About : tv stands for flat screens philippines
Title : tv stands for flat screens philippines
tv stands for flat screens philippines
- reverend,you're on duty today. can you think-just think about the man whom you are going to encounterin an hour from now, less than an hour from now. - i really am going therewithout any expectations. i'm going there to experiencewhat god has prepared for me, for him,for all of those involved, and i don'tpreconceive anything. not today.
i will let that happenas it occurs, as time gets there. we have a loving, caring, forgiving, merciful god, and in time ofjoyand in time of need, in time of trialor tribulation, god is always there for us. i want to makethat presence to them. - and technically when he isled to the gurney,
what is your duty then? - after everythingis completed, as far as the preparation, then i walk over, and i standas he has allowed me to stand. i always ask permissionto be able to stand at his feet and hold his ankle, and i move towardthat position, and i place my handon his ankle, and then that's what-what i do
until death occurs. - and if there isno family interested in taking careof the body, the condemned men would end upright behind you? - yes, they end up hereat the state cemetery, and they're buriedby the state. no names on the crosses,only numbers. - why does god allowcapital punishment? i don't know the answer.
i believe thatthere's always a purpose why god allowsthings to happen. god has created so many thingsin this world. i play golf sometimes. i love to be onthe golf course, because one thing i do,i put my phone on a silent mode. i go out there sometimesby myself with no distractions, and i can seethe beautiful grass. i can see the squirrels,from time to time, running.
sometimesthe deer are running. sometimes i look acrossthe golf course, and i see a cow or a horse,and-and i-and i stop, and i acknowledge life. life, the thingsthat god has created. - please describean encounter with a squirrel. - an encounterwith a squirrel, i was driving the golf cart,and i was on the golf-
on the cart path,and i saw two squirrels. they were chasing each other,and as i was getting closer, they were running acrossthe cart path, and i put on my brakes, and they stopped inthe middle of the cart path and looked at me,and i said, "how about this? "if i wouldn't have stopped, "i could have run overone of these squirrels. their life would have ended. "
and that reminds me... of the many peoplethat i have been with in their last breath of life, and due to bad choices andmistakes in their life, they- their life is taken awayin that moment. so life is precious,whether it's a squirrel or a human being. so i will sometimes meditateon that experience. make a little noise,and the squirrels will take off
and continue their life, but i cannot do that. for someone on the gurney, i cannot stop the processfor them. but i wish i could. good, yeah. you are not wired yet, so we have towire you first. michael perry,now from all of us,
the whole team here, we would like to offerour condolences. your father passed away. right, on the 10th. my dad died 13 days ago. 13 days ago. yeah, on june 10th. - but you will die or you arescheduled for execution... right.
- in only eight days.- yes, sir. how are you doing? - you know-you know,i'm a christian, so, you know, i believe that, you know,paradise awaits one way or the other,so i tell people all the time, i'm either going homeor home, so... i'm either going hometo the world or home to god, so i-you know,as the days get closer, i can feel the pressureon my shoulders.
they call it clinical depressionwhere i just start having less motivation to do things,less energy. you get frustrated at the-at the system. how can they not see, you know,my situation is wrong? you know, i-i used towrite all the time and have a lot of energy, and i just don'thave it anymore. i just feel likei've been beaten down. - i have the feelingthat destiny, in a way,
has dealt youa very bad deck of cards. it does not exonerate you, and-and when i talk to you, it does not necessarily meanthat i have to like you, but i respect you,and you are a human being, and i think human beingsshould not be executed. - mm-hmm.- as simply as that. ♪ ♪ - lieutenant, this looksidyllic and safe.
- well, and you wouldthink that. this is a gated community,obviously. the houses that are out hereare very large houses, very expensive houses, and you would thinkthat this is- this is a very quiet area, and you would, i guess,associate that with security. but this house right hereis actually the house where sandra stotlerwas murdered.
this is where michael perryand jason burkett parked out on the street and went in and-and murdered her. at the timethat we found her, she was actuallybaking cookies, and there was evidenceof that. there was-there wascookies out. there was cookie dough out. so she was in the processof that when she was killed.
- but apparentlythe first plan was not murder. - well, and that was somethingthat we were told, that initially the-the boys were all- when i say "boys,"michael perry, jason burkett, adam stotler,and jeremy richardson- they were acquaintances through, you know,some mutual friends. they weren'treally friends themselves, but they-they wereacquaintances,
and what we were told was-is that they came here with the intentionof trying to get adam stotler to allow themto stay the night by telling them they didn't havea place to stay, and they were going to tryto get the keys to the car and steal it. that's what they were after, was the red camarothat was in the garage. upon going to the doorand talking to the mother,
and she said that they were out,the boys were out, and so they left, and that's whentheir plan changed, that they were just going tokill her and take the car. so they went back upto the door, and the garage was open, and the door going intothe house was open. michael perry,by his own admission, entered that garage doorand went into the laundry room
at the time that jason burkettknocked on the front door. and as their truckwas out here, he told themthat the truck wouldn't start and they needed to call someoneto come and assist them. so she let him in the houseto use the telephone, and while he was doing that, michael perry steppedout of the laundry room and knocked onthe back garage door, which made her comeand answer it,
and he stepped out from thelaundry room from behind her, and that's when he shot her. the actual garage door itselfwas open when our deputiesarrived on the scene. the master bedroom, which is in the back partof the house behind the garage over here, they went in,and they took the top bedding, the blanket and the-the top sheet,
and that's what theywrapped her in. they brought her out,put her in the truck, and they drove her outto crater lake to dispose of her body. and how does it happen? was it drugs? - you know, i don't knowthat there was ever any direct evidenceas far as, you know, drugs relating particularlyto this case.
i mean, honestly, it was just-you know, they had a car. you know, this lady owned a carthat they wanted, so, you know, it was- unfortunately, you know,people died for a theft. other than it being dark, this is pretty muchthe way it was that nightwhen we came out here. you'll see all kinds of debrisand trash here, as i said. this is-was pretty commonlyused for a dumping ground.
they've pulled lots of vehiclesout of-out of crater lake. we've had, actually,a few other bodies that we've-that we've gottenout of crater lake. this is crater lake here. this little area right here, this is where the tire treadsin the dirt was actually here. at the time that they firstcame down here, they actuallybacked up to that and tried to slamon their brakes,
hoping to eject the bodyin the water, and that didn't work,so, again, that was just something that-that we heard. i don't know that that'sactually what happened, but you could tell from- there wasn't any distincttire wear in the ground. you could just tellthat a tire- tires had beenspinning there, so... so it seemed tofit the story,
but they ended upgetting the body and-and carrying it out here, and it was just droppedin the water. we didn't know when weprocessed the scene here and when we processedsandra stotler's residence, we still did not know that we had any other victimsother than her. this is the gated communityof highland ranch. inside those gatesis the house
when michael perryand jason burkett came back here to get the camarothat they were after, these gates were-were shut and locked, so they didn't have accessto it, so they waited aroundand parked until adam stotler andjeremy richardson returned home, and that's when they got them tocome out in the woods with them and-and murdered themso that they could get basically the clickerto come back and get access in-
you know, into this gate so that they could go backto the house and take the camaro. - so only because theydidn't have the code here and it was closed at night, two more young peoplehad to die. - yes, sir.that's correct. - lieutenant, jason burkettand michael perry bragged aboutwhat they had done.
