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Yukon KizmiazHamilton Nolan
1/02/14 4:10pm
Jasper sounds like he's changed his mindset, outlook, and attitude. He refuses to deflect blame or play the victim. His writings suggest a man who's intelligent, self-aware, articulate, mature, done some introspection, educated himself, and understands while the crime he committed was a horrible thing, he'll be punished by an even greater wrong.

It's a good thing he'll likely be executed in a couple of months. There's no saving him.
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  DontBeSuchaBoobPunchTinaYukon Kizmiaz
  1/02/14 4:25pm
  That's interesting, because deflecting blame and playing victim is the greater part of what I see him doing here.
  
  He is, however, doing it with terrific eloquence and a solid understanding of the greater social dynamic at work, which I appreciate. And I agree that for the state to kill is wrong.
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  Yukon KizmiazDontBeSuchaBoobPunchTina
  1/02/14 4:30pm
  I don't see it as deflection. I see him simply stating some truisms.
  
  "Racial discrimination on trial juries has a long-standing history in Texas."
  
  "I grew up like most young blacks at a disadvantage, susceptible to the street life out of the environment and a lack of education. For most young blacks we rebel out of subtle racism and being targeted by the police."
  
  "My life is a testament of what it is to be young & black in America. Black [people] are incarcerated at a higher rate than any other race because we are ignorant to the laws that govern society."
  
  "When you're young it's hard to see the road up ahead and many teens lack a long term vision for their life."
  
  These are the statements I suppose one may point to as a deflection of blame, of playing the victim card. Do you disagree with any of these statements, or do you believe they represent deflection on Jasper's part? Or... is there another statement you see I'm perhaps overlooking?
  
  Also, why are you in the grey?
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MeatBuoyHamilton Nolan
1/02/14 3:42pm
Here is a great example of how our prisons are used to punish, not rehabilitate inmates. Do these really sound like the writings of someone who should be put to death? How much resemblance does this man bear to the kid who committed his crimes so many years ago? Sad.
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  MizJenkinsMeatBuoy
  1/02/14 3:50pm
  Well to be fair, eloquence and intelligence never kept anyone from being an irredeemable sociopath. Just the opposite really.
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  gaytigerMeatBuoy
  1/02/14 4:00pm
  I'm not gonna say one or the other whether this guy deserves to die or not, but beware of getting sucked in by a convicted murderer's writings. They can often be charming and eloquent but that doesn't mean they aren't dangerous. Norman Mailer famously helped free convicted murderer Jack Abbott in 1977, who ended up murdering somebody two weeks after his release. I'm sure Mailer thought he was a changed man as well.
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therealquash ᕙ(⇀‸↼‶)ᕗHamilton Nolan
1/02/14 3:35pm
Oh these are my favorite! Waiting on all the people to yell about what a bad dude this guy was.

GIF

#missingthepointentirely
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  KittensAndUnicorns_v2_The Uprisingtherealquash ᕙ(⇀‸↼‶)ᕗ
  1/02/14 3:41pm
  some people in the grey can just stay grey.
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  dwaynemcgintytherealquash ᕙ(⇀‸↼‶)ᕗ
  1/02/14 3:48pm
  I say he should be released today.
  
  On the condition that he live with you for a year.
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OccamsScrewdriverHamilton Nolan
1/02/14 3:54pm
I don't know how to feel about this letter.

The questions he was responding to don't specifically ask him to address the murder he committed but this is the inescapable salient detail as to why he's here, now, and that doesn't even get half a mention in anything he's written. He comments intelligently on socioeconomics and cultural conditions that contribute to crime committed by blacks. He talks about how finding religion. But the only the thing he expresses remorse for is the typos in the letter.

It's difficult for me to look past a basic inability to feign regret or remorse for taking someone's life, no matter how thoughtful his points.
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  pussygalore134OccamsScrewdriver
  1/02/14 4:14pm
  Because he doesn't believe his cutting someone's throat was the cause of the man's death. “I just want you to know from me personally that I did not kill David Alejandro. I knew David,” Jasper testified, according to a prior San Antonio Express-News story. “I knew him for some time. ... But that man was brutally murdered. He was stabbed 25 times. I'm not a killer, and I didn't do it.”
  
  Jasper went on to explain that although he “cut” Alejandro's throat, an accomplice delivered the mortal wounds, the story said.
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  OccamsScrewdriverpussygalore134
  1/02/14 4:37pm
  Wow. That's just. Wow.
  
