WEBVTT - Bloody Murder 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:02.840 Dear Governor, is a production of I Heart Media and 0:00:02.920 --> 0:00:10.639 three Months Media. Dear Governor Newsom, Dear Mr Governor Newsom, 0:00:10.640 --> 0:00:14.320 this is an open letter to Governor Gavin Newsom. Dear 0:00:14.360 --> 0:00:25.360 Governor Newsom, the spiritful said been launched out of the 0:00:25.400 --> 0:00:30.760 sale door and into the sergeant's heart. Jarvis Masters on 0:00:30.840 --> 0:00:36.600 the prison murder of Sergeant hal Birchfield on June, the 0:00:36.680 --> 0:00:39.280 crime for which he was convicted of conspiracy to commit 0:00:39.360 --> 0:00:42.400 murder and sentenced to death row. The reason why I 0:00:42.520 --> 0:00:46.360 end up getting death row is because I didn't try 0:00:46.400 --> 0:00:51.040 to defend myself. I thought that these guys are in trouble, 0:00:51.120 --> 0:00:55.200 not me, you know. Oh hell no, I won't try 0:00:55.240 --> 0:00:57.800 to defend myself. I say it to my lawyers. You 0:00:57.880 --> 0:01:01.160 could not say anything because this is to do with us. 0:01:01.480 --> 0:01:03.800 Do don't have nothing to do with us because these 0:01:03.840 --> 0:01:06.920 guys they already know I didn't do it, Parry, No 0:01:07.000 --> 0:01:09.920 I did. Those don't worry about it. Then if I 0:01:09.920 --> 0:01:12.200 if I get involved in their business, they don't get 0:01:12.200 --> 0:01:14.600 mad at me, and they may try to do something 0:01:14.640 --> 0:01:17.720 to me, you know. And these guys are telling modern 0:01:17.760 --> 0:01:21.840 lawyers this is none of you guys business, this of us. 0:01:22.080 --> 0:01:25.679 He knows. We know Jarleston doing everyone knows Jarvis wasn't involved. 0:01:26.240 --> 0:01:30.240 I mean, we had no idea. The murder happened on 0:01:30.280 --> 0:01:33.960 the second tier right below me. That with the south 0:01:34.040 --> 0:01:40.000 block in C section on the fourth tier and sell 0:01:40.400 --> 0:01:46.840 to light above the office area before tears up of 0:01:47.000 --> 0:01:51.840 the guards. They said that I sharpened the weapon and 0:01:51.920 --> 0:01:55.360 sent it down to the guy who then made it 0:01:55.440 --> 0:02:01.680 into a poll and spared the guard. That's how they 0:02:01.720 --> 0:02:05.520 explained my involvement in it. When they got the opportunity, 0:02:06.000 --> 0:02:08.320 they had prepared what we referred to as they San 0:02:08.440 --> 0:02:13.400 Quentin spear, which is a newspapers and magazines that are 0:02:13.520 --> 0:02:18.240 rolled very very tightly into a shaft, so tight and 0:02:18.440 --> 0:02:21.079 so heavy that if it hits you on the head, 0:02:21.120 --> 0:02:24.400 it would leave a boat under head. Daniel Vasquez was 0:02:24.440 --> 0:02:28.000 warden and chief executioner in charge of San Quentin Security 0:02:28.040 --> 0:02:32.880 Housing Unit when Sergeant Birchfield was murdered in nineteen Here 0:02:32.880 --> 0:02:36.040 he is reflecting on his memory of the crime. They 0:02:36.040 --> 0:02:38.280 had saw it off. I don't know how they did that, 0:02:38.360 --> 0:02:41.360 but they saw off a piece of the bunk and 0:02:41.440 --> 0:02:45.800 they fashioned it into a spear spear point and they 0:02:45.840 --> 0:02:51.080 attached it to this uh shaft, you know, magazines and newspapers, 0:02:51.120 --> 0:02:55.480 and they stabbed him through the cell bars. They hit 0:02:55.560 --> 0:02:58.240 him in the heart. Jervis's memory on the night of 0:02:58.280 --> 0:03:03.960 the murder, I remember hearing the alarm. It's the alarming 0:03:04.080 --> 0:03:08.519 side set. He was right there that we all heard 0:03:08.560 --> 0:03:13.720 alarm in the morning, and um, it only was a 0:03:13.720 --> 0:03:17.839 few more hours before daylight left thinking one I think 0:03:17.919 --> 