Ray Jasper, Ten Years Later
"You can go to any penitentiary in this nation and you will see slavery."
When I worked at Gawker, I used to publish letters from death row inmates. Every year I would write to everyone who was scheduled to be executed that year, and ask them basic questions— what their life was like in prison, how they got there, and what their thoughts were about justice. Some ignored me. Some sent replies that were barely literate; others used their letters to proclaim their innocence. I published all of them, unedited. Not to relitigate their cases, or to comment on their crimes, but simply to give a voice to the people who were sitting at the bottom of society’s deepest, darkest hole. It seemed like the least we could do.
The most widely read death row letter that we ever ran came from a man named Ray Jasper. An inmate in Texas, Jasper had been convicted of capital murder for his role in the 1998 robbery and killing of David Alejandro, a San Antonio recording studio owner. Jasper was 18 years old at the time of the crime. (Alejandro’s brother Steven wrote his own letter to Gawker as well, which you can read here.)
I published Jasper’s letter on March 5, 2014. Ten years ago this week. The letter was effectively his last public statement. It was read by millions of people at the time, and it is still worth reading. Here it is, in honor of its tenth anniversary.
On March 19, 2014, two weeks after this letter was published, Ray Jasper was executed. He was 33 years old.
More
—Defector ran an excerpt of my book “The Hammer,” which you can read here. The book is now available wherever books are sold. I also spoke to NEA Magazine about how stronger unions can fix America. And The Guardian ran a story about the future of journalism that touched on Flaming Hydra, a collective project that I and dozens of other writers are involved in.
—I am traveling the country on a book tour for “The Hammer,” talking about the book and the labor movement. I’ve passed through a half dozen cities so far and the response has been great. The grassroots energy in labor right now is very evident. Thank you to everyone who came out for the fantastic event in Brooklyn with Josh Gondelman this past week. The tour is still rolling on. Here are my upcoming events—next up is Atlanta, at the Carter Center Library, in conversation with Sara Nelson. Come out and see us!
THIS TUESDAY, March 5: Atlanta, GA—At the Carter Center Library, 7 pm. With Sara Nelson. Event link here.
Monday, March 18: Philadelphia, PA—At the Free Library of Philly, 7:30 pm. With Kim Kelly.
Thursday, March 21: New Orleans, LA—At Baldwin and Co. Books. With Sarah Jaffe. Free tickets are here.
Wednesday, March 27: Boston, MA— At the Northeastern College of Professional Studies at 101 Belvidere Street. 6:30 pm. Free tickets are here.
Sunday, April 21: Chicago, IL— “The Hammer” book event and Labor Notes Conference after party at In These Times HQ, 2040 N. Milwaukee Ave. 5 pm.
I’m still adding more events on the West Coast and Midwest, stay tuned. If you’d like to bring me to your city, email me.
—Thank you to everyone who reads How Things Work. My ability to be a working writer in today’s smoldering wreckage of a journalism industry is very much dependent on the paid subscribers of this publication. If you’d like to support my work and help to keep this site free and open for everyone, please take a few seconds to become a paying subscriber today. This is independent media, and it is the future.
Ah, a decade later, still rips my heart in two.
Thanks for posting this. I missed it the first time around. It is brilliant and heart-breaking. His discussion of empathy reminds me of Bryan Stevenson's mantra that none of us are defined by the one worse thing we did in life. Someday, perhaps, we will become a civilized, even empathetic, nation, but it will take a lot more work to get there.