| Return to Napoleon Beazley's Homepage |
"Napoleon Beazley,by the power invested in me, I hereby sentence you to
die by lethal
injection."---Judge Cynthia Stevens Kent, 114th District Court, Smith
County Texas.
On April 19, 1994, Tyler church and civic leader John Luttig, 63, and his wife Bobbie had just pulled his 1989 yellow Mercedes into the garage of their home when two men approached. One aimed a handgun and fired three times, killing Luttig. That man, two brothers supposedly also involved in the crime, said was then 17 year old Beazley. Jurors agreed. Witnesses testified that he owned the gun that was used. A palm print and bloody footprints that matched a pair of his shoes were found at the scene, They took less than an hour to convict him; not much longer to give him the death penalty.
In America, the death
penalty is becoming an increasingly common and disturbing phenomenon. The
tool said to be a deterrent of crime and an instrument of justice has evolved
into an instrument for political and economical succession. Ambitious state
attorneys are seeking the death sentence on every given opportunity, not
in the manner of justice, but in the manner of advancing their careers.
That our criminal justice system depends on such people is a mistake. That
it depends on people at all makes it irreparably flawed.
Is this barbarism a tautology,
or a vicious circle? Is the question we all ask; and, while we wait to
figure it out, men and women across America like Napoleon Beazley sit on
deathrow driving down appeals courts believing them to be avenues of justice
and finding them to be, yet another, dead end street.
We were given the chance
to catch up with Napoleon Beazley at the deathrow housing unit in Huntsville,
Texas. We found him to be polite, intelligent, amiable, witty, and spirited.
Yet, you won't have to take our word for it. See for yourself
How
old are you?
22.
You've
been on deathrow for over five years, right?
No. I've been on deathrow
for just over four years, but I've been incarcerated for over five years.
How
old were you when you first came to deathrow?
Not old enough to buy
alcohol, cigarettes, or even spray paint. But old enough to die. I was
18.
How
big are the cells?
6 x 9 feet, About the
size of a standard bathroom, except there's a steel bunk instead of a bath
tub.
What
else is in there?
Just a toilet/sink combo.
But those three things take up most of the room, you know. There is not
a lot of space to move around... 6 x 9 feet. [demonstrates the size with
his hands].
That's not very big.
How
much time do you spend in a cell?
We get two hours of recreation
a day on week days, so about 22 hours a day.
What
do you do at recreation?
The recreation area has
a day room with a T.V. and tables, so people can play chess, checkers or
dominoes. And the recreation yard has a basketball goal and a space to
play handball.
How
big is the recreation area?
The day room is about
the size of your average living room.. .umm, I'd say, something like,
20 x 30 feet. The rec
yard is something like 40 x 80 feet. It's surrounded by a cyclone fencing,
so it's like a huge depiction of bird cage.
What's
the food like?
Man, I'll eat anything.
I think somebody messed up and gave me a billy goat's stomach when I was
created. Really, the food is not bad, no different from any other cafeteria
food. The guards eat it as much as we do, so it can't be that bad.
I guess the main reason guys here don't like the food, is because you have
to eat it here... Then too, not everyone is like me. Some people don't
eat certain types of food. But, hey, do you think a bunch of starving homeless
people would mind having the food they serve us everyday? [Silence]
I'm not going to complain about something like that.
What's
an average day like on deathrow?
Really, no different
from an average day out there. It's just a different lifestyle, different
job to wake up to, and different priorities. Yeah, it's prison. Men get
stabbed here, raped, beat up, and often murdered (executed). But think,
the last time someone was stabbed here was six months ago [rechecks the
watch] by my watch, over 30 people were stabbed where you're at in the
past minute. The last time a guy got raped here was two years ago [rechecks
the watch] by my watch, a rape happens every 5 seconds where you're
at. The last time a guy got murdered or executed was last month. [looks
to his wrist again] By my watch, someone is murdered every 7 seconds where
you are. On the level life here is no different. We deal with the same
things. Same emotions. We're just incarcerated.
