July 1, 2021 • 22 mins
We find out why Jarvis Masters agreed to give permission and unfettered access to his story to the perfect stranger, resulting in a stunning and deeply moving biography about change and redemption. THE BUDDHIST ON DEATH ROW by David Sheff.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Dear Governor is a production of I Heart Media and
three Months Media. If you are moved by Jarvis Masters
and his thirty years struggle on San Quentin's Death Throw,
and you'd like to support his cause, please consider signing
a petition on his behalf. Visit Free Jarvis dot org
slash podcast to sign your name to an open letter
(00:20):
to California Governor Gavin Newsom. Dear Governor Newsom, Dear Mr
Governor Newsom. This is an open letter to Governor Gavin Newsom,
Dear Governor Newsom. Public Buddhist nun and teacher Pema Chodren writes,
(00:44):
I'm grateful to be Jarvis Masters teacher in part because
he has taught me so much. I have rarely encountered
anyone who expresses the essence of Buddhism in a clearer,
more moving way than he does, And I deeply admire
how David Chef has capture that hard one wisdom in
his book The Buddhist on Death Row, how one man
(01:05):
found light in the darkest place. In the last episode
we heard from David and why and how he chose
to spend years writing the story of Jarvis's life. I
wanted to hear Jarvis's side of the story why he
agreed to give permission an unfettered access to his story
to a perfect stranger. Let me just say something about
David and my relationship. It went so fast, I mean
(01:29):
in terms of our relationship as to human beings, him
trying to understand my life and me having the ability
to trust him in ways that I've never trust anyone
telling that story. I think one of the reasons why
I gave a lot of trust to him that I
(01:50):
would not have anyone else's because he read my two books.
He read That Bird Has My Wings and he read
Finding Freedom. So he came with a understanding of where
I understood my life and he followed up on that.
It was not, you know, me having to tell him
(02:11):
about a lot of scenes, a lot of experiences that
I had without him already knowing about it. So he
came to me with an idea of just continuing that
story in a way that would impact more people. You know,
I was all for that, but I also knew that
(02:31):
there was gonna be a lot that I didn't write
about that he was going to write about, and not
all of it was gonna be you know what, I
would have said, you know, but I was fine with it.
I was fine with it because my story was out
in front of his and that's just the way I
(02:51):
felt about it. Were you nervous about what he might
find out was or what he might write about since
he didn't have any control over it. I don't want
to say I didn't care, but I would say that
I trusted him to care about what he thought would
be the best thing to tell people about me. Why
(03:14):
did you trust me with it? I don't know. My
whole attitude was that my story was out there, and
I put it out there. So whatever you guys do,
I don't you know you're gonna do it. He's not
the district attorney's office. He's not someone who's prosecuting me,
and anyone's absent of that has to have something good
(03:35):
to say about me. Um. And plus, you know what,
Cornea was tired. I was really tired. I mean it
was some time after I lost my appeal, and it
was just I wasn't trying to you know, I didn't
have that kind of energy no more, you know, um.
And it was all about finding someone you can trust,
(03:58):
you know, because it my belief and I tell guys
that around here, you know, you got to trust somebody.
At some point, you're going to trust somebody because if
we don't trust no one, then there's nothing gonna happen.
You You, I can bet you nothing's going to happen.
So you know, you trust someone and let it, let it,
(04:19):
let it go where it's gonna go, you know. Um.
But it was interesting when I felt interesting about David
and I write, you know, him writing that book was
that he was asking some really really good questions that
I had not thought about, you know, and I became
interested in how is he going to write this? You
(04:42):
know as a writer? You know, can you an example
like a question that was out of the blue, His
understanding of what happened to me as a child, you know,
his understanding of of how uh I end up going
back down to Los Angeles as you know, um, after
(05:06):
I was released from the California Youth Authority. Um. Him
seeing the more better than me, the good some good
things about me that I had not wrote about because
I just didn't think that was the story of my life.
And he said, you Arsad, is the story of your life.
