Speaker 1: Dear Governor is a production of I Heeart Media and
Speaker 1: three Months Media Jarvis Masters. It is the judgment and
Speaker 1: sentence of this Court that the charged information was true.
Speaker 1: There are innocent people on death row. It is the
Speaker 1: order of this court that you suffered death innocent people.
Speaker 1: Change his minds. It has in every state. You will
Speaker 1: probably see that change. The death penalty is because they
Speaker 1: found too many innocent people of death row said penalty
Speaker 1: to be inflicted within the walls of sam Quentin. They
Speaker 1: said that I sharpened the weapon and sent it down
Speaker 1: to the guy who then made it into a toll
Speaker 1: and spirit to guard, at which point you shall be
Speaker 1: put to death. The reason why I end up in
Speaker 1: death row is because I didn't try to defend myself.
Speaker 1: You are remanded to the custody of the Warden of
Speaker 1: sam Quentin. Beyond the racial part. Who gets death and
Speaker 1: who doesn't is, as was called by the Supreme Court
Speaker 1: back in the Samities, a strike of lightning. I thought
Speaker 1: that these guys are in trouble, not me. There was
Speaker 1: so much evidence that was kept from us that if
Speaker 1: he were tried now you know, they'd get an acquipbal.
Speaker 1: I wish they would have found that weapon, because that
Speaker 1: weapon would have been my way out of here. I
Speaker 1: really believe that they found that weapon, I would have
Speaker 1: not been charged from her. He should not be on
Speaker 1: death row. He shouldn't be in prison actually for this crime.
Speaker 1: It's really a tragedy. It's really unfair. No one knows
Speaker 1: how long the day is. I've fucking with someone that
Speaker 1: doesn't know what a day feels like. Innocent on death row.
Speaker 1: They have no idea. May God have mercy on your soul.
Speaker 1: God have mercy on your soul. Imagine, through a series
Speaker 1: of random coincidences and professional ties, you're introduced to a
Speaker 1: renowned author who's as respected as he is beloved. His
Speaker 1: award winning essays have garnered international acclaim as a speak
Speaker 1: to the heart of the human condition, love and devotion.
Speaker 1: His books are recommended reading in many high schools across
Speaker 1: the country, the students of which consider him to be
Speaker 1: their mentor. This is a man of deep faith and
Speaker 1: conviction who, decades ago, took the Buddhist vow to do
Speaker 1: no harm one step further, he vowed to do everything
Speaker 1: in his power to alleviate the suffering of others. All
Speaker 1: of this despite the fact that he was a victim
Speaker 1: of deeply flawed foster care system growing up in Long Beach,
Speaker 1: California ghettos in the sixties and seventies. The abuse he
Speaker 1: endured at the hands of multiple foster parents is all
Speaker 1: but unspeakable. Born to a heroin addicted mother and a
Speaker 1: brutally violent father, It's difficult to fathom how any human
Speaker 1: would have the strength to overcome the kind of generational
Speaker 1: abuse that destroys lives, families, and entire communities. Others have
Speaker 1: been broken by a fraction of the horrors perpetrated on
Speaker 1: this man, but he has somehow managed to find joy, hope,
Speaker 1: and even optimism through it all. Now imagine this paragon
Speaker 1: of compassion who has been lauded by luminaries from Archbishop
Speaker 1: Desmond Tutu to Buddhist teacher Pema children and for whom
Speaker 1: theater troops have written stage plays, and realized that he
Speaker 1: has been languishing on San Quentin's death row for over
Speaker 1: thirty years. His name is Jarvis J. Masters and it
Speaker 1: was by way of professional happenstance that our paths crossed.
Speaker 1: My name is Cornicole. I'm a television and radio producer
Speaker 1: by lottery of birth. I grew up not twenty miles
Speaker 1: from Jarvis, in a tony all white Republican enclave that
Speaker 1: is North Tuston. My parents picked this town because the
Speaker 1: neighborhood was safe in the public schools were some of
Speaker 1: the best in the state. Prior to meeting Jarvis, I
Speaker 1: hadn't had much occasion to think about the death penalty.