We/i,
what do you do on an average day?
On the outside I guess,
things seem pretty routine, even though I don't have a particular schedule.
There's just not much you can do in a 6 x 9 foot cell for 22 hours a day.
I read a lot, write,
study, draw, think and work on my appeal. Everything I do inside these
cells should be something towards helping me attain my freedom. I call
the time spent in a cell, training. When I was playing sports, we practiced
four days before a game. On game day we went out, played, and everyone
came to cheer us on. We win and everyone sees how well we played on that
night, but what they don't see is those four days we spent practicing.
That's when the game was won, in our preparation. So, it's like that
here too. When I'm cooped up in a cell, I'm training for whatever opportunity
comes my way, on game day.
So
what things do you do? To prepare, as you say.
It's hard to say, exactly.
I believe in the cosmic flow of energy. If some day I'm reading a law book
to check up on some legal papers my lawyer filed, then this is helping
me, my cause. But now while I'm doing this, if someone walks up at that
moment and says, "Hey, Napoleon, I need to talk..... Well, then I'm going
to drop the law book and become a listener. Because I feel like life has
a serious boomerang type effect. You can't sow violence and expect to reap
peace. Or sow revenge and expect to reap forgiveness. That's impossible
And it'd be stupid of me to believe otherwise. I can't turn my back on
people when they need me and sit here and expect people to help me when
I need them.
You
seem to be in virile shape. Do they have exercise weights in the recreation
rooms?
No, they don't allow
deathrow access to weights because they can be used as weapons. We do pushups,
pull-ups, sit-ups, running, and stuff like that to stay in shape.
Do
they have computers, televisions...?
Naah, nothing like that.
No computers, but, if you can afford one, you can buy a typewriter. No
tape recorders but, if you can afford one, you can buy a AM/FM radio. The
televisions sit on a stand about five feet in front of the cells. We vote
on which programs to watch the night before and the guards change the TV.
according to the majority's vote. I don't watch much T.V. though.
About the only thing I watch on T.V. is. . get this. W.W.F. Wrestling.
Wrestling?
Ohh, hell yeah! I'm a
Stone Cold Steve Austin fan.
Are
you serious?
If I put the Stone Cold
Stunner on the next guard that walks by, would that answer your question?
[laughs]
Yes,
that would answer my question. Tell me, what were you thinking or
feeling on your first day here?
Once more, it's hard
for me to say. I was uncertain about coming to prison, but I wasn't worried
about it. I felt like I could handle whatever was to come of being in prison.
But I was concerned about being here, sentenced to die, you know.
I was sad, angry, scared, I guess, but I was like, all these feelings weren't
going to get me off of deathrow so it was on my first night here that I
sort of told myself 'Hey, you're on deathrow, now. Perhaps you could've
prevented it. Perhaps you couldn't, Who can say? But all that's not important.
You are where you are and how you came here is of no consequence except
in so far as you can learn from it. What's important, now, is that from
here you work to get out. Or change this future that the state has set
for you.' So that's where my head was.
Did
you have any problems with the guards mistreating you?
Hey, officers are going
to be officers. The world isn't short on assholes and if they could fly,
this place would be the airport. But the thing is I don't put myself in
the position to have an argument or confrontation with these people.
There's an old saying that a cat settles the dispute between two mice.
What that means to me is - if two mice are arguing, fighting, or whatever,
when that cat jumps on the scene, all else is forgotten. Suddenly, whatever
it was they were arguing about, or fighting over, is trivial compared to
what the cat brings. For me, that's life here. If I was to spend my time
arguing and fighting with mice, then that cat is capable of sneaking up
on me because I'm focusing on something else. Focusing, and staying focused
on what is truly important keeps me from confrontations with guards.
And
other inmates?
