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1 Wesley Robert Wells, The Facts of My Case, Written from the Death House [1] (1953)

handle is hein.death/facsdh0001 and id is 1 raw text is: 







   THE FACTS OF MY CASE

           Written from the Death House





                                        Wesley Robert Wells
                                        P. 0. Box#24155-A
                                        San Quentin, California

Dear Friend,

I am a condemned prisoner on death row at San Quentin. I have
spent six years here among the living dead.  I wonder if you,
or anyone else, can understand and appreciate just what those
six, long, miserable years have been like. I am 44 years of age.
I have been in prison since I was 19 with only a few months in the
free world outside in 1941.

I am awaiting execution for throwing and hitting a prison guard
with a cuspidor.  Here's how it happend. Dr. Day, the prison
doctor, came by with another doctor. They examined me and
told the guards to get me out of solitary- -that I was sick and
needed treatment and was abnormal from fear and tension. In-
stead of the treatment, they put me on trial before a prison court
for talking back to a guard. I cracked up, and when they were
clubbing me, I threw the cuspidor.

I make no pretension of having been a model prisoner during the
many  years I've spent in prison. I've been forced to fight with
every means available for survival. I have scars on my person
        .~  ~            that I will take to my grave that will
                         testify to some of the brutal treatment
      The Purpose Of     I've received at the hands of my prison
   I   This Letter Is    keepers and inmates who were egged on
     To Give You The
     Facts On One Of     Though only 19 when I first entered pris-
     The Most Amazing    on, even then, I had--and still have--a
       Stories In The    strong sense of justice. I didn't then,
       I                 nor do I today, believe that the mere
       History Of        pigmentation of my skin made me inferior
       California's      to any man, justifying treating me with
                         less consideration or respect than those
                         who happened to be of different pigmenta-
                         tion of skin.

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