0:03:20.880 one guard came up. I was walking his tears and 0:03:20.919 --> 0:03:24.920 they said he passed away. Have you known Sergeant brush 0:03:24.960 --> 0:03:27.800 Field before he died? You know, I've seen him a lot. 0:03:28.080 --> 0:03:29.600 You know what, I've seen him a lot. I don't 0:03:29.639 --> 0:03:34.280 think I never we never got at you any words. No, 0:03:34.440 --> 0:03:37.880 I he worked in that unit. And had you known 0:03:37.920 --> 0:03:42.640 that that there was a conspiracy that was being coordinated 0:03:42.680 --> 0:03:46.240 to kill him? Were you aware of that? No? I 0:03:46.360 --> 0:03:49.160 wasn't a part of any of that. There was a 0:03:49.160 --> 0:03:51.400 lot of violence. There was a lot of violence and 0:03:52.160 --> 0:03:54.640 sad quitn at that time. Can you speak to the 0:03:54.720 --> 0:03:58.960 Black Guerrilla Family because I know that they ultimately were 0:03:59.360 --> 0:04:03.280 a signed with masterminding it. Who were they and what 0:04:03.360 --> 0:04:09.320 was your association with them? I do not want to 0:04:09.320 --> 0:04:15.320 speak about there, Okay, okay. According to court, documents. This 0:04:15.400 --> 0:04:18.599 case involved a conspiracy by members of the prison gang 0:04:18.680 --> 0:04:21.760 known as the Black Guerrilla Family to assault and kill 0:04:21.920 --> 0:04:25.560 San Quentin prison staff and ultimately to foment war with 0:04:25.640 --> 0:04:29.480 the other prison gangs. The conspiracy culminated in the murder 0:04:29.520 --> 0:04:34.320 of Sergeant Birchfield, Black Guerrilla member, prison snitch and witness 0:04:34.400 --> 0:04:39.039 for the state, Rufus Willis provided prosecutors with incriminating notes 0:04:39.360 --> 0:04:42.200 also known as prison kites, confirmed to be in the 0:04:42.279 --> 0:04:46.880 handwriting of Jarvis. Jarvis wrote the kite for Rufus, which 0:04:46.960 --> 0:04:49.960 ultimately implicated him. Why do you think he did that? 0:04:50.000 --> 0:04:52.520 Do you have a theory? I don't know that he did. 0:04:53.160 --> 0:04:57.360 Jeffrey Rockline, lead defense attorney for Jarvis's murder trial. That 0:04:57.520 --> 0:05:00.600 was a big issue during during the trial. Weren't certain 0:05:00.640 --> 0:05:02.719 about that. I think we took a position at the 0:05:02.760 --> 0:05:06.520 trial that he wrote it, but he was asked basically 0:05:06.560 --> 0:05:12.000 to copy somebody else's information onto what they call a kite, 0:05:12.160 --> 0:05:15.320 you know, a note. Jarvis on his involvement in the 0:05:15.360 --> 0:05:19.719 prison kite. What got me in trouble was the fact 0:05:19.760 --> 0:05:27.920 that I copy a note what we call a kite 0:05:28.200 --> 0:05:32.680 a prison for someone who was involved in the in 0:05:32.720 --> 0:05:37.080 the murder. He was deeply involved. He was one of 0:05:37.120 --> 0:05:41.560 the ones who made a deal with law enforcement, and 0:05:41.800 --> 0:05:44.359 law enforcement said, hey, if you go down there and 0:05:44.440 --> 0:05:49.800 you get something in Master's hand, right, we will promise 0:05:49.880 --> 0:05:54.440 you that you know another dame prison. So he says 0:05:54.480 --> 0:05:58.320 me a no, and he says, I need you to 0:05:58.440 --> 0:06:01.800 copy this because us I don't want it in my handwriting. 0:06:02.600 --> 0:06:06.479 And two things hit me before I said yes. The 0:06:06.560 --> 0:06:10.120 first thing was that I was not in good standing 0:06:10.200 --> 0:06:14.560 with the group because toldy against what they were thinking about, 0:06:15.200 --> 0:06:17.600 and I was just for sure what they decided what 0:06:17.920 --> 0:06:21.280 they were thinking about, you know. Secondly, the online signed 0:06:21.279 --> 0:06:24.360 it was because I wanted to know what it said. 0:06:24.760 --> 0:06:27.760 I was just plenty four year okay or something like that, 0:06:28.360 --> 0:06:32.120 and a guard had just been killed and he's given 0:06:32.120 --> 0:06:35.960 me the right to copy something. Now. To me, that 0:06:36.160 --> 0:06:39.600 was a privilege to me, and my way of thinking 0:06:39.760 --> 0:06:43.000 that was like, Wow, he trusts me to do this, 0:06:43.760 --> 0:06:47.719 He trusts me to all this stuff, and for me 0:06:47.839 --> 0:06:50.640 to keep my mouth shit about it. I thought it 0:06:50.760 --> 0:06:52.960 was a privilege. I thought it was a good idea. 0:06:53.040 --> 0:06:56.080 I thought he he chose me because he trusted me 0:06:56.160 --> 0:06:58.480 more than anyone else. What did he have me right. 0:06:58.880 --> 0:07:03.640 It was the full toil of everything that happened. Four 0:07:03.760 --> 0:07:07.760 detail is everything that happened, from the way it was decided, 0:07:08.360 --> 0:07:12.880 from the planning, from the weapon being moved from one 0:07:12.880 --> 0:07:17.480 place to another, the whole BBC all the way up 0:07:17.520 --> 0:07:22.120 to the DEATHO Sergeant first Field up next Jarvis on 0:07:22.200 --> 0:07:25.160 what would compel him to copy the kites of another inmate. 0:07:31.280 --> 0:07:35.240 Marine County Superior Court Judge Lynn Drury was appointed as 0:07:35.320 --> 0:07:39.000 referee to review questions raised in jarvis Master's habeas petition. 0:07:39.520 --> 0:07:43.160 At the thirteen day hearing, the referee heard expert testimony 0:07:43.240 --> 0:07:47.000 from a prominent and esteemed forensic linguist, Dr Robert Leonard, 0:07:47.200 --> 0:07:50.000 who argued that the kites that had been used against 0:07:50.120 --> 0:07:53.760 Jarvis had been authored by someone other than Jarvis. He said, 0:07:53.880 --> 0:07:57.200 quote the language of the kites, admittedly copied by Jarvis, 0:07:57.240 --> 0:08:00.680 were not congruent with spelling and laying which he used 0:08:00.680 --> 0:08:03.800 in numerous other notes and letters at the time. In 0:08:03.840 --> 0:08:06.560 other words, they were copied by Jarvis verbatim from the 0:08:06.560 --> 0:08:11.480 actual author. After hearing Dr Leonard's expert testimony, the referee 0:08:11.600 --> 0:08:16.440 conceded that his evidence was compelling. Jarvis maintains that copying 0:08:16.560 --> 0:08:19.840 kites in prison was commonplace for inmates back then. So 0:08:19.880 --> 0:08:24.720 I asked warden Vasquez, is it common practice that that 0:08:24.960 --> 0:08:29.800 inmate copy kites for other inmates copy kites? Yes, and 0:08:29.800 --> 0:08:32.959 and also passed them to the other inmates. It could 0:08:32.960 --> 0:08:35.720 be It could be either way. Either the the inmate 0:08:36.080 --> 0:08:39.240 who originator of the kite, you know, would have it 0:08:39.480 --> 0:08:42.400 uh delivered to the inmate he intended to have it 0:08:42.480 --> 0:08:46.880 delivered too, or you know, sometimes uh an inmate would 0:08:46.880 --> 0:08:49.000 copy it. How did they pass the kite? How does 0:08:49.080 --> 0:08:52.760 one kite get from one cell to another? It's usually 0:08:52.840 --> 0:08:56.040 done by what they call a fish line. You know, 0:08:56.080 --> 0:09:00.600 they'll they'll have a way of you know, swinging through 0:09:00.640 --> 0:09:03.719 the seal bar and and having it sitched out to 0:09:03.920 --> 0:09:07.280 the next inmate. Is that why it's called the kite 0:09:07.400 --> 0:09:10.040 because it has a fish line? No, No, it's just 0:09:10.320 --> 0:09:13.480 it's just called the kite because it's a it's an 0:09:13.520 --> 0:09:19.760 unofficial communication between inmates, and for some reason, they've always 0:09:19.760 --> 0:09:23.400 called it a kite. What our copy was that? Um? 0:09:23.520 --> 0:09:26.040 He said that I was a good member of the game. 0:09:26.840 --> 0:09:29.360 And when I read that then