Jermarr C. Arnold
Jermarr Arnold
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| Texas P.L.A.N.'s page for Jermarr Arnold |
Execution Date: Wednesday, January 16th Time: 6:00 PM
On this Wednesday, January 16th, 2002, Jermarr Arnold is scheduled to be the 2nd person executed by Texas in the new year.
To the best of his recollection, Jermarr Arnold has been behind bars for all but fifteen months of his adult life. His last crime, the murder of Christine Sanchez during a robbery, landed him on death row almost 20 years ago.
Two months after escaping
from the Colorado State Hospital where he was being treated for severe
schizophrenia, Jemarr Arnold committed murder.
While the facts of the
case are not in doubt, his "legal sanity" certainly is. Jermarr Arnold
had been documented as schizophrenic in 1978 and again in 1983, months
before his crime. However, when the State of Texas attempted to rebut
his insanity plea, prosecutors used expert testimony about his mental health
taken in 1987, nearly four years after the crime. Ignoring evidence indicating
his inability to know right from wrong, a jury quickly convicted and sentenced
him to death. About this conviction, Jemarr Arnold's attorney said,
"[His doctors) have told me that he is insane. My view is based to a great
extent on what they told me. The jury just didn't buy it."
Even a credible claim of insanity isn't enough to keep a person off death
row in Texas.
Jermarr Arnold's case
highlights a disturbing trend in Texas and the rest of the nation.
Already in Texas this
year a death penalty case against Andrea Yates is likely to go forward,
in spite of her apparent psychosis during the time of the murders.
Furthermore, the man
charged with killing two Capitol police officers in Washington, DC in 1998
will likely be forced to take antipsychotic medication allowing him to
stand trial for capital murder. These cases are all similar in their apparent
insensitivity to mental health issues. For people suffering from
mental illness, the death penalty is particularly inappropriate.
Please write to Governor Rick Perry to protest the continued ignorance
of mental health issues.
Governor
Rick Perry
Office
of the Governor
PO
Box 12428
Austin,
TX 78711-2418
phone:
(512) 463 1782
fax:
(512) 463 1849
Email:
Governor's email form
Board
of Pardons and Paroles
Attn:
Gerald Garret
Executive
Clemency Section
PO
Box 13401, Capitol Station
Austin,
TX 78711
phone:
(512) 406 5852
fax:
(512) 467 0945
Please
write, call and send fax to Governor Rick Perry to protest the execution
of Jermarr
Arnold and the continued ignorance of mental health issues.
If you
are able, please attend a vigil in your area on Wednesday.
All vigils
begin at 5:30 p.m., except for San Antonio vigil which begins at noon.
Vigil
Locations:
Austin
: The Governor's Mansion, Lavaca and 11th St.
College
Station : Corner Texas Avenue and East Entrance to Texas A&M University
Dallas
: intersection of Coit Road and LBJ Freeway (I-635)
Huntsville
: Walls Unit
Houston
: Sacred Heart Co-Cathedral, Pierce and Fannin,
San
Antonio : Plaza de las Islas across from San Fernando Cathedral, 12 noon
Information on this webpage provided by Texas P.L.A.N. See official webpage below
| Texas P.L.A.N.'s page for Jermarr Arnold |
Jermarr Arnold's request for assistance: From Texas P.L.A.N.
I am on Texas's death
row and sometime in the next few months or so a date will likely
be set. I will then be
forcibly taken to the Walls Unit. I will be strapped tightly to a
gurney by a team of state
executioners. Then, I will be murdered. And, forgotten. At
least the state of Texas
hopes so. They hope to ‘bury‘ the unanswered questions,
discrepancies, lies and
inconclusive ‘evidence‘ and ‘facts pointing elsewhere. And,
most of all a ‘confession‘
that was coerced from a mental patient. They hope, again, to
be able to successfully
use the state‘s unchecked power to manipulate the truth and
blur the line between
justice and deliberate calculated murder by evoking sympathy and
for the victim. And,
hatred and public scorn for me: the one marked for the death
chamber.
I, too, feel compassion
and sympathy for this young woman victim, and indeed inside
me there is sadness for
all victims of violence. However, it isn‘t right using this to take
away other people‘s rights
and increasing the state‘s power of life and death. I sharply
disagree that innocent
people aren‘t being sent to death row and haven‘t been
executed. Or, that we‘ve
all received trials that were fair and honest. And, I challenge
anyone who's got the
notion or misguided belief that all this state killing is about
‘justice‘ or bringing
‘closure‘ and healing. And, whatever it will be about it won‘t be
about ‘justice‘.
What killing me will be
is the culmination of a chilling miscarriage of justice and
mockery that, if facts
in my case were viewed in the proper light and objectively, is
likely one of the most
egregious examples on Texas‘s already long and growing list of
travesties symbolizing
the dark cloud of corruption of power and racism long hanging
over this state and tainting
its entire legal System.
