Hello everyone. I am a 17 year old from Nebraska who has just recently gotten to know someone on death row. My "adopted Mom" has been writing someone in Arizona for many many years, and when she would first talk about him I thought she was nutso because he is on death row so he has to be bad, right? Mom was talking about Robert one night, about how worried she was about him and I finally asked her how she could even think about being friends with a murderer let alone love him? Rotten, my boyfriend who has lived with her most of his life said " You shouldn't of said that" But mom was so cool. She handed me a book "Life on death row" and simply said read it, then we will talk. The book made me cry and I needed to ask more questions. You see, because everyone here was writing Robert I wrote a few times just to fit in. Even the youngest girls who are only 12 and 14 wrote him and he has each ones undying love. I learned they have been writing and taping him for years. After reading the book I wanted to write him more and see what they all saw in him. Well I've been writing him for awhile now and I have a whole new way of looking at people on death row and those who stand by them. Robert is one of the coolest guys I know. He calls himself a "old biker" but I now think of him as just a old softie. I see how screwed up the world has us thinking and I can now look everyone in the eye and say just because they are on death row does not make them all bad. Mom is a strong member of NACP and holds meeting here every week in her home and works so hard to get the laws changed. I have now started helping her every chance I get. I have also started writing others on death row in texas. Who by the way are also friends of moms. I bet from this house alone 100 letters go out every week. It could even be more than that. I really admire all of you women who stand by your man and keep the love flowing to them through your letters and calls. If you are anything like mom, the letters and love you receive back make it all worth it. As I learn more and get closer to Robert, I feel so much pain from somewhere inside. Is there anyone like me on here who love these guys but in a friendly way who might understand when I get sad?
Monkiegirl

Hi Monkeigirl Welcome to PTO:)
What a great and positive story about your family I just read.

Your mother sounds like she is a very compassionate woman, tell her we said that :)
You said you get so much pain somewhere inside. It is painful, love comes in all shapes and forms, and I can say I love my death row penfriends, and I understand where you are coming from.
One day, with people like your mother on our side, this nightmare has to end. I have made some very special friends, and I wouldnt want it any other way.
Im so glad you are here, stick around, and get your mums input to. She sounds like she would have some interesting things to say. WELCOME ((hugs)) :D

I'd be penfriends with some lifers, but not all. One here in my state is so nice on the paper but I have to take cautious measures to stay safe. Because he will be meeting the parole board in 2011 to see if he could get out. If it's not granted, then he'll stay there for the rest of his life. The reason he got in: his crime partner and he had 2 pounds of weed back in 1990's then one man and his fiance'e attempted to rob them for the weed worth over a few thousands of dollars. Well, my friend and his partner didn't let them take it so it got very ugly. The partner had his way with the woman then killed them both while my friend hauled the weed away. Sure enuff, the police arrested the murderer then his word of mouth ratted out on my friend so they both got in state penitentiary since 1991. My penfriend has until 2011. His former partner is a solid lifer on death row.

Well, my husband is on death row, and so he is the only inmate I write. ;) Sooo I love him in much more than a friendly way of course!! lol Make sure you let them know you only love them in a friendly way, or they could get the wrong idea. Also, if they have girlfriends or wives, wouldn't want them to get the wrong idea about you either, right? Have you told them you are 17? Just curious. Good luck to you!

First let me welcome you to PTO.

I can tell you that I to Love the friends I have made that are on the row. Some of them I have become very close to. And there is a pain deep inside your heart. I think that pain comes from feeling helpless.

It is wonderful that you all are doing this as a family. I am happy to hear that you are finding out what it is really like. Because it is the young people of today that will change our tomorrows. And with a wonderful attitude and the heart you have, you will change those tomorrow for the good.


softie

Wow. That is so sweet. Sweetie, I'd like to welcome you to the PTO family. Its good to hear a young lady of your age has an understandment of the situation.

I"ve read Roberts book.... and I write to one of his friends there on the row. It is a very well written book. He did a good job on it. I bought a copy and I loan it out to others so they can read it too. I think everyone should read it.

could you let me know where you bought the book and how i can also get it thanks

confused I did a search on the book and found a couple at amazon here is the link. There is only one author with the name of Robert.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/002-1153676-4408047

softie

Hello and welcome :) And thanks for sharing your story.

Welcome, fellow Husker :thumbsup: I'm a lurker here, not a poster, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to greet another person from Nebraska ... you don't see many here. :D

At the first of the year I believed I supported the death penalty system in this country. Of course, I was like the majority of Americans uneducated and certain though I knew the rest of the prison system was failing that capital punishment was certainly just and right. Little did I know that God had a plan to teach me a few things.

Monkiegirl's post just brought tears to the eyes of an old broad, who sheds tears for few things. These are not the first tears I have found within me for death row inmates, over the last 6 months or so that I have written an inmate incarcerated on the row in Arizona. What began for me as a trip through the first death row penpal site that I had ever ran across, to look at the men deemed monsters by our justice system has ended, not only with my enlightenment as to a great injustice that occurs in America, but my engagement to the inmate that I was moved to write.

The man I write, the man I love with all my heart is not a monster and niether are far too many of those condemned to death in this country. Those who commit the worst crimes are without any stretch of the imagination seriously ill mentally, but we execute them anyway. There are without doubt, many who have not committed the acts they are accused of including my fiance, but the sysem is set up to assure even the innocent have little, if any hope of escaping their fate. Those who commit the crimes they are accused of have done no more than tens of thousands of others who serve life without parole and as many who receive parole. There is no justification for the willful taking of human life, and yet we justify this nations declaring itself God and taking life each time an inmate is killed. After months of research I have to wonder who the true monsters are the inmates or the society that advocates state sanctioned murder.

I thank God for the lesson this young girl’s mother has taught her, because she will not live influenced by the ignorance and hatred that I had lived with for far too long. My future husband sits tonight in a small box. He was allowed 1 hour outside earlier. His only bright spot one of the daily letters I mail to him. When I recently visited the state declared monster he cried for 2 hours, because he has been alone there for almost 15 years ignored by everyone and deemed unfit to live by a majority. But, he told me during that Visit I had shined light into his darkness. Still, he fears our relationship, because the future is ever uncertain. I assure him every day that while most of society has given up on him I never will. Wherever the road leads I will be at his side. He has 10 times over paid for every crime or sin he could have committed in his 41 years of life.

His story is an excellent example of the fairness of the system. His trial lasted only 9 hours over a 2 day period. That is for a 3 part capital case. I have found the minimum should have been around 30 full working days in court. There are destroyed notes from which police reports were made. Statements were lost and tests that could have helped him were never done. There were several witnesses present at the scene,who were never found or interviewed. And, the list goes on, including the fact that the co- defendant escaped prosecution by testifying. He received 5 years probation for a totally unrelated charge. Yes, you read right 5 years probation, when he too had been charged with capital murder. There is no justice in this system and I have learned that first hand.

I thank God for people like this girl and her mother, and pray somehow the people of our country can be awakened, to not only the inhumane living conditions and the cruelty of the deaths of these men, but to the injustice that occurs in the application of the death penalty from the start. Maybe if a few more of us received letters , from a man as excited as a child on Christmas morning because he felt a raindrop more hearts might understand the very human nature of those society so easily deems unfit to live.