how clear evidence was that? - well, because it camefrom multiple people. it wasn'tjust one. we got reportsfrom several people from the different hangouts that they had saidthat they had killed people. that's how they gotthe vehicles. it was pretty convincing. i mean, we believed it.
although, again, we-we didn't have evidence that we had other bodiesat the time. only after perry confessed, he pointed you to the locationof the two young boys. yes, sir. - as soon as i found outmy mother- her body had been found, that whole weekis just a blur. i was watching the news.
it was monday morning, and i saw helicopters flyingover ronny's truck stop here. well, we live a mile,and i had a glimmer of hope. i said, "adam got away.he's found his way home. " because that's the exit you'dget off to come to my house. so i told my husband. i said, "get in the car.we're going down there. " 'cause they showedthe crime scene, the helicopters.
my brother's carwas there on the news. so we went upto ronny's truck stop, and i saw all that stuffon the car, and i'm like,"oh, that's not adam's car. he doesn't have all that stuffon there. " "stuff" meaning? - the stickers and the-- "gauge," "a.b."? yeah, i saw all that stuff. i was like,"oh, that's not his car. "
you know, and then i looked atthe license plate. the car was riddledwith bullets, and they had justchased them down and caught them atthe apartment complex, and i was kind oftrailing behind them, and they left to goto the hospital, and they told me-i was like, "please tell me," because adam had been missingnow since wednesday, and it was now monday,and i said,
"please tell me,was adam with them?" and they said,"adam got shot, and they took himto the hospital. " now, michael perryis still saying he's adam. he got out ofjail.he bonded out ofjail. perry just had his id. you believed...- i believed he was alive. - your brother was safe,only wounded, because you were toldadam was safe...
was shot. - and shotbut in hospital. - and i-you know,i was like... thank god. so i started callingthe hospitals trying to figure outwhich hospital he was at, and i described him,and she's like- i finally got a nursewho would talk to me, and she's like, "that's notthe kid that's here, ma'am. "
- but you had hopes, i mean,substantial hopes that your brother adamwas wounded but safe. - yes.- alive. yeah. and all of a sudden... - my world was ripped outfrom underneath me. everyone was gone. i called lieutenant davidson, and he told me to come downto the police station,
and i told him, "i'm watching you on tvright now. just tell meif that's adam. " and he said,"i really would like you to come downto the station. " and i said, "just tell me. " and he said,"yeah, it's adam. " he said, "it's adam," and my knees gave out,
and i never knew that your kneesreally went weak, you know, but that saying is true,"weak in the knees. " my knees went weak,and i fell to the floor. this is lindsey lane. this is where we were directedon this road by michael perryin his confession that we would findtwo additional bodies ofadam stotlerand jeremy richardson. we came down this road,and then we split up.
we went to the endof the road, and we actually walkedback this way and discoveredadam's body. they lured theminto this area by telling them that there wasa mutual friend of theirs that had gotten hurtwhile they were hunting. this house obviouslywas not here at the time. you can see,as this is coming out, how it's coming around,
so it's gonna besomewhere about- somewhere in that concreteis gonna be about where his bodywas discovered. once we actuallyprocessed the scene and we moved the body,once we moved the body, there was a cigarette buttunder it, which we collected, and there was also anothercigarette butt close by, but the one that wasunder his body, once we submitted itto the state lab for dna,
it had michael perry's dnaon it. - which means the bodyhad fallen- had fallen on the cigarette after it was already discardedon the ground. the other bodywas jeremy richardson. from where we actuallyfound his body, it was so dense with trees,we couldn't even get into it. i don't knowhow he got into it. we couldn't hardly even get intoit without taking machetes
and-and cutting backsome of the brush. jeremy, he ranfor some distance while he was being shot at. i don't knowif it was 'cause he heard the gunshots hereand got startled, or if jason pointedthe shotgun at him, and he realized itbefore he was actually shot, and he took off running. - charles, you lostyour brother, jeremy.
do you remember the momentwhen you heard about it? i was in georgia, and i got a phone callfrom my aunt saying for me to call home. something bad had happened. i tried to call. i didn't have no moneyat the time, and my phone wouldn't let mecall long distance, so i tried to call collect,and my grandpa hung up on me.
he didn't want to- he didn't even want to pay$2 to talk to me to tell memy brother was dead. i had to actuallyget my aunt to call and find outwhat was going on, and then she called me back,and my first thought was- just because on the phoneshe says, "do you know jason burkett?" i said, "yeah. "
she said,"well, something's happened, and your brother's dead,"and, uh... my-my first thought was,you know, jason was just driving,being stupid the way he normally wasand had wrecked, and then she told me no, that jason shot my brotherover a car. i- i just fell out. i fell out.
my uncle cameand picked me up, and, uh... we just wentdriving around. and your father? where was he? he was in prison. how serious? well, it was the first time he was in jail for murder,in prison for murder. life sentence?
well, no. he-he was doinghis 15-year sentence first, and then he was outfor about a year, and then he wentand got a life sentence, and he's just getting outafter that. - and you flew infor the funeral? - yeah, i flew infor the funeral. the cops said i had jumped bond,and the cops were there to- to take me to jailover my brother's-
can i tell 'emwhat it was for or... i mean, would it be okayto tell 'em, you know, it wasa drug possession? - so you took the jail timefor your brother, and you were arrested? yeah, at the funeral. the cops came in there. there was six cops came inand identified me and told me they were gonnatake me to jail right then.
i asked them, you know,could i at least stay for my brother's funeral. - and the teardrops,the tattoos, what do they signify? - i lost my-my brother and my sister. brother murdered. your sister,what happened to her? - she was comingto my house, and she crossed the freeway,
and she got ran overby a car. - tell me aboutyour brother jeremy. can you show us? jeremy was-he was- he was just the golden child. he was a good kid,trusted his friends. he would get in trouble just-just to- to have that attention, but he wouldn'tdo nothing serious.
he would-he would neverdo anything too serious. he got in trouble formaking people laugh, you know, talking during class, you know,stuff like that. he was a very sociable person. everybody loved him,and, uh... everybody said thati was the one that was supposed to be deadbefore i was 21 and not jeremy. and you loved him. of course.
he was my-he was my best friend. he was my best friendgrowing up. he's all i had. you took care of him. i tried. turns out the only thingi did was hurt him. i introduced him to the peoplethat killed him. he'd tell me all the time, it was me and himagainst the world.
i tell my wifethe same thing now. it's just me and himagainst the world. - i believe from the timethat we got the initial call until they were caught,it was within a week. it was, i believe,five to seven days. - and you arrived at the scenewhere they were apprehended? can you describe? was it mayhem? yes, sir, it was.
there was a truck stop- actually, the truck stop'snot there anymore, but it was at the-kind ofthe side parking lot of a truck stop, and there wasan abandoned warehouse, and then on the other sideof that, an apartment complex, so the entire scene spannedfrom that parking lot all the way well intothe apartment complex. there was shotgun shells.
there was cartridge casingswhere they had exchanged fire with the officersthat were there. there was wrecked vehicles, and, i mean, there wasjust people everywhere. - and the police officerwas run over? yes, sir, his leg. there was a vehiclewrecked out, and all the glassin the vehicle had shatteredfrom the gunshots.