(05:27):
Following is an excerpt from the Buddhist on Death Row,
in which David describes how Jarvis's traumatic childhood influenced some
of the Buddhist beliefs he embraces today. Audiobook read by
Michael Boatman. Jarvis was placed in nine foster homes and
three boys homes, including some in which he was starved, beaten,
(05:48):
and kept in squalor. At thirteen, he was moved from
the foster care system into the Division of Juvenile Justice,
where the brutal treatment escalated. When he was arrested for
petty crimes stealing a bicycle joy riding. He was placed
in youth detention centers, where he was subjected to more beatings, burned,
(06:10):
locked in closets, and made to pummel other boys. If
he refused, counselors beat him harder. He ran away when
he could, and often found his way back to Harbor City,
where he sometimes stayed with his aunt, Cynthia's sister Barbary.
There was always music playing. Barbery played the same records
(06:32):
over and over, Smokey Robinson, Gladys Knight, the Delphonics, She
Loved a song by George Clinton's Funkadelic Free Your Mind
and Your Ass will follow and must have played at
a thousand times. Jarvis laughed to himself at the thought
of who had helped him understand the words of a
(06:53):
great lama from Tibet, George Clinton. He said it aloud,
Free your mind and your ass will follow. According to
(07:22):
the Rand Corporation Inmate Survey, about fift of people in
prison claim innocence of their convicted crime, and yet the
National Academy of Sciences has determined that only four percent
of those on death row are truly innocent. I wanted
to hear from David as to why he was so
steadfast and his conclusions that Jarvis is innocent of the
(07:44):
crime that he was convicted of. I started to read
everything I could about Jarvis, and I went up to
his lawyer at the time of lawyer with Joe Baxter.
And I went up to Joe's offices in Santa Rosa
and there was a wall full of boxes filled with
documents from years and years and years of lidication related
to his appeal. And I read volumes, and the more
(08:05):
I read, the more I was convinced, beyond the shadow
of a doubt that you know that's the legal term.
You know, he he was innocent and he should not
be there. He had a trial that was appalling. You know,
he there was no justice in this trial, and there
was no reason that Jobs should be in prison. And um,
(08:28):
so I became I feel like, there's a controvertible person.
He's innocent and he was framed, and that he shouldn't
be there. Are you against the death penalty as a rule?
I am. I feel like the death penalty for both
moral reasons, and I get well, it all comes down
to moral reasons, but a lot of it also is
(08:48):
the reality that I feel like, even if you understand,
I mean, I do think a lot about it's easy
for me to say I don't believe in the death
penalty if somebody murdered, you know, the people closest to me, um,
my child, or my life and my parents or somebody
you know what I steal still feel that way, um,
(09:09):
and I think it's a little presumptuous for me to
say that I would. I would, I hope I would.
But regardless of that, we have to end the death
penalty because it's not I mean, if there was a
way to know the people that we were executing we're
guilty of crimes, then you know, and if you buy
(09:31):
the death penalty, then maybe that's you know that you
can go there. But you know, if we execute one
person who's innocent and we know that we have um,
nobody should support the death penalty because then we are
becoming murderers, just like you know, other killers. When get
let out, where are you going to take him? What's
the first thing you're going to do with him? You
know what, I've whatever he wants to do. But the
(09:51):
thing that I've always fantasized with him because I spent
so much time because I'm a surfer and being outdoors
and being on the beaches, so my it rejuvenates me,
you know, when I'm stressed out about I'm having a
hard time's uh, you know, I think about Jarvis a
lot when I'm out there to walking on the beach,
and I would just, you know, give anything to be
(10:12):
able to take that walk with him. He calls himself
a fish too. He loved the water. Yeah. I mean
some of the things that you know are I don't
even know if they're in the book anymore because I
can't remember what was cutting what wasn't cut at different points.
But you know the fact that you know, everybody has
this black and white idea, this cliche of what Jarvis's
life is like, and a lot of it was that,
you know, that violent, brutal life, you know, gangs and
(10:36):
drugs and violence, but you know, there were these moments
of joy and of you know that, like when Jarvis
told me that this kid took him out to learn
how to go abaloney diving, It was like, no, you
have this rich life. Yeah, everybody who's listened to this
podcast knows Jarvis's amazing sense of humor that he's able
(10:58):
to maintain that would you true to h We laughed
so much over the years. Jarvis was so funny and
we just, oh, my god. You know, I don't even
know if he knows how funny is. Sometimes we'll say
things and I think it's just who he is. I
think it's his spirit and the fact that he was
able to retain that sense of humor over the course
(11:19):
of years as being brutalized says something about his self.
It's who he is deep down inside. And it also
says something about the way he can he views the world.
