Bill, sorry it took me so long to get back to your comments. I don't know if I'm expected to reply to everyone's comments but when people ask me questions or anything like that, I want to try to always respond. But my answers are just my opinions and God knows I'm probably more wrong than I am right. I'm stuck in for awhile while they X-ray my spine and hopefully I can convince them to do an MRI but that's very rare in prison. Anyway, I'd like to get it not just to see what's wrong with my back but I haven't even seen a tree in 10 years so a trip to the local hospital would be nice. The death penalty. I will always have mixed feelings on it. The judgmental part of me wants it, but the humane part of me says it's wrong. When you hear about a woman, any woman, raped and murdered, instant reaction is kill' em. Death penalty. A lot of us say in our heads, if she was my mom, sister, family, I would kill him. My main problem is sometimes labs are wrong. This past year, a lab in New York messed up tests of hundreds of DNA related cases and now all of those cases are under a microscope. The tests can be perfect but just like everything else, the person performing the test can be flawed. I never used to think like this until I came to prison. I know 1 person doing life who is innocent. I've known him 15 years. His co-defendant did the killing and got 10-20 years, he then testified against the guy in here and he got life. The guy in here, it was his idea to break into the house and commit a burglary. But not to kill anyone. He didn't kill the woman. The actual killer is free on parole. I'm fine with justice, but each case needs to be looked at individually. The courts are supposed to determine guilt or innocent, the district attorney's office only want the conviction, they live for convictions and dealing is the easiest way to get one. But because the guy in here wouldn't snitch on his co-defendant, the deal was then offered to the actual killer. I did not read about the guys you mentioned who broke into a house and raped and killed the mother and daughter. I don't want to know because it breaks my heart to hear stories like this. But I do know it happens quite often. We are a flawed race and I wish there were simple answers to fix the problems but killing has been a part of our culture since the beginning of time. How do we fix it? Do we fix it by saying, if you kill someone, then we will kill you? That's been proven not to work. Does anyone have any answers? Our government is not doing a great job and as much as I criticize President Obama, it's not only his fault. It's the fault of everyone and it happens because we are not willing to work together to solve our problems. For politicians it's Tea Parties and things of that nature, for gangs it's killing your enemies. You seem pretty intelligent and I thank you for keeping an open mind. Just yesterday I was talking to a staff member here in the prison. He said he bumped into a former high school student at a local fair and they got to talking. The student was surprised to learn that her former teacher quit teaching and is now a prison employee. The former student said why would you want to work in there with hundreds of scum bags, rapists, and killers? He said in his eyes, everyone deserves a 2nd chance at life. That's his opinion. He was very proud to tell her that he was able to collect $200 in donations from the prisoners in here for a local kids' soccer team, to help buy these young kids whatever they needed. Personally, I donated $2.00. And in here do you know what $2.00 is? That's going to work for 10 1/2 hours and donating every cent you just made. We get paid 19 cents per hour. Some guys in here have nothing, some guys have a lot. I don't have very much but my mom sent me some money so I could go see the doctor for my back and I didn't use all of the money, so I figured I could spare a few bucks for the kids. And in prison, money means everything. Without it, you don't survive. Take care, Bill, and when you see an injustice, we don't correct it unless we speak up. We all have a voice but we cannot be afraid to use it. People can change, I know because I have. I am not perfect, but I am a better man now than I have ever been. God bless, ciao.

PS. I wrote this on 8-12-13 @ 9:00 pm, watching Cake Boss on TLC.