MEMORANDUM CONFIDENTIAL

PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND, HISTORY, AND CHARACTERISTICS

John is staring at his cousin. His breathing is heavy. Emotions are welling in his chest. “Don’t do this,” he says exacerbated.

“I just need it to buy some groceries, JD.”

“You too good for this Jill. Don’t do this to yourself. You seen what that shit done to your mom. I don’t wanna see you get like that, Jill.” John pleads.

Feeling powerless, John can’t hold back the tears. He feels like he’s fighting a losing battle by trying to intervene in his cousin’s addiction. Thoughts of a life he can’t seem to escape come rushing in. He thinks of Jill’s mother – in poor health, always cracked out, demoralizing herself to feed her addiction. He thinks of his own mother, in a bizarre relationship with an older man, a gambling addiction, an inability to be emotionally or even physically available to her children, constantly unstable and in flux and not really calling any place home. He thinks about his other cousins and the way that being poor and part of a family with no binding values, leadership or direction is propelling them in these linear paths where life stability and success are elusive and disadvantage, corruption and disappointment seem inescapable. There must be a better way to be. He himself gave up dealing a few years ago, determined to stay straight. Besides grandma, all of the other adults in his life struggle with addiction or just achieving any sort of life success. He desperately wants a different future for himself and his cousins who are more like his sisters and brothers. John is pleading with Jill not just because he doesn’t want to see her follow in her mother’s footsteps, but because he needs hope. He tries ardently to help Jill realize that she’s putting her life at stake – a life that could be different.  

What’s sad is that for all of his insightfulness and empathy, John couldn’t keep himself from following a similar path of destruction. When you lack strong close family relationships, you long so much for that sense of family connection. For support, acceptance, companionship and comradery. As is often the case in circumstances similar to John’s, John found a sense of family among his friends from the neighborhood. And even though he cared deeply for his cousins and would tell them to “be good” and “stay out of trouble,” he set a different set of rules for himself. What his friends did, he did also. If he didn’t, he’d be rejected and his semblance of a support system would be lost.

At just thirteen years old, John found himself dealing drugs. It’s no coincidence that this is just a year after his dad dies. And even though he gave that up after just a couple of years, he still ran the streets. At 17, John had an opportunity to get away from the hood and went to live with his older brother, Robby,  in City TX – a small rural community. He was caught with marijuana on the first day of school – not a good way to begin a fresh start. John wound up back in Houston with his grandmother, on probation.  A year younger than, Jill, the cousin he grew up with, their lives would have similar outcomes.

Maybe John thought what he was doing wasn’t as bad as a lot of other things that went on the hood. Deeds far worse than his own were not uncommon in his neighborhood. But perhaps there was also just a sense that nothing mattered. That no matter how hard he tried to do be a good man and stay out of trouble, no matter how deeply he desired something different for his family and tried to convince them to want that too, seeing his cousin Jill succumb to addiction and not fight for something better was a numbing discouragement. And this discouragement was only compounded by growing up in a neighborhood where this sort of thing was happening all around him, not just in his own family.

John Doe’s life has all of the makings of a sad story – the kind that’s not surprising of a kid who grows up poor in the projects with no real adult guidance, where falling into a life of crime is unfortunately more than too easy. He was born at Davis Hospital to a mother that would be in and out of his life. Mama was HIV positive. She worked fast food most of her life, but it was rumored she turned tricks. She was in an unconventional relationship with the man John knew to be his father, a man old enough to be his grandfather. The majority of his life, he lived with his grandmother and nine of his cousins in a two-bedroom apartment. His mother would come and go - spending some nights on the couch. But many nights, she’d be at the gambling shacks. John remembers going to the shacks with his mother sometimes, sitting at the bar with a coke and chips while his mom “worked.” Some nights, she was with her boyfriend; some nights, who knows where – John didn’t. It was clear Tina had no interest in being the mother John and his brother needed.

