Dear Governor

Jarvis is taking your calls and answering your questions! Please call and leave him a message at 201-903-3575 or send an email to AskJarvisMasters@Gmail.com In addition, Jarvis's lead attorney and partner at Kirkland & Ellis, Michael Williams, joins us to give the latest updates on Jarvis's federal appeals process.   If you'd like to support Jarvis Masters's cause, please considering signing a petition on his behalf at www.freejarvis.org Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

Recently, the Awake Network and Shambhala Publications hosted a free online event, “The Black and Buddhist Summit,” that attracted over 10 thousand participants. We share Jarvis's fireside chat, talking about race, transformation and the experience of being Black while Buddhist on death row. We also meet, Pamela Ayo Yetunde, author of Black and Buddhist: What Buddhism Can Teach Us About Race, Resilience, Transformation, and Healing. If you'd like to support Jarvis Masters's cause, please considering signing a petition on his behalf at www.freejarvis.org  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

Maurice Chammah, a staff writer at the Marshall Project, shares the good news of his latest book, LET THE LORD SORT THEM; THE RISE AND FALL OF THE DEATH PENALTY. About the book, Publishers weekly wrote, “A nuanced and deeply reported account of evolving attitudes toward the death penalty in America… a thorough, finely written, and unflinching look at on of the most controversial aspects of the American justice system.” If you'd like to support Jarvis Masters's cause, please considering signing a petition on his behalf at www.freejarvis.org  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

The practice of ‘solitary confinement' goes by many names, including, disciplinary confinement, security housing, and restricted housing… All are euphemisms to soften the harsh and torturous reality of solitary… Jarvis shares how he was able to survive for 22 years locked away in a 9x4 cell 23-24 hours a day! We'll also hear from the co-founder of the California Families Against Solitary Confinement and the Community Outreach Director of the Bail Project, Dolores Canales. Professor Haney's groundbreaking book is, CRIMINALITY IN CONTEXT (THE PSYCHOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM.) If you'd like to support Jarvis Masters's cause, please considering signing a petition on his behalf at www.freejarvis.org  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

Craig Haney, who represented Jarvis Masters at his capital trial, is a social psychologist and a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, renown for is work on the front lines of the criminal justice system. Professor Haney explains why, ‘Jarvis's case continues to haunt him to this day.' Professor Haney's groundbreaking book is, CRIMINALITY IN CONTEXT (THE PSYCHOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM.) If you'd like to support Jarvis Masters's cause, please considering signing a petition on his behalf at www.freejarvis.org  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

There is an adage made popular in 1954 by President Eisenhower, that there are “no atheists in a fox hole.” The idea behind the phrase is that anyone who finds themselves in position of extreme stress, where death is all but imminent, he or she will seek comfort of a higher power. Meet the Buddhist Chaplain who was instrumental in nurturing and reinforcing Jarvis's burgeoning Buddhist mind. If you'd like to support Jarvis Masters's cause, please considering signing a petition on his behalf at www.freejarvis.org  Finding Freedom How Death Row Broke and Opened My Heart By: Jarvis Jay Masters and Narrated by: Dion Graham is available at Shambhala.com and at Audible.com Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

When Jarvis Masters first entered the walls of San Quentin State Prison four decades ago, he was by his own admission angry and bitter, filled with vitriol pent up from a lifetime of abuse, neglect, and hopelessness. Were it not for the foresight and compassion of a singular woman at a very pivotal time in his life, Jarvis admits he would have likely continued along the seemingly preordained pipeline from cradle to prison to casket.  If you'd like to support Jarvis Masters's cause, please considering signing a petition on his behalf at www.freejarvis.org  Finding Freedom How Death Row Broke and Opened My Heart By: Jarvis Jay Masters and Narrated by: Dion Graham is available at Shambhala.com and at Audible.com Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

