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 Newsong, you can put all the money in the
Speaker 1: world into that campaign to the death penalty on the ballot,
Speaker 1: but it doesn't equate to finding two people who are innocent.
Speaker 1: Innocent people change his minds. It has in every state.
Speaker 1: You will probably see that change. The death pilling is
Speaker 1: because they found too many innocent people on death row.
Speaker 1: The money didn't do it. The moral consciousness of the
Speaker 1: communities in the state didn't do it. They did not
Speaker 1: want their tax dollars to kill an innocent man period.
Speaker 1: Jarvis masters on what he believes it will to put
Speaker 1: an end to capital punishment. I can imagine seven people
Speaker 1: in an auditorium and they all talk about their experiences
Speaker 1: of being seconds away from being executed. That would turn
Speaker 1: people against the death pilly, in my opinion, very fast,
Speaker 1: very fast, because we're looking at seven human beings that
Speaker 1: we paid to be executed. That really gets to the
Speaker 1: consciousness of people and see what happens. I think most
Speaker 1: people in America would say Wow, this is not for me. No, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: you guys got this all wrong. My name is Daniel
Speaker 1: Vasquez and I worked with the California Department of Corrections
Speaker 1: for thirty years, starting as a correctional officer and bootstrapped
Speaker 1: my way up through parole agent assistant, borol agent, investigator
Speaker 1: and then warden at Saint Quentin for ten years. But
Speaker 1: when were you at Saint Quentin. You were there from
Speaker 1: when to win from three through nineteen nine. The warden,
Speaker 1: you're the chief operating office, responsible for the daily operation
Speaker 1: by subordinate staff of the institution. But you're responsible for
Speaker 1: the budget and for you know, just everything that has
Speaker 1: to do with the run in a Saint Quentin also
Speaker 1: carry out executions, you know, when they've been confirmed for
Speaker 1: executions and the death warrant has been received. According to
Speaker 1: Witness to Innocence, since the death penalty was reinstated in
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy three, one hundred and sixty seven men and
Speaker 1: women from twenty eight states have been exonerated and freed
Speaker 1: from death row. Let that sink in one hundred and
Speaker 1: sixty seven American citizens, the vast majority of whom we're
Speaker 1: discovered to be innocent. We're scheduled to be executed by
Speaker 1: our government, but they were spared, be it for the
Speaker 1: grace of God or the fate of luck. And the
Speaker 1: vast majority of those spared were found innocent based on
Speaker 1: dubious DNA evidence. What does that mean for the many
Speaker 1: condemned inmates who claim innocence, including Jarvis, for whom DNA
Speaker 1: evidence is non existent. Imagine the international outrage of China
Speaker 1: was to knowingly execute over a hundred of its innocent citizens.
Speaker 1: Many of us still rage at the fact that the
Speaker 1: Saudi Arabian government executed just one of their citizens, Jamal Kashoji.
Speaker 1: In our first episode, Jarvis asked how many guilty people
Speaker 1: need to be put to death to justify the execution
Speaker 1: of one innocent We all need to answer that question
Speaker 1: for ourselves. But as painful as it might be to look,
Speaker 1: Jarvis and his community urge you to not turn a
Speaker 1: blind eye to the devastating reality that more than four
Speaker 1: percent of defendants sentenced to death in the US are innocent.
Speaker 1: According to National Academy of Sciences. The National Coalition to
Speaker 1: Aboli the Death Penalty puts the number even higher at
Speaker 1: one intent. You are a believer still in capital punishment. Yes, Sam,
Speaker 1: you know, as the Bible says Uhffer, and I do
Speaker 1: you think it is a deterrent for other potential criminals
Speaker 1: to prevent them from committing capital crimes? No, No, it's
Speaker 1: a it's a determ for the individual that's executed. But
Speaker 1: if that was the case, then you should have only
Speaker 1: taken one execution to stop others from committing a capital crimes.
Speaker 1: And as you well know and I know, it doesn't
Speaker 1: work that way. It never stopped anybody else from killing
Speaker 1: another human being. Can I cannot say one thing? Because
Speaker 1: you know my stale death roll. People have read the
Speaker 1: papers and watched television. They see people who come on
Speaker 1: death row that have some of the most despicable crimes
Speaker 1: you can imagine. I'm talking about serious ugly stuff, baby killing,
Speaker 1: killing women who are pregnant. I mean real, serious ugly stuff.
