Speaker 1: Dear Governor is a production of I Heart Media and
Speaker 1: three Months Media. Dear Governor Newsom, Dear Mr Governor Newsom.
Speaker 1: This is an open letter to Governor Gavin Newsom, Dear
Speaker 1: Governor Newson Public. The second to last stop on the
Speaker 1: cradle to prison pipeline and the very last stop before
Speaker 1: juvenile offenders are sent to adult prison is the California
Speaker 1: Youth Authority, charged with a series of offenses including skipping school, petty,
Speaker 1: burglary and joy riding and stolen cars. At age fifteen,
Speaker 1: Jarvis was sentenced to the c y A in Stockton, California,
Speaker 1: a seven hour drive north from his Long Beach neighborhood.
Speaker 1: This was an ample distance from his homies and former
Speaker 1: life of crime to give him a new perspective on
Speaker 1: self worth and potential. It was in Stockton for several
Speaker 1: years that Jarvis earned his high school diploma and started
Speaker 1: believing he may have a chance after all. But in time,
Speaker 1: the lure of family and the familiar became too much
Speaker 1: to bear, and little McCrae, once again a personal mentee
Speaker 1: of Jarvis and an actor the Truth Workers Theater Company,
Speaker 1: reading from Jarvis's autobiography that bird has My wings. I
Speaker 1: struggled with this feeling of wanting to be with my
Speaker 1: family and knowing where it will lead. I wanted to
Speaker 1: return to who I was, to the life I knew
Speaker 1: well all his pitfalls Southern California felt more real than
Speaker 1: the life I was trying to create for myself at Stockton.
Speaker 1: My visit home had loosened my resolve and made me
Speaker 1: question all the good reasons I had sustained in Stockton
Speaker 1: and winning a new life. I was losing everything that
Speaker 1: connected me to my identity. Angrily, my mind stumbled and said,
Speaker 1: of rational for letting go like a dolphine who makes
Speaker 1: up any excuse to just hang on the street corner
Speaker 1: looking for a fix. I just I could be at them,
Speaker 1: fool like the rest of them. To pay for a
Speaker 1: bus ride down to his old stomping grounds, Jarvis sold
Speaker 1: his most prized possession, his high school diploma, and he
Speaker 1: recommitted to a life of the damn fool behavior that
Speaker 1: eventually landed him in San Quentin Prison. Let's call, and
Speaker 1: your telephone number will be monitored and recorded. I couldn't
Speaker 1: get it right, you know, I couldn't get it right,
Speaker 1: Jarvis Masters, I just couldn't get it right. I mean,
Speaker 1: I was frustrated. I didn't want to I didn't want
Speaker 1: to go back out to Los Angeles because I was
Speaker 1: placed a Paris doctor and when I went down there,
Speaker 1: losers to live. It was the worstest mistake I ever made,
Speaker 1: and I knew it, and I didn't do nothing about it.
Speaker 1: So this night year old kids, you went around any
Speaker 1: more people that he hadn't seen for many, many years,
Speaker 1: and she walked away from a lot of things that
Speaker 1: he knew right off that that, you know, his minds
Speaker 1: me trained not to mess with, you know, guns and dope,
Speaker 1: and so I walked away from that. But then everywhere
Speaker 1: we went, it was right there at me. So I
Speaker 1: started helping my brother out. You know, he was selling
Speaker 1: herouina at that time, and he showed me where where
Speaker 1: all the guns were, you know, and he gave me
Speaker 1: a few, and I never gave him back to him.
Speaker 1: Did you ever shoot anybody before? You know what? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I did. No, I shot at someone. Yeah, I shot
Speaker 1: at someone. But that's a story. And that bird has
Speaker 1: my wings. Where these guys coming back to me and
Speaker 1: another guy and we just got tired of being followed Chase,
Speaker 1: so we came around the building with its blazy. The
Speaker 1: next day we learned that we fired bullets into the house.
Speaker 1: The car had been parked in front of There have
Speaker 1: been children in the house. Bullets had come closer, hitting
Speaker 1: while they slept. I thought, we're horrid about what almost done.