It's the same. Of course,
when I first got here guys tried to take advantage of me. Being new
and young makes you a marked target. But I proved early that I could handle
that aspect of life here. In my first days, the other prisoners were very
helpful. Alot of guys pitched in and gave me stamps, commissary cosmetics,
stationary, and stuff that I needed. A cool thing that happened was on
my first day recreating, this guy named Bruce Callins pulled me over to
the side to talk. He asked, "You know the law?" I'm, like, "Nah." "Well,
I suggest you learn. Do you have a paid lawyer or one that you can trust?
If not, I suggest you find one. Do you have any family that's willing to
stick with you? If not, I suggest you find some, because I'm tellin' you,
youngsta, I've been here for over 16 years and the only thing that's kept
me alive has been knowing the law, a lawyer I can trust, and a family to
love.". . . At the time I didn't realize it but that was some profound
advice.
Is
he one of your friends now?
Nah, Bruce got executed
in 1997.
I'm
sorry to hear that.
[shrugs] One of the 85
I've seen die since I've been here, man. I hate to say it, but after awhile
you get used to it. You get callous or you finally rationalize this life.
Hey, and it's hard to make sense out of senselessness.
How
do you cope with living on deathrow?
It's all in the way you
look at things. I read a story once about a boy. The little boy got bumped
while boarding his school bus and cut his cheek Later, while he's playing
on the school ground, he collided with another boy and loosened two teeth.
At noon, he fell and broke his wrist At the hospital, his father
noticed he was holding a dollar bill, so he asked, "Whatcha got there champ?"
I found it when I fell," the boy tells him. "This is my lucky day."
... The good or bad of
any situation is going to depend on who's looking at it, We have rainy
days so we can appreciate the sunshine and vice versa, yet both are vital
to us because we can't live without rain or sunshine. I don't want to be
here. I don't want to die here. . it's no playground, but I've got a lot
of reasons to smile despite the circumstances. I'm healthy, I'm appreciated,
I've got an endless amount of friends and family and love to go with it.
Hey, and take all of that away from me and I'll wake up smiling, because
I'm alive.
Whether you live in a
shack, mansion, ditch, or a cell on deathrow, life is going to be whatever
you make of it.
Okay,
but describe to me what it is like to live on deathrow.
Hey, you've got to understand,
that's like us having 100 women with children come in here and explain
what it's like to have a child. They could tell it or describe it to us
in a million ways and still neither of us would know what it's like to
have a baby. Unfortunately, being on deathrow is the same way, something
you must experience to understand. Unless, you went through it at a concentration
camp, or slave plantation or something like that. Picture it like being
locked in your bathroom everyday, all day, except for two hours of which
I let you out to go to your living room, or back porch. After the two hours
are up, back to the bathroom. You spend 22 hours a day locked in this little
bathroom, no stereos, no computers. You get mail, if someone writes you.
You can get a visit, if someone wants to see you. But other than that you
can have books, and a radio and the T.V. Oh, yeah, we have GOT to throw
in the fact that you're waiting to die. If you lose your appeal , they're
going to kill you....I guess that's the main difference from being in prison
and being on deathrow in prison... That needle, facing dying a passive
death. Being uncertain. It's scary.
So,
you are scared?
There is no danger here
except what your fear makes. Under other circumstances you can fear death,
under these circumstances I think all I have to fear is my own carelessness.
I'm going to die one day, whether I do it here or not. Death is inevitable,
so it's only a matter of when and how. Death is not my adversary here.
Prison is, incarceration, being locked in these cells, dehumanized and
degraded. That's my struggle. Like revolutionary suicide, I'm on a mission
of liberated suicide. And that doesn't mean that I have a death wish. It
means that I have such a strong desire to live life freely that, for me,
life without it is impossible.
Do
you think you have a chance of getting a new trial?
