Declaration of Independence

Maybe the Natives and African Americans should have drafted a similar “Declaration of Independence” to protect themselves from the Colonists? The original thirteen colonies oppressed Natives and subjugated Africans while writing, “a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to separation” from King George III. Let us not forget the Natives, Africans and other people of color were not considered fully human by the creators of “The Declaration of Independence.”

Women along with people of color were not included in, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” Living up to this statement has proven to be an arduous task; 238 years later, however, we still are not there yet. All white men are created equal is what Jefferson was clarifying. African Americans were three-fifths human in Jefferson’s perspective. Eloquent words from a slave owner who impregnated much of his female slave property.

Civil wars are erupting around the globe as I dissect “The Declaration of Independence.” America will not have a civil war because the government fully controls the people. So much for, “a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object” and “it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such a government.” Colonists truly believed they suffered absolute tyranny. After proffering “The Declaration of Independence,” Jefferson went home to rape his African property.

This magnificent document should have applied to all peoples. Yes, I criticize the framers of this manuscript for their Eurocentrism and ultra-xenophobia. One day “The Declaration of Independence” will stand up to the “Supreme Judge of the world.” The journey is long… step by step, day by day– we will get there.

I look forward to your contact and communications.

Facebook: Donald Ray Young

Twitter @DonaldRayYoung

Mail:

Donald Ray Young

P.O. Box E-78474

CSP San Quentin

San Quentin, CA 94974

FREEDOM

Soaring through the light blue and white sky. I don’t know what bird of prey this is, maybe a hawk? She looks like an oversized crow with the majestic flight of the eagle. This rapture is strong and confident as she flies over San Quentin State Prison. If I could fly I’d pass right over the prison too– without a pause. This bird has captured the wind and made a vehicle of it. Where is this bird going? Where did she come from? How far has she traveled today? The wing span must be more than four feet. This view would make a wonderful picture or reference photo for a painting. I would love to paint this bird in its glorious glide. This is freedom. This bird knows true freedom, something that has eluded me for the past 17 years and then four years before that. If I could change places with this bird. She’s gone and now all that’s left is the memory of this creature. A few feathers were missing from her right wing which only gave her more character. She seemed so close to me but it’s difficult to measure the exact distance as she slid by me patrolling the sky.  Most of society will never get this bird’s view of San Quentin State Prison. I think about this bird more so because I am caged. Do the free one’s think about the caged ones more so because they are free? I don’t think so. When I flew as the bird I rarely thought of the caged. But the memory of this bird gives me hope as I re-play her soaring over me. Maybe one day I will be free as well, or is this my only glimpse of freedom…

I look forward to your contact and communication.

 

Facebook: Donald Ray Young

Twitter: @DonaldRayYoung

Mail:

Donald Ray Young

P.O. Box E-78474

CSP San Quentin

San Quentin, CA 94974

 

Pine Box or Ballot Box

The Savings, Accountability, and Full Enforcement for California Act

This is our time to abolish capital punishment in California via the ballot box.  If we allow this killing machine to resuscitate, we can expect executions of the more than 725 death row prisoners at a rate that will send shock waves throughout Texas.  Which side are we on?  We cannot stand in the middle of the road this time.  Abolish capital punishment in California, or support government-sponsored, premeditated murder of death row prisoners.  We have more than 14 people with fully-exhausted appeals.  The sole protection that stands between them and a pine box… is our vote!

We said, “I AM TROY DAVIS.”  Many of us said that we were Stanley Tookie Williams.  Cameron Todd Willingham was another innocent person on death row – the Texas criminal justice system executed him in our name.  If we had abolished capital punishment nationwide, all three of these men would still be alive, able to prove their innocence to the world.  No one enjoys a prison sentence of life without the possibility of parole (LWOP), but it definitely keeps Mumia Abu-Jamal speaking truth to power.