Speaker 1: And for a while there was one guy. I never
Speaker 1: met him, you know, but I've seen him, and he
Speaker 1: was people on death row for killing the baby. And
Speaker 1: for years I watched people watched this guy walk by,
Speaker 1: and they were so enraged by him. They hated him,
Speaker 1: and I didn't like him. I didn't hate him, but
Speaker 1: I didn't like him, you know, and I used him
Speaker 1: as a sort of Okay, here's the perfect example of
Speaker 1: someone you need to work because you it helps you
Speaker 1: work for yourself, you know. And he was in protective
Speaker 1: because I think for about sixteen years ago, very few
Speaker 1: people spoke to a you know. It was just terrible.
Speaker 1: And behold, he was found to be innocent and walked
Speaker 1: out of this prison and left his property right at
Speaker 1: the door, because I've seen it, because I was going
Speaker 1: to visit to go home. So you spent all this finger,
Speaker 1: all this energy, and yet the very person that you
Speaker 1: despised that you probably want to kill because of what
Speaker 1: he did, it's found to be honest, what does that
Speaker 1: say about Hugh Army? Sixteen years you've been hating this dude,
Speaker 1: wanting to kill somebody. How do you how do you
Speaker 1: reckon with that you wanted to kill this man because
Speaker 1: you've the baby killer, and yet he just walked right
Speaker 1: by yourself and left all his belongings right at the
Speaker 1: foot of your door. So I just wanted to add
Speaker 1: that because it's so important to to what the questions
Speaker 1: I have about the definitely, you know, and it goes
Speaker 1: back to what I was saying. If you find an
Speaker 1: innocent person, it changes people's mind. Is there any circumstance
Speaker 1: in which the death penalty is justified. No, I don't
Speaker 1: believe it's justified because I think it's morally wrong. It's arbitrary.
Speaker 1: I mean, I honestly think a lot of people in America,
Speaker 1: I think it is morelly wrong. But I would challenge
Speaker 1: those people who believe in it to put it on
Speaker 1: the evening knows the actual execution. Don't do it in
Speaker 1: the middle of the night. Do it in the middle
Speaker 1: of the day. But they don't want their kids to
Speaker 1: see it. They don't want to see it because deep
Speaker 1: down this side, you cannot kill a human being. People,
Speaker 1: people who recognize, who see other people ask him be
Speaker 1: can't do it. You need a monster, You need someone
Speaker 1: who's sick. That's what you need. Has your opinion of
Speaker 1: the death penalty changed over the years since it's become
Speaker 1: so personal for you? No? No, you know, before I
Speaker 1: got a death for what I was gonna saying, Quentin
Speaker 1: and I lived on a tier with people on death row,
Speaker 1: and I want my watch and walked by myself and
Speaker 1: I said, well, you know what, what in the row
Speaker 1: is he's sleeping on, you know, And it was really
Speaker 1: really personal that I saw people that I I got
Speaker 1: to know who are on death row. When we come back,
Speaker 1: Jarvis will tell the story of one person in particular
Speaker 1: he got to know on death row and what it
Speaker 1: was like in the days leading up to December two
Speaker 1: five when that close personal friend was executed. So you
Speaker 1: said you've known people who have been executed. Did you
Speaker 1: see him walk down to the chamber? How did that unfold?
Speaker 1: So if you though I know that people, but I
Speaker 1: don't know, I don't know anybody, because it did Stanley
Speaker 1: Chucky Williams that I knew personally, and then I thought
Speaker 1: get executed. One of the last men to be executed
Speaker 1: in California was the notorious leader of the Cripts gang.
Speaker 1: Stanley TOOKI Williams. In two thousand five. I asked former
Speaker 1: Warden Vasquez if he had been familiar with Tookie Williams
Speaker 1: during his time at San Quentin. Yes. I was become
Speaker 1: somewhat of a rallying cry for people who believe in
Speaker 1: rehabilitation because he wrote children's books and he apparently turned
Speaker 1: his life around in prison. Did you see any of that?
