April 23, 2012
Greetings!
The inspiration of this blog stems from my concern that as a group of individuals we are sort of “gypsy” like. Some of you know each other, some of you have never met and some of you have just recently entered my life.
I am blessed to be surrounded by what I refer to as an “eclectic group of individuals” whom come from many walks of life and have entered my life at varying times.
While my pursuit of clemency is the common thread, I believe that there is so much more that connects all of us. Each one of you is individually priceless to me!
Often people say to me that they don’t know how I’ve done the amount of time that I have. The thing is I haven’t done it alone. All of you have done it with me. I am whom I am today because of that love, those friendships and that support.
For quite some time I have felt a disconnect happening, not so much with me and you individually, but as a group. At visits, on the phone and now with emails I speak of all of you to each other. And yet the majority of you don’t know each other. Someone recently said to me, “welcome to the 21st Century!” If that is to be true and its how life is out there then I want to fix it now. I am a living example of what community and friendship can produce. I want all of you to feel that too.
The goal is to celebrate freedom one day – all together. My preference would be at a beach, but until then we can use this blog to communicate: to keep in touch with what’s happening legally, to share ideas or even to say something simple like “Jeannette and I shared a jalapeno hamburger tonight at visit, we laughed, we cried and all is moving forward.” All of you have played such a vital part in my clemency endeavors and I want all of you to be kept abreast as my situations evolves and changes.
The latest update on the Clemency Board hearing:
I have completed the Risk Assessment (at their request) with my therapist. I do understand now why DOC does not provide it to everyone. It is in-depth and quite lengthy. It took nearly three weeks to complete. I felt raw and exposed when it was finally done. I felt like I had been put under a microscope and examined, which in essence is exactly what had been done. The clemency board expects it in their hands by the end of April and I’m assured by DOC that it will be there. While the Clemency Board requested only the Risk Assessment I didn’t want to take any chances and with some persuasion I was able to have a Static Assessment and Custody Assessment done. Both are complete and have been sent forward.
The latest on the Letters of Support:
As many of you know, my friend Dawn and her friend Denise have started some advocacy work on my behalf; just another example of the great friends that I have. Her work has received approval from my attorney, Sheryl Gordon McCloud. Dawn and Denise have been working on is a letter writing campaign to the Clemency Board and to Governor Gregoire.
Many of you have already written letters for me in the past and I am grateful for those letters. This is a new letter that is supposed to state your support of my release. It need not be as in-depth as the original letter. Hopefully that will make it easier for you to write. Dawn has request that you simply email the letters to her and she will print them off and mail or deliver them in as a whole.
Her goal is to have the support letters to the Clemency Board by the middle of May. The hearing date is June 8, 2012 at 10a.m.
I know that letter writing can be challenging and I appreciate your continuing support.
So this blogging thing is sort of cool, though I realize that it is not a letter blog site. Old habits die hard and I’m a letter writer. I promise that my next blog will be an actual “blog.” First, I gotta learn what one looks like.
Thank you is so simple and so heartfelt at the same time. Each one of you is part of the reason that I move forward on this path daily and “thank you” can never be enough.
Group Hug!!! All my love to each one of you. Be safe!
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