Introduction: I Was Just 16 Years Old

• I did some very dumb things when I was a teenager growing up in Texas.

• I prided myself on being “a bad boy.”

• I went looking for trouble to get into.

• I sold drugs.

• I was violent.

• I was sent to prison for a very long time. (I was wrongly convicted, yet if I had not been involved in criminal activities, I would not have been arrested for committing the offense I was charged with.)

• I was just 16 years old.

• It was only after I was locked up that I realized the true value of time. You can't ever get it back. Often, you don’t realize the consequences of your actions until it is too late—especially when you’re young.

• In this book, Crime Is Just Dumb: A Former Teenage Inmate Teaches Young Adults How to Avoid His Mistakes and Soar, I tell you interesting stories and deep insights that will make you smarter about the decisions that you make in life.

• My mission is to enlighten you, not frighten you.

• I was born on May 19, 1978 in Fort Worth, Texas. I was a small dude and the youngest in a family of 11 children. I stood just five feet, two inches tall, and weighed only 98 pounds, but I was tough as steel—and deeply involved in crime.

• I came from a good, two-parent family, but when I was in the streets, miles away from home, I acted like a thug. I hung out with the “wrong crowd.” Eventually, one risky and dangerous thing led to riskier and more dangerous things. I developed the reputation as a violent “street dude,” and a drug dealer. Ultimately, on August 25, 1994, I was arrested and charged with the murder and armed robbery of a well-known drug dealer, who was my supplier.

• At my trial, the 12-person jury did not reach a unanimous decision, which means not all of them believed I was guilty. Two jurors found me not guilty. A conviction based on a non-unanimous decision is a violation of the U.S. Constitutional, but for many decades, the state of Texas allowed this injustice to occur. Not only did the prosecutor have no incriminating evidence to present to the jury, he didn’t have the murder weapon that he alleged I used to kill the drug dealer, a 21-year-old white man. There were no eyewitnesses to support the prosecutor’s claim that I shot the man.

• A Fort Worth newspaper accurately reported that the prosecutor admitted that he had “no direct evidence linking Jackson to the murder.” But he stated that he wanted me to go to prison because he believed that I knew who shot the drug dealer, but I refused to snitch. I have always maintained that I did not know who murdered the drug dealer. However, my lawyer advised me to remain silent as the prosecutor argued his case.

Sentenced to a Life of Hard Labor

• After receiving the jury’s unconstitutional and nonunanimous verdict, the judge sentenced me to serve a life sentence of “hard labor” without the possibility of parole, which meant that he wanted me to die in prison. Can you imagine being 16 years old and the government is trying to lock you up until you’re dead?  (Many years later, I challenged the life sentence and was released on parole.)

• If you get nothing else out of this book, get this: Whether you commit a crime or not, you can still be sent to prison for life. Just being accused of committing a crime could be enough for the “system” to lock you up and throw away the key.

• So, be mindful of the company you keep. Use great care in choosing the friends you hang around, because you may end up in the wrong place at the wrong time, like I did. If you and your friends get in trouble together, they might snitch on you or give false information to prosecutors. Then, prosecutors could use the information to ruin your life.

• So, think real, real, real, real hard about what would happen to you if you committed a crime. The lessons you will learn from this book will help you remember to think before you act whenever you find yourself standing at the invisible line between doing what’s smart and doing what’s dumb.

• I want you and all other young people to be aware of the other side of crime and prison—the side that is not glorified in movies, music and on the streets. I want to make you aware of the dehumanizing and embarrassing side of crime and prison. Only after seeing the other side will you be able to make smart decisions, whenever or if ever you consider committing a crime.

• At the risk of sounding disrespectful—for I believe you are very intelligent—I must tell you the truth: If you commit a crime after reading this book, that would be just dumb—the dumbest decision of your life.or 9,125 Days

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