Speaker 1: Did you witness his rehabilitation. No, not really. I mean,
Speaker 1: I you know, he was just one of of When
Speaker 1: I left the institution, I think there was about six
Speaker 1: hundred thirty four inmates on death row, so he was
Speaker 1: just one of six four in To me, he wasn't anything,
Speaker 1: uh special or you know. I saw him days before,
Speaker 1: you know, his execution. But we're in a visiting room
Speaker 1: and he was having his last visits, you know, with
Speaker 1: his family and friends and his his girlfriend, she may
Speaker 1: have been his wife. He he was so strong and
Speaker 1: I don't mean, you know, you can barely know he
Speaker 1: was on death row. You can barely tell that he
Speaker 1: was going to be executed. I didn't see it, and
Speaker 1: I looked for it that he didn't have it. He
Speaker 1: didn't have it. I thought maybe he believed that he
Speaker 1: was going to win his appeal in the last minute.
Speaker 1: I didn't know what was going on, but I was
Speaker 1: looking for something and I didn't see it. He kept
Speaker 1: his family laughing, He kept his people laughing. It was
Speaker 1: like the last supper, and I kind of felt with
Speaker 1: that was about, you know, I felt that he was
Speaker 1: just holding them. Let's call Andrew a California number will
Speaker 1: be monitored and recorded. You go out there and you
Speaker 1: see a lot of people who want to client, and
Speaker 1: you you hold him up. You know, you say, no,
Speaker 1: this is not gonna happen, or you know, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: love you guys no matter where I am. Um, so
Speaker 1: I got I got that sense. But him being executed
Speaker 1: two days later was it was I just believe that
Speaker 1: he knew something I couldn't know and it may not happen,
Speaker 1: or that there was some resolve that it was going
Speaker 1: to happen. Uh, but I couldn't read what he thought.
Speaker 1: You know, let's her friends. Oh yeah, he was a
Speaker 1: good friend of mine. Yes. Uh. In fact, his first book,
Speaker 1: in my first book, we were writing it together and
Speaker 1: the Adjustment Center on the first tier. He had an
Speaker 1: idea of write a book about kids, and I had
Speaker 1: this idea of writing stories, you know, um, short stories.
Speaker 1: So we were writing at the same time. You know,
Speaker 1: I couldn't spell a lick, so he always I used
Speaker 1: to always call him over and asking how to spell
Speaker 1: certain words. And over the years, you know, he went
Speaker 1: one way on death row and I stayed in Adjustment Center.
Speaker 1: He came back once or twice, but you know, for
Speaker 1: twenty seven years. I was an adjustment center, and UM
Speaker 1: only saw him when he came, you know, came and left,
Speaker 1: you know, but I knew him personally. But I couldn't
Speaker 1: I couldn't get a sense of where where he was.
Speaker 1: You know, what was the day? It was? It was,
Speaker 1: I don't know. It was a very cool day. We
Speaker 1: were not on lockdown. Uh. He walked with the same
Speaker 1: two guards he always They escorted him. He didn't have
Speaker 1: no It was the same restraints that he would normally
Speaker 1: have that they normally put on you, rather you're a
Speaker 1: death row or not. It was those same restraints. He
Speaker 1: wasn't in bald chain and the leg irons on anything.
Speaker 1: So I didn't see a dying man, you know, I
Speaker 1: didn't see a man who's going to be executed. When
Speaker 1: he was walking towards the chamber. Do the the other
Speaker 1: prisoners show respect. I don't know how that works. I
Speaker 1: really don't know how that works. You know, they keep
Speaker 1: that stuff top secret. You know, I really don't know
Speaker 1: how that works. I really don't. I know that they
Speaker 1: in the last twenty four hours of seventy two hours,
Speaker 1: they put you on death watch. They put you in
Speaker 1: the isolating zell and they watch everything you do, you know,
Speaker 1: and they log everything thing you do and they write
Speaker 1: with you what you did need you know. But I
Speaker 1: mean that's what I just don't know from you know,
Speaker 1: from word of mouth. I have no idea, you know,
Speaker 1: I know, I don't even know where where it's actually done.