Speaker 1: I imagined the children in the house as my nephews
Speaker 1: asleep in their bedroom. I could have killed them. I've
Speaker 1: been given the miracle. I didn't have to live with
Speaker 1: the pain of having killed a child or anyone in
Speaker 1: the car either. I couldn't name where I felt. It
Speaker 1: was beyond the great. At some point I was out
Speaker 1: of control. I got out of control and I kept
Speaker 1: doing these robbery things, and they kept going on and
Speaker 1: on and on until I eventually got caught and they
Speaker 1: convicted me for a whole bunch of robberies that I
Speaker 1: did within the span up two months. And that was
Speaker 1: just that anger, you know, and dealt with. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of anger I hadn't righteously dealt with, and I
Speaker 1: put myself in a position where I act out on it.
Speaker 1: It was definitely not me, but I own it, you know.
Speaker 1: So at the time, did you feel any remorse for
Speaker 1: crimes or were you not even that awake to be
Speaker 1: able to know I didn't feel no remorse. Remorse was
Speaker 1: not something that I knew how to deal with, because
Speaker 1: when you talk about remorse, a lot of that comes
Speaker 1: up when you're alone, when there's no distractions where someone
Speaker 1: is telling you to feel that way, and someone's not
Speaker 1: telling you to feel that way. I never had that
Speaker 1: kind of time to really sit with things like that.
Speaker 1: I was always around people who have done far worse,
Speaker 1: are far less. We judge each other because we all
Speaker 1: were doing something wrong. So no, I did not know
Speaker 1: what remorse meant. You know, I know I felt sad
Speaker 1: by the fears that I created on people's faces because
Speaker 1: I remember that then in many many ways, on many
Speaker 1: ways that we don't understand our life. In an ironic way,
Speaker 1: it helped me get to a place which had to
Speaker 1: be here said, I found myself. I found detaining hurt,
Speaker 1: and I found what it was like to experience someone
Speaker 1: being robbed. You know, I got to the point where
Speaker 1: I was being robbed by something and it was scary.
Speaker 1: It was real scary. What was the initial sentence? Twenty
Speaker 1: one years twenty one years for sixteen Council of our robbery. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and they said we were sending you to Saint Quentin.
Speaker 1: San Quentin State Prison, Maximum Security correctional facility for men,
Speaker 1: opened in eighteen fifty four, California's oldest prison, the state's
Speaker 1: only facility that conducts executions, is ironically situated overlooking the
Speaker 1: serene beauty that there's a San Francisco Bay. In the eighties,
Speaker 1: when Jarvis was first incarcerated, it was an extremely dangerous
Speaker 1: place to be. Violence was a daily ritual. A riot
Speaker 1: erupted in two that required more than twenty shotgun blasts
Speaker 1: in order to subdue the revolt. Twenty two inmates and
Speaker 1: four corrections officers were seriously injured as a result. Is
Speaker 1: it as violent now as it was back in the eighties. No,
Speaker 1: not at all, not at all. It's not violence, No,
Speaker 1: not at all, not even close. I've been an observer
Speaker 1: that that that you know, this thing here, you know,
Speaker 1: and there's so many things that changes the culture. I
Speaker 1: honestly think someone in the Department of correct this is
Speaker 1: in a state of shots. See how giving it makes
Speaker 1: the ability to communicate with their families and ways that
Speaker 1: are conducive to that families life schedule. Being there to
Speaker 1: see their kids and their grandkids born or you know,
Speaker 1: at graduations. And you know, I'm talking about what I'm
Speaker 1: basically talking about access to phones, cell phones, regular phones.
