REGINALD BLANTON
Texas Death Row.
Interview with Dee, Founder of the Abolishment
Movement 2008
. California's earthquakes and rapidly growing gang
www.myspace.com/freereggieb
www.freereginaldblanton.com
When I first received a letter from Reggie in
December, he said to me "You know what
makes no sense at all? My having almost all my
clothes on, I mean all the clothes I own,
including head covering and an ugly green
jacket, just to stay warm in my cage. I'm
dressed as if I were outside." Reggie is a fighter,
a fighter for human rights and member of
DRIVE, an online death row organization that
uses peaceful measures to fight against prison
abuse, and injustices. Listed on the DRIVE site
are numerous articles and poetry Reggie has
written. Reggie was one of the participants of
the Texas Death Row Hunger strike in which
several inmates protested the conditions on the
Polunsky death row unit in Livingston Texas by
going on a hunger strike.
.
HELP SAVE A LIFE
Here is my interview with Reggie, from his death row
cell, he speaks about his case, about his friend who he
was accused of murdering, and shows how he is
innocent.
Reggie, can you please give us a bio of yourself?
I was born blue behind my twin brother, Robert, in an
Oakland California hospital. My dad retired from the
Navy and we moved to Texas, to be closer to my
mama’s side of the family, while getting away from
culture. For 11 years I grew up in a household
possessed by dad's alcoholism, and because dad
would quit his jobs a lot, we had to move a lot. A new
kid in the neighborhoods we moved to, I had to fight a
lot, not necessarily to fit in, but to be left alone.
Though initially fighting was something I didn't like
to do, I had to eventually adapt to its norms. Anyway
early one morning mama rounded up my sister,
brother, me and as much of our belongings we could
fit into her bronco and moved us to an apartment she
already had waiting, divorcing herself from dad, the
fights, and from what alcoholism was doing to our
lives.
However my relationship with mama was shattered
by what I felt was stress-relieving, overkilling
whippings she gave me. I held them against mama
just as I did the divorce. Mama and I began arguing
just as she and dad did. I would leave the house to
either get into a fight at school, or on my way home
from school, then again once I got home with mama.
Page 1 of  12
So when it came time to deciding whose rules I
would live by, mama's or the subculture, both of
which were diametrically opposed to one another,
I chose the latter especially since the family I
identified with was outside mama's house. A
family I identified with because we were all
largely rebelling with anger against something we
didn't understand. So living as one of them, I
became one of them, a locc'd out crip”
Gangbanging and criminalism was the subculture
norms, norms that led to my incarceration several
times for non-felony crimes. After going to T. Y.
C. (Texas Youth Commission), when I was 16, by
the time I got out at 18, something about me
changed. I wasn't changed by their so called
"resocialization" program, but because I was
disgusted with being caught up in the system, and
the subculture that had me enslaved to it.
Interesting enough, when I said "it" I meant both
the "system," that is, the juvenile system as well as
the subculture, both of which should be seen as
part of the same body. At the age of 16 I was
already in the 10th grade. When I was released, if
that is the appropriate word, from T. Y. C. I had
my GED. I had intentions of taking T. Y. C. up on
their offer of 2-years of free college education to
become a licensed vocational nurse, but my parole
officer John Rubulcava, refused to do the
necessary paper work to make it happen. In what I
felt was a dire attempt to save my life, which
meant getting away from my parole officer who
seemed more concerned with violating my parole
by forcing me to work full time while reporting
and doing more community service than he was
allowed to give me each week all by city bus, then
writing me up if I was late, I tried to get him to
authorize, as they had done for another parolee,
for me to take the A. S. V. A. B. after which if I
passed, I would have been released from parole
and into the hands of the military.
Page 2 of 12
But he flat out refused to even do this. So I took him
to his supervisor who begged me to give him a
chance, and I did. Then a week or so later, I was
being snatched away from my girlfriend and her 4
year old son whom I wanted to adopt, for the
Capital murder of a friend of mine.
Your currently on Texas Death Row, What was
your conviction and how long have you been on
The row.
I've been on death row now for 7 years which can
only be understood as lifetimes of incarnations. As
