Despite me being torn away from what was then my budding family, torn from my dreams, and wrongly arrested; despite the way Detective Matjeka terrorized my mind in his office; the way he yelled in my face and said, “They’re going to stick a needle in your arm and you’re going to die!” All because I wouldn’t sign a statement for him; despite . . . the way the prosecutor, Tamura Butler zealously sought to convict me amid contradictory evidence; despite her lying, and encouraging a jailhouse snitch to lie against me to bolster their weak case against me, all while offering him a deal; despite the Judge, Juanita Vasquez Gardner refusing to take control of her courtroom; despite her ignoring me when I tried to plea to her about my court-appointed attorney refusing to represent my legal interest; despite my own attorney snatching my voice from me and forcing it into a procedurally barred straitjacket; despite him essentially putting the needle in my arm himself; despite. . . despite the State Bar rubber stamping my grievance against my attorney with a denial, turning a blind eye toward what he did to his own client; despite the Federal Judge procedurally barring all my innocence claims, while essentially blaming me for my lawyers mistakes; despite the whole 5th Circuit fighting to stuff my kicking arms and legs under their dirty carpet of indifference, of injustice; despite all the law firms and innocence projects and media outlets refusing to acknowledge our shouts, our cries because we didn’t already have the exposure, or because we didn’t have the popularity, or because my case reveals all the filth and stench lurking in this dark death called the Death Penalty; despite me being stripped of my humanity, thrown into a cold, leaking cage, under the watchful eye of a camera, on death watch, weeks from an execution; despite 9 long years of hunger strikes, protest, blood, sweat, and tears . . .

I have not been broken! They have NOT! destroyed my mind; my heart; my spirit. I still stand and declare my love, my life, my vision, my innocence with a strength that their adversity, THEIR! adversity gave me. They inadvertently built me into a cause pumping through the hearts of hundreds of people. They have only put a face on the faceless. And gave form to the formless. There’s no more lurking! No more hiding; sliding under carpets; being deaf, dumb, and blind. Somebody will have to answer to this injustice. And let it be before blood ends up trailing from the 399th District Court, onto the Supreme Court, left to drip from the hands of Governor Rick Perry. We should let it be known, not only is a life on the line, no, but some people’s careers are on the line too!

Til the end!
Til the end!

Your brother in the struggle,
Reg

http://www.myspace.com/freereggieb

http://reginaldblanton.ning.com