Billy Davis’ Bio

Billy Davis and his Mother (April 2018)

Billy with his friend, around age 15.

This bio for Billy Davis was written in collaboration with his mother (Janet Davis). you see, Billy is developmentally disabled and visually disabled because of pre-mature birth, with a cyst in his brain that was not identified until the age of ten. Nevertheless, as an adolescent/teen, Billy became as sociable as his condition would allow, including fulfilling a romantic interest with the love of his life.

Billy also made friends with ease, especially male figures in, or above, his age group, which, in his naïve heart and mind, was a marvelous thing, however, that innocent interacting with others would prove fatal because – due to his under-developed brain – he was subject to manipulation by those who held little or no regard for his safety or well-being. To  everyone’s dismay, at age 19, Billy was implemented in a crime, along with others, (found guilty) and sentenced (under the Felony Murder Rule) to Life Without the Possibility of Parole (LWOP).

Billy as a young man in prison.

In the year 2000, while housed at CSP-Calipatria, Billy was stabbed several times and also received massive blows to his head causing the Cyst to rupture, caused cerebral spinal fluid buildup in his brain
triggering displacement of the brain stem, spinal damage and an enlarged cyst. After several surgeries and time spent in Segregated Housing Unit(s), Billy is now housed at CHCF, where he receives the much-needed medical/mental healthcare.

From his hand, he shares these words:

“I have been in jail/prison longer than I haven’t! Because of my medical condition, from birth, I wasn’t able to put my own thoughts together. So, I just took comfort in doing what I was told. While I still need to be told what to do, more and more, I’ve been realizing that I can make thoughts myself. While I’ve been in prison a long time, the CCCMS, DDP, CHURCH and GROUPS have helped me, and when I get out, I’d like to keep being able to learn from them. I’m also wanting to help change the way people think about each other, they should want to do all they can for each other. As for me, though, in its own way, my medical condition had positive aspects too. Unfortunately, I just don’t/can’t think of what is going to happen next. What I do know, though, is that if I don’t help everybody else, how can I ask for forgiveness myself!”

Through Billy’s many medical battles and misfortunes with the justice system, his family, mother, grandfather and sister have been there every step of the way; hoping, praying for a humane resolution of Billy’s cause.

In 2017, his family petitioned the Governor’s Office for a compassionate release, however, the family still waits for a response. Long before the judicial and prison systems misfortunes, Billy was born six (6) weeks prematurely, triggering hospitalization, surgeries resulting his arrested development in all areas of growth; he did not walk, or talk, until age two (2). Sadly, Billy’s trial attorney failed to present any of his developmental / visual disabilities during the course of trial.

Regardless, sentencing anyone in Billy’s condition to LWOP, and forcing them to serve out such is most cruel and inhumane. And, I am hopeful that we (citizens of California) can work together, and through legislation, to amend existing laws, or, create new ones that take into consideration the under-developed mental status of those LWOP’s who were above age nineteen (19) at the time of the offense and reconsideration for those offenders who have since fallen mentally/physically ill, and would be better off at home or a non-prison setting. So, let us be brave and work in a united effort for all those (like Billy and the taxpayers who pay for their long-term incarceration) who deserve better.

Billy Davis and his mother (June, 2018)

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Robert Henry

Congratulations my fellow prisoners who maintained the struggle and faith in the fight to get parole consideration for many prisoners serving Life Without Possible of Parole (LWOP).

“Your voices,” by way of application for commutation of your sentences, petitions to the courts and 602’s (appeals) have resonated with the courts, California Department of Correction and Rehabilitation (CDCR) and most importantly the Governor of California, Jerry Brown and his staff.

On May 17, 2018, myself and several of my friends and associates have received commutation hearings from the Governor’s staff for the prospects of getting our sentences reduced for demonstrating good conduct, redemption and unusual sentences based on lack of participation in the crime.

They (Governor’s staff) are considering all of the issues “we” have been arguing for the last five years or so that no one should be given LWOP as a first termer, aider and abettor or as a youth offender under current law.
The Governor, the courts and CDCR would not have known our cry for justice and equality without us voicing our opposition through politically motivated legislation.

My thanks go out to the Lifers with Optimistic Progress (LWOP) its facilitators, coordinators and members at CHCF and CSP Solano for encouraging me to be optimistic, the Governor’s office and its staff for being objective, professional and courteous. In addition, to the CDCR for respecting the process.

