A. Introduction

It was in 1998 that I got to know of Roger W. McGowen, prisoner on death row in Texas, through Swiss author Pierre Pradervand, co-author of Messages de vie du couloir de la mort (2003). I have corresponded with Roger since 1999 and as I have also undertaken to get a Swedish translation of the book. I felt it was important to meet Roger in person.

Visiting death row at Livingston, Texas took several months of preparation. The experience was unprecedented. Part of my visit was made together with Régine Aubin, a French nurse who has corresponded with Roger for 2 years. At the end of my stay, I was able to join the Journey of Hope in Houston, Texas, a group of people, mostly murder victim families, touring universities, schools, and churches to speak out for alternatives to the death penalty.

• Huntsville: Huntsville ”The Walls” Unit, the Texas Prison Museum, John Byrd Cemetery.

• Livingston: Death Row, Allen Polunsky Unit.

• Houston: Journey of Hope

Driven to Huntsville by Pastor Sharon Kapsch and her assistant Delwin Thompson, for whom this was also a first time experience. It was important to share our impressions as Pastor Sharon Kapsch is actively involved in ministering to death row inmates and their families.

”Huntsville is the home of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice,” the brochure proudly announces and proposes you to make a” prison tour” of the seven units (prisons) housing 13,690 inmates (prisoners) and employing nearly 7,000 people in the Walker County. ”The Walls” is where all executions in Texas take place. On 14 September, 2005, one woman, Frances Newton, was executed here although she claimed her innocence.

The Museum”portrays life in prison and the culture within a culture that developed behind the bars.” At the gift shop I bought a book”Warden,” written by former Texas Warden Jim Willet, who signed it for me. I refrained from buying striped T-shirts with the text”I spent time in Huntsville”. But I did buy a small postcard picturing the Capital Punishment System

In Texas throughout the years. On one part of the card you see a man hanging from a tree; from 1836 to 1924 hanging was the lawful method of execution. On a second part of the card you see the Electric Chair ”Old Sparky”; from 1924 to 1964 electrocution was the prescribed method of execution. The last part of the postcard shows the bed with heavy straps; from 1982 - and still today, the lethal injection method is in use.

We passed through the Campus of this impressive university on our way to the cemetery. I read the following:”This is the largest criminal justice learning facility in the nation. The Institute of Contemporary Corrections and Behavioral Sciences was established here in 1965. Inmate laborers (prisoners) completed the construction in 1976, saving millions of dollars due to prison labor.”

”Students from thirty-eight states and eleven nations are enrolled. This large complex includes an Auditorium, crime laboratory, and a courtroom where many trials actually take place.”

This prison cemetery has more than 1,700 graves. Hundreds of simple white crosses with no name and hundreds of low white stones with a name or a number. There were three or four recently mud-covered graves with only a small metal plate and two newly dug graves covered with wood planks. This is the cemetery for the unclaimed and unwanted bodies of prisoners who have died or been executed. The graves are dug by the inmates.

Allen Polunsky Unit, the prison where death row is located, is a low, flat building on a plain. There is no high wall but many rolls of barbed wire. On arrival we had to identify ourselves by handing over passport and evidence of a return air ticket. Some guards seem stern; others even give you a smile and say”Have a good day!” You are not allowed to carry anything. You pass through heavy doors and gates and go across to the death row block on a walk lined by flowerbeds with roses. More heavy doors and then you arrive in the bare visitors’ room. There are 15 to 20”phone booth” like places with a plastic chair or two in front of a glass window. The days we are visiting there is no imminent execution. Therefore there are no wailing relatives or friends seeing their loved one for a last time. Instead the atmosphere is rather light. Why? Because today there are babies and children also visiting death row! In the ”Blue Shelter”, the B&B place where we live during our stay, are also two sisters Felicia and Angie. Felicia has a seven month lovely baby daughter whom she has brought to death row, where they are visiting their brother. There is also a black woman with a two month old baby and another mother with two young boys around 9 or 10.

As Roger is led in between two guards, his hands handcuffed behind his back, he smiles hello to us. The guards have some trouble getting the handcuffs of – Roger does not seem to mind, he talks nicely to them the whole time.