Speaker 1: Why would I. I never knew anyone who was in prison,
Speaker 1: much less a condemned prisoner. I, like my father and
Speaker 1: his father before him, believe the death penalty was fair, effective,
Speaker 1: cost efficient way to rid society of the dredges of humanity,
Speaker 1: and never examined this conviction. I never had reason to.
Speaker 1: In getting to know Jarvis, reading his extensive body of work,
Speaker 1: talking for endless hours on the phone, I have been
Speaker 1: forced to look within and question what I held to
Speaker 1: be true for so long. On this podcast, myself, along
Speaker 1: with the community of his supporters, want to introduce you
Speaker 1: and the Governor of California to the man who is
Speaker 1: Jarvis Masters. For one, we believe you will be a
Speaker 1: better person for knowing him, And for two, as we
Speaker 1: close in on the presidential elections, hopefully his story can
Speaker 1: be an impetus for some to explore their own surface
Speaker 1: level convictions and did deeper to understand why they believe
Speaker 1: what they believe and in turn make their vote all
Speaker 1: that much more vital. While everyone seems to agree that
Speaker 1: the criminal justice system is in dire need of reform,
Speaker 1: capital punishment is the ultimate wedge issue, controversial and polar rising.
Speaker 1: It's about politics, it's about morality, and it splits our
Speaker 1: electorate almost down the middle. Despite the fact that US
Speaker 1: opposition to the death penalty is at its highest in decades,
Speaker 1: President Trump doubled down on his pro death penalty advocacy
Speaker 1: by expanding the practice. A g Bill Bar now announcing
Speaker 1: the federal government will resume capital punishment first time since
Speaker 1: two thousand three, bar directing prison officials to schedule the
Speaker 1: executions of five death row inmates. There will be a
Speaker 1: strict timetable for judicial proceedings that will allow the imposition
Speaker 1: of the death sentence without undue to lay. In response
Speaker 1: to this edict, a group of a hundred and seventy
Speaker 1: five family members of people murdered wrote a letter to
Speaker 1: a g Bar imploring him to change his mind. They
Speaker 1: wrote that the death penalty exacerbates the trauma of losing
Speaker 1: a loved one and creates yet another grieving family. It
Speaker 1: also wastes many millions of dollars that could be better
Speaker 1: invested in programs that actually reduce crime and violence and
Speaker 1: that address the needs of families like ours. Also in
Speaker 1: response to Bar's pronouncement, Joe Biden, a longtime supporter of
Speaker 1: the death penalty, tweeted, because we can't ensure that we
Speaker 1: get these cases right every time, we must eliminate the
Speaker 1: death penalty. President Trump's d o J has not only
Speaker 1: reinstated the death penalty, but if he has his way,
Speaker 1: drug dealers will be put to death right alongside murderers.
Speaker 1: And China they have a very, very tough penalty for drugs.
Speaker 1: It's called the death penalty. And I said to President Sheets,
Speaker 1: so you have one point four billion people and you
Speaker 1: don't have a drug problem. I said, what do you
Speaker 1: attribute that to death penalty? Quick trial? Following this zealous
Speaker 1: defensive capital punishment, Massachusetts Congresswoman Ayana Pressley unveiled House Resolution
Speaker 1: four zero five to, also known as the People's Justice Guarantee.
Speaker 1: It would quote prohibit the imposition of the death penalty
Speaker 1: for any violation of federal law and for other purposes.
Speaker 1: Of the approximately thirty cosponts or Michigan Representative Justin Amash
Speaker 1: is the only non Democrat who signed on. From an
Speaker 1: ABC News interview, sister Helen pru John, author of dead
Speaker 1: Man Walking In an outspoken opponent of the death penalty.