And maybe part of the reason he survived and such
you know, good shape, is that he often was able
to see this light. And sometimes the humor was gallows humor,
(11:40):
and sometimes you know, it was just silly, frivolous stuff
that would come up. But part of that being able
to laugh as well as to cry, because we did
cry a lot too together. It's part of his magic
and maybe part of his survival. I know you interviewed
a number of his family members. I was just wondering
at that was a trait that was common in their family,
(12:03):
in their dna um. You know who I did interview.
I interviewed his father and his cousin, and it's definitely
a master's family trade. They laughed. It was the best was.
I visited Jarvis's once with his father. The two of
them spent the whole time laughing, teasing each other. You
know about God, they're old times about you know how
(12:29):
you know how much we they gained? How much? How?
Oh God. He definitely got some of his sense of
humors from his family, from his dad, for sure, and
I saw that. And when they laughed, by the way,
it was the same booming, infectious laugh. Besides Jarvis, in
writing the book, is there any other character that you
came upon that made a big impression on you? I know,
like Melody or my Child was the first person you
(12:52):
mentioned in the book. Well, Jarvis is sort of you know,
it's an amazing person, so it's maybe not surprising that
he's surrounded by amazing people one after the other. Melody
or a Child, you know, was the investigator who connected
with Jarvis at the time when he was facing a
trial that ultimately led to the death penalty, and she
(13:13):
was with one and he talks about is the one
who really helped him more than anybody ever had in
his life and opened them up to the idea that
so sometimes we can't change her external circumstances, you know,
we can control the way we perceive them and the
way we feel inside and so that and she was
(13:33):
totally inspiring to have a children. His teacher is, of course,
one of the most amazing people I've ever met and
talked about, somebody who has helped millions of people and
helped me at the personal level in my family. Susan Shannon,
another Buddhist teacher who was the chaplain, one of the
chaplains in the prison. She is this is remarkable. I
(13:55):
would talk to her sometimes and she loved Jarvis, and
she talked about you know working with Jarvis studying Buddhism
inside the prison. I mean, he just as this extraordinary person.
He grabs, you know, he brings for extraordinary people around him.
Rebecca sold It, you know, one of my idols and
who I've always revered as a writer. You know, I
(14:15):
got her through Jarvis because she too a friend of
Jarvis is and devoted to him. I'm blown away by
everybody that I've met in his Indus circle, Like everybody,
everybody is an exceptional individual, absolutely, and they really are.
And and you know there's the reason for that. Again.
You know, people connect with him because he's very special
(14:39):
and you know, and he connects with people who that's
probably another Buddhist precept. We don't know that good energy
attracts good energy. Yeah, yeah, there is something about that,
and there is this whole you know, the world of
people around Jarvis also are um. The people around Jarvis
are also anybody who's gonna step foot in the prison.
(15:01):
It says something about them if they're not being forced
with guards. Because we've changed. You've got to open and
be open and have a bigger heart than maybe he's
expected to have a lot of people, because you have
to understand and respect and be connected to the idea
that people in prison are people. You know, any of
them are innocent, but they're all people. And Jarvis talked
(15:22):
a lot about that. Yeah, what if it that Brian
Stans have said that we are not our worst mistake,
We are so much more than that. Several years ago,
(15:44):
Jarvis managed to get his hands on an illicit cell phone.
David writes about it in the epilogue of The Buddhist
on Death Row. My phone chimed at three am, alerting
me that a text had arrived. Usually I turned it off,
and but I had forgotten. And I looked at the screen.
The text came from an unidentified number. It read is
(16:08):
this working? Then the phone chimed a second time for
a second text. This one was a photograph, a selfie
dimly lit sitting in front of a Jimmy Hendricks poster.
Was Jarvis grinning hugely. I responded, w t F. He
(16:30):
wrote back, what does that mean? What the funk are
you doing with a cell phone. It's no surprise that
cell phones are banned in San Quentin and other prisons
where telephone access is strictly monitored and controlled. The prohibitions Notwithstanding,
black market cell phones are thriving business in many prisons,
(16:52):
including San Quentin. Jarvis bought his phone from an inmate,
who probably bought it from a guard. Jarvis said it
was better not to ask. A friend paid for cell
service and Netflix. The seller's pitch included the promise of
unlimited movies, so Jarvis was disappointed that the cellular signal
(17:12):
through the prison walls was insufficient to allow streaming. His
phone got only one bar. However, necessity is the mother
of invention, and prisoners have a lot of time on
their hands, so they often devise ingenious workarounds. Though the
signal was still too weak for streaming, Jarvis learned that
he could use some phone apps offline. He could, for instance,
(17:36):
take photos, make video and audio recordings, and attached them
to texts, which he could then send if he put
the phone in a laze potato chip bag attached to
a wire and slid the package under the cell door
and out into the corridor where the signal was stronger.
