From a letter sent in January to the Gaston Gazette, a North Carolina newspaper, by Danny Hembree, a fifty-year-old death-row inmate at Raleigh’s Central Prison. Hembree was found guilty last year of murdering a seventeen-year-old girl in 2009 and has been accused of murdering two other women.

My name is Danny Hembree. I was tried in Gaston County by twelve of its fine citizens. I was found guilty of first-degree capital murder and was sentenced to death on November 18, 2011. The North Carolina Department of Corrections was ordered to carry out my murder.

I wonder if the public is aware that the cost of my first trial was half a million dollars. Are they aware that the state has in place a system that automatically delays my lawful murder for years, so that pieces of the money pie can continue to be passed around? Is the public aware that the chances of my lawful murder taking place in the next twenty years, if ever, are very slim? Is the public aware that I am a gentleman of leisure, watching color TV in the AC, reading, taking naps at will, eating three well-balanced, hot meals a day? I’m housed in a building that connects to the new $155 million hospital, with round-the-clock free medical care.

There are a lot of good citizens who blogged on various websites, stating their opinions about me and the punishment I deserve. I laugh at you self-righteous clowns, and I spit in the face of your so-called justice system. Kill me if you can, suckers! Ha! Ha! Ha!