burkett and perry both sustainedgunshot wounds. i believe jason burkettwas shot three times, if i'm not mistaken, and i'm not really certainabout michael perry, but they-they both had woundsfrom gunshots and obviously glass cutsand scrapes. - so there was a wild,hot pursuit, and you werein this wild chase. did you actually open fireat them or...
what had happened- - i don't want to betoo indiscreet, but i think- well, i can tell you. i can tell you.i pled guilty. i've got 10 years done ona 15-year sentence for it, so... - i see, yeah.- we were asleep. we had been drinkingthe night before. we were sleepingin the car because we couldn'tget to the motel,
which was onthe other side of a fence. i don't remember this other guythat was in the car with us. i don't knowhow he got with us. i don't know his name. i don't know anythingabout him. michael perry and mewere drinking, and somehow this guygot with us that night. i remember getting woke upand getting shot in the car. i looked around.
michael perrywasn't next to me. it was some other kidnext to me, but perry was in the backseat, and perry tried to getout of the car in the back, and then he shut the door. i started the truck,and i went to flee, and everybody says,"you shouldn't have ran. you shouldn't have ran. " i had just been shot,
and the only way for meto not to get shot again was to get out of there, and i wasn't thinking clearly. i didn't know about a murder. i didn't know aboutwhat they were looking- i didn't know the extent. i didn't even knowthey knew who i was. and when i drove off, the officer wasright in front of me.
i drove to the right, and he shot me through the doorright here in my arm. how badly were you wounded? i was shot right here. can you show it higher for me? - i was shot right herein my wrist. i was shot right herein my hand, my finger. i was shot right here, and i was shot right here.
right here, i had a pieceof the car door in my side. still lodged in your side? so how do you get througha metal detector? - well, it came out afterwards.it came out. it did finally come outin the jail. right here in my collarbone,i had a piece of glass from the car door,went inside. i crashed into a buildingbecause i couldn't steer. my blood's all in the truck.
they said,"well, your dna's on the gun. " my dna's on everythingin there. i was shot.my dna was on michael perry. my dna was on every seatin there from being shot. blood went everywhere. whenever i crashed,i jumped out and ran. i ran. i ran in the building. there was copsshooting at the building
where we were crashed into. they were shootingfrom every direction. the window in the backof the building's like this. you can't get through it. i shot one time with the gunthrough the window. i probably shouldn'thave done that, but i was trapped,and i was panicking. i didn't knowwhat to do. and when we got through there,we ran to some apartments,
and, you know, i-i carried perryhalf the way, but, i mean,we got to the apartment. - you-you dealt with itlike real tough men. i remember reading somewhere that michael perry shouted,"this is it. put the balls at the walls,"or something. "let's bolt.let's fight back. " can you remembersomething like that? - i remember reading thatthey said, "balls to the walls,"
or, you know, something. i don't recall himsaying it. he could have said it. - too much commotion.too many bullets flying. - i didn't really understandwhat was happening. all i knew is, where we were at,we could not stay there. - and-and he was screaming,"balls to the walls," they say. well, um, how can i say? i- i don't want to go intothe details of-
of what happened, but fact is thatthree people were killed. mm-hmm. - and you deny that you wereeven close to the scene or- how-how do you- - well, there's no longera question. there's no longer a questionof my innocence. that's-questionis out the door. the question is, what is anyonegonna do about it now?
i mean, a perfect example is,you're here with these guys. they show upat your hotel room in a car. you're gonna assume thatthat car is- you know,these are your friends, so when jason shows upto pick me up in a car, i'm gonna assume it's okay. you get in it,and you get arrested, and you come to find out he justmurdered someone from that car, you're gonna end upon texas death row.
you're gonna end upright here because you trustedone of these guys to show up and pick you upin a-in a real car that wasn'tjust stolen. - but trusting in jasonwas a bad choice. - oh, absolutely.- i mean, let's face it. he was some sort of a bad apple,and so-so were you. - i was homeless and starving,so it was- - and using drugsand stealing.
- he offered me drugs.he offered me a place to stay. he offered me food,so i chose- i chose that,which i shouldn't have. i regret it every-every minute now. cherish every minute, huh? cherish every minute. make the most of it because,you know, they can-they can-they can do you like me. be in the wrong situationat the wrong time,
and there's no tellingwhere you end up. you might want to get out oftexas as soon as possible, huh? they might arrest youany-any second, huh? - i went overto my buddy's house. there was a guy there,and he wanted to fight me, and he run up on meas i got out of the truck, and-and i justkind of blew him off. you know what i mean? "just go on, man,go on about your business. "
and everybody said he was sayinghe was gonna stab me when i got out of the truck. you know,it kind of pissed me off, so i-i went back,found the dude, and run up on him,and i was taking off my shirt, and i threw my-threw myshirt up like that, you know, and threw it upover my elbow. i was gonna take it off,and when i did that, he hit me right herewith a screwdriver, you know,
a screwdriver about that long,and it was a phillips, you know, them little skinny,long screwdrivers. it sunk in to the handle,and after that, uh... - all the way to the handle?- all the way to the handle. how did it happen? - man, it's probably,probably about right in there. it went straight-straight through under my arm, into my chest, and i never went to the hospitalor anything.
- and what did you feel?you felt the- - yeah, just a-i felt the-the- you know, the pressure of itwhen it hit. that's all i felt, and i kind ofjumped backout the way, and-and i looked,and my buddy threw me a knife, and i looked down at the knifeon the ground, and i was like, you know, i'm thinking to myselfin my head, you know,
"i'm going hometo my kids today. " you know, so i didn't evenpick it up, and then my other buddy come outrunning by the yard, and i had to be at workin 30 minutes. matter of fact, i roof- i was roofing a housewith jason's brother. what is it, chris burkett? and i was roofinga house with him. - chris was not in jailat that time.
nah. and you went to hospital? they was asking me if i needed to goto the hospital or anything, but itjust-some, like, puss and a little bit of bloodcome out, and, you know,i thought i was good. evidently, i guess i am. so i was lucky there.
- but you have never been in-in real trouble with the law? i had a felony. that's the only bad-bad one i had. but you're a working man. - yes, sir.- you have a job? - yeah, i ain't been in troublein four years. - can i see your hands?- yeah. - when we shook hands,i noticed your calluses. you are working...- yeah.
- in a paint shop?- yep. - cars.- yes, sir. - solid work.- yes, sir. and the tattoo in here? can i see this?can you show it? bailey. - you had been with herwhen you met burkett? - nah.- not yet, uh-huh. no.
i've been with herfor three years, and i got a 17-month-old babywith her. - oh, yeah.so you are staying with her? now the tattoo is forever. yeah, it's forever. they just don't come off. - and what happens ifthe relationship unravels? what happens to "bailey"? - guess i'm gonna have to get"bailey sucks" right there.
