The first (kidney) stone
By Brandon Astor Jones
A Missouri law-maker has proposed that death row prisoners be allowed to bargain their vital organs in exchange for life in prison, i.e. life in prison without parole. The interview that follows is with a man who has been on Georgia's death row for 25 years. His death sentence was set aside on appeal; he is presently awaiting a re-sentencing trial.
Q: In case a reader would like to make contact with you by mail, would you give your name, prison number and cell number?
Wilburn Wiley Dobbs, D-28788, cell G3-73
Q: Can you tell me what you think of the Missouri law-maker's proposal?
I couldn't support that law, because it would only be used against poor people, but if there was no other way to save a death row prisoner's life, then I would support it until they declare a moratorium on capital punishment.
Q: I agree with you. If the proposal becomes law, it will not be long before prosecutors will start prosecuting solely to harvest organs out of poor neighbourhoods. The death penalty would be but another way to do political favours, by getting a new heart or kidney to pass on to the constituent who makes the largest contribution to the prosecutor's political party. Any support for it — beyond what you have mentioned — would in effect be tacit approval of capital punishment. It is my understanding that you gave your late mother a kidney. Would you mind telling me more about that?
My mother had been sick for some time before I was told of her illness. She had lost both of her kidneys when I learned that she had less than a year to live. In February 1993, I first learned of her illness. At that time she had been without both kidneys for two years.
I talked with the lieutenant first, and he set up a meeting with the head clergyman. Then my lawyer, the governor and the warden met to discuss things. The day after that, [the doctors] started testing me and checking my blood. The first operation was set for April, but she was too weak to do it.
Q: That must have been rough on all of you. So what did you do?
Well, the next one was set for June. She was still too weak; and she remained too weak the next two times. At the end of September, we both went to the Medical College of Georgia. She was still too weak for the operation. I was sent back to Jackson two days later.
On October 10 her doctor called from Augusta and said she wouldn't make it to the end of the month. Mr Zant, then the warden of this prison, sent me back to Augusta, on the 11th, to see her. We talked with her doctor on the 12th. She and I decided to do the operation anyway, even though we knew that she might not live through it.
We did the operation on the 13th. On the 14th she woke up hungry. The doctor said she would be fine. We visited and talked for the next two days. Three days later I was back at Jackson. My mother got to live nearly four more years. She [died] on September 29, 1997, from lung cancer.
Q: I can understand how you must have felt. Gordon's Gin ate my mother's liver down to the size of a golf ball before it killed her. As I watched the newscast about the Missouri proposal, it also featured an African-American woman who took a strong position against the proposal, but in my opinion for the wrong reasons. She said that she might take on some of the donor's traits. I found her words sad.
If I am not mistaken, she has had one or more transplant operations before. She didn't take on the character of those donors. She is seeking attention now, or she don't know what she's talking about. Either way, I feel sorry for her.
Q: So do I. That woman reminds me of a letter that I got from the Reverend Barry Lee Burnside, who often writes to me with his tongue firmly planted in his cheek. He wrote that for her it is a "character issue", and he asks, "In that case would [she] take a kidney (or any other body part) from Jesse Helms or Bill Clinton? Go figure. 'He who is without sin, let him [or her] cast the first (kidney) stone.'"
[The writer is a prisoner on death row in the United States. He welcomes letters commenting on his columns. He can be written to at: Brandon Astor Jones, EF-122216, G3-77, Georgia Diagnostic & Classification Prison, PO Box 3877, Jackson, GA 30233, USA. Brandon and his friends are trying to raise funds to pay for a lawyer for his appeal. If you can help, please make cheques payable to the Brandon Astor Jones Defence Account and post to 41 Neutral St, North Sydney NSW 2060, or any Commonwealth Bank, account No. 2127 1003 7638.]