Speaker 1: This is the first presidential campaign where you have well most,
Speaker 1: if not all, of the Democratic candidates calling for an
Speaker 1: end to the death penalty. We've never had as a
Speaker 1: venture candidate before, even Obama. There's a huge shift happening
Speaker 1: in the country about the death penalty. It was only
Speaker 1: his reason It's sixteen that the Democrats formally opposed the
Speaker 1: death penalty in its party platform. But if politics isn't
Speaker 1: the arbiter of what's important at this moment in time,
Speaker 1: look no further than Hollywood and popular culture. Kim Kardashian
Speaker 1: has become an outspoken advocate for the condemned after realizing
Speaker 1: just how broken the system is, and earlier this year,
Speaker 1: the film Just Mercy, starring Michael B. Jordan and Jamie
Speaker 1: Fox was released. It follows the true story of attorney
Speaker 1: Brian Stevenson, who made it his life's mission to fight
Speaker 1: for the wrongfully condemned. You only know what you enter
Speaker 1: down here in Alabama from the moment you're ball. Earlier
Speaker 1: in the year, movie director Edwards Wick released Trial by Fire,
Speaker 1: starring Laura Dern. It tells the true story of Cameron
Speaker 1: Todd Willingham, who was executed in Texas for allegedly killing
Speaker 1: his three daughters after scientific evidence and expert testimony that
Speaker 1: bolstered his claims of innocence were suppressed. You are guilty
Speaker 1: of capital murder by order of the State of Texas.
Speaker 1: You are sentenced to death. Oprah Winfrey's recent book club
Speaker 1: pick was Anthony ray Hinton's memoir The Sun Does Shine.
Speaker 1: How I found life and freedom on death Row after
Speaker 1: a case of mistaken identity sent him there. On March
Speaker 1: thirteenth of this year, Governor Gavin Newsom held a press
Speaker 1: conference in which he announced that death penalty executions in
Speaker 1: California would be halted under his administration and during his
Speaker 1: time in office. It was a National Academy of Science
Speaker 1: report that came out that estimates one out of every
Speaker 1: twenty five people on death row is innocent. If that's
Speaker 1: the case, that means if we move forward, executing seven
Speaker 1: thirty seven people in California, we will have executed roughly
Speaker 1: thirty people that are innocent in that same pressure. Governor
Speaker 1: Newsom made a call to our better angels because he said,
Speaker 1: when you know better, you do better. There are innocent
Speaker 1: people on death row. I cannot sign off on executing
Speaker 1: hundreds and hundreds of human beings knowing knowing that among
Speaker 1: them will be innocent human beings. My name is Jarvis Masters.
Speaker 1: I have been an inmate at Quentin Institute for a
Speaker 1: most thirty years. Forty years. Cool ships has a long time.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you just want to let that self go right,
Speaker 1: and you want to keep the low. You know, you
Speaker 1: want to like you know, you don't want you know
Speaker 1: what it is, you just say something different all the day.
Speaker 1: I have been an inmate at San Quentin Prison for
Speaker 1: almost fourteen years. I am certainly guilty of the crimes
Speaker 1: that brought me here, and I owe the mistakes I made,
Speaker 1: and I've paid my dues, but I'm not guilty of
Speaker 1: the crime that put me here on death row for
Speaker 1: the last thirty years. I hope you take time to
Speaker 1: listen to my story, and I hope you have the
Speaker 1: heart to recognize the unjust reality of capital punishment, so
Speaker 1: many guilty mans have to be put to death to
Speaker 1: justify the execution of one innocent man. Dear Governor Newsom,
Speaker 1: do you, Mr Governor Newsom? This is an open letter
Speaker 1: to Governor Gavin Newsom. Dear Governor Newsom, myself, along with
Speaker 1: a group of your constituents, wants to introduce you to
Speaker 1: an exceptional human being, one of the seven hundred and
Speaker 1: thirty seven souls currently on California's death rows lost my
Speaker 1: dear mind. I know, I think I'm most provider something
Speaker 1: or someone can survive so long, long long I think
Speaker 1: that I am. I'm lucky. Our group spans the political spectrum.
Speaker 1: Some are pro death penalty, while others are outspoken advocates
Speaker 1: for the abolition of the death penalty the California State
Speaker 1: programce san Quentin, California, Jo, You're lucky. You don't like
Speaker 1: to say that, because I'm in a place where you know,
Speaker 1: how How the hell can you be lucky on death
Speaker 1: row liminar and nine right four so for forty years?
