I have always been opposed to the death penalty. It is a cruel practice and is usually accompanied by torture, sometimes physical but practically always psychological in the way that people on death row are badly treated and dehumanised. It does not work as a deterrent. In England when thieves were hanged in public, pickpockets did a roaring trade at their executions, despite the danger of being caught and suffering the same fate. People in China can be executed for fraud and despite the publicity generated by show trials prominent politicians and businesspeople still commit frauds, thinking they will get away with it.
The biggest argument against the death penalty is that it is irrevocable. Clearly mistakes are made by the justice system; fines or terms of imprisonment can be reduced or set aside if it is later found that a person is innocent, but somebody who has been executed cannot be returned to life. Unfortunately, there have been many miscarriages of justice in the US. About ten years ago I went to a talk at a Quaker meeting house about LifeLines which I found very interesting, and I decided to join. LifeLines began in 1988 when its founder Jan Arriens watched the BBC documentary Fourteen Days in May and was deeply moved by the words of the condemned prisoners who were interviewed, and by the dignity of the man who was due to be executed, Edward Earl Johnson. I too watched the documentary and was also deeply moved and angry that this could happen in an otherwise civilised country. I filled in a form and stated some of my interests and Shawna was assigned to be my pen pal. We have written and lately emailed regularly ever since. Shawna is a remarkable lady. She is clearly innocent of the crime for which she was sentenced to death and has suffered all the indignities of the system. However, she has not allowed herself to be bowed down and faces the daily hardships with courage and dignity. Shawna is always interested in my family and what I have been up to. She often gives me good advice and has been a great support recently after my partner died and I have had some health issues. Although she is in a prison cell thousands of miles away and we have never met she has become one of my closest and dearest friends. Despite the conditions Shawna is a very fine artist and writer and has had pieces published in The Wing, the Lifelines magazine and some of her writing has been translated into German and published in Tabor magazine. She also acts as a mentor to some of the younger women. I admire Shawna immensely and I look forward to the day when she is released from prison and is able to join her friends and family and become a respected member of the community. Anthony LoukesBlog Archive
Sunday, August 29, 2021
Sunday, June 6, 2021
Arizona ‘refurbishes’ its gas chamber to prepare for executions, documents reveal
Documents obtained by the Guardian reveal that Arizona’s department of corrections has spent more than $2,000 in procuring the ingredients to make cyanide gas. The department bought a solid brick of potassium cyanide in December for $1,530. It also purchased sodium hydroxide pellets and sulfuric acid which are intended to be used to generate the deadly gas. The gas chamber itself, built in 1949 and disused for 22 years, has been dusted off and, according to the department, “refurbished”.
Over the past few months the Republican-controlled state has moved aggressively to restart its deeply flawed execution system. The death penalty has been in abeyance in Arizona for seven years following the gruesomely botched lethal injection of Joseph Wood in 2014. Last month, the Guardian revealed that Arizona spent a jaw-dropping $1.5m on a batch of pentobarbital in October, a sedative which it now hopes to use as its main lethal injection method.
The Guardian’s documents, obtained through public records requests, show that officials have also gone to considerable lengths to revive the state’s mothballed gas chamber, housed at ASPC-Florence. A series of tests were conducted last August to appraise its “operability”. Seals on windows and the door were checked to ensure airtightness, and drains cleared of blockage. Water was used in the tests in place of the deadly chemicals, with a smoke grenade ignited to simulate the gas. Some of the techniques used to test the safety of the chamber were astonishingly primitive, the documents reveal. Prison officials checked for gas seepages with a candle.
The preparation of cyanide gas executions presents Arizona death row inmates with a Hobson’s choice between two questionable ways to die. Should they opt for the gas chamber, they should be mindful of the last time anybody was gassed by the state. Walter LaGrand, a German national, was sentenced to death for a 1982 bungled armed bank robbery in which a man was killed. The Tucson Citizen published an eyewitness account of his 1999 execution in which he displayed “agonizing choking and gagging” and took 18 minutes to die.
“The witness room fell silent as a mist of gas rose, much like steam in a shower, and Walter LaGrand became enveloped in a cloud of cyanide vapor,” the Citizen reported. “He began coughing violently – three or four loud hacks – and made a gagging sound before falling forward.” The newspaper recorded that over many minutes the inmate’s head and arms twitched, and his hands were “red and clenched”.
