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Former Death-Row Inmate Sent Back to Prison

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"I don't think the plan included him going back to the joint," Buckley says. "The whole video thing was put on as a ruse so they could change the system. They had him methodically screwing with the system so they could influence some public policy change."

The parole board voted to revoke his parole, and Draughon was taken back to prison.
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Draughon is locked up about 50 miles northwest of his old cell on death row and the KDOL house in Livingston. He was placed in the Eastham Unit, a maximum-security prison near the town of Lovelady.

He's been there about a year, which, he says, is about a year longer than he expected. Draughon arrived at Eastham with a strong faith that the parole board would reinstate his parole on an appeal, the latest of which was filed in January.

Draughon's appeals have been denied, and he now thinks he won't be released until his case is heard before a fed­eral judge.

Draughon spends a couple days a week in the prison's law library, trying to look up information relevant to his case. He spends another couple of days taking auto mechanic classes. One day, while Draughon was out in the prison's recreation yard, he lay down in a patch of grass and fell asleep.

"It's different now just being a nobody," Draughon says. "All that attention I had [on death row] is just evaporating away. It makes me feel alone."

Draughon keeps a picture of Weathers in a red plastic wallet that another inmate made for him. He loves Weathers, he says, but is uncertain of their future when he is released.

Draughon hasn't seen her since he's been at Eastham, because Weathers has been banned from visiting Draughon — or the six other inmates who listed her as a visitor — after an incident this past summer at Polunsky.

Weathers had driven another woman to the prison to visit death row, and, according to the prison's report, several guards stopped her for "driving erratically" through the parking lot.

Her car was searched, and the guards found several bottles of alcohol, which is illegal to bring to prison. Weathers denies the alcohol belonged to her, and she believes that she was banned because of her radio show and prison ministry.

The broadcast and ministry continue to grow. A Monday night broadcast has been added, and according to Wolfe, KDOL has applied for the permits to expand the signal to Huntsville and Houston.

At a recent Sunday show, a woman from Germany, who had married a man on death row, sat in and helped read letters to inmates. Four other women — three from England and one from Italy — arrived at the house to send messages to the men they had married on death row.

All Life Is Precious Ministries has presided over seven death-row marriages. Weathers finds someone to stand in as the groom, and Joplin leads the service. The ceremonies take place in the KDOL studio, and the entire event is broadcast live.

"It's just that connection, I guess, that they want to feel," Weathers says.

As for her relationship with Draughon, Weathers says she is "in it for the long haul," though the couple never was married. Weathers says she wanted a church wedding, but that she and Draughon never had the chance.

She hopes he will return to Livingston if he is paroled out again, but Draughon has told her that is unlikely to happen. Weathers no longer discusses Draughon's case on the show because he asked her to stop.

"Martin's just frustrated and tired," Weathers says. "The Lord has got His hand on him, because this is going to involve so many more people than Martin."

But Draughon doesn't want to be the face of the fight against injustice or a voice for other prisoners anymore. He would just like another chance at freedom.

Draughon sometimes receives letters from other prisoners who have heard about his case on the radio. In one letter, a prisoner wrote that Draughon has become "a bit of a folk hero."

"Right now I'm in the process of gathering affidavits from these people on monitors on just how screwed up they are," the prisoner wrote. "Once I get them together, real evidence, we'll send them to you."

After reading the letter aloud, Draughon says, "Now why is he sending them to me?"

He wants to get away from prison. His dream is to get out and find work as a diver for a salvage company, disappearing under water to search for metal that has sunk to the ocean floor. He read about a company in Houston that hires convicts.

Ideally he'd like to leave Texas. He recently wrote a letter to Felicia asking if she would sponsor him when he comes up for parole. Felicia has not responded.

"I just want to get out and start a life and be left alone," Draughon says. "But it looks like that isn't an option."

paul.knight@houstonpress.com

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