Chris Young Foundation

Thank you for allowing us some time to share with you a bit about who we are and the work we're doing to support our youth in better navigating the world. My name is Obie Weathers and as you know I'm communicating with you from a solitary confinement cell on Texas' Death Row. I was arrested and sentenced to death as a teen and have been in solitary since. Its now coming up on my 43rd birthday. The years at times have been difficult (to say the least) but they have also blessed me with an education into the challenges of being a young person from a not-so-great background. 

The pivotal point in my life came early in my time on Death Row while still in my 20's.  I received a letter from the daughter of the man I shot. She told me--in very direct and uncompromising language--that I needed to get my stuff together and start taking responsibility for my life. This set me on a path of deep self-reflection, formal and informal studies and a years-long reckoning with the acts of violence I committed as an 18 year old. I arrived at a place of ownership for my actions and ultimately for my life, but I also gained an understanding into the ways in which my community wasn't equipped to support me and many of my peers. 

None of this would have been possible without self-forgiveness and self-compassion. I often remind my peers to hug the kids they were when they look back on the crimes they committed and that they may be on Death Row because those kids needed that. This can sometime irk them as they've been taught that kicking and condemning the child they were proves how far they've come. But I beg the differ. Every one of the healed men communicating with you today didn't arrive at that place without someone--be it a friend, a pen pal or God--extending some grace and simply trying to understand their struggles and support them. A man who led by example in this was my friend Christopher Young who was executed 6 years ago. 

He spent much of his time mentoring youth that his aunt, Mrs Valerie,would take with her to visit him. Aside for desire to live to raise his own children his one wish at the end of his days was to go on doing his mentor work ,but,the state executed him. Despite that,his life and passion has been a motivation for us all. I've too become a mentor and a very fierce defender of young people. Not an enabler but a defender who understands their struggle from first-hand experience and who supports them. 

That somewhat radical empathy, including all of my studies as well as my inner-work here in this cell has lead me to be called on by several professors at universities and colleges around the country to help them prepare the next generation of teachers, counselors, social engineers and criminal justice professionals in identifying the gaps in care where young people are failing. And today we would like to extend our time and services to this community as well.

Obie is an accredited counselor and is uniquely positioned to offer the type of guidance and understanding gleaned from first-hand experience that is invaluable to youth who are at-risk or entering the justice system for the first time.

The program will also demonstrate that those on Death Row can still be beneficial to society by rendering aid to youth, through their own life experiences.

To contact Obie go to securustech.net and register to be on his contact list or write him at:

Texas Department of Criminal Justice

Obie Weathers 999396

PO Box 660400

Dallas, TX 75266-0400