Richard Rossi 
RICHARD ROSSI'S FIRST BOOK
NOW AVAILABLE IN ENGLISH!!!
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Richard
Rossi's Book !
BACK
COVER SUMMARY AND QUOTES FROM BADINTER'S PREFACE:
Richard Rossi was sentenced to death by the Arizona court system after having been found guilty of murder in 1983. He has languished on death row for 17 years, waiting for his execution date to be set after having been represented by a public defender.
Mr. Rossi provides the reader with a precise, documented and sinister chronicle of life on the inside; the horrendous physical and psychological conditions imposed by super-max prisons upon all death-row prisoners also detailed.
In addition, the author takes the reader into a journey of self-reflection: under what conditions is justice imposed in the United States of America? Why are chain gangs allowed? Do vengeance and repression sanitize our society? Can those who - unable to cope, give up their right to appeals and, therefore, ask to be executed - really be called volunteers? Finally you will become witness to an execution and find out exactly how it proceeds. The suffering caused by 'this cruel and unusual punishment' will become all too clear for you.
"Here is a book which should be placed in all and every hands. First all in those of the young ones today in Europe. They will measure, through this restraint story, the inhumanity and the shame of which the abolition of the death penalty has liberated us from, in France and in all of Europe.
The story, the testimony rather which is brought to us, is of a sinister banality today in the United States. It's author, Richard Michael Rossi, write to us from his cell of the Unit 2 of the Supermax State Prison of Arizona. He's one of the 3700 prisoners filling up the death rows of the United States.
Richard Michael Rossi is a murderer. Drug addict in 1983, he killed a receiver of stolen goods to whom he was trying to sell a stolen type writer. He, first, thought that the man would be give him to the Police. He was high on cocaïne. He used his weapon. Then he took the money from the cash register. A neighbor came in. He shot her, wounded her and ran off. He was arrested. For the Department of Justice, it was the sordid crime of a drug addict. The district attorney presented a deal to his lawyer : if Rossi admitted to the crime, the judge would sentence him to 25 years for the murder and 21 years for the assault without parole, 46 years in total. If he didn't admit to the crimes, the district attorney would seek the death penalty.
Richard Michael Rossi was 36 years old at the time. He calculated that he wouldn't get out of prison, if still alive, until the age of 75. He believed the jury wouldn't be hostile to him. After a terrible childhood, he had, thanks to his many efforts, managed to go to university, passed his diploma as an accountant before falling into the drugs spiral. He refused the plea bargain. A court appointed lawyer represented him poorly at the trial. The district attorney was right : Rossi didn't stand a chance in front of the Arizona jury members. For them, he was just another social wretch, just worthy of elimination. The Court sentenced him to death.
His fall into the prison hell has started.
It has been going on for
17 years. The American procedure is particular in that way because it offers
offenders on death row two levels of appeals. One with the State Court
where the crime was committed, then, the second one with the Federal Court,
then with the United States Supreme Court in some cases. This double procedure
is a never ending process. For the prisoner on death row, most people
think, it is a way to gain time, a kind of survival obtained through legal
paths. Those in favor of the death penalty condemn those procedures in
which they see only a device or a quibbly slyness. Recent laws have indeed
limited those appeals, such laws are very strictly enforced by the Supreme
Court. But the prisoner who lives through years of waiting on death row,
from appeals to denials, from new petitions to further refusals, it is an
unbearable situation. In the past, the best writers, Hugo, Dostoïevski,
Camus, described the waiting and the nights of anxiety which, all, announce
the dawn of death. This has brought some of the best literature and has
provoked abolitionist convictions. In the United States,
it's no longer the
way. The time for an execution is distant, far away, even if its perspective,
always present, strikes the horizon of a large black wall. This torture can
go on for decades. Yet, when one looks at the statistics on executions, when
one measures the very few successful clemency decisions, one can see how,
inevitably, it ends with the execution ritual. The hanging and the electric
chair have given way to the mortal gas or the injection. Sometimes, it's
the shooting squad for which there's never a lack of volunteers. But today
the preference goes to the execution methods qualified as scientific and
said to be painless, nevertheless, those remain the expression of barbarism.
"To describe this prison
abyss where the super power of the world, the largest
democracy, plunges
its death row prisoners supplied through the mass production of an
alienated judicial
system, it required a witness. Not necessarily a illustrious writer.
