My birth name is Daniel Cummings given to me by my father. My nickname is Pita, given to me by my grandfather. My attribute out why I was given to me by my spiritual father.
I am here for committing a crime that I thought was justified when I could find no other recourse for justice. I am doing a natural life sentence for my taking the life of the man who raped my wife. Was it right for this man to write my wife? Was it right for me to take his life? What is right, what is wrong? Questions I have asked myself as I continue this journey. I know that I can never make up for taking the life of another human being, but for the rest of my life my hope is to save some lives in my work with at-risk youth. It is time to turn the page and enter into my life of redemption.
This is my story and the beginning of my journey…
August 20, 1972. I returned home from a hard days work and found that my wife had been drugged and raped.
On August 23, 1972, I made the mistake of taking the law into my own hands and killed my wife’s rapist, this was a mistake that I have been regretting for over 48 years.
It took me a long time to accept the fact that I had no right to take the law onto my hands and deprive this man of his right to a trial, and a jury of his peers as I had, and this is something that has been bothering me for a long time.
Throughout my incarceration, counselors and several correction officers have told me that they would have done the same thing if their wife or daughter had been raped and for a long time…
My conversations with these officers made me feel that my actions were justified, but I would eventually begin to see things differently and accept responsibility for all that occurred in the home that my wife’s accused rapist was hiding in on August 23, 1972.
Prior to my spiritual awakening, I had never given any thought to how my actions had affected Ruth’s family, but after seeing her emotional reactions at my trial, I could clearly see that she was still in pain and was being traumatized all over again from the trial. Seeing Ruth’s emotional outburst grieve me for many years and I’ve always wanted to tell her that I was feeling her pain and I was sorry, but I did not know how to express my remorse at that time.
I am now a 74-year-old mature God-fearing Christian man striving to please my Lord Jesus Christ and I’ve been guided into a pathway of atonement, remorse, and redemption.
In April 1998 I had a spiritual awakening and it was at that point that I begin to reach out to Ruth and her family. I sat down to write a two-page letter expressing my remorse to the family. After expressing my sorrow, I was able to let go of some of the grief that I been caring for many years, and I finally found some peace of mind in knowing that Ruth now knows that I never had any intentions of harming her.
With this piece of mine, I can now focus on the mission that God has given to me and my pathway to redemption.
Political attention needs to be brought to all the senseless killings that is going on in Maine mainly communities of color. I have been locked by prison walls for a very long time, but my mind is free and I know that there is power in words so I am reaching out to our politicians and community activist organizations for assistance in helping me to flood the communities with stop the killing messages on buses and throughout the malls that our young people patronize. Also if corporations can erect wicker billboards in our communities why can’t the faith-based communities unite and purchase stop the killing billboards?
I know that we can rise above this sickness. Education is the key… So as a start I am making a pledge to myself and my community with hopes that every concerned citizen who reads this message makes a pledge to themselves to do whatever they can to stop the killings and end the violence that is ravaging our communities.
Daniel Cummings number AF – 4891
Pledge of Redemption
I hereby pledge to dedicate a portion of every day to diligently strive to improve myself spiritually, intellectually, politically and socially so that I will no longer participate in any lifestyle that makes me an agent of destruction in my community.
I will make it my duty to become fully aware of the impact that drugs and other criminal activity have on the overall deterioration of the quality of life in my community.
I pledge to encourage my friends and associates to change their thinking and behavior as an effort towards improving the quality of life in the community and to begin a genuine one healing process.
I promise to never allow peer pressure or popular opinion to Dieter me from the mission of convincing my associates that the welfare of the community is in the best interest of us all new line I pledge that beginning today I will strive with those who value the community as I do, and figure out a way and means to support growth and progress in our communities.
I pledge to align myself with faith-based community activist and law enforcement to help them take back our communities so that our children will have a safe environment to play in and our mothers, fathers and grandparents can enjoy their senior years in a safe environment.
I pledge to forever remain a part of the solution and never again live my life as a part of the problem.