Should an inmate choose death by lethal injection – the method widely deployed among death penalty states as the supposedly scientific and humane alternative to gas, electric chair or firing squad – they will also find the last time it was used in Arizona it was anything but humane. Joseph Wood took almost two hours to die when Arizona experimented on him with 15 doses of a then little-used concoction of lethal injection drugs. An eye witness told the Guardian that he counted Wood gasp and gulp 660 times.
In its current rush to restart executions, Arizona has selected two inmates as likely candidates to go first out of a current death row population of 115 people. They are Frank Atwood, 65, sentenced to death for killing an eight-year-old girl, Vicki Lynne Hoskinson, in 1984; and Clarence Dixon, 65, convicted of the 1978 murder of a college student, Deana Bowdoin. A member of Atwood’s legal team, Joseph Perkovich of Phillips Black, told the Guardian that it was improper for the state to be hurrying towards setting an execution date when the pandemic had impeded investigation into his client’s possible innocence for more than a year. As for Atwood’s choice between lethal injection or gas, Perkovich said: “Neither option is tenable.”
The attorney pointed out that there is a discrepancy between the potassium cyanide that has been obtained by the corrections department and the state’s execution protocol which stipulates that sodium cyanide must be used. “This is not a small detail – the specific compound is vitally important,” he said. Perkovich added that “Frank Atwood is prepared to die. He is a man of Greek Orthodox faith and is preparing for this moment. But he does not want to be tortured and subjected to a botched execution.”
Inmates who choose the gas chamber are strapped into a chair in the centre of the vessel. Colored levers are then used to drop the sodium cyanide into a pot of sulfuric acid under the chair, releasing the deadly hydrogen cyanide into the air. Once the prisoner is dead, the gas is neutralized with ammonia until the chamber is safe to enter. “As a precautionary method,” the death chamber protocol says, “it is recommended that the team removing the body wear gas masks and rubber gloves and that the hair of the deceased inmate be ruffled in order to allow any residually trapped gas to escape.”
The documents record how prison staff engaged in role play during last year’s tests. Guards acted out as inmates who resisted going to their death, screaming: “This is murder”, “I’m innocent”, “You’re putting me down like an animal”, and “This is against everything America stands for”. Despite Arizona’s best efforts to present its gas chamber as a reputable institution, the horrors of the past hang heavily over it.
Thursday, May 13, 2021
Shawna's Testimony
Blog news
Our main blogger is recovering from surgery and will not be back until late June, we are sorry for the delay and lack of updates, we also realize how many are experiencing challenging times, and wish everyone strength and to find happiness in every moment you can . thank you for your support and time .
Thursday, March 18, 2021
Fiction vs Fact on Shawna Forde number 2
Fiction vs Fact number 1 on Shawna Forde
Monday, March 15, 2021
LifeLines Quarterly Magazine Spring 2021
Dear Friends,
Well, we are back in the electronic format for this issue but I hope we will be back to a paper copy next time. I am sorry I haven’t got room for all the articles you have sent me- please keep sending them, and I will publish them as soon as I can.
The post has been intermittent, and sadly I had no entries at all for the art competition this year. I hope some of you can send me poems and essays for our next competitions.
Please be assured that LifeLines is still offering the usual support and services – please use the contacts page for email addresses and phone numbers or contact your co-ordinator.
Thank you for your letters and messages; I hope that you are all keeping well.
Sue Drysdale Copy date for the next Wing is 26th April 2021
Vice Chair’s Message
Dear LifeLines members and our friends in the US
This e-Wing has been put together by Wing editor Sue Drysdale in response to the current Covid lockdown in Britain: we want to reduce the workload of the severely stretched Royal Mail and help most members avoid a trip to the post office.
I’d like to begin with a very warm welcome to all the new members who have joined since the last newsletter. We’re delighted to have you on board. Many joined after seeing a BBC video featuring LifeLines members that was linked with news coverage about the horrifying spate of Federal executions greenlighted in the last months of the Trump administration. It is some comfort that many new friendships will hopefully spring from that very dark time. Our thoughts are with the families and friends of those executed, the remaining Federal prisoners and with co-ordinator Patrick Ballin, who has offered compassion and support to all affected. President Biden has declared his intention to end Federal executions and opened a conversation about the death penalty, so we shall watch developments with cautious optimism.
Thank you as ever to all LifeLines office-holders – trustees, co-ordinators, regional group organisers and others who do valuable work to keep things running smoothly - who continue to do a wonderful job in the current very challenging circumstances. We welcome longtime member Edmund Conybeare back to the committee, on which he served many years ago, and thank you too to all the trustees and Michele Baxter who were involved in the superb redesign of the LifeLines website. Take a look here: www.LifeLines-uk.org.uk
You’ll see below details of the next LifeLines Zoom event, in April. Do join us if you can! It’s a great way for us to connect with each other and make something positive out of a grim situation.
