The most important thing I have learned since I have been incarcerated is to listen.
I have also figured out I cannot talk and listen at the same time. I was a loud mouth when I was free. Nobody could say anything to me without having to hear something smart from me. Since I carried a pistol at all times I felt I had that right.
From the time I was arrested I have been forced to spend twenty three hours a day or more in a one man cell. In the county jail I rarely had anyone I could carry on an in-depth conversation with. I had to learn to do without verbal conversation or I would have gone crazy from talking to myself and answering myself. I think the best conversation I had in the county jail was with a deaf guy using sign language.
Here on death row it is a little better. At least I can talk to people here. It is kind of funny though, on the streets you could not help but hear me and now my neighbors are constantly telling me I need to speak up. Now, I like to listen to the old heads talk about how death row was before I came here. I cannot understand why we have lost the privileges we have.
To hear the old heads talk about it, death row has become a push over. I kind of agree because we cannot come together and stand up for anything. Most of the new guys coming in are more worried about keeping a new pair of boots on their feet than fighting for the abolition of the place they are sitting on.
I do not consider myself to be an overly intelligent person but I have figured out that waiting on my lawyers to save me is a bad idea. It dumbfounds me that this is so easy for me to understand and other inmates here on death row cannot seem to see it. It makes me wonder, if I am not willing to fight for my own life, why should anyone else ? If life is not worth fighting for, what is ? Money ? Material possessions ? What good will any of those things do me if I will not be around to enjoy them ?
I am scared that all the old heads are going to be gone before the new boots learn what they know, and everything the death row inmates who are now gone, had spent their lives fighting for, will be lost. Not remembering the work of our fallen brothers is the worst insult we could give them.
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.