- can you talk aboutjason burkett? how did you meet him?how did you know him? what do you know about him? first time i ever met him, seemed like a pretty cool guy,you know? so we hung out, and i introduced him toa few girls and everything, and then we used togo huntin' together. one time,he tried to kill me.
i introduced himto these girls, and her dad and himhad something going on. i don't know. well, anyway, he thoughti wanted to get with that girl and come overto another girl's house and rushed me with a gun. well, i had this girltell me to come outside, and i was eating supper, and he rushed me with a gun.
so we foughtfor about 45 minutes with a gun to my headin this girl's house. it was a. 22 calibersingle-shot pistol. yeah, he held-held itto my head, banged me in the headwith it. we were fighting all throughthe house with the gun till i locked myselfin this bedroom, and he was gonnakick in the door, so i just opened the doorand let him in
because i didn't want him totear this girl's dad's house up, and after that,we started fighting again, and he pinned me on the bed,and he pulled the trigger. where did the bullet go? nah, it misfired, because the bulletcome out the gun, and you could tell ona. 22 bullet, there's like- it's just that round,flat piece on the bottom. well, if the firing pinain't long enough,
it don't hit it, and-and it don't-it won't go off, but it hit it, but i don't knowwhy it didn't go off. - you were lucky.- yeah. very lucky. - yeah, i kind ofblacked out there. but, yeah, real lucky. and then him killingthose people, man, i feel sorryfor their families. me and my friend big justinwas up at the bar one time,
and he come up there with thesenew cars, him and perry, and we're like, "man, where'd y'all getthese new cars at?" he's like,"oh, we was holding hands"- him and perrywas holding hands and scratched offa lottery ticket together and won them two cars. well, me and my buddyknew it wasn't right, because they're both felons,you know what i mean?
ain't nobody gonna sell them- ain't neither onegot a driver's license, so, you know, and-and the carswere, like, fully loaded, cds, skateboards,and stuff like that in there, and so we knew something-something was up with it, and he started giving peoplejoy rides up at the bar. - jason and michaelcame up to the bar to show off two new vehiclesthat they had purchased, and at first, we-nobody really understood.
they explained that they hadpurchased a lottery ticket, and that's how they gotthe money to buy the cars, and at that time, it startedgetting a little weird. - what didn't sound rightabout this? - the amount ofthe lottery ticket was $4,000. they said they cashed itin a gas station. that doesn't usually happen. the vehicles themselvesdidn't look like they just came off a car lot.
you drove these cars? - i rode in them.i didn't drive them. yeah, they-jason and michael were kind of giving everybodytest drives, and i rodein both vehicles. the-the red camaro,when i rode in it, they were showing off guns. there was a 12-gauge shotgun, and i don't rememberthe other one,
but i did see 'em in the trunkof the red camaro that night. from what i heard, rumors,you know, they were into- initially planning on stealinga car of my roommate at the housei was staying at, and that scaredthe hell out of me, 'cause that could've been me. you know, if he would'vedecided to come and get the car in my driveway,where would i be? i've-i've managedto block it.
i've managed to tryto not deal with it and not think about it. i guess being in the situationsthat i've been in, just from being employedat that bar, i have seen so many awful thingsthat i don't deal with them. i just kind ofput them back. did jason brag about crimes? - he never bragged to meand my buddy big justin. we didn't even knowwhat had happened,
and they was-they come got usfrom justin's house, the police did,and they took us up there, and they was like,"y'all read the paper?" and i told 'em, well,i couldn't read, and then they didn'tbelieve me, and they looked at my recordand found out i can't read, and then, so they readthe paper to me, and they told mewhat they had done. do you read now?
oh, yeah. - so late, you started to learnhow to read. yeah, i learned how to read. wonderful, yes? i find thisa great achievement. yeah, it is awesome. - you are much moreconnected now. - how does it feelnot to be able to read? you have to be much smarterthan the others
to understandthe world anyway. it's-it's kind of toughout there when you can't read, but, i mean,'cause they ain't always have somebody gonnaread it for you. but, i mean,i learned how to read in jail so i could write lettersand read the letters, and other than that,i don't plan on going back, but i'm glad i learnedhow to read there. - and you are doing good now?- oh, yeah.
staying busy at the paintand body shop. - reading?- oh, yeah. writing? not much writing. a lot of sanding. - i'm interested in yourrelationship with michael perry. how did you two meet? how does this thing happen? - in 2000,i had a girlfriend in 2000.
she had a friendnamed miranda. i ended up going to jail, and miranda, i seen heron the side of the road arguing with michael perry,and i said- i pulled over, and i asked herwhat was going on, and she said,"he's living in my trunk, "and i can't get him- "you know, he can't live thereno more. "my dad's seen him.
"my dad got in a fight with himthis morning. he can't live there. " so he was livingin the trunk of a car, and i said, "well, i don't knowwhat to tell you. " and she asked me,"can he live with you?" and at that moment,i told her, "no, he can't live with me. " and then, i looked at him,and she's, like, sad and crying, and she said, "please, let himlive with you just for a month. "
this was when we were livingin the camper trailer, and i told him,"you can live with us. get your stuff, put itin my truck, and come home. " and from that day on,i fed him, gave him money, took care of him. he was like a-like a little brother, kid brotherthat was pushed on you, and-and when they-he's olderthan me by a few months, but i had to take care of himbecause he had nothing.
he had nobody. little did i know he hada very supportive family. his mom and dadwere both supportive. he just didn't wantto follow rules. he was just like meand didn't want to follow rules, and that's why he ended upliving with me, 'cause they said,"work and you can live with us. " he didn't want to work. - and you were sent on aoutward bound trip into florida.
what happened?what was that, yeah? - well, you know,i'm a city boy at heart, you know what i'm saying? i'm really not intothe nature and bugs and-and the weatherand, you know. so, you know, when-they sent meon a two-week canoe trip. - which sounds wonderfulfor me, but- - yeah, you know, you know,i like to canoe, but what it-what was-
it wasn't the canoeingthat was bad. it was that it wasin the everglades. i mean, we're seeing alligatorseverywhere. now, my question is- and i didn't even realize thatuntil i got here- what happenedif i would've fell out and got eaten by an alligator? who would'vebeen responsible? you know, did my parents signsome type ofwaiver?
because there wasalligators everywhere. - well, a young man of 13,you better watch out and-and handlethe alligators well, yes. - yeah.yeah, yeah. - but what happened then?you didn't- - well, i think it was onthe third or fourth day. we would canoe until, like,nighttime and pull in. i guess they had certaindesignations marked, and sometimes we'd pull in,like, at midnight.
there's bugs-you can reach outand grab a handful of bugs, and then they'd want usto cook dinner, and, you know, i'm like,"man, i can't. " and one of the thingsof the program was to teach you immediate- you know, every actionthere's a-there's a reaction, so immediate consequencesto your decisions, and one of the thingsi learned is that if i don't pay attentionto the lessons-
we had these bagsfor our property, and you had to seal them right,or they wouldn't be waterproof. well, i didn't listen,and it fell in the water, and all my stuff got wet,so i didn't have my own tent. i didn't have notoilet paper anymore, and i didn't like that. so basically, i-i wasmy typical stubborn self, and i told them, "you know what? i ain't doing this no more.take me home. "
- but you were not attackedby alligators, but- - no, we were attackedby monkeys, though. - by monkeys.what happened? - absolutely, monkeyswere jumping from one side to the treeson the side we were at and come-tryingto come over there, and they couldn't figure outwhere the monkeys came from, but there wasa whole bunch of them, a whole bunch.
i wanted to get outand get one, but they saidthey have diseases, right? so best-case scenario, if you are granted parolein 2041, how old would you be then? does this ever occur to you? do you want tothink about it? i'll be 59, 60. i was 19.
