Association Struggle For Justice
c/o Colette Berthes
216 Chemin de Figarol
82170 Pompignan
FRANCE
tel:33 5 58 51 75 62
email: Lutte Pour la Justice




My beloved friends, loved one's and extended family May this letter find all of you sitting here today joined in solidarity, love and the very quest for Justice and Humanity in the very world. I love you all.
I hope that all of your journey's have been prosperous and most of all safe and I love you all and thank each and everyone of you for coming.
I would first like to take this moment to ask each and everyone of you to do something for me that is very special. I would like each and everyone of you to look at the person sitting next to you, you may not know them, then look around the room and you will see many more faces, people and very precious human beings and you may not know them, but if I may, I would like each of you, if you are sitting next to someone you do not know to introduce yourself and know that each of you are friends, great friends of mine and now very much an extension of my friendship and love that I have for all of you and friendship is golden and more precious than a diamond.
You know, many people have written me and ask, how or why it is possible for me to end up in this situation. I guess if I were to look at it in a negative sense, I could list many reasons, however, I always list the greatest reasons, in my heart and soul it is very simple, without this situation, would you be meeting the person next to you?
Would you have meet so many wonderful and special people with hearts consistent with our very own?

And most of all, would you have ever met me? And for all of these things in the Injustice that I face, there is also beautiful solidarity of humanity, love and the very plight against injustice and no matter what happens in the end, I ask that each and everyone of you remains friends and most of all I ask that each of you continues the fight and Struggle for Justice, it is a fight I am firmly established in and if I am to die, I will die firmly embedded in my very fight and if I cannot awaken and continue the struggle, then I ask each one of you, becomes my eyes, my ears, my mind, my legs and most of all my very heart and all of these things, are what I have given to the very plight and struggle for Justice, but I am also established in the fact, that if we begin by loving and patiently trying to understand our fellow men, then we have given Humanity a chance, we have given the Struggle for Justice a chance, it is when we show anger, frustrations, jealousy, hatred and discrimination, that we ourselves have taken the same approach as the Judicial community.
Justice is supposed to be characterized as the very voice of the people that live within a society, because it speaks for their laws, however, when the voice of the people is disregarded as simple complaint, the voice of the people is truly silenced.

However, it takes the very will of the people to be heard and as each and everyone of you sits here in solidarity, you yourselves are speaking, not just speaking for Odell, you are speaking for a world of people who face injustice, racism, discrimination and inhumane treatment and it is what makes each of you so very special to our very world and its troubling society.
And I am not only honored to know each and everyone of you, I am also blessed to know that each of you loves and supports me as I love and support all of you and so many others in my position, it is said "that the very integrity and will of a man is measured by the will and compassion of his heart and soul".
And when I see that statement, I can see all of you, I can see myself, but I cannot also see and know the very love and patience it takes for someone to be like this and most of all what it takes for a person to care and support others they do not know and I love each of you for all you have granted me and my very life with, but we shall not stop there, because the very will of each of you, has helped over four hundred death row prisoners battle a very arbitrary system that has taken a very victims rights, retaliation approach against all Death Row Prisoners.
In saying this, I am not saying that myself or others do not have love, respect or even compassion for the Victims in all crimes, I am saying that I do not believe that revengeful retaliation is the answer, especially when the System itself creates a new family of "Victims" every time that they kill a man in the very name of Justice, but in this case, the Victims family is not considered and why, because the system feels that their voices do not matter, they do not matter until everyone speaks out against it and it takes people like yourselves and someone like myself to step forward and say "enough is enough." and we must not give up in our desire to change a very biased system that is so respected across the world as being the best.

How can it be the very best when it prides itself on killing its very citizens in a very prejudicial system that has existed for over One Hundred years and when people think about it, it has not even been Two Hundred years since this very country abolished slavery, however, there is a Modern Day slavery that exists and it is the Slavery Machine of the Judicial System, it uses Prisoners for Free Labor and does not work to Rehabilitate them, if they rehabilitated them, they would not be able to get them back into the system and the desire for money is so strong that the system will even imprison the innocent and it is not until others, like yourselves, care enough to tell this system that it is wrong, that something needs change and often even that it is not enough.

In so many years that I have been on the Death Row, I have seen Pope John Paul II, plead for the lives of the Mentally Ill, the Guilty and the Innocent and in doing so the State of Texas, has clearly disregarded such pleas and it will not change until more voices speak and more voices are respected and heard.
An I love you all, because for me and so many others you all are these voices, voices that I have not had, but also voices that know Odell, not just from letters, but you know Odell, you know Odell because your hearts are like his heart, your will is like his will, and his injustice is also your Injustice and I am always honored to have so many wonderful people fighting with me and in hand, in true peace, there is compassion, understanding and the will to forgive and love and I have forgiven, many for the Injustice, I have lived here.
And yes, my friend's it is my ability to forgive others that makes me who I am, the ability to love others and care, not just for myself, but others as well. But, it also makes each of you who you are and I love each of you for your devotion to the Struggle, your Commitment to Humanity and most of all I thank you for your love, belief, compassion, respect and efforts in the very Struggle for my life.

I love you and thank you for believing in me, as my very own country turns a blind eye to what is happening and with your help, we are working very hard to open their eyes and of course I do love you and thank you.
Well, My Beloved Friends, Loved Ones and Extended Family, I want each of you to know that as you talk, travel and Journey in life, I am always with you in heart and soul, but no matter what you are never alone and I love each of you for your love and continued support, be careful on your journey's home and know that I send a big hug and kiss of great love and appreciation and hopefully soon, I will not have to have these messages read, because I will be able to speak them from my very heart and soul myself. I love you.

We Must Struggle for Justice.
With the greatest of love always
Eternally in the Struggle for Justice,
I remain:



Odell Barnes Jr.