Ray Jasper
Alejandro
Enlisting the help of two fellow rappers, Steven Russell and Doug Williams, they booked recording time with Alejandro one night. Upon entering the studio, Ray Jasper snuck up behind Alejandro and slit his throat from ear to ear using a kitchen knife. Incredibly, Alejandro did not die immediately and Russell then began to stab him repeatedly until his body collapsed to the floor. Alejandro, 33, was dead in his own music studio while Ray Jasper and his crew executed their robbery. Outside, an off duty police officer approached and questioned the men. Jasper attacked the officer and fled on foot. He was caught several days later, confessing to police his plan. Jasper always maintained that he was not responsible for Alejandro’s death, but that Russell was. Both Russell, now 34, and Williams, now 35, received life sentences. Jasper received the death penalty in 2000.
During his capital murder trial in 2000, Jasper,admitted to using a kitchen knife to cut David Alejandro's throat during what was supposed to be a recording session at the victim's studio.
What makes the Ray Jasper execution so interesting is a recent series of written correspondence with The Gawker. Participating in their Letters From Death Row series, Jasper shared his 13 years of experience in awaiting execution. His final letter, probably his last public words, reveal a man who has become educated, possibly reformed, and full of angst against the system that has sentenced him to death. Jasper’s letter is long and powerful and deserves to be read in full. But one quote in particular stands out from the rest.
“Under the 13th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution all prisoners in America are considered slaves. We look at slavery like its a thing of the past, but you can go to any penitentiary in this nation and you will see slavery. That was the reason for the protests by prisoners in Georgia in 2010. They said they were tired of being treated like slaves. People need to know that when they sit on trial juries and sentence people to prison time that they are sentencing them to slavery.”
His execution comes two weeks after Gawker re-published his essay condemning the American justice system In the letter, Jasper compared the penitentiary system to slavery.
Ray Jasper was injected with a lethal dose of pentobarbital Wednesday for the November 1998 stabbing death of 33-year-old David Alejandro.
He was officially pronounced dead at 6:31pm on march 19, after addressing his daughter in his last statement.
"To my family, we are one. To my beautiful daughter, the best thing that ever happened to me. I love you endlessly. I am you and you are me forever,' Jasper wrote in his last words, according to a statement released by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice."
No one from either his family of the victim's was present to witness the execution. Alejandro's family decided to spend the evening together in San Antonio instead.
Co-defendant's Steve Russell and Douglas Williams were spared the death sentence and are currently serving life sentences. Jasper's execution was the third in Texas this year. Another is set for next week before the state begins using a new batch of pentobarbital obtained through a different pharmacy.
The injection came after lawyers for Jasper, who was black, argued a black potential juror at Jasper's San Antonio trial in 2000 was questioned and disqualified improperly because of race.
Gawker initially reached out to all death row inmates with scheduled executions this year back in December 2013, and Jasper decided to respond. His original essay was published on the site in January, and they republished it two weeks before his death.
'Under the 13th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution all prisoners in America are considered slaves,' he wrote. 'We look at slavery like its [sic] a thing of the past, but you can go to any penitentiary in this nation and you will see slavery [...]People need to know that when they sit on trial juries and sentence people to prison time that they are sentencing them to slavery.'
Jasper's indictment described his experience of race and the judicial system, even citing the words of deceased rapper Tupac Shakur.
'When I walked into prison at 19 years old, I said to myself "Damn, I have never seen so many black dudes in my life,"' he said. 'I mean, it looked like I went to Africa. I couldn't believe it. The lyrics of 2Pac echoed in my head, "The penitentiary is packed/ and its filled with blacks."'
Jasper also said that jail sentences given to first-time offenders are a form of 'oppression.'
'There are guys walking around with 200 year sentences and they're not even 30 years old,' he said. 'Its [sic] outrageous. Giving a first time felon a sentence beyond their life span is pure oppression.'
Jasper's letter even alleged that heavy sentences may be delivered as a result of the prison-industrial complex.
'The other side of the coin is there are those in the corporate world making money off prisoners, so the longer they're in prison, the more money is being made,' he said. 'It's not about crime & punishment, it's about crime & profit.'
He is the third Texan subjected to lethal injection in 2014...
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