i have to do 40 yearsfrom 19, which will be 59 years old. long time. - when it came to the phaseafter your trial was over, for punishment phase,your father showed up in court. can you describe the scene? i knew he was coming, and i knew what he was gonnatestify to, but to hear him testify,it's like-
i was bornwith neuroblastomas. i- i had 18 surgeriesby the time i was five, and i-i don't knowa lot about it because it's somethingthat i try to shy away from. i knew he was gonna testifyto my raising, and i was a-in pain all the time, and he'd watch me cry to sleep,and... it was difficult,because i seen him cry. i mean,if you ever see my dad,
he's 6'6", 6'7", 300 pounds,big old guy, tattooed. - and they brought himin from-from prison. he came in from prison. is he still incarcerated? - he's right across the streeton ellis unit. - mr. burkett,how are you doing? just-i'm doing fine. doing fine.little sick. - how fine?- little bit sick.
you are in herefor how many years? 40. - 40 years.- yes, sir. - eight felony counts,is that correct? - yes, sir.- that's pretty serious. - and you spent some time beforethis 40-year sentence in jail. is that correct? - yes, sir.- yeah. - i've been in prisonfive times.
how many years already? - a 2-year sentence,a 5-year sentence, a 30-year sentence,and then this 40. - that's a lot.- yes, sir. what went wrong? drugs and alcohol. can you explain? - well, i started using drugswhen i was about 13, drinking and drugging,and, uh...
selling and manufacturing. some stealing and burglarizinggoing along with it to sup-support the habit and always end upback in prison. - there's one significant momentwhen jason, your son, was found guiltyfor capital murder... - yes.- and triple homicide. during the sentencing phase,you appeared in court. can you describe what you saidto the jury?
well... i explained to 'emwhat prison life was about, and i explained-i explained to 'em that i didn't thinkkilling him was gonna bring back thosepeople or really, you know, do anything to correctwhat happened, and i askedthe jury to, you know, "please, you know,don't kill my son. " i asked 'em.
i said just,"please, don't kill my son. " he never had a chance. he didn't have a father. i told 'em that, you know,he did-i was never there, and his mother was a, you know,single mother with four children, and-and she had handicaps. she-she's on disability. most of that time,she was living on disability,
and so they-they really didn't- they lived off food stamps, and, you know, hud housingand that type of thing, and-and he-he really- he really had a real poor lifegrowing up. i just asked 'emnot to kill my son. it wasn't his fault. i- it-i wished i could- i wish that i couldtake the time, his time.
i wish i could, 'cause i feellike that it's my fault. i- i really do. i feel like it's- i'm as much at faultas he is, 'cause if i'd havebeen there, it, quite possibly,maybe not, but-but it might possiblyhave been different. he'd have had a better chance. you know, he'd havea whole lot better chance,
if i'd have been therehelping his mother raise him, but i wasn't. the jury got up to leave, and the door was right hereto my right, and as the door closedbehind them, i heard two ladiesbreak down. i'm-i'm real emotional, and i'm cryingthrough the whole thing, but as they went throughthat door, and the door closed,
i heard two ladiesbreak down crying. they broke down,and then the- when it-it was all overand his lawyer come told me, he said-i remember the-his words. he said, "you got him. " you saved a life. - he said-he said,"you got him. " i said,"what do you mean?" and that's where i-that's what saved-
there was two votes. it was ten to two,and there was two votes that voted not to kill him, and i think those were thetwo ladies right there that- they're the onesthat saved his life. - but you can be proudof this moment. i had some help too. god helped me. he did.
i asked god to help me,and i think he did. i didn't deserveany help for him. he may not deserve the help, but we got itfrom some place, so... - the hardest partwas to look at him and for him to look at me, and i seen thathe was sincere, that he really was sorry for,you know, what he had done throughoutmy whole childhood,
and he had been in prison. i don't blame him for it, but i seen right therethat he understood that it did affect us,and i cried that one day, that was it, through the-the whole trial. even after conviction, the only thing that hurt mewas my-my dad testifying. - whenever i went backand testified, his brother went backand testified too.
his brother was in-in prison, chris, and-and we,me and chris went- came back tothe diagnostics together, and then-and i'm embarrassed, but all of three of us,we had thanksgiving together, me and chris and jason overat the diagnostics unit. you know,and they, uh... they thinkthat's kind of cool, but as a father, i thoughtthat was pretty embarrassing
to be sitting therein prison with my sons. - all of them incarcerated.- yes, sir. and then me and jason went onover to the next place together, handcuffed togetherin the bus, and that's something thati never in my life would ever dreamed-dreamed ofthat would've happened, that that same little babythat was... we had to hold him down totake bone marrow tests out of, the same little6- pound baby.
- describe the feeling to mewhen you are handcuffed together with your own sonin the same bus. can you describe that? - no, not really.it-it's, uh... try to describe it for us. well, i don't know. i just felt likea total failure, total failure as a father. - and you could feel his hand,can't you?
yes. yeah, we were handcuffed tothis hand and his right hand, and we were sitting there,and-and i was just- it was justtotal failure. that's what i felt like. i felt like crap, you know, and i used a different wordto the jury, and-and-and that's- and that's what i meant.
you know, he had trash for a-for a father, and-and then here i wassitting with my baby son on a prison bus,and, i mean, i don't think it- i don't think it gets muchlower than that, you know? itjust don't. knowing me or him,neither one'll ever, you know, get out again. i just got a three-year setoff again about a week ago, so...
we'll never-me or himwill never get out again. - and will he everget out again? i don't think so. he comes up for parolethe first time in- in 1942 for the first time. - 40 yearsafter his conviction. - yes, sir, 1941.i'm sorry. yes, sir.yes, sir. - yeah, 2041.you're a century back.
- yes.- behind. - 19-yeah, 2041.i'm sorry. - well, it doesn't matter.it's-time must be- a long time. - time is probably differentfor you in here. - this is actuallythe vehicle that was in sandra stotler'sgarage. this was the vehicle that michael perry andjason burkett was-was after.
three people diedfor this car, a car that wasin their possession for less than72 hours, i believe. within a couple of years, i mean, this vehiclewas just trashed, the inside of it, because there was actuallya tree that had rooted and had come up throughthe center of it, and it tore the floorboard up,
and whenever we actually hadto move it over to this lot, it was a little bit difficultbecause of that. a tree grew inside of it. - a tree grew upfrom the bottom up into- up into the car. why did they die? - i ask myself that questionevery day. i mean, for a vehicle? you know, i-i don't know.
people die every day overgiving people a dirty look or, you know, $2. people rob each other,and i don't know. i don't know why they died, the greed of these two boys. i don't-i don't have an answer. - can you speak aboutthe family of victims? nobody seemsto address that side. i- i don't-
- how do you livewith all this? i didn't for a while. i'm starting to live again, but basicallyi just shut down. montgomery county hasa victims assistance program, but when you-when your wholefamily's ripped from you, you-you know, you're kind oflike, what's the point? what's the pointof living anymore? i don't have a familyto share it with.
and i know i have to livefor my children, to raise my children. i don't want them to havea miserable life or have a depressed motherall the time. but for about four years,i didn't go anywhere. i stayed in the house, took the phoneout of the home. i don't like to talkto people. i figure, if i don'tget close to anybody,
i don't-you know,i won't get hurt again. i just-i just shut down, really. my grandmother shut down. our-our lives are-are empty, very empty. very empty. that's adam. that was his six-he was 16 there. that was his lastschool picture. my brother, my brotherwas my best friend.
