Between Two Deaths: Life on the Row

"And I have told you this to make you grieve."

—Dante, Inferno, Canto XXIV

Program Note

This play is based on two meetings I had in May of 2005 with a man who has been on death row in San Quentin for the past fifteen years. The meetings (one lasting seventy-five minutes, the other two hours) were face-to-face in booths over a telephone with a plexiglass partition between us. I was not permitted to take either pencil and paper or a tape recorder to the meetings. Indeed, had the authorities known I planned to write this work I would not have been permitted inside San Quentin. Additionally, I met with the lawyer who represented the inmate in the appeals process for ten years, a private investigator who does field work interviewing family, acquaintances, medical personnel, and others in connection with the appeal process, and an attorney who has done extensive work documenting conditions within California's prisons. I also read the court transcripts of the inmate's original trial and penalty phase proceedings as well as a number of secondary sources that are listed in the references. The inmate's appeal of the death sentence is now at the Federal level. For that reason I have been advised by attorneys not to use his name and to take other steps to disguise his identity. Within the terms of that restriction what follows is a factually complete document. There are, of course, over 600 inmates currently on death row in San Quentin.

Act One—Life's Fitful Fever

Stage Direction

Lights dim. A blank white screen is lowered in the center of the stage. Next to it stage right a male court stenographer who will recite as if reading back to the court the text that will appear on this screen as on a scroll being rolled upward. Monotone voice throughout, especially so when reading back the dialogue of witnesses. Always a beat before and after such readings and never the slightest effort to give human characteristics to the dialogue. Dates and other time indications are superimposed in bold face on the screen in order to mark structural divisions in the material.

At opposite sides of the stage a man and a woman smartly dressed who represent respectively the prosecutor and the defense attorney. Each carries a pointer to be used at appropriate points to underscore parts of the text that will shortly appear. As it unrolls, each will also move with great freedom at appropriate times, relating to the audience as to a Jury being solicited to respond in a desired way. Each in effect will take turns silently making his or her case, using visual cues. The task for both actors is to find in the text the cues to movement and gestures. Unlike lawyers, who rely on manipulating language, they are reduced essentially to the condition of mimes. At no time, however, should any movements or gestures be done melodramatically. Instead, they should have a certain mechanical, even robot-like quality.

Sunday, March 2, 1987

Defendant met victim in Wild Peacock Bar in Barstow, California. Victim frequented the bar. Defendant never seen there before. Victim and defendant observed playing several games of darts in course of evening. Defendant left bar about 9:30 P.M. Victim five minutes later.

Monday, March 3, 1987. 9:30 A.M.

Body of victim found lying in tidal area at base of cliff near Menlo Beach. Fully dressed but missing shoes, socks, and underpants. Victim's face bloodied and bruised. Autopsy determines that facial injuries occurred prior to death. Fractured bone in neck consistent with manual strangulation, which coroner determines is cause of death. Multiple bruises on back, arms, thighs, and legs. No injuries to vagina or vulva. Victim's blood contained very high level of methamphetamine (speed). Semen in vagina consistent with that...