death penalty. There are several well-known preachers in Texas
and across the South that teach their congregations that the death penalty is
right by God and backed by the Bible. The death penalty is a governmental issue
not a spiritual issue. Southern preachers who advocate the death penalty are
condoning evil. They need to learn the legalities of capital punishment. The
State may have the power to put people to death, but don't preach to the public
that it's God's will. It's the State's will.
If God wanted me to die for
anything, I would be dead already. I talk to God everday. He's not telling me
I'm some kind of menace that He can't wait to see executed. God is blessing me
daily. God is showing me His favor & grace on my life. Like Paul said, I
was the chief of sinners, but God had mercy on me because He knew I was
ignorant. The blood of Abel cryed vengeance, the blood of Jesus cryed mercy.
There are preachers like John Hagee
in San Antonio who have influence over thousands of people, who not only attend
his church, but also watch his TV program, and hear him condoning the death
penalty. Hagee doesn't see his Southern mentality condones the death penalty,
not the scriptures. There is absolutely nothing in the Bible that condones the
way Texas executes people today.
Southern preachers use scriptures
like God telling Noah, 'Whoever shed's man's blood, by man his blood shall be
shed'. 'That's murder. Under Texas law, you cannot receive the death penalty
for murder. There is no such thing as capital murder in the Bible, where murder
must be in the course of another felony. Yet, they preach capital punishment is
God's
will. Even if you're guilty of
capital murder in Texas, it doesn't mean you'll receive the death penalty.
People get the death penalty when a jury has judged them to be a 'continuing
threat to society'. 'That means they are deemed so bad that they have no hope
of redemption or change in their behavior. That is the only reason a person
gets the death penalty. They are suppose to be the absolute worse of the worse,
so terrible that they cannot live in prison with other murderers.
That in itself is contrary to the
whole Christian faith that believes no one is beyond redemption if they repent
for their sins and put their faith in Jesus Christ. For a Christian to advocate
the death penalty is a complete contradiction.
As easy as it is for a preacher to
stand up in the pulpit with a Bible and tell thousands of people the death
penalty is right, I challenge any preacher in Texas, John Hagee or any others
to come visit me and tell me that God wants me to die. Martin Luther King said,
'Capital punishment shows that America is a merciless nation that will not
forgive.'
Again, Mr. Nolan, this is only my
perspective. I'm just the hobo on the street giving away my pennies. A doctor
can't look at a person and see cancer, they have to look beyond the surface.
When you look at the Justice system, the Death Penalty, or anything else, it
takes one to go beyond the surface. Proper diagnosis is half the cure.
I'm a father. My daughter was six
weeks old when I got locked up and now she's 15 in high school. Despite the
circumstances, I've tryed to be the best father in the world. But I knew that
her course in life is largely determine by what I teach her. It's the same with
any young person, their course is determined by what we are teaching them. In
the words of Aristotle, 'All improvement in society begins with the education
of the young.'
Sincerely,
Ray L. Jasper
Ps: Forgive me for being longwinded,
but I was speaking from the heart. Thanks for the opportunity.
Previously
You can find all of our letters
from death row here.
Update: For those who have asked, Ray Jasper's mailing address is:
Ray Jasper 999341, Polunsky Unit, 3872 fm 350 S., Livingston, TX 7735
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