JANUARY 17,2007 -PROTEST UPDATE
Another state-sanctioned murder is in motion today as a friend of mine, Jonathan Moore, is to be executed. I have known Jonathan since 1994. A tall, skinny quiet man that was very well-read on many subjects enjoyed helping people, and bringing laughter as well. He’ll be missed by me and many others.
On his murder date I went to recreation and spoke to comrades Rob and Amun, (whose cages are situated in front of C section dayroom) and we reminisced about Jonathan and the good memories we'd had with him, the political debates, New World Order, talked about family and friends and children, the struggle against the DP, our suffering and our determination. It was an emotional day and we went from being happy at good memories to flat anger at the reality that Jonathan would have a 5-man Emergency Response Team come to his cage and brutally extract him from his cage against his will, kidnap him and sneak him off to the murder house (the Walls Unit in Huntsville, Texas) handcuffed and shackled and brutally murder him. No matter that it's the law, no matter how compassionate they try to make it sound or seem -- it was outright premeditated murder. MURDER!!!!!!
As the 5-man team finished dealing with the UOF of Comrade Steve Woods for handcuffing himself to his cage door in protest against Jonathan Moore's murder, I came out of the dayroom and sat on the run in non-violent protest against Jonathan's murder date. I let the administration know that was present (Captain Dickens, Sgt. Brown, and Sgt. Horton) that it was a protest against Jonathan’s execution, that I stand in solidarity with him, and that they cannot continue to participate in the process of the state-sanctioned murder and think we'll accept it. WE WILL NOT!
After stating my solidarity with Jonathan, I went and address the fact that Michael Rashad was unjustly sent to level 2 for not shaving and the administration was abusing its authority (as is the norm here at TDCJ). Michael Rashad has been on bench warrant in Harris County Jail for a hearing on his case regarding mental retardation issue. He had been gone for 2 months. While in Harris county jail he is allowed to let his beard grow. There is no rule in Harris jail that dictates a prisoner to shave.
When a death row prisoner is going to be transferred to death row, he is not notified in advance of his transfer back to TDCJ. He is purposely left unnotified for security reasons. For fear that a prisoner may try to escape. They will not notify him of when he is being transferred to TDJC so he can not make any plans to escape etc. So Michael Rashad had no idea that he was coming back to TDCJ and had 2 months worth of beard growth in his face.
Upon stepping off the TDCJ van here at Polunsky Unit, major Nelson saw Michael Rashad with his beard and automatically told Captain Dickens to drop Rashad to level 2 for failure to be in compliance with TDCJ grooming standards which dictates that all prisoners must be clean shaven with no hair on their faces what so ever. This is a psychological tactic of warfare by the administration. They understand that one’s ability to individualize themselves and have an identity they can be proud of gives them strength to uphold their individual identity, dignity and integrity that is affined with that identity they have. By stripping you of identity they leave you feeling as though you are standing on shaky ground. How can you stand up for yourself if you don’t even have an identity to defend? This is also why so many cultural books, so many books that encourage free, progressive thinking outside of the box of the current order is most often denied by the administration here under the pretense of being radically charged or being a threat to security of the institution. And to ignorant, and enlightened, free thinking individuals who know who he/she is and will stand up for themselves is something they feel threatened by. Something as simple as having the free will to choose whether you want to shave or have hair on your face makes a difference and gives you something (even small) to individualize yourself with.
Rashad was never given the opportunity upon arrival back to death row to get back in compliance with TDCJ Grooming standards. He was simply dropped to level 2 for having a beard. After 2 weeks of watching him speak to every ranking official who came by and seeing he would get no resolve, while protesting Jonathan’s murder, I also protested Major Nelson and Captain Dickens abusing their authority and unjustly dropping Michael Rashad to level 2. There was really a personal vendetta going on. Major Nelson had been called to testify for the state against Michael Rashad in his retardation hearing. Major Nelson was caught lying against Michael Rashad and wanted to take it out on him when he arrived back to Polunsky Unit. This was the reason behind her abuse of authority.
After I protested their abuse of authority on Michael Rashad the very next day Michael was given his level 1 back and was moved to a level 1 pod where he would be allowed to enjoy the few concessions that level 1 has. So that's a small victory.