Simply a voice to tell
us how these men are treated in the heart of America, in the cells of
death row. This is
the voice you will hear in this book. Some books drag us in an abyss
always deeper, always
darker, so it is with this testimony. I don't know what will happen
to its author considering
the present situation in the United States under the Bush
administration. Maybe,
in extremis, the spirit of grace will reach those who hold a
responsibility over
his future. Or, despite the many efforts of a few women and men of
good will, of true
humanity, Rossi will go, at his turn, to lie down on the metal gurney,
strapped like a beast
to be slaughtered. The curtains will reveal, through the glass
window, the legal authorities,
the journalists and the witnesses to watch him agonize. He
will receive an injection.
He will suffer. Not that much, will say those who are not
executed. Then he will
die. The curtains will be drawn, the body will be removed. It
happens, we are told,
that the executioners think over what they have just done : they've
killed another man,
that's all there is to it. In the state of Arizona and other states too.
They kill today in
the name of what they still call Justice. Here is a book which should
be
placed in all and every
hands. "
Robert Badinter
Robert Badinter (quotes
of preface - Robert Badinter. )
R. Badinter is the
French former Attorney General who abolished the death
penalty in France in
1981.
THE VALUE OF FRIENDSHIP - A Writing By Richard Rossi
September, 1999
When I decided to reach out to the outside world and find some friends, it was back in 1986. I wrote to a number of colleges, pen pal organisations, church groups, just about anyone who would hear me. I received some answers. Believe it or not, I still have some of the friends I made 13 years ago. That in itself says a lot about friendships.
Over the years I have become a writer and
have attracted additional friendships. This simple practice of letter writing
is lost on many people. Before prison, I was like many others, I did not
write many letters and the mail just brought bills to be paid. The telephone
had supplanted the mail. It is not easy to find people who care to write
letters these days. The friendships I have developed through letters have
taught me so much. The letters from my friends are my life. They
enable me to endure this cruel and
miserable existence. I see mayhem and
insanity around me every day of my
life. Men who have no focus, no support, no reason to live. Most engage
in watching mind-numbing and senseless TV comedies or other such programs,
or they argue and exchange anger with each other. All this in response
to the pressure of the loneliness of death row.
I live for my letters with news from my
friends. They have become my extended family. They are the root system
that keeps me anchored and in touch with reality. Certainly a reason for
living when little else remains. A Yin and Yang surely exist here. It leads
me to believe that perhaps there is more to life than all the pain and suffering.
After all, there is a dichotomy here. On the one hand, life has dealt
me a death blow, taken all I have, and replaced it with pain and loneliness.
A life with little meaning and less
value. A cul-de-sac of dead ends, worry and frustration. But all is changed
due to the unflappable spirit and love of total strangers.
Who are these people? Why do they care
about me, a person branded as the
"worst of the worst", a blight on society,
a seemingly worthless individual? Some would callously call these friends
"do gooders", or "bleeding hearts". However, this is not so - the truth
lies beneath the surface. My friends have become the essence of life to me.
The meaning of life. For life without them would be totally meaningless.
I am certain that I would have pulled the plug on this cruel hoax called life
a long time ago were it not for my friends.
Bent as it would appear to be solely on
revenge, what this uncaring society has done by warehousing me and dismissing
me as worthless has been countered by my friends, who have restored my
faith with love. Unconditional love. I liken my friends to doves of
peace dropping seeds of love and support at random. These seeds take root
in the harshest of environments, even here in the desert. The roots spread
like daisy chains and anchor me to the world. So strong are these roots that
they withstand the constant tugging of those who see me as a mere weed in
their garden and desire only to eliminate me. Weeds have no purpose and are
killed. My life has been nurtured by my friendships. How much
strength I get to face this adversity
is amazing. The cumulative effect of my friends is that I have been taught
the real meaning of brotherhood and love. Rather than be left to bemoan
the cold reality of my world on death row, and the hardships it bestows
on me daily, I consider myself to be an extraordinarily fortunate and wealthy
man. How amazing to find that love and compassion can flourish even in
this harsh desert wasteland! Although hatred and pain will always exist,
I have found that there is an antidote, that being the caring and love that
arrives in the form of letters that float through these prison walls like
magic, carrying a drug stronger than the poison of hate. You who write to
me
have given me hope and strength, you
have taught me the meaning of true
friendship and humanity. You have restored
what society has tried to take from me. It is not the length of life that
matters, but rather the richness and quality of life. Thanks to you, my
friends, I have the knowledge that I have worth and value as a human being.
-
Richard Rossi
CONTACT RICHARD DIRECTLY AT:
Richard Rossi, 50337
ASPC Eyman -SMU2
P.O. Box 3400
FLORENCE, AZ
85232 USA
| Visit Richard Rossi's Other Webpage at http://richie-rossi.com |
