Interview with Reginald Blanton, Texas Death Row Prisoner

Peaceful Activist and Fighter for Human Rights

When I first received a letter from Reggie in December, he said to me "You know what makes no sense at all? My having almost all my clothes on, I mean all the clothes I own, including head covering and an ugly green jacket, just to stay warm in my cage. I'm dressed as if I were outside." Reggie is a fighter, a fighter for human rights and member of DRIVE, an online death row organization that uses peaceful measures to fight against prison abuse, and injustices. Listed on the DRIVE site are numerous articles and poetry Reggie has written.

Reggie was one of the participants of the Texas Death Row Hunger Strike, in which several inmates protested the conditions on the Polunsky death row unit in Livingston Texas by going on a hunger strike.

Here is my interview with Reggie, from his death row cell, he speaks about his case, about his friend who he was accused of murdering, and shows how he is innocent.

Reggie, can you please give us a bio of yourself?

I was born blue behind my twin brother, Robert, in an Oakland California hospital. My dad retired from the Navy and we moved from Texas to be closer to my moma's side of the family, while getting away from California's earthquakes and rapidly growing gang culture. For 11 years I grew up in a household possessed by dad's alcoholism, and because dad would quit his jobs a lot, we had to move a lot. A new kid in the neighborhoods we moved to, I had to fight a lot, not necessarily to fit in, but to be left alone. Though initially fighting was something I didn't like to do, I had to eventually adapt to it's norms. Anyway early one morning mama rounded up my sister, brother, me and as much of our belongings we could fit into her bronco and moved us to an apartment she already had waiting, divorcing herself from dad, the fights, and from what alcoholism was doing to our lives.