After I addressed Michael Rashad's problem, I addressed another neighbor’s problem that lives on my section named Billy Mason. Billy Mason is a 53 year old man who has had many problems with his appeals due to courts failing to appoint him counsel to represent him in his new appeal process. He has not been able to file on 11.071 state writ of habeas corpus because he had no lawyer (the courts failed him to appoint him one all these years). If that is not a major delay of justice then I don't know what it is.
Billy decided to study law and file his own petition to the courts. I watch this man get law books from the library every day of the week. I read all the legal magazines he receives. He studies law religiously and could probably litigate his own case better than any attorney could.
While preparing to file his state petition to the courts Billy Mason sent out for a ruling that have been made by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. All rulings from the courts, all legal records that have been published are accessible to the public at large and all prisoners. When Billy Mason received a copy of the court ruling that he was going to use as an exhibit in his appeal, the mailroom staff denied him the court ruling claiming that someone was sending him another prisoner's legal work and that that is considered 3rd party correspondence and that he cannot do that. Billy Mason tried to explain to the mailroom staff that the ruling came from Billy’s personal friend and she got the ruling off the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals website where all rulings are made public and where anybody can download a copy for themselves (it is public record). It is our right to "law of due process" to have these rulings (no matter whose case it is or what state they are from). Nevertheless, they still denied Billy Mason this legal document, thus denying him access to the courts and impending on his right to law of due process which could easily cost him his life on appeal if things are not filled correctly and in a timely manner. His appeal has been delayed due to this denial of this legal document that he needed as an exhibit.
After filing grievances and his grievances being ignored or thrown away, Billy began to flood his room in protest. So on January 17, I also protested and stood in solidarity with him, addressed it on camera as I was carried back to my cage and let them know that as long as they continue to abuse their authority, deny one access to the courts that can result in their execution, as long as they continue to participate in any aspect of the state-sanctioned murder, human rights violations and the like -- WE WILL CONTINUE PROTEST AND WILL NOT STOP!
To this day Billy Mason has not been allowed access to this legal document he needs. He finally got a response from his first grievance and was given no resolve, thus forcing him to file further. He is now on step 2 of his grievance process and is awaiting their response. This process has been going on for 3 months now. While it goes on, he cannot go further with his death row appeal to the court. He has about 5 months left to file his appeal. If it is not filed in a timely manner, if it is not filed correctly, Billy Mason will receive an execution date on such a legal technicality and will be executed because mailroom staff chose to abuse their authority and deny him legal documents dire to his appeal that didn’t allow him to file his appeal. He would be executed because the grievance department on Polunsky Unit gave him the runaround, then denied him what he is due according to the law. He has basically had his hands tied behind his back. And though he has finally been appointed counsel, to this day she has never contacted him and he has no idea how long she has been appointed to him.
I ask that anybody reading this update bombard Polunsky and this attorney with phone calls and letters and let her know that she is being watched and cannot neglect her legal duties as an attorney and an officer of the court. A man’s life is in her hands, and her neglect can cost him his life, and as the days pass, and with all the legal problems Billy Mason is having with the Polunsky unit mailroom and administration, it seems he is close to being executed because they have abused their authority and denied him access to the courts and the right to law of due process which allows him to participate in his legal appeals. His attorney’s name that has never contacted him nor has never done anything to help him on his appeals is:
Kathryn M. Case
412 Main St. Suite 1150
Houston, TX 77002
Phone: 713-222-7788
(Note: If anyone finds an email address on her online, I encourage all to send emails as well).
Please bombard her with letters and phone calls, let her know she is being watched, and that we will not continue to allow the system on any level to abuse its authority and neglect its duties as officers of justice.
In closing, I send my condolences to Jonathan Moore’s family and friends, let his murder and those before him be a reminder that we must remain relentless in the struggle against the death penalty, everyone must unite in the anti-death penalty community regardless of differences. Lives are at stake here, and the most important thing, and the one objective that we all share in this struggle is SAVING LIVES AND ABOLISHING THE DEATH PENALTY!!!
PEACE, LOVE, & SOLIDARITY!!!!!!!
On The Rise!!!