At the rate Texas is
killing people, nobody is safe, but I feel my case is strong. As far as
I can judge the efforts we are taking have slowed down the state's eager
nerves to kill me. You know with the political powers calling for my blood,
specifically, my appeals have been exhausted a lot quicker than most guys
here. That's life, but, hey, like I said, we're slowing them down. To win
in this thing, to put myself in the position to be free again, I have to
do what I'm doing and more. I'm prepared to do it alone. I'm just not capable.
So, I've got to find people out there who can help me.
Do
you think they 'II abolish the death penalty?
Yes and no. Yeah,
I think they'll get rid of it judicially, but it will take generations
before we're rid of it spiritually. In essence, no one has the proper inclination
or justification for punishing some else. Now, if you think I'm just saying
that because I'm here, ... you're wrong. Damn right I'm biased, but the
death penalty is a farce. They say it's a deterrent, which is definitely
not true. Since I've been here one hundred and seventeen men have come
in. About the only thing the death penalty has done besides the terminally
obvious is teach children - on a level - that for certain reasons, in certain
instances, killing is right. Thus replanting the seed all over again.
So,
you
're saying you think they will abolish it, but only decimately?
Not necessarily in that
sense. What l mean is that the death penalty is a more complex issue to
those who don't understand that it's only a limb to the tree that bears
all of society's problems. You abolish the death penalty, then what? You've
still got people out there committing capital murder. You kill everybody
on deathrow today, then what? You've still got people out there committing
capital murder. Now, even a thousand mile journey starts with a single
step and abolishing the death penalty IS a step. But it is as asinine for
us to believe that abolishing the death penalty solves the problem. We've
got to get to the root of this thing and the root of society's problem
lies within the heart of society itself
And
what is this problem in society?
Man, the same as everybody's.
. .the lack of understanding. It's just like mathematics. 2+2 ceases to
be a problem once you understand how to get the correct answer of. . .
five.
[laughs] No, four.
But seriously. Like take the people of ancient China for example. China
wanted safety for the hordes that swept down from the North. So they erect
the Great Wall of China. . . Think now, this wall stretches for 1500 miles.
It's like 12 to 45 feet wide and 20-55 feet high. It was too high for the
enemy to scale, too thick for them to tear down, and too long for them
to go around. But. . . get this now. . . during the first century of this
wall's existence, China was invaded, successfully, not once, not twice,
but three times... You know how?
No
The enemies bribed the
gatekeeper, they marched in, and commenced to kickin' China's ass. [laughs]
China's mistake was that they spent all of their time, energy, and money into building a bloody wall and didn't spend enough time, energy, and money into building the character of its citizens or, more importantly, its gatekeeper. That's us. We're one of the richest and most successful societies in history materially with our advanced technology. Yet, our quality of life has plummeted. We focus all our attention on getting money, and developing technology, forgetting to focus our attention on getting human nature to shift forward and developing our sense of humanity. Because of this lack of understanding, we have problems. And instead of understanding the problem, we choose to either ignore it or destroy it. It's America-the inscrutable way. We all need to face one intrinsic reality, man, and that's that me, you, society, hell, humans, can't exist if everything that we think is unpleasant is eliminated rather than understood.
Young man, it's a waste
having you here.
Nah, man, come one, you're
being 'inscrutable' now.
I would have preferred another direction for my life, but I've learned a lot here. Met people I'm glad to have met. Seen things I could've never seen anywhere else. Now, who can say where or what I might of become if things hadn't gone the way they did? We, all of us, do what we do because of where we are. Experience isn't what happens to us, but what we do with what happens to us. Because of this experience I've become the man I'm proud to say I am today. It would've been a waste for me to come here and not change. And not have grown.
What do you think about Bill Clinton?
Uh, uhhh. No comment.
My family voted for him twice. Democrats. Off the record. . don't you guys
print this, but doesn't that tell you which head our President thinks with?
Yes (laughs)
Well, yeah, so figure
this whole country is run by a dick.... Ain't that nutty? (Laughs)
Oh, well... that's life.
Go figure.
| Return to Napoleon Beazley's Homepage |