Before being abstracted debating how cruel LWOP is, let us complete the urgent business of abolishing capital punishment with our votes.  Death penalty proponents have revived their rhetorical corporate media-fueled propaganda campaign.  Californians, putative abolitionists and death penalty opponents: keeping death row intact when given the option to abolish capital punishment is nothing more than subterfuge ~ covertly supporting what we claim to loathe.  Take out the fear and face the facts: most lengthy prison sentences end with the prisoner dying in prison.  As it stands, prisoners convicted of murder (innocent or guilty) face capital punishment or LWOP.  The SAFE California Act will convert all 725 death sentences to LWOP, making it the harshest punishment option for convicted murderers.  The right to appeal convictions to the state and federal courts will still exist, with the same constitutional guarantees afforded LWOP prisoners; additionally, after all appellate issues are exhausted, the appellants will remain very much alive.

While many disagree with certain aspects of the SAFE California Act (i.e. $30 million per year, for three years, given to municipal police and prosecutors, coupled with florid, pro-prosecution language), if this road takes capital punishment off the table, we must travel it.  The United States has executed more than 1290 prisoners since 1977.  The future belongs to us, and step-by-step we will seize power.  After winning this highly contentious battle, we will join resources to abolish all forms of permanent imprisonment.  Every prisoner should have the right to be released if he or she is not a threat to society.

Since 1978, capital punishment has left California with a fatally-flawed system.  Over $4 billion has been wasted, 13 executions have occurred, and 3 individuals have been exonerated.  This is our once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.  Let us choose the ballot box… or the pine box will choose us!

I look forward to your contact and communication.

Facebook: Donald Ray Young

Twitter: @DonaldRayYoung

Mail:   Donald Ray Young

P.O. Box E-78474

San Quentin State Prison

San Quentin, CA  94974

EXCULPATORY EVIDENCE – WHITED OUT

By Donald Ray Young

The Tulare County District Attorney conspired with the Tulare Police Department to fabricate copious inculpatory evidence, for the sole purpose of sending me – an innocent man – to death row.  Their train was bursting at the seams with lies.  It eventually fell off the tracks on 16 November 2005, three-and-one-half months into the death penalty trial.  The prosecution desperately needed to justify their contention that evidence could continually be in four remote locations at the same time,  without ever being checked out of the Tulare Police Department’s ‘secure’ evidence locker, among other illusions.  I could finally prove what I had been telling everyone who would listen from day one: the purported original evidence reports were forgeries, and the evidence chain-of-custody was non-existent.  Those who held the power in court labeled what happened next as an Evidence Code 402 Hearing – a trial inside a trial – outside the presence of the jury.  I called the entire process what it had always been:  a farce and a sham!

It was a cold 16 November 2005 morning when the pro-prosecution, hanging Judge, Ronn M.Couillard, said this: “I’ve been with this case since August of 2000.  Donald Ray Young was pro per (representing himself).  This thing, as far as discovery and handing over items and documents and everything, has gotten to be a nightmare.  I do know there were always problems with discovery being presented to the defense, even when Donald Ray Young was pro per, where items were copied, they weren’t copied properly, half a page was left off.  That’s all just background, the point being is that discovery has been a nightmare in this case.  It’s continuing to be.”  After fourteen weeks of trial, we were still receiving discovery.  Discovery is the method by which the defense learns, before trial, of the witnesses and evidence the opposition intends to offer at trial.

My trial attorney, Galatea DeLapp, saw this prosecutorial misconduct in a more egregious light.  As she addressed the court, “In my opinion, it’s a Brady violation.  I’m asking for a mistrial, a motion to dismiss with prejudice, on the basis of this Brady material not coming to us until this point, after substantial evidence has already been before the court.”  In addition to the prosecution’s constitutional obligation to disclose exculpatory evidence, there are additional mandates: a statutory discovery obligation, and the duty, under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, to disclose to the defense “all substantial material evidence favorable to an accused.”  Brady vs. Maryland (1963) is a legal case that illuminated the aforementioned obligations,  ensuring rights for the accused.