Speaker 1: You know, Um, I have no idea where that's at.
Speaker 1: Not too many people do. Really, it's that's amazing. So
Speaker 1: you don't even know where the chamber is. Well, I
Speaker 1: mean we knew where the gas chamber is, you know,
Speaker 1: because the gas chambers there a hundred years ago, you know,
Speaker 1: and then they removed. But this table, this execution table,
Speaker 1: you know, no, I know, I didn't know where it was.
Speaker 1: Did you hear that it was dismantled? Yeah, Anti lot
Speaker 1: saw it on television, and we are as I speak,
Speaker 1: as I speak, shutting out removing the equipment in the
Speaker 1: death chamber. At Sam Clinton, the governor made a very
Speaker 1: serious point when you know, when when there's that visual
Speaker 1: you know, and we were watching, you know, parts of
Speaker 1: it come out on the door. You know. Um, that
Speaker 1: was a very powerful statement. But they also got a
Speaker 1: lot of people mad too, and I think, uh, those
Speaker 1: numbers of people who believe that the death penalty are increasing.
Speaker 1: Because of that, I think there's uh underneath our feet.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of people who are getting ready to
Speaker 1: spent a lot of money to put the death penalty
Speaker 1: back in action if the governor wins the next election.
Speaker 1: Why do you think they're motivated to do that? In
Speaker 1: my heart of hearts, I think people believe that if
Speaker 1: you stand in line, you vote on the death penalty,
Speaker 1: in that vote is discredit didn't taken away from you.
Speaker 1: People are upset, you know, and they voted for the
Speaker 1: death killery. And people believe that their vote will stolen
Speaker 1: and the victims had no right to have that spelled
Speaker 1: taken someone like that, you know, and that is a
Speaker 1: response to the governor. Uh, juries are are voting to
Speaker 1: give people the death killing. Now those Jewels who believe
Speaker 1: that they vote were stolen, they're they're they're taking it out.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm in the Bay Area. You find very
Speaker 1: few people who believe in the death killing. You know,
Speaker 1: I know people who ain't never met anyone who believe
Speaker 1: in the death telling. But if you go to Orange County,
Speaker 1: if you go to San Berndino County, if you go
Speaker 1: to the whole half part of Riverside County. And then
Speaker 1: if you specially go up here, up north and all
Speaker 1: these other counties, they're totally want the death pillty, you know,
Speaker 1: and they're and and they're doing something about it. According
Speaker 1: to Gallup, opposition to the death penalty is actually at
Speaker 1: its highest point in almost half a century, though a
Speaker 1: majority of Americans continue to support capital punishment for individuals
Speaker 1: convicted of murder. Wait what you yeah, Okay, okay, we'll talk.
Speaker 1: We'll talk, all right, he will, he will. In landmark
Speaker 1: case back in nineteen seventy two Ferman v. Georgia, the
Speaker 1: Supreme Court had actually abolished capital punishment, though it was
Speaker 1: eventually reinstated only four years later. Justice Potter Stewart stated
Speaker 1: at the time that the death penalty was quote so
Speaker 1: wantonly and freakishly imposed. It was cruel and unusual, in
Speaker 1: the same way that being struck by lightning is cruel
Speaker 1: and unusual. The only justice on the Supreme Court to
Speaker 1: ever litigate a death penalty case, Justice third Good Marshal,
Speaker 1: also can heard with the firm in Georgia case. An
Speaker 1: adamant abolitionist, he believed that the more informed voters were
Speaker 1: about the arbitrary nature of the death penalty, the less
Speaker 1: likely they would be to supported a theory referred to
Speaker 1: today as the martial hypothesis. Up next, Stanford law professor
Speaker 1: Larry Marshall, no relation to third Good breaks down the
Speaker 1: veracity of the martial hypothesis and the fascinating way in
Speaker 1: which Larry was first introduced to Jarvis's plate. I'm Larry Marshall,
Speaker 1: and I am a professor of law at Stanford University
Speaker 1: and UH and the lawyer as well. So I got
Speaker 1: a call from someone asking if I was available the
Speaker 1: next day to speak with Oprah Winfrey about a case UH.
