Book TV: Jodie and Billy Wayne Sinclair "Capital Punishment"

A former death row inmate who spent 40 years in prison tells the story of surviving the Louisiana prison system. He also discuss his attempts to integrate the prison and expose its corruption.

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[TheRayville]

@JNTFLA2009 It's natural for us to be reactive, to draw quick opinions, and to think the worse - we graduated from a life where suspicion and doubt about other reign supreme. I did not anything you said personally - it would serve no purpose. Bottom line is that we have a shared experience - it instilled an instinct to think the worse. The one fear I had in prison was dying alone - dying is natural, but to have your few meagre belongings carted off in a garbage bag was hard to take. 

[JNTFLA2009]

@TheRayville : You hit the nail on the head when you said helpless and nameless. When you die there and if you do not have family on the outside that can afford to have your body transported and buried in the "free-world" then you get buried in a plywood box, and, to add insult to you, the prison will not even put your name on the cross atop your grave! They just put your prison #. So many men end up in this situation. Even in death the dead get no respect. I'm sorry for earlier harsh comments.

[TheRayville]

@JNTFLA2009 Angola left its mark on all of us. I know how you feel about friend left behind. One lifer I stay in touch with is dying. I send him money each month to get by. All I can do. I try to help his family cope. But it's hard to know there is only so much you can do; that so many will die alone--helpless and nameless. We use to stand on inside looking out; now we stand on outside looking back. Helluva way to spend the rest of your life.

[JNTFLA2009]

OK Billy, that is all I wanted to hear from you. I needed you to say that you were not somehow better than the guys who were stuck there in that shit hole. Someone that I care about, very much, was directly and adversely effected when everything came to light. He could have been free, but 24 yrs. later he is still there. I'm sure you have figured out who I'm talking about; I did appreciate you not mentioning his real name after I had alluded to him in earlier post. LSP has screwed me up Billy.

[TheRayville]

@JNTFLA2009 My role in exposing the "pardons-for-sale" scheme had very little, if anything at all, to do with my release. I remained in prison for another 20 years (12 of those years under worst conditions than the Oak 2 Big Yad) after my cooperation with the authorities (what you call "ratting"). I spent 40 years in prison, and, yes, there are many others who deserved their freedom as much, or more, than I did. Since my release, I have tried to help several of them. Keep up your success.

[JNTFLA2009]

@TheRayville> I do commend you for your post-prison achievements. You and I have done well. I don't care about your beef with Wilbert. My position in this debate is that you know, first hand, how cons in La. with enormous sentences have no hope for freedom. You would have still been rotting in Angola, (albeit in better living conditions than most) if you wouldn't have ratted. You act like you were deserving, moreso than others, to be free. You are no better that Bobby Fabian...or Bobby Seal.

[TheRayville]

@JNTFLA2009 I am a convicted felon - not a criminal. Won't bother explaining the difference to you. You got one thing right, though: it was "criminals" who sold the pardons but it was also "criminals" who bought them. A truly "rehabilitated" inmate would not engage in the criminal activity of buying a pardon. You're still living in some "Oak 2" world - and, yes, I will be a "convicted murderer" until the day I die. My sin, my shame - but thank God I am no longer part of your Oak 2 world.

[JNTFLA2009]

@TheRayville:Sinclair, I do have my facts straight, as I was right there on the Big Yard (Oak-2) when all this went down. You continue to justify your actions by saying that "criminals bought the pardons". First off, you are a criminal too. Secondly, it was criminals who SOLD the pardons. And finally, how can you say that the ones who either paid for pardons or were next in line for the illegal pardons weren't "rehabilitated"? Are you suggesting Unk isn't rehabilitated? You're still a murderer.

[TheRayville]

@JNTFLA2009 I embrace your "scum bag" rat characterization -sorta wear it as a badge of honor, considering the source. But you should really get the facts before decide to walk with your mouth wrapped around your foot: "criminals" bought the pardons while the "rehabilitated" suffered the denials by a corrupt process.

[Vikkoman]

@JNTFLA2009 You might be interested in a blog post he just made. See "THE “SNITCHING” ISSUE REVISITED" on his blog.