Nov. 6, 2026
“I Would Like To Apologize”: The Final Words Of Jesse Guardado And The State That Failed Him
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RSS Feed Before Florida executed its 19th inmate of the year, 64-year-old Jesse Guardado, the convicted murderer gave an apology to his victim’s family and his own for the pain and suffering he caused them. Guardado admitting to fatally beating and stabbing his 75-year-old mentor for money to fuel his drug habit. Guardado spent time in Florida’s notorious Arthur G. Dozier School for boys that closed in 2011 after decades of documented abuse, rapes and deaths of its students. Florida’s death row is filled with dozens of men who went to Dozier; many arguing the reform school literally created killers.
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00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks. It is Friday, November 6th, and a death row inmate was asked if he had any final words last night. And he took the opportunity to do what few death row inmates do in their final words. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ Robes. We're talking about one death row inmate. There were three executions yesterday. Only one had final words. This one.
00:00:28
Speaker 2: Yes, that is true.
00:00:29
Speaker 3: We're talking about 64-year-old Jesse Guardado. He was Florida's 19th death row inmate who was executed. That happened Thursday night. He was pronounced dead at 6.13 p.m. Eastern time. We have said this before, but Florida gets things done quickly and efficiently. There are never, I mean, I haven't remembered, at least recently, a hiccup in that execution chamber.
00:00:53
Speaker 1: I'm trying to even think of a time we get an They died at 636 or 645. Robes is 610, 615, 620. They know what they're doing in Florida. Look, and they do it often enough. So now, officially, they have set the record. He is the one that set the record for the number of executions that state has carried out. And again, Robes, this story, they're all different. The crime is heinous. His background, what happened to him, you could describe as heinous. But Robes, still all of that came together. And what was the best you could hope for, for a final moment and final words?
00:01:27
Speaker 3: Yes. So Jesse Guardado had this to say right before the state of Florida executed him. I would like to once again apologize for the pain and suffering I've caused to the victim's family and my own family as well.
00:01:45
Speaker 2: Period.
00:01:46
Speaker 3: Short and simple, but effective. There was no defense. There was no explanation. There was nothing that was indulgent. It was just a pure apology, a pure, simple apology.
00:02:02
Speaker 1: I did it. It was wrong. The reasons aren't relevant, right? I mean, that's the way, babe, to... And this is one that does take some diving into and some context and maybe a little understanding. Maybe people had a little sympathy to a certain degree for what he went through, but that... Apologies, we... We see plenty in the public robes, and it's always as a caveat. It's nuanced in some way. I did this. I'm sorry. There ain't a whole lot. Let that be a lesson to anybody who wants to apologize. Start with this. I'm sorry for what I did.
00:02:39
Speaker 3: Not for how you feel, but for what I did.
00:02:44
Speaker 1: That's it. I'm sorry for what I did, but I had a tough background. I'm sorry for what I did, but if you just understood what I was trying to say, no, just I'm sorry for what I did. And that's what he said, babe.
00:02:56
Speaker 3: Yes, very few victims' families, A, get an admission by the killer. So that's a big deal. And number two, they rarely get an apology. So he offered both of those things. And he has been admitting his guilt from the very beginning. Quickly get you up to speed on the actual crime itself. This was back in 2004. and Guardado murdered a 75-year-old saint, Jackie Malone. She was an activist. She helped folks who were down on their luck. And yes, she helped him after he was paroled for four armed robbery convictions, but it was a brutal murder. He came to her home with a metal rod and a kitchen knife after he tried to rob a bank and it didn't work. He needed money to fuel his crack cocaine habit. And so yes, he came there with the intent.
00:03:46
Speaker 2: To rob her, but to kill her first.
00:03:49
Speaker 3: And look, she had 21 abrasions, contusions, lacerations on her head, neck, face, five stab wounds to the chest.
00:03:57
Speaker 2: Her throat was slit.
00:03:58
Speaker 3: I mean, this was a brutal death for 75-year-old Jackie Malone, without a doubt. But he was immediately caught. And what he told police I thought was really interesting. That lady didn't deserve what I did to her. But I think when you take a look at his background.
00:04:18
Speaker 2: it's.
00:04:19
Speaker 3: Fair to say he didn't deserve what happened to him.
