in solidarity with howard guidry : Houston Indymedia

hi everyone. my name is liz, i'm from new jersey, i came down for the summer to do death penalty abolition work, and i'm here to talk about howard guidry. which is a weird thing to do, to talk about another person, especially at an event where everyone is already gathered together in order to be in solidarity with that person because how can you stand in solidarity with someone who you know nothing about? and if you're already in solidarity with that person, why do we need me to do an introduction or whatever about this man we're all in solidarity with? down in texas, it all makes sense. you can know howard as "just another poor black man oppressed by the racist anti-poor criminal justice system," and you'll stand in solidarity with him against racism and classism and injustice or whatever, but that's different from standing in solidarity with him, howard guidry, in all of his different roles--poet, student, son, brother, friend, poor black man oppressed by the texas criminal justice system, etc, as you, whoever each individidual you is, in all of your different roles and places and functionalities. that's why we hand out fliers that say: howard guidry: poet, panther, activist and not just stand on street corners with bullhorns and say, "another poor black man railroaded to death row by racist white cops and incompetent white lawyers," even though we could because regardless of how unique he is, his case and his situation are tragically commonplace. the hope is that all of us will care more about what texas does to people like howard once we get to know who howard is. when i talked to him last week, he said to me, "we gotta humanize the struggle." the point of tonight is to take all of us, who are in solidarity with this man against the racist anti-poor texas criminal justice system, and put us in solidarity with howard guidry, the man, the poet, the artist, the son, the brother, and, yes, the innocent black death row activist, and with all other prisoners as well.

okay, so, way back in the day, when i was still about this tall, eighteen year old howard guidry bought a gun from a man named prystash. that very same year, at least one of you in the audience bought a used car. who was it? did you know how many miles the car had when you bought it? did you know the car's basic history? okay, well, buying a used gun is not like buying a used car. there's no murder-ometer or, like, will-get-you-in-big-trouble-with-the-cops-ometer. it's a gun, it's illegal for you to have it, and there you go. so, howard buys this gun, thinks, cool, i have a gun! yay!, and then go uses it to rob a bank. let's stop for a moment. did anyone in the audience think to themselves, "he should have known better! who robs a bank?" you can raise your hand, don't be shy, i'll raise both my hands because my parents would each raise a hand if they were here. okay, now it's a fun thought experiment time: umm, so back at school, lots of my friends have gotten raped, so we all have to be feminists for self defense. so here's a question from that realm, is the rape of a drunken girl less of a rape than the rape of a sober girl? what about a girl wearing a skirt versus a girl wearing pants? or a pretty girl versus an ugly one? or your sister versus that mean girl who always stole your lunch money in third grade?

it's the same thing. yes, robbing a bank is illegal, but when howard bought a gun illegally and robbed a bank, he was not somehow yelling out to the universe, "hey, fair game, i'm damaged goods, do whatever you want to me."

so, when he was arrested, what did the cops do? read him his rights, put him in a cell, and let him sit there until his lawyer came? yeah right! not in texas they don't. they interrogated him for eight hours, called him the n-word, told him how lethal injections work, promised to put him on the fast track to executions, refused to let him see his mother or his lawyer, and then told him that his lawyer thought that he should sign what he thought was a plea bargain but in fact was a confession for the murder of this woman who was killed before he bought the gun that was used to kill her. and what did an eighteen year old howard do? sit there, saying nothing but, "i have the right to see my lawyer" and "i have the right to remain silent" for eight hours straight? of course not! the cops scared the bejeesus out of him and then he signed a confession for a crime he didn't do because it seemed like the only way to get out of that little room with those freaky cops.

and then the d.a. used that very confession along with testimony of the girlfriend of the actual shooter, the guy who sold him the gun, and then that was that. the state put three people on death row: the man who hired someone to kill his wife (1), the man who that man hired (2), and then howard, who the state decided was hired by the second man to do what the first man had hired him to do (3).

and so howard sat on death row for eight years, learning history, becoming a revolutionary, writing poetry, and keeping all of his loved ones and relatives in a constant state of worry, anger, sadness, and all of those other pesky emotions that plague you day and night when texas has decided to kill someone you love, but won't tell you when.

and then, all of a sudden, federal judge vanessa gilmore looks at his case and is like, what in the---? quick legal point: once arrested, you have the right to a lawyer and also the right not to incriminate yourself. you can waive these rights, but the friendly neighborhood policeman cannot waive them for you. so the "confession" that howard signed was illegal. so federal judge gilmore told harris county that they had to release or retry howard in 180 days. harris county appealed, but both the fifth circuit court and the supreme court ignored them.

so, three years after the federal judge said that harris county had 180 days, harris county is finally going to retry howard, without evidence or a case.

and that's basically where we're at now. there's a motion hearing tomorow to decide whether or not to allow as a witness a psychologist who had said in the last trial that howard had confessed when what he really meant to say was that he had heard other people say that howard had confessed to the cops. i.e., he was just repeating gossip and not saying anything relevant, but since he is a doctor, it seemed relevant at the time. on wednesday, they do jury selection. on august 7, the re-trial starts. or, maybe harris county will just drop the case he'll be out next week. or, you know, not, and harris county will try to kill him with no evidence and no case.

so, there you go. that's the story of howard the man suffering from a bad case of texas justice system-itis.