GABRIEL GONZALEZ
--UPDATE—
It is 3 days after the murder of Jonathan Moore. While out at visitation with my friend Linda on 1/20/07, I was told by a fellow prisoner that Jonathan Moore was taken to the murder house a day prior to his murder. This is not normal protocol. Normally, a prisoner with a date remains on death watch until the day of his murder. That day, if he receives visitors, he will be allowed to visit until 12:00 in the afternoon and from the visitation room he is taken to the murder house to be murdered at 6:00 pm.
However, Jonathan was taken a day prior to his murder. I have heard rumors as to why, but will not state any of what I heard because I’d hate to find out later it was untrue and yet I put something out there. Nonetheless, it is confirmed that Jonathan was taken to the murder house a day early. He was supposed to protest his murder, and others were supposed to protest with him. DRIVE protested, but none of the others that were supposed to, protested (I don’t know why). I’m not even certain if Jonathan did, especially since he was kidnapped and taken to the murder house a day early. The media has a bad habit of lying about those who refuse to participate in their own murders and flat out lie about it or just don’t mention that someone resisted their murder to the end.
Something in my spirit tells me that Jonathan resisted simply because I knew his courageous character. He was not that type who walked around acting macho, but anyone who knows courage when they see it knew that he was courageous and did not fear fighting the system for his life on all levels.
Recently, I discovered that cameras have been placed in all the cages on “Death Watch” on A pod, A Section, since Michael Johnson slit his own throat in protest of his execution, which was the administration’s way of trying to cover their ass and make sure it doesn’t happen again. More so, the messed up thing is that prisoners are now monitored by camera 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and get no privacy whatsoever. No privacy to urinate, defecate, etc. I can understand security and the administration fearing getting in trouble at not supervising a prisoner as they are supposed to, but putting a camera in a prisoners cage after he has been given an execution date and watching him 24/7 not allowing him at least the decency, the human decency to have privacy when he uses the bathroom is pretty extreme. That is very inhumane. These people have no respect for one’s human rights. I imagine they get a kick out of the torment they put a death row prisoner through watching him so closely in his last moments that he does not even have the privacy to defecate and wipe himself clean afterwards. That is very dehumanizing, very cruel, and very unusual.
I notice that this system has an obsession with physically violating people in a manner that can be considered sexual abuse: Asking a man to spread his buttocks and show them his anus is traumatizing and violating that man’s body. What difference is there in forcing a man to spread his buttocks against his will and forcing him to show you his anus as opposed to physically sodomizing him against his will? It is still a bodily violation nonetheless that’s as emotionally and psychologically traumatizing as physical sexual abuse. I was sexually abused as a child, so I know what the emotional and psychological trauma is like after being violated like that. There is no difference: You still feel the same shame, the same dehumanization, and the same oppression. It is traumatizing!
If one tries to cover the camera with something for privacy, guards immediately show up at their cage door and make them come out and then they confiscate all their property. It’s a desperate situation because you are on your last days, so if you cover the camera and they take your property that hinders you tremendously. This violation really needs to be stopped. People need to complain about this human rights violation.
In closing, I wanted to say one more thing about the change they’ve made in taking death row prisoners to the murder house a day early. This recently began, and I believe it began because of us protesting. We protest execution dates, and for any of us out at a visit when the person is being taken to be murdered, we protest it right then. They want to discourage that because when a prisoner sees that it gives them hope and courage. Somebody is fighting and that gives them hope that just maybe something will change. Seeing somebody fighting gives them courage because it shows them that it is right to fight against the madness, it is ok. Sometimes all it takes is seeing someone else.
Since we began protesting, more people have resisted and fought against their own murder in one year than all the years previously since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. Our resistance brings hope and courage, and the administration hates unity. They need disunity and chaos in order to maintain control. People who may perhaps want to resist their own murder, they are taking them to the murder house a day early in hopes that being away from us and the resistant fervor on Polunsky unit, that it will discourage the person from resisting. Nonetheless, they can stop one revolutionary, but they can’t stop the revolution—it will carry on no matter what!!!
UNDAUNTED RESISTANCE!!!
GABRIEL GONZALEZ
D.R.I.V.E.
DEATH Row INNER-COMMUNALIST VANGUARD ENGAGEMENT
