Dear Supporters, In an effort to inspire those of you who would like to send a letter (and need prompts to get started) to Massachusetts Governor Charles D. Baker, I'm including the following model letters. Please remember to email a copy of your letter to julie.pease@state.ma.us and a copy to throughbarbedwire@yahoo.com Additionally, I want to sincerely thank the friends who have signed the petition since the most recent update, and if you've already signed on then help us by simply sharing this petition with your networks (no need to sign twice). One Love, Mary King ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Model Letters: Dear Governor Baker: I have known Arnold L. King for more than 30 years and have been involved with his case for more years than should have been necessary. During this period, I have written multiple times on his behalf to multiple sitting Governors and Parole Boards. I have attended multiple parole hearings along with dozens of his friends and supporters and have personally witnessed him expressing remorse for the murder of John Labanara. On this occasion, I want to reiterate once again my strong support for his release. Arnie King has been a model inmate, a model student, an accomplished educator, and someone capable of being a productive citizen if given the opportunity. If he does not fit the criteria for release, it is difficult to imagine anyone who does. As a professor emeritus still affiliated with the College of Public and Community Service at UMass Boston, where I taught for 33 years, I can say unequivocally that Mr. King’s educational accomplishments are incredibly impressive, especially given his circumstances. Having completed his undergraduate degree and earned a masters degree, Mr. King was accepted into the Masters Program in Human Services at UMass Boston and a Ph.D. program at Union Institute (in Ohio). It was only due to institutional obstacles that he was unable to complete these latter programs. Several local professors and I continue to support his pursuit of academic goals. Upon his release, I am prepared to assist him in finding employment in this area. Since I have known Mr. King, support for his release has been strong; at one point even the Parole Board unanimously recommended a commutation of his sentence. Anyone who has had contact with Mr. King cannot help but be impressed by his strength of spirit and positive attitude. Indeed, his record of accomplishment as an inmate alone should be enough to convince anyone that he is motivated and oriented toward making positive contributions to society. He has mobilized a support network (including the Congressional Black Caucus) that can only insure his continued productivity as a member of the community. Based on my personal contact with Mr. King and his personal record of accomplishment, there is no question in my mind that he has used his time in prison in the service of rehabilitation and education, and that he is ready to rejoin civil society as a productive citizen. I hope you will see fit to support his release on the recommendation of the Parole Board. Thank you for your consideration. Sincerely, (name) Professor Emeritus ————————————————————————- [writer’s address] February 24, 2016 Charles D. Baker, Governor State House, Rm 280 Boston, Mass 02133 Dear Governor Baker: I am writing to urge a positive decision on Arnie King’s petition for commutation. I met Mr. King personally in 1990 when visiting with another person serving a life sentence. Even that brief encounter revealed a remarkable man. From that point on I have been privileged to follow the process of a someone who has transformed a life sentence into a life commitment to be a source of peace and support to those who are incarcerated, and a source of wisdom and guidance to young men who are at risk. Deeply remorseful for the death of John Labanara in 1971–when Arnie was barely past 17, as I understand it—he has dedicated himself to the betterment of countless lives through his communication via the throughthebarbedwire mailing list. Inspiring the help of family and friends, Mr. King has sponsored education, writing projects, and community programs. I feel certain he would continue to be the outstanding citizen he has shown himself to be for these many, many. I would feel more than comfortable with him living in a community setting and would welcome him as my neighbor. As an interfaith minister and a hospice worker, my own work takes me into the deepest moments of people’s lives where regrets and forgiveness meet wellsprings of love. Some people complete their lives with peace of mind while others do not. Arnie King has earned his forgiveness a hundredfold. Yesterday I heard you speak about the many lives that have been ruined in the opioid crisis and the need for understanding and healing not cruel punishment. Please apply this reasoning and grant Arnie King his freedom. It would be great to see the money spent to keep him in prison put to better use. Sincerely yours, Rev. ... [email] cc. julie.pease@state.ma.us and throughbarbedwire@yahoo.com ————————————————————————- February 23,2016 Dear Governor Baker, I met Mr. King as a PEN New England volunteer teaching writing at Bay State Prison. There, I slowly