To Live and Die on Death Row
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TO LIVE AND DIE ON DEATH ROW C. MICHAEL LAMBRIX Editor- Karen Mutton Copyright C. Michael Lambrix 2010 Cover illustration- Robert ‘Mercy’ Patton Cover design- Cassandra Mutton DEDICATION “With immeasurable gratitude to those who stood by my side and supported me even when my own strength failed, not the least of which are my forever friends Karen M, Jan, Geesje (‘Gigi’), Kimy, Mike H and Moss- and many others who have shared the journey with me as only a true friend could. In addition to the loyal friendship and generous support the above have provided, I wish to extend a special thanks to those who have given so freely of their time to assist me in having a voice through the websites and blogs they maintain for me. Without the generous support of Kimy, Geesje and Karen, my voice and my cause, would never be heard. So thank you to each of them.” C. Michael Lambrix- March 2010 Michael Lambrix in early 1983- possibly the last photo taken of him as a free man. 2 EDITOR’S PREFACE In June 2010 Michael Lambrix will commemorate the dubious milestone of 10,000 days on death row for a crime he did not commit. The case Lambrix v. Florida highlights the appalling injustice which has stalked Michael Lambrix for almost three decades. Not only was he convicted of a double murder he did not commit, but his trials and subsequent appeals have been plagued by overworked or incompetent lawyers who fail to file appeals on time, biased judges, lying witnesses and a corrupt judicial system which fails to censure its attorneys and prosecutors when they engage in dirty tactics and misconduct. I have known Michael Lambrix since 2000 when we first corresponded as pen-pals. Over the years I have visited him twice and studied all the transcripts of his trial and appeals. Although I have no experience in legal matters, it is glaringly obvious to me that his case is a classical example of a wrongful conviction. Through his many letters over the years, I have come to appreciate Michael’s intelligence, kindness and compassion. His wonderful letters and essays have provided an insight into the terrible world of death row in Florida and the inconceivable injustice he faces on a daily basis. These injustices include the threat of execution, an uncompassionate society and a complex legal system which would baffle the greatest legal minds. For years I have watched him cope with the rejection of appeal after appeal, and yet he still retains hope and a wonderful sense of humour. Michael Lambrix is a talented writer who has written his own story, from childhood to his life on death row. In the interests of uniformity, some of his articles have been altered from the 3rd person to the 1st person, but others are left the way he wrote them. He has also written at length about his appeals and the legal system, including lawyers, prosecutors, investigators and 3 judges involved in his case. The opinions expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect the outlook of myself, his friends, family or his lawyers. This book also contains a few newspaper and other articles written by journalists about his case and a section on wrongful convictions in Florida. With his latest appeal recently rejected by the Florida Supreme Court in April 2010, it becomes even more imperative that Michael’s story should be told and his unique insights shared with others. Hopefully some people will be touched enough to offer support, including lawyers and investigators willing to provide pro bono legal assistance. He can be reached at this address: Michael Lambrix 482053 7819 NW 228th St (FSP, death row) Raiford, Florida. 32026-1160 USA Devoted friends also host websites for his writings such as: www.southerninjustice.com which has all trial transcripts, appeals etc/ www.doinglifeondeathrow.com www.deathrowjournals.blogspot.com Karen Mutton, May 2010 4 FOREWORD BY DR JAN ARRIENS, FOUNDER OF LIFELINES I first began corresponding with Mike Lambrix in 1991. I was in the process of putting together a book entitled Welcome to Hell consisting largely of excerpts from letters of prisoners on death row to people in the UK. I also wanted to include a number of essays I had come across, including one by Mike. I wrote to him for his permission and, introducing myself as the founder of the LifeLines correspondence organisation set up in 1988, asked if he would like a penpal. He politely said he would not. We have been corresponding ever since. At that stage, Mike had been on death row just eight years. Now, it is 25 years: a quarter of a century under sentence of death for a crime which he has resolutely maintained he did not commit. Over the years, I have read many trial transcripts and appeal briefs and, like his lawyers, can only conclude that he is not guilty as charged. Many elements of the trial and the evidence, as well as subsequent events, provide the gravest grounds for concern that his is a miscarriage of justice. Mike now enters a further round of appeals with the Florida Supreme Court, with every option open: exoneration, a retrial or, God forbid, execution. I first began writing to a prisoner on death row in Mississippi, Sam Johnson, in 1987. In 1992 – the year after I began corresponding with Mike – I attended a resentencing trial for Sam in Vicksburg. This meant that his guilt stood, but that the jury was asked to reconsider whether the death penalty had been appropriate. The most overwhelming impression I came away with from that trial was an unexpected one. The first three days were spent in jury selection. I was close to the defence team, and watched this 5 process with mounting amazement. In the end, after much manoeuvring, the 12 persons good and true were selected. What I had not bargained for was the impact that seeing them file into the court room for the first time would have on me. By this time I had got to know Sam well and to respect him. In our letters we had established an extraordinary rapport. As with Mike, I was convinced – and the resentencing trial provided the final proof – that Sam was not the guilty party in the affray that had left a policeman dead. Here, though, were 12 ordinary men and women who were now being asked to weigh the life of my friend in the balance. I felt overwhelmed. In an instant, I knew that it was deeply and fundamentally unfair for society to ask fellow citizens to take such a momentous decision. Inevitably, only some of the facts came to light, and often these were interpreted differently by the prosecution and defense teams and their witnesses. All the while, my soul was crying out unheard, “But Sam’s life is at stake!” Now, I find myself going through the same thing with Mike. The moment of decision is approaching. On the basis of a necessarily narrow view of the full picture, a small number of human beings – in this case, a State Supreme Court bench – will decide my friend’s fate. What they won’t know is the Mike Lambrix who has sent me often lengthy, meticulously crafted letters every three to four weeks for the last 17 years – perhaps some 250 letters in all, totalling the best part of a thousand closely written pages. Astute and caring, open, humorous, wise and perceptive, the letters form a major opus touching on a thousand and one subjects: his parents and family, his early upbringing, the circumstances of the crime, his legal proceedings, religion, politics, prison conditions, the cockroaches in his cell, the State of contemporary US society and quantum physics. Here is a highly intelligent, well-read man. When I met him for the first time, he asked for my views on string theory. I professed 6 ignorance. In mock dismay, he said, “I’m really disappointed, Jan. I thought you would be up-to-date on that kind of thing.” Where he got his information from, I’m not quite sure but I made my business to find out more about string theory and began reading widely in popular science. For that I shall always be grateful to him! Another subject we have discussed at length, both in our letters and on the three occasions on which we have met, has been religion. In 1989, Mike came perilously close to being executed when an appeal was not properly lodged. On the morning of the scheduled execution, Mike had a vision of light that changed his life. It was the first thing he wanted to talk about when we met for the first time. Here was a subject on which I was rather more conversant, as my path to Quakerism had involved extensive reading in mysticism, especially the medieval Christian mystics. It was instantly clear to me that this experience had all the hallmarks of a classical mystical experience: one of which is that it changes the life of the percipient forever. And so it has with Mike. He has touched a depth of experience vouchsafed to very few of us, and the deep inner knowing beyond words has sustained him through a hellish existence few human beings could survive with their sanity intact. If, as I hope and believe, Mike will eventually be exonerated and released, he will have served longer under sentence of death as an innocent man than anyone in US history and, in all probability, all human history.