for what I was convicted of, you are speaking of a
different type of conviction that I only hope leaves
people feeling convicted that the Judicial system, at
least here in Texas, is broken. My brother Robert
and his girlfriend Latoya arrived unexpected at my
apartment, to cruise around and visit family and
friends. With nothing to do, I left with them. Of the
family and friends we visited with, Carlos Garza
was one of them, or at least we tried to visit him.
Here is where things get difficult to discuss. When
we left from Carlos's apartment after getting no
response, we went to the other side of town to see
some other friends. On our way to our respective
homes, I asked my brother to stop by the pawn shop
so I could pawn some jewelry. It was a last minute
decision on my part. What makes this difficult to
talk about is the fact that the jewelry had previously
belonged to Carlos. So this alone is supposed to
infer my guilt. And, superficially, it would seem
questionable. But while we were on the East side,
the particular side of town we were leaving from
before we stopped by the pawn shop, somebody was
kicking in Carlos's door, killing him.
Carlos and I had always traded or rolled dice for
jewelry we both wore. We always had a lot of
jewelry that was expendable to the both of us.
Besides I had been in a cleaning up process. I had
moved in with my girlfriend and changed my job to
be closer to our apartment. I had told her that after I
sold the rest of my marijuana, I wasn't going to sell
drugs anymore.
I had already been pawning my jewelry, not because Reginald Blanton On Texas Death Row
I needed money but because I was slowly cleaning
myself up. The District Attorney asked the question,
which I couldn't answer because my trial attorneys
wouldn't let me testify, why I had gone all the way
to the other side of town to pawn jewelry when
there were pawn shops in the vicinity of where
Carlos lived. If I had testified I would have
explained that I didn't "go all the way to the other
side of town to pawn jewelry."The friends and my
Dad we attempted to visit, who all lived in the same
neighborhood as Carlos, was already on "the other
side of town" from where my brother and I lived.
We were just cruising, and seeing friends. The DA
said "the other side of town" to imply we were
running from something. Secondly, we went to "the
other side of town" that is, the Eastside, to see some
more friends, not to pawn jewelry. Again, pawning
jewelry was a last minute thought. We were there,I
had some jewelry I was slowly getting rid of
That anybody that has something that previously
already, so I sold it. As for why a pawnshop on the
belonged to their friend better not hope that friend
Eastside instead of where Carlos lived? Not only
is murdered? That's ridiculous! The real question is
wasn't I thinking about pawning anything, even if I
why was all this evidence overlooked? The
had, a week or so prior when I attempted to pawn
pawnshop was a rare incident of coincidence.
some jewelry at pawn shops in that area, they
Carlos was my friend. Kill him for jewelry? Cheap
refused to give me anything close to the jewelry's
jewelry? If I was hard up for money like that, why
value.My dad who had always pawned things, even
didn't I take any of that money that was said to be
warned me not to do business with the pawn shops
just laying around his apartment? Then, why my
in that area. But this is not it. Two and a half months
before Carlos's murder, his girlfriend took some friend instead of a stranger? It doesn't make sense.
Besides, I'm not petty like that. I mean, I drove a
pictures of Carlos and me together with some other
Mercedes Benz. On top of it all, I'm loyal. Carlos
friends. In these pictures, not only did he have on
and his cousin knew this. I've spent my money on
some of my jewelry, but I had on the very same
them and was willing to die for them. They knew
jewelry I was pawning. There were also pictures of
this. My realness is unquestionable. And though I
another mutual friend of ours wearing some of the
have done some stupid things in my ignorant years,
same jewelry, which he had gotten from me. These
never would I pawn something I stole. That is
pictures were admitted into evidence at trial.
beyond comprehension. It's a commonly known
Furthermore, Carlos's girlfriend who took these
fact that pawned items are ran through the
pictures,and the mutual friend wearing the jewellery
computer to determine if they are stolen.
I had given to him both testified at trial that the
I must emphasize we weren't the only one who
jewelry did belong to me, and that Carlos and I had
went to Carlos's apartment before his murder either.
traded jewelry in the past. What does this all mean?.

