Original subtitles

[unsettling music playing]

[man] I should've been dead a long time ago.

Everybody in my family's dead, except for me.

I've always wondered why.

Why am I still alive?

I'm the black sheep of the family.

I'm the only one that caused trouble.

[man] I actually think there's someone else besides me

playing tricks with my mind, or whatever.

But… I can clearly say that things I've done…

A lot of things I don't remember, I don't remember how I got there.

It's like I can hear another voice saying,

"Yeah, you did this."

You know.

I'm like, "No, I didn't do this."

And it's like me playing a game with myself.

[man] Yeah.

Yes.

Sure.

That's fine, yes.

My name is Deryl Wayne Madison.

Born August 29th, 1958 in Monroe, Louisiana.

I've been incarcerated for the last 33 years

for a crime that I committed in my neighborhood

in the year of 1988.

Well, I grew up in Texas.

My mother was…

a registered nurse.

She was a hard-working woman, Christian woman.

I got along with my mother better than I did with my father.

Me and my dad butted heads from the time I was five years old,

and I never got along with him.

I caught a lot of whippings from my dad.

A lot, 'cause, uh…

Extension cords and boards, mostly.

A lot of times I took off and I wouldn't come back.

You know…

And it just got… It just got worse and worse.

The first time I set a fire,

I set a calendar on fire, it was on the wall.

I set it on fire.

I'd just sit there and just watch it, you know?

And from that point on, it's like…

I was obsessed with fire.

I don't know if it was… aggression,

taking it out on my dad, or a part of my dad, I don't know what it was.

But it's…

I actually lost it.

Coming into my teenage years…

12, 13 years old…

I set a lot of buildings on fire,

a lot of empty houses.

And while the fires are going,

and some people think I may be crazy, but…

I would masturbate while the fire's going.

And when I'm done,

like, "Okay,

I'm good," and I'd just leave.

You know.

That's kinda weird.

That I'd stand in the middle of a fire

and masturbatin' while the damn fire's going.

You know, who does that?

Know what I mean?

It's like I can hear another voice saying,

"Fire time." Right?

It's like, "Fire time…"

I want to say it's another person.

I feel like…

there was something else, someone else inside of me, besides me.

I set my own house on fire one time.

Everybody was gone to church.

I set it on fire and I got back in bed

and I lay down.

I just stayed there.

Before I knew it, the fireman was snatching me out of bed

and dragged me out of the house, and I was full of smoke and stuff.

They're like, "Who set the house on fire?" I'm like, "I don't know."

Come to find out, it was me.

Was it me, or was it someone else?

I don't know, I can't tell you.

I… I don't do that.

It had to be someone else, it's not me. I don't do that.

Man, I started smoking weed and drinking wine

when I was, like, 12 years old.

Then I started taking Valium and white crosses,

walking on top of damn buildings.

It's like… when I'm doing stuff like that it's like, I'm bold as hell.

I feel like I'm ten feet tall, and I just start doing stuff.

By the time I was 16,

I was walking the streets of Houston, you know.

I was just getting off on all kind of stuff.

I'd go in a store and steal something, or I have a chance to take some money

from somebody, I'd do that.

I got out in '83.

Hmm.

I had a job working in an apartment complex

and stuff like that.

It was good while it lasted, but that's when I started smoking crack.

In order for me to keep that habit up,

I was robbing and stealing like crazy at that time.

That's when my life went straight downhill.

This particular day,

it was in April.

I was just walking down the street. I had, like, 1,800 dollars in my pocket.

And I had, like… three ounces of rock, coke, in my pocket.

And Miss Jolivet, she was sitting on her porch.

I waved at her, and she waved back.

I went around, I jumped over the fence and sat on the porch with her.

We was talking about the weather, how's everything going,

how's the garden and all that stuff.

I used to help clean out the garage and stuff, clean the yard.

I didn't need anything that day. I didn't need nothin'.

I had everything I wanted.

I was just sitting there.

All of a sudden I just snapped, I just popped off in my mind.

So she got up and she gettin' ready to go in and I said, "Okay."

I got up and helped her in, I held the door open for her,

and for some damn reason,

I pushed her all the way-- I pushed her inside the house.

You know…

I pushed her inside the house, she hit the floor.

I hit her three or four times.

She was screaming.

I drug her to the back,

I ran in and got a knife out of the kitchen drawer,

and I stabbed her twice.

Just like that, like…

I don't know what that was. I don't know why I did it.

Then I sat down on the floor.

I just sat there, right next to her, I just sat there.

I was told I did a lot of shit. I was told I tore the house up…

I… I really didn't believe none of that, but I didn't tear nobody's house up.

At least I don't think I tore the house up. I don't…

I was so full of drugs back then, there's no telling what I did.

