When Death Row Speaks

When death row speaks
It comes truly from the heart …
It’s a lonely situation
The frustration’s just a start

How many times have I shed tears …
How many people have to die …
Before this nation starts to realize
That this system’s all a lie?

You got the Money and the Power
Then your Rights will be protected
If you’re Poor and if you’re Brown …
Then your Rights will be rejected

The innocent is being caught up …
People falling through the cracks …
Witnesses are being bought up …
Law enforcements pulling ‘jacks’

Then you tell me I’m entitled
To have a jury of my peers …
Eleven whites all over 40 …
You’ve just reaffirmed my fears

Because I came up in the ghetto …
Everyone I saw was black …
All my peers were in their 20’s …
And they’re the ones who had my back

Most have known me all my life
Know that I’ll never take another …
So you can save that ‘Killer’ shit …
’cause they’re not buying that, my brother

So you can run up to the mountain
And you can yell it from the peak …
But it’s all real when fly* come at’chu …
And when death row starts to speak

Willie Manning

*Willie has sometimes been known as ‘Fly’.