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Thread: Michael Jerome Braxton - North Carolina Death Row

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    Michael Jerome Braxton - North Carolina Death Row




    Summary of Offense:

    Defendant Michael Jerome Braxton was indicted on September 30, 1996 for first-degree murder in the killing of victim Dwayne Maurice Caldwell. Defendant was tried capitally and found guilty of first-degree murder on the basis of premeditation and deliberation. Following a capital sentencing proceeding, the jury recommended the sentence of death for the murder; and the trial court entered judgment accordingly.

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    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    A letter from Braxton

    Death row is no life of luxury

    I would like to respond to the recent to the recent media coverage concerning the conditions of life on death row.

    Despite what has been suggested by Danny Hembree, who does not speak for nor represent the views and opinions of those of us on death row, this is no life of leisure. In fact, Mr. Hembree had been on death row only two months when he wrote his letter claiming that he was a “gentleman of leisure watching color TV in the AC.” This is certainly not what life is like on death row.

    The true reality of life on death row is that every day is a life of fear, regret and humiliation. As a death row prisoner, my every day is consumed with the stress of waiting to die. Every moment is a countdown awaiting a court decision. I’m on edge every time my name is called for a legal visit. I’m afraid of receiving that letter stating that another round of my appeals has been denied, bringing me closer to that final moment. This is no life of leisure.

    I am a man who is not trusted. Not believed. I am always a suspect. When an infraction is committed, I have no presumption of innocence. I’ve lost friends and associates in society who now view me disgracefully as a convicted murderer unworthy to live. I’m housed in a special management unit solely for the condemned.

    I don’t enjoy the privileges that most general population prisoners are allowed. While most are allowed contact visits, all of my visits are behind glass with absolutely no contact. While other prisoners are allowed frequent telephone privileges, I am permitted one 10-minute phone call a year to my relatives. There are no rehabilitative programs to occupy my time like other prisoners are allowed. No AA, educational classes, no jobs.

    Instead, I live in a cell the size of a bathroom. My window provides a view only of the prison. I am allowed no more than two cubic feet of personal property, and my every day is spent literally waiting to die.

    Since I have been here, I have witnessed many men escorted to the death chamber over the years never to return. Mr. Hembree has no idea what it’s like to witness this walk of no return, and the hushed terror stamped into the eyes of every face that sees it.

    This is no life of luxury, and I am no gentleman of leisure. I live every day with the fear of standing before my God and accounting for my deeds. My days and nights are filled with regret. Regret for the hurt I have caused and the lives I have ruined, including my own.

    Any comforts that I have been afforded, whether it’s the privilege of being allowed to watch television or being protected from the elements of the cold or heat, are mercies that I am grateful for. Not something that I am audacious enough to say I deserve, but a mercy waiting for someone to die.

    Michael J. Braxton
    Raleigh

    Michael Jerome Braxton, 39, was sentenced to death for the 1996 killing of another inmate at the Caledonia Correctional Center in Halifax. At the time of the killing, Braxton was already serving a life sentence for the killing of another person in a 1994 robbery in Wake County.

    http://www.gastongazette.com/article...#ixzz1xHui5vfD
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  3. #3
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    North Carolina inmate on death row releases rap song from behind bars

    By Rod Carter
    CBS 17

    There are 135 offenders on death row, according to the North Carolina Department of Public Safety. Only one has the distinction of recording a rap song from behind bars.

    Michael Braxton, 48, who goes by the name Rrome Alone, recorded and released “Live on Death Row.” It really was recorded live from death row.

    The rapper is in North Carolina Central Prison on death row for stabbing a fellow prisoner to death in 1996. At the time, he was already serving two life sentences for two other murders.

    “I’ve been locked up for about 28 and half years,” Braxton said.

    After the prison murder, Braxton spent seven years in solitary confinement.

    “I feel like I got the point where I lost my mind.”

    His only solitude became his music.

    “It was through the process of being able to write my lyrics, it became therapeutic for me.”

    Getting the music out of his head and from behind bars for others to hear was a challenge.

    He wanted to record, but the only way he could communicate with anyone outside of prison was through a phone. So, recording on high-tech equipment wasn’t happening.

    Then he met Michael A. Betts, II, the director of Duke’s Department of Continuing Education in the Center for Documentary Studies. Betts was working on a project when he met Braxton. Six months later, he received an unexpected request from the death row rapper to help him record his music.

    “We talk about music clarity all the time. We spend money for high fidelity equipment regularly and we knew we weren’t going to overcome the sound the compression that the phone has,” Betts recalled.

    Like all music, it became a matter of collaboration.

    Betts called Mark Katz, who teaches Hip Hop and runs The Beat Lab at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Katz sent up an SOS to industry friends.

    “I put it out a social media,” Katz said.

    He called for reinforcements to find a way to get a recording from a phone to a releasable recording. He found help, but it was not a simple process.

    “It’s been hard. It’s been a journey. More than a year of trying every different possibility. Ya know anything that they could work on and there’s still limitations,” Katz said.

    So, they decided, instead of fighting the phone sound, to embrace it.

    “That’s actually a portion of his brand. He’s coming through the phone from behind the wall,” Katz said. “A lot of people say, this doesn’t sound like it was recorded over a phone “

    Then there was a matter of timing. There was no way for Braxton to hear the music through headphones, only through the phone.

    In the end, Braxton hopes the recently released single will do more than just provide a beat to entertain.

    “I realize the decisions I made in my yesterdays had gotten me to the point where I was over 15 years ago,” he said.

    And while he takes full responsibility for his actions, he wants those who are wrongly convicted to be heard.

    That’s what the song is all about.

    “With my music, I wanted to say something that’s important. I didn’t just want to use my music and the platform and the opportunity that I have just for entertainment. Of course, I love entertaining, and I love to sing and rap, but I wanted to have some type of message included with my music,” Braxton said.

    As far as any profits that may come, he has a plan for those.

    “I want them to give the money to family members and victims of crime,” Braxton said.

    https://www.cbs17.com/news/north-car...m-behind-bars/
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

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