Rosie Alfaro - Another Poor Death Row Inmate

Poor Rosie Alfaro! Sentenced to death in 1992 at the tender age of 18 and who still awaits the dreaded lethal injection at the age of 33.

If you peruse the Internet, there are dozens of sites dedicated to Rosie, her plight in prison, and, of course, what a model citizen she has become since being incarcerated. The Canadian Web site: is eager to tell you what an accomplished poet Rosie is and how well she's been doing in prison. They ask for donations so that she can get yet another appeal and this case can continue to be dragged on for another 15 years. So Rosie can continue to write her poetry and enjoy pen pal relationships.

And Rosie is lonely in prison, so she needs pen pals. And the Canadian site makes certain that she can find them. Her photo is posted; she is an attractive woman and no doubt has a slew of male admirers to write to, when she's not painting or talking to folks from Amnesty International or other groups who want so badly to free this beautiful woman. She does ask, however, that no more incarcerated men write to her as she has had some "bad experiences" with incarcerated men.

Rosie doesn't want to die; she wants to live. She wants to be free to write her poetry. Her web site (provided and paid for by Canadian Citizens Against the Death Penalty) depicts several photos of her, her birth date, her desire for friends and her star sign.

On one of the many other sites about Rosie, you can enjoy her poetry. This is an excerpt from one of the poems she has written:

They say I must die cause I'm full of hatred.
I say I'm hanging high, a little hard,
but harmless to even having a harmful
heart that's full of hatred...

Yes, she's totally harmless, totally wronged, a poor Hispanic girl, a victim of the system. Funny how very little is mentioned about the crime that Rosie is convicted of. She does not mention it on her web site or show remorse (but then, every death row inmate is innocent, right?).