I thought, wow, he 0:09:29.440 --> 0:09:32.600 really trust me, because he said I lived up to 0:09:32.679 --> 0:09:35.960 my part and you know, I was thinking straight up, 0:09:36.160 --> 0:09:39.000 good soldier. And you know, when I read that part, 0:09:39.080 --> 0:09:42.679 I just felt like, Wow, he's really supporting, he's really 0:09:42.800 --> 0:09:48.360 caring about me. I honestly thought that the reason why 0:09:48.440 --> 0:09:50.720 he asked me to copy it was because he trusts me. 0:09:51.480 --> 0:09:55.240 And the comments he wrote in there was He even said, 0:09:55.360 --> 0:09:57.720 when you read this, you'll see that I'm giving you 0:09:57.880 --> 0:10:01.520 major props. So that shows you how much I care about, 0:10:01.559 --> 0:10:04.160 how much I like you. I'm giving you major problems. 0:10:04.720 --> 0:10:07.960 And I felt, wow, you know, I mean I was 0:10:08.160 --> 0:10:11.120 I was like, I was like the happiest guy to 0:10:11.200 --> 0:10:15.840 be join this for someone who had all the information 0:10:15.880 --> 0:10:19.239 of what just happened. He could have given it anybody 0:10:19.320 --> 0:10:22.240 to you know, it was not like, you know, it 0:10:22.400 --> 0:10:24.760 was a food for me to copy. Anybody would copy 0:10:24.880 --> 0:10:28.160 that thing because everybody wanted to know exactly what happened. 0:10:28.240 --> 0:10:31.400 Everyone wanted to know the details, and he gave me 0:10:31.440 --> 0:10:36.000 a chance to earn the details. Anyway. I didn't know 0:10:36.120 --> 0:10:39.040 he had already made a deal with law enforcement and 0:10:39.120 --> 0:10:42.160 they sent him up there to get a note copy 0:10:42.280 --> 0:10:46.640 from me, a detailed note. He was smart enough to 0:10:46.720 --> 0:10:50.040 write the note, write the detail, and get me to 0:10:50.080 --> 0:10:55.160 copy it. Because I copied it. I copied it, and 0:10:55.320 --> 0:10:58.800 he turns it in to the law enforcement, and that's 0:10:58.840 --> 0:11:02.400 the physical effidence they have against me. I was stupid. 0:11:02.520 --> 0:11:06.360 I didn't know. I was totally on a whole another 0:11:06.559 --> 0:11:09.320 different page than what his intentions were. I had no 0:11:09.440 --> 0:11:15.559 idea what was happening. But that said, that said, everybody 0:11:15.760 --> 0:11:23.240 who was accused thought of rumored about. We're taken out 0:11:23.240 --> 0:11:26.720 of that unit and placed in solitary confinement and the 0:11:26.720 --> 0:11:30.400 adjustment center. And when the adjustment center was filled up, 0:11:30.640 --> 0:11:34.640 they sent them to Folsom State Prison to isolate them. 0:11:34.840 --> 0:11:39.840 They took a hole tire everybody in that area, anyone 0:11:39.920 --> 0:11:43.200 they thought was involved in it. They took out of 0:11:43.360 --> 0:11:48.000 that building and placed them in solitary confinement, deep in 0:11:48.080 --> 0:11:51.040 the whole. Some places, they were so deep you can 0:11:51.280 --> 0:11:54.520 barely hear the other guy. It was hollowed. He was 0:11:54.640 --> 0:11:57.800 behind not just one door, but another door and then 0:11:57.840 --> 0:12:03.960 another door. You were isolated completely. They took everyone out, 0:12:05.080 --> 0:12:08.320 but they left me there. The man who posts had 0:12:08.440 --> 0:12:11.880 a sharpened the weapon. The guy who posts they had 0:12:11.960 --> 0:12:16.439 assented down to Johnson, the guy who's supposed to have 0:12:17.160 --> 0:12:21.079 wrote a plan, a detailed plan of everything that happened, 0:12:22.160 --> 0:12:26.120 everything that happened from A to Z in my handwriting, 0:12:26.679 --> 0:12:30.400 and left me in that same cell. They left me 0:12:30.400 --> 0:12:34.959 in that self for six months. And this guy supposed 0:12:34.960 --> 0:12:37.920 to be the bad dude keep sposed to be the 