00:04:23
Speaker 1: No, there's room for everybody to be victims in some way in this case. He went into the Navy, right? He was on leave, right? Is this the right one?
00:04:39
Speaker 2: I believe that was the other, that was the Alabama execution.
00:04:42
Speaker 1: How old was this guy?
00:04:43
Speaker 3: This guy was, well, he was 64 at the time of, his execution, but he was 42, I believe, at the time of the murder.
00:04:53
Speaker 1: And I'm getting the drugs, the cocaine part of it mixed up. This was drug related?
00:04:59
Speaker 3: Yes. Okay.
00:05:00
Speaker 1: This is where you hear crack cocaine. That's some tough stuff. That led to epidemics of health and violence in communities across this country. Robes and There was some things he said in this quote, don't know anything about him, that make him sound sane, that make him sound like there was something in him that came from a decent place. That line, that lady didn't deserve that. That sounds like a guy who respected to a certain degree his elders or respected something about this woman. I know what he did to her was awful. I don't know how cocaine and crack-fueled it was at the time, but what he did to her is just, you can't imagine a sane person or someone not on drug, mind-altering drugs, being able to do something like that. Just that line and how he said it last night in his apology makes it seem like there was something in him that was decent somewhere.
00:05:57
Speaker 3: Yes, and you get that idea because you can maybe understand why he was addicted to crack cocaine when you hear about how he came up. We mentioned he was on parole when he committed this murder for four separate armed robberies.
00:06:11
Speaker 2: Yes, he was.
00:06:13
Speaker 3: and had pretty much only known a life of crime. He was sent to a very notorious reform school called the Arthur G.
00:06:21
Speaker 2: Dozier School for Boys.
00:06:23
Speaker 3: If you watched the film The Nickel Boys, if you read the novel, the film was back in 2019, that was the movie based on this school. It opened January 1, 1900, and it closed June 30, 2011, after a massive DOJ investigation found some of the most horrific crimes Conditions you could possibly imagine. And to give you an idea, this is crazy, these numbers. Guardado was one of 34 students who went there who ended up on death row. Another 16 on death row came from the state's other reform school, which was closed at the same time, Okeechobee. So 50 members of Florida's death row community. all went to these boys reform schools. 19 others went to prison for murder. They just weren't sentenced to death. So now we're up to 69. 25 others were killed between the ages of 15 and 18 as soon as they left. And they said combined, the men who attended Dozier and Okeechobee killed at least 114 people. Literally, this school, you could argue, created killers.
00:07:40
Speaker 1: You know, they were supposed to be reforming them, right? They identify problem boys early on. And Robes, I think about this in terms of sports, athletics. They identify very early on a 10-year-old, a 12-year-old, man, he's good, he's a standout, right? End up in the NBA, end up in the NFL. Robes, they identified these boys as potential problems in society. And sure enough, They didn't do their job to reform these boys, and sure enough, they ended up wreaking havoc on society. And robes, yes, they were identified early as problems. But you, you know, the evidence is clear that so much of what they went through made them worse. Predators made them worse when they unleashed. They weren't reformed.
00:08:28
Speaker 2: They were hardened.
00:08:30
Speaker 1: They were victimized.
00:08:32
Speaker 2: Victimized.
00:08:33
Speaker 1: They learned how to be worse criminals. They learned how to get angrier, to hate society, to not trust government. And they unleashed them. Yeah, this is a damn shame. Those numbers are incredible. You mean, how do you get that many? They all ended up on death row? How is that possible?
00:08:50
Speaker 3: 50 men on death row. graduates, I hate to say graduates, they didn't graduate, but spent time at this reform school.
00:08:57
Speaker 1: By the way- They age out? Is that how it works?
00:08:59
Speaker 3: Yes, it's from, I believe, the age of, I think, 15 to 21. But there were nearly 100 deaths documented between 1900 and 1973. And look, you know the state of Florida. You know any state in this country does not want to admit wrongdoing. They closed the school in 2011 after a massive investigation found all of these abuses. But in 2024, DeSantis went even further, formally apologizing to the survivors. That's what they call the people who went to this school, survivors of this school, and actually signed a law awarding $ 20 million to the now men who were there who were physically and sexually abused.
00:09:41
Speaker 2: That's significant.
