Greetings everyone,
Trust I haven't been gone too long for those who are following me. Its gotten busy again for me which is what I like. I'm doing Ashland University, a Janitorial apprenticeship, and I'll start a Handyman Home Improvement class soon. I'll also be starting a class called Intensive Outpatient Program too.That's going to be a good one. And I still do the daily Reintegration program stuff--Pro Social Classes,Community Service,Computer Lab time, etc.
How do I do all this in a day? Little sleep! 😀 Why do I do it? Because it's all about rehabilitation. Showing the system and the parole board that I'm ready to reenter society as a productive asset. And it's funny actually because you have to do it either way. I have been telling people about being innocent for years, but it's fallen on deaf ears for the most part of the system. I say that because even though the parole board stood up and helped me with their recommendation--which directed the Governor to get me off death row,and eventually out of the sentence of life without parole,I still have to go through the process of actually making parole.
Doing things that show them I have changed and that I can be productive--that I'm rehabilitated. It really doesn't matter anymore that I am innocent of the murder I am here for. I am now going through the process of the parole system as if I did the murder and I am at the point of asking to be paroled and set free. Doing everything in my power to ensure it. And that's where the power of belief and faith comes in.As well as, a little fear.
You see, I wear a tag. I was on death row and that comes with a fear for most.They really can't see that I may have really been innocent. That I may have changed my ways. That I am doing the rehabilitation that is expected of me. All they see is the tag. And that's what scares me right now as I'm coming up for parole. Now I think that coming off death row actually hurts me. I don't think it matters that the parole board spoke up for me, or that Governor Kasich made it possible for me to get out of prison when he commuted the life without parole sentence. Or that I could be innocent. I'm doing everything in my power to show the person I really am.
I don't want to keep harping on the fact that I am innocent, but I have done 37 years for the crime. I was on death row because of a mistake a judge made and it never was corrected. I never should have had to wear the tag of being on death row. And I can only hope and pray that it is not held against me when I face the parole board this time.
Pray with me and for me...
Sincerely,
Arthur.
