49 Years in hell

Kali Hickman is a long-time friend, serving time in James T. Vaughn Correctional Center. He will be coming up for pardon soon, and as a faithful reader of Workers World newspaper for years, asked me to publish his plea for support letters. If you write a character reference, please keep it positive.
We know how horribly corrupt and brutal the carceral system is — this is a way to contribute to and assist him! 

Kali Hickman

Kali writes:
Coming up in the 1960s and 1970s, I too — like so many youth — had my life uprooted and restricted, as I landed in juvenile courts, juvenile detention (for truancy) and eventually Adult Court and Prison. At the age of 17, I went before the judge in a juvenile court for an amenability hearing and was found non-amenable. It appeared that Juvenile Corrections was not working. As a result, the decision was to send me to an adult prison in Smyrna, Delaware, in 1975 — on my 18th
birthday!

I was adjudicated to an adult court hearing for an assault I committed while AWOL from the Delaware youth center. This assault had occurred in 1974 when a fellow was verbally assaulting a female friend of mine. I was released on bail pending trial, and at this trial I received a three-year sentence. This three-year sentence turned into the homicide of another incarcerated person, and I was sentenced to Life Without the Possibility of Parole. I was 20.

I am now 67 and have been incarcerated since I was 17 — over 49 years. I will come up for a Commutation hearing this year in either June or July.

Shortly after my sentencing, I made major changes in my life about my old ideas and concepts. I’ve since studied language arts, social studies and basic science and math. I’ve also spent a lot of my time studying civil and human rights from activists, scholars and professors. I became politically enlightened in prison.

Consider the conditions — the mental, emotional and physical conditions that you are subjected to every day, the lack of decent health care. These are conditions that throw up obstacles to learning and changing. So it was with difficulty that I rose above and became a civil and human rights activist. Also, I am now working in the furniture department.

Any letters of support to the Board of Pardons can be sent to:

Paul-Kali-Hickman
Delaware DOC, 1101

PO Box 96777

Las Vegas, NV 89193

I am making up a packet to submit to the Board of Pardons.