Page 3 of 12
A woman that spent some time with him before his
murder gave the police a description of a man with a
silver 2-pac chain who threatened Carlos's life
before he was found murdered in his apartment, yet
the police couldn't find this man. A few days later,
my brother calls me to tell me homicide detectives
called him and wanted to talk with him. He said that
he was "going to see that they are talking about." I
found out at trial what happened.
Robert and his girlfriend had been arguing outside
my Dad's trailer, down the street from Carlos’s
apartment. The manager of the trailer park called the
police. When a police officer arrived, he tried to
arrest Robert's girlfriend Latoya and was assaulted
by her. Latoya wasn't only charged with assault on a
public servant, but for failure to ID and was also
arrested for outstanding warrants. Another police
officer arrived and transferred Latoya to his patrol
car, then drove across the street from the trailer park
to a church parking lot. where the investigator that
was investigating Carlos's death walked over and
told the police officer to take Latoya to homicide.
She was in a vulnerable position and connected to
the "Blanton Boys”.
When she arrived to the homicide office, the
detectives force-fed her information on how they
thought Carlos was murdered and told her if she
didn't sign a statement against either my brother or
me, they were going to lock her up for Capital
murder. How does this play in the mind of a young
pregnant women? So she signed the statement typed
by the detectives, placing me as Carlos' murderer,
and get this, while comparing me to 2-pac in an
attempt to connect me with the silver chain worn by
the man they couldn't find, a man that came out in
trial to be somebody else. On top of it all, after
Latoya was coerced to sign the statement, she was
released from the homicide office. She never saw a
jail cell, and all her charges were dropped
immediately.
Page 4 of 12
When we questioned the arresting officer during
trial about what happened to Latoya's charges of
assault on a public servant, failure to ID, and all
her outstanding warrants, he said "I don't know".
.."You don't know"? No, they know, and now so
does the people. The homicide detectives
strategically used her to further coerce my
brother, whom they called and merely asked to
come to their office. And though Robert thought it
was just a matter of going there, after he got there,
they not only threatened to lock him up on Capital
murder charges if he didn't sign a statement
against me, but they threatened to lock up his
pregnant girlfriend. He testified at trial that he
was scared and signed the statement to get out of
there. He said he didn't fathom the nightmare his
signature would lead to. This nightmare has
ruined my relationship with my twin brother for
many reasons I feel are important to emphasize,
as they are revelatory of the deleterious effects
this vicious cycle of death called Capital
punishment has beyond the condemned. Before
trial Robert had visited with me a few times. And
though the telephones were monitored, the district
attorney tried to persuade the jury to believe I was
using these monitored visits to persuade my
brother to lie for me. Over the years we ended up
growing apart as opposed to witnessing each
others individual growth. So, in the few times
we've communicated over the past several years.
it has been disconcerting to not find the level of
communication we expected, we once shared. You
see what I'm saying? Now, because of this
traumatizing experience, though my brother wants
to share emotions with me he has been holding
inside, he's afraid that doing so might be
misconstrued by the courts as inference of my
guilt.
But I can imagine what my brother feels, he most
likely feels that he let me down by allowing these
detectives to manipulate him against me, his twin,
his heart, his soul, and for something I didn't do.
.
But I need him to understand that my love for him
is one that can't be devoured by this predatory
system, one that was only concerned with using
him. The other day in utter disgust, I finally threw
away the only letter I had from my brother, one in
which he was fighting to express emotions, another
part of him was fighting to conceal. And as I say
this, I feel like puking. Never, I mean never, has he
told me he wanted to kill himself except for in that
letter. I feel like I've lost my brother. My mama and
step-pops has even said he's not the same. And just
a couple of months ago, his girlfriend, a new
girlfriend, searched me out and left a message on
my Myspace page maintained for me by a friend,
concerned about my brother. Here's a women I've
never met telling me that all my brother does is talk
about me. She was also trying to find out the
significance of the number 7 because it was a
number my brother was distraught over. I told her
my brother thought as I did, that I was going to be
murdered by the state last year, 2007. She said he's
holding something inside that is tearing him apart
and that she is losing her boyfriend. This death
penalty thing is a Frankenstein. A living death that
destroys lives. There is no healing in it. None! We
are only killing ourselves spiritually, morally, and
physically, by letting it go on it's rampage.
Well, anyway, as we prepared for trial the DAs
offered me a capital murder life sentence if I didn't
force them to spend money by taking my case to
trial where they would seek death against me.
However, when I went back to court for an
evidentiary hearing concerning my state habeas
appeal on my wrongful conviction, when my
appellant attorney, Scott Sullivan, asked the district
attorney that tried my case, Tamura Butler, to take