The only father John ever knew didn’t live with him, but he lived in the same community and John could see him whenever he wanted. He died when John was just 12 years old. Grandma Dorothy was the only consistent adult figure John and his cousins had. She wanted to keep all of her grandkids together and be the support their parents could not. She was poor and tried her best to provide just basic needs – though even that proved very difficult. John and his cousins went without often. John resorted to selling drugs at a young age just so he could be able to have more than one change of clothes to wear to school every day. Lacking a sense of family unity in his immediate family, John found that sort of unity among the friendships he formed in the neighborhood. And it was with those friends that John ran the streets, getting involved in illegal activity and eventually being arrested and charged with aggravated robbery just a year and a half after confronting his cousin, Jill, about her addiction. He was re-incarcerated shortly after his release at age 27 for a similar crime and now sits in City County jail.  It would be easy to dismiss John as another byproduct of unfortunate circumstances, as someone who never had a chance and too few options for is life to turn out differently. And while that may be true to some degree, there’s a lot more to John Doe than just a disadvantaged upbringing and history of criminal behavior.

Many psychologists will tell you that there are no bad people. People sometimes do bad things, but even then, people are usually doing what they believe is the right thing for them at the time. They’re not being “evil” for the sake of being evil. Our actions are largely determined by circumstances and the options available to us. People who commit the crime of robbery don’t generally do so for sport. If an individual has lawful and legitimate means accessible to attain what they acquire from stealing, they likely do not then chose to become thieves. It is not a coincidence that crime is higher in poorer communities where meeting even basic needs is a struggle. This is compounded by a society that glorifies and measures success by consumerism. John’s life circumstances don’t excuse the bad decisions he’s made and the wrongs he’s committed against other people. He’s not just some poor victim of the system. John is a whole person possessing both the capability to do both right and wrong with a full spectrum of emotions and behaviors that reflect this capability.

Imagine you’re living in a home with 10 other people – not a lot of food around – not enough space – no privacy – not enough changes of clothes to wear clean clothes every day – looking forward to school meals – no extras, no toys, no cable or video games, no internet – sleeping in a bed or on the floor in too-close-quarters to other bodies – there’s not always hygiene items available to make sure your teeth are brushed or your hair is combed – and no role models around – grandma just trying to provide a safe place and the bare minimum – how one might easily be led to do what they see others do (stealing, robbing and dealing) in order to even just meet basic needs.

John, his grandmother, nine cousins and sometimes his mother or aunt lived in a small two-bedroom apartment at Oxford Place. His grandmother is widowed when John is just a baby. She’s in poor health, on government assistance, and caring for nine children adequately is more than just difficult on many levels. Located off of Berry Rd, this is a neighborhood whose reputation is well-known for its rampant poverty and criminal activity. In 2005, these same apartments were torn down and rebuilt with fewer entrances and exits and fewer places to hide to make it more difficult for criminals to come and go and conduct illegal activities. Growing up, John and his cousins all knew the drill when they’d hear gun shots outside: duck down and keep away from the windows. This is not an abnormal thing in this neck of the woods. John and his cousins recall walking to school one day and seeing a dead man on the side of the road. It was their neighbor, and they didn’t know why or how but he had been murdered. No one tried to usher them away from the sight. No one told them to avert their eyes. No one pulled them aside to explain or help them digest what they saw. John and his cousins just walked directly by and went to school.

