Minutes Before Six - A Death Row Blog

Thomas Bartlett Whitaker is currently on Death Row in Livingston, TX. In 2003, he orchestrated a plot in which his former roommate shot and killed Whitaker's mother and younger brother, while wounding both Whitaker's father and Whitaker himself. Intended to look like a botched burglary, the perpetrators were eventually caught, tried and convicted for their crimes. Whitaker's father, Kent, while lying in the hospital -- unaware of his own son's involvement in the crime -- trying to decide on what path was right for him- vengeance or forgiveness- vowed to forgive the killer, one of whom turned out to be his own son, and prayed that one day his family and the killer would sing praises together in heaven. The father is a rare human, indeed, able to see deep into himself and his son and find forgiveness for such a horrible crime. Whitaker has a blog that he writes in his cell, and which his father types up for him:

I think it is fair to say that a certain sizable portion of the people who come to this site start with the view that I am to be believed about as far as I can be thrown. I acknowledge this, and accept it. I recognize that the reasons for this are entirely my own fault. That said, just because someone was once dishonest doesn't mean that they will always be so; such a conclusion is neither logical nor healthy. I spoke a little about this subject in a past entry, and I called the process "uncrying wolf", an obvious reference to the story we tell our children about what happens to liars. I lamented that there was very little succor for the boy (or man) once he gets painted with the "liar's brush". Turns out, the best way for the boy to once again earn his way back into the realms of the believable is to have someone of irrefutable character standing with him in the fields, guarding the sheep. Call it "honesty by association", if you will. Most inmates never find individuals of such high moral quality, as they are pretty rare these days. I guess DNA is about the truest friend (or greatest enemy) an inmate can have. I am fortunate in that I have something even better: my father.

It is all chilling and sad and disturbing and I can't get this story out of my head. Its rare that you see such darkness and light intertwined in real life. Read the blog and see how it makes you feel.