he was-he was only 16. it is true that he is notmy real brother. my sister was-got pregnant when she was 16, and my parents adopted him, and they were actuallyout of town the day he was born, so i was the first oneto hold him, and i just-i had this feelinghis whole life that somethingwas gonna happen to him, and i remember calling my motherand saying, you know,
"what's adam doing?where's adam? you need to make sure-y'all just moved up to ohio. you need to make sureyou're watching him. " and my mom was like,"i've raised five children. i can take care of him. " and when he hit 16,i knew he was-he was good. he was safe.he was a man. he'd be able totake care of himself now. he was such a great kid.
he was in love forthe first time in his life. and, um, one-one thingthat sticks out for me, my mom always protected me. one thing that i remember, i was supposed to get married. well, i did get marriedseptember 16, 1995, but my dad, mel,he was a preacher, and he was supposedto marry me and kenneth. he died six monthsbefore the wedding.
he was hit by a train,him and my older brother and the family dog. and so we got-i refusedto get married in a church, so we got married on the boatin lake conroe. right as i waswalking out the- walking out the doorto go down the aisle, my mother pinned my dad'swedding ring inside my dress right over my heart, and she said, "i didn't wantyour dad to miss this. "
and, you know, thatjust- you loved her. - yes, and i know she wasin so much pain that day, but she hid itbecause i was so happy. she hid her pain for me, and, you know, she-she justmade it through the day. i just miss 'em a lot. our family's just so incomplete,so incomplete. you know, sometimes my kidswill ask me things,
and i'll go,"i don't know. i wonder what my mo-" you know, there's thingsat all times of day and night i want to call and ask her. it took me forever to realizeshe was really gone 'cause i would want to pick upthe phone and call her. - is this why yougot rid of the phone? - yes, i-i did not wantanother phone call telling me somebody elsein my family had died.
i couldn't handlethose phone calls anymore. i couldn't handle 'em anymore, so i just cut myself offfrom the world. i can't-i can'thave a phone on. i just don't like to hearthe phone ring anymore 'cause all it ever brought mewas bad news. - the worst.- the worst. notjust bad, yeah. you had to-to face it.
well, you know,it's just, i mean, not only did i lose my motherand my father and my brother to tragic circumstances. i mean, my grandfatherhad a stroke. my uncle hung himself. my other unclehad a heroin overdose. my stepbrother shot himself'cause he had pancreatic cancer. my real father diedin his sleep. all this was in six years,a six-year period.
i lost everyone in my family,everybody. - mr. burkett,if you close the eyes and you think abouta different life and it could start all over, how would you raisethe children? it's hard to answer somethingthat you've never done, and, you know, embarrassing- it's embarrassing to say that, but-but i know when-i would like-
i would like to them have... i had a scholarshipto the university of texas in 1973,in football, and i quit schoolin my senior year, quit football and quit schooland lost that, and i wish i could go backto right there. yes, go back to right there. now you have the children. - then i have the children,and-and i would had-
i would have doneeverything in my power to-to help them finish schoollike i didn't. you always tell them,"don't be like me. " well, i wished- i wished i would've beensomething they could've been, and i wish they could'vefinished school. i wish we could've playedbaseball like i did when i was little,in little league. i wish that we could'veplayed baseball.
two of them didfor, like, one time. i wish we could'veplayed baseball, and i wished i could've wentto their football games. and i raised a steer in-in school for ffa. i wish they could've did that. we lived in the country. that's what i wishwe could go back, all of us, and-and-and go to school,school events. i got to watch one of my sons
play the hornone time in school, and-and that's the stuffthat i remember. that's the good stuff, and this allwouldn't have happened. - i want to say thison the record. i'm not saying that my husbandwas a boy scout. i'm not saying thatjason burkett did absolutely- had no knowledgeand was, like, selling cookies or raising money for campwhen that happened.
i'm saying that jason did notkill one, two, or three people. sandra, jeremy, and adamwere not killed by jason. and you asked your husband- you asked jason point-blank, "can you tell me what-what happened?" because you wantedto make sure. what did you ask him? - i've asked jasonmultiple times to tell me everythingthat i need to know.
i said, "jason-" jason doesn't havea whole lot of money, so we do most of his stuffpro se, which is where we file itourselves, and me and his father havepretty much done his appeal, and i always ask him, "i need to knoweverything you can tell me to help you get home," and that's basicallyhow we start our conversations,
and jason will recall things,and, you know, more and more, it's, like, been a snowballthat i've picked up exactly what i think happened. and you are toldhe was innocent. and you do believe him. i do believe him. i- like i said, i believethat jason had involvement. i don't believehe killed three people. i wrote jasonfor maybe two years
before i went to meet him, because really i could do mostof the stuff through the mail, and one dayi was talking to his mother, and she said somethingto the effect of, "you'll never guess what jasonsaid to me today," and i said, "what?" and she said, "he told methat he was in love with you. " and i said, "that's crazy. " and i remember, to give you,like, the pre-story,
i was with my best friend,and when i hung up, i said to my best friend-her name's kat- i was like, "kat, jasonburkett's in love with me. " she goes,"that's probably pretty good 'cause you'rein love with him too. " and i said,"what are you talking about? don't be an idiot,"you know? and she said,"dude, when is the last time "you've been on a date?
"when was the last time youhaven't spent a saturday night with jason burkett'scourt paperwork?" i was like,"hey, that's not nice. " but i ended up driving- i lived in nebraskaat the time. i ended up driving from omahato abilene because i wanted himto tell me himself, and he was atthe robertson unit. - you were two daysand two nights driving?
i drove-it-it seemed, like, endless too. i drove,and i got there, and i remember,i just asked him. like, that was the first thingi said. i was like, "hi, we've neverseen each other in our lives, "but hi. your mom told methat you're in love with me. " but i didn't say it. i wanted to be coy,so i said,
"your mom told me you told hersomething in a visit. " i said, "what-what did you tell her?" and he said,"i need stamps?" and i was like,"i wouldn't be in abilene "because you needstamps, right? what are you-don't play games with me. " and he goes,"oh, that part where i said i was in love with you?" and then i dropped the phonebecause i was nervous,
and i didn't knowwhat to say, and i kind of fumbledthrough that whole visit because i didn't immediately go,"i love you too. " it wasn't, you know,like a movie. i was very nervous. i'm not that girl thatfalls in love with an inmate. and i was like, okay,i'm just gonna be cool with it, and then when i left,the day i met jason, there was a rainbow,and i'm not-
this is true.it's in our letters. there was a rainbowthat went from one gate- side of the gateto the other side of the gate, and i thought that was the mostmiraculous sign that this is- this is the boythat i'm supposed to be with and this is-he is innocent, because how many timesdo you see a whole rainbow? and we saw a whole rainbow,and my friend was with me. he saw the rainbow too.i have a witness.