I was convicted in a sham
trial. I was given an incompetent court appointed attorney
who essentially collaborated
to railroad me. While this may be hard to believe, it is not
uncommon in Texas. And,
my case is a perfect example. There was no physical
evidence introduced during
the trial of m y guilt. There were no eyewitnesses. None of
my fingerprints were
found. No DNA. There was not even a murder weapon. This was
a long ago murder robbery
that bad happened July 1983 and the police bad not solved
or made any arrests in
over 6 or 7 years when I came along and they seen a perfect
chance to ‘solve‘ their
case. I was already in a prison in California. So it was not hard
for them to convince
anyone they had the right person. Plus, it was a white owned
business whose owners
throughout trial were spoken of as ‘pillars of the community‘
putting further pressure
on the D.A. and judge to find me guilty regardless of the lack of
solid evidence or witnesses.
All they had was a ‘confession‘
from me they got when they came to California where
I was being treated with
anti-psychotic drugs off and on and was psychotic, depressed,
and suicidal as my prison
record clearly documents as I was severely ‘disturbed‘ at that
time and completely unable
to recollect truthfully or reliably something that happened as
far back as seven years
when I was barely sane or managing to stay alive in Folsom,
Pelican Bayou and some
of California's most inhumane and notorious lockups where I
was involved in an unusual
amount of assaults and violent episodes due to my mental
illness causing me assorted
problems with guards and other prisoners which has all
worked to the advantage
of Texas authorities and prison officials who have repeatedly
called me ‘one of the
state‘s most dangerous inmates‘ and the ‘meanest man on death
row‘ and other similar
propaganda: This rhetoric and nonsense is but a smokescreen
thinly veiling the real
reasons for them wanting me dead (i.e. to complete the ‘cover
up‘) begun when they
charged me with this crime without any evidence And, even if it
were true would it have
anything to do with the murder robbery at a south Texas
jewelers for which I‘ve
been sentenced to death and forced to endure a living
nightmare?! Does a ‘bad‘
reputation in prison and the record of problems I‘ve had
since I got locked up
necessarily prove that I must be guilty of something that happened
before I got locked up?!
Or, is it more feasible and logical to any justice minded and
caring people that it
may be the problems in prison and mental and emotional issues
might be the direct result
of prison itself and massive persecution I‘ve endured? Going
through the ordeal of
living on death row and the possibility of death by lethal injection,
isn‘t an easy thing.
Put yourself in my shoes, if you can. How would you react? How
would living under these
conditions affect you? So instead of treatment Texas would
rather hide my history
so that they can kill me.
Until they murder me I
am going to be fighting not just for my life, but also for the
justice that‘s been so
far denied me. And, for the higher purpose of exposing and
unmasking to as many
as possible this state‘s arrogant use of the death penalty. Its
unparalleled record of
systematic violations of fundamental legal and human rights and
total perversion of justice
while feeding their ‘killing frenzy‘. Already over 250
executions in this state
since December 1982 have done little or nothing to stop
violence! That should
tell you something right there. All the death penalty does in reality
is encourages and legitimizes
violence and vengeance. If it deterred it Texas would have
the safest streets in
the world. But all it does is cheapen and erode respect for human
life when the state itself
is in the immoral business of taking life.
Now, comes the hard part.
Asking people for help is never easy. I can only pray that if
you‘ve read so far that
you‘re someone that cares about justice and human rights and
that you‘ll continue.
I am poor and have no family to help or support me during this
present legal ordeal.
Until recently I had a girlfriend who helped and supported me
during this financially
and otherwise but now she‘s left and I am completely destitute
and with little or none
resources beyond my unquenchable faith and my unbreakable
spirit to fight until
justice is done and the death penalty is abolished!
I would be very grateful
to hear from any who might be willing and able to help and
support mc by writing
letters, sending e-mails, photocopying etc. I particularly welcome
any and all financial
assistance. Since my girlfriend‘s left me I have no funds in my
prison account I use
to buy commissary and stamps and writing supplies. Most urgently
and importantly I need
to get a DNA test performed by an independent lab and a
competent investigator
to gather some crucial exculpatory evidence that has been
‘overlooked‘ by' the
state. All this costs money, which I do not have. I am therefore
coming to you begging
your mercy and understanding and asking that you open your
heart. I ask you to remember
the saying that ‘there but by the grace of God go I‘! It is
no overstatement to say
my very life could depend on people like you. I will answer
letters from anyone who
writes to mc about my case, and I will be more than happy to
provide you more information
or details about any aspect of the Texas ‘killing
machine‘. Time is of
the essence. Please write. Don‘t let them silence me. Please.
Jermarr C. Arnold # 000987
Polunsky Unit
12002 South FM Rd.350
Livingston, Texas
77351 USA
| News About Jermarr Arnold |
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