00:09:42
Speaker 3: Governor DeSantis, tough on crime, signing death warrants, signed many, many, of these Dozier boys' death warrants, also at the same time signed a law giving them money. It's a tough, what do you do with this? What responsibility does the state of Florida bear? in the fact that 114 people lost their lives from these survivors of this school? That's tough to get your head around.
00:10:09
Speaker 1: It was functioning for 100 years, over 100 years. I mean, think about early on. I mean, we're talking about some stuff we know from death row. I mean, we're talking about modern history. But, Robes, what was going on in the 1920s and 30s and 40s? There were a lot of boys who were graduating out of these programs. Whatever happened to them? They didn't get into a modern-day death row or death penalty. Robes, who knows how much had it?
00:10:35
Speaker 2: A lot of them died.
00:10:36
Speaker 1: Who knows how much? It's just, yeah, I don't know. This is one of those things you factor in. Does that mean he's not responsible? Should he get mercy because of what he went through? Would he not have done this? Had he not been in that school? I don't know.
00:10:49
Speaker 3: Look, we talk about lessons learned. And when we come back, we're going to tell you what Jesse Guardado, what so many other young boys experienced at Dozier, these stories of abuse, you have to hear to believe. Welcome back, everyone, to Amy and TJ. 64-year-old Jesse Guardado was pronounced dead at 6.13 p.m.
00:11:21
Speaker 2: Eastern time yesterday.
00:11:22
Speaker 3: He was executed, Florida's 19th death row inmate executed this year for the brutal murder of 75-year-old Jackie Malone.
00:11:30
Speaker 2: But Guardado was.
00:11:33
Speaker 3: And did spend many years in the Dozier School for Boys in the 1970s, which is exactly when these abuses were taking place, and certainly they were documented. By the way, no one has ever been charged or prosecuted for the abuse at these schools, even though it's been documented, but they describe it as a culture of fear. There were daily, if not hourly, beatings, whippings, torture, solitary confinement, shacklings, hogtying, rapes, and yes, deaths. That was what was taking place in a school where these boys were supposed to be being reformed. And what you had was guards exploiting these young boys who often came from troubled families and victimized them repeatedly.
00:12:26
Speaker 1: That's kind of shocking, given what the abuses that are documented. It's kind of shocking that nobody was ever held responsible.
00:12:32
Speaker 3: Right? I thought that was one of the most disgusting parts about it. And Look, there are some quotes from folks who have done the research, who did part of the investigation, and they said this institution, quote, literally beat the humanity out of some of these boys, whittling away their value for human life. Dozier helped make these boys killers.
00:12:54
Speaker 2: And look, I thought this was interesting.
00:12:56
Speaker 3: Neuroscientists say an abused child's brain just doesn't mature the way Uh, a normal child's brain would develop. So it makes you more prone to arousal, less able to regulate impulsive behavior. And so this was the quote, if you have grown up in an environment where you are being cruelly treated and beaten, you are emotionally and physically in constant danger. your brain is going to read and perceive danger in everyone. And so this flight or fight, someone said, like, it's imagining at a 7-Eleven, someone pushes in front of you in line.
00:13:29
Speaker 2: You might be annoyed.
00:13:30
Speaker 3: If you went to Dozier or one of these schools, you might actually take out a knife and stab someone because you can't control your impulses.
00:13:35
Speaker 2: You consider everyone a threat.
00:13:37
Speaker 3: And that's why so many of these boys came out of this reform school willing to kill and able to kill. they were sent to the White House for bad behavior, which was beatings where they were shackled for hours while they were beaten with a three-foot leather strap. I mean, I just, it's hard to imagine this was happening in the state of Florida.
00:13:59
Speaker 2: And look at the aftermath. Look at our death row in that state.
00:14:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, you just made me think of the, I think it was Florida, right? The Vietnam vet that was executed?
00:14:09
Speaker 3: Yes.
00:14:10
Speaker 1: You described the same thing. He had what seemed to be an innocuous... interaction with the sheriff's deputy. One thing triggered him and his only reaction was to shoot, literally to have a deadly response to what seemed like not a big deal incident with an officer. These guys were trained, baby, as teenagers to do this. Look, reform when it's hardened. These are some tough dudes. It's hard to go in there and push back with love. The guards have to be tough on them. You know all kinds of problems. This is essentially a prison for teenage boys. You could argue. Call it a reform school all you want, but they are held there. They have guards there. They turn these guys into guys who end up on death row.
