Robert Pruett

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Robert Pruett

Pruett family

Robert Pruett

Robert Pruett

Robert Pruett

Robert Pruett

Robert Pruett

Robert Pruett

Robert Pruett

Robert Pruett

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Robert Pruett #999411

Born September 18, 1979

Hobbies: Reading, writing, chess, scrabble, exercise, solving lateral thinking problems, sports-skateboarding, football, basketball, boxing, MMA.

Tattoos: a viking, a wizard, chinese dragon, grandfather clock with my time of birth, tribal art, screaming faces, killer clowns, castle, reaper, cowboy skull, ram, a demon hovering over a cemetery.

Piercings: I wish!!

Band: Pantera

Song: Shinedown's cover of "Simple Man"

Vocalist: I really love chick singers like Lacy from "Flyleaf", Lizzie from "Halestorm" and Stevie Nix, and dudes like Corey Taylor of "Slipknot" and Chad Grey of "Mudvayne" rock my world, but I think Aaron Lewis from "Staind" has one of the best voices of our era. Shit, who could forget Chris Cornell? He's definitely the sound of my generation.

Guitarist: I absolutely love the guitar, and hands down Darrell "Dimebag" Abbott was the Lord of the guitar Gods.

Book: "The hero With a Thousand Faces" by Joseph Campbell. I am agnostic, seeker of wisdom and knowledge, and no single text has elevated my consciousness quite like this one. Campbell was a remarkably insightful soul.

Author; Non-fiction: Joseph Campbell; fiction: David Morell

Quote: "That which doesn't kill me, makes me stronger" Also, "It is better to be hated for who you are than loved for who you aren't"

More about me:

I'm 31 years old and have spend the past 15 years in prison, the last 8 on Texas Death Row. The gist of the story is that I was certified as an adult at age 15 and subsequently sentenced to 99 years in prison for a murder my father committed. I was convicted under the "Law of Parties" statute along with my brother. About 5 years later a prison guard was murdered in the prison where I was housed, and, despite overwhelming evidence to substantiate my claim of innocence, I was tried, convicted and sentenced to death for it in 2002.

I grew up in poverty stricken neighborhoods in Houston, Texas with my Mother, Brother and Sister until my Father was released from prison in 1986. Things got a little better for us after he got a job in construction, but on a deeper level this is the point in time I trace my problems back to. Yes, my father gave my family his ALL when it came to working hard and trying to provide for us by maintaining steady employment and staying out of prison. The thing is, he tried to compensate for the years he lost with me, (I didn't meet my father until I was almost 7 because he was sent to prison in Missouri several months before I was born) by being a super cool father. He let me get away with much more than was healthy, including letting me smoke pot with him. In retrospect, he was more like my friend than father, and today he regrets it.

By the time I was 12 I had travelled far down the road to destruction. Living on the east side of Houston, I had gotten involved in various criminal activities such as burglary, robbery and selling drugs like pot, cocaine and LSD. I think it all began with me being tired of being poor, tired of the rags I had to wear to school, us living hand to mouth. I would steal clothes from place like the Academy, and kids in y neighborhood or those close by lost their bicycles if they left them out...But soon my crime sprees became thrilling, and before long I wasn't robbing out of necessity so much as I was for the adrenaline rush. I stole vehicles and sold them to chop shops, I burglarized churches for their musical instruments, I even stole from friend send family to feed my drug addictions at times. I was everyone you told your kids to stay away from.

It truly took being arrested and thrown into a cold, steel cage, naked and stripped of everything, to wake up. I'd stayed high almost everyday from ages 7-15, so prison was literally a sobering experience for me. The first year of my incarceration was the hardest. I didn't believe I'd do time for a crime my father committed, but once sentenced I believed I was paying karmic debt for everything else. More than my punishment, the person I was when I was free sickened and repulsed me. I became reserved and introspective for a long time, reflecting on all of the terrible choices I had made in my short life. I hated who I had become, and I made every effort to change. I thought about things that never occurred to me, how a man who worked hard for everything he owned felt when he and his young family returned home to find their stuff missing or destroyed by me and my friends. I had no right to take from them or anyone, and to this day I pay for the sins of my past. I thought a lot about all the people who loved me that I hurt and my soul cried out to them, begged for their forgiveness. In no way am I proud of the person I was before I came to prison.

As a part of my plan to improve my character I studied psychology. I though it would help me better understand the human psyche in general, and it did. Of course my studies led me all over the map from philosophy to religion to science and I soon became an avid reader, devouring everything I could get my hands on.  In prison, I enrolled in every educational course I could convince them to let me into, and I got my GED, a plumbing diploma, and started college academics. The way I see it, life is about living and learning. Have you ever read "A Clockwork Orange" by Anthony Burgess? Well, I liken myself to Alex. As a kid I was a grade A screw up, but I grew out of it. Most of us do. How many of you were hell raisers growing up? You might not have been on my level, but the conditions of my childhood were conducive to my lifestyle and even fermented my criminality. That is why I believe it is child abuse to get your kid high. Anyhow, I am proud to say that I am NOT the person I was 15 years ago. I am no saint. I am truly a work in progress, but I am not criminally minded either. I don't say this because I think it will help me regain my freedom. Chances are I will die in prison one way or another. I am content with whatever happens. I am just trying to give you some insight into my ever evolving character.

I haven't always been this way, but today I like to think of myself as an optimist. I believe in my future. Regardless of what the future has in store for me, though, I take things one day at a time and I try to make the best out of every situation. For me, there is a lesson inherent in every situation: I only need to discover it so I don't revisit it. I am generally happy, content, and filled with peace. I know, I am an anomaly compared to others here, but I truly believe peace of mind comes from within, that it is a losing battle grasping for happiness from the external. As hard as this might be to believe, I am okay with where I am right at this moment. You see I believe we are strengthened by adversity, both physically and spiritually. And I welcome the challenges life throws at me as opportunities for growth. I am who I am today because of all of the shit I have been through.

I love to laugh, and I often try to cheer up those around me. As familiar as I am with tragedy, life feeding off itself, and death of every kind, I still hope for the happy ending. I cried when Old Yeller died, and I believe in soul mates. More so, I believe in altruism in humans. Not every act is selfishly motivated, I see what Carl Jung called the "synchronicity of events" in every area of my life, a rhyme to reason. Every life is worth something, an interglacial part of the wonderous fabric of existence in which I am thrilled to be a part of.

Any and all are welcomed into my world.

Robert Pruett #999411

Polunsky Unit Death Row

3872 FM 350 South

Livingston TX 77351  USA 

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