Editor,
Please allow me to introduce myself. I am your worst nightmare-your worst enemy-I can destroy your life. I will make you wish you had never been born. Once I have you in my grip, I will slowly suck the life out of you. Control your every thought and dream. I will take your family and friends from you. You will exist only as a member of the walking dead society … only a number… a statistic. I am Life Without Parole.
If you do not know who I am - I am a form of punishment cruel and unusual - equivalent to torture and barbarity. I am cruel and degrading punishment not known to common law, so disproportionate as to shock the moral sense of the average man and woman. I have no fundamental respect for the humanity underlying the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution. I do not consider the character and the record of an individual offender, the circumstances of a particular offense, guilt or innocence, or the potential for rehabilitation and reintegration back into society - only punitive retribution.
I am the most hated form of a death sentence, and yet I do not come uninvited. Your actions must choose me. I will lie there quietly. You will not see me. When you only exist, I live. When you live, I only exist. But I will always be there waiting and wishing you a slow and painful death.
In many states, I am mandatory for certain types of murder — first degree felony-murder for example — where the death penalty is barred. I am an over-zealous prosecutor, an angry victim’s family, and a hanging judge’s vengeance. I will inflict upon you the pain and suffering you have caused your victim(s) and their loved ones. I will inflict upon you agonizing pain and suffering until the day you die in prison: in many cases for 50 years or more.
I am your worst enemy. I will not comfort you. I will make you hurt, cry out so numb with pain, that you can’t feel anything at all. Together we will destroy all things good in your life — just as you did to your victim(s), and their families. Yet, you will become my best friend. I will give you long term suffering. I am very patient, and I will be there with you as you slowly die.
After you serve about twenty hopeless years of my cruel punishment, you will learn to regret the insuperable pain you have inflicted upon your victim(s), their family(s), yourself, and your family as well. I will make you beg to God that he take your life. Whenever I allow you, to sleep you will dream of committing suicide. And you will wake-up every morning, cursing God for not ending your miserable existence. I have tortured and killed thousands and I am pleased. Yes, you will wish you had been sentenced to death. You will welcome the day death finally takes hold of you, ending your wretched existence.
I am Life-Without-Parole! I pray you never receive an opportunity to introduce yourself to me. For if you do, you will become one of the walking dead, and one of my best friends.
Fred “Corky” Proctor
LWOP #178602
James A. Goble
LWOP #134913
Michigan Reformatory
Ionia, Mich.
Since your bed is already made…so to speak, I would read books and study the gospel. Look at Robert Stroud, otherwise known as the Birdman of Alcatraz. Although he spent his life in prison, he always tried to do good and never lost his humanity. I would study good books to keep my mind fresh; the gospel would hopefully give you a kind of hope that one day your pains will be over and you can rest from this world. Hopefully at the end of your life you can look back and say you fought the good fight, and did the best you could with the time you had left.