00:14:56
Speaker 2: They turned them into monsters.
00:14:57
Speaker 3: Yes, they were delinquents, I guess, is what we like to call kids that age who've.
00:15:02
Speaker 2: Done something wrong or sent to reform school.
00:15:04
Speaker 3: But literally, you had guards forcing the boys to fight, us really doing little guys versus big guys, taking cash bets on who would win. I mean, just pitting these young men against one another, having the older boys rape the younger boys. I mean, we're talking just like, you cannot imagine what it would be like to live day in and day out in those types of conditions and then come out.
00:15:30
Speaker 2: How are you going to be? How are you going to act in society?
00:15:33
Speaker 3: What are you going to think when you look at a threat or even anyone who questions you or threatens you or yes, makes you feel unsafe?
00:15:43
Speaker 1: Again, everybody has a, Every death row inmate, everyone we've covered has something they point to in their background that should allow for sympathy. Like, they went through this, so therefore you shouldn't execute them. I'll listen to this story. I'll listen to anybody coming out of that school for what's happened to them in the past, babe. I don't know what you do, but he's gone now, closure to this family, I suppose, and an apology at the end. But it never feels good on an execution day, and certainly another day that we had three, and then Again, the background on this, Rose, it's tough. You think about what he did to this woman, and then you think about what was done to him.
00:16:19
Speaker 2: Correct.
00:16:20
Speaker 3: And in two weeks, another Dozier boy is being executed in the state of Florida.
00:16:25
Speaker 2: So more to come on this.
00:16:27
Speaker 3: It's just interesting that DeSantis paid some of those boys who didn't go on, I guess, to commit violent acts or murders, but on the other hand, gave no nod to those who ended up committing violent acts in terms of, like, you could... I think it would be reasonable to consider him commuting the sentences of Dozier boys, having them stay behind bars for the rest of their lives. Obviously they need to pay for their crimes. They need to be removed from society, but it is interesting to, to award some millions and others. Well, you're going to meet your maker from the state of Florida. So it's just, it's a fascinating story. Wanted to do more on this school and what they produced and thank God the Dozier school is closed for business. And with that, everyone, we always appreciate you joining us. I'm Amy Robach alongside TJ Holmes.
00:17:20
Speaker 2: We'll talk soon.
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks. It is Friday, November 6th, and a death row inmate was asked if he had any final words last night. And he took the opportunity to do what few death row inmates do in their final words. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ Robes. We're talking about one death row inmate. There were three executions yesterday. Only one had final words. This one.
00:00:28
Speaker 2: Yes, that is true.
00:00:29
Speaker 3: We're talking about 64-year-old Jesse Guardado. He was Florida's 19th death row inmate who was executed. That happened Thursday night. He was pronounced dead at 6.13 p.m. Eastern time. We have said this before, but Florida gets things done quickly and efficiently. There are never, I mean, I haven't remembered, at least recently, a hiccup in that execution chamber.
00:00:53
Speaker 1: I'm trying to even think of a time we get an They died at 636 or 645. Robes is 610, 615, 620. They know what they're doing in Florida. Look, and they do it often enough. So now, officially, they have set the record. He is the one that set the record for the number of executions that state has carried out. And again, Robes, this story, they're all different. The crime is heinous. His background, what happened to him, you could describe as heinous. But Robes, still all of that came together. And what was the best you could hope for, for a final moment and final words?
00:01:27
Speaker 3: Yes. So Jesse Guardado had this to say right before the state of Florida executed him. I would like to once again apologize for the pain and suffering I've caused to the victim's family and my own family as well.
00:01:45
Speaker 2: Period.
00:01:46
Speaker 3: Short and simple, but effective. There was no defense. There was no explanation. There was nothing that was indulgent. It was just a pure apology, a pure, simple apology.
00:02:02
Speaker 1: I did it. It was wrong. The reasons aren't relevant, right? I mean, that's the way, babe, to... And this is one that does take some diving into and some context and maybe a little understanding. Maybe people had a little sympathy to a certain degree for what he went through, but that... Apologies, we... We see plenty in the public robes, and it's always as a caveat. It's nuanced in some way. I did this. I'm sorry. There ain't a whole lot. Let that be a lesson to anybody who wants to apologize. Start with this. I'm sorry for what I did.