There were no adult figures that provided the sort of mentorship or life examples these kids could latch onto. John was a bit different in that he had a special relationship with his father, LV, as a young child. LV was a kind man. He would often give John a few bucks whenever he could. LV knew that even just keeping a small amount of money in John’s pocket from time to time could be enough to deter him from resorting to means other kids around the community did to get things. All of the kids loved it when LV came to visit grandma’s house because he always had something for each of them. He was very giving. John was much like his father in that way. If he had anything, he would share it with his cousins. He was very much like a big brother. When LV died, John took it very hard. John was depressed. His mother was depressed. She didn’t know how she was gonna make it because LV was very generous to her too. The death of LV made John feel alone, depressed and lost. LV was old and wouldn’t live forever but no child should ever lose a parent. This changed JD’s life tremendously. He was held back in the 7th grade because he missed too much school and he didn’t care to do his classwork when he was there. ) But LV’s influence on John was lasting. [Insert quote from brother saying he was like LV] He continued to be a big brother figure to his cousins. He would often take on the role of caretaker. He helped his grandma around the house and watched over the kids in her absence. [Insert quote. Ashley was John’s good friend during teenage years. “I never met his mom or brother but I would pick him up at his grandmother’s house. I saw her a few times. He seemed to really love his grandma. Everytime he would leave the house, he’d say ‘Behave and act right! You must mind grandma. She is older and needs our help to do your best.’ John never talked bad about her or complained about his life.’] John also watched over his cousins in other regards. [When they would get into fights or tell them who to stay away from or what not to do? He wanted to keep them out of trouble. Examples?  :::::: John was like a big brother more than a cousin. John would step in when grandma was not feeling good. He learned how to cook at a young age. One of the younger cousins CJ smiles when he talks about John. CJ remembers, “I think the best meal he ever made us was ground beef, rice and can of corn. It was so good. I thought it was amazing!’ CJ was one of the young cousins and always looked up to JD. He wanted what JD had. CJ couldn’t always do what the big boys were doing but he remembers JD would take the kids anywhere he would go. If he went to the park, he took the younger kids. If he walked to the store he took a cousin with him. When he would walk to his dad’s house CJ always wanted to tag along. ]

John is a quiet type, a bit of a wall flower. At parties, he’s usually the guy in the corner people watching and not saying much. He’s reserved, never flamboyant. But growing up he stood out in one regard, John could play basketball. He went to the neigJDorhood courts and played almost every day. Basketball was John’s third place, an escape from his day-to-day norm. Playing b-ball, John could forget that his life wasn’t “normal” for a little while. He could forget that he maybe didn’t have enough to eat that day. He could forget that he didn’t know where his mom was or that she was only around sometimes. He could forget that grandma depended on him to help watch over his younger cousins. He could forget that other kids made fun of him for not changing his clothes because he didn’t have any other clothes to wear. John immersed himself in the game playing with other neighborhood kids, some two and three times older than he was. He could not only hold his own, he was really talented. In seventh grade, John made the basketball team and played throughout junior high. All of John’s friends and family will tell you that he was really good. But none of John’s family ever attended his games. No one encouraged him to pursue his passion seriously. John learned to have low expectations for his life. There was no extraordinary future ahead of him – not for a kid from the projects. Playing this game held nothing in store for him.  By the time he was in high school, John’s focus shifted elsewhere. 

John didn’t finish high school. After he returned from Huntinton he was 18 and didn’t have to go to school. He was an adult now. He didn’t see the point. He didn’t have anyone pushing him and he just let down his big brother with the drug thing in Hunington. He felt that he needed to make money to survive. School is not the key to success in his 18 year old brain. He want money fast and he knew how to do that. He was aimlessly running the streets.. John took his big-brother mentality with him during his incarceration. He formed a valuable friendship with Howard Cleveland and Roderick Johnson. They called him “Hen,” for short. John taught Rodderick how to read and helped him earn his GED.  Spending four years in the penitentiary together, Howard says that Hen was his accountability partner; they kept each other out of trouble. “I would do anything for Hen, and I know he would do anything for me.”

During his eight-year stint in prison, John never received any visitors or any letters from any friends or family. This isn’t uncommon – out of sight, out of mind. Of course that means that no one ever put any money on his books. So he often didn’t have money to buy basic hygiene items. Howard would give him soap and shampoo: “If I had it, so did Hen.” Other inmates would steal if they needed something. Even working in the kitchen where stealing would not prove difficult, John wouldn’t risk stealing here. Working in the kitchen is considered one of the “good” jobs; you have to be trustworthy to work in the kitchen. John also learned to play chess in prison. He liked this game because it required patience. In prison they play the same game but without the time clock. Chess taught him patience because the other person might take 20 mins to make a move. There is no way to rush anyone in prison. You learn how to think before you make a move.  

It is somewhat baffling and unfortunate that John Doe now sits in City County Jail_ after just a brief release. It is not the intention of this defense to make excuses for his actions, but to request that his life history and positive displays of character be taken into consideration as well.  In light of these factors, it is respectfully requested that this court sentence John Doe to a life term of federal imprisonment in lieu of a death sentence.

Thank you for your consideration.