To our friends in the US, we know you’re still having to endure many restrictions and difficulties as a result of the pandemic, with visits, mail and daily routines all severely affected. We’re keeping you in our thoughts and wishing that you stay safe and well. To all LifeLines members, please never doubt you are making a difference for the better and thank you for being there for your friends. Let us all hope that wherever we are, Spring will be the start of a brighter time for everyone.
Warmest wishes, Jan Hall
Facebook and Twitter
Follow us on Twitter - @LifeLines25 - or on Facebook; just search for the LifeLines group and one of the Administrators will approve you, pending a membership check.
LifeLines Conference News
Coming soon to a screen near you…again!
LifeLines Zoom Event Saturday 17th April
The first LifeLines Zoom event last October was such a success that we’re having another, on Saturday 17th April from 2 to 4pm. Robin Konrad, Chair of the Board of Directors of the National Habeas Institute, will be guest speaker, and the afternoon will also include other features of interest to LifeLines people, and time to talk informally with one another. There will be more details of the event on the LifeLines website and sent to you from your co-ordinator nearer the time.
Pre-registration - NB You must register for the event by 10th April at the latest. Please email LifeLines membership secretary Nichola Glasse on nichola@glasse.org.uk who will check your membership status and confirm your booking has been received. If you’re not a member, please give the name of a member who will vouch for you. About a fortnight before the event, Nichola will email you a link, and you must click on that to complete your pre-registration and receive joining details for the conference. Attendance is free, but donations are much appreciated. Donate here: www.lifelines-uk.org.uk
Guest Speaker Robin Konrad will be joining us from her home in Montgomery, Alabama, where she is Chair of the Board of Directors of the National Habeas Institute. The NHI works to educate lawyers, law students and the public about habeas law by developing and putting into practice the best standards for habeas practice.
As an alumnus and former faculty member at Howard University School of Law, Robin is passionate about racial and social justice. She has helped develop NHI’s pipeline programme between Howard students and public defender offices and is committed to ensuring that prisoners have quality representation when challenging their unconstitutional convictions.
We hope you can join us!
Some Old ‘Meant to Be’s
Realities of what happened to us,
It’s so very hard to explain,
Those reasons we aren’t together
A face without a name
I think about it very often
The facts seem a little unclear
A million questions to answer
Yet none of them are near
I was born to walk in darkness
You were bathed in the light
Born to two different worlds
Demons we both would fight
Though separate we are together
The regrets can never be freed
Shadows in every corner
Living some old ‘meant to be’s
R.E.H.
2020 in 6 words
A Facebook prompt led members to sum up last year in 6 words- here are a few of them:
Look for new ways going forward
Grateful for friendship across the ocean
Very grateful for what I have.
COVID ravaged but on the mend!
Feel like the world's gone mad
Unpredictable; Transformative; Clarity; Community; Change; Ugh.
Learning to truly count my blessings.
Community spirit, love, care, wildlife, environment
Pulling together for our communities.
Groundhog Day. Groundhog Day. Groundhog Day.
Friends matter, letters matter, you matter
Enjoy small pleasures, see kindness everywhere
Time to breathe and appreciate Nature
Sincerely grateful for what you have
A year of tears and heroes
Thanks but no thanks, wretched 2020
Pillow
You are the comfort zone to many minds and hearts.
You are the last who simply cannot speak, see, or hear.
You don’t judge. You allow the mind to lay down its head;
To feel as a heart, our fears, our tears, our dreams, our nightmares.
Like our heart, it is the center before our day is complete.
In the midst of it all, you soak up the tears and heal the inner silence of thought. How we all rest on you. “Pillow Talk” you do not do. You are the mind’s security blanket.
In hunger and in fear, you gave me your comfort and ear.
As I tossed and turned, you still understood.
For 55 years you allowed me to reflect without a word.
My head thanks you for your protection on stormy nights, lonely days, you amaze.
Like the heart, you see not, hear not, yet like the heart this is where life truly rests. Pillow, you have listened to my many thoughts.
You wait for me, not hate for me. Like a cello that’s mellow, in tune with my thoughts; Music only heard in my thoughts, you covered my tears.
Yes, Pillow. You’re special in ways that matter most days.