00:02:39
Speaker 3: Not for how you feel, but for what I did.
00:02:44
Speaker 1: That's it. I'm sorry for what I did, but I had a tough background. I'm sorry for what I did, but if you just understood what I was trying to say, no, just I'm sorry for what I did. And that's what he said, babe.
00:02:56
Speaker 3: Yes, very few victims' families, A, get an admission by the killer. So that's a big deal. And number two, they rarely get an apology. So he offered both of those things. And he has been admitting his guilt from the very beginning. Quickly get you up to speed on the actual crime itself. This was back in 2004. and Guardado murdered a 75-year-old saint, Jackie Malone. She was an activist. She helped folks who were down on their luck. And yes, she helped him after he was paroled for four armed robbery convictions, but it was a brutal murder. He came to her home with a metal rod and a kitchen knife after he tried to rob a bank and it didn't work. He needed money to fuel his crack cocaine habit. And so yes, he came there with the intent.
00:03:46
Speaker 2: To rob her, but to kill her first.
00:03:49
Speaker 3: And look, she had 21 abrasions, contusions, lacerations on her head, neck, face, five stab wounds to the chest.
00:03:57
Speaker 2: Her throat was slit.
00:03:58
Speaker 3: I mean, this was a brutal death for 75-year-old Jackie Malone, without a doubt. But he was immediately caught. And what he told police I thought was really interesting. That lady didn't deserve what I did to her. But I think when you take a look at his background.
00:04:18
Speaker 2: it's.
00:04:19
Speaker 3: Fair to say he didn't deserve what happened to him.
00:04:23
Speaker 1: No, there's room for everybody to be victims in some way in this case. He went into the Navy, right? He was on leave, right? Is this the right one?
00:04:39
Speaker 2: I believe that was the other, that was the Alabama execution.
00:04:42
Speaker 1: How old was this guy?
00:04:43
Speaker 3: This guy was, well, he was 64 at the time of, his execution, but he was 42, I believe, at the time of the murder.
00:04:53
Speaker 1: And I'm getting the drugs, the cocaine part of it mixed up. This was drug related?
00:04:59
Speaker 3: Yes. Okay.
00:05:00
Speaker 1: This is where you hear crack cocaine. That's some tough stuff. That led to epidemics of health and violence in communities across this country. Robes and There was some things he said in this quote, don't know anything about him, that make him sound sane, that make him sound like there was something in him that came from a decent place. That line, that lady didn't deserve that. That sounds like a guy who respected to a certain degree his elders or respected something about this woman. I know what he did to her was awful. I don't know how cocaine and crack-fueled it was at the time, but what he did to her is just, you can't imagine a sane person or someone not on drug, mind-altering drugs, being able to do something like that. Just that line and how he said it last night in his apology makes it seem like there was something in him that was decent somewhere.
00:05:57
Speaker 3: Yes, and you get that idea because you can maybe understand why he was addicted to crack cocaine when you hear about how he came up. We mentioned he was on parole when he committed this murder for four separate armed robberies.
00:06:11
Speaker 2: Yes, he was.
00:06:13
Speaker 3: and had pretty much only known a life of crime. He was sent to a very notorious reform school called the Arthur G.
00:06:21
Speaker 2: Dozier School for Boys.
00:06:23
Speaker 3: If you watched the film The Nickel Boys, if you read the novel, the film was back in 2019, that was the movie based on this school. It opened January 1, 1900, and it closed June 30, 2011, after a massive DOJ investigation found some of the most horrific crimes Conditions you could possibly imagine. And to give you an idea, this is crazy, these numbers. Guardado was one of 34 students who went there who ended up on death row. Another 16 on death row came from the state's other reform school, which was closed at the same time, Okeechobee. So 50 members of Florida's death row community. all went to these boys reform schools. 19 others went to prison for murder. They just weren't sentenced to death. So now we're up to 69. 25 others were killed between the ages of 15 and 18 as soon as they left. And they said combined, the men who attended Dozier and Okeechobee killed at least 114 people. Literally, this school, you could argue, created killers.
