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Interviews
with the Condemned
Interview no.10 (2006-02-22)
The
tenth interview is held with Kyle
David Sharp
Personality: Name:
Kyle David Sharp
1: Question:
Where were you born and raised? Answer:
I was born in a small farm town of about
5000 people in
2: Question: Will you share with us what it was like for you growing up? (Did you have a pet, a favorite game, hiding place, or favorite toy? Were you raised by both parents, a single parent or relative?) Answer:
3: Question:
Do you have a favorite childhood memory? If so, what is it? Answer:
It’s
not a single memory, but the most powerful memories I have are from the
powwows we had every summer. Other Native Americans from across the
country came to our national powwow to dance and celebrate our culture.
The beautiful dancers’ clothes plus the driving beat of the songs as
the dancers leapt and twirled in the dance arena are as vivid in my mind
as if they happened yesterday. The day I walked into the arena as a
dancer was the proudest day of my childhood.
4: Question:
Did you like school? If so, share with us your favorite memory from your
school years. Answer:
I wasn’t a great student, but I enjoyed going to school. I loved art
class, and looked forward to the next art project with excitement.
Playing sports like football, basketball and baseball at recess and in
gym class was always fun.
5: Question:
What person or event impacted you most as a child? Answer:
Probably
my great-grandfather. He loved nature and being outdoors, and when he
was going to go fishing or hunting he always took me with him. As a kid
I was too energetic and wound-up to slow down and pay attention to what
was going around me, but he would always have me just be still and watch
such things as ants carrying food to their nest; or bees gathering
pollen; or the birds singing their songs. He instilled a great love and
respect for nature in me, which patterned my whole life.
6: Question:
What hobbies or activities did you participate in while growing up, e.g.
scouting, sports, etc. Answer:
I belonged to an agricultural club called “Future Farmer of America”, or
FFA. We learned about farming, of course, and how to judge cows, sheep, and
pigs for live stock shows and auctions. In high school I played football, but
in elementary and junior high everybody played baseball. In my last year of
little league I hit 17 home runs, my best year ever, but still we didn’t make
it to the championship game.
7: Question:
What was your first job? Please describe your duties/responsibilities
and whether or not you liked the job. Answer:
The
first job I ever had was in detasseling, where you manually pull the
tassel out of the top of the stalk of female corn so it can’t
fertilize itself and produce useless a-sexual corn. I was 13 and had to
work at it for 10 hours a day / 5 days a week until done. We couldn’t
take our time doing it, because the corn wouldn’t wait for us if we
got behind. It was hot work in late September and early August, but a
little satisfying when you think that the tall, green stalks growing in
the fields a few months later are doing well and look so good because
you did a good job.
8: Question:
As a child or teenager, what did you want to do when you grew up? Why? Answer:
9: Question: Do you have a favorite movie or book? Please elaborate. Answer:
10: Question:
Where was the most beautiful or special place that you can remember
having visited? Please describe it. Answer:
Easily
the single most beautiful and fascinating place I ever visited was the
mammoth cave national park in
11: Question: What is the funniest thing that ever happened to you? Answer: My outfit for dancing at the powwows had an apron that hung down the front and one that hung down the back, supposed to resemble the loincloth that dancers used to wear. I put on the front half while dressing one night but forgot the back half, then went on out to dance. I made it about halfway through the “parade in” ceremony that opened the powwow before someone noticed and pointed out my bright fruit-of-the-looms sticking out like a sore thumb. All my friends and family teased me for weeks, and from then on almost everyone who knew me called me “Chief Briefs!” At the time it was embarrassing and humiliating, but later I could appreciate the humor of it all.
12: Question:
What job or occupation did you have prior to your incarceration? Were
you employed at the time of your arrest? Answer: I was working at a ‘Quaker Oats Corp.’ Warehouse and repackaging center there in my hometown. I was the union appointee to the company’s health and safety committee. It was my job to keep the workplace as safe and hazard free for the employees as possible, and that the company abided by all ‘Occupational Safety and Health Agency’ regulations.
13: Question:
Were you involved with drugs or alcohol prior to your incarceration? If
so, please share the effects this had on your life. Answer:
I was
involved in both drugs (marijuana) and alcohol prior to my arrest. I got
to the point where I was sneaking off into the warehouse at work to get
high, regardless of the danger I could have gotten in had I been caught.
My wife eventually gave me an ultimatum – either I quit or she was
going to leave. I told her I would quit so she would stay, but was still
getting high in secret. Of course she eventually found out, and true to
her word she left me.
