Ex-Convict Begs For Forgiveness – ‘I Was A Prisoner Of My Bitter Anger’ Shared Man Who Killed Girlfriend Because He Thought His Daughter Was A ‘Jacket’
Forgiving himself was the only way Howard Davis said he was able to deal with prison life after being sentenced to 10 years for killing the mother of his two children during a domestic dispute. But the ex-convict is now hoping to receive forgiveness from the victim’s family.
“I have always begged for the opportunity to tell my victim’s family that I am sorry,” said Davis, who has been out on parole since June of this year.
“More times, we as the offenders are hurt by the crime that we have done. I see it as important in one’s life to even try to make amends, and you have to push out the effort.”
Davis said the day he killed his girlfriend of eight years in a fit of rage was the lowest point of his life. At the time, he was 25 years old and was angry because he was being teased by the community and her relatives that his daughter was a ‘jacket’.
“Aunty and cousins, more time, bothered me that is jacket I was minding. It did stink inna the community that a ‘jacket’ mi a mind,” he shared with The Sunday Gleaner.
“I was so young and fool and ignorant, I made it embed inna mi and boil up in me and get bitter inna mi. I was bitter. It controlled my nerves and took over my limbs. I was a prisoner to the situation.”
CALLING FOR DNA TEST
He said he asked for a DNA test and that created an issue. He said the stress he was under was compounded because, at the time, he was the only breadwinner for the family.
“When me hear that the baby a ‘jacket’, those were the things that me think, because mi see that I was stressing myself more time, night and day to put food in the house,” he recounted.
“It end up that I go up to the yard and me and her family members had an argument. When I reached up there and me and her was in an argument, a one stab she get and she dead.”
Davis had a lot of time to think about his crime in prison, and even did a course that taught him how to manage stress. He noted that not every offender was repentant, but he had personally extended an invitation to his victim’s family to visit him in prison so they could discuss the impact his actions had caused.
Just recently, he was given the opportunity to apologise to his son, who was just two years old when his mother’s life was taken.
“I told him that I am sorry. I told him that I know he feels hurt, and I told him that I would want my mother too, and I would feel a way. They (children) lost a mother and it was because of me,” he lamented.
“Yes, I did something wrong and I accept it, but I want to move on with my life.”
MORE PRISONERS
WANT FORGIVENESS
Programmes manager at Stand Up For Jamaica, George Love, said there are many prisoners hoping for an opportunity to apologise to their victims or family members affected by their crime.
“Persons have acknowledged that, ‘hey, I did something wrong and if I could have turned back the hands of time, I would have dealt with things differently’,” said Love.
He said he has personally come across about 30 offenders who have expressed their desire to seek forgiveness from their first and second victims. These individuals were charged for crimes such as murder, carnal abuse, fraud, robbery, and shooting with intent.
As a restorative justice facilitator and human-rights advocate, Love believes dialogue between offenders and victims can help reduce recidivism and curb the overpopulation of the country’s penal institutions.
“It is important because it will help to curtail the whole need to have revenge, to retaliate. It helps to build relationships between the offender and the victim’s family, and between the offender and the community,” he said.
Love, who was shot by a family friend at age 13 and was crippled as a result, said he has personally experienced the liberating feeling forgiveness brings.
“I do not see myself as a victim. I see myself as someone who has overcome challenges and who has seen those challenges as a stepping stone to being a better person. To bring me to a position where I am more aware of my roles and responsibility in nation building through creating human and social capital. Hence, this whole thing of RJ (restorative justice) is very important for me, and something that is very personal,” Love stated.
Enough of this forgiveness of murderers n rapists!!!ONE bag a fcukery how can 8yrs be enuff to repay a debt to society for such a heinous murder??if y’all gonna forgive them set ya WHY not forgive Saddam,idi amin,Columbus…even Hitler…where do u draw the forgiveness line that mustnt cross???
Forgive them all!! How can we truly not see the purpose in forgiving others knowing we are imperfect and He, The Great One; has forgiven us!?!
He was provoked… we dnt know wat we r capable of doing.. this thing call raged smh
Listen we all make mistakes yo. At the end of the day God is the judge. He admitted in a heated rage and he was seeing teased and shamed . I mean no that does not warrent the death but it provokes the cause. Plp can be really cruel families, friends can be evil and mash up plp lives without even knowing the damage they’re doing. He made a mistake and I think he should be given another chance .he killed her out of rage and it was one stab not multiple stabs so there’s a difference. God will judge him when his time really comes but we as humans have to understand human nature as well and mistakes
Good afternoon Met & Metters
The folks that teased him that his child is a jacket should bear di same responsibility tuh!
It’s a Common dutty Jamaican behavior to start nasty malicious rumors and keep it going.
There’s people that lost their lives because of rumors of rape, murder, & teef.
Just read the story with the young girl that got dragged in the bushes and raped but dem start a rumor seh “it’s the brother because they never saw a man visited her.” Smh how silly?
My personal experience: My stepdad TRIED to molest me and one person in the neighborhood got a whiff of it and from there it was swirling in the area that..
I was a daddy f#cker
I wanted it
I was pregnant for my stepdad and they took me to get an abortion
I had a secret child for my stepdad
I was 9 months pregnant (in 3 months!!!)
And plenty more, but the point I am making is that from these rumors I was planning to kill my self because at 12 I didn’t know how to cope with such nasty malicious rumors plus my current predicament.
That’s why I rarely comment on anything posted because nuff time yuh hear people saying this and dat but a pure hear say’.
Not saying fi forgive EVERY mudera because dem seh sorry but could you imagine how irrational your thoughts would be if you loved your child more than life itself just to hear a community plus the mother of your child FAMILY calling yuh pickney jacket?!!!!!!! And everyone seems to know a nuh yur pickney BUT you! Smh!
Maybe the baby mother at 1 point give him bun where da rumor start
He benefitted from a forgiving system that he spent so little time for murder or is it because it wasn’t premeditated, more like a heat of the moment, crime of passion thing? I hope he comes out and do what’s best for those children and be a productive member of society.
so did he ever find out if a jacket him did get?
Forgiveness is for everybody.I hope he asked God for forgiveness first, then the family. A lot of us remain bitter and angry because we don’t know how to forgive. What if God was like man? Let’s think about that. We are all here on borrowed time. This man wants to get right, I hope he stays on rack.
He read ah book on how fi deal wid stress. Good for him. Too bad his victim nah get ah chance fi read one book on how to deal wid murder. To resort to sumin so drastic an permanent, then have di nerve fi seh yuh waan move on wid life??!! Was the test ever taken? Did he get concrete proof?
All I see him ah tawk bout ah himself an how he feels …nothing about di victim. That speaks volumes.
And if she gave him bun so he it she did not belong to him no man own any woman 10 years was not enough time and not fare. Murder is murder it wasn’t an accident when you stab or shoot the person can die or end up with bad injuries.
10 years!!!! Is that all he got 10 years??? I’m not God I’m human, he had no right to kill her regardless of the what his children’s mother did!!! I can believe the responses on this blog. You people are seriously crazy. Because she gave him bun he had the right to kill her, take her away from her babies !!! See if that was my daughter?? Piece of shit.