0:12:37.960 --> 0:12:42.200 one that start thempments, who were ready to kill guards, 0:12:42.280 --> 0:12:45.800 who was ready to attack guards any minute now. They 0:12:45.880 --> 0:12:49.000 yet they left me in that same sound. They let 0:12:49.000 --> 0:12:51.880 me go to the yard that in that note that 0:12:52.080 --> 0:12:54.520 they said it was planning that. They let me go 0:12:54.640 --> 0:12:58.079 to the commissary, They let me get my visits, They 0:12:58.160 --> 0:13:01.040 let me walk among the guards, They let me shower 0:13:01.240 --> 0:13:04.920 on a cheer. In fact, they did nothing that they 0:13:04.960 --> 0:13:08.319 didn't give to the rest of the population. Two people, 0:13:08.360 --> 0:13:12.199 three hundred people in that building. I was among everybody. 0:13:12.200 --> 0:13:16.320 I went to the yard with everybody. Their whole response 0:13:17.000 --> 0:13:21.040 to that type that I copied to them believing that 0:13:21.080 --> 0:13:24.280 I shop in the weapon that Joe the guard, And 0:13:24.360 --> 0:13:26.360 who's to say that I was going to sharpen more 0:13:26.440 --> 0:13:29.560 weapons to kill more guards. They put in their guards 0:13:29.559 --> 0:13:32.760 in jeopardy to think that I even sharpen the weapon, 0:13:32.840 --> 0:13:34.920 to believe our sharpen the weapon. Why do you think 0:13:34.920 --> 0:13:40.360 it took six months for them too? Because They knew 0:13:40.400 --> 0:13:43.440 that was the guy who told me that to copy 0:13:43.480 --> 0:13:46.800 the note. They knew it was a copy not They 0:13:46.800 --> 0:13:50.400 had no intentions on charging me. They had no intentions 0:13:50.400 --> 0:13:54.040 of putting me involved in that. They had none if 0:13:54.040 --> 0:13:57.360 they had one eye, Oh, the intentions of believing that 0:13:57.480 --> 0:14:00.079 those knights that I sharpened and I don't blow in 0:14:00.120 --> 0:14:03.120 that July, I'll belong in a dungeon. I am just 0:14:03.160 --> 0:14:13.480 as Jukie asked the guy who did it. Jarvis said 0:14:13.520 --> 0:14:16.560 that for six months following the death of Sergeant haliburch Field, 0:14:16.640 --> 0:14:19.440 he had zero reason to believe or even consider that 0:14:19.520 --> 0:14:22.520 he was under suspicion for participating in the conspiracy to 0:14:22.560 --> 0:14:25.760 commit murder. I asked how it was that he finally 0:14:25.800 --> 0:14:29.120 found out that the powers that be intended to prosecute him. 0:14:29.160 --> 0:14:33.720 When he finally fell charges, I was watching t V 0:14:33.880 --> 0:14:36.680 and my face appeared on television. I said, oh shit, 0:14:37.960 --> 0:14:41.840 you know, you know, we interrupt this program to say 0:14:41.920 --> 0:14:44.320 we are charging you know, and I'm looking at me 0:14:44.640 --> 0:14:52.320 and me looking at I. It was not a good thing. Wow. Yeah, 0:14:52.640 --> 0:14:55.000 So that's how I know. I mean, I never I 0:14:55.080 --> 0:14:58.000 was never part of the dragnet. You know. I was 0:14:58.080 --> 0:15:01.200 never part of the interviews. I was never were part 0:15:01.240 --> 0:15:05.920 of being transferred to another unit, being suspect for another unit, 0:15:06.600 --> 0:15:10.920 and myself searched as if I was. You know, you 0:15:10.920 --> 0:15:13.520 you're accusing the sharpen the weapon, and they don't search yourself. 0:15:14.400 --> 0:15:17.160 They don't send you trthology confinement right they did any 0:15:17.160 --> 0:15:19.240 more else. I knew those guys is in a lot 0:15:19.280 --> 0:15:21.920 of trouble. You know. I feel sorry for them, you know, 0:15:21.960 --> 0:15:26.680 I feel sorry for the old scene and next ago, 0:15:27.920 --> 0:15:31.560 I'm looking at me on TV and I'm saying, Wow, 0:15:32.000 --> 0:15:35.880 what the hill's going on? When that morning they came 0:15:35.920 --> 0:15:38.800 and got me and threw me in a dungeon. Sergeant 0:15:38.840 --> 0:15:41.200 Perchfield was stabbed in the heart in the hallway of 0:15:41.240 --> 0:15:44.200 the second tier of the Carson Section of San Quentin. 