How an Inmate Jumps the Prison Firewall

May 22 2000

MAY 5, 1999
A 15-year-old in England stumbles upon Draughon's Web site and sends him an e-mail: "I don't know if there is a right or wrong thing to write to you. I've never done this before, but something has always inspired me about trying to give some warmth to someone who is suffering in whatever way." She signs her letter: "Lodsa Luv ... An English schoolgirl who is thinking about you ... Vicki."

MAY 19, 1999
Niels Graverholt, the Danish death-penalty opponent who created Draughon's Web site, posts Vicki's letter on the site.

MAY 21, 1999
Graverholt prints out Vicki's letter and sends it through the mail to Draughon in Livingston, Texas.

JULY 8, 1999
From his death-row cell, Draughon handwrites a reply to Vicki. The prisoner mails his response to Priska Jaggi, an antideath penalty activist in Switzerland, who befriended Draughon after discovering his Web site.

JULY 17, 1999
Jaggi types Draughon's letter into her computer and e-mails it to Graverholt, who posts it on the Web site. Draughon's response: "Why are you, at the footloose age of 15, spending so much time reading the exploits of a death-sentenced prisoner of another country? Vicki, my best piece of advice to you: Don't do drugs, period! And don't hang out with people who do. Prison is not worth it."