Man, I don't know.

I ran so far, I just ran till I couldn't run no more.

I sat down on the curb…

of Tuam and Main, I just sat there.

And it dawned on me that I had killed someone.

No, I didn't kill nobody.

I couldn't kill nobody, right?

[woman] The Fifth Ward is a very old community

that's been established in Houston for many, many, many years.

Back in '88 when this murder occurred,

it was a pretty heavy drug trafficking area,

and not really sure that it's changed a whole lot in all of these years.

My name is Sergeant Sharon Evans,

and I was one of the detectives assigned to the murder case of Beulah Jolivet.

[Sharon] As investigators,

we're the representative of the victim in all the crimes that we go to.

So, while doing this,

I feel like I'm the representative for Miss Jolivet.

What we came to know about Miss Jolivet,

as a result of doing this investigation,

is that she had lived in this home for many, many years

and was well respected and known by her neighbors.

For me, the investigation starts from the second I get out of my car,

walk up to the front door,

and when I open the door,

my job is to detail everything inside that house.

Everything.

From the second I walk in there, I knew this is going to be brutal.

There was blood on the floor.

There were a couple of teeth from the victim

that were noticeably in the blood, that were on the floor in the rug.

Then there were blood smears that went from that location

into the hallway and continuing through the house.

There was a radio missing off her side table,

that he used the cord of that radio to strangle around her neck,

that cord was still there.

And there was also a bloody knife on the floor, close to her,

that he used to stab her twice in the back.

And according to the autopsy,

those two stab marks at the end were the fatal blows.

So, when you know that he brutalized Miss Jolivet all the way through her home,

kicking and hitting her and strangling her with the cord,

and placing the heater on her legs,

those were not the events that killed her.

Those were the events that brutalized her through her own home.

He went through all the property inside Miss Jolivet's home

to find things that he thought he could sell.

He closed all the drapes in every room

so that he could spend whatever time he wanted to or needed to,

inside the home, to go through all of her stuff.

Deryl made at least three trips in and out of the house, that I know of,

and he left the home and went a few houses down,

or locally in the neighborhood and sold those items

to one of the drug dealers here.

So, he had no problem walking in and out of her house,

even though he had just brutally victimized her in that way.

Those details are very important

to understanding who he was, and why he did this action.

It was not a momentary thing.

He didn't hit her once,

and she hit her head on the coffee table and died.

In my opinion, Deryl Madison was very sadistic.

He planned this in his head,

or planned it when he was in the home, or both,

uh, but he was in no hurry.

[student chatter]

[lecturer] Okay, thanks for everybody coming today.

What we're going to touch base on in class

is a brief overview of capital punishment

and the role that mental health evidence plays

in these types of cases.

…and it revolves around mitigating evidence that the jury can consider

to decide that somebody is essentially less death-worthy.

[voice in class fades]

My name is John Edens.

I am a forensic psychologist by training,

and I'm a university professor at Texas A&M University,

where I've done research on and consulted on capital murder cases

for approximately the last 20 years.

[in class] You are talking about somebody who's already been sentenced

to either death, or life without parole.

[John] So, in a capital case, such as this,

the defense's role typically tends to focus on

psychological factors, if they are there,

that paint the defendant in a more positive light.

We're not talking about turning anybody loose,

or saying they're innocent, or don't deserve to be punished,

but saying that they don't deserve to die,

based on the sentencing statute that Texas uses.

[John] Dr. Dickerson basically said

that Deryl suffered from dissociative identity disorder.

Essentially, the primary symptom is the presence of at least two

separable personalities residing within the same person,

that for the most part may act, uh…

completely separately from each other.

And people historically have referred to this as multiple personality disorder.

Based on Dr. Dickerson's assessment,

Deryl's personality is being fragmented

into different parts, and his ability to control his behavior

seems to be pretty clearly impaired.

[Deryl, on recording] I was about 14.

I was in class.

Everybody in the classroom was staring at me.

So the teacher said,

"Who are you talking to?" I said…

"What do you mean? I wasn't talking to nobody."

Everybody in the classroom was watching me, I was talking,

but I was unaware that I was…

talking.

I didn't know I was.

So I know that's another personality, it had to be.

It just pops up all of a sudden.

He's certainly describing symptoms related to disassociation and, uh,

depersonalization.

The fact that he's talking to himself and not realizing it is a bit…

uh, a little bit unusual.

It's certainly indicative of somebody who's kind of disconnected

or fragmented from, you know, parts of himself.

[Deryl, on recording] I don't know why I killed Miss Jolivet.

I really don't.

But it was like a rage.

A fit of rage that come out of nowhere.