the stand, I found it peculiar that when she was
asked if she offered me a plea-deal she lied, saying
she hadn't and that doing such wasn't the practice in
the Das office.
Page 5 of 12
Only later, after reading Supreme Court Justice
Thurgood Marshall's opinion in Furman Vs.
Georgia, the 1972 case on which the death penalty
was abolished, I realized why Tamura Butler had
lied. You see, Thurgood Marshall said, DAs can't
claim the death penalty as a deterrent to crime if
they use it to manipulate defendants to plea for a
lesser offense. What I'm trying to say is how can
they claim that I'm such a "severe threat to
society" that I need to be killed by lethal
chemicals that they cannot even use on animals,
after offering to keep me alive if I didn't take them
to trial? Hypocritical.
I know I'm being a bit long winded, but it is vital
that the people are made aware of how carefully
constructed my case and conviction was. When we
paneled the venire members, that is, called the 100
people from which we were going to compose our
jury to come into the courtroom, after Tamura
Butler made a comment to my attorney about a
black juror being the sole "holdout" juror in a
previous trial, which led to a mistrial, she called
for a jury shuffle, shuffling all the African
American venire-members who were seated in the
front of the courtroom, to the back. This was her
first attempt to keep African Americans off my
jury. She was hoping that we would amass a jury
before interviewing them in a process called voir
dire. And listen to that, "them." Here it is 2008 and
we are still dealing with the "them" phenomenon.
Well, we fought our way through interviewing
each venire member until we finally made it to our
first African African venire member. Yet, minus
one, the district attorney only ended up using her
peremptory challenges or strikes, which the
defense gets the same number of, to exclude the
rest of the African Americans from serving on a
jury.
.
In light of the comment Tamura Butler made about
the holdout African American jury and her jury
shuffle, my court appointed attorneys raised a
"Batson" claim, requiring her to give "race neutral"
reasons for using peremptory strikes, which may be
used to strike a venire member for any reason
except race or religion Little surprise Tamura
Butler's reasons were deemed "race-neutral" by the
presiding judge, Juanita Vasquez-Gardner.
During my appeal, after examining the transcripts
of the interviews of each venire member it was
revealed that Tamura Butler asked questions
differently toward those that became jury members
than she had the African Americans she kept off.
Whereas she educated the former as to the
application of the law, she left the latter to their
own misconceptions as to justify excluding them
from serving on my jury based on their so-called
inability to apply the appropriate law. Then when
we, my trial attorney, educated them of the law and
they said that they could apply it accordingly,
Tamura Butler claimed "vacillation," swaying
opinion, as her race-neutral reason for striking
African Americans from serving on mv jury. A
classic example of using a persons ignorance
against them.
Going back to my State Habeas Corpus evidentiary
hearing, after Tamura Butler took the stand, my
attorney had also asked her what her reasons were
for her jury shuffle. She said that she wanted to
move to the back venire members that were defense
attorneys, social workers, and teachers, while
moving to the front those with ties to law
enforcement. However in the first 20 venire
members, where 3 of the 5 African Americans on
the panel sat, there was only one teacher and
nobody with any of. the occupations she said she
was trying to shuffle to the back of the courtroom.
Page 6 of 12
The Federal Court Judge recently ruled in my case
that the jury shuffle was "racially motivated" and
that Tamura Butler's race neutral reason for her
peremptory strike against one African American
was "more rationalization than rationale." Yet
contradicting himself, the Federal Judge Orlando
Garcia, unbelievably denied my claim that this
prosecutor, Tamura Butler racially excluded
African Americans from serving on my jury.
Yet this is not, the extent of Tamura Butler's
prosecutorial misconduct. The Northwestern
University School of Law, Center on Wrongful
Convictions, compiled a study called "The Snitch
System" in which they reveal that the first
wrongful conviction involved a "snitch." The study
also revealed that of the 111 exonerated from death
row, about half, 45.9% involved snitches. What is
this about? Every study I've read most cases I've
read, as well as most stories I've heard from people
on death row right now had a "snitch" mostly
"jailhouse-snitches" involved in their convictions.
When I was going to trial my lawyer asked me if I
knew a Frank Trujiilo. I told him that the the name
wasn't recognizable. My lawyer told me this
person knew me and would be testifying against
me. One day after going back to the county jail
from trial, I saw this one prisoner in the legal
booths in booking I had been locked up around. I
threw my head back to say "what"s up" to him, you
know, just to say hello. He faintly moved his head
to say "what's up" back, but his expression struck
me. It was like he was either shocked or didn't
recognize me. I just kept on stepping to my
destination. Then came the day during trial when
this Frank Trujiilo was supposed to testify against
me. Into the courtroom walked the same person I
had said "what's up" to that day I came back from
court. I was beyond words.
On that stand he told one lie after another. He said
that we were friends in the freeworld though I didn't
meet him until I was locked up in the county 6 for
this crime. He said that I use to give him drugs
"under the table" at this motel he supposedly worked
at to pay for the room. He even said that I came to
the motel one day trying to sell him a gun of the
same caliber used to murder Carlos. When I was
being booked for Carlos’ murder I was thrown into a
small room with about 15 people sitting around me.
Everybody was asking everybody what they were in
for." When I was asked I said "for the Capital Murder
of my friend." When somebody else asked if I did it I
emphatically said "hell nah, But this jailhouse snitch
Frank Trujillo who was also present in this room
which is when I first met him, said on the stand that I
had bragged about killing Carlos in front of all these
strangers. I was enraged. But what could I do about
it? I wanted to curse him out but that would have
only made me look worse. On top of it all my trial
lawyers had me strapped in a testifying straitjacket.
This trial is the reason why I now have high-blood
pressure. Another day when I came to my lynching
of a trial, as I walked past the one-man holding cells
behind the courtroom, I passed one cell where
Tamura Butler a pretty prosecutor I might add, sat
next to this same jailhouse snitch, knee to knee,
talking to him. When they saw me they sort of stared
at me shocked, like I caught them doing what I
thought as I walked off: Tamura Butler using her sex-
appeal to further coax Frank Trujillo to stay the
course in their plot to kill me. During my appeal I
asked my court-appointed federal attorney what had
happened to this jailhouse snitch. He said though he
had several felonies pending in several states, after
my wrongful conviction, all he received was 1-year,
time served..He went home. Judge Paul J. Kelly Jr.
said "If justice is perverted when a criminal
defendant seeks to buy testimony from a witness it is
no less perverted when the Government does
so."Where does it all stop? Little wonder why the
Page 7 of 12
majority of brothers here on Texas' death row
subsist in various levels of despair. Here
recently, we just lost another brother to suicide.
That's some 4 suicides in about as many years.
It's enough to be urged by an imate force
toward self-preservation, only to have your
hands tied as you watch your own murder
approach you; let alone to be encaged falsely
under sensory-depriving conditions with a case
like mine, as many brothers have; a case of
endless corruption, too much to begin breaking
down. So what does most of these brothers do?
They sit silenced, until they are silently
murdered by the state, If they don’t silently kill
themselves.
.
REGINALDS MOTHER AT VISIT 2008
Are You Innocent?
As for your question of "innocence" I cringe at
that word. What does it mean? Obviously it has
lost meaning to most Americans, or more
specifically, citizens of Texas since they didn't
demand abolition or at the bare minimum, a
moratorium on the death penalty when this
Lone Star State killed Todd Willingham, Gary
Graham, Francis Newton, Justin Fuller, and
lord knows who else that was also innocent. I
sort of feel ashamed of that word "innocence."
Probably because I'm ashamed of being here. I
don't know how else to explain how that word
makes me feel. It's not enough to be innocent
here in America.
You either better have DNA evidence or a video of
you at another location at the precise moment of the
crime, to prove your innocence. What does this
mean for people with a messy case like mine?
Constant refusals from law firms I've contacted to
help me? Certainly everybody doesn't have cases
where there were DNA evidence.
This whole system will make you feel guilty
without really knowing why. I think innocence
needs to be redefined because we are dealing with a
situation that goes beyond the black and white lines
of guilt and innocence which, when we are talking
about capital punishment, respectively means life in
prison or a death sentence and freedom. What 1
mean is, what if I was indeed guilty? Does this take
away from the man I have finally become? My
redemption? Anybody who is keen enough to see
who I really am through my words, let alone my
activism, knows the ghettos and hoods need people
like me as much as they did Tookie Williams, to
encourage growth and development.
Texas, if not the whole American Judicial System,
has a policy of condemnation that never takes into
consideration that change is an inherent part of
human nature. I mean, Texas' prison industrial
complex is less concerned with true rehabilitation,
and more with mere imprisonment.
This says it all. I guess I will say that I've seen too
many brothers around here who admit that they
were guilty for their crimes but it was clear that
they were changed men that could change the
communities that they came from. yet their stories
were poisoned and their value died on that gurney
with a needle in its arm. So what is innocence?
Page 8 of 12
Do you feel that your lifestyle and gang
association had anything to do with your false
conviction?
I absolutely do. They placed a spotlight on me.
Police officers referring to my brother and I as
the "Blanton Boys" or "Blanton Twins"? That
says a lot. It's one of the reasons why I was
cleaning up my look. I was even in the process
of downgrading my car from a Mercedes to
something more practical. These things made me
a target. Then when you get in the courtroom and
you have golds in your mouth, Varsace glasses,
tattoos, and you are a member of the "notorious
CRIPS" with a criminal history? It doesn't matter
how petty that criminal history is. It doesn't
matter that you don't "gangbang.". Skilled
prosecutors will scare the average juror into
believing you are dangerous. I guess the real
question is how do you become dangerous just
because you have these things? Perhaps because
