Claudine trying to make amends

CLAUDINE HENRY sat in the empty interview room and, as I entered, a stern look from her piercing bright eyes gave me a cold feeling. I must admit, I felt myself fall fast and hard into a group of people who stigmatised people like Claudine. A stigma I was sure that she was accustomed to. Only minutes before my editor told me that a woman who had been released from Death Row was downstairs, and I had to interview her. Now, here I was, face to face with a woman whose greeting of “Good Day!” totally contrasted to her outlook. At least her voice was reassuring. Wearing her hair in twists, and colourful bangles on her hand, Claudine told her story.

It’s been six years now since Claudine was released from her 12 years in prison. Five of those 12 years were spent on Death Row. She and two men, Collins Peters and Kirt Stewart, were all sentenced to death by hanging in 1988, after a grand jury found them guilty of murdering taxi driver Emrold Charles on October 6, 1986. According to reports, in an attempt to rob Charles of his car, the trio stabbed him to death when he retaliated. At the time, Claudine was only 22 years old and was convicted for capital murder, earning her the infamous title of being the only woman on Death Row at that time. All three accused were removed from Death Row in 1993, after spending five years. Claudine and Stewart were then both released from prison after an appeal of their matter.
 
Her time spent at prison was not easy. Recalling the day the verdict was read, Claudine said she was not even moved by the verdict, which, under most circumstances, changes the lives of many. “I started a life of crime at the age of 19. My parents never knew where my life was heading, until I was held for that murder. I was tough, and on the day the verdict was read, I just told myself that everything was going to be alright. No crying, no sadness. I felt nothing. I just planned on being a bad girl in prison so I would survive.” But the bad girl image all boiled down within a year. Claudine said, “It just wasn’t working. I realised people used to get into real trouble with guards and thing.” A tremendous turning point came for Claudine. A religious group which visited the prison often was there on the day Claudine said she “heard a voice.” “The group was singing and I was in my room reading. And all how I try to blank them out, I just couldn’t. Then I just felt this thing just come out of me,” Claudine reminisced. “It’s difficult to describe, but I think it was a dysfunctional spirit that came out. It was just the sweetest feeling.”
 
Since then, she said, she has been transformed. She maintained that she is no religious fanatic, saying that she does not belong to any particular religious group, but she is a strong believer in Christ. During her time at prison, the mother of three, said she had a number of sad days, saying she often thought of her children, a girl and two boys. They visited while she was imprisoned, but the visits never seemed often enough. “They usually visited, but the atmosphere of having your children visit you in prison was never a nice one,” she reflected. “There were not enough visits with your children so you could talk to them and ask them how they feel about you being in there.” Asked whether the tremendous experience of prison life has affected her children, Claudine reluctantly said that it negatively affected the lives of one of her children, but she would say no more on the issue. She did recall, however, relatives telling her that the elder of her two sons, who was only six years old at the time, would often ask for her when she was in prison.
 
“They told me that he asked for me so often, that he promised them he would steal a dollar just so the police would lock him up and take him to prison. He said he was sure if he came to prison, he would see me,” Claudine said. With little effect of prison life etched on her face, Claudine said the saddest day at the Golden Grove Prison, Arouca, was the day she was removed from Death Row and condemned to life in prison. With tears in her eyes, she rubbed her hands nervously, and fought hard to hold back the already flowing tears. Between sobs she said: “When they told me I would not be going home I cried. I really, really cried. I just couldn’t bear the thought of being in that place for the rest of my life. All I study was my children — I would never see them again!” For her, their birthdays, Mother’s Day and everything she had held hope for, had all gone down the drain. But all was not lost. She appealed the matter on the grounds that she and her cohorts had been on Death Row for over five years. The matter was then dismissed and she and one of the two other accused were freed.

For Claudine, though, being free was difficult. It meant starting over a whole new life. No longer did she depend on a life of crime to survive. Nor did she have her own home to go to. “I depended on my mother a lot. She really helped me with the children and assisted me to get back on my feet.” Asked about her view of the present crime situation, she pondered a bit on the question before answering. “Hmmmm......! Fathers need to put a great interest in their children. Too often we see fathers being more interested in why Mammy come home so late. But when the children come home late, no questions are asked. They leave the situation just so. What we having more and more now is just history repeating itself. Ignorant fathers and parents not taking an interest in their children’s lives.”

Asked whether she has had any contact with the relatives of the man she was accused of killing, Henry said she has never had the opportunity. She said she’s not sure if she would like to, but issued a strong apology to them. “I am sorry and I would like to apologise to the family of the deceased. I also apologise to the entire society and to my children. I know that I let them down.” Now the founder of a halfway house for women who have been released from prison, Claudine has vowed to make life easier for women who come from prison. She feels there is no kind of support system for women when they are released from prison. Most of them, she said, have children and no accommodation. They have nowhere to turn. But there are certain prerequisites to earning a space in Henry’s halfway house. First of all, the women have to be transformed from a life of crime and must have a renewed mind. Henry is calling on citizens to volunteer their services to fill positions to make up a board for the halfway house for which she says she already has funding. At the end of the interview, a smiling Henry said “God is good, I know I have a lot to make up for and I will do it.”