My name is Willy C. Godbolt. I’ve been incarcerated since 2020, here in Mississippi, death row, at the infamous Parchman, Count 29. I was convicted of eight murders, four which being capital murders. I was in, I was convicted of 12 felonies, in which I was convicted, they say before a jury my peers in a fair trial. In a fair trial that a man convicted of eight murders, there’ll be forget a psychological examination. Oh, right now I’m attempting to be one of the first people in the state of Mississippi, in a direct appeal of a capital murder case, to go and litigate his case before the Supreme Court, next month, November the 14th. I wrote my brief, in my direct appeal pro se, I raised eight issues on my direct appeal, exculpatory issues. When I originally got here, I knew nothing of the law. Right? So I was sentenced to the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections. Yet the state of Mississippi said and I don’t even deserve to live. But yet if you if you have sentenced me to the custody of Mississippi Department of Corrections, if it’s truly what you say it is, and why aren’t you affording me the same correction that you afford anybody else? Essentially, you tell everybody in society, it don’t matter. You don’t get a second chance at nothing in the state of Mississippi. In Mississippi, when we deem that you are unrehabilitatable, then we deem it, which shouldn’t be the case. We should all should have grace for somebody, since being that somebody has afforded it to us. But we perpetrate that into society and then get mad when that rooster to come back to crow, you know? Right now, we settin out, to set forth for the grassroot project to abolish the death penalty here in Mississippi: Ignite Justice, Mississippi, along with Death Penalty Action Group. We trying to generate as much support as we as we can. We are doing a lot of innovative things here on Mississippi death row. Don’t get me wrong, up until this year, we were locked down 23-1 which is not the case anymore. There’s guys here that have attained their GED. There’s guys that have learned to play musical instruments, these guys that take classes, but they tell us, and they tell society, that these guys have no worth whatsoever to society, or this world period, to the point where they deserve to die. I beg to differ. I’ve been living around these guys for the last three years. And I tell you this, in the last three years in the State of Mississippi there’s been three guys that have went home, totally exonerated from death row, three guys in the last three years without without into any entity doing any type of investigation to see it’s easy. Anybody else (?) without intermediate cover, they’re saying is there something going wrong with Mississippi and this death penalty? To where three guys, back to back to back, get exonerated, totally, in leave death row and go home. And, if so, why did they have to spend decades of their life on Mississippi death row before anybody gave a care to try to help them out?
I took the mission to fight for myself and making these pro se arguments. I took it a step further. And trying to make these full arguments before the Supreme Court. Who can fight for me like me? So many times people get caught up in this criminal injustice system, and they always looking for Superman/Clark Kent to pull off his suit and put on his cape. And I ask, I tell them now, guys that I come in contact with, I would not ask anybody to do nothing for me that I’m not willing to do for myself. So when I’m asking an attorney to do something on my behalf, you best believe that I have exhausted all other options before I ask them.
We appreciate you for giving us this outlet. We appreciate y’all for giving us an ear. We hope, in some type of way, it might spark your brain to question, not only just Mississippi, but as a country as a whole, what are we doing when we say that, nobody, nobody can be rehabilitated? Nobody could be taught anything to make them a better person in this society. Have we given up on humanity? Have we given up on people period? And we wonder why why the crime rate is going through the roof? Because you don’t care. Nobody has compassion. Nobody has a heart anymore. But you get mad when the criminal returns. But they only imitate what they see. Association brings forth simulation. If they seen it every day, they’re gonna be it. Be the change that you want to see, America. I implore you to be better, do better, seek better, and receive better. Again, I am Willy C. Godbolt, inmate 228135, housed in DOC custody at the infamous Mississippi State Penitentiary here in Parchman, unit 29. I appreciate y’all participation. Thank you.
These commentaries are recorded by Prison Radio.