and when jason- when i got home,i had a letter waiting for me, and he said,"did you see the rainbow?" at the gates of the prison. - it went from one side,my side on the outside, to the inside to him. - i believe in me,you know, i know what- i know what happenedback in 2001. i know that i wasn'ta part of it,
and i believe strongly in-in my faith, in my attorneys,and in the outcome, but at the same time, i don'teven recognize these walls. i don't pay attentionto this, because if you do,you're gonna lose your mind. you're gonna-you're gonna go-you're gonna lose your mind. recently, another guy justkilled himself the other day, and he left a notesaying that, "y'all have to live aroundall this craziness,
and i'm gone," and that's becausehe was focusing on it, but i don't. i don't focus on it. you know, i just-i just distract myself. i stay busy.i work on my case. i have a great family, a lot of supportersthat help me, so i have enough distractions.
if i didn't haveenough distractions, i might be ina different position. - how does time occur to you nowin your situation? - wow, that's a-that's a good- it-it really varies,but, you know, because, i'll-like, i'll forget. i'll literally forget, and then i'll look atmy calendar or i'll hear someonesay something,
and i'm like, "man. " and i'll sit back,and i'll just stare at the wall, and i'll be like,"man, eight days, seven days, six days,"or whatever, and it's like- it's just-i must not becomprehending the fact that it's that close,because, you know, it's hard for me to say,you know what- like, i talk to people,"you know, in eight days, these peoplewant to murder me,"
and it's just something that,it's hard for me to- hard for me to believe that the state of texas wantsto murder me in eight days. and worst-case scenario, you know exactly what isgoing to happen on july 1st? - yeah, the execution.mm-hmm. - you will be transportedto huntsville? - right, the walls unit.- that's a death house? - and you will be checkedby a medical examiner?
- i don't-no, no medical peoplecan be involved. - i think they-they have to check you that you are fitto be executed. - i've never heard that,but it might be. - i think it'sone of these absurdities. if you are unconscious,for example, you cannot be executed. oh, yeah? - or if you are stark mador something...
- yeah, yeah.- they would not execute you. yeah, that is true. - or if you are bleedingfrom a gunshot wound, they would not put youonto the gurney. they got to treat me firstand then kill me, huh? probably, yes. that's-that's kind of crazyto think about, right? yeah, i just-i just can'tallow myself to think. i can't even picture myselflaying on a gurney,
but if it happens,i'll have to deal with it, huh? you know, i'll have todeal with it, and i'll be able to watch overmy mom from heaven with a clear conscienceand be at peace. you know, like i said,for a long time, my life has been unhappy, so finally i can find mesome peace, huh? - and you areat peace with yourself. now.
- mm-hmm.took a long time. yes, absolutely did. took a long timeto realize what a man was. i was out thereacting like a child. i acted like a childwhen i got in here at first, but i'm confident in-in who i am now. - michael perry,i wish you all the best. yes, thank you. i don't knowwhat's gonna happen, huh?
we're gonna see.we're gonna find out. i'll find out on monday. - they knewwhat i was telling them was gonna be the truth. i mean, i'm not gonnatell you anything that- i'm gonna tell you everythingthat's gonna happen back here. at 4:00, a guy'sgonna come in here, and they're gonnafingerprint you. shortly after that,
we're gonna allow youto take a shower, and then we're gonna put youin free world clothes, let you-let you dressin free world clothes. free world clothes would beclothes you and i would wear. 5:00, 6:00, whatever your-yourrequest for the last meal, they'll bring it in, and you'll sit thereand eat your last meal. during that time, if you needanything else, just ask. you know, you needsome more juice, punch,
or whatever elsewe got back here, just ask. you know, and they-you know, sometimes we getstrange requests. you know, within reason,i'm gonna get it for you. - give me oneof those requests. oh, one was, "man, i'd sure like tosmoke a doobie right now. " well, that's not gonna happen,you know. the guy with the key,he opens the door,
swings the door open. there's anothercorrectional officer behind him and another one behind me. so soon as he does,he follows me in, and then the othercorrectional officers follow right in behind him. so there'll be two in front of-in front of the inmate, and then the other threeright behind him. i tell him jump upon the gurney,
which then i automatic- - it's only a few stepsfrom the cell. - i would say no more thanten steps, if that much. i would immediatelygo around to the gurney 'cause i always took careof the left leg. so soon as he laid down,i took care of the left leg. the other personwho was in front with me would take care of the right. the-the threethat fell in behind,
one would take careof the-the right arm. the other one would take careof the left arm, and the other one would be therein case the inmate, once he lays down, if he had a responseto try to get back up, his job was to hold-to hold his shoulders down. you know, you're not- once you're up there,you're up there, you know. within that time,
us four peoplewould have him done. probably within about15 seconds, he'd be strapped downthat quick, 'cause we all knewexactly where our straps were and what we weresupposed to do. the time.do-do a process. we trained on it. it's the last timeyou're gonna see- i'm gonna see himwith his eyes open,
because afterthe execution's done and the process went and then-then they callthe doctor in to pronounce him dead, then everybody leaves. my job begins again 'causei have to go back in there, and that's-that's all- also kind of difficult because here you sit with thisindividual eight or ten hours,
all day long, and now the last thingyou're doing is removing those straps. the straps have to be removed and put him on another gurneyfor the funeral home. and then, you thought- you didn't think aboutnone of this while you're doing this,the procedure. you know, none of this, you're-you don't keep-
you don't put those emotionsout there. do you-you do the joband go home. - you did how many executions,roughly? it was over 125, 120. it was somewhere over 120. it was a bunch. we got to the point to where,especially after i- i think i promoted to captainin '90. we were doing two a week,
and that was getting tiresome. and what happened to you then? i- back when they- when they brought inkarla faye, i stayed back there with her. now, definitely that wasthe first female that we were fixingto execute. i remember one thingso vividly, that it was an hour before,
and i was standing there, and the chaplainwas standing there, and she looked at me,and she goes, "thank you, captain allen,for everything you've done. " i said, "you're welcome. " you know, that's alli could say, you know. what else can-what else am i gonna say? what, "i'm fixin' to strapyou down in another hour"? which we went-
procedure and everything wentjust the way it was supposed to. you know,she was pronounced dead. i went back in there,and i took the gurn- took the straps off, put her, you know,on the gurney and that stuff. we locked everything up,went about our business, and-and everythingwas fine. i had a little shopin the back. it was 6:00, and the newscome on over the radio,
and it started again, and for some reason,just out of the blue, hearing it, it triggered meseeing her hurt, and i just started shaking. i don't know what's wrong,and then, it was- how badly did you shake? - it was-it was-it was a shake. it was a shake. like, i couldn't-why am i shaking?
and then i could see my- i was sweatingand in tears. all of a sudden,man, this-this is hurtin'. i remembered her-this was two days afterwards. i remembered her execution. hers wasn't no differentthan anybody else, but it was hers, and then i started actuallyvisualizing the other inmates as-you asked me, "did you lookin their eyes when they're"-
i could see 'em. i could actually see 'emin their holding cell again, you know,one right after another, and it seemed likethere was just... my wife goes,"what's wrong with you?" and i don't know. i need to talk to somebody. and the first person i couldthink of to call was carroll, chaplain pickett,
and he come overto the house, and we sat on that old swing,and i started coming down, and i-he says,"what's wrong?" and i told him, and then i looked at carroll,and i said, "i can't do it no more. "that's it.i'm-i'm done. i can't-i can'tgo back there anymore. " - could it be that you thoughtthat this was not yourself
but maybe it wasyour real self that moment? that's a good possibility. - what's reallydeep inside of you... came out. - that's a good-that's very- i mean, that's-i mean, from that point on, i mean, i've hada different outlook in life. if executions was the law, then i was gonna make surethat it was done professionally,
with integrity. after karla-and i waspro-capital punishment. after karla fayeand after all this, until this day,11 years later... no, sir. i don't-nobody has the rightto take another life. i don't care if it's the law. and it's so easyto change the law. i- i don't want to sound, um...
like a evil person or- but i am so gladi went to the execution. i really am. i fought with my-with myself about going. i reserved this-the seatso i could be there, but i'm glad i went. i'm really glad i went. it-it reallydid something to me. - yeah.what did it do?