Gregory Esparza Sr. Ohio
The Samuel Johnson Essay Competition 2021
We are pleased to announce that we are now accepting entries for the Samuel Johnson Essay Competition. Please send your entry to Sue Drysdale, The Wing Editor
Deadline : Monday 5th July 2021
LifeLines Poetry Competition 2021
We are now accepting entries for the LifeLines Poetry Competition 2020.
Please send your poetry to: The Wing Editor, 5 Glusburn Bridge, Glusburn, Keighley, West Yorkshire, BD20 8DP by Monday 5th April 2021. The editor can also be contacted by e-mail at thewingeditor@gmail.com. The 1st prize is $40, 2nd prize is $25, and 3rd prize is $15.
The competition is open to all prisoners on the row, but no more than three entries per person, please. Remember, you must be the author and your poem cannot have been published elsewhere.
Winning entries will be published in a future issue of The Wing; other entries may be printed later. Please let us know if you would prefer to have your work printed anonymously and let us know how we should send your prize money, should you win. Good luck!
Appreciation: Art Giles 1959-2020
'Give Light and people will find the way'
- a quote sent by Art, November 2016.
As I am finishing this, a fantastic rainbow arcs down the hilly streets of my Yorkshire town over the local church where I requested Art, and others, be remembered in an All Souls service, last Sunday.
It's always going to be special writing to someone on the Row and being part of their life, but befriending the thoughtful, intelligent Art - who has died in his sixty-second year - has been a privilege.
We began our correspondence the year I turned fifty. He'd been on the Row since my schooldays, yet his letters exuded a warmth and resilience that spoke of a heart at peace.
He stressed the importance of celebrating the beauty and happiness in the everyday, and consequently I began to look at my life and its blessings with a new appreciation.
There were sketches, quotes and word pictures, but never discussions on politics - I never developed the courage to attempt that! - even if Art's letters once or twice touched on them.
I would not have known from his letters of the (harsh) daily routine of the Row.
He never complained, had enormous resilience, and, despite illness, continued to have an interest in the world in general, and a concern for the needs of those close to him, in particular. (It was a revelation to me, for instance that he helped teach a Law Class, encouraging fellow inmates to continue contesting their sentence, right up to the end, as he did.)
One of his last kindnesses was to ask a friend, stateside, to contact me when he died.
When I passed on news of his passing to Mary, the Coordinator who'd originally put us in touch with each other, I thanked her - "it's been a really special experience" - and then I understood that quote: "Give people the light and they will find the way"; everyone IS special, but sometimes people need the warmth and sunshine of friendship to see our own worth.
(Thanks, Art; I was one of those people!)
Clare
Dancing Pixies
On the very first January morning the bleakness of my drab prison cell was transformed into a festive party room;
Filled with petite winged Pixies of shimmering bright lights.
Around they went, dancing on the walls and ceiling, jumping, bouncing, joyous and almost magical.
Each moment seemed choreographed in a gleeful, mischievous dance.
Though they were truly just reflections of the sun shining off the ice coated prisms created on the pointed razor wire atop the high fence outside my cell
These brilliant bursts of colour brought life and hope, if only for just a brief time.
I encourage you to look for the dancing pixies in life;
Those we lose sight of when times are full of plenty…
And we grow up.
John E Robinson Sr, Kansas
Apache Blessing
May the sun bring you new energy by day,
May the moon softly restore you by night,
May the rain wash away your worries,
May the breeze blow new strength into your being,
May you walk gently through the world and know its beauty all the days of your life.
Thursday, November 12, 2020
Jpay only for funds plz
Shawna requests that if anyone is going to send her funds, please do so only via Jpay. Never send via Securus, because Securus funds her media account only, then she cannot shop at commissary. Thx!
Tuesday, November 10, 2020
Thursday, November 5, 2020
yard report by SF
now let's talk ridiculousness of closed custody
washing your clothes is a privlages on other units they having washing machines, but on other units like ours, you have to wash your own clothes, recently they went around and threatened everyone with tickets ( only on our yard, of course). and said we have to send out, so women who have female issues, periods, are expected to put bloody underwear, PJs in a bag for a week and then send out with bedding and anything else, mixed with other inmates stuff. " seriously". and everything gets stolen that you send out
1) that you paid for
2) in sanitary
3*** this is important, No State Issue! has not been for years, death row used to do fundraising for bra and underwear for indigent inmates.
they never provide us with clothes, bras, socks, shoes, underwear. " fact". go back on my yard reports.
showers, sometimes we get them sometimes we don't, and never after rec, so we all bath in our room " have to". which leads to being exposed to male officers.
