Hasan Baz'il Shakur

Innocent man Murdered by the Good Old Boys of

Texas 8/31/2006

I have been incarcerated for 5 years on this case. I am only 25 years of age and have been
doing this for a few years but took it seriously and took my own direction just a year ago. I
just got tired of people complaining but not even attempting to offer any avenue of solution!
Why complain if you choose not doing anything? My motto: Do something or shut up! That
is my motto and basically I stick to it. In this situation it is that I am in, it is very hard to do
certain things without being taken as a militant of anti-American of something of that nature.
I am African, Muslim, Young and look like the late Tupac! I suppose to not be of conscious
mind like I am but I refuse to be stereotyped into this or that category at all. I come from a
hard background and have had my share of loss. (Written in 2002.)

Hasan Shakur’s Last Words Were of the Struggle

Hasan Shakur was murdered by the state of Texas Aug. 31, and pronounced dead at 6:18 p.m.

The execution came less than an hour after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected three appeals and
requests for reprieves, based on affidavits stating evidence that Shakur’s co defendant
Jermain Herron was the one to commit the actual murder, and an affidavit detailing jury
misconduct during his original trial.
Shakur (Derrick Frazier, formerly number 999284) was sentenced to death in October of
1998, at the age of 20. He was convicted of killing Betsey and Cody Nutt. Shakur maintained
his innocence in the murders until the very end, even when they had him strapped down to
the death chamber gurney: "I've professed my innocence for nine years and I will continue to
profess my innocence for another nine years.”

Shakur’s last words show where his heart and mind was at. They were not pleas for himself.
His last words were: "Tell my people we must continue on. Do not give up the fight. Do not
give up hope. We can make it happen.”

Shakur’s entire life was patterned on these words, and he died the way he lived, thinking
about freedom and justice not for himself but for all people.

Written Sept. 1, 2007

By Walidah Imarisha

Hasan sent the following picture to me for my Castle of Hope for Lost Souls website. It is
titled “This is the rest of your life on drugs.”
 Conditions
Greetings Ladies and Gentlemen,

I pray that this message gets to you and finds you in the best of health and strength possible.
As for myself; bless- doing the best possible under these uncertain conditions.

I will not waste your time. I am sending you this message in hopes that it will shed light onto
the "real" situation going on with Texas prisons, staff and prisoners as well.

I am a prisoner housed at the infamous Polunsky Unit and yes; I am on Death Row. If this
message reaches you it is by God's grace that it did because I am a whistle blower on the
conditions and treatment of prisoners within the entire American Penal Institution.

Recently, the Polunsky Unit was visited by the Commission on Accreditation for Corrections
and the American Correctional Association. These are private, non-profit organizations
directing the accreditation of correctional programs in the U.S. and other countries. This audit
of this prison (Polunsky Unit, formerly Charles T. Terrell) was conducted during the week of
Sept. 9-12 of 2002. For the sake of me I cannot figure out how this prison passed this audit at
all. We received notice from the Warden (Warden Zeller) that this prison passed the audit and
he was pleased with what we had done, yada, yada, yada. Truth of the matter is; this prison is
so faltered from it's programs all the way down to it's structure that there is no way possible it
would pass any type of inspection or audit unless the auditor was a blind person!

Allow me to explain some of the conditions.

The mail situation:

The mail is allowed a 48-72 hour review/inspection by the mail room. If it found to be a
threatening of gang related letter it is either handed over the the Gang Intelligence or denied.
Why is it that regular incoming mail takes 5-7 days for a prisoner to receive it? This is not
counting the days it has taken to reach the prison. The administration has take it upon itself to
limit us to 60 stamps a month that we can purchase. Quite frankly, I spend 45-50 stamps in 2
weeks just maintaining my legal proceedings! Prisoners on Death Row fight every day fore
their lives. We have no release date or parole date; we have an execution number! If you
utilize your 60 stamps in one month, you must ask the Warden for permission to purchase
additional stamps. This is comforting! In the past, the mail was picked up by TDCJ
Correctional Officers, but due to the fact that prisoners mail was coming up missing, and that
some were getting strange letters from people who just happen to work in prisons, this has
changed. Our mail is now collected by Mail Room workers, however the same problems have
continued to occur. I, for one, have had my mail tampered with and must threaten to file
Federal Mail Tampering charges just to receive my mail. One Mail room employee, Mrs.
LaPaglia, has a history of not giving you your materials. She is in charge of publications. Her
supervisor- Mrs. Long, does nothing to stop this because she also, has been found doing the
same thing! I have had letters, legal mail, pictures, religious materials and magazines all
come up lost in the mail room. This now lead us to the Grievance Department.
Let us talk about the staff in itself. I recall one situation in which this very typewriter I am
typing on was handled incorrectly upon having my cell ransacked by an officer i.e. Officer
Jerry Fender. The cover of my typewriter was broken. Of course the officer denied blame. I
then asked to speak with the supervisor. Sergeant Phillip Griggs came and I explained the
situation. His reply was "I don't have time for this shit, Officer Fender, write him a case."
This took place on 10-30-01.

Let's move onto the inhumane living conditions; I was in a cell for 23 months which was very
moldy, (which can and will become toxic), had extremely bad leaks from the ceiling being
completely cracked and broken, and the wall having a hole in it where I could look directly
out and see the next building. This allowing the elements of nature to come in, and allowing
it to become infested with ants. The plumbing was so deplorable that when another cell
flushes, the feces and/or urine come up into my toilet. Upon writing the Warden on these
issues, he did nothing to rectify the situation. He was too busy fighting with this own
daughter for dating a man of African descent! The cell has yet to be fixed.

Tax payers have spent their hard earned money to build this prison under the guise of it being
a solid, super max prison. Not even 10 years later half of this building has fallen apart. The
picket on Delta Pod 12 building is molding. The officers don't want to work around that
themselves, but I lived with it for 23 months and I now experience a breathing problem
because of it!

The living conditions get worse. There are still feces and urine caked up on the top of the bars
from the last group of prisoners that were here. AND, we have been here for over 2 years
now! The floors have dirt, syrup, feces, urine, old food from trays, tobacco that is spit out by
officers (tobacco is illegal in penal institutions in Texas!!), even cow manure is here!

Raw sewage comes up from the pipe line on Delta Pod. You smell what your neighbor is
doing. Sometimes you see it!

We aren't allowed nail clippers, so the officer brings around a pair that they CLAIM are
sterile. Why is it that there is gunk, filth and rust all over these nail clippers? Over 400 men
use the very same pair of clippers for their toes and finger nails. The sane goes for the hair
clippers! To avoid contracting Hepatitis C, most would rather just bite their nails off. We are
also forced to shave, which I have no problem with, however, there are men who cannot
shave with an electric razor, therefor they have stopped allowing us to purchase them. We are
forced to attempt to get a shave pass where we are taken to get shaved with the same clippers
they cut over 2000 prisoners heads with on this unit! You must place the very same clippers
on your face! But, in order to get this shave pass, first you must destroy your face with the
same straight razor that you cannot shave with. You must shave with the razor and force
yourself to break out in extreme pain and bumps for them to issue you a pass! This was
declared cruel and unusual punishment by the Supreme Court.
I have also personally seen and heard (and experienced) officers verbally and physically
abuse prisoners. I have been called racially motivated slurs. I have been called religiously
motivated slurs. Though I am of the stronger mind here, some others cannot accept it that
way. Cell deprivation runs ramp-id.

People, this is only the tip of the iceberg. I am only giving you a brief description of the
problems! It continues to get worse and worse. I have my own publication in which I describe
the things that go on down here and this has made me one of the people to "watch" down
here. You can gain more information at:

And to find out exactly how this place passed this audit, you may contact:

American Correctional Association

Standards and Accreditation Dept.
43080 Forbes Boulevard
Lanham, Maryland 20706
(301) 918-1835

Things are not what people may think. True, we don't deserve the Hilton, but at least get up
the Motel 6, they leave the light on for you!

In Solidarity,

Hasan B. Shakur
(Written in 2002.)

Reflections
By Hasan B. Shakur aka Derrick Frazier
You know we all sometimes sit back and things come to mind that make us happy and of
course sad as well. Sometimes there are things that make us cringe. Last night I received a
letter from an old childhood friend. I think I have not heard from her in over 10 years, I was
so happy to hear from her because when I moved to my New York City residence, she was
the really first friend I had. She brought back plenty of memories which in turn made me
reflect on a lot of my past life in general.

Being incarcerated on Texas's infamous death row, one has plenty of time to reflect and think
about things. A lot of "what ifs" run through a person's mind. Some sit back and think of
better ways to perfect their crime and this is just a simple reality of prison and criminals. I
call it reflecting but I look forward to the future and I always wonder what I would do and
how would I do it to reach out to people and help them. Funny, I am in dire need of help and
I am on death row but I always think of helping others! My friends, I make the teary eyed
because other health and safety ar my main concern when I am down here fighting the state
and not trying to get killed down here.

When I really do reflect , I reflect on where I came from and then I know why I am like I am
in helping people! I come from direct poverty. I was raised in government housing. I didn't
have much but what I had I cherished like it was the best in the world. My mother, sweet
lady did her best for a young man like myself. She died, I died right along with her. Then
there are people in my life then that are still there that had major influence on my life and
these people I never forget. Drugs, gangs and guns, all that was a everyday norm but even
though it was a everyday norm, I really didn't fall victim to it until my older years. Besides
that, I reflect on the best times I ever had because even though we had it tough, I still had a
blast because it seems that the less you have the mote unity that there is. The more unity the
more fun you find yourself having. Simple fun you know?

A lot of people are not happy when poverty strikes but lets really ask one another something
and see if you car really answer it. Can money and riches bring happiness? My open and
honest opinion is NO! Not only that issue but money can't bring my money back! I cringe at
this thought: money can't bring me happiness but justice has a price! Poor politics strikes
everyday and then you have people that cannot become free or can not gain the proper
attention that is needed to save their life. Not just in the judicial system by the way but
justice in the simple term is of life. Life is terribly unfair and everyone knows this. One
thing we must realize that even though it isn't fair, it is life period. My reflection always
leads me back to this every time.

My reflection doesn't have a grand design to it. No specific purpose either for me to write
this but hopefully reflect a picture in your frame of mind that can possibly be developed into
a positive life force. We all have thoughts, wishes and aspirations. The Thought process is
the greatest factor to becoming pious and wise because without it we become exactly like
poor politicians. Don't understand? Playing of the mental mistakes of ignorance of other
people to become in power of any situation, that's poor politics and the politicians that do the
politicking.

But before I do go back to racking my brain with my thoughts and reflections. I do not want
to leave you something to think about and that is; look at your reflection. Are you satisfied
with what you see? Get out, get up and do something about it. Don't sit around and think
selfish thoughts of self righteousness but think in selflessness and go out there and do
something in a positive life. You never know what can happen and who you will touch and
maybe when you come back you will see a set of different thoughts that stick to one topic
(smile)!

I'll be back at you soon.

Peace-God- Solidarity,
Hasan Baz'l Shakur

(Written in 2002.)