His hands liberated he puts his palms against the glass greeting us. Then we take the phones on each side and start talking. ”Welcome and thank you for come all this way to see me. I can’t believe that you are here. How nice of you to put on pink flower dresses - I have not seen pink for a long time. All we see is black or white or blue.” We smile to each other and feel as if we are finally seeing a friend whom we already knew. Roger says: _ ”I feel like if I have known you my entire life. The spirit knows the spirit.”_ He is very happy to see Régine. I translate between the two of them - not having access to any pen or paper I only remember just about one word at the end of the first day:”lawn mower.”

I also remember asking Felicia, the mother of the baby, to pass slowly in front of the windows, to give all the prisoners a chance to see her baby. She did, I could see Roger’s face looking so happy when he saw the baby, and I know the same thing happened with the other prisoners. I also went to make a hello sign to Felicia’s brother Martin. Through his sister on the phone he asked whom I was visiting. When I said ”Roger McGowen” he put his thumb up and said ”very good guy.” Martin seems to have been involved in a murder during a tumultuous hold-up in a bar when he was 18. Now through the persistent fighting for his case, done by his sisters and some good lawyers and a website (fdp.dk/martin), there seems to be hope for Martin. He has spent 18 years on death row.

During the visit next day I put in my pocket a mini pen and the smallest sheet of paper. With this I managed to write down the name and address of Roger’s son maternal grandmother, who had raised his son. I just managed to write this before it was confiscated by the guard. We talked a lot about our families. Roger’s, Régine’s, and mine.

Roger was raised by his grandmother and his mother. Both were very religious women.” I was raised in church, you know,” he said. The grandmother, apart from taking care of her grandchildren, also took care of the children of neighbors with problems. Every morning she prepared breakfast for 15 to 20 kids. She was known in the whole neighborhood for her wisdom. Once, when Roger tried to get away, she had asked him to do something. He thought he just managed to sneak off, when something landed on his shoulder. It was a long broomstick which his grandmother had equipped herself with in order to keep track of the kids.

Roger loved his mother very much. She had seven girls before Roger was born in 1963. In total she has eleven children plus two from her husband. She died when Roger was around 22. On her deathbed she made Roger promise that he would take care of his older brother Charles.

As Régine does not speak English I had to act as an interpreter for her and Roger. The prison rules are strict. If you do not speak English you are not allowed to visit any prisoner unless you have an interpreter. We heard of the case of a man who had come all the way from Italy. As he could find no one to translate for him he had to return home without even meeting the prisoner he wanted to see.

Regine told Roger how worried she was concerning her son, who had caused lots of problems through his behavior. Roger asked:” Why does he need so much money?” Regine answered:” He wants to buy a motorcycle. Roger: ”_ When I was fifteen I also wanted a motorcycle but my grandmother bought me a lawn mower so that I could earn money by working in the neighbors gardens_”. We laughed a lot about this lawn mower and Regine dried her tears as Roger proposed to write to her son, as well as her daughter.

Régine said that thanks to having Monica as an interpreter she could come now instead of two years later. Roger replied:” No, you could have come two years earlier, you have been dragging your feet not learning English!” To this she replied that she would take an intensive course in English. Roger proposed to write very simple letters, as English lessons. She should be able to read these without calling for the services of someone to translate.

We were allowed to carry nothing on us for the visit except $20 in one dollar or 25 cent coins, no banknotes are allowed .You give money to the guard who communicates on the phone with Roger, taking his order. I suggest you give plenty, $10 to 15 dollars and tell the guard that Roger can have anything he likes. He ordered salad because they never get any and an apple because they hardly ever get fruit. Then he ordered a special diet drink– he is diabetic- and some hamburger and chips. It is all put into a brown paper bag and handed over to Roger by the guard through a small opening at the back of his cubicle. Also remember to get some food for yourself, even if you do not feel like eating. We giggled and said we would have a picnic together. To Roger this is a treat. Although these cold things do not look appetizing to us, he only gets the chance a few times a year to have these little extras. It is also a great thing for him to eat together with you, it is like a party. We all held our hands together against the glass and Roger said a prayer:”We thank you Father for the plants that gave us this food, for the animals which were scarified, we also thank you Lord for all the people who worked so hard to give us this wonderful meal!” By the way, in the salad the most simple you could imagine, some green leaves, a few shreds of tuna fish, there was a small red thing. I thought someone had dropped a grape into the bowl, but Roger looked enchanted and said”Oh, a tomato, I haven’t had a tomato for such a long time!” I suggested we stop talking for a while, this is also important, and that he close his eyes and remember what a tomato tastes like.