14: Question: What do you miss most about the outside world and why? Answer:
For me the biggest loss has been being separated from my friends and
family, our family was always close, and now they’re all over a
thousand miles away. Being on death row in Arizona means being locked
down in isolation cells all day long, so another thing I find myself
thinking about at times is not having physical contact with another
human being at any time. I haven’t even been able to shake another
person’s hand in 8 years.
15: Question: What is the one thing you regret most? Answer:
My biggest regret is not for myself, but for my parents and other close
family and friends who have had pain in their lives because of my
incarceration. I regret putting them through the heartache. On a lesser
level, I regret not pursuing a career in some sort of art field, and not
giving up drugs before the problem got to big.
16: Question:
Do
you have any strong spiritual or religious beliefs? If so do they
influence how you view the future? Answer:
17: Question: How important is it for you to have contact with your family, friends and/or the outside world? Please elaborate. Answer: It’s not just important, it’s a necessity. Without the social interaction with others we stand to lose out identity as people. A man cut off from others can’t share its thoughts, feelings and ideas with his fellow man, robbing him of that necessary connection. It’s no coincidence that people relegated to a lengthy time of total isolation often suffer permanent, irreversible damage to the psyche, their personality, and their heart.
18: Question:
Do you remember your first thoughts
when hearing the jury’s verdict of death as your sentence? Will you
share this experience with us, e.g. your thoughts, feelings, reactions? Answer:
It
wasn’t a total surprise, because my trial attorneys had been steeling
me for that possibility before the trial even started. It was still a
shock to hear the verdict said out load, and my first coherent thoughts
were of hopelessness and destitution. I felt resigned to the
inevitability of the verdict, as if not matter what happened from then
on out in my appeals I had already been deemed not worthy of living. The
weight of that reality drove and broke me, and I walked around in a haze
of despair for months afterwards. I didn’t want to talk to anybody, I
couldn’t laugh at jokes. I got angry at others for asinine reasons.
19: Question:
What is a typical day like for you on
death row? Answer:
20: Question:
Do you feel that capital punishment
serves as a deterrent? Yes/No Please elaborate on you answer. Answer:
I seriously doubt that in the heat of the moment, with everything else
that is going on at the time, most people would consciously stop
themselves from realting to potentially harmful situations so they can
think about whether or not they could get the death penalty. Also, by
executing a man 20+ years after the fact, just who is being deterred?
Capital punishment is more often than not about vengeance, not deterring
other from committing similar crimes.
21: Question:
If you could change one thing in the
world today, what would it be and why? Answer: I really don’t have an answer to this question. I’m not qualified enough in my limited worldview to state for certain what 1 thing would be of greatest benefit to all peoples. I suppose if I could change 1 way of thinking it would be the ever-prevalent idea that anybody who is different from you is wrong and needs to change or go. We see it in religion, politics, job status, any number of areas of everyday life, with a little less of this mindset and a little more tolerance, things would be a little more comfortable in day-to-day life.
22: Question:
If you could go back in time, where
and to what date would you travel and why? Answer:
I’ve always thought that I’d enjoy living in the Midwest United
States area of the early 1700’s. Not so that I would live in a time
where there were few white people around, so life would be more slow
down and laid back. No hustle and bustle of big city life.
Transportation would be limited to the point where life would be
extremely localized. Hunting, fishing and farming would be the order of
the day, not taxes, politics and racism. And to meet the great Indian
leaders of that time would be a dream come true.
23: Question:
What has been the most important and
life-altering event you have experienced? Answer:
The
birth of my daughter, 6 months after I was arrested. To know that
there’s a little girl out there having to deal with the reality of her
dad being in prison is a sobering thing. She knows I’m here because I
did something wrong, yet she still looks at me for guidance and support.
At a time I was slipping deeper into a hole of loneliness, fear,
self-pity and despair, the fact that I had a baby daughter that I could
watch growing up helped me to claw back up out of that pit and gave me
purpose and direction again.
24: Question:
What is the most important thing that
you want our visitors to know about you? Answer: That I am more than the worst thing I ever did. My entire 36 years on this planet made me who I am today, not that 1 night 10 years ago. Sure I have my baggage and my problems, but if given the chance to interact with you as a human being you might find me personable, friendly, funny, sweet, or any other number of personality traits you didn’t expect to find. Why? Because I’m still a man, a regular human being at my core, not garbage that should be discarded as soon as possible.
25: Question: If you have anything else that you
would like included as a part of this interview, please share it with us
now. Answer:
“The degree of
civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons”
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