We find out why Jarvis Masters agreed to give permission and unfettered access to his story to the perfect stranger, resulting in a stunning and deeply moving biography about change and redemption. THE BUDDHIST ON DEATH ROW by David Sheff.  If you'd like to support Jarvis Masters's cause, please considering signing a petition on his behalf at www.freejarvis.org  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

David Sheff, author of THE BUDDHIST ON DEATH ROW; HOW ONE MAN FOUND LIGHT IN THE DARKEST PLACE, shares the story behind the story of Jarvis Masters and how the two of them forged a lasting friendship. Of David's biography, His Holiness, The Dalai Lama writes, “This book shows vividly how, even in the face of the greatest adversity, compassion and a warm-hearted concern for others bring peace and inner strength.” If you'd like to support Jarvis Masters's cause, please considering signing a petition on his behalf at www.freejarvis.org  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

He's filed for appeal in the federal courts. What does that mean for Jarvis and the next steps in his pursuit to find justice? Hear from the experts and learn what awaits him on the horizon. Jarvis has requested that we dedicate this season of “Dear Governor,” to the late Michael Satris, who devoted his life to criminal justice reform and sat as second chair at Jarvis's defense trial in the 80's. If you'd like to support Jarvis Masters's cause, please considering signing a petition on his behalf at www.freejarvis.org  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

Since his final state appeal at the end of last season, a stellar team of attorneys has assembled around Jarvis Masters, pledging to represent his death penalty case at federal level. We will follow his riveting case and meet some of those experts as they work to help Jarvis find freedom after over forty years of incarceration. And we will dig deeper into facets of Jarvis's life as well as the deeply flawed criminal justice system.  If you'd like to support Jarvis Masters's cause, please considering signing a petition on his behalf at www.freejarvis.org  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

Due to the coronavirus, all phone communications in and out of San Quentin have been cut off. Like a wildfire, covid-19 has devastated the prison. The last we heard from Jarvis Masters he had been ravaged by the virus. It is unconscionable that family members and friends have no idea how their loved ones are faring on the inside. Dear Governor Newsom, Jarvis has a solution. On behalf of Jarvis, Actor Dion Graham voices his plea. Last week Shambhala Publications released Jarvis’s latest autobiographical book, FINDING FREEDOM: HOW DEATH ROW BROKE AND OPENED MY HEART. Also available at Audible.   Jarvis’s op-ed, “Letting prisoners use cellphones makes sense – now more than ever.”   Theme song SENTENCED, is complements of the band Stick Figure, from their album “Set In Stone.”   Have a question for Jarvis that you’d like to hear him answer on the podcast, please leave a message on our hotline: 201-903-3575 or, AskJarvisMasters@Gmail.com Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

This verdict is in. And despite all of the compelling new evidence that bolsters Jarvis’s innocence, the California Supreme Court chose confirm his death sentence. You will hear Jarvis’s reaction to the courts decision, and what this means for the future of his life. The vast majority of the legal insights into Jarvis’s substantial claims of innocence were published in the article: “Unrequited Innocence in U.S. Capital Cases: Unintended Consequences of the Fourth Kind” by Rob Warden and John Seasly The late Geronimo Pratt was imprisoned at San Quentin for 27 years for a murder he did not commit and awarded 4.5 Million Dollars from federal and local governments as settlement in a wrongful-imprisonment suit. While at San Quentin, he befriended Jarvis.  Hear him bearing witness to his young friend, at the launch party for Jarvis’s first book, “Finding Freedom, Writings from Death Row.” Theme song SENTENCED, is complements of the band Stick Figure, from their album “Set In Stone.” Have a question for Jarvis that you’d like to hear him answer on the podcast, please leave a message on our hotline: 201-903-3575 or, AskJarvisMasters@Gmail.com Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Jarvis was charged with the conspiracy to commit murder back in 1985, and was sentenced to death in June of 1990. Find out why Jarvis, who never stabbed the corrections officer was sentenced to death, while two others involved in the murder, for whom there was much more damning evidence, were sentenced to life without parole. Hear about his case, and learn about the notorious prison snitches who testified on behalf of the state to implicate Jarvis to the murder. Hear Jarvis’s haunting a PEN Award winning poem, “Recipe for Prison Pruno,” which intertwines his death sentence with his now famous recipe for prison hooch. Theme song SENTENCED, is complements of the band Stick Figure, from their album “Set In Stone.” Have a question for Jarvis that you’d like to hear him answer on the podcast, please leave a message on our hotline: 201-903-3575 or, AskJarvisMasters@Gmail.com Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