I mean, she never did nothing to me. You know, but…

Why did I take her life?

You know…

[John] The issue is, is Deryl morally culpable enough

that he really deserves to be put to death?

And if I take at face value

how Dr. Dickerson describes Deryl's mental state,

then that, to me, seems like that would obviously be a huge mitigating factor

that a jury ought to take into account.

I would have had a very hard time

making the case, in my mind,

that this is somebody who the death penalty is appropriate for.

If I could wave a magic wand and put Deryl in a place

where I think it would make the most sense for someone like him to be,

it would be in a forensic psychiatric hospital,

more so than in a prison system.

But I don't have a magic wand. [rueful laugh]

[man] The Texas capital murder statute is almost unique in the United States,

and the jury has to answer two particular questions.

One is, "Was the act by the defendant…"

"Was it deliberate?" "Did it cause the death of the individual?"

The next step is that the jury has to unanimously decide

that the defendant be constituted a continuing threat to society.

And if they agree on the first and on the second special issue,

that automatically results in a death penalty.

It comes down to, like, flipping a coin. It's either life or death. That's it.

My name is James W. Marquart,

and I am a sociologist, criminologist by training.

And I testified in the Deryl Madison case

as an expert in the particular area of future dangerousness.

Firstly, Deryl was fully responsible for this murder.

There's no question about it.

But…

are there mitigating factors in this case in terms of the punishment?

I believe completely that yes, there are.

Deryl grew up in a poor African-American family.

His father was very abusive,

and he had three other siblings, so there were four children

and they were all treated horribly.

And I think several of them have died at a young age.

You know, he was never really socialized as to how to be a human being.

So, he had a hard time adapting just in ordinary daily life,

and that set that kid on a path to-- He didn't have a chance.

Had no chance whatsoever.

If you look at the context of Houston at the time of the offense,

Houston was awash in cocaine.

And you saw an epidemic of violent crime in the city itself.

I remember watching the news.

Every night, it was like another murder, another murder, another murder…

It was like every day this was going on.

It was like a snowball or a train going downhill, without a driver in it.

And he got swept up into all that.

And if I'm sitting on that jury at that time,

you know, all these other murders going on in the city,

I'm probably thinking, "I'm not going to cut you any slack."

[Deryl, on recording] Believe it or not,

I ain't have no feeling at all when they gave me the death penalty.

I didn't know what to feel. It's like, I don't feel anything.

I don't know why it's like that.

It's like when my mom died, my brothers, my sisters…

I never shed a tear for anyone.

I don't know what it feels like to be…

loved by people.

I don't. I don't know what that is.

I couldn't tell you what that is.

[James] The guy had a stacked deck against him

almost from the time that he was born because he had issues in school,

issues at home.

If you have this addiction and these things, you're paranoid.

And people with this cocaine addiction engage in risky behavior.

And that kind of destroyed, in his mind, any sort of a buffer or a blocker.

He saw her as a target and went after her. He didn't even think about it.

He made an impulsive…

an impulsive decision to do this

without thinking of any of the ramifications from it.

He's not a professional violent criminal.

He's disorganized, and tomorrow it could be shoplifting.

And, you know, he just doesn't have those violent tendencies

that would make him a future threat.

I get it, he committed a horrible crime, I understand that.

But the death penalty was not an appropriate sentence at that time.

I… I just… I don't believe it was.

[Sharon] As an investigator,

I completely believe in our justice system.

We do our investigation to the best of our ability.

The prosecutors go through the trial process

and all the evidence is presented to a jury.

The jury listens to both sides and everything that was presented to them,

and they make the decision.

And they had no problem, whatsoever, finding him guilty

and giving him the death penalty.

[Sharon] I can still visualize Miss Jolivet laying on the floor

in the condition that she was in.

And that's what helps me to sit here and speak out for her.

At this point, we're the only people there to represent Miss Jolivet.

I know what her last moments on this Earth looked like,

and I don't want that part to be forgotten.

[woman] I witnessed two executions.

I was the first Italian woman to witness an execution in America.

And it was very hard,

because you can watch,

but you cannot do anything for the person who is dying.

It is an experience

that you will have in your mind and your heart for your entire life.

My name is Michela Mancini,

I'm the vice president of the Italian Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.

[computer keys clicking]

[Michela] As Italian Coalition we try to help so many prisoners,

especially in the United States,

because it is the last democracy that uses the death penalty.

Our intention is to go there

to help them to understand that maybe,

uh, it's not the right solution.

We are citizens of the world.

We must be worried

about what is happening in another state.

[Michela] The first time I received a letter from Deryl Madison,

it was in 1995.

I started to write him back.

And after that, we continued to write.

And, in 1996,

I went to visit him for the first time.