when these images are arranged right, they
become symbols that tap into and dances with
those misconceptions that dwell in the
subconscious of each juror.
Do you feel you were railroaded? Why?
I do feel I was railroaded and not only because
of what I've already said, but consider this:
Carlos' apartment door was kicked in. Detectives
were able to take a clear close-up picture of the
tread-print left on the door. The shoes I wore the
entire day of Carlos' murder was taken by police
to be examined for blood-splatter and anything
else that would link me to his murder. Of course
they didn't find anything. However, I told my
trial lawyer, Anthony Cantrell, to get these shoes
to show the jury that the 12-inch shoe-print on
Carlos' door wasn't mine. These shoes are a size
9. But my own attorney grilled me about it,
saying "Okay, okay, we're going to get them
right now!" as if I was lying and to see if I would
freeze up. Needless to say, he never got the
shoes.
Railroaded? I presented to my State Habeas Corpus
attorney, Scott Sullivan, several vital claims for
him to include in the appeal he was supposedly
filing for me, one of which was about my shoes not
matching the shoe-print on the door. It was
especially important that he included all the claims
possible at this particular stage of my appeal
because if he didn't whichever claims he left out
would be lost forever, barred from ever being
raised in later appeals. Different character, same
plot. Mr. Sullivan refused to raise these innocent
claims in my appeal. So I compiled all the carbon-
copies of letters I sent him, pleading to him to file
my claims, and went to the court with it all
showing Judge Juanita Vasquez-Gardner, of the
399th District court in San Antonio, how my own
attorney refused to represent my legal interest. But
she utterly ignored what I sent to her certified mail.
So, then I went to the State Bar of Texas about
what Scott Sullivan had done to my appeal but they
felt he had not committed any professional
misconduct and referred me back to Juanita
Vasquez-Gardner's court. I was ignored and swept
under the rug with all the other silenced. When my
Federal attorney attempted to file these claims to
the Federal court, the Federal judge said the claims
were procedurally barred from being heard without
even considering how I diligently sought to have
my legal interest represented, only to be ignored by
my state habeas attorney, the judge over my State
Habeas Corpus appeal, who was also my trial
judge, and even the State Bar of Texas, who is
supposed to make sure that lawyers do their jobs.
This stuff makes me sick.
What stage is your appeals at?
My appeal was denied by the 5th circuit court of
appeals. My last resort, at least judicially, will be
the Supreme Court.
Page 9 of 12
How do you spend your time on Death Row?
I try to divide my day into 8-hours of rest, 8
hours of self-reflection, research, and 8-hours of
writing. Because I'm largely at war with Maya,
the Sanskrit term for illusion, I'm fighting my
self-illusions, seeking to realize my Highest self.
I have found this is the only way I'm able to find
that space inside the pyramid of my being
imperturbable by the harmonious-chaos that
surrounds me. From this place I find my inner-
strength which I hope shines forth as inspiration
for all these brothers here on the row. From this
place I find the strength to delve into intense
studies, searching for keys, keys that may unlock
within me insights, solutions to the problems that
plague us within these walls, and the us outside
these wails; that is, our brothers and sisters in
freeworld society.
This is why I have embraced the name Omari
Huduma, which is Swahili for "The Highest
Service." Not only do I strive to realize omari;
the highest, that is, my highest self, but I dedicate
my life to the upliftment of my sisters and
brothers as the highest huduma, that is, service I
have to give. Together with my cadre of brothers,
Christopher Young, Gabriel Gonzalez, Robert
Will, and Kenneth Foster, who is now serving a
life sentence, we have breathed life into a
movement we call D.R.I.V.E.: Death Row Inner-
Communalist Vanguard Engagement.
We are fighting for the abolition of the Death
Penalty and as humane living conditions as
possible as long as we must be confined under an
inhumane sentence of death. We're fighting by,
not only educating the public of the atrocious and
far-reaching nature cf the Death Penalty, but by
hopefully being representative of the hope and
human dignity that still exist within these walls
of death.
We have taken Direct Action within these walls of
death nonviolently protesting these sensory-
depriving conditions and for better treatment by this
administration.
We dedicate a lot of time toward helping brothers
within these wails overcome their self-illusions,
whether it be racism or misogyny, while trying to
get them to see that they shouldn't just give
themselves to a man-made demise as their fate
because they still have worth, one worth fighting
for. We are literally fighting from the inside out in
every sense.
What are your feelings about the death sentence?
It's counter-justice. It doesn't promote healing with
the victims' family; it creates extended victims with
the prisoners' family; it ignores the humanity of the
condemned; it hardens the hearts of those that in
some way or some form promotes the process
leading up to the condemned's state sanctioned
murder; and it takes not only tax-dollars away from
rehabilitation programs badly needed but it takes
the lives of the condemned, who could very well
promote the rehabilitation of others that will
identify more with them than anybody else.
The death penalty is racially inclined do you see this
as a form of genocide
You know genocide is defined as the systematic
destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group.
Though the death penalty is racially inclined, if
racism wasn't a factor, it would be harder for
District Attorneys to secure convictions, we would
still be speaking of a systematic destruction via the
Judicial Persecution System of a cultural group or
as I would rather say those largely from the
subculture. And the bottom line will always be the
bottom class. If brothers and sisters on death row
could afford a topnotch defense team, they would
not be on death row.
Page 10 of 12
If we look at those that made it off death row, it
was largely one of two factors that played a role
in it:
They either had a law firm or innocence project
fighting for their lives, or a mass grassroots
movement.
What abuses have you and others endured at the
Polunsky Death Row Unit?
I watched as a neighbor of mine, Kenneth Clark,
died in his cage because medical refused to help
him. Geronimo Gutierrez is suffering from a
painful medical condition and the medication he
is being given is not taking away his pain.
Michael Sigala's sinus condition has gotten so bad
that fluid has built up in one of his ears to the
point that he has lost all his hearing in that ear,
and the medication provided to him is not
enough. Medical has a notorious unwritten policy
of only being concerned about a death row
prisoners' health only if their lives are in
immediate jeopardy. As long as we are alive until
the state kills us, they have served their purpose.
Our grievance system is broken. Generally,
grievances either come up missing or we get run-
around responses to them. Some of the food they
dish us is uneatable. Some brothers who are
suffering from mental illnesses are mistreated by
officers who don't know how to deal with them.
Officers refuse to feed or recreate some of them.
As for my brothers in the DRIVE movement, as a
result of our nonviolent protest, we have been
subjected to excessive uses of force. We have
been denied food, recreation, and showers. We
have had all our property taken away from us
against policy. We've had our mail tampered with
or sometimes thrown away. There was even one
occasion where I was forced I mean carried into a
cage smeared in feces and urine.
HOW CAN THE PUBLIC HELP YOU? I need people especially here in Texas and if they
are not in Texas to persuade people they may know
I need an attorney that will aggressively fight for
here in Texas to be willing to take to the streets; to
my life as if it were their own in the Supreme
be my voice and the voice for the voiceless; to
Court should my 5th circuit appeal get denied.
distribute literature on my plight everywhere they
This attorney may just want to work in
go. Until someone enlightens me of a more viable
conjunction with my Federal attorney. This
approach this is the only way I believe we can level
attorney needs to be knowledgeable in the law as
this imbalanced scale of so-called justice.
it pertains to procedural default. Likewise, if my
case is reversed, I will need an attorney to
At this time if there is anything you would like
aggressively represent me at another trial.
to add to the interview please do so.
I need to say this to Carlos' Mama: Ma'am if that
My plight needs as much media exposure as
was you staring at me when my defense attorneys
possible specifically here in Texas not only
told me to sit facing those seated in the courtroom,
emphasizing the injustices in a wrongful
if you are wondering what I tried to say to you I
conviction, but also my genesis into manhood,
said "I didn't do it." I can't find the words to encase
my self-evolution, my redemption, in spite of
what I feel about the pain you have gone through.
charges that I would never amount to anything.
Your lost is mine. Though I don't know what you
I need people to relentlessly pursue,firstly,
still feel I will say I hurt not only because of all that
influential people that are against the Death
has grown out of Carlos murder but every time the
Penalty such as senator Rodney Ellis, Green
state of Texas kills one of my brothers.And their
Party's presidential candidate and former Georgia
guilt or innocence doesn't affect one way or another
senator, Cynthia McKinney, or Green Party
this pain I feel. Just as I believe if Carlos was ever
presidential candidate from San Antonio, Cate
sent to death row and the state of Texas killed him,
Swift and those like them to persuade them to use
whether he was guilty or not wouldn't affect one
their influence to persuade the Texas State Bar to
way or another the pain that you would feel. The
accept and entertain the grievance I'm trying to
more important thing is I offer all the love of my
file against Scott Sullivan for refusing to
being to you and your family. I mean all the love of
represent me; since the first grievance I attempted
my being, everything I am. And Ms. Garza please
to file against him was classified as an "inquiry"
let me say also I would like for you to consider
and dismissed. We need pressure on the Texas
meeting my Mama. Because I believe you will see
State Bar to do the right thing. This grievance can
yourself in her as well as her pain.
be found on my myspace page.
May love, all our love, heal your wounds. I fight so
We also need these influential people to persuade
mothers like yourself, and family members for that
others like them to stand with them in their
matter, wont have these wounds.
demand for true justice in my case. I need people
to use my plight as a means to further build the
Dee, thank you from the depths of my soul for
grassroots movement to abolish the Death
giving me this opportunity. Being able to spill all
Penalty.
these things from my cup has done something to
me.

FOR CONTACT DETAILS SEE OVER THE PAGE

Page 11 of 12
 POEM WRITTEN BY REGINALD BLANTON

WOUNDED (sos)

She has never cried so hard, so utterly, in her life. She cries as if her life depended on it. In fact,
lives do depend on it. Dark, angry clouds haven’t even known raindrops the size of her tears. O’ the
hurt. Her gapping mouth frowns with wails from her agony. I haven’t realized how my face contorts
from the mere sight, the mere sight of…my wound. I’ve been wounded by the mistreatment of
Humanity who sits curled up like an abused child, precious child, in the corner of our souls, neglected
by the US; neglected by the STATE; neglected by this administration; and what hurts—o’ it hurts—even
more, neglected by my fellow death row prisoners, whose faces turn away from this child because they
feel they don’t deserve her. And when they turned their confused faces with tears in their eyes, it ripped
a hold through my flesh; one so profound, I can peer through it to my Soul, to that child, the child that
cries.

I lay wounded in the ditch of my cage, left to die, this child and me. Passerbys hear the cries from my
wound—their reflection, but they refuse to face themselves, passing US by. My wound cries for US,
which means YOU. The child in me, in US, needs YOU. WE can heal, but it must be TOGETHER; I
can’t do it alone,

…My wound is bleeding my Soul.

Please…
Please don’t pass US by.

CONTACT DETAILS
Anna Terrell Ann Morrison Sandie Blanton

Phone # 210 508 7616 Email Phone# 011 44 1935 414176

anniemy@satx.rr.com (please note this is a UK Phone #)
Email Email
anareese51@sbcglobal.net reggieblanton@hotmail.com
Or
lawofparties@hotmail.com

Snail Mail Address

P.O. BOX OR 760776,

San Antonio,
Texas 78245

PLEASE HELP SAVE A LIFE

Page 12 of 12