In this episode we will hear details of the bloody murder of a corrections officer, the crime that landed Jarvis Masters on death row. You will hear Jarvis’s recollections of that fated night, along with the memories of the Head Warden who was in charge, and one of the attorneys that represented Jarvis at the murder trial in the late 1980’s. You will also learn the mind-blowing way in which Jarvis first learned that he was implicated in the conspiracy to commit murder. Meet Michael Satris, a defense attorney that sat second chair on Jarvis’s murder trial and believes it a travesty that Jarvis is still in prison, much less on death row. Theme song SENTENCED, is complements of the band Stick Figure, from their album “Set In Stone.” Have a question for Jarvis that you’d like to hear him answer on the podcast, please leave a message on our hotline: 201-903-3575 or, AskJarvisMasters@Gmail.com Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

For obvious reasons, Jarvis has a very personal take on the morality and ethics of capital punishment. Having been an inmate at San Quentin for 40 years, he has personally known men who have been executed. He has counseled fellow inmates who suffer from great depression, as they face their own mortality daily. And, he believes that if people on the outside knew that there were innocent people on death row, they could not in good conscience allow the government to execute them. You will also hear from the lead executioner who was in charge the day of the murder in which Jarvis was implicated. Meet Pema Chodron, beloved Buddhist teacher, author and nun, who has been Jarvis’s spiritual advisor for over two decades. Theme song SENTENCED, is complements of the band Stick Figure, from their album “Set In Stone.” Have a question for Jarvis that you’d like to hear him answer on the podcast, please leave a message on our hotline: 201-903-3575 or, AskJarvisMasters@Gmail.com Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

To share in the sorrow, and join in solidarity with the families of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Brianna Taylor, and so many more families of color who have lost loved ones for absolutely no reason; to show respect to the hundreds of thousands of courageous individuals across the country protesting the injustice and brutality; and to use our voices to echo the self-evident truth that BLACK LIVES MATTER, this week, “Dear Governor,” is disrupting our regular feed in order to participate in the #PodcastBlackOut. Death row inmate, Jarvis J. Masters weighs in on the loss of George Floyd, the civil unrest, and the vitality of the Black Lives Matter movement. And we share the stories of so many men of color who were sentenced to death, only to be found innocent after decades in prison.   Theme song SENTENCED, is complements of the band Stick Figure, from their album “Set In Stone.”   Have a question for Jarvis that you’d like to hear him answer on the podcast, please leave a message on our hotline: 201-903-3575 or, AskJarvisMasters@Gmail.com Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

The juvenile justice system taught Jarvis how to fight, and while still a boy, defined for him what it meant to be a man, fierce, angry and proud. There were times when he tried to rise above and escape the cradle to prison pipeline, but the gravitational pull was too strong to resist. Excerpting sections of his memoir, “That Bird Has My Wings: The Autobiography of an Innocent Man on Death Row,” we will hear how Jarvis had to fight to survive, and about the “damn fool behavior,” he admits initially put him in prison at the ripe young age of 19. Meet Marty Krasney, a decades long friend and confidante of Jarvis and the former Executive Director of Dalai Lama Fellows. Theme song SENTENCED, is complements of the band Stick Figure, from their album “Set In Stone.” Have a question for Jarvis that you’d like to hear him answer on the podcast, please leave a message on our hotline: 201-903-3575 or, AskJarvisMasters@Gmail.com Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Though only 6.5 percent of Californians are black, African Americans make up 29 percent of the prison population and 36 percent of those condemned to death. Jarvis was born into poverty and abuse so extreme, he shot past the “cradle to prison pipeline,” straight to the “cradle to death row pipeline.” Enlil McRae, from the Truthworker Theatre Company, reads passages from Jarvis’s memoir, “That Bird Has My Wings: The Autobiography of an Innocent Man on Death Row,” You will learn about Jarvis’s formative years, his struggles to survive and the foster parents who imprinted on him the meaning of love. Meet David Sheff, author of a new biography on Jarvis, “The Buddhist on Death Row: How One Man Found Light in the Darkest Place.” David has spent the last several years visiting with Jarvis, and has amassed hundreds of hours of interviews with him, and those people who had the greatest impact on Jarvis’s life. David is also the author of the memoir, “Beautiful Boy: A Father’s Journey Through His Son’s Addiction.” Theme song SENTENCED, is complements of the band Stick Figure, from their album “Set In Stone.” Have a question for Jarvis that you’d like to hear him answer on the podcast, please leave a message on our hotline: 201-903-3575 or, AskJarvisMasters@Gmail.com Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Host, Corny Koehl, attends the oral arguments for Jarvis Master’s final state appeal before the California Supreme Court. His writ of Habeas Corpus was filed back in 2005, and Jarvis has been languishing in wait all this time. As his appellate attorneys present new evidence that bolsters Jarvis’s claims of innocence, will the Court decide to exonerate him or confirm his sentence to death? Meet Connie Pham, an outspoken advocate for Jarvis. As a 15 year old student, she was so moved by Jarvis’s first book, “Finding Freedom: Writings from Death Row,” that she wrote to him behind bars, and they’ve maintained a close friendship ever since.  Theme song SENTENCED, is complements of the band Stick Figure, from their album “Set In Stone.” Have a question for Jarvis that you’d like to hear him answer on the podcast, please leave a message on our hotline: 201-903-3575 or, AskJarvisMasters@Gmail.com Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

The United States is the only western nation that continues to make a practice of executing its own citizens. Of late, the death penalty and the prevalence of wrongful convictions have been under the white-hot light spotlight in everything from our political discourse to our popular culture. Governor Gavin Newsom recently put a moratorium on the death penalty in California, based on research that estimates one in 25 condemned prisoners are not guilty of the crimes for which they were sentenced.  “Dear Governor” is an open letter introducing listeners to one such death row inmate, Jarvis Jay Masters, who has maintained he is not guilty of the crime for which he was sentenced almost 30 years ago. In this episode Jarvis poses the question, “how many guilty people must be put to death to justify the execution of one innocent man or woman?,” and, he invites listeners to answer this question for themselves. Jarvis also weighs in on the Coronavirus behind bars. Meet Samara Gaev, a friend and mentee of Jarvis, and the Founder & Artistic Director of Truthworker Theatre Company, a social justice based, hip-hop theatre company. Samara and her team worked hand-in-hand with Jarvis to produce the original hip-hop musical, “Boxed in and Blacked Out In America,” which examines the impacts & practices of solitary confinement in US prisons, tracing Jarvis’s remarkable capacity for liberation within the walls of death row.  Have a question for Jarvis that yo"u’d like to hear him answer on the podcast, please leave a message on our hotline: 201-903-3575 or AskJarvisMasters@Gmail.com Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

In issuing his moratorium on capital punishment in California, Governor Gavin Newsom went on record saying he believes there are innocent people on Death Row. “Dear Governor” invites the listener to get to know Jarvis Jay Masters, a condemned prisoner who has maintained his innocence for over 30 years. After sharing intimate details of his life story and his ongoing legal case, we ask the listener to answer for themselves, “Is the death penalty a necessary evil to keep our streets safe, to exact righteous punishment and to deliver a semblance of justice to victims – or is it too fraught with ambiguity, contradictions and biases to ensure that we are all protected equally under the law?” Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers