June 12, 2017
Texas Death Row prisoner Clinton Lee Young has been given an execution date for October 26, 2017.
Last Thursday, June 8, I was in my cell listening to the Texas State Network News noon report when I heard the news that Clinton Lee Young had been given an execution date for October 26, 2017.
I had immediate flashbacks to the morning I recieved the fateful letter from my then attorney telling me I had been given an execution date. I know exactly what that feels like. I know how it feels to be taken to the Texas death row major’s office and be informed by this administration that you have an execution date and be immediately moved to death watch. That is one of the worst experiences you can imagine because your death sentence just became “real.” The clock has begun to tick and if you are not able to stop the run-away-train to the death house these devils have put you on they will kill you.
I remember the first time I met Clinton Lee Young in early 2002. The actual date is fuzzy in my memory but I remember him well. He was a very young man who’d just arrived on Texas death row and I did my part in sharing what I learned about how things were here with him and we managed to get along well enough. Throughout the years I’ve gotten to know Clinton Lee Young well and we’ve become friends. I think of him now and his family, his mother and his sister who have stood by his side all these years and what this terrible execution date is doing to them. I know Clinton, he’ll face this execution date with courage and do the best he can with it. I know this but I worry about his family because when a human being is on death row all of his loved ones are on death row with him.
I hope to see Clinton in the visit room soon to let him know I’m thinking of him and wish him the very best, and one more thing — NEVER LET THEM SEE YOU SWEAT BROTHER!