I have been incarcerated close to four years. I have been on death row for two years. There will never come a time when I ever begin to accept my death sentence. I will fight for my life until I am strapped in the chair and the switch is pulled. The state may have locked up my body but they will never trap my mind or soul. I believe I will be free again one day. I do not want to be a career criminal so I'm continually trying to learn new things. I want to be able to start a family and be able to provide for them.

I was arrested at age 16. I never had the chance to finish school or learn a trade. The state does not feel death row inmates are worth the money to give us the chance to learn a trade. Politicians are too busy worrying about finding the fastest way to commit state sanctioned homicide to think about how he might want to offer death row inmates the opportunity to learn a trade just in case the flawed system he is counting on to further his career turns out to be mistaken yet again.

I do not want to die, but I do not fear death. Heaven or hell, death would be a welcome deliverance from the situation I am currently in. Politicians say the death penalty is not torturous, or cruel and unusual punishment.

Having to sit here, on death row, and watch as one friend after another is mercilessly executed, guys I have come to love as brothers. Lives being ended while knowing there will be no repercussions for the murderous actions of the state is the most atrocious form of torture I can think of.

After enduring this for years I will have an execution date set. I would be advised of that date more than likely a month or more in advance. I will be forced to go through each day of that month with the knowledge that every second that passes brings me one step closer to death, and there is nothing I can do about it.

Finally, my life will be ended by having a hood placed over my head, strapped to a chair, and left to await having thousands of volts of electricity passed through my body until I am dead. Not to mention burned, bloodied, and most of my internal organs bust open. How is that not torture?

For some reason those things seem not to matter because the politicians are constantly reassuring everyone that the chair is not painful. And we all know how politicians don't lie. The politicians also say that the death penalty is a deterrent from crime, yet each year more and more people are coming to prison. Of course they have to say that, if they told the truth that they wanted the death penalty for vengeance, and to further their careers the people would no longer back them.

It’s hard having to helplessly watch as my friends are murdered by the state, but I plan to absorb all of the pain and use is as a reminder to continue my fight to inform people of the truth. Politicians are playing people for fools and that a lot of the states financial problems would be solved with the money saved by abolition of the death penalty. That way the people will know how to get their community problems solved, the politicians will no longer have a free ride, and all of us death row inmates can rejoice because our determination to live has over come the political need for state sanctioned homicide.

Mark Duke Z-655
Holman 3700, 3-D-ll
Atmore, AL 36503
USA

Something to think about

Words from death row......

For a full list of articles written by Juveniles on Alabama's Death Row, go to the complete list of titles at Stories.