On the second day of our visit, Roger said:”Last night I went down on my knees in my cell to thank God for your visit.” We replied:”Do you know what we did last night? We had a toast in your honor with a glass of wine!” Roger laughed out loud and told us how some guys manage to brew some ”wine” with orange- juice, some mint and a few pieces of bread. Last Christmas Roger was in solitary confinement for three months. For Christmas he did however receive a plate of some good food and one guy managed to smuggle in a small bottle of brewed wine. ” I thought I might drink it, although I never do, but the guard who came in was a new one with zero tolerance. He poured out the bottle in the sink.”

Radio

Livingston KDOL www.fm96kdol.com is specially tuned on for prisoners on Fridays 2 to 7 PM and Sundays from 4 to 10 PM (Texas time). Using kdolradio@hotmail.com you can email the prisoner you know and it will be read out to him by the speaker. Or you can call 936-328-8874 and leave a recorded message to be read for ”your” prisoner on the answering machine. All messages will be played on the following show. This is a new and wonderful way of communicating with prisoners. You can call 936-327-5160 (Joy). You talk with the programmer leader and the prisoner can hear your voice. You may also dedicate a piece of music to him or her. Apparently prisoners listen religiously to the radio on Friday nights. (Unfortunately, the reception of the radio program varies from cell to cell, and sometimes this radio particular station can’t be received at all in the prison if the satellite dish for radio reception has been moved).

This station runs only because of listeners support. Apparently the man who had the idea to start the radio did throw in his life insurance to start it.

*Letters *

Roger has from 10 to 12 regular correspondents. Some time ago he received lots of letters but that was just when his book was published and most were simply ”thank you” letters from people who had read his book.

All letters to and from Roger are read before being received or sent out. Roger saves some of his letters. They must be kept in his box of personal belongings where he also keeps some six books as well as his underwear and socks. It has happened that a guard comes into his cell, turns the box upside down and destroys letters. Roger therefore keeps only a minimum.

Books

Books can be sent to Roger only if they are mailed directly by the publisher or a bookshop. New and used books for inmates can be ordered at www.amazon.com

Through Felicia who contacted Dave Atwood and Bill Pelke I was able to join the Journey of Hope for two days in Houston, Texas. I feel committed to their cause and am grateful that I was able to join this extraordinary group of people. With them I went to St Mary’s Seminar where there was an excellent presentation but unfortunately hardly an audience. On Monday October 17, we went to the College of Mainland where more than 150 students turned up.

I was invited to speak and could talk briefly of my work with the Red Cross in conflict situations like Uganda, Liberia, and the refugee situation in Tanzania after the genocide in Rwanda. I was also able to present Roger W. McGowen’s case. In the evening we went to Rice University at Houston, there were around 100 students. Among others Felicia gave a talk. After the presentation I met one woman who works at the BBC. I explained to her about Roger and showed his book. She wanted to go and visit Roger immediately. I told her of the preparations needed. She will write.

The Journey of Hope group travels this year through Texas” For Action and Education for Alternatives to The Death Penalty”. The journey is led by Murder Victim Family Members, joined by Death Row Family Members, Death Row Exonerates and Anti-Death Penalty Activists. In 2006 the journey is scheduled to take place in Virginia.

I am deeply grateful for all the people I have come in contact with during this trip. They have, each in their way, shown me how committed they are to achieve justice.

LET US ALL WORK TOGETHER in order to vitally support people who suffer on death row for crimes they did or did not commit. Our goal should be fair trials and ultimately the Abolishment of the death penalty.

Monica Pejovic