ustxtxb_obs_1999_09_03_50_00029-00000_000.pdf

1 In March 1993, Sawyer became the first man executed in Louisiana by lethal injection. Kirkpatrick was re-sentenced to life, but four other men named in Jones’ writings, in addition to Sawyer, have since been executed. Their names are listed at the end of Jones’ book. The last of them was handwritten into the proofs I received in January; it’s an ongoing story, of course. nd yet this is not a book about the “issue” of the death penalty; it is an unsensationalized look at the day-to-day reality of life on death row, largely ignored in the policy debates. Guards raise the razor wire on the recreation fence so that basketballs won’t get punctured. Jones shares reading material that Officer sends him with others on the tier: “You really put me out of this place” with A Journey through Wales, he tells her. He had been suspicious of her motives at first, because death row inmates often receive letters from people on the outside telling them that they should suffer even more, in his case for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend’s elevenyear-old daughter. In addition to his letters, Jones keeps a journal, copies of which he eventually provides to Officer, telling her she can share his writings with others. He continues his journal entries when he is placed in the hole after another inmate flings shit at him; it’s called “the Hole,” he explains, because “It’s just what it is a Hole.” While he’s in there, setting aside inedible food despite his hunger, he makes socks out of his shirt to keep his feet warm. Conditions in solitary are so bad that he becomes nostalgic for death row; back on the row he wishes he were still in the Hole. Meanwhile, he is so estranged from his family that he only finds out from the TV news that his sister had been murdered by her husband, who then shot himself. There’s another aspect to daily life at Angola, too: “The cell that I’m in is right in front of the light and it stay on twenty-four hours. Since I been here, I have seen men lose their minds. I lost count on how many got executed.” But Jones’ principal worry about his own body is where it will end up. “Like, the only real problem I have is that if I do die here, would [my family] come and get my body? I don’t want to be laid to rest in a prison grave-yard…. I want my soul to blow free. So if there is a after-life, I won’t wake up looking at these bars.” Jones was buried, at age thirty-five, in the Little Zion Baptist Church Cemetery in Lakeland, Louisiana. Between the time of his execution and burial, Angola prisoners began a work strike, when a group of them in the metal shop discovered that the table they were building was the new gurney for lethal injection. Protest spread from the shop to the fields of the 18,000-acre farm, where some 400 prisoners put down their tools. Guards confiscated a camera from Angolite editor Wilbert Rideau, who was covering the strike. Prison officials realized their error and contracted out work on the gurney. Prisoners went back to their routine, and six men have since died by lethal injection in Louisiana. Perhaps it is inevitable that individuals remain invisible, even while the death penalty as an issue remains in the public eye. This year, the documentary The Farm: Angola USA, co-directed by the same Wilbert Rideau, was nominated for an Academy Award. But Rideau himself, once on death row and now serving a life sentence for a 1961 murder, dubbed “the most rehabilitated prisoner in America,” may be a victim of his own good publicity. He remains locked up despite repeated pardon board recommendations that he be freed. On the other hand, supporters of Mumia Abu-Jamal have gained international atten tion. Yet at a New Jersey benefit for the former Black Panther, now on Pennsylva nia’s death row, the lead singer of Rage Against the Machine told a New York Times reporter that “if there was no question about Mumia Abu-Jamal’s guilt, we would not be holding this concert.” That’s too bad. Abu-Jamal deserves a fair trial, and he should not be executed regardless of the trial’s outcome. \(For information on supporting Abu-Jamal, contact: cedpboston @ yahoo.com In a powerful afterward to If I Should Die, Sarah Ottinger, the attorney who handed photos of Robert Williams’ burned body to the Angolite editors, watches as Angola guards literally wash their hands of Jones’ body after his execution. “Jane, to these people here, they want us dead and forgotten. I know that they are trying to break our spirit but I won’t let them break mine,” Jones wrote. Several weeks earlier, he had mentioned that his mother might have found a way to get to the prison to visit him. “We are lost to the outside world. Right now they are work ing on a store to sell everything. The way it seem, they are just going to take us completely off the map.” This valuable book can help keep them on it. Mark Dow is researching a book about abuses in U.S. immigration detention centers. He lives in Brooklyn. He would like to thank Sarah Ottinger for helping piece together some of Louisiana death penalty history. Contributions toward financial aid for law students who will practice capital defense in the United States can he made to The Andrew Lee Jones Fund and sent to Jane Officer, 1 Hemyock Road, Selly Oak, Birmingham B29 4DG. SEPTEMBER 3, 1999 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 29