A few phone calls got through, and he sent me
(17:57):
pictures of his cell and his tear to can through
the mesh that covered the door. He also sent a
recording of an inmate complaining that Jarvis's typing was too
loud as he texted another friend, this phone blew my
mind wide open. I mean ten twelve hours a day.
If I had money, I could have ordered a pizza
(18:20):
pizza emoji. He'd figured out how to use emojis. Could
you see a pizza man at the front gate for
a Jarvis Masters For almost four decades, Jarvis's access to
technology was limited to TV, radio and the electric typewriter
Pamela had sent him when he was arrested at nineteen.
(18:42):
There were no personal computers, never mind Internet or smartphones.
Once in the two thousands, when he had been in
the back of a prison van taking him to the hospital,
he delighted in the sights of the Blue Bay, billowing
white clouds, and the Golden hills in the distance. When
he looked at street corners, he was shocked to see
(19:02):
so many people talking to themselves. He remarked on it,
and a guard told him they were on the phone,
speaking through microphones and listening through earpieces. Other than that,
the nearest he had got into modern technology was as
it was depicted on TV, where it seemed like science fiction.
David also shares what happened to Jarvis when he was
(19:25):
caught with the band's cell phone, along with a powerful
gift of perspective from the eyes of a Buddhist practitioner.
A couple of months after Jarvis got the phone, guards
conducted a random search and found it The phone had
been hidden inside his copy of the book We're All
Doing Time. They also discovered a vape and Jarvis was
(19:46):
written up for the infractions. After a disciplinary hearing, he
was sent to solitary where I visited him. There were
no snacks, just the smeared glass wall, like when I
first met him more than ten years early. Here it
was sad to have a barrier between us again, but
Jarvis looked good. As I was thinking that, he looked
(20:07):
at me and said, man, you look stressed. I told
him I'd gotten a speeding ticket, that my father in
law fell down and my wife was trying to help him,
that we got an astronomical water bill because of a leak,
and that I had spent the morning and bumper to
bumper traffic. And then as I pulled off the freeway,
some asshole cut me off and flipped me off. I
(20:29):
was still frustrated and angry. When I looked over at
Jarvis and saw that he was smiling, it hit me. God,
I'm sorry, I said, I'm complaining about my life here.
Jarvis said, no, no, no, that's not what I'm thinking.
I'm just thinking that you had a hell of a morning.
(20:51):
You better relax. You're gonna die before me. He told
me about the only time he'd been in a traffic
jam in his life. He was driven to the hospital
for tests after a seizure and traffic was at a standstill.
The three guards and the driver were piste off, but
Jarvis was thrilled. He gazed with fascination at people in
(21:11):
their cars. A family was an animated conversation, a woman
was singing, A few drivers were alone, one appeared angry,
and others were stone faced. He watched them and his
heart melted. Decades before, when Jarvis had taken his first
Buddhist vows Chat, Duke to kup Renpoche gave him a
(21:35):
cryptic instruction he should learn to see the perfection of
all beings. That was what he saw in the faces
of the people in their cars, and he was moved
to tears. Next week, the private investigator who was assigned
(21:55):
to Jervis's capital case thirty years ago, what she learned
during her investigation, and why that led to a lifelong friendship.
Audio excerpts courtesy of Simon and Schuster. Audio from The
Buddhist on Death Row by David Cheff, read by Michael Boatman.
Copyright by David Cheff, used with permission of Simon and Schuster, Inc.
(22:17):
The Buddhist on Death Row is out in paperback this week.
This episode was written and produced by Donni Fazzari and myself,
Corny Cole. Our theme song sentenced is compliments of the
band Stick Figure from their album Set in Stone. Stu
Sternbach composed the original music. Nate Dufort did the sound design.
For more information on Jarvis and to find out how
(22:39):
you can follow his case and support his cause, please
visit Free Jarvis dot org. For more podcasts. For my
heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows
Dear Governor is a production of I Heart Media and
three Months Media. If you are moved by Jarvis Masters
and his thirty years struggle on San Quentin's Death Throw,
and you'd like to support his cause, please consider signing
a petition on his behalf. Visit Free Jarvis dot org
slash podcast to sign your name to an open letter
(00:20):
to California Governor Gavin Newsom. Dear Governor Newsom, Dear Mr
Governor Newsom. This is an open letter to Governor Gavin Newsom,
Dear Governor Newsom. Public Buddhist nun and teacher Pema Chodren writes,
(00:44):
I'm grateful to be Jarvis Masters teacher in part because
he has taught me so much. I have rarely encountered
anyone who expresses the essence of Buddhism in a clearer,
more moving way than he does, And I deeply admire
how David Chef has capture that hard one wisdom in
his book The Buddhist on Death Row, how one man
(01:05):
found light in the darkest place. In the last episode
we heard from David and why and how he chose
to spend years writing the story of Jarvis's life. I
wanted to hear Jarvis's side of the story why he
agreed to give permission an unfettered access to his story
to a perfect stranger. Let me just say something about
David and my relationship. It went so fast, I mean
(01:29):
in terms of our relationship as to human beings, him
trying to understand my life and me having the ability
to trust him in ways that I've never trust anyone
telling that story. I think one of the reasons why
I gave a lot of trust to him that I
(01:50):
would not have anyone else's because he read my two books.
He read That Bird Has My Wings and he read
Finding Freedom. So he came with a understanding of where
I understood my life and he followed up on that.
It was not, you know, me having to tell him
(02:11):
about a lot of scenes, a lot of experiences that
I had without him already knowing about it. So he
came to me with an idea of just continuing that
story in a way that would impact more people. You know,
I was all for that, but I also knew that
(02:31):
there was gonna be a lot that I didn't write
about that he was going to write about, and not
all of it was gonna be you know what, I
would have said, you know, but I was fine with it.
I was fine with it because my story was out
in front of his and that's just the way I
(02:51):
felt about it. Were you nervous about what he might
find out was or what he might write about since
he didn't have any control over it. I don't want
to say I didn't care, but I would say that
I trusted him to care about what he thought would
be the best thing to tell people about me. Why
(03:14):
did you trust me with it? I don't know. My
whole attitude was that my story was out there, and
I put it out there. So whatever you guys do,
I don't you know you're gonna do it. He's not
the district attorney's office. He's not someone who's prosecuting me,
and anyone's absent of that has to have something good
(03:35):
to say about me. Um. And plus, you know what,
Cornea was tired. I was really tired. I mean it
was some time after I lost my appeal, and it
was just I wasn't trying to you know, I didn't
have that kind of energy no more, you know, um.
And it was all about finding someone you can trust,
(03:58):
you know, because it my belief and I tell guys
that around here, you know, you got to trust somebody.
At some point, you're going to trust somebody because if
we don't trust no one, then there's nothing gonna happen.
You You, I can bet you nothing's going to happen.
So you know, you trust someone and let it, let it,
(04:19):
let it go where it's gonna go, you know. Um.
But it was interesting when I felt interesting about David
and I write, you know, him writing that book was
that he was asking some really really good questions that
I had not thought about, you know, and I became
interested in how is he going to write this? You
(04:42):
know as a writer? You know, can you an example
like a question that was out of the blue, His
understanding of what happened to me as a child, you know,
his understanding of of how uh I end up going
back down to Los Angeles as you know, um, after
(05:06):
I was released from the California Youth Authority. Um. Him
seeing the more better than me, the good some good
things about me that I had not wrote about because
I just didn't think that was the story of my life.
And he said, you Arsad, is the story of your life.
(05:27):
Following is an excerpt from the Buddhist on Death Row,
in which David describes how Jarvis's traumatic childhood influenced some
of the Buddhist beliefs he embraces today. Audiobook read by
Michael Boatman. Jarvis was placed in nine foster homes and
three boys homes, including some in which he was starved, beaten,
(05:48):
and kept in squalor. At thirteen, he was moved from
the foster care system into the Division of Juvenile Justice,
where the brutal treatment escalated. When he was arrested for
petty crimes stealing a bicycle joy riding. He was placed
in youth detention centers, where he was subjected to more beatings, burned,
(06:10):
locked in closets, and made to pummel other boys. If
he refused, counselors beat him harder. He ran away when
he could, and often found his way back to Harbor City,
where he sometimes stayed with his aunt, Cynthia's sister Barbary.