Speaker 1: How how do you make sense out of that? You know,
Speaker 1: this is the story of one man, but this is
Speaker 1: not one man's story. I am so lucky that I
Speaker 1: have my spanity. I have people to motivate me, to
Speaker 1: keep me going. That's that's that's how no that you know,
Speaker 1: I'm in a good place. I mean inside internally, I'm
Speaker 1: in a really really good place. A man who found
Speaker 1: grace in an unjust system, a system so broken that
Speaker 1: justice is not color blind nor free from social bias.
Speaker 1: So many things in my life I'm thankful for, you know,
Speaker 1: and I think what happens to me accorded that when
Speaker 1: you learn how to start thinking thanking people for for
Speaker 1: the person you make yourself to be are, You're just
Speaker 1: you're just full of you, humble yourself in front of
Speaker 1: people who you know that's doing things for you in
Speaker 1: ways where you can't help or feel thankful, you know,
Speaker 1: because you come from a place where these things never happened,
Speaker 1: and to see them happening, it's like, you know, it's
Speaker 1: one of those whiles, you know. So yeah, I think
Speaker 1: about a lot of people who helped me along the way.
Speaker 1: Soon after the pandemic brought our world to a screeching halt,
Speaker 1: Jarvis reached out to me to share how dramatically things
Speaker 1: have changed for him and his buddies on the East Block.
Speaker 1: San Quentin thus far has remained relative of the infection
Speaker 1: free when you compare it to other prisons from across
Speaker 1: the country, because social distancing in jails and prisons is
Speaker 1: all but impossible and sanitizers forbidden, infection rates are exponentially
Speaker 1: higher than that of the general public. The New York
Speaker 1: Times aptly labeled jails is the petree dishes for the virus.
Speaker 1: What's it like in there? Like, on the outside, it's
Speaker 1: been crazy out here. It feels completely dystopian, all sorts
Speaker 1: of shutdowns and nobody's going to work and everybody's staying
Speaker 1: at home in the streets are empty. So what does
Speaker 1: it feel like on the inside? From my fancis point,
Speaker 1: is like all being done up there. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: a real SII Fi movie. If you look out there,
Speaker 1: you see people and their reactions to this disease. It
Speaker 1: is really really scary, you know, and we all think
Speaker 1: about our families and for instance, loved ones, and just
Speaker 1: like everyone else would. What is the biggest story is
Speaker 1: that at any time so it's sick, instead of putting
Speaker 1: them in the hospital, they put them in solitary confinement
Speaker 1: the whole And for someone to say I got a
Speaker 1: fever and I'm not filling. Will say they're gonna put
Speaker 1: you there. I guess not to me. People canna raise
Speaker 1: their head when they are honest sick, they're not going
Speaker 1: to do it. So there is no real serious motive
Speaker 1: to raise your hand when you're really, really sick. Are
Speaker 1: you gonna do it? You know, say, okay, I'm sick.
Speaker 1: Listen me to the whole where I could barely breathe
Speaker 1: and no one ever see me. No, I'm not going
Speaker 1: to be putting isolation from fine where I cannot use
Speaker 1: the phone. Well, I can't inform my family how I'm
Speaker 1: doing or find out what they're up to. That's a bad,
Speaker 1: bad plan that quldn't half of this problem. Is there
Speaker 1: any testing that's being done to them and they just
Speaker 1: get sent down to the hole? No, there's no chest
Speaker 1: kits here. You've got a temperature in that temperatures stayed
Speaker 1: at the high level for a couple of days, and
Speaker 1: they don't you and hope there's guy's coughing all around
Speaker 1: because it's the flu season. You can't really determine put
Speaker 1: that cost actually means. I know that yesterday a guy
Speaker 1: went to the whole because he had a high fever.
Speaker 1: So that's how that goes. But other than that, everyone's
Speaker 1: watching TV, and everyone's watching the news, and everyone's listening
Speaker 1: to the radio, and everyone doesn't understand what Trump does.
Speaker 1: But this is the West Coast, this is California. But
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people don't see him as
Speaker 1: being in control of this. They see local government's being
Speaker 1: more in control of it. For me, I follow the money.