Speaker 1: I mean that day you didn't have that, you know,
Speaker 1: and right now you have that. And you know, you're
Speaker 1: not finding weapons, you finding cell phones. You're not finding
Speaker 1: a lot of drugs, you finding cell phones, You're not
Speaker 1: finding a lot of fights, You're not finding none of
Speaker 1: those things because people are reconnecting to their life, you know,
Speaker 1: to the life they left and to the life they
Speaker 1: have now. Currently in California, it costs a dollar twenty
Speaker 1: three to make a five minute call from prison, and
Speaker 1: that's a medium cost compared to other states. The Prison
Speaker 1: Policy Initiative recommends reducing phone costs or making calls altogether
Speaker 1: free to help inmates keep in touch with their families,
Speaker 1: one of the most effective factors when it comes to
Speaker 1: eliminating recidivism. Guy says, you know, what do you want
Speaker 1: to do? You want to go out there for you
Speaker 1: spend time with your daughter and your new grass, and
Speaker 1: do you want to go out there and have this
Speaker 1: thing going down on a lower yard somewhere. Everybody's gonna
Speaker 1: want to speak with their families. And to use that
Speaker 1: as a restriction was always a wrong love. But to
Speaker 1: use it as a way of an alternative was the
Speaker 1: right move. And I think they turn that right and uh,
Speaker 1: the right way. There's not so much fall privileges. It's
Speaker 1: fall and access. For example, the phone wheel and right now,
Speaker 1: the one we're talking on right now, it is very
Speaker 1: expensive to talk for five minutes, especially for a family
Speaker 1: who doesn't have that kind of money, and old are
Speaker 1: the families that are usually have with someone in prison, obviously,
Speaker 1: to give that person access to talk into his family,
Speaker 1: you know, uh, to provide him with an opportunity to
Speaker 1: do that in ways where you know, it's like you
Speaker 1: can speak generations of your family nowadays. That's special. You know.
Speaker 1: I don't think they really really understand how special that is.
Speaker 1: Sister Helen Prejeon, author of dead Man Walking Rights. Jarvis j.
Speaker 1: Masters was set on a dangerous course which eventually brought
Speaker 1: him to death Row. Somehow, within those walls, he now
Speaker 1: demonstrates divine grace in his daily life and by the
Speaker 1: cautionary tales he shares. I asked Jarvis, after a lifetime
Speaker 1: of what he called damn fool behavior, what was the
Speaker 1: impetus for him to change? I started reading these books
Speaker 1: about masculinity and where's the man and the boy? The
Speaker 1: boy and the man? How do we find ourselves? And
Speaker 1: you know, the environments we live in and what we
Speaker 1: do to imitate being with a mass supposed to be
Speaker 1: based on what we've been told. So I was reading
Speaker 1: a lot of these books, and a lot of these
Speaker 1: books were both Ferry. They were all sort of had
Speaker 1: a spiritual net on them. I started reading these books
Speaker 1: and they were really good books for me to read
Speaker 1: because they really started to tear away what I thought
Speaker 1: I should look like sound I can be like, how
Speaker 1: did you think you should be back when you were
Speaker 1: nineteen twenty? Oh? Man, I don't post picture from nobody.
Speaker 1: I do my own thing, you know, and I post too,
Speaker 1: be a glass of I define what my man is
Speaker 1: to me, you know. I don't care about standards are
Speaker 1: there what people might think that I need to be.
Speaker 1: And then there was a whole prison culture thing where
Speaker 1: there's certain obligations you have just by what we say
Speaker 1: our man who's being threatened. I had a chair down
Speaker 1: a lot of that stuff, and that was a very
Speaker 1: scary part because those were all layers of shields that
Speaker 1: I had created, fashion may, personalize, customize that kept me
Speaker 1: from showing my true self. So I was pulling away
Speaker 1: those layers, man, becoming more vulnerable to this and valuing
Speaker 1: the idea that I can cry, learning how to openly
Speaker 1: have more appreciation for things that that I never thought
Speaker 1: I should have given some value to. You know that
Speaker 1: that that authentic human being that there's a lot more
Speaker 1: layers to me than to get there, you know, see right,
Speaker 1: each layer gives a different shade of sun. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I I was trying to really find where I fit in.
Speaker 1: When you're young and vulnerable like that, you want to
Speaker 1: know where you fit in. You want to fit in
Speaker 1: with the tough guys, but then there's something that doesn't
Speaker 1: fit with the tough guys, and you don't want to
Speaker 1: fit with the guys who not tough because there's something
Speaker 1: they'll fit with that. So you have to find where
Speaker 1: you are. For me, I had wherever I was. I
Speaker 1: had to learn how to respect that as a starting point.
Speaker 1: So what else I wanted to do with that? So
Speaker 1: I had a lot of restarts, man, you know, that's
Speaker 1: what I used to call them, restarts. Let's do this
Speaker 1: all over again, make it yours. You're given a response
Speaker 1: to something you have six you know, you only respond
Speaker 1: because this is how everybody else responds. How would you
Speaker 1: really want to say that? Because there's the things that
Speaker 1: you know. For me, they were like sort of like
Speaker 1: how assisitions that are conversations that are built around matress
Speaker 1: sort of you know, they were like asking me to
Speaker 1: repeat something to hear get over again to know that
Speaker 1: you know what was you really trying to stay with it? Hi? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I speak with Jeffrey rot Linke's Hello. Hi Jeffrey. Yes, Hi,
Speaker 1: my name is Corny Cole, and we're creating a podcast
Speaker 1: that is focusing on the life of Jarvis Masters. Yes,
Speaker 1: and I'm expecting your phone call. Wonderful. I've been a
Speaker 1: practicing attorney for about a little over forty five years,
Speaker 1: a long time. My main area of interest has been
Speaker 1: criminal defense, murders and capital murders, you know, like Jarvis's case.
Speaker 1: So tell me what you remember when you first met Jarvis.
Speaker 1: I think I met him probably in the latter part
Speaker 1: of or the early part of ninety eight, and he
Speaker 1: was up at San Quentin Prison and he was very
Speaker 1: closed very kind of steeped in the in the prison
Speaker 1: gang culture, noncommunicative with with me, with us. He was
Speaker 1: in a very different kind of lifestyle and culser um.
Speaker 1: That's what I remember when I when I first met him,
Speaker 1: he saw his demeanor change. Tell me how how he changed. Well,
Speaker 1: he began to open up. He became much more communicative,
Speaker 1: He became softer and more self confident, much more friendly
Speaker 1: with with the defense team, Michael Satris and the other
Speaker 1: people investigators and experts and so on that we had retained.
Speaker 1: While he was doing that in the same process of
Speaker 1: kind of um, you know, leaving behind or getting out
Speaker 1: of the gang, the prison gang culture um. And by
Speaker 1: the time we got the trial, he was he was
Speaker 1: almost like a different person. This is an open letter
Speaker 1: to Governor Gavin Newsom from Marty Krasny of Saslito. Dear
Speaker 1: Governor Newsom, first off, thank you and congratulations for your
Speaker 1: courageous and admirable decision to establish a moratorium on the
Speaker 1: death penalty in California. It's in that context that I
Speaker 1: am writing now with particular attention to the case of
Speaker 1: Jarvis Masters. I can always to pendle Marty. You know,
Speaker 1: he he got my back. That's one thing at all
Speaker 1: the people I know, Marity has my back, There's no
Speaker 1: doubt about it, and I have some much respect for him.
Speaker 1: A condemned inmate at San Quentin State Prison whom I
Speaker 1: believe was wrongly convicted as an accessory to a murderer
Speaker 1: at San Quentin, in which he had refused to participate
Speaker 1: the gang perpetrated slaying of Sergeant Howell Birchfield, two tiers
Speaker 1: away from where Jarvis was locked in his cell. I've
Speaker 1: known Jarvis masters for more than twenty years since his
Speaker 1: conversion to Buddhism while he was housed in the adjustment
Speaker 1: center at San Quentin following the murder conviction. We have
Speaker 1: been in my life. Marty is one of the smartest
Speaker 1: people after ever. Ever, I didn't even think people like
Speaker 1: Marty exists. Is always depended on him to tell me
Speaker 1: the truth. My wife, Pamela Krasnye, a Tibetan Buddhist practitioner
Speaker 1: for the last forty years of her life, a long
Speaker 1: time social justice activist and a member from its inception
Speaker 1: of the board of Naruropa, the Buddhist inspired university in
Speaker 1: both To, Colorado, initially met Jarvis through our friend, the
Speaker 1: revered American born Buddhist nun and writer Pama Children. Subsequently,
Speaker 1: Pamela visited Jarvis at least twice monthly until her death
Speaker 1: in June, and she became like a surrogant mother to him.
Speaker 1: Basically said, I have a friend that you really really
Speaker 1: was going to like and she's been my friend for many,
Speaker 1: many years. Her name is Pamela, and she wants to
Speaker 1: come see I say, cool, I can always get another visit. Wow,
Speaker 1: get me out of myself. And we start talking and
Speaker 1: she said, I'm gonna bring my son, Parker to come
Speaker 1: see you. And she had a lot of good stories
Speaker 1: about Parker. Our son. Parker Krasnye, who has worked for
Speaker 1: the last five years on criminal justice policy in the
Speaker 1: Office of the Mayor of New York City, has known
Speaker 1: and advocated for Jarvis since high school. Parker is one
Speaker 1: of those people that you know, it's always going to
Speaker 1: be your best friend no matter where he's at, and
Speaker 1: he's I've always thought of him that way, even though
Speaker 1: we don't communicate as often. He's always going to be
Speaker 1: the best friend. That's someone who uh will always be
Speaker 1: universedy and what happens to me ain't care about me
Speaker 1: in that very way. You will likely hear from other
Speaker 1: supporters of Jarvis about his transformation from an angry and
Speaker 1: aggressive young street criminal who was justifiably convicted for robbery
Speaker 1: and served his time for it, to a model prison
Speaker 1: resident to whom both prisoners and guards turned for wisdom
Speaker 1: and perspective, and the author of two highly regarded autobiographical
Speaker 1: books used in high school and college curriculous throughout the
Speaker 1: United States. Since Jarvis's trial, fellow gang member inmates who
Speaker 1: falsely witnessed against him under the threat of violent retribution
Speaker 1: haveverson did their testimony, and one of the world's leading
Speaker 1: forensic linguists has stated that he is virtually on certain
Speaker 1: that the kites introduced as evidence of Jarvis's complicity are
Speaker 1: not his diction and were similarly dictated to him by
Speaker 1: gang enforcers. None of that would hold sway if Jarvis
Speaker 1: were guilty of the death of Sergeant Birchfield, but he isn't.
Speaker 1: Quite Simply, I believe that the conviction resulted from a
Speaker 1: perfect storm conversions involving a media fan public fear of
Speaker 1: African American criminality in predominantly white nineteen eighties Marin County,
Speaker 1: a dishonest prisons snitch, corrupt enforcement officers and gang leaders
Speaker 1: seeking to enforce the chain of command and control against
Speaker 1: an independent and recalcitant young member who had somehow found
Speaker 1: his moral compass. You and I, Gavin, have met over
Speaker 1: the years. I chaired the Democratic Committee in Marin and
Speaker 1: Sonoma County, then Assembly District four for a number of
Speaker 1: years at the beginning of the century, and I have
Speaker 1: been active and geo executive and corporate manager in the
Speaker 1: Bay Area, including service on various philanthropic and educational boards.
Speaker 1: It would be a bold move to Exonera H. R.
Speaker 1: Vis Masters, and it would not give him back the
Speaker 1: decades that he has lived at San Quentin after a
Speaker 1: grave miscarriage of justice and a flawed conviction, but it
Speaker 1: would be the right thing to do, and it would
Speaker 1: enable this innocent man approaching age sixty to spend the
Speaker 1: rest of his life in freedom, working productively for social benefit.
Speaker 1: Thank you for considering it, with admiration, gratitude, and warm regards,
Speaker 1: Marty Krasny. As we continue to anxiously await the California
Speaker 1: Supreme Court opinion on Jarvis's final state appeal, will he
Speaker 1: finally be exonerated or will they confirm the death penalty sentence.
Speaker 1: Next week, Jarvis will open up about his very personal
Speaker 1: opinion on capital punishment and what that feels like from
Speaker 1: the inside of death row. In addition, we'll hear from
Speaker 1: the esteemed Buddhist teacher and best selling author Pema Chodren.
Speaker 1: Today's episode was written and produced by Donni Fazzari and myself,
Speaker 1: Corny Cole. Our theme song sentenced his compliments of the
Speaker 1: band Stick Figure from their album Set in Stone. Excerpts
Speaker 1: from Jarvis's memoir That Bird Has My Wings, a Harper
Speaker 1: One publication, were read by m Little McCrae, a member
Speaker 1: of the Truth Worker Theater Company. To learn more about
Speaker 1: the outstanding work they do, please visit truth Worker dot com.
Speaker 1: Stu Sternbach composed the original music. Nate Defort did the
Speaker 1: sound design. Visit Free Jarvis dot org to find out
Speaker 1: more about Jarvis's case. To sign your name to our
Speaker 1: dear Governor newsom petition, and if you have questions for Jarvis,
Speaker 1: please leave a message on our hotline at two zero
Speaker 1: one nine zero three five seventy five. That's to zero
Speaker 1: one nine zero three thirty five seventy five. Dear Governor.
Speaker 1: Newsom is a production of I Heart Media and three
Speaker 1: Months Media. For more podcasts for My Heart Radio, visit
Speaker 1: the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows,