Do you support the use of the death penalty?
Think it over for a second, and I'd love to hear your reasons why you do/don't support it.
I don't want to just spew out my opinion out because at least at this time I think it would be best if I kept it to myself, but over the last 4 years in criminal justice program I have had the chance to become informed on almost all aspects of both sides of the argument. This year I decided to take an elective class aptly named "The Death Penalty", and while a lot of the topics covered this semester have been review for me I have been trying to take on a more active role in gaining information from sources other than your typical textbook or set of lecture notes. I decided to contact someone who has been involved with the death penalty process for a long time now, and had come within 20 minutes of execution himself until the United States Supreme Court granted him a stay to further allow for DNA testing on evidence that he claims will prove his innocence, or that at least someone else committed the crime. I sent a letter to Hank Skinner, or as his address states "prisoner #999143". This was about 3 weeks ago.
Well, today I went to check the mail for any more Christmas presents that I had ordered for people, and I received a present myself when this this small manilla envelope came in the mail for me!
I was a little stunned that corresponding with a prisoner, let alone a death row inmate took so little time. When I told my professor that I sent the letter out she said expect it to take longer than a month to get back to you. Welp, she was wrong!
The letter I sent him contained some general information about myself, my past, and my views on the death penalty.
The main reason behind sending the letter was to hear from him about conditions on death row at the Polunsky Unit (which is on the label in the picture), his views on the death penalty, and his opinions on the process and how he has lived his lived while incarcerated for the last 18 years.
Hank has been granted 2 stays of executions, and one of them was 20 minutes before he was to be executed. He has experienced everything this system has to offer except for being given the pentobarbital-filled needle. As you can see on the envelope it says that two photos are enclosed, and initially I was a little nervous to open because I wasn't sure how he would react to some random college student trying to strike up a conversation about all of the details that surround his possible execution.
You may be asking "What exactly did he send you?", and here is the list of what was inside.
- 2 photos of himself during interview from 2011
- an 18 page handwritten letter (9pgs front and back)
- Issue #35 of Hell Hole News (This is a newsletter he writes himself and publishes it online)
- A draft of what will be HHN #36 with commentary from himself
Needless to say I was mind-blown by the amount of effort he put into gathering all of this material for me, writing such an intelligent and clear letter, and answering all of my questions. I also felt really bad when I saw a stamp for $5.15 on the letter, and realized that I probably used up a lot of his commissary money by making him spend the money to send me a letter back :(
I'm hoping that I can keep up my conversation with him on whatever things we decide to discuss, but most of all I just want him to know that he has someone to talk to. He has been interviewed by famous film producer Werner Herzog (watch it here) and many other people. I'm super thankful (as I'm sure he is) that he currently does not have an execution date set because of DNA testing that is currently going on in his case. I want to keep learning more from him gaining his perspective on things because talking to him will give me information that no generic textbook will be able to give me.
IF this post sparks any sort of conversation, I would love to do a follow up post to this and start a discussion on here with people as well, not because I'm looking to argue or assert some sort of authority over those I disagree with, but because I find this topic extremely interesting.
So for anyone that reads this, I'm hoping my view on the death penalty is still pretty well hidden, and hopefully this post will intrigue someone to start their own conversation with someone facing death. Sending a letter is so easy, but I can infer from the response I got from Hank that it really does mean a lot.
Take all of this into consideration, and if you'd like to know more details about the information he sent me I could totally do a more in depth post, or maybe even a video on what he had to say!
Thanks for the read.
Kyle
