On His Years as a Crip:
"I have a despicable background. I was a criminal. I was a co-founder of the Crips. I was a nihilist."
"I functioned primarily on street wit. I managed to make it to the 12th grade. The teachers were insipid in their methodology." "Cripping was all I knew. I lived it. I breathed it. I walked it and I talked it."
"My courage was predicated on violence, on a negative reputation, on drugs, on ignorance. The courage I have now, or fortitude, is based on faith."
On His Transformation:
"People forget that redemption is tailor-made for the wretched."
On the Case Against Him:
"I always ask the question: Can a black man in
On the Man the Jury Saw:
"I was darned near twice this size. I had an indelibly entrenched grimace on my face. I had total disdain for the law enforcement system and it showed. And I was shackled."
On the Families of the Victims:
"To threaten me with death does not accomplish the means of the criminal justice system or satiate those who think my death or my demise will be a closure for them. Their loved ones will not rise up from the grave and love them. I wish they could. I sympathize or empathize with everyone who has lost a loved one. But I didn’t do it. My death would not mollify them."
On His Work With Children:
"They can empathize with me. I pretty much experienced all the madness they're going through."
"I feel a sense of bliss within. I like to see the viability of youth."
"I don’t take myself seriously. I do take my helping children and writing books exceedingly seriously."
On Taking Responsibility for the Murders:
"How can a person express contrition if he's not guilty?"
"If I were culpable of these crimes, I'd be on my knees, begging everybody."
On What He Would Have Said to Mr. Schwarzenegger:
"First and foremost, I would say that I’m innocent. Second, I believe that if I’m allowed to get a clemency or an indefinite stay, it would allow me to continue to proliferate my positive message, including a collaboration with the N.A.A.C.P., to create a violence-prevention message for at-risk youth."
On Death Row:
"I've never seen a millionaire here."
"You're surrounded by a motley of different characters. Within the madness, there are those other than myself who have opted to redeem themselves.
"The longer I sit in this animalistic cage, the more human I become. I've learned not to allow the negative ambience to control me. I've risen above all of that, like a phoenix, a black phoenix."
"Had I still been in society I never would have been able to make the kind of impact I can now."
On the Death Penalty:
"We know that it's not a deterrent. It's wasted a lot of the taxpayers’ money. The death penalty in a sense is a disguise for vengeance."
"It's a barbaric system that propagates, ‘to resolve murder is to murder someone,’ another oxymoron. It doesn't work."
"It's a more sophisticated type of killing than a mob lynching. It's pathetic."
"In reality, there's no disparity between this place and
On What He Misses:
"My freedom. Being able to hold my grandchild. Being able to go to the beach. Women. Food. My mother."
On the Prospect of Execution:
"They have the audacity to ask, 'Do I want a last meal?' Absolutely not. 'Do I want anyone present?' Absolutely not. 'Do I want a preacher?' Absolutely not. I want nothing from this institution."
"I feel good. I really do. I feel good physically and mentally and spiritually. Had I not undergone this redemptive transformation, I guarantee I’d really be a mess."
"I have that joie de vivre. I love life."
"My faith sustains me. I don't crack under pressure."
"The least I can do is maintain my dignity. I confront madness with integrity. I don’t walk around like some shuffling black man."
"I'll go through it with dignity, with integrity, with love and bliss in my heart. I smile at everything, and I’m quite sure I’ll smile then, too. I smile to myself, and I don't worry about it."
What I do is kick them in the pants with a diamond buckled shoe!
~~Aileen Mehle~~