And, since then, he became a part of my family.

What convinced me

to help him was

the fact that Deryl was so alone,

and no one took care of him, really.

The only time I was not be able to look Deryl in his eyes,

it was the day after when I saw the picture of the lady that died.

If someone had killed my grandmother,

I do want that person to stay in prison for what he has done.

But, during the visit,

by talking and listening

to what he said,

I understood, at that time,

that what I had in front of me,

it wasn't, no more, the person that committed that crime.

It was my friend Deryl.

[Michela] My intention was to save his life.

I didn't care how.

Three weeks before his date of execution,

we tried to go in a hurry and to find a good lawyer,

someone who could help him,

in a concrete way.

And we were very lucky because we found Mayer and Brown,

that proposed us to help him for free.

When they had all the documents,

they understood immediately

that probably… [laughs]… something… They could do something useful for Deryl.

Deryl was very scared.

And when someone has fear,

it is very difficult, no?

Uh, to… to think, to choose, and to decide something.

But, obviously, the risk was that another jury

could confirm the death sentence.

He didn't want to go back to trial.

So, after thinking a lot,

uh… he accepted to stay in prison for his entire life.

[Sharon] I'm surprised to find that his sentence was overturned.

I'm disappointed,

because I think we had a very good case at the time.

[Deryl, on recording] As a sane person, I wouldn't have done it.

You know?

I actually think there's someone else besides me.

Maybe, it's me doing drugs

that this… other personality I have,

usually pops up.

It's like I can hear another voice saying,

"Yeah, you did this," you know?

I'm like, "No, I didn't do this."

It's like me playing a game with myself.

It's my personal thought that Deryl, as well as some others that are in prison,

certainly the ones that are on death row,

have learned from the system

what they need to say.

I think it's common for people that we've incarcerated

to say that it was their mental state, or the way they were brought up,

or they were brutalized when they were kids…

They had a drug habit, all kinds of reasonings that they come up with later,

for why they did the acts that they did.

My personal feelings about Deryl saying that he was mentally ill at the time

and he thinks it was another person,

I think that's probably the way he views it now,

versus the way he viewed it at the time.

Maybe he's a little remorseful now,

but that doesn't bring Miss Jolivet back.

That doesn't allow her to live the rest of her life.

That doesn't take away the pain and brutality

that she suffered by his hands,

at the time he did this act.

Miss Jolivet deserves

that he get the death penalty for what he did to her,

because that's the crime that he committed by taking her life.

In my opinion, he… he does not deserve life without parole.

[Deryl] During my trial, after going through everything,

after listening to all the testimony,

and looking back on my life,

and what I've done,

at that time, yes, I did deserve the death penalty.

You just don't take a life

from someone that's been living that long, you know?

And you deserve to be punished for it.

I deserved the death penalty for doing what I did.

Yeah, I understand.

That's how the law works, huh? So…

At the same time, I'm locked up for the rest of my life.

I'm never getting out again…

you know.

I'm not a monster, right?

But I did commit a crime,

and I am paying for it.

[Sharon, on recording] Deryl made at least three trips

in and out of the house that I know of,

and he left the home and sold those items to one of the drug dealers here.

In my opinion, Deryl Madison was very sadistic.

He planned this in his head,

or planned it when he was in the home, or both…

but he was in no hurry.

She's the detective that was in my case, right?

They kept asking me questions,

and I told them exactly what I did.

I didn't lie about anything.

I did take stuff out of the house.

I had no plans of that before, but when I went in there,

and after she was dead, yeah, I did. I started just taking stuff out the house.

It was stuff that I sold for crack.

I was thinking like a dope fiend. I didn't have a clear head.

I was a dope fiend. I wanted drugs.

That's what that was.

I did not plan to murder Miss Jolivet.

That happened while I was there, right? It just… all of a sudden, it just…

It was a different thing.

Once I was in there,

my whole… my whole mindset changed.

I don't consider myself an evil person, but…

we have to pay our…

debt to society anytime we do anything wrong.

I may not like it, but,

as the saying goes, "You make your bed, you have to lie in it."

Bubba was the name that my grandmother gave me when I was born.

That's what I call my other personality.

Bubba is…

I wouldn't exactly say my alter ego, but…

[chuckles]

Sort of a Jekyll and Hyde type.

You know, he gets me in trouble. I'll put it that way.

He's…

it's more like me asking myself questions, right?

You know, "What the hell did you do that for?"

I'd get up in the middle of night and walk back and forth in the cell.

He would say, uh…

"Can't sleep?"

It's just crazy, man… I dunno…

I hope he doesn't do anything stupid one of these days.

It's not scary because I'm in here, huh?

If I was out there, it'd be different.

[introspective music playing softly]