learned his story through his writings. He was 19, hooked on pain killers from a knee injury, and in Boston from New York on a drug deal where he killed an innocent bystander – an aide to Mayor White. He has spent the last 40 plus years trying to help youth not follow his path. I use his example as a CASA volunteer for a young man from Dorchester. Mr. King writes eloquently of his remorse, sadness for the victim and his family, the realization that nothing can bring that young man back. Today we see opiod addiction differently than we did in 1971. They are no longer just black “junkies” but from all walks of life whose lives become embroiled in a nightmare of needing to purchase the drugs at whatever cost. If anyone has proven that he deserves to re-enter society, Mr. King has. His face to face mentoring of at risk youth will do far more for society than his continued incarceration. He has a large support group waiting for him. Please commute his sentence. Sincerely, (name) —————————————————————————- [address] Charles D. Baker, Governor State House, Room 280 Boston, MA. 02133 March 6, 2016 Dear Governor Baker, I am writing to you on behalf of Arnold King (W33734) currently housed at MCI Norfolk in support of his seventh Petition for Commutation. I have known Arnie King for 27 years. We initially met though our joint participation in the Legislative Subcommittee of the Community Development Program at MCI Walpole where I was a volunteer. Later we served on the advisory boards of Keep in Touch, Family Awareness and Nuestra Familia at MCI Norfolk. Back then and these many years later I remain impressed by Mr. King’s high level of initiative, leadership skills, multiple examples of being an achiever and an advocate for those in need, especially youth. Prison is a hard place for anyone to evolve but Arnie King is an exception. He was guilty and convicted of killing John Labanara when he was 18 years old. Publicly Mr. King has expressed remorse for the murder of an innocent man before the Advisory Board of Pardons, to the youth who attended his programs at Norfolk and Bay State Prisons, in his published writings and in his contributions to his website, Through Barbed Wire. Arnie King is a changed man. He is not the same person who was imprisoned in 1971. Mr. King has achieved academic distinction during his 44 years in prison. It is an extreme accomplishment for a person with a life sentence who entered prison as a high school drop out, a drug addict and a confused young man to obtain a masters degree as Arnie King has done at Boston University. Mr. King has been deliberate in creating a network of active family members, distinguished elected officials, university professors, clergy members, state workers and youth who he has positively influenced to support his social, academic, and emotional development. After his few years of adjustment to prison life, Arnie worked diligently to transform himself by taking college courses and initiating programs such as Reach Out, Revamp, Second Thoughts, Caminemos, Through Barbed Wire and Prison Voices to reach out and guide youth with criminal convictions. During his decades of imprisonment, Arnie King has prepared himself to effect change and contribute in the fields of violence reduction and prevention in his counseling of youth. A person responsible for murdering someone can never bring back the lost life nor end the ongoing suffering to the victim’s family, friends and community but can atone and refocus their life with a commitment to prevent such regrettable acts. If one is ever to see an example of atonement or redemption, it is the last few decades of Arnie King’s life. He has dedicated a tremendous amount of time, energy and compassion with troubled youth to redirect them from destructive patterns of behavior that may harm our communities and lead them to prison. Governor Baker, I respectfully ask that you support Arnold King’s Petition for Commutation. Mr King has proven to be a rare and exceptional prisoner as recognized in 2007 when the Advisory Board of Pardons unanimously decided in favor of his commutation and as evidenced by his enormous backing of citizens here in Massachusetts. According to the Classification Report of 1997, Mr. King completed 25 successful furloughs. I believe now, almost 20 years later, is the time to fully reintegrate Arnold King into society. Sincerely, Dr. ... Cambridge School Dept. ————————————————————————— February 28, 2016 Charles D. Baker Governor State House, Room 280 Boston, MA 02133 Dear Governor Baker: I am writing to reiterate my support for Arnold King’s request for commutation, which I have expressed in several previous letters. I am a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, and although I am now a writer and MIT professor, I have long been interested in social justice issues, and incarceration, in particular. I have written a novel and published several short stories about prisoners, and in order to earn the story of incarceration and understand the lives I sought to depict, I began teaching in Massachusetts prisons and houses of correction 15 years ago. I met Arnie through the City School’s Prison Voices Program and came to know him through volunteering at the Bay State Correctional Center. I am including an essay that I published in the New York Times Book Review in 2013 about my work teaching creative writing at Bay State. Arnie is one of the prisoners who inspired this essay. I have come to know Arnie well over the last 14 years through writing workshops with the Growing Together program and the Prison Creative Writing Program which I helped to establish as a Board member of PEN New England. In these workshops, which focus on self-examination, I have continued to be struck by Arnie’s generosity, thoughtfulness and deep humanity. He is the kind of person who consistently reaches out to support his fellow prisoners as they struggle to turn around their lives. Countless times I have marveled at the generosity which is, I am certain, an expression of his true character. In understated and consistent ways he has responded with words of kindness and compassion in the workshop setting, when it would have been possible to remain silent. And perhaps more important, his compassion is coupled with the challenge that his fellow prisoners be demanding of and honest with themselves and each other. Through his leadership of and contributions to the workshops, he has shown himself to be a man of integrity and rigorous self-interrogation. Arnie expresses genuine remorse for his crime and never avoids the discomfort of probing his responsibility. He is a man who works hard on himself, and he seeks actively to atone for his crime through his tireless efforts at personal development, his work with youth, and his engagement with other prisoners. Arnie has striven to grow from his incarceration and to give back to others through the avenues available to him. Arnie King is most deserving of another chance at freedom. I have no reservations about having him live in a community setting, and I would be grateful for the contributions he would make to that community. He has changed his own life, and he continues to enrich and expand the lives of those around him. I urge you to commute his sentence and release him to the community. Sincerely... (name) Professor, MIT Comparative Media Studies/Writing Director, MIT Program in Women’s & Gender Studies ————————————————————————— [name; address; email] 23 February 2016 Charles D.Baker Governor State House, Room 280 Boston, MA 02133 Re: Commutation of Sentence – Petition of Arnold “Arnie” King Dear Governor Baker: I write today with sincere hope that you will solemnly consider the petition of Arnie King. I came to know Arnie over five years ago as a member of a group who periodically met with inmates at Bay State Correctional Facility. The inmates we met with were in various stages of attempting to maintain alcohol and drug free, productive, lives. Arnie was a coordinator of these visits and in this role he consistently demonstrated humility, spirituality, and sobriety as a basis for living. His example was an excellent one for struggling inmates and for us as visitors. In addition, Arnie’s prison work extended beyond my personal life to the professional. As a high school teacher of U.S. Government and Contemporary Law, I organized several class visits to an outreach program that Arnie founded called “Prison Voices.” Before class visits, students would research, prepare for, and debate the purpose of prison: Retribution vs. Rehabilitation. Overwhelmingly, after arguing both sides formally and thoroughly, a sound majority of students expressed a belief that “rehabilitation” is not only the more enlightened view of prison, but it is more practical economically and socially than “retribution.” Later, after the class had listened to Bay State (now closed) inmates talk about their crimes and addicted past, I guided students to revisit the debate topic. Some students expressed outrage that an 18 year old could be sentenced to life without chance of parole, citing the Supreme Court decision that made such a sentence for 17 year olds unconstitutional. Some students did, however, express a belief that punishments should fit crimes and that life without parole could be appropriate for a young adult in some circumstances. However, when the question was applied to Arnie, students had much trouble accepting the fact after 45 years in prison, Arnie, who committed his crime at 18, had not yet been paroled. Regrettably, there is nothing Arnie can do to bring back the life of John Labanara, but any thinking person cannot deny that Arnie has spent his entire adult life contributing to the community from “behind barbed wire” in most any way he can. His actions have served as a powerful expression of his regret and sincere desire to make amends. I personally implore you (as my young adult students would) to promote prison rehabilitation as opposed to prison retribution and commute Arnie’s King’s sentence. Please do feel free to have anyone from your office contact me. Sincerely... ————————————————————————— Charles D. Baker, Governor Commonwealth of Massachusetts State House Rm 280, Boston MA 02133 RE: Letter of Support for Commutation Petition of Arnold King From: Janet I Jones, MEd, NCC, LMHC-MA [address; email] I first met Arnold King as a student at Bay State Correctional Facility in MA, when I offered a course there through Cambridge College that he attended the first year Bay State was re-opened as a facility intended for long term offenders in the 1980’s. The following semester, at his request, I interviewed with Ms. Barker, the then program director for the Boston University Prison Education Program, and went to work teaching for this program at Bay State. Mr. King was the onsite program coordinator. During those early years I was impressed with Arnie’s work, his attention and commitment to learning and his willingness to reach out to others to also help them. Seeking more advanced educational opportunities, he sought and I supported his working as a co-instructor with me in a class wherein he received advanced graduate credit for his work, in a course that was offered for undergraduate credit to other students. I found him to be a good listener, strongly self-disciplined, able to hold the other students’ attention, and quite ready for the task. The success of this work led us to work together in other endeavors. I volunteered to do training for him and others at Bay State who wanted to work as peer counselors with other inmates. Through his urging me to do so I also volunteered to work with the veterans involved in the Post Traumatic Stress Group, and when I moved to Florida set in place steps to replace me in my various volunteer roles with the inmate population – largely because of the effectiveness of the programs and interest of the inmates, and the coordination efforts of Mr. King. He was instrumental in ensuring that many programs operated well, helping many of his fellow inmates. In the early 90’s I wrote a book chapter in a text book dealing with violence; Mr. King co-authored this publication with me and was again instrumental in its success by coordinating the process of research with other violent offenders that was a significant part of the chapter. He has made other significant contributions to literature as well. Also, I was involved with the prison poetry reading/writing group as was Mr. King, and again in this forum I experienced him to be highly professional, a good mentor with others, and instrumental to the organizational orderliness and success of this program. His contributions to others extend to many forums. I’ve known Mr. King for over 30 years now. I’ve seen his consistent, versatile, committed and valuable contributions to his community both inside and outside the walls stay strong, growing, and more valuable every day – as he has offered forums, writings, and pursued his work as a guide and mentor to others, especially youth at risk, despite his confinement. His contributions to the community are well known and have been strongly attested to by countless numbers of community leaders. Testimony from those he has helped has also been loud and strong. He has strongly met the burden of proof with clear and convincing evidence that he is not now, nor has he been for a very long time, the same person that he was when he was convicted of the murder he is serving life without the possibility of parole for. He was then, an 18 year old drug addicted teenager who was out of control and a danger to himself and others. He is now, well over 40 years later, a well respected leader who has helped prevent many others from choosing the path he was once on. He has earned your clemency. Mr. King appears to me to have met all of the requirements for commutation set forth in your new guidelines and for this reason, along with the fact that he is needed in the outside community and poses no threat to anyone now and hasn’t for a very long time, and the fact that he has earned the respect of hundreds of people he’s met, helped, worked with and lived with, that I ask you to grant a commutation of his sentence and allow him to return to the community outside the walls of prison. Thank you for your consideration of this request... ----------------------------------- March 4, 2016 The Honorable Charlie Baker Governor Of Massachusetts State House, Rm 208 Boston, MA 02133 Dear Governor Baker, I am writing to offer my whole hearted support to Arnie King’s Petition for Clemency, which is currently pending with the Advisory Board of Pardons. In 1999 I started volunteering as a meditation and emotional awareness teacher at Baystate Correctional Center. Arnie was the rock solid pillar of the program. He led by example and dedication. Our program met weekly for 3 hours and dealt with difficult subjects such as Anger and Resentment, Grief, Facing Guilt and the Impact of Crime, Self-forgiveness and Childhood Wounding. Arnie encouraged and supported other inmates while they worked with and grew with the material as well as being completely honest, authentic and self-searching with himself. He is diligent and hardworking. His level of humanity is outstanding. His level of inclusion of others is amazing. His equanimity in difficult situations is outstanding. Arnie is a remarkable person. He is constantly striving for self development and self-improvement. He is humble, present and genuine. I have known Arnie for 15 years and feel lucky to count him as a friend. I am sure Arnie would be an asset to any community he joins. Thank you for considering Arnie’s petition. It increases my admiration for you. Sincerely...