There was always music playing. Barbery played the same records
(06:32):
over and over, Smokey Robinson, Gladys Knight, the Delphonics, She
Loved a song by George Clinton's Funkadelic Free Your Mind
and Your Ass will follow and must have played at
a thousand times. Jarvis laughed to himself at the thought
of who had helped him understand the words of a
(06:53):
great lama from Tibet, George Clinton. He said it aloud,
Free your mind and your ass will follow. According to
(07:22):
the Rand Corporation Inmate Survey, about fift of people in
prison claim innocence of their convicted crime, and yet the
National Academy of Sciences has determined that only four percent
of those on death row are truly innocent. I wanted
to hear from David as to why he was so
steadfast and his conclusions that Jarvis is innocent of the
(07:44):
crime that he was convicted of. I started to read
everything I could about Jarvis, and I went up to
his lawyer at the time of lawyer with Joe Baxter.
And I went up to Joe's offices in Santa Rosa
and there was a wall full of boxes filled with
documents from years and years and years of lidication related
to his appeal. And I read volumes, and the more
(08:05):
I read, the more I was convinced, beyond the shadow
of a doubt that you know that's the legal term.
You know, he he was innocent and he should not
be there. He had a trial that was appalling. You know,
he there was no justice in this trial, and there
was no reason that Jobs should be in prison. And um,
(08:28):
so I became I feel like, there's a controvertible person.
He's innocent and he was framed, and that he shouldn't
be there. Are you against the death penalty as a rule?
I am. I feel like the death penalty for both
moral reasons, and I get well, it all comes down
to moral reasons, but a lot of it also is
(08:48):
the reality that I feel like, even if you understand,
I mean, I do think a lot about it's easy
for me to say I don't believe in the death
penalty if somebody murdered, you know, the people closest to me, um,
my child, or my life and my parents or somebody
you know what I steal still feel that way, um,
(09:09):
and I think it's a little presumptuous for me to
say that I would. I would, I hope I would.
But regardless of that, we have to end the death
penalty because it's not I mean, if there was a
way to know the people that we were executing we're
guilty of crimes, then you know, and if you buy
(09:31):
the death penalty, then maybe that's you know that you
can go there. But you know, if we execute one
person who's innocent and we know that we have um,
nobody should support the death penalty because then we are
becoming murderers, just like you know, other killers. When get
let out, where are you going to take him? What's
the first thing you're going to do with him? You
know what, I've whatever he wants to do. But the
(09:51):
thing that I've always fantasized with him because I spent
so much time because I'm a surfer and being outdoors
and being on the beaches, so my it rejuvenates me,
you know, when I'm stressed out about I'm having a
hard time's uh, you know, I think about Jarvis a
lot when I'm out there to walking on the beach,
and I would just, you know, give anything to be
(10:12):
able to take that walk with him. He calls himself
a fish too. He loved the water. Yeah. I mean
some of the things that you know are I don't
even know if they're in the book anymore because I
can't remember what was cutting what wasn't cut at different points.
But you know the fact that you know, everybody has
this black and white idea, this cliche of what Jarvis's
life is like, and a lot of it was that,
you know, that violent, brutal life, you know, gangs and
(10:36):
drugs and violence, but you know, there were these moments
of joy and of you know that, like when Jarvis
told me that this kid took him out to learn
how to go abaloney diving, It was like, no, you
have this rich life. Yeah, everybody who's listened to this
podcast knows Jarvis's amazing sense of humor that he's able
(10:58):
to maintain that would you true to h We laughed
so much over the years. Jarvis was so funny and
we just, oh, my god. You know, I don't even
know if he knows how funny is. Sometimes we'll say
things and I think it's just who he is. I
think it's his spirit and the fact that he was
able to retain that sense of humor over the course
(11:19):
of years as being brutalized says something about his self.
It's who he is deep down inside. And it also
says something about the way he can he views the world.