Speaker 1: The money would kill me. How seriously, everything he is
Speaker 1: out there, stop mons crash. There's a serious problem. When
Speaker 1: they lose in eight nine, ten trillion dollars. A think
Speaker 1: that's a serious problem. Anything that generates money, if it's
Speaker 1: shut down, it tells me it is a serious problem.
Speaker 1: But one gives me more anything is when people say
Speaker 1: to me Jovers, you know, I understand what it feels
Speaker 1: like to be in prison now. And I say really,
Speaker 1: I mean, all right, I get it. I get that.
Speaker 1: I get that, I get that. Okay, I don't even
Speaker 1: want to burst the bubble, you know, I just let
Speaker 1: them feel that. You know, when I'm on the phone,
Speaker 1: a lot of people are it's very sympathetic to me
Speaker 1: being locked up, based on there are three weeks out
Speaker 1: of work, and at home with their spouse that much
Speaker 1: to be a lot. But if they're fineess in that
Speaker 1: place of confinement. Really it is true that they feel
Speaker 1: locked up. They can't go outside for their walks, and
Speaker 1: when they can't do the things they normally would do,
Speaker 1: to suddenly test that off is a real problem. I
Speaker 1: can sort of get it in one way, you know,
Speaker 1: I can get it, because you cut off from the
Speaker 1: routine of life and you will feel crummy. You have
Speaker 1: to even if you can pay for not working. You
Speaker 1: to still see the National Guards homework down the street
Speaker 1: passing me where you're going? That is really unusual. Guard
Speaker 1: tells me all the time, where is you going? They
Speaker 1: do not have a quicker response thank you? Do? You,
Speaker 1: on the other hand, have a very hard time for
Speaker 1: understanding it, you know, and you don't know where it's
Speaker 1: coming from. Brif property, jobs, employment, the way the world
Speaker 1: is is suddenly you can turn it upside down, and
Speaker 1: I understand that up next. It's difficult enough for a
Speaker 1: healthy adult mind to bear witness to this tragedy, but
Speaker 1: imagine how much more terrifying it is for a death
Speaker 1: row inmate who suffers from mental illness or schizophrenia. Another
Speaker 1: thing I want to talk about was this is something
Speaker 1: I'm starting to observe just because I look for things
Speaker 1: to look at psychiatry. There's a lot of people for
Speaker 1: death Roy. It isn't especially Thankwich who's taking psychmanty For
Speaker 1: one reason, that is whether paranoia rather's anxiety. To have
Speaker 1: this thing going on right here, if you're creating a
Speaker 1: whole new different kind of fear, that fears be concentrated
Speaker 1: five six gay times, it would be meeting you. So
Speaker 1: you can take a guy who's chest anxiety problems, are
Speaker 1: schizophrenic or whatever it is. You can really see the
Speaker 1: difference at him. You really can't. I mean, this is
Speaker 1: very clear, and it can only get worse. Because I'd
Speaker 1: one guy, She's a good friend of mine. He says,
Speaker 1: I don't think I could take three more weeks? Is
Speaker 1: I cannot take three more weeks of this? And I'm
Speaker 1: thinking one of the for the last fifteen years is
Speaker 1: at the boiling point. Why did you tell him? I
Speaker 1: just told him in either way, you don't know what
Speaker 1: three weeks might feel like. You may become a chess player.
Speaker 1: You don't know what some of you doing it three weeks.
Speaker 1: I told him. Also but if you can't take it
Speaker 1: to the point where I think you can't take it,
Speaker 1: then you'll be going by your damn self, because I'm
Speaker 1: not going with you. Man. He thought that was really
Speaker 1: really funny and just trying it at him. Though. What
Speaker 1: got me corny was this when he said, I don't
Speaker 1: think I can take three more weeks of this had
Speaker 1: told me a whole lot. It's almost like he's repeating
Speaker 1: what he's watching. Yes, he takes it more serious than
Speaker 1: the people he's looking at. Yeah, like he's feeling the
Speaker 1: anxiety of the world through an exponential amount. Right. But
Speaker 1: the problem is he's in the cell of death road
Speaker 1: and there's already many readers to steel hopeless you can
Speaker 1: cast some money and trying to figure out how can
Speaker 1: you whole school your kids or whatever? His freed of doom.
