Susan Kuklin - No Choirboy--Murder, Violence, and Teenagers on Death Row

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Contents

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

For Bailey, with love

Are you the sum total of your worst acts?

Bryan Stevenson

CHAPTER ONE

I Was a Teenager on Death Row

DECATUR, ALABAMA,

AUGUST 12, 1993

Kevin Gardner was not home, even though it was way past his eleven-oclock curfew. Kevin was a good kid, and it was unusual for him to stay out late without calling to let his parents know where he was. When he didnt show up the next morning, his father called the police.

That same night a police officer had received a dispatch to meet some individuals at Cedar Lake. They had discovered a body. It was Kevins.

Before long, the focus of the investigation turned to Kevins friend Roy Burgess Jr. Like Kevin, he was sixteen years old.

ROY: The judge said, Stand up. I was crying bad. I was so nervous. By the power invested in me by the State of Alabama, I hereby sentence you to die by electrocu He couldnt get the word out cause I went crying and screaming. In the court there was a big commotion. My mother. My father. My brothers. They was all screaming.

Nine or ten police rushed to the courtroom. There were two big redneck policemenone had juice dripping down his chin from chewin tobacco. They literally carried me from the courthouse through a catwalk, a tunnel, and straight down to the garage and into a squad car. There were a few ladies there, female judges. Their eyes were filled with tears. They tried to control it when I went by. They had their hands over their mouths, but I could see the tears in their eyes. The officer with the chewin tobacco had a huge pistol, like a .357, some long-barrel revolver. He said, You done killed one, but Im going home tonight, and Im going home alive. I was still crying. They sent somebody to gather up my property, what little I had. I didnt get to see my family or say good-bye or anything.

Its a big mess. A big mess.

They put me in belly chains and dragged me, still crying, to a squad car. We rode over five hours, maybe seven, to the state prison. They had the red and blue lights on, but no siren. They were going seventy, eighty. But for the time I came to this prison herein 96that was one time I was on the highway after the trial.

It was December, around seven or eight oclock, so it was dark when we arrived. Before we even got there, I could see the prison for a mile or two. It was all lit up like a dome, like an aura. There was razor wire all around, and towers. My knees were knocking so bad.

* * *

I dont see myself as a monster, man. I can be productive. I can carry a job. I got a work permit when I was fifteen. My first job I worked at Popeyes. I cooked. The second job I had at Long John Silvers. And the third job I got at a steak house.

I got something to tell. Im embarrassed to talk into this tape cause I know my grammar aint so good. Im into talking about this to you because I dont have many people to talk to here. The other inmates can be hateful. This place can make people hateful. There are some genuine gangsters here. I try to keep that in mind. I was a coward. I still am.

To get back to what happened when I went to death row, they searched me and took my measurements for clothes. They found out what Im allergic to, if anything. They checked to see what I got that I aint supposed to have. I just had my clothes, didnt have nothin else with me.

Then I was taken to my cell. The cells were in tiers like you see in the movies. Twelve cells upstairs and twelve downstairs. They took me to cell 5-6. Thats tier five, cell number six. It was tan, light brown, with steel walls. It got bars in the front of the cell. It was really small. It looked like a closet. Roaches everywhere. There was a steel cot with a mattress that they issue. I didnt get a pillow at first. There was a toilet and sink. There was a shelf over the bed for the TV, if you got one. Your family would have to buy it. The way I understand it, when a guy didnt have a family, other inmates would try to assist him, or the chaplain would.

The thing that tripped me out the most was after they had me processed. See, they took me to my cell. At that time you could have radios. Everybody was playing the blues. Soul music. It creeped me. There was blues all up and down the tiers. You know, I come to like it after a while, but back then it creeped me out so bad. On the street I listened to Led Zeppelin, Shardee, stuff like that. Everything but bluegrass. This was just the blues.

There were a few people there who I knowd from the county jail. They spoke to me when they saw me come in or heard me come in. Thank God I made it to my cell without cryin.

I hadnt eaten all day. The guard went to the commissary and brought back a bag of cookies. Im crying all night. Cryin and eatin cookies, all night long.

That first night, I thought the state was going to kill me right then and there. Im thinking that Id be dead in a month. I didnt understand what the appeals process was about. I thought I only had a few weeks.

Oh, man, I was scared. I had seen a lot of movies about prison, but I had never been to prison. And now here I am not only going to prison for the first time, but Im going to death row, too. Man!

Roys been in prison since he was sixteen years old. First he was in a county jail and then on death row in a state penitentiary. In 2001, his death sentence was reversed, and he was shifted from death row to a general, maximum-security prison. Its only been a few years since hes been off the row. This year is his tenth year locked up, an anniversary that weighs on him.

The time I was on death row I was a kid, man. I wasnt even able to vote for the politicians who opposed the death penalty. I wasnt able to join the military. I wasnt old enough to buy liquor. How do you sentence somebody that young to death?

Donaldson Prison

As long as youre alive and breathing, you got a chance. Once they kill you and bury you, its over. I got hope, but I ask myself how long is it gonna take? Ten years? Twenty? Im twenty-six. In twenty years, Im forty-six. Whew. Cant get that time back.

Its a mess. One big mess. I mean, the whole thing happened so fast. You dont take time to care about it. At least I didnt. I know I did an awful thing. If they change me from life-without to just life, the minimum time is seven. Seven years. Thats if the family, the Gardners, dont protest.

This Friday will be August 13, and I will be off the street ten years. Man. I aint seen the moon or the stars in ten years. I aint felt grass on my feet in ten years. Women talk about a biological clock, right? I feel like I have a biological clock. I want a family. I want kids.

Man. My whole life, man . Im done. Man!

Heres what led up to Roy landing on death row.

He was hanging out with a group of guysKevin M., Demetrus S., and Richie J.who shared an apartment across the street from Roys girlfriends house. They were a few years older than Roy. No one can figure out how these guys paid their rent because only one of them worked, part time, delivering pizza.