And maybe part of the reason he survived and such
you know, good shape, is that he often was able
to see this light. And sometimes the humor was gallows humor,
(11:40):
and sometimes you know, it was just silly, frivolous stuff
that would come up. But part of that being able
to laugh as well as to cry, because we did
cry a lot too together. It's part of his magic
and maybe part of his survival. I know you interviewed
a number of his family members. I was just wondering
at that was a trait that was common in their family,
(12:03):
in their dna um. You know who I did interview.
I interviewed his father and his cousin, and it's definitely
a master's family trade. They laughed. It was the best was.
I visited Jarvis's once with his father. The two of
them spent the whole time laughing, teasing each other. You
know about God, they're old times about you know how
(12:29):
you know how much we they gained? How much? How?
Oh God. He definitely got some of his sense of
humors from his family, from his dad, for sure, and
I saw that. And when they laughed, by the way,
it was the same booming, infectious laugh. Besides Jarvis, in
writing the book, is there any other character that you
came upon that made a big impression on you? I know,
like Melody or my Child was the first person you
(12:52):
mentioned in the book. Well, Jarvis is sort of you know,
it's an amazing person, so it's maybe not surprising that
he's surrounded by amazing people one after the other. Melody
or a Child, you know, was the investigator who connected
with Jarvis at the time when he was facing a
trial that ultimately led to the death penalty, and she
(13:13):
was with one and he talks about is the one
who really helped him more than anybody ever had in
his life and opened them up to the idea that
so sometimes we can't change her external circumstances, you know,
we can control the way we perceive them and the
way we feel inside and so that and she was
(13:33):
totally inspiring to have a children. His teacher is, of course,
one of the most amazing people I've ever met and
talked about, somebody who has helped millions of people and
helped me at the personal level in my family. Susan Shannon,
another Buddhist teacher who was the chaplain, one of the
chaplains in the prison. She is this is remarkable. I
(13:55):
would talk to her sometimes and she loved Jarvis, and
she talked about you know working with Jarvis studying Buddhism
inside the prison. I mean, he just as this extraordinary person.
He grabs, you know, he brings for extraordinary people around him.
Rebecca sold It, you know, one of my idols and
who I've always revered as a writer. You know, I
(14:15):
got her through Jarvis because she too a friend of
Jarvis is and devoted to him. I'm blown away by
everybody that I've met in his Indus circle, Like everybody,
everybody is an exceptional individual, absolutely, and they really are.
And and you know there's the reason for that. Again.
You know, people connect with him because he's very special
(14:39):
and you know, and he connects with people who that's
probably another Buddhist precept. We don't know that good energy
attracts good energy. Yeah, yeah, there is something about that,
and there is this whole you know, the world of
people around Jarvis also are um. The people around Jarvis
are also anybody who's gonna step foot in the prison.
(15:01):
It says something about them if they're not being forced
with guards. Because we've changed. You've got to open and
be open and have a bigger heart than maybe he's
expected to have a lot of people, because you have
to understand and respect and be connected to the idea
that people in prison are people. You know, any of
them are innocent, but they're all people. And Jarvis talked
(15:22):
a lot about that. Yeah, what if it that Brian
Stans have said that we are not our worst mistake,
We are so much more than that. Several years ago,
(15:44):
Jarvis managed to get his hands on an illicit cell phone.
David writes about it in the epilogue of The Buddhist
on Death Row. My phone chimed at three am, alerting
me that a text had arrived. Usually I turned it off,
and but I had forgotten. And I looked at the screen.
The text came from an unidentified number. It read is
(16:08):
this working? Then the phone chimed a second time for
a second text. This one was a photograph, a selfie
dimly lit sitting in front of a Jimmy Hendricks poster.
Was Jarvis grinning hugely. I responded, w t F. He
(16:30):
wrote back, what does that mean? What the funk are
you doing with a cell phone. It's no surprise that
cell phones are banned in San Quentin and other prisons
where telephone access is strictly monitored and controlled. The prohibitions Notwithstanding,
black market cell phones are thriving business in many prisons,
(16:52):
including San Quentin. Jarvis bought his phone from an inmate,
who probably bought it from a guard. Jarvis said it
was better not to ask. A friend paid for cell
service and Netflix. The seller's pitch included the promise of
unlimited movies, so Jarvis was disappointed that the cellular signal
(17:12):
through the prison walls was insufficient to allow streaming. His
phone got only one bar. However, necessity is the mother
of invention, and prisoners have a lot of time on
their hands, so they often devise ingenious workarounds. Though the
signal was still too weak for streaming, Jarvis learned that
he could use some phone apps offline. He could, for instance,
(17:36):
take photos, make video and audio recordings, and attached them
to texts, which he could then send if he put
the phone in a laze potato chip bag attached to
a wire and slid the package under the cell door
and out into the corridor where the signal was stronger.