00:07:40
Speaker 1: You know, they were supposed to be reforming them, right? They identify problem boys early on. And Robes, I think about this in terms of sports, athletics. They identify very early on a 10-year-old, a 12-year-old, man, he's good, he's a standout, right? End up in the NBA, end up in the NFL. Robes, they identified these boys as potential problems in society. And sure enough, They didn't do their job to reform these boys, and sure enough, they ended up wreaking havoc on society. And robes, yes, they were identified early as problems. But you, you know, the evidence is clear that so much of what they went through made them worse. Predators made them worse when they unleashed. They weren't reformed.
00:08:28
Speaker 2: They were hardened.
00:08:30
Speaker 1: They were victimized.
00:08:32
Speaker 2: Victimized.
00:08:33
Speaker 1: They learned how to be worse criminals. They learned how to get angrier, to hate society, to not trust government. And they unleashed them. Yeah, this is a damn shame. Those numbers are incredible. You mean, how do you get that many? They all ended up on death row? How is that possible?
00:08:50
Speaker 3: 50 men on death row. graduates, I hate to say graduates, they didn't graduate, but spent time at this reform school.
00:08:57
Speaker 1: By the way- They age out? Is that how it works?
00:08:59
Speaker 3: Yes, it's from, I believe, the age of, I think, 15 to 21. But there were nearly 100 deaths documented between 1900 and 1973. And look, you know the state of Florida. You know any state in this country does not want to admit wrongdoing. They closed the school in 2011 after a massive investigation found all of these abuses. But in 2024, DeSantis went even further, formally apologizing to the survivors. That's what they call the people who went to this school, survivors of this school, and actually signed a law awarding $ 20 million to the now men who were there who were physically and sexually abused.
00:09:41
Speaker 2: That's significant.
00:09:42
Speaker 3: Governor DeSantis, tough on crime, signing death warrants, signed many, many, of these Dozier boys' death warrants, also at the same time signed a law giving them money. It's a tough, what do you do with this? What responsibility does the state of Florida bear? in the fact that 114 people lost their lives from these survivors of this school? That's tough to get your head around.
00:10:09
Speaker 1: It was functioning for 100 years, over 100 years. I mean, think about early on. I mean, we're talking about some stuff we know from death row. I mean, we're talking about modern history. But, Robes, what was going on in the 1920s and 30s and 40s? There were a lot of boys who were graduating out of these programs. Whatever happened to them? They didn't get into a modern-day death row or death penalty. Robes, who knows how much had it?
00:10:35
Speaker 2: A lot of them died.
00:10:36
Speaker 1: Who knows how much? It's just, yeah, I don't know. This is one of those things you factor in. Does that mean he's not responsible? Should he get mercy because of what he went through? Would he not have done this? Had he not been in that school? I don't know.
00:10:49
Speaker 3: Look, we talk about lessons learned. And when we come back, we're going to tell you what Jesse Guardado, what so many other young boys experienced at Dozier, these stories of abuse, you have to hear to believe. Welcome back, everyone, to Amy and TJ. 64-year-old Jesse Guardado was pronounced dead at 6.13 p.m.
00:11:21
Speaker 2: Eastern time yesterday.
00:11:22
Speaker 3: He was executed, Florida's 19th death row inmate executed this year for the brutal murder of 75-year-old Jackie Malone.
00:11:30
Speaker 2: But Guardado was.
00:11:33
Speaker 3: And did spend many years in the Dozier School for Boys in the 1970s, which is exactly when these abuses were taking place, and certainly they were documented. By the way, no one has ever been charged or prosecuted for the abuse at these schools, even though it's been documented, but they describe it as a culture of fear. There were daily, if not hourly, beatings, whippings, torture, solitary confinement, shacklings, hogtying, rapes, and yes, deaths. That was what was taking place in a school where these boys were supposed to be being reformed. And what you had was guards exploiting these young boys who often came from troubled families and victimized them repeatedly.
00:12:26
Speaker 1: That's kind of shocking, given what the abuses that are documented. It's kind of shocking that nobody was ever held responsible.
00:12:32
Speaker 3: Right? I thought that was one of the most disgusting parts about it. And Look, there are some quotes from folks who have done the research, who did part of the investigation, and they said this institution, quote, literally beat the humanity out of some of these boys, whittling away their value for human life. Dozier helped make these boys killers.
00:12:54
Speaker 2: And look, I thought this was interesting.
00:12:56
Speaker 3: Neuroscientists say an abused child's brain just doesn't mature the way Uh, a normal child's brain would develop. So it makes you more prone to arousal, less able to regulate impulsive behavior. And so this was the quote, if you have grown up in an environment where you are being cruelly treated and beaten, you are emotionally and physically in constant danger. your brain is going to read and perceive danger in everyone. And so this flight or fight, someone said, like, it's imagining at a 7-Eleven, someone pushes in front of you in line.
00:13:29
Speaker 2: You might be annoyed.
00:13:30
Speaker 3: If you went to Dozier or one of these schools, you might actually take out a knife and stab someone because you can't control your impulses.
00:13:35
Speaker 2: You consider everyone a threat.
00:13:37
Speaker 3: And that's why so many of these boys came out of this reform school willing to kill and able to kill. they were sent to the White House for bad behavior, which was beatings where they were shackled for hours while they were beaten with a three-foot leather strap. I mean, I just, it's hard to imagine this was happening in the state of Florida.
00:13:59
Speaker 2: And look at the aftermath. Look at our death row in that state.
00:14:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, you just made me think of the, I think it was Florida, right? The Vietnam vet that was executed?
00:14:09
Speaker 3: Yes.
00:14:10
Speaker 1: You described the same thing. He had what seemed to be an innocuous... interaction with the sheriff's deputy. One thing triggered him and his only reaction was to shoot, literally to have a deadly response to what seemed like not a big deal incident with an officer. These guys were trained, baby, as teenagers to do this. Look, reform when it's hardened. These are some tough dudes. It's hard to go in there and push back with love. The guards have to be tough on them. You know all kinds of problems. This is essentially a prison for teenage boys. You could argue. Call it a reform school all you want, but they are held there. They have guards there. They turn these guys into guys who end up on death row.
00:14:56
Speaker 2: They turned them into monsters.
00:14:57
Speaker 3: Yes, they were delinquents, I guess, is what we like to call kids that age who've.
00:15:02
Speaker 2: Done something wrong or sent to reform school.
00:15:04
Speaker 3: But literally, you had guards forcing the boys to fight, us really doing little guys versus big guys, taking cash bets on who would win. I mean, just pitting these young men against one another, having the older boys rape the younger boys. I mean, we're talking just like, you cannot imagine what it would be like to live day in and day out in those types of conditions and then come out.
00:15:30
Speaker 2: How are you going to be? How are you going to act in society?
00:15:33
Speaker 3: What are you going to think when you look at a threat or even anyone who questions you or threatens you or yes, makes you feel unsafe?
00:15:43
Speaker 1: Again, everybody has a, Every death row inmate, everyone we've covered has something they point to in their background that should allow for sympathy. Like, they went through this, so therefore you shouldn't execute them. I'll listen to this story. I'll listen to anybody coming out of that school for what's happened to them in the past, babe. I don't know what you do, but he's gone now, closure to this family, I suppose, and an apology at the end. But it never feels good on an execution day, and certainly another day that we had three, and then Again, the background on this, Rose, it's tough. You think about what he did to this woman, and then you think about what was done to him.
00:16:19
Speaker 2: Correct.
00:16:20
Speaker 3: And in two weeks, another Dozier boy is being executed in the state of Florida.
00:16:25
Speaker 2: So more to come on this.
00:16:27
Speaker 3: It's just interesting that DeSantis paid some of those boys who didn't go on, I guess, to commit violent acts or murders, but on the other hand, gave no nod to those who ended up committing violent acts in terms of, like, you could... I think it would be reasonable to consider him commuting the sentences of Dozier boys, having them stay behind bars for the rest of their lives. Obviously they need to pay for their crimes. They need to be removed from society, but it is interesting to, to award some millions and others. Well, you're going to meet your maker from the state of Florida. So it's just, it's a fascinating story. Wanted to do more on this school and what they produced and thank God the Dozier school is closed for business. And with that, everyone, we always appreciate you joining us. I'm Amy Robach alongside TJ Holmes.
00:17:20
Speaker 2: We'll talk soon.