- i don't-i don't know what- i don't know what happened, but i-immediately after the execution, i felt like a- that saying,a huge weight had been lifted. i actually could takea deep breath. my heart didn't acheas much. i remember walking in and thinking,"this looks like a boy. "
i had built this huge monster, evil, you know,murdering monster in my head, and he was just a boy. he was just a boylaying on that gurney. when i walked in,he looked at me, and he looked away,and he did a double take. same thing jason burkettdid in court. i look like my mom. i look a lot like my mother.
and what did he say? he forgave us. and i was upsetwhen i walked in. i was crying. you know, our whole-my whole family, we didn't want to seesomeone die, you know. no one should have to do-go through that, but we were there for my mother,you know, and my brother, and we were crying,and when he said he forgave us-
for what? - for the atrocitybrought against him. and then he saidhe's ready to go. i heard his mother cry, and they gave himthe injection. he gasped for air four times. i watched his shirt thump, you know, his heartbeating on his shirt. i watched it till it stopped,and it stopped at 6:14.
one tear fell down his eye,one tear. and he was gone,and it was over. and the prospect of someone who is gonna be locked awayfor life without parole, would that satisfy- - definitely.- yes. definitely. - so it would be definitelyan alternative, because death penalty soundsa little bit too much
like old testament,the wrath of god. an eye for an eye. - jesus probably would nothave been an advocate of- probably not. but some peoplejust don't deserve to live. - can i say something?- please. - i know on july the 1stis when they- they executed michael, and-and i knew michaelpretty well.
and i kept up with- i have every kind of clippingand website thing i have on himand jason. i have, like, a wholelocker box full. so i know as much about himas anybody, and michael was just-just like jason. they were both young, and whatever they didor didn't do, i don't know. i was not there,but michael was just a-
was just a young-a young kid,and i know he- i know when they executed him,i know how he- i know his last wordsand everything else, and i know,by executing michael, i don't think it broughtany of those people back, and i don't thinkit deterred anything. i- i don't think it deterredanybody out there. as much publicized as it was,it did not deter anything, and i really do not believethat it solved anything
by taking another life,and it hurt me. when it come timefor his execution, i knew it was gonna beabout 6:00, usually a few minutesafter 6:00 p.m., and i was on my kneesat my bunk for michael, praying for michael, and a feeling come over me right about ten-five or ten minutes after 6:00, a feeling come over methat's hard-
very, very hard to explain. it was like i felt the loss of- ofwhat used to bemy son's best friend. i felt-i felt that. i felt that painwhenever they killed him. but i just wish those fam- the family memberswould know that, how much that i-i hurtfor their loss. that's very important,and michael never, never-
that's what upset them, 'cause michael never triedto reach out to 'em. i wished i couldand say i'm sorry. melyssa, let me addressone thing. among death row inmates, there's such a phenomenonlike death row groupies, the same way rock starshave groupies, and you have seen womenlike that. - i have seen women like that,in fairness.
i've also seen women who aremarried to death row inmates in truly committedrelationships that i believeare not disingenuous and i believecome from their heart. you know, some people are justsupposed to be together, whether there's a cageand lawman between you. i believe that. i mean, i do believe that there's a fair amount of womenwho want attention,
who want media coverage,who seek out infamous men. i mean, like scott petersongets a hundred letters a day on death row in california. that's ridiculous. - he murderedhis pregnant wife. - is that correct, that case?yeah, a good-looking man. good-looking man. - however, jasonis not an ugly man either. describe him to us, please.
- like, physically?- yes. you only have touchedhis hand. describe his hands to us. - they're a lot biggerthan mine. i'll start there.i have really tiny hands. he always-jason,he holds hands funny, and he always holds my handkind of like that as opposed to intertwined,so he holds on to me, and i just knowthat his hands are massive,
because he wearsa ring size 11. our wedding rings,it's an 111/2, and i wear a 4,so he can totally cup my hand. - were you allowedto touch each other? hug each other? exchange rings? i still can't get a ring. - and you were separatedby a glass wall or- just like this right here,
except for we had a phone, and it was solid right here,solid glass. - but when she comes for visits,are you allowed to hug her? i am now. after we married,i'm allowed to hug her. i'm allowed to give her a kissbefore and after visit. we're allowed to hold handson the table and have contact and speak. - but of course-of coursewith a guard present.
as close as you are to me. - and you would liketo have children. how would that happen? how-what sort of optionis there? - i want 50 children.she wants 2. so, i mean,we have to work on this. i want childrenfor different reasons. i want children with herspecifically because i love her. i want to be with her.
i want to give her somethingthat she'll always have with me. - i'm under the impressionseeing you now that you became pregnantonly a few days after we met your husband. - you guys met himon the 18th of october? - i think so, yeah,something like that. - yeah, i believe my babywas made on the 23rd of october,approximately. - right afterwe saw your husband.
23rd or 24th. you went into action. so to speak. - and the father of the babyis your husband. - legally, will be jason,yes. - and it is jason biologically,legally... - i can't say that.- in every single sense. since you are not allowedto do more than touching hands, how do you become pregnant?
there's a mystery. yeah, it's kind of a mystery. there's people involvedthat i don't want to mention. - no, we would notimply anyone, but i have to speculate. is there such a thing likecontraband entering prisons, like, let's say, drugs,cell phones, illegal messages, there seems to be somethingthe other way round, contraband from the prisonto the outside,
and you became pregnant. well, we- - can we formulate itlike this? - we-we prefer to say thati was artificially inseminated. - do you have a namefor the boy? - well, we've-we came up with easton. easton aaron. - can you show us?i think there's a face. can you point it out?- it's right there.
if you actually can see itclose enough, you can tell my babyhas my strong jaw. you live onthrough your children, and the lovethat you put into them projects to the world. my parents are both gone, and i had this big holein my heart, and i realizedthat what you do is, you take all of that love,and you give it back.
i mean, nothing else matters. - i actually have this shirttacked up on my wall. - can i see the shirt?can you turn it around? - i just make sure-and somebody told me about the- the live your dash, and that's really,after all this- that i went throughand quit and everything, then i heard the storytelling me live your dash. how do you-how are you gonnalive your dash?
and i didn't understand. "what are youtalking about 'dash'?" it's on your tombstone. you got your birth date, and you got the daythat you decease, and you got that little dashin the middle. that's your life right there. that's your-that's everything between from the time you was bornfrom the time you die.
how are you gonnalive your dash? and that's where i'm at now. i'm gonna live my dashand make sure that everything, try to make everything rightfor the family, everybody. hold stilland watch the birds. and you know, once youget up into your life like that and once you feel goodabout your life, you under-you do start watchingwhat the birds do, you know, what the ducks are doing,like, the hummingbirds.
wow, there's so many of them.