Sincerely,

Robert Henry D-32467
CHCF PWC-108u
PO BOX 31960
Stockton California 95213

Introducing Deandre Hill

Deandre Hill with his supervisors from the volunteer educational program

Hi there – my name is Deandre Hill, I am 29 years old, and I am serving a sentence of Life Without the Possibility of Parole (LWOP).  In 2008, I was convicted of murder robbery under the Felony Murder Role as an aider and abettor.  I take full responsibility for my participation in the robbery although there was no intent on any of this happening.

I did not commit the homicidal act nor did I have any knowledge that it was going to happen. However, I still regret my participation and wish that I could have done more to prevent it.  I am now a husband, stepfather, uncle and a better role model for many youth as well as my family and I am passionate about promoting education and giving back to my community.

I was born and raised in Oakland and am the youngest of 4 siblings with two brothers and a sister.  My father has been incarcerated throughout my whole life. In 2003 when I was 14 years of age, my mother passed away from cancer.  I then went to live with my grandmother with very little time she taught me a lot.  Responsibility, good work ethics, proper goal setting amongst many other things.  Unfortunately, I still sought guidance and approval from my peers who were the wrong role models.

I have now matured and I strive to give back to society in any way that I can.  I have maintained employment throughout my incarceration as a tutor and clerk within the education department.  I have earned my GED and I am now in pursuit of my AA degree.  I have completed several self-help programs as well as facilitator training.  Furthermore, I have managed to stay clean of any violence for 10 years now with hopes to be a better example to other young men.

Letter from a Lifer Without Parole with Positive News

A letter by a Lifer Without Parole, published in San Quentin News, which shows how much a Lifer can change for the good. 

February 15, 2018 By John Lam

Dear Kid CAT,

I am writing this letter to show my appreciation to you for allowing those of us sentenced to Life Without Parole (LWOP) as youths a voice to the world. Despite being excluded from recent law changes pertaining to youth offenders, we remain hopeful of future law changes that will include those like myself who are left out.

With recent changes in CDCR pertaining to LWOPs in February 2017, many of us LWOPs were allowed to come to a Level 2 (a lower level security prison). I am proud to say that we have successfully integrated with the Level 2 population in a dorm setting.

Although we continue to be excluded from vocational training, LTOP (Long-term Offender Program) and PIA jobs, we are afforded more opportunities here on Level 2.

Please continue reading this letter in the San Quentin News.

Kenneth Moore: Dreams Derailed or Deferred My Story

Kenny ‘Moe’ Moore

It’s funny how throughout childhood and adolescence, one can dream so bright and vividly about his/her future; a future vision that might include the highest heights in education, sports, first love and yes, even scoring social ratings. My childhood, which began as the sixth son to loving and devoted parents, was no less exciting and bright, through my heart and eyes. In fact, if asked even today, many would probably say, “… Kenny Moe (as I was known) was a happy-go- lucky, free-spirited kid that family
and friends enjoyed being around!” Now, soon-to- be sixty, my inner-child holds dear to all the goodness that I dreamt of and was exposed to growing up.

However, during the summer of 1978, at the ripe-old age of nineteen, my life and outlook – that once appeared so broad and attainable – suddenly took a horrible turn towards complete darkness. I discovered, early one Saturday morning, a warrant for my arrest had been issued for auto-theft and home invasion robbery. Somehow, as young and naïve as I was, I believed in “The System” enough to surrender to the police so that this matter could be sorted out and I’d return to my life and family shortly thereafter.. or so I thought. At age nineteen, I was certainly no saint and, having had one prior conviction for auto-theft, I immediately confessed to the theft of the pick-up truck in-question, not realizing at that point that it had been abandoned at a home invasion robbery, for which, without even realizing, was only the beginning of this chaos and the end of my daydreaming.

I was ultimately charged with robbery, auto-theft, sexual assault, and a host of related crimes.

Maintaining my innocence the entire time, I was later convicted and sentenced on all counts minus the murder charge, receiving life without the possibility of parole, and present day, am now in my thirty-
ninth year of incarceration. I have fought long and hard to prove my innocence all these years with petitions in federal court. DNA testing with the help of the Innocence Project in 2007, retesting by Cybergenetics (2017) with the latest technical advances in DNA testing both have excluded me from the evidence held by Santa Clara County.

The Alameda County DA refuses to allow testing of whatever evidence they hold, denying all petitions so far to free up the evidence so that it can be tested. Moreover, with absolute confidence, I know it would exclude me as well.

Fast forward, the aim and purpose of joining the C.A. LWOP Group initially had little to do with my own freedom or me. Instead, it was far more important, or so I thought at the time, to use the facts and circumstance of “who I am, and what happened to me,” in hopes to educate younger men and women of today, their parents, legislators and community leaders that your sons and daughters, too, are just as
much at risk of becoming the next crop of CDCR prisoners serving LWOP as a result of simply being in the wrong place, with the wrong person(s), at the wrong time due to the current status of the C.A. Felony Murder Rule (FMR). A person does not even need to be “personally present” when a murder takes place — yes, knowledge, planning, or assisting in flight from the scene of such offenses is enough, under the law, to convict you of aiding/abetting felony murder, making all parties eligible for the death penalty or life without possibility of parole.

Imagine, for a moment, the faces, emotions, and mind-set of teenagers and/or young adults from all walks of life who suddenly find (as I had) that because you are closely associated with someone or provided something to someone who committed murder, you too, under the law, are now just as responsible for capital murder without ever having such intent or a clue that anyone would be seriously injured, or killed.

I implore all who visit the Lifers With Optimistic Progress (LWOP) website to learn from the lives destroyed as a direct result of the over-zealous and disproportionate use of the Felony Murder Rule.

Until recently (2017), the California Legislator refused to repeal or abolish FMR as other States and Countries have. Thus, we need the public’s help to assure that the “Felony Murder Rule” no longer incarcerates those (like me) who HAVE NOT COMMITTED MURDER , no longer be held criminally liable for the murder committed at/by the hands of others.

Today, in the midst of my deferred childhood dreaming, I’ve found HOPE, LIGHT and PROSPERITY in – among other things – teaching fellow inmates how to read and write, introducing them to an entirely new world. I’ve spent years helping others understand the fundamentals of State and Federal law, how it attaches to their criminal cases, assisted in and created programs to help LWOPs/Lifers cope with the stresses and pressures of prolonged incarceration (Insight Circle), tackling issues such as loss (deaths) of family and friends. Through all this, I’ve cultivated and cured many of my own dysfunctions, and learned to overcome inner darkness/depression through thirty-five+ years of meditation practices coupled with my Faith in God.

So, although my childhood dreams have drastically changed shape and direction, I still see the world and my place in it, the opportunities and blessings that come my way in vivid technicolor, and with the help and kindness of others. I’m laying “new tracks” that will better secure the cargo of my dreams for tomorrow, especially the dream wished into reality—called Freedom!

Kenneth Moore C-16557
CHCF Stockton, California

Kenneth Moore and his wife

Kenneth Moore with his grandchildren Liliana and Ronan on Thanksgiving 2017

Launch of Petition to End Life Without Parole – 5 March 2018

Hey All… spread the word and be ready to put your signature once this petition is launched!

Families to End Life Without Parole call upon us to be ready for their petition soon! California

When we don’t fight hate, we are preparing for others to die

by Michael ‘Zaharibu’ Dorrough
Originally published in: SF Bayview, Dec. 24, 2016

“You can never solve a problem with the same kind or thinking that created the problem in the first place.” – Albert Einstein

“Bringing Down the Flag of Hate” – Art: Lester Ransburg III, V-09164, 4B-4L29, P.O. Box 3481, Corcoran CA 93212. This drawing was inspired by Bree Newsome climbing the flagpole in South Carolina and taking down the Confederate flag.

In light of what occurred in Orlando, Florida, and other mass shootings, it comes as no surprise to any of us that the political establishment wants and encourages us to think of madness like this within the narrow context of gun control – taking guns out of the hands of criminals. But, the question must now be asked of the larger community: Why are we so unwilling to view and struggle around what these acts really are – hate!

We do understand that these specific acts, whenever they occur, constitute hate crimes, but those crimes occur as a result of our people being under the influence for the past 400-plus years of white supremacy and patriarchal authoritarianism. Hate is a weapon, a tool, to prevent those of us who are subjected to it from coming together to rid ourselves of it.

As long as we view, define or discuss hate within this narrow context that we have been conditioned to define and discuss it in, hate will continue to manifest itself exactly as it has.

Why are we so unwilling to view and struggle around what these acts really are – hate!

This country, indeed the planet, should be ashamed of itself that we are so unenlightened that in this day and age communities are under siege for any reason, that the humanity of people continues to be disrespected because of color, class, gender or who they sleep with is just utter insanity!

We realize that when hate has manifested itself on a scale like this, it causes us to feel that much more vulnerable. And that vulnerability actually can, and does, push us into the camps of those who are responsible for the maintaining of hate.

Those who advocate hate have to be made uncomfortable, believing that if they do so, it will cost them their jobs, their careers! Any attempts by the political establishment, law enforcement, churches – anyone – that reduce or try to reduce any of us to “those people” should be shut down.

This is Michael Zaharibu Dorrough in a photo taken in December 2014. We at the Bay View don’t know of any prisoner – except perhaps Hugo “Yogi” Pinell – who is so universally loved. Everyone who knows him has praise for Zah.

Words are instruments of power. Hate speech does in fact result, eventually, in the loss of life. Hate speech does disrespect the humanity of the citizens and community it is directed towards. If we are to live in a civilized society and planet, there are rules that everyone has to play by.

And if we are to live in such a place, we must all be willing to subordinate ourselves to the greater good. The greater good is the kind of society that we want to live in. We have a responsibility to contribute to what that will look like, what it will sound like.

But we must be willing to fight and sacrifice to create and live in that kind of society. How can there possibly be any doubts that this is the only logical course and that we must take it.

Words are instruments of power. Hate speech does in fact result, eventually, in the loss of life. Hate speech does disrespect the humanity of the citizens and community it is directed towards.

Far too many of us have already died. By not fighting back, all we are doing is preparing for others to die.

Former San Francisco Poet Laureate Jack Hirschman, always a friend of the Bay View, gave us a folder of photos from the Selma March on March 21, 1965, given to him by Doug Knott. In this one, haters displaying a Confederate flag watch the brave marchers. – Photo: Doug Knott

We must come together. We must set aside our tribal differences, the things that separate us. Even those who know better but will not join this cause maintain their tribal positions because they – and we – continue to be under the influence of white male supremacy and patriarchal authoritarianism.

The most effective way to overcome our tribal attitudes is to form coalitions, just as we did during the recent protests to end solitary confinement, with everyone who loves liberation. If we don’t, whether it is in churches or clubs, on the streets or in the alleys, people will continue to die.

History will judge us harshly, as will future generations, because of our failure to fight back.

We have had an opportunity to meet some really good people here, people who have really helped us to avoid making some mistakes in making the transition to the general population, a transition that is ongoing. The people – the prison population – has been very approachable. There are quite a few younger guys here, good people, but we have learned that young people are going to make mistakes.

Far too many of us have already died. By not fighting back, all we are doing is preparing for others to die.

What’s important is that we be there to try and help them to have a cushion to protect them from making costly mistakes. It occurred to me that the biggest adjustment was that I needed to rethink the way that I have thought about some things.

This is Zaharibu and his family back in the day, before he was sent to prison in 1988 for a crime he didn’t commit and spent about a quarter of a century in solitary confinement. He was one of the leaders of the peaceful protests that didn’t end solitary but scaled it back considerably.

Educationally, when I first saw a math problem [after coming out of solitary] it was, quite honestly, a bit intimidating. The language used, the look of it, is very different from what I remember. So, I am now being tutored in a class that I have enrolled in.

There is also an effort being made by this administration to bring quite a bit of programming to this prison that could provide people with some of the skills that they will need upon their release. Skills that might be useful. Of course, the problem with this is that there are twice as many people as there are opportunities. There are also a couple of lifers’ programs here that should be a model for other prisons throughout the state.

One such group is called LWOP. This is an acronym developed it by its founders into Lifers With Optimistic Progress. Although the title most commonly reflects prisoners sentenced to life without parole, membership and participation of all prisoners are welcomed and encouraged.

The LWOP group or organization was established to provide a voice to an often unheard and/or overlooked segment of the prison population. There are workshops that help individuals unite and declare their rights to all available rehabilitative tools and activities – the focal point being, “At some period all men will be freed from this form of incarceration, thus every man and woman should be prepared for that eventual re-embrace of societal norms.” That is the official position of the group.

There are also a couple of lifers’ programs here that should be a model for other prisons throughout the state. One such group is called LWOP. This is an acronym developed it by its founders into Lifers With Optimistic Progress.

The lifers group is also committed to contributing to abolishing life without parole sentences. Also appropriately called “the other death penalty.”

Artist Lester “Hollywood” Ransburg III

There is also a website now for the group, https://liferswithoptimisticprogress.wordpress.com. There are sponsors as well. They are from the education department in the community here and are genuinely committed to the development of anyone who is interested in developing himself.

There are young people here who are involved in youthful offender programs (YOP) and a lifeline program – all a part of the LWOP program. There are some very beautiful brothas who are trying to give back and have already reclaimed their humanity.

I also have a promise that I made to myself that if the opportunity presented itself, I would overwhelm myself with jazz. So I had Miles Davis’ “Kind of Blue” and John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme” sent – with some Whispers of course (smile).

Struggling with you always,

Zaharibu

Send our brother some love and light: Michael “Zaharibu” Dorrough, D-83611, CSP Solano Level III B7-131, P.O. Box 4000, Vacaville CA 95696-4000. And go online to read this 2013 story to learn more about Zaharibu from a comrade: “Tribute to Zaharibu.”