100° in our room for 75+ days, refused to service our coolers! did not care.
did not follow own policy of providing cold water or leave doors a crack opened for some air flow, and many inmates had health issues due to extreme heat conditions.
no access to servises or admin if on closed. ". took me one year to get a # changed"!! a year!
can't get a new mattress, they put a microwave on our yard for phase 3 but we have zero access, they change rules daily, never post anything, you find out by rule changes by getting a dicaplinary ticket,
example
1) pill call is on our yard, and for years you walk out get your meds lock back down, now mind you we are a outdoor facility, so our doors open to outside, and pill call is outside ( the nurse is in a air conditioned room)
so this summer in our record breaking extreme heat, they decide everyone has to be in fuel compliance. which means pants. (125°} on yard " cement"
instead of shorts, and stand in line in this heat, with no cool down even in your room,
so how did we learn, by getting yelled at, threatened and tickets.
2). education, so there will be no school, and when you know this you don't get up, get ready and go, " duh" well new rule, now even if you have covid, or there is no school you still have to get up and go just to turn around and come back, even if your dying, how did we find out, a tutor received a ticket for not going to a closed for the day class. " surprise"
these examples are daily, they feel it below them to talk to us or inform us and they have verbally stated how much they hate our yard, so get nothing and have nothing coming.
more later
Sunday, November 1, 2020
How to contact Shawna Forde
Securus technologies has taken over Jpay.com. To email Shawna, go to https://securustech.online/#/enroll and make a free account. Stamps cost 20 Stamps Package ($ 5)
Prices are the same as they were for Jpay.com
To write to Shawna, address your envelope as follows:
Shawna Forde #260830 ASPC Perryville, Lumley Unit P. O. Box 3300 Goodyear, AZ 85338
You must include your name & return address on the envelope. You may read about AZ DOC mail rules here: https://corrections.az.gov/sites/default/files/policies/900/0914_032519.pdf
Friday, October 23, 2020
The following was written by Shawna Forde for a German Publication & her blog
Wednesday, October 7, 2020
I accuse
I accuse Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, Prime Minister of the UK, of conspiracy to cause the deaths of thousands of people in the recent past, now and in the future.
He did not cause these deaths deliberately. However he allowed them to happen by not taking appropriate actions. The deaths are caused by Covid-19, the climate emergency, insufficient funding of the NHS and by ordering the lockdown too soon and then easing restrictions too early.
A precedent to this prosecution is the case of Winston Churchill in WW2. It is said that history is written by the victors. If the allies had lost the war Winston Churchill would certainly have been charged with war crimes and executed as were the leaders of the Nazi regime. Two of the crimes would have been the bombing of Dresden and the Bengal Famine.
In February 1945 Churchill and the US president Roosevelt ordered the bombing of the city of Dresden which caused the deaths of about 25,000 people, mostly civilians. Most of the targets had no strategic value and the defeat of Germany was already inevitable. This war crime was the result of a deliberate decision.
Another war crime would have been the Bengal famine in 1943 in which an estimated 2 – 3 million people died of starvation, malaria and other diseases aggravated by unsanitary conditions and lack of health care. The famine was caused by a crop failure but was exacerbated by the British colonial authorities burning farming land to prevent a possible invasion by the Japanese and prioritising food supplies to the British army and civilians who were in India rather than the Bengali population. This war crime is the precedent for my case against Boris Johnson and is described in a Wikipedia article as panicky responses from a government that was spectacularly inept, overwhelmed and in disarray. This also describes the current UK government.
Anthony Loukes
Monday, October 5, 2020
Saturday, September 19, 2020
This was written by Shawna Forde for a German publication (Tabor Magazine).
When you say goodbye, you leave a piece of your own personal history, there is a sense of permanency. As long shadows grow before my eyes, as I quietly contemplate my own goodbye, my mark on the world I may leave, and if I left here tomorrow would you still remember me?
We all come to bridges we must cross, even burn down, then leave behind with the memory of smoke and that our eyes were burning.
In restless dreams we walk alone, we are born owning many qualities, most we do not know we posses until we travel on our own journey. All journeys have beginnings and within beginnings enlies endings.
What kind of end depends on what kind of run God gives us.
As a condemned woman to be executed in America, a goodbye is deeply personal. Germany has blessed me, by allowing me to share with you, my soul.
Throughout our life we close many doors, doors to friendships, family, relationships, jobs, freedom, and environment. Some we love deeply. Myself, I may have to say goodbye to love of life.


