We are presenting excerpts from David's letters to give you a better idea of what David is like. These are excerpts and we have slightly modified them for grammatical, spelling, and stylistic reasons. We encourage you to write David for yourself in prison. He genuinely appreciates every letter he receives.

ABOUT AN AVERAGE DAY IN PRISON
During the winter, it is not as cold as in other prisons in upstate New York, such as the prisons in Auburn and Clinton, New York. My normal routine now is to get up at 6am and meditate for about 30 minutes and chant for 15 minutes before I start doing my laundry, until around 7:30am. At that time, they let me out of my cell for breakfast. Normally, I finish up my laundry after breakfast and then take about a 30-60 minute nap before going to the law library at the 10am call-out. I go back to my cell around 11:30am and go to lunch around 11:40am. I usually go to the yard to do my exercises when it opens, around 1:15pm, and then come back to my cell around 3:30pm. Around 4:40, dinner is served, which I stay at until the evening recreation period, which lasts from 6:10pm to 10:25pm. During that time, I will either be in my cell or in the "day-room" to watch the evening news, make phone calls, or play a couple games of chess. I will normally go out to the yard again from 8:30 to 10pm just to chill out and get some fresh air or to exercise again. During other free time, I am usually in my cell either reading or writing letters. I usually go to bed at 1:00am.

ABOUT FIGHTING TO CLEAR HIS NAME
I have maintained that I am innocent from the very beginning. I have also maintained that Corrections Officer Richard LaPierre and inmate Peter Dellfava lied when they said they saw me stab Tyrone Julius and that the Clinton Prison administration knowingly framed me because of racism and to cover up for their mistakes and negligence. Peter Dellfava has already recanted his testimony against me and also testified that a Corrections Sergeant coached him to say that a Chinese guy was the killer and showed Dellfava my picture. It has also now been revealed that Nelson Gutierrez [the real killer] and Tyrone Julius [the victim] had a history of violent clashes at Rikers Island. Therefore, placing them together in Clinton Prison was a mistake and an oversight on the part of the Department of Corrections. The three Corrections Officers who first discovered Tyrone Julius lying in the snow reported to their superior immediately after the incident that they discovered him on the ground only after they came down to the flat area of the yard from their posts on the hills of the prison yard and called the sergeant to report it. They never mentioned any call from the sergeant or LaPierre before they discovered the body. Most of the inmates who witnessed what happened state that Tyrone Julius was lying on the ground for at least 10-15 minutes before the three officers came and discovered him. So, the latest decision by Judge Lawliss to deny a motion for a new trial is not a surprise to me because it is simply a continuing effort by the court system in Clinton County to cover up for the corrections personnel at Clinton Prison for their negligence and oversights.

ABOUT HOW MUCH HELP ALL OF HIS SUPPORTERS HAVE BEEN
You guys [my supporters] are my link between the world and the people in here and the civilized world and the people out there. Can you see now why I keep saying how helpful and instrumental you guys have been to my growth and development, besides helping me on my case appeal? Imagine what kind of person I may still be if my vision and my world is only limited to the dealings and experience in prisons, especially when I came into prison with a negative attitude and baggage? ...It's not necessary that I talk every day, because what all you people out there do for me is the guide for me.

ABOUT SPENDING TIME IN THE PRISON YARD
I like the "big yard" in this place because it's "huge" as far as prisons go. It's about five football fields in size. If I run or jog around the yard 2.5 times, it equals one mile. But most of the time I go out there because I can get lost out there. The grass, sometimes, is high enough I can lie down in the middle of the yard and no one can find you, and that's what I do or sometimes I meditate in the middle of the yard. Nobody comes around to bother or harass you. It makes you feel really close to nature.

ON JUDGE TIMOTHY LAWLISS
I don't hate Judge Lawliss. I don't even know him, but I do hate what he represents. I wouldn't trust this system for anything but if or when I lose the ability to think positively, it means that this system would truly have gotten me.

ABOUT PEOPLE WHO ARE HESITANT ABOUT SUPPORTING DAVID BECAUSE OF HIS PAST CONVICTION
In life there will always be people who will use your past mistakes and wrongs against you and hold them over your head. I think I expected that. But for myself, I cannot let my past hold me back. As long as deep in me I know that I have done wrong and learned from it, I know I can move on, even though sometimes people may not hear me say "I am sorry." That's because I know I am a human being and the only good expression of being sorry and admission of being wrong is to learn from it and to prevent it from happening again. Not just saying "I am sorry and I am wrong" in words.

Our argument right now is not about my wrong [his first conviction], of course anybody can always bring it up and talk about my wrong, but the issue right now is about the racist and corrupt court system.

ON HIS OUTLOOK ON LIFE
You know, I didn't always have my present outlook on life. The only reason I am able to laugh at things and be cheerful throughout the day, now, is that I learned to look at things and issues differently. I think I am beginning to understand why things happen the way they happen, instead of just focusing on what happened.