July 9, 2008

Dear Sis~
Last week the guards came in, chained up Kent Jackson (aka Memphis) and transported him to Greensville for his July 10th execution. For the past 8 weeks, Virginia has scheduled an execution every two weeks; Emmett is scheduled to die two weeks from tomorrow's execution. I confess to being more than a little despondent over being in the middle of so much killing. The State (and society) can employ all the legal euphemisms they want, but it's killing, pure and simple, and exceedingly premeditated...
I spoke to my lawyer today and learned that my name is now on the "death list" put out by Florida's Commission on Capitol Cases. This is a list of "death warrant eligible" prisoners, which are prisoners who have exhausted all their legal remedies and have no pending litigations in any court(s), thus making them eligible to have their death warrant signed by the governor. In Florida, the governor has full and unbridled discretion over whose death warrant to sign, and when to sign it. There are about 25 names on that death list (last time I checked) and a lot of them have been on the Row for a lot longer than me, and there are a lot of guys whose crimes were heinous by any definition. The fact that I did not kill the victim in my case (which the State now belatedly concedes) nor intended for him to die may or may not be significant to Governor Crist when he goes about deciding whose warrant to sign. Again, the governor can do what he wants. Recently, Governor Crist made public statements to the effect that in signing death warrants he will focus on those who have been on the Row for the longest and those convicted of the most heinous crimes. Left unanswered is the rate at which Governor Crist intends to sign warrants. He can sign 2-4 per year (like Jeb Bush used to) or he can sign 20 or more. It's totally up to him and what's in his heart. Now, by the time you read this, my lawyers will have filed, in Federal court, my final litigation (it's complicated, so I won't try to explain it here), which we've been planning for several months. I don't know if that will affect my status on "the list" (I suspect not) but we'll see. At any rate, I've been preparing for this for a long time and I'm taking it in stride...
Give the doggies a big hug for me!
Light & Love, Bill