  That's some cold ass sociopathic shit right there.
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MizJenkinsHamilton Nolan
1/02/14 3:49pm
My only objection to reading these letters is that I occasionally have moments where I worry I could become one of those women who falls in love with some "misunderstood" stranger in prison ...

This is one of those moments.
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  Golden Spider DuckMizJenkins
  1/02/14 3:58pm
  My god, I know exactly what you mean. I was just thinking to myself, I wonder if there's some way I could write to him?
  
  Probably best if I don't.
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  achangeindirectionMizJenkins
  1/02/14 3:59pm
  Yep, me too. About halfway through, I was thinking "maybe I should write him a letter".
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TB32Hamilton Nolan
1/02/14 4:08pm
As a supporter of the anti-death penalty cause, I find these letters fascinating, eye-opening and downright tragic. I applaud Gawker for providing us with this insight.

That being said, I wish that somewhere in this letter, Mr. Jasper would have expressed some manner of remorse for his victim. I understand he wasn't specifically asked about his crime, however no matter our feelings on the anti- or pro-death penalty debate, Mr. Jasper took someone's life. This was a perfect forum to express grief over his actions and to apologize to the victim's family.
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EmanzeHamilton Nolan
1/02/14 3:59pm
According to court documents, he walked up to the victim, grabbed him by the hair and slit his throat. His defense was that he didn't stab him 25 times after that. Accomplices did that deed.

The victim was David Alejandro, he was 33 years old. I wasn't able to find a picture online of him. The victim always gets forgotten. So I'll just remember him now and point out he mattered, too.
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  icewaterEmanze
  1/02/14 5:06pm
  I'm against the death penalty, on a moral and practical level. But I also have misgivings, in the same domains of morals and pragmatism, about the idea that it can be fought against by offering a public platform to the murderers on death row (barring a situation where for the particular prisoner there is overwhelming evidence for their innocence).
  
  I think there is a responsibility missing Jaspar's letter, (an obvious one, but one which must be acknowledged nonetheless). I think it would have been easy to cover it. If Jaspar had covered that base, or Nolan had listed it drily, the whole thing would be a lot easier to stomach. And it would have acted as a salve to the somewhat repulsive nature of this article. It would have mediated it, and it's a thing that needs mediating.
  
  Because even if Jasper has some sound political ideas, or some information to share that is technically correct, on principal many people are repulsed by the idea of offering a special platform to a murderer. And doubly repulsed when they use that platform to 'educate' us on whether the punishment the justice system has selected was unfair or too harsh, or hint that capital murders could partially be society's fault for not making his upbringing nicer.
  
  I think plenty of people are ready to hear ideas and information about inequity in the justice system and in police enforcement.
  
  Just like lots of people like to know the different ways they can help the environment. But if an BP executive was in the neighborhood and lectured me about putting recyclables in the garbage, it would be tough advice to take.
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  Michael LedermanEmanze
  1/02/14 7:21pm
  Yes Davids story was cut short while this murderer continues to weave his own.
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EatTheCheeseNicholsonHamilton Nolan
1/02/14 3:39pm
It's written mainly for an audience of statisticians, but this recent paper by Gelman is probably the best analysis of US public opinion on the death penalty. Just thought some here might find it interesting: http://www.stat.columbia.edu/~gelman/resear…
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RilloVillopHamilton Nolan
1/02/14 3:46pm
He seems nice. I bet he is innocent.
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  DontBeSuchaBoobPunchTinaRilloVillop
  1/02/14 4:43pm
  I'm just replying to let you know that SOMEONE got it.
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  drunkapeRilloVillop
  1/03/14 3:16am
  HamNo just killed this dude. Any chance he had of getting off was just ruined.
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coolmommaflavaflavHamilton Nolan
1/02/14 5:02pm
"5 out of 6 black teenagers will drop out of high school"? Seriously? That didn't jump out at anyone else? Everyone is just going to overlook that this guy is just making things up to garner emotional response? The author of this post is not going to call out this major error in fact? This completely discredits everything else said in the letter.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the high school dropout rate for blacks in 2011 was 7% (down from 13% in 1990). https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/disp…
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  DontBeSuchaBoobPunchTinacoolmommaflavaflav
  1/02/14 5:59pm
  I actually did skip past that factual error, yes, but it doesn't make any substantive difference for me. I already found the letter utterly self-serving.
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