Speaker 1: And I said yes, And I got on the phone
Speaker 1: and she wash, you know, very passionate about Jarvis's case
Speaker 1: and about trying to make sure that he got, you know,
Speaker 1: world class representation. And I told her that I would
Speaker 1: do my best to help find lawyers who would be
Speaker 1: able to take the case to the next level. In
Speaker 1: the course of my work for coast to thirty years,
Speaker 1: I have met thousands, thousands of people who have said
Speaker 1: I used to support the death penalty, but the more
Speaker 1: I've learned about its vices and flaws and risks, and
Speaker 1: so on I've now come to oppose it. I've not
Speaker 1: met a single person who says I used to oppose
Speaker 1: the death penalty, But the more I learned about its
Speaker 1: accuracy and its fairness, and its cost effectiveness and it's justice,
Speaker 1: I've now come to support it. And I submit to
Speaker 1: you the measure of any public policy is what impact
Speaker 1: does information have on public opinion? And here, if people
Speaker 1: can be educated, and this is the martial hypothesis, if
Speaker 1: people can be educated about the death penalty, they will
Speaker 1: in huge numbers come to oppose the death penalty. Perhaps
Speaker 1: hearing Jervis's story will compel some to test the accuracy
Speaker 1: of the martial hypothesis on themselves. Jarvis has maintained his
Speaker 1: innocence in the crime that put him on death row.
Speaker 1: Reputable legal scholars who have researched his case have declared
Speaker 1: him factually innocent. None of us can know for absolute
Speaker 1: certainty that he's telling the truth, but similarly, none of
Speaker 1: us can know for absolute certainty that he's not telling
Speaker 1: the truth. A man's life hangs in the precarious balance
Speaker 1: of this ambiguity. We are as judge and jury. What
Speaker 1: we know for absolute certain is that one Jarvis never
Speaker 1: murdered anyone. Two Jarvis may be guilty of forming the
Speaker 1: SHIV that killed Sergeant birch Field, and equally, three Jarvis
Speaker 1: may not be guilty of forming the SHIV that killed
Speaker 1: Sergeant birch Field. With this level of uncertainty, can there
Speaker 1: be a conscionable justification to execute an American citizen death penalty? Focus,
Speaker 1: the nonprofit devoted to ending the death penalty, dubbed last
Speaker 1: Year the Year of Executing Innocence, and Alabama Death Row
Speaker 1: inmate has been executed. Dominique Ray was executed on February seven, nineteen.
Speaker 1: Dominique Ray died tonight at home in correctional facility and
Speaker 1: a more Mr. Ray was convicted based solely on the
Speaker 1: testimony of a witness with schizophrenia who was delusional and
Speaker 1: actively hallucinating. The witness's mental state was known to the
Speaker 1: prosecutors but never disclosed. His attorneys were inexperienced, underpaid, and
Speaker 1: did very little investigation. There was substantial evidence of innocence,
Speaker 1: which the jury never heard. On August one, nineteen, Larry
Speaker 1: Swearingen was executed in Texas. He went to his death tonight,
Speaker 1: maintaining his innocence. He was executed for the murder of
Speaker 1: a nineteen year old woman. There was no physical evidence
Speaker 1: associating him with the crime, there was no matching DNA,
Speaker 1: and the day the murder most likely took place, Mr
Speaker 1: Swearingen was locked up in the county jail for traffic violations. Tonight,
Speaker 1: Texas executed Larry swearingein at the State Penitentiary in Huntsville.
Speaker 1: The death chamber. His lawyers claimed, quote a combination of
Speaker 1: flawed science and overblown testimony condemned an innocent man, and
Speaker 1: according to the Death Penalty Information Center, nineteen of the
Speaker 1: twenty two prisoners who were executed in twenty had quote
Speaker 1: significant evidence of mental illness, brain impairments, intellectual disability, or
Speaker 1: chronic serious childhood trauma. Sadly, appears no less lethal for
Speaker 1: innocent people on death row despite weak evidence in subpar
Speaker 1: representation in his two thousand five trial, Forty three year
Speaker 1: old Nathaniel Woods was executed just two months ago for
Speaker 1: his connection to the murders of three Birmingham police officers.
