Report Blog Entry
(trying my hardest to spell rite and make this easy to understand sinse this is a more importent blog. but i am still going to spell shit wrong, sry)
i actually dont remmember exactly how or when i got into it. seems like it was a very sudden thing
my real intro to the horrors of death row was a man called Daiji. (richard rojem). his case was kindof big so sum people into true crime might reconize the name. but heres the rundown: in 1984 richard rojem's former stepdaugther was kidnapped , raped and killed. she was 7 years old. there was no solid evidense to prove he was the one who did it, only circumstantial (and 3 DNA tests even proved his DNA was not found on/in her body). but in 1985 he was convicted and sentensed to death. he spent 4 decades on death row before the state murdered him by lethal injection on june 27, 2024 at around 10am
i was there for the live virtual vigil during his execution. it was heart breaking, it was so painfull, and it was beutiful and good to see so many other ppl there for him. that was my first vigil for sumone on death row. it opened my eyes, how could it not ?
the vigil is long (about 2 hours) but if this is sumthing u find yourself intrested in, pls watch it. it is so sad, but its so beutiful. a fellow buddhist (daiji found buddhism on death row and was a staunch buddhist) sent him off with the heart sutra as is custom . if you watch, u can see the moment she was informed that daiji had passed, she paused and choked up, but kept going. i dont think ive ever cried so hard since that vigil. i dont think ive felt so much love and compassian since that vigil
"but jamie, wat if he did do it? what if he did rape and murder that little girl?"
then thats horrable. we cherish her memory too (rest in peace layla dawn cummings, may your memory allways be a blessing). but fact is, the death penalty dont and will never bring back the victims
in fact the whole process of court dates and media attentian over a big case like this, all it does is reopen wounds, rebreak hearts, retraumatize victims over and over and over. and if/when the accused is finally put to death (takes years, decades), what then? do u rlly have peace? do u rlly feel safer? or do u just feel a sense of anger and revenge? because after 40 years you would hope that the victims family would have time to greive and heal and move on but all the victims family had to say about daiji's executian was this: “Today marks the final chapter of justice determined by three separate juries for Richard Rojem’s heinous acts nearly 40 years ago when he stole her away like the monster he was.”
the final chapter of justice? what justice? a life sentence would have been justice if he did the crime. its just sad to me. after 40 years they still carryed so much anger and hate for what happened to there little girl and theres a good chance the real perpetrater is still out there (or died and got away with it)
do you know the conditions on death row? do you know just how abusive the prison system rlly is? did you know that its nearly impossable to get better and prove that you have changed, or want to change, when you are treated like an animal? when ur not given the chance? when the world at large sees u as a monster for bad choices you made when you were young, dealing with mental illness or addictian or abuse with no one there to help? because lets face it. death row and prisons in general feed off marginalised ppl who dont have the means to get better in the first place
im not saying richard rojem was a good man. even befor he was convicted of this crime, he served time in michigan for raping 2 teenage girls. he was into nazi shit. but you HAVE TO put all that away. if you are figthing for abolition you need to look at the system, not the people in it. death row doesnt cultavate an enviroment of healing and getting better. it breeds hopelessness, helplessness, and fear. why should sumone try to get better if they r just going to be murdered by the state? that makes me angry. and it should. it should make YOU angry. rlly, it should. i dont like telling people how to feel but the more u know about the death penalty the more disgusting it becomes
ill admit i havnt been to most of the vigils that DPA holds. they hurt. its hard. but jeez i need to get over that cuz whats an hour or 2 of solidarity? love, thats what it is. love makes u do things that are uncomfortble. love makes you more selfless. people are being murdered by lethal injection, GAS AND FIRING SQUAD! in 2025! you dont have to be a genius to see how fucked up all this is. i mean come on. gas. like the nazis used. none of these methods are painless. lethal injectian fails a lot and causes so much pain and suffering. thomas creech is a very famous example of this. gas suffocation takes sevral minutes and theres so much suffering and terror involved in not being able to breathe. and ill just let u imagine how firing squad can go wrong
am i making you uncomfortble? good
sit with that disscomfort
sit with it untill you feel like ur stomach is full of rocks. sit with it untill u feel like crying
cuz you can just escape from it, any time. you can just stop thinking about it. you dont live it. you can go about ur day when ur done sitting with the discomfort. death row inmates cant do that
as a human being, daiji was beutiful. he desserved support. he desserved help. as a human being he desserved to get better and use his experience to change the world. he tryed to do that while he was in prison. he was friends with so many people, in and out of prison. he was a beacon of ligth and hope for other death row inmates. he gave all he could for his brothers and sisters. i never knew him but i miss him. but as a buddhist, hes evreywhere now. hes in all of us, hes in everything. hes just one of dozens of lives with so much left to give, cut short these past few years, but his work continues thru those of us who care about this issue
i wish layla got to grow up. i wish daiji wasnt killed. i hope layla and her family get real justice someday. i hope her family can finally heal, eather way . i hope daiji's friends and family have allowed themselfs to greive and move on, because at the end he accepted his death
"i discovered i'm not a wave, i am the ocean" were some of his last words to his family and friends. that lodged deep in my heart and its staying
now. moving on to the present ,
2025 executions SO FAR (each has a link to the vigils):
1/31/25. Marion Bowman Jr.. Black. South Carolina. Lethal injection (read his poetry here)
2/5/25. Steve Nelson. Black. Texas. Lethal injection
2/6/25. Demetrius Frasier. Black. Alabama. Lethal injection
2/13/25. James Ford. White. Florida. Lethal injection. & Richard Tabler. White. Texas. Lethal injection (same day, same vigil)
3/7/25. Brad Sigmon. White. South Carolina. FIRING SQUAD
3/18/25. Jessie Hoffman Jr.. Black. Louisiana. GAS
3/19/25. Aaron Gunches. White. Arizona. Lethal injection
3/20/25. Wendell Grissom. White. Oklahoma. Lethal injection
3/20/25. Edward James. White. Florida. Lethal injection
4/8/25. Michael Tanzi. White. Florida. Lethal injection
4/11/25. Mikal Madhi. Black. South Carolina. FIRING SQUAD
4/23/25. Moises Mendoza. Latino. Texas. Lethal injection
4/24/25. James Osgood. White. Alabama. Lethal injection
5/1/25. Jeffrey Hutchinson. White. Florida. Lethal injection
have u opened ur eyes? were they allready open?
do you want to know more? do you want to do something?
check out these resources:
Death Penalty Info (unbiased and up to date info on the death penalty)
Death Penalty Action (up to date info and petitions for abolition etc)
Comments
Displaying 2 of 2 comments ( View all | Add Comment )
tape57
learning about George Stinney when i was younger has made me very anti death penalty and my stance on it just keeps getting reinforced. thanks for the information and resources
ofc, this is sumthing i got passinate about REAL quick so ill probly talk about it evrey once in awile in bulletins and blogs
i rlly recomend subscribing to DPA's youtube and/or signing up for emails from them if u wanna stay up to date
by piss dude -.-; ; Report
benny // whalefall
this was last year, but i can't believe everyone just moved on without a thought when they murdered Khalifah Williams
not everyone, it sparked alot of outrage with certan groups and communitys but ya overall most ppl would rather turn a blind eye rather then educate and apply themselfs to the issue of the death penalty (if they dont support it in the first place)
by piss dude -.-; ; Report
that's fair. everyone *i* knew (at the time) didn't say shit about it, though
by benny // whalefall; ; Report