0:15:44.440 --> 0:15:47.880 The so called c Section. Court papers say this occurred 0:15:47.920 --> 0:15:50.760 two stories beneath Jarvis, a cell, right outside the cell 0:15:50.800 --> 0:15:54.080 of Andre Johnson, the man accused of the actual murder. 0:15:54.600 --> 0:15:57.800 The weapon, the metal shift that the investigator said was 0:15:57.880 --> 0:16:02.760 constructed from the bedpost, was never recovered. I wish they 0:16:02.800 --> 0:16:06.960 would have found that weapon because that weapon would have 0:16:07.040 --> 0:16:11.480 been my way out of here. I really believe if 0:16:11.520 --> 0:16:14.200 they found that weapon, I would not been charged from her. 0:16:15.400 --> 0:16:17.880 It's because they did not find it. They got me 0:16:17.920 --> 0:16:20.720 in trouble. I that's my belief. If they found the 0:16:20.760 --> 0:16:27.120 actual weapon, then they would have known somehow, fingerprints, something, anything, 0:16:27.400 --> 0:16:31.120 would have said that it was not me that sharpen anything, 0:16:31.600 --> 0:16:34.360 because you're sharpen it on the floor if you're going 0:16:34.520 --> 0:16:38.240 sharpen it. And why didn't they go in myself and 0:16:38.320 --> 0:16:42.440 see if myself had any scrapes on it. Well, here's 0:16:42.440 --> 0:16:44.920 the thing, this is my always felt if they would 0:16:44.920 --> 0:16:48.800 have found that weapon, they could have took the grooves 0:16:49.200 --> 0:16:52.680 off that weapon and compared it to whatever group that 0:16:52.840 --> 0:16:56.320 they may have seen me scratching it our sharpen it 0:16:56.440 --> 0:17:00.360 on the floor. M I mean, that was my way 0:17:00.400 --> 0:17:02.840 out because I knew that was not going to happen 0:17:02.880 --> 0:17:08.160 that way. But they don't know where it's at. And now. 0:17:08.200 --> 0:17:11.440 An open letter to Governor Newsom from Michael Satras, one 0:17:11.480 --> 0:17:14.240 of the attorneys that represented Jarvis in the late nineteen 0:17:14.240 --> 0:17:17.120 eighties throughout the murder trial that sent him to death row. 0:17:18.640 --> 0:17:24.680 Dear Governor Newsom, You're moratorium on executions in California reflects 0:17:24.680 --> 0:17:27.560 the reality that there is no right person for the 0:17:27.640 --> 0:17:32.840 state to kill but Jarvis is inestimably the wrong person, 0:17:34.040 --> 0:17:37.920 singled out among the many charged defendants and uncharged co 0:17:37.920 --> 0:17:42.439 conspirators to avenge the murder of Sergeant Birchfield in the 0:17:42.440 --> 0:17:46.560 bowels of San Quentin. Jarvis was a pawn in the game, 0:17:46.760 --> 0:17:50.879 even under the prosecution's theory of his guilt, neither the 0:17:50.960 --> 0:17:55.879 actual killer nor the shot caller. Most ironic is that 0:17:56.000 --> 0:18:00.000 at the time the judgment of death was pronounced upon him, 0:18:00.080 --> 0:18:03.959 Jarvis was also the only one who had demonstrably reformed 0:18:04.000 --> 0:18:08.400 and changed himself, maturing from a sullen and angry young 0:18:08.600 --> 0:18:13.560 revolutionary gang member into a thoughtful and caring individual who 0:18:13.560 --> 0:18:17.199 had gained insight into himself and the world around him, 0:18:17.240 --> 0:18:21.119 as well as a measure of peace and understanding. I 0:18:21.240 --> 0:18:25.320 know this because I was appointed as his counsel shortly 0:18:25.359 --> 0:18:29.600 after the capital charges were lodged against him, and literally 0:18:29.720 --> 0:18:33.680 stood at his side more than three years later in June, 0:18:34.720 --> 0:18:39.399 when the judge imposed the death penalty upon him, encouraging 0:18:39.480 --> 0:18:43.840 him to express himself in writing, develop his spirituality, and 0:18:43.960 --> 0:18:48.359 examine and reflect upon himself at the world around him, 0:18:48.400 --> 0:18:52.160 his eyes and years and soul open to the world 0:18:52.240 --> 0:18:56.600 both within him and without him, he soaked up all 0:18:56.640 --> 0:19:00.879 that positive and expansive outflow like a sponge, so that 0:19:01.000 --> 0:19:05.000 in the most unlikely circumstances of fighting for his life 0:19:05.160 --> 0:19:09.040 from the deepest hole in which the state could bury him, 0:19:09.240 --> 0:19:14.000 his humanity flowered. I have kept in touch with Jarvis 0:19:14.040 --> 0:19:18.119 over the many years since then, periodically seeing him and 0:19:18.240 --> 0:19:22.399 reading his books and talking to his supporters, and know 0:19:22.560 --> 0:19:26.840 that he has steadfastly maintained and enlarged upon his rehabilitation 0:19:27.359 --> 0:19:30.800 and pro social ways to become the remarkable human being 0:19:31.000 --> 0:19:35.320 that he is today. One can only wonder who Jarvis 0:19:35.359 --> 0:19:38.680 would have become had the state not used all its 0:19:38.760 --> 0:19:43.280 resources to imprison him as a teenager and thereafter employed 0:19:43.280 --> 0:19:47.240 the machinery of death against him, but instead had deployed 0:19:47.280 --> 0:19:51.080 those resources in the name of his life at the outset, 0:19:51.920 --> 0:19:57.800 addressing all the childhood trauma, deprivation, violence, oppression, and neglect 0:19:58.040 --> 0:20:04.879 that was his unique experience growing up. Unquestionably, Jarvis is 0:20:04.920 --> 0:20:08.399 the wrong person to execute, as the doubt of his 0:20:08.440 --> 0:20:11.480 guilt that lingered at the time of judgment has only 0:20:11.520 --> 0:20:16.200 gathered and grown stronger over the decades as exonerating evidence 0:20:16.480 --> 0:20:22.840 and recantations accumulated. Ultimately the evidence is too uncertain and 0:20:22.920 --> 0:20:26.600 changeable to support the weight of a judgment as certain 0:20:26.800 --> 0:20:31.679 and final as death, and has grown irresistibly stronger in 0:20:31.800 --> 0:20:35.720 favor of life every day of the thirty five years 0:20:35.760 --> 0:20:43.760 I have known Jarvis, respectfully submitted Michael Sattris next week 0:20:43.880 --> 0:20:46.520 an epic five year trial that would end in the 0:20:46.600 --> 0:20:49.720 death conviction for Jarvis and why he thinks he got 0:20:49.720 --> 0:20:53.120 the death sentence when the other two inmates, also accused 0:20:53.119 --> 0:20:56.520 in the conspiracy, were given life without the possibility of pearl. 0:20:58.800 --> 0:21:02.000 Today's episode is written and produced by Donna Fazzari and 0:21:02.080 --> 0:21:06.359 myself Corny Cole. Our theme song sentenced as complements of 0:21:06.400 --> 0:21:09.640 the band stick Figure from that album Set in Stone. 0:21:10.200 --> 0:21:13.960 Stu Sternboch Is composed the original music. Nate Defort did 0:21:14.000 --> 0:21:18.200 the sound design. Visit Free Jarvis dot org to find 0:21:18.200 --> 0:21:20.680 out more about Jarvis's case and to sign your name 0:21:20.720 --> 0:21:23.320 to our Dear Governor Newsom petition and if you have 0:21:23.440 --> 0:21:26.520 questions for Jarvis, please leave a message on our hotline 0:21:26.560 --> 0:21:30.920 at two zero one nine zero three thirty five seventy five. 0:21:31.200 --> 0:21:35.240 That's two zero one nine zero three thirty five seventy five. 0:21:35.680 --> 0:21:38.439 Dear Governor Newsom is a production of i heart Media 0:21:38.600 --> 0:21:42.159 and three Months Media. For more podcasts from my heart Radio, 0:21:42.480 --> 0:21:46.400 visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever 0:21:46.480 --> 0:21:48.080 you listen to your favorite shows.