Speaker 1: This despite the fact that he didn't shoot the gun,
Speaker 1: he didn't even hold the gun. He maintained that he
Speaker 1: dropped to his knees in an attempt to surrender to
Speaker 1: the officers who barged into the apartment. The man who
Speaker 1: actually fired the gun. Death row inmate Carry Spencer said
Speaker 1: Nate was actually one innocent. Two of the twelve jurors
Speaker 1: voted to spare Nate's life, and a sister of one
Speaker 1: of the slain officers made a last minute call to
Speaker 1: Alabama Governor k I Vy's office to postpone the execution
Speaker 1: date to allow more time to investigate the evidence. On
Speaker 1: that call, she said, quote, he didn't kill my brother,
Speaker 1: and he didn't kill the other officers. May they rest
Speaker 1: in peace. I'm asking for mercy, and I believe my
Speaker 1: brother would want me to take the same stance as
Speaker 1: of the man. He was. Sadly that plea fell on
Speaker 1: deaf ears because staunch pro life Governor Ivy was pro death.
Speaker 1: That day, high profile individuals from the son of Martin
Speaker 1: Luther King Jr. To Director Ava du Verney to Kim
Speaker 1: Kardashian West all tweeted against Woods's execution, but the Governor
Speaker 1: of Alabama released a statement doubling down, saying, this is
Speaker 1: not a decision that I take lightly, but I firmly
Speaker 1: believe in the rule of law and that justice must
Speaker 1: be served. Staunch pro life, Governor Ivy has presided over
Speaker 1: nine executions on her watch since twenty seventeen. Last year,
Speaker 1: Governor Ivey signed into law and abortion bands citing Alabamians
Speaker 1: deeply held belief that every life is precious and that
Speaker 1: every life is a sacred gift from God. Nate's sister
Speaker 1: Pamela believed Nate was a precious gift. Nate's father, Nate Sr.
Speaker 1: Believed Nate was a precious gift. Tens of thousands of
Speaker 1: Nates supporters believed him to be a precious gift. Dear
Speaker 1: Governor Newsome, my name is Pema Children, and I'm a
Speaker 1: Western Buddhist nun and a teacher of students throughout the world,
Speaker 1: most of whom aren't even necessarily Buddhists. And I've written
Speaker 1: a number of books, and probably the most well known
Speaker 1: is called When Things Fall Apart. I've known Jarvis Masters
Speaker 1: over twenty years as a friend and as his spiritual advisor,
Speaker 1: and I have no doubt at all, really no doubt
Speaker 1: at all, that Jarvis was not part of the conspiracy
Speaker 1: that resulted in the death of Sergeant Birchfield. I don't
Speaker 1: know if What I know was after Fining Freedom was
Speaker 1: published and I heard that someone who gave her my
Speaker 1: book Fining Freedom. And after that there's this point, you know,
Speaker 1: we start writing each other and everything else. It's like
Speaker 1: a blank for me. I can't remember anything else. Did
Speaker 1: she come to visit you? Oh? Yeah, she visits me
Speaker 1: almost twice a year, once a year. You want to
Speaker 1: talk about joy? Here you are death row and locked
Speaker 1: in a in a page and you're laughing all for
Speaker 1: for for two and a half hours. You know, Uh,
Speaker 1: that's what that? You know, how you get a little
Speaker 1: of that? You know, you've got to love her. How
Speaker 1: can you not love someone who's able to do that?
Speaker 1: You know? Jonvis isn't exceptionally compassionate man that literally spends
Speaker 1: almost all of this time helping other inmates. He has
Speaker 1: written two beautiful books about his life. But really the
Speaker 1: most important thing is that he is innocent. He's an
Speaker 1: innocent man who does not deserve to be in prison
Speaker 1: even a day longer. Every time my songer, it was
Speaker 1: it was something special for me and being she started
Speaker 1: introducing me to other Buddhists and that she knew in
Speaker 1: a lot of our other students, and a lot of
Speaker 1: these people are still in my life, still supporters of me.