Speaker 1: They're just doomed, persisted by my arch is it broken? Sick?
Speaker 1: I'm leaving silence, hartnesss plex me. I don't know me.
Speaker 1: Can you help me, Dear Governor Newsome. My name is Samara.
Speaker 1: I'm founder and artistic director of Truth Worker Theater Company,
Speaker 1: where a social justice based hip hop theater company for
Speaker 1: young people who are directly impacted by mass incarceration with
Speaker 1: loved ones who are currently or formally incarcerated, and we
Speaker 1: create original cutting edge theater can never tell me, incorporating
Speaker 1: music and movement and dance and lyricism and testimony, creating
Speaker 1: visions for change around the prison system and all of
Speaker 1: its ricocheting impacts on our communities. Jervis, but there you are, Javis,
Speaker 1: probably looking all over. I first met Jarvis over ten
Speaker 1: years ago after I had survived a violent crime at
Speaker 1: the hands of a young man who was now serving
Speaker 1: multiple lifetimes in prison. This was not an easy thing
Speaker 1: for me. Despite my survival and despite experiencing violence, I
Speaker 1: still understand that hurt people hurt people, and prison is
Speaker 1: not a solution to create healed communities that are accountable
Speaker 1: to one another. Jarvis was family and dear friend and
Speaker 1: mentor to one of my closest friends, and she put
Speaker 1: us in contact with one another, knowing that I was
Speaker 1: committed to really exploring healing and justice, and also that
Speaker 1: I work in New York's at a public schools and
Speaker 1: particularly in transfer schools that are specifically geared towards servicing
Speaker 1: young people who are overaged and undercredited, which often means
Speaker 1: gang affiliated, formally incarcerated, pregnant and parenting, or impacted by
Speaker 1: foster care. Jarvis spending his boyhood in and out of
Speaker 1: foster homes and being awarded the state from such a
Speaker 1: young age, incarcerated while still a juvenile and unjustly sentenced
Speaker 1: to death, then serving twenty three consecutive years in solidary confinement,
Speaker 1: was committed to mentorship on his own path to liberation.
Speaker 1: Despite confinement, Jarvis had made clear to my friend that
Speaker 1: he wanted to be directly connected to other young people
Speaker 1: who were navigating systems that perpetuated oppression, marginalization, and would
Speaker 1: disproportionately targeting young black and brown people. God am I
Speaker 1: forgiven for my sins. I'm gonna talk behind these walls
Speaker 1: are night. I'm gonna be killed with something that I
Speaker 1: didn't do. God have I forgiving foods usigerating? Do you
Speaker 1: know how many people are on the outside faring for you? Love?
Speaker 1: You may not be able to climb those walls. We're
Speaker 1: gonna make it a disappear. Almost thirty years into his
Speaker 1: death sentence, and Jarvis's habeas corpus oral arguments are finally
Speaker 1: on the docket next week, as he anxiously awaits those
Speaker 1: arguments before the California Supreme Court. Jarvis will share his
Speaker 1: perspective on this untenable waiting game, and I'll report back
Speaker 1: from the courthouse. This episode was written and produced by
Speaker 1: Donna Fazzari and myself. Corny Cole Stu Sternbuck composed original music.
Speaker 1: Nate Dufort did the sound design. Special thanks to Samara
Speaker 1: Gayev and the cast and the crew at the Truth
Speaker 1: Worker Theater Company, who provided us with clips and music
Speaker 1: from their original hip hop musical Boxed In and Blacked
Speaker 1: Out in America. Visit free Jarvis dot org to find
Speaker 1: out more about Jarvis's case and to sign your name
Speaker 1: to our dear Governor Newsom petition. And if you have
Speaker 1: questions for Jarvis, please leave a message on our hotline
Speaker 1: at two zero one nine zero three thirty five seventy five.
Speaker 1: That's to zero one nine zero three thirty five seventy five.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from My Heart Radio, visit the I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows.