The details of Gary's childhood, his background of deprivation and abuse and its consequences are important, not as an excuse for the crimes he did commit, but to permit the general public to better understand the forces that warped his young mind and barricaded the roads he might otherwise have traveled.

Gary Graham's journey to death row is typical of the experiences of many black male youths who have grown up in poverty stricken Fifth Ward of Houston, Texas, and other black urban ghettos.  More often than not, these young men have endured devastating poverty and have suffered the parental neglect and abuse that such poverty breeds.  Their hopelessness is reinforced by the hostility they often encounter in the world beyond their neighborhoods.

Gary's first seventeen years exemplifies such deprivation.  Born to a mentally ill mother, an alcoholic father, Gary was tossed from one home to another.  As a very young child, he clung to his mother only to be abandoned repeatedly to be abandoned to the care of his mentally ill maternal grandmother.  Throughout his childhood, Gary witnessed violence and was the target of physical and verbal attacks.

Predictably, Gary's early teenage years were marred by drug and alcohol abuse and frequent encounters with juvenile authorities.  By age fifteen, Gary had a juvenile record for thefts and unauthorized use of motor vehicles, had dropped out of school with only a seventh grade education, and had fathered two children.  At seventeen, he was arrested for his first major felony, a series of armed robberies and aggravated assaults.  At eighteen, Gary was on Death Row for a murder he did not commit.

Gary's remarkable reformation during his twelve years on death row tells a story in stark contrast to his bleak beginning. It reveals the tremendous potential for growth that, at a very early age, is buried in many cast-away human beings.  After an initial period of despair and depression, Gary became determined to turn his life around.  He devoted his energies to education, obtained a GED, and eventually co founded a prison newspaper, "Endeavour".  Gary is currently enrolled in a correspondence course studying to be a paralegal.  Gary Graham today is not the shell of a person that was sentenced to death as a child in 1981.  Despite insurmountable obstacles, he has become a whole, productive adult human being.

Gary Graham's life is a testament to the unacceptable price society pays for its inability or unwillingness to acknowledge and address the consequences of generational poverty, racial prejudice, substandard schools, job discrimination, domestic violence, and untreated mental illness.  The details of Gary's childhood, his background of deprivation and abuse, and its consequences are important, not as an excuse for the crimes that he did commit, but to permit the general public to better understand the forces that warped his young mind and barricaded the roads he might otherwise have traveled.

Thelma, Gary's mother, required extended periods of institutionilization for severe mental illness.  As a result, Gary began living with other people.  Passed from relative to relative, only when he was with his paternal grandmother, Joanne, was Gary offered the guidance, love, and nurturing essential to children.  Thelma was found dead on the street in 1988, just days after her release from a mental hospital.

 By the time Gary was seven years old, the joy of childhood had been squeezed out of his life.  He felt very lonely.  Not even his grandmother could ease that pain.  He became depressed, feeling sad, seldom laughing and making jokes, withdrawing from contact with other people.

Gary longed for his parents attention and approval :  he loved his parents.  When his mother became acutely ill with a psychosis that afflicted her, Gary would try to calm her.  When his father returned from prison, Gary spent time with him, hoping to find the love he so desperately needed.

As Gary's pain and isolation deepened through his teenage years, he began to get in trouble.  At thirteen, he began stealing bicycles, and not much later, cars.  Twice he was committed to juvenile facilities for auto theft.  He began stealing from relatives.  By fourteen he was addicted to codeine laced prescription cough syrup.  He stopped going to school regularly, and he got his girlfriend pregnant.  He was a child careening out of control.  Many of the people to whom Gary gradually turned to for comfort and support were themselves dysfunctional, using and dealing drugs.  In this state of disarray, Gary marked his seventeenth birthday.

Less than nine months after his seventeenth birthday, Gary was charged with the murder of Bobby Lambert.  By this time, Gary was a prime target for such a charge.  He was known to the Houston police department, he was spiraling deeper and deeper into more serious criminal activity, and he roughly fit the description of Mr Lambert's assailant in that he was a young black man.  Nothing else was needed to pin the charge on Gary and make it stick.  But, from this tragedy of want, neglect, abuse, and racism, Gary Graham built a life of faith, compassion, and community.  And he did so in the unlikeliest of places - Texas Death Row unit, where Gary "T" Graham came of age.

Arriving as a frightened teen, Gary Graham has used his time on death row to become an articulate and well - read leader.  His primary concern has been to help young people avoid making the same mistakes he did - mistakes which made him vulnerable to prosecution for a crime he did not commit.  Gary told his story through letters, radio programs, and other writings sent to young people so they would not have to go through what he has endured.

In his booklet, "LET THE EVIDENCE BE HEARD," Gary tells a story of pain and horror:

            -It is difficult for me to concieve of any other situation which places
             greater hardship and depression on ones mind and soul than the
             predicament I find myself in today:  awaiting execution for a crime
             I did not commit.  "Tick tick tick," is the sound that constantly
             echoes through my mind.  And I am painfully aware of the fact that
            I might not live to regain my freedom and be afforded the opportunity
            to live out my dreams.  I may not live to enjoy the finer qaulities in life,
            in having a wife, children, and a nice place to call home.  

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