THE WHOLE TRUTH
The arrest, sentencing, incarceration in general and (potential) execution of a parent have devastating effects on the children. Children often suffer change or deterioration in their living situation and conditions, in their relationships with others, and in their physical and mental health and well-being.
For instance, existing research has consistently connected a parent’s death sentence or execution with major psychological and emotional implications for children and families. Observed reactions include: low self-esteem; embarrassment about oneself or others; lying to oneself and others about the situation; inability to explain the situation to others; anger; loss of appetite (in some cases development of eating disorders); loss of interest in playing; loss of interest in school (and poor performance in school, potentially requiring extra help); loss of concentration; loss of sleep; dreams and nightmares (particularly about the parent); bed-wetting; halt in menstruation; and psychosomatic pains.
Children of parents sentenced to death or executed endure a unique burden resulting from State action. Children may become disillusioned about the role of the State as a result and might develop a harmful relationship with it. They may reject the State’s authority, refuse to seek or accept State support, and become hostile towards State authorities.
Special support should be available to children of parents incarcerated, even more so if they are sentenced to death. Specific guidance should be developed for police officers, court and prison staff, schools, media and others. This should extend not only to the children, but to all those potentially affected by executions: The mothers, the wives, brothers, siblings and all those caring generally for the prisoners.
Robert Meeropol is the younger son of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg.
He was six years old, when the United States Government executed his parents for
“conspiring to steal the secret of the atomic bomb"
He says: I had a generalized sense of anxiety, an incomprehensible sword of Damocles hanging over me. I was frightened, angry, and grew up with a suppressed need to attack those who had attacked my family.
For over 40 years Robert Meeropol has been a progressive activist, author and public speaker. In the 1970’s he and his brother, Michael, successfully sued the FBI and CIA to force the release of 300,000 previously secret documents about their parents.
As a child who survived his parents' execution
and as an adult who works with many children whose parents are in prison or,
in one case, on death row, I have an unusual perspective to share with you… I believe you've heard little or no testimony about capital punishment from the perspective of a child who has had one or both parents executed. …I survived because a supportive community surrounded me, but what about other children who do not have such a support system?
Robert Meeropol
In 1990, after leaving private practice, Robert founded the Rosenberg Fund for Children (RFC).
The RFC is a public foundation that provides for the educational and emotional needs of children in this country whose parents have been harassed,
injured, jailed, lost jobs or died in the course of their progressive activities.
A man on death row depicts
the family ordeal of all those in prison
by Larry Swearingen
- In the visiting room -
Prison is over-crowded with men, who not long ago, knew the love of their mother and father, their sister and brother, or the love of a woman, their children and the clean fresh air of a spring night! It is men who hope, when all hope seems lost.
Prison is meeting in the visiting room to see the woven, worried look on the face of a mother who studies the face of their son. Still same loved one, the pride and joy who now wears a convicts number. And also in the visiting room, it is the presence of a man who remembers the path of love and tenderness as he speaks to his one true love, now separated by a glass. He sees the faces of his children as they struggle to understand why their daddy cannot come now with them.
Prison is the feeling that tears a man apart when waiting for that special letter or visit, and it never arrives. It is the anguish that dwells inside the men when their best friends turns their backs, and loved ones fell from them, because being in prison is something they don't understand!
If only we could have seen all the trouble that was in store for us while growing up as a child... may be we would have traveled another path and be home now enjoying the special days with the ones whom we love. Instead we fell and, what a hard fall it was. Our hearts cry out and ask for your forgiveness.
Larry Ray Swearingen
TDCJ 999361 Polunsky Unit
3872 F.M. 350 South
Livingston, Texas 77351
Prison is meeting in the visiting room to see the woven, worried look on the face of a mother who studies the face of their son. Still same loved one, the pride and joy who now wears a convicts number. And also in the visiting room, it is the presence of a man who remembers the path of love and tenderness as he speaks to his one true love, now separated by a glass. He sees the faces of his children as they struggle to understand why their daddy cannot come now with them.
Prison is the feeling that tears a man apart when waiting for that special letter or visit, and it never arrives. It is the anguish that dwells inside the men when their best friends turns their backs, and loved ones fell from them, because being in prison is something they don't understand!
If only we could have seen all the trouble that was in store for us while growing up as a child... may be we would have traveled another path and be home now enjoying the special days with the ones whom we love. Instead we fell and, what a hard fall it was. Our hearts cry out and ask for your forgiveness.
Larry Ray Swearingen
TDCJ 999361 Polunsky Unit
3872 F.M. 350 South
Livingston, Texas 77351
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Find out more about Larry Swearingen here Larry Swearingen and his support group needs your urgent support |
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Poem about love on death row
written by Isabelle Watson and Kenneth Reams
written by Isabelle Watson and Kenneth Reams
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CONDEMNED Forbidden of the expression of love physical and emotional amid the shuffle of trying to stay alive Love's residue has been lost and forgotten Locked in a cage like an animal in rage gripping the bars while tears flow from the pain and scars the clock ticks ever closer toward the 11th hour and his only wish is to see and hold his child |
Kenneth Reams was born in 1974 in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. In 1993, Mr. Reams was convicted of murder and sentenced to death. In 2012, he began creating art sculptures, painting and drawings that would cause viewers to think about the controversial subject of capital punishment and solitary confinement. His aim is to begin presenting future death penalty shows through this organization and to work towards establishing a National Museum of Capital Punishment.
He shares with his fiancee Ize the love of the art. Ize has worked with Kenneth since 2012 to produce the art that Who Decides Inc. publicly displays. She believes art has a unique way to educate and hopes that through her art viewers will come away with a deeper understanding of Capital Punishment. (More here)
This poem and picture express the difficulty of love on death row.
He shares with his fiancee Ize the love of the art. Ize has worked with Kenneth since 2012 to produce the art that Who Decides Inc. publicly displays. She believes art has a unique way to educate and hopes that through her art viewers will come away with a deeper understanding of Capital Punishment. (More here)
This poem and picture express the difficulty of love on death row.
A son on death row pays tribute to his mother
A Mother's Devotion
By Tony Medina
In her eyes I am still a gem -
because her love never grows dim.
Sometimes I wonder why she never quit -
with everything she had to put up with.
It didn't matter what I did wrong -
She was there for me all along.
So many nights she cried herself to sleep -
it burns to know I made her weep.
If only I could put my arms around her once more -
I'd show her she's the best in the world.
I'd let her know she keeps me going on -
she's my mother - whose love makes me strong.
Discover more about Tony Medina's art, his Mum, and the ordeal of other death row prisoners and family members in The Road to Livingstone (Trailer here)
To buy Tony Medina's poetry book Witness to Murder go here - To discover Tony Medina's website go here
A father on death row dedicates his art to his children. He says:
No matter what, Dad will never stop missing you Kat and Rachel,
Missing and Loving you and your brother Ben more, each every day.
I would like my three beloved children to know me thru my art.
I am not asking for pen pals, not begging for money,
but the ability of reaching my children thru this, their medium, is extremely important (...) I have hundreds of paintings that have never been seen that beg to see the light of day and allow my precious kids to get to know me at their own pace...
William Greg Thomas 311509
UCI P5216
7819 NW 228th Street
Raiford, Florida 32026
UCI P5216
7819 NW 228th Street
Raiford, Florida 32026
Sons sing for their filipino mother Mary Jane Veloso
facing execution in Indonesia
facing execution in Indonesia
Mary Jane Veloso is currently facing execution in Indonesia. She maintains her innocence.
Here are her two young sons singing for her in hope that justice in Indonesia will allow to spare her life and return their mum to them.
Here are her two young sons singing for her in hope that justice in Indonesia will allow to spare her life and return their mum to them.
Open letter from Myuran Sukumaran’s mother to Indonesian President
M. Sukumaran was executed last April 28th, 2015
We are reproducing here an open letter published
in the media last month from his mother to the President of Indonesia Joko Widodo
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Dear Mr President, Leader of Indonesia and father of three children,
My name is Raji Sukumaran, and my son, Myuran Sukumaran, was executed in the early hours of Wednesday 29 April 2015 under your instructions.
As I make the preparations to bury my beautiful son, I thought I would share my feelings with you. I thought I would share how my son was reformed, was full of life, love and passion, and who so desperately wanted to live his life in service to help others.
I have made this letter open in the hope that it may help other people or their families, in some way as they sit and wait for you to order their deaths.
I would really like to think that you would be able to understand, if you don’t, then feel free to share this letter with your wife, who I think would understand, one mother to another. My son doesn’t want another mother, father, sister or brother to go through what we went through. For no grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins or friends should have to deal with what we’ve had to deal with.(...)
My son did commit a serious crime but he also apologised to your country and your people many times. In the last 10 years while you kept him in prison, he chose to do all within his power to make up for his crime. It wasn’t easy, I am not sure anyone will ever realise how hard it is to try to be a good man in prison, to be a positive role model for other younger prisoners, Indonesian prisoners.(...)
I as a mother was punished for 10 years as well for his crime,
and I will be punished for the rest of my life now because you took his life. I did not ask you to send my son home. I just asked you not to order his death but instead you ignored me and many others. I asked to meet you, to speak to you but once again you could not even have the courage to face our requests to communicate with you.
I will not have the chance to see him get married, have children. Mr President, do you think that your punishment towards my son after he had spent 10 years in jail reformed and helping others and then executing him is fair and just? (...)
I hope your wife would understand what myself and Andrew Chan’s mother are going through. I felt so helpless as I watched my son walk away, healthy and full of life. I watched as over the last four months you tortured him by making jokes about his life, making him guess the night he would be taken, openly discussing the way in which he would die, parading and humiliating our family. (...)
I was told as my son said his last words, one of the last things he did was say a prayer for Indonesia. My son sought forgiveness for your country and the men taking his life, as he knew you did not know what you were doing. This was the man you ordered to die. I am not sure whether I could ever forgive you, I hope that I have that much grace and compassion in my heart one day. But I am sure this pain in my heart will stay with me for the rest of my life, and it hurts so much. Think for a second, one of your children is tied to post, and men are lined up in front of them and the fear he would have felt, and then your child is shot through the heart. My son was young and foolish, he did not deserve to suffer like this.
My son will be missed by so many people who love him and so many people are finding it difficult to come to terms with what has happened.
As I finish this letter I pray for the many other men and women whose lives are in your hands, especially those on death row. I pray that you will have the courage to look beyond the politics for they too have families who love them despite their mistakes.
Raji Sukumaran
My son will be missed by so many people who love him and so many people are finding it difficult to come to terms with what has happened.
As I finish this letter I pray for the many other men and women whose lives are in your hands, especially those on death row. I pray that you will have the courage to look beyond the politics for they too have families who love them despite their mistakes.
Raji Sukumaran
April 28th, 2015
Families say good bye to loved ones about to be executed in Indonesia
After the meeting, the brothers of the Australians made an appeal via the media
for final clemency,
with Michael Chan describing the goodbye as "torture".
"I saw today something that no other family should ever have to go through. To walk out of there and say goodbye for the last time, it is torture. No family should go through that."
Chintu Sukumaran said:
"There were so many things to talk about. We did talk about the death penalty and he knows this is just a waste... I ask the president [of Indonesia] to please show mercy, please don't let my mum and my sister have to bury my brother."
Read more
Testimony of Franklin Tercero
His father Bernardo Aban Tercero is the only Nicaraguan citizen on death row in Texas. He is due to be executed on August 26th. He left Nicaragua when his son was still very young, to immigrate in the USA.
When I learned of the death sentence,
that moment was like being submerged with water,
and you run out of air, you suffocate, as you try to come out to the surface. Like when you're drowning. I felt sad, as never in my life I had been.
My name is Franklin Tercero, I am the son of Bernardo Tercero. My father asked me to write about the emotional impact of his absence on my life. I call it the absence of my God. When I close my eyes, I remember the last time I saw my father, I can still see his black jacket, blue trousers and black hat, it was a dark morning and I was scared because there was constant thunderstorms. I was very young and I was not capable to realize what was happening, wondering why my dad was going, and why he looked so sad. I remember the hours passing by, the tear rolling on the face of my grand ma, silently and I remember that tear, and I could feel an emptiness in my throat. (...)
When I learnt that he was in prison, my heart started to beat very very quickly (...) As I was grew older, I progressively understood that I would have to grow older on my own. My sadness increased and affected me negatively. I grew up with a low self esteem. I felt low, but did not know who to turn to to ask my questions. I had no confidence… I started to withdraw, playing alone, facing problems alone. I grew up too quickly…despite the affection of my uncles and grand parents, I was always wondering where my dad was (...)
One day I heard the voice of my father on the phone (we had gone to Chinandega to make the call) I asked him: "When are you coming back? "
He replied : "One day, but you have to take care of your self", and then the call stopped. I didn’t know whether he was laughing or whether he was crying.
I did not want the others to look at me with sadness. I started to adopt a double personality. The one that was not true and that was showing to others, and the real one, that I kept to myself. I started to give to my friends the love that I had kept for my parents.
There is a passage in the bible that says: I will not give you what you won’t be able to carry. This has transformed the way I think and has brought me a sense of peace. I had achieved to become a man who did not follow the ideas of others. Despite the odds, I don’t forget my father. He remains in my heart, we all miss him. I sincerely love you, Dad, all I would like is to be able to be next to you again.
When I learnt that he was in prison, my heart started to beat very very quickly (...) As I was grew older, I progressively understood that I would have to grow older on my own. My sadness increased and affected me negatively. I grew up with a low self esteem. I felt low, but did not know who to turn to to ask my questions. I had no confidence… I started to withdraw, playing alone, facing problems alone. I grew up too quickly…despite the affection of my uncles and grand parents, I was always wondering where my dad was (...)
One day I heard the voice of my father on the phone (we had gone to Chinandega to make the call) I asked him: "When are you coming back? "
He replied : "One day, but you have to take care of your self", and then the call stopped. I didn’t know whether he was laughing or whether he was crying.
I did not want the others to look at me with sadness. I started to adopt a double personality. The one that was not true and that was showing to others, and the real one, that I kept to myself. I started to give to my friends the love that I had kept for my parents.
There is a passage in the bible that says: I will not give you what you won’t be able to carry. This has transformed the way I think and has brought me a sense of peace. I had achieved to become a man who did not follow the ideas of others. Despite the odds, I don’t forget my father. He remains in my heart, we all miss him. I sincerely love you, Dad, all I would like is to be able to be next to you again.
- Franklin shows to the media a drawing from his father -
