Chris A. Young 
M.E. – My experience 
How death row saved my life

I am sitting in a concrete cell, stranded on Texas death row, waiting to be murdered by the state. I was convicted of murdering a convenience store clerk while attempting to rob him, if you let the state tell it. But none of that matters now. I am here, captured by four walls that have defeated some of the strongest men. The fight is not only for my life but for the preservation of my sanity. Sitting on a steel makeshift bed, I look in retrospect at the long journey that has brought me to this situation.

Circa l’autore

Stefan Heikens is a German activist against the death penalty. He has made it his mission to give the inmates of death row a voice and does this in addition to his work with letters from soldiers in WWII. In doing so, he makes no distinction between guilt or innocence and allows each inmate to speak for himself, because he lives by the principle: ‘You can tell the value of a society by how it treats the weakest of its members.’ There are certainly few people society looks down on more than death row inmates and that’s exactly why they should be listened to! Not every story is black and white and we could all love someone who ends up on death row due to adverse circumstances.

Stefan Heikens lives and works in Germany.