When the trial judge ordered the prosecution to produce all original evidence reports and original evidence chain-of-custody records, the response from the Tulare Police Department (hereafter referred to as TPD) was that they needed the original court order signed by the judge. What?!!  TPD was the prosecution, and had high-ranking officers in court when the order was made! As the original evidence reports and chain-of-custody records were grudgingly allowed to make their way into the trial court — in preparation of the Evidence Code 402 Hearing — … White-out! Whited out and written over?  That to which the prosecution had been testifying under oath was nothing more than two binders of evidence report pages, painted over and fabricated, manufactured and rewritten.  The prosecution also referred to these binders as original evidence reports and original evidence chain-of-custody logs.  TPD’s own protocol precludes painting over original evidence reports.  You can’t trust the evidence.  You can’t trust the witnesses.  The Evidence Code 402 Hearing will begin.

The first witness to take the stand attempted to minimize or explain away the whiteout, manufactured evidence and corruption. This person was…

To be continued…

YOUR VOICE HAS MEANING.  I WILL ENJOY HEARING FROM YOU.

Wolfe In Sheep’s Clothing: Part II

Commercial hunters would capture one pigeon alive, sew its eyes shut, and tie it to a perch called a ‘stool’.  Soon, a curious flock would land beside the ‘stool pigeon’ – a term now used to describe someone who lies to the police for personal gain.

Considering the credibility of the source is the first step in dissecting false testimony.  Does Anthony Lee Wolfe have a history of deceit?  Does he have a reason or motive to lie?  Is the Wolfe a psychotic, sociopath, psychopath and pathological liar?  The answers are codified herein.

Several psychiatrists diagnosed him with a serious mental illness, marked by loss of the ability to test whether or not what he is thinking and feeling about the real world is really true.  The Wolfe is a schizophrenic, with multiple personalities.  He reported hearing voices to his psychiatrist.  The characteristics of the Wolfe’s psychosis are hallucinations, grandiosity, fabrications and aggressive behavior.  Anti-psychotic tranquilizers were prescribed by psychiatrists in order to control the Wolfe; unfortunately, he went off his anti-psychotic medications when he was released from prison.

The Wolfe was an obsequious police informant and ‘Fresno Hoover Crip’ gang member (donned with gang tattoos) before, during and after his April 24, 1995 prison release.  His gang affiliation remains intact today.  Lewd and lascivious acts on a child (his sister), assault on a police officer, escape from jail, vehicle theft, possession of stolen property, carrying a concealed weapon and burglary are just some of the convictions that the Wolfe accumulated before prison.  While in prison, he was convicted of possessing a weapon made for stabbing (a self-fashioned knife).  After prison, even after the infamous July 18, 1995 tragedy, the Wolfe was caught counterfeiting (1997).  He was convicted of passing counterfeit one-hundred-dollar bills at several businesses.   Staring at a ‘three strikes’ life sentence in California state prison, the Wolfe manufactured evidence, manipulated a jury, and implicated an innocent man.  This travesty was accomplished step-by-step through rehearsals, reenactments and coaching by corrupt and desperate law enforcement personnel, over an interminable period of ten years.

The capital crime in question occurred July 18, 1995 while the Wolfe was on release from prison (as of April 24 of that year).  I did not know this man prior to, or during, this 85-day period.  What I know about him germinates from official documents.  During trial (2005/2006), on the witness stand, the Wolfe was shown a photograph of me fishing, taken in August 1995.  He could not identify me in the photograph.

After copious, contiguous fabrications spanning over three decades, Anthony Lee Wolfe has a new name and undisclosed location.  His new lifestyle is wholly funded by your tax dollars!  The state of California is not protecting its citizens from the Wolfe. Quite the contrary, the Wolfe is running wild, lurking in the Witness Protection Program.

Tell me, what do you think?

Wolfe In Sheep’s Clothing: Part 1

By Donald Ray Young

Allow me to introduce you to the Tulare County District Attorney’s star witness against me–at trial– the male who played a central role in my housing arrangement on California’s death row at San Quentin State Prison.  A 320-pound, 6’1″ Caucasian male, with thin, balding, dirty-blond hair and blue eyes,  Anthony Lee Wolfe is just one of his names. False testimony in a capital case comes easily to this well-known pedophile and psychopath.

