On April 14,1998, I was sentenced to death having been convicted solely on murky circumstantial evidence.

For the last three years, I have paced the concrete floor of my cell, trying to find the answer to a single question, "How Did I Get Here" It is like, I have stumbled into a sick mystical nightmare, confined within a system built on extreme hatred.  A government that has total disregard as it relates to the color and spirit of the law.

Each Day I Cry..,
How Did I Get Here ?
How Did I Get Here ?

How did I get far away from home; ghetto streets of Philadelphia ?
Where even at its darkest hour, the ghetto showed more love then this evil beast, "The United States Justice System."

Even as a child doing cartwheels and back flips on old discarded mattresses, playing in open fire hydrants or running back and forth to the penny candy store, it was always understood that the ghetto has rules.

Naively, I believe that the same justice rippled through-out all of the land of this world.

As was the case with the late Malcolm X, it was only after I fell into the bowls of this beast and began to re-educate myself, was I to learn about the sickness that's rotted at the core of these "United States" specifically in the City of Philadelphia.

            The City That Loves You Back !    Philadelphia ?

Was it in the name of love that the city was showing when it dropped 37 pounds of the powerful military explosive "C-4" on the home of MOVE, May l3th,1985 killing men, women, and children who's only crime in this world was that of their black?

Is it in the name of love that the very same city kills unarmed, citizens as was the case for 28 year old Kenneth Griffin, shot to death while naked in bed with his wife, Or 50 year old Phillip McCall a mentally ill grandfather unarmed, shot down for a parole violation. Or what of Dante Dawson only 19 years old, shot in the back of his head while setting in his car unarmed.

        Or what of me MATTHEW K,KEMP SR., l am one of the 90%
        of blacks from Philadelphia on death row in Pennsylvania.

It is only after one sees the broad picture of which I have only scratched the surface, can you begin to see just how flooded the streets of Philly are with the blood of the innocent.

The question of "How Did I Get Here" becomes more clear. The city of Philadelphia is like that of the desert  ! the Desert gives nothing it's sole reason of being is to take. It takes, It beats, It kills.

I plead with you, please find it in your heart to help save my life.

I have been burnt / scorched, but yet I strive to live, with your help I can be the phoenix that emerge from the ashes.,
A new life will come forth from the womb of darkness.

                            MATTHEW K,KEMP SR.   #DL-1517

    
            Please write to Matthew directly at . . .

                  Matthew K. Kemp Sr. DL-1517
                           175 Progress Drive.
                    Waynesburg, Pennsylvania
                            15370-8090  USA

                                                          The image below was deleted by NBCi in April 2001
                                                            

 

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