Something GOOD Happened Yesterday!

15

When I was 15 years old, I saw my first concert (Frankie Goes to Hollywood at the Rainbow Music Hall in Denver). My best friend and I would take the bus downtown on the weekends to shop for wild clothes at Fashion Disaster, and buy New Wave records at Wax Trax. I had yet to start drinking and doing drugs, so the most trouble I got in was trying to figure out how to dye a purple streak into my hair without my parents finding out.

When George Chavez was 15 years old, he had already survived a devastating childhood of neglect and abuse. The one person George looked up to was his big brother who was in a gang at the time and unsurprisingly, George soon followed. One night he was involved in a carjacking in which his friend shot and killed the man whose car they were stealing.

George was convicted of felony murder¹ (see my note below) and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

He was 15.

His gang life continued in prison resulting in more violence, and another 22 years added to his life sentence. In fact, he spent a combined 13 years in “ad seg” (ie: administrative segregation, ie: the hole, ie: solitary confinement).

That long in solitary would have broken other men. But somehow George emerged changed, not broken. Something cracked open for him when his mom died and he realized he had done nothing to be a comfort to her, only a burden. So he renounced his membership in the gang (not a safe or easy thing to pull off in prison) and applied himself to every opportunity for education, enrichment and service offered inside - without the possibility of any of it contributing to a sentence reduction or looking good to a parole board. George was never getting out no matter what.

Fortunately our laws changed for the better:

2012: Miller v Alabama - SCOTUS ruled it unconstitutional for states to impose a mandatory sentence of life without the possibility of parole for juvenile homicide offenders.

2016: Montgomery v Louisiana - SCOTUS ruled that the Miller ruling be applied retroactively for those serving life without parole for crimes committed while juveniles.

Here’s a quote from the majority opinion:

“Prisoners like Montgomery must be given the opportunity to show their crime did not reflect irreparable corruption; and, if it did not, their hope for some years of life outside prison walls must be restored,” Justice Kennedy

So here’s what happened yesterday

For two hours straight inside a Denver courtroom, family, university faculty, prison housing officers, friends and formerly incarcerated men who spent years inside with George, even the DA herself spoke well of the man who George has become. The words that kept showing up were: empathic, compassionate, wise, and a LIGHT to those around him. I mean, the guy would even volunteer on his day off to help in the prison kitchen for free just because when they were understaffed, it was hard on the whole community.

I can tell you, this is legit. He’s lovely.

I do not know how he does it, but George genuinely maintains an unconditional positive regard for every person he meets. It’s unreal.

When he stood up to speak for himself he mostly apologized for how re-traumatizing this day was for his family who are having to live it all over again. He said he would spend every day for the rest of his life seeking to be a positive force for those around him whether those days be inside of a prison or out. I believed him.

So, there we were crammed into every open seat in that courthouse yesterday waiting for the judge to state his ruling. Would he allow George to serve his two sentences concurrently (in which case he has done his time) or consecutively (in which case he would spend 22 more years in prison.

The judge addressed the harm of the death that happened in the commission of the crime, as well he should. There is no making that right.

He also addressed George’s upbringing, how unformed the brains of 15 year old boys are, and his respect for the man George is now.

He then looked at George and said that he sees a lot of young men who look like him and George (Black (the judge) and Brown (George)), and that he tries to tell these men who are on the verge of being sent to prison that they do not want to go down that path, but he doesn’t think they can really hear him from the perch of his bench. “But they could hear you, Mr. Chavez. So I hope you help us with this.”

“I would be honored, Judge”

Then he ruled that George has served his time (30 years).

I cannot adequately describe the feeling of joy and release felt by all of us. Like we collectively had been holding something inflatable under water, a huge beach ball of hope, holding it for 2 hours, or even 30 years, all of our hands trying to keep it from breaking to the surface just in case he said the word “consecutive”. But we all let it go and the joy splashed everywhere making a teary joyful mess of the place.

So, that’s all. I just wanted you to know that something good happened yesterday.

It will take some time for George to process out of the DOC, and when he does, I’m hoping he will sit down with me for an interview I can post on The Corners.

Irreparable Corruption

I’ve been thinking about what that means, for a crime to not necessarily reflect irreparable corruption in a person, and wondering how far the idea can stretch. Does an extramarital affair reflect irreparable corruption? Does a betrayal? What about the worst thing about me? What about the person who hurt me? Does their action reflect irreparable corruption? Where is that line? It does exist, by the way. There are people inside prisons who should not be let out, who will always remain a danger to others.

1. “Felony Murder” is a uniquely American legal doctrine by which a person can be held responsible for murder if they participate in a felony and someone dies, even if they did not personally kill anyone. This means that if you and your friend set out to commit a burglary, and you break into a home you think is empty, and your friend ends up unexpectedly encountering someone in the house and getting into a confrontation with them and punching them so hard they die, YOU can be charged with felony murder even though you didn't kill anyone and never had any intention of someone dying. When George was convicted, felony murder was punished by mandatory life without parole. There are dozens of people in Colorado prisons serving life without parole for felony murder who in fact, never killed anyone.  

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