Let’s consider the character and behavior of the source: Lewd and lascivious acts on a child, or felony child molestation pursuant to California Penal Code section 388(a), would be an appropriate place to start. The trial judge, Ronn M. Couillard, stated that it would be  prejudicial for the jury to know that the prosecution’s star witness, Anthony Lee Wolfe, repeatedly raped and molested Brandy Wright, his seven-year old sister. I knew that it would be prejudicial for the world: not to know the truth about the male murdering me with his fabrications from the witness stand!

Anthony Lee Wolfe was eventually caught raping Brandy, as he was emboldened to do so while their mother, Phyllis Wright, was  in an adjacent room of the house.  Phyllis heard Brandy crying out, telling her of the torture conducted by her older brother, in explicit detail.  The traumatized second-grader struggled on to explain… this was not the first time Wolfe had raped her…. If Brandy didn’t ‘do it’ with her brother, Wolfe would hit her.

Anthony Lee Wolfe devastated and destroyed his own family–I know it’s pathological…. Anthony Wolfe’s father, William F. Wolfe,  is incarcerated in Idaho State Penitentiary for shooting a man to death in a bar. Regarding the child-rape perpetrated by Anthony Wolfe, Phyllis Wright was made sick to her stomach. Seven-year-old Brandy just stared into space–sucking her thumb…. Therapy was the only hope for Brandy and Phyllis to heal mentally and emotionally– and they had to stay far away physically from Wolfe to be safe.

According to his grandmother, Wolfe repeatedly stole from her –then lied about it when caught. Law enforcement records show that Wolfe forged his grandmother’s signature on three personalized checks, and cashed them at stores. The police even caught him stealing money from his grandparents’ neighbor. Wolfe was described as a manipulator who was often caught lying and cheating. Even Wolfe’s mother states, “Wolfe is a lying manipulator who is in great need of psychological help!”  She further asserts that Wolfe is very jealous of the sister he repeatedly raped….

There is no excuse for this Wolfe in sheep’s clothing, or the parties who allow him to bear false witness and destroy innocent lives. Didn’t my jury have the right to know who was delivering the star performance for the prosecution?

One layer at a time–Part II coming soon.

Education Undervalued

Still… so many priced out!

“Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to be a man of value” – Leonardo Da Vinci.

Success in this global zeitgeist is largely established on education, knowledge and wisdom. Treasure all forms of enlightenment, whether formal or informal, as a ladder to a higher quality of life.  A productive mind will never be subjugated. Learning and life are synonymous.

Youth are our most precious resource –yet 25% live in abject poverty. Famished children cannot reach their full potential. In the United States, 65% of youth with one parent incarcerated will also end up in a prison cell, while 70% of American youth in Child Protective Services will be captured and caged. Halt the pre-school to prison funnel, and picture tomorrow through their eyes. No Child Left Behind and Race To The Top are insufficient programs which pressure pedagogues to teach to a particular test. Creative and critical thinkers are being constricted. California has the world’s eighth-largest economy, yet ranks 43rd nationally in per-pupil spending.

Arizona has made ethnic studies illegal. Texas has redacted people of color right out of the history books. When teachers and students joined to protest billions being cut from the education budget, 70 were arrested in the California state capitol rotunda. California spends $9 billion on Corrections annually –over $55,000 per prisoner.

If the mind is free to express, analyze and explore, shackles dissipate. Obtaining what is possible requires challenges to the higher self. Knowledge is power. Use it wisely! Education, knowledge and wisdom are not free –opportunity costs. College graduates statistically earn twice as much as those with high school diplomas.

The value of education is not lost on me. I earned my Associate in Arts degree, along with several college certifications in business and general education. This is not my end –it is my beginning. My Bachelor’s degree and post-graduate law degree are in sight. Continue learning for life!

I appreciate and respect your reflections….