Speaker 1: She's more like a mother to me than anything else. Yeah,
Speaker 1: she's She's definitely that. You know, a lot of people
Speaker 1: want to identify our relationship as my teacher and I
Speaker 1: and I totally accept that just as fast. But my
Speaker 1: relationship to her is my mama. That's who she is
Speaker 1: bar known, so that's just what she used to me.
Speaker 1: I love her that way. I have visited Jervis many
Speaker 1: times at San Quentin, and we are in close touch
Speaker 1: by phone when he's able to call, and he has
Speaker 1: become a dear friend and a student. Jervis has had
Speaker 1: me in tears literally both from joy and sadness about
Speaker 1: his many experiences with diffusing prison conflict among the prison population.
Speaker 1: I'm so inspired by his stories of his experiences that
Speaker 1: I often use them as examples in my public teaching
Speaker 1: on human goodness. One story which I find so touching
Speaker 1: is one time Jarvis I was thinking they were out
Speaker 1: on the yard and uh, there was a guard that
Speaker 1: was trying to provoke Jarvis. Now, I want to say
Speaker 1: in this regard that most of the guards are wonderful
Speaker 1: and very helpful. Um, but of course there's some that aren't.
Speaker 1: And in this case, the guard was taunting Jarvis and
Speaker 1: trying to get him to respond, but Jarvis didn't retally
Speaker 1: eight and didn't push back, and finally the guard left,
Speaker 1: and then the men on the yard they came around
Speaker 1: and uh, and they were saying to him, it, Jarvis,
Speaker 1: how did you? How can you do that? How can
Speaker 1: you just let him talk to you like that without
Speaker 1: lashing out at him? How can you do that? Is
Speaker 1: that your Buddhism that allows you to do that? And
Speaker 1: he said, no, it's not my Buddhism. It's just that
Speaker 1: I've gotten some letters from teenagers who are the children
Speaker 1: of guards, and they say that sometimes their fathers are
Speaker 1: so frustrated and angry when they come back from work
Speaker 1: because of what they've had to put up with with
Speaker 1: with prisoners, that they lash out at the kids and
Speaker 1: beat them. So I don't retaliate when I'm taunted like that,
Speaker 1: because I don't want these guys to go home and
Speaker 1: beat their kids. So I know that you are us.
Speaker 1: His aspiration is to continue to help others no matter
Speaker 1: where he is, and his lifelong experiences of being a
Speaker 1: prisoner on death row will be invaluable to people who
Speaker 1: come from the same background that he did. His habitual
Speaker 1: care and love for others while in prison has become
Speaker 1: i would say, cellular for him, and his passion is
Speaker 1: to work with beings on the outside who could, with
Speaker 1: no guidance or encouragement from someone that knows firsthand, who
Speaker 1: could then find themselves in prison just as he did,
Speaker 1: or of course worse, The injustice of keeping Jarvis locked
Speaker 1: up because he has caught up in a web of
Speaker 1: an old system filled with racial bias would be such
Speaker 1: a travesty and an unfortunate waste of his experience, wisdom,
Speaker 1: and genuine desire to make underprivileged and unguided lives better.
Speaker 1: He has courage, He really knows what these young people
Speaker 1: are up against, and he has the heartfelt longing that
Speaker 1: no one ever has to live a life behind bars,
Speaker 1: and that life is full of possibility and love, not hopelessness.
Speaker 1: Next week, we'll hear the details of the murder of
Speaker 1: Sergeant hal Birchfield. Jarvis's side of the story. Will also
Speaker 1: hear the jaw dropping away in which Jarvis finally found
Speaker 1: out that he was implicated in the conspiracy to commit murder.
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. Stu
Speaker 1: Sternbach is composed the original music Nate beforet did the
Speaker 1: sound design. Visit Free Jarvis dot org to find out
Speaker 1: more about Jarvis's case and to sign your name to
Speaker 1: our Dear Governor news and petition and if you have
Speaker 1: questions for Jarvis, please to leave a message on our
Speaker 1: hotline at two zero one nine zero three thirty five
Speaker 1: seventy five. That's to zero one nine zero three thirty
Speaker 1: five seventy five. Dear Governor Newsome is a production of
Speaker 1: I Heart Media and three Months Media. For more podcasts
Speaker 1: from my Heart Radio, visit the i Heart Radio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.