A few phone calls got through, and he sent me
(17:57):
pictures of his cell and his tear to can through
the mesh that covered the door. He also sent a
recording of an inmate complaining that Jarvis's typing was too
loud as he texted another friend, this phone blew my
mind wide open. I mean ten twelve hours a day.
If I had money, I could have ordered a pizza
(18:20):
pizza emoji. He'd figured out how to use emojis. Could
you see a pizza man at the front gate for
a Jarvis Masters For almost four decades, Jarvis's access to
technology was limited to TV, radio and the electric typewriter
Pamela had sent him when he was arrested at nineteen.
(18:42):
There were no personal computers, never mind Internet or smartphones.
Once in the two thousands, when he had been in
the back of a prison van taking him to the hospital,
he delighted in the sights of the Blue Bay, billowing
white clouds, and the Golden hills in the distance. When
he looked at street corners, he was shocked to see
(19:02):
so many people talking to themselves. He remarked on it,
and a guard told him they were on the phone,
speaking through microphones and listening through earpieces. Other than that,
the nearest he had got into modern technology was as
it was depicted on TV, where it seemed like science fiction.
David also shares what happened to Jarvis when he was
(19:25):
caught with the band's cell phone, along with a powerful
gift of perspective from the eyes of a Buddhist practitioner.
A couple of months after Jarvis got the phone, guards
conducted a random search and found it The phone had
been hidden inside his copy of the book We're All
Doing Time. They also discovered a vape and Jarvis was
(19:46):
written up for the infractions. After a disciplinary hearing, he
was sent to solitary where I visited him. There were
no snacks, just the smeared glass wall, like when I
first met him more than ten years early. Here it
was sad to have a barrier between us again, but
Jarvis looked good. As I was thinking that, he looked
(20:07):
at me and said, man, you look stressed. I told
him I'd gotten a speeding ticket, that my father in
law fell down and my wife was trying to help him,
that we got an astronomical water bill because of a leak,
and that I had spent the morning and bumper to
bumper traffic. And then as I pulled off the freeway,
some asshole cut me off and flipped me off. I
(20:29):
was still frustrated and angry. When I looked over at
Jarvis and saw that he was smiling, it hit me. God,
I'm sorry, I said, I'm complaining about my life here.
Jarvis said, no, no, no, that's not what I'm thinking.
I'm just thinking that you had a hell of a morning.
(20:51):
You better relax. You're gonna die before me. He told
me about the only time he'd been in a traffic
jam in his life. He was driven to the hospital
for tests after a seizure and traffic was at a standstill.
The three guards and the driver were piste off, but
Jarvis was thrilled. He gazed with fascination at people in
(21:11):
their cars. A family was an animated conversation, a woman
was singing, A few drivers were alone, one appeared angry,
and others were stone faced. He watched them and his
heart melted. Decades before, when Jarvis had taken his first
Buddhist vows Chat, Duke to kup Renpoche gave him a
(21:35):
cryptic instruction he should learn to see the perfection of
all beings. That was what he saw in the faces
of the people in their cars, and he was moved
to tears. Next week, the private investigator who was assigned
(21:55):
to Jervis's capital case thirty years ago, what she learned
during her investigation, and why that led to a lifelong friendship.
Audio excerpts courtesy of Simon and Schuster. Audio from The
Buddhist on Death Row by David Cheff, read by Michael Boatman.
Copyright by David Cheff, used with permission of Simon and Schuster, Inc.
(22:17):
The Buddhist on Death Row is out in paperback this week.
This episode was written and produced by Donni Fazzari and myself,
Corny Cole. Our theme song sentenced is compliments of the
band Stick Figure from their album Set in Stone. Stu
Sternbach composed the original music. Nate Dufort did the sound design.
For more information on Jarvis and to find out how
(22:39):
you can follow his case and support his cause, please
visit Free Jarvis dot org. For more podcasts. For my
heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows
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