"Do you take any prescription medications?" - wilde flower

No. My health is excellent. I still have all my teeth, good vision (though I do need the obligatory reading glasses for someone my age, 52), and no health issues. I haven't been sick with as much as a cold in as long as I can remember. While I don't formally exercise for the sake of exercise alone, I do get my heart rate up over a hundred at least once a day while “entertaining” myself privately. My heart rate at rest is 58 bpm, my weight is 145 pounds (at 6'1), my blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol levels are all normal and healthy.

"How do you keep your spirits up?" - wilde flower

I'm honestly not sure, but I suspect it must take some effort to get depressed, and I simply don't exert that effort. At times, however, when my circumstances have been extremely distressing (shortly after my arrest for example, when I was kept for more than a year in a holding cell in the noisiest part of the jail, and constantly harrassed and insulted by the guards, or during the two-plus years I spent in a dark bug-infested cell with slime and mold growing on the walls in Riverside, California, in both cases having no T.V. or radio, and terrible food), I would simply empty my mind, or think about things that I didn't find depressing. I got “stressed” at times, but I don't recall ever getting depressed. I cried a lot shortly after my arrest, but even through the tears I once looked my attorney in the eyes and said; “Don't worry about me, I'm okay,” and smiled, to reassure him that I was not going over any “edges” anytime soon.

"Have you considered writing a book?" - wilde flower

Yes. Though I'm accustomed to expressing myself using a word processor, which I don't have access to anymore (they won't even let Federal prisoners have memory typewriters, or any typewriter at all in our cells anymore). I'm trying to accustom myself to “thinking” as a writer with only pencil and paper. (P.S. The so-called "Son of Sam Laws" that forbid prisoners from profiting by selling their story has been ruled unconstitutional, or so I have been told. I'm not sure if I'd want to write non-fiction anyway, though I fear that some day obligation will say I must. We'll see.)

"How does the lack of human contact affect your psyche?" - wilde flower

As far as I can tell, it doesn't. But then, I'm not completely isolated either. I'm in a cell by myself, but on a range of cells with about twelve or so other prisoners (all with Federal death sentences). The other prisoners treat me with what I'd call “guarded respect”. I interact with them on a minimum level, doing small favors like trading items from meal trays or commissary. But, I don't converse with them in general. I have an intelligent and engaging girlfriend whom I write two or three times a week, and several other very supportive friends whom I also write regularily, which keeps me pretty busy. I don't feel lonely, or alone hardly at all.

"Are there any circumstances under which you would agree to talk to the press?" - wilde flower

If by “the press” you mean commercial media, then yes, there are some circumstances in which I would consider it; but not for “the press” as in so-called “news agencies”. News agencies don't just report the news (i.e. information), as they like to claim, as much as they manufacture it. I'm not claiming they invent the information that they report (though, they have and regularily do that too), but they do routinely “slant” and “package” the information in order to “sell it” to the weak-minded masses. This is why I not only won't talk to “the press” (i.e. “news agencies”), but I seldom watch (or read, or listen to) “the news” either.

I have also refused numerous requests from other commerical media producers for interviews for the same reason. However, I would consider an interview, or participation in general, with a media producer that did not cater to the media market, such as a PBS program, or public radio program like NPR. I might also consider doing a marketted program interview with someone like Werner Herzog, who has produced a series of programs called On Death Row. I respect the way he acknowledges his personal feelings about the death penalty at the beginning of his programs, but then reports the facts and presents his interviewers without packaging or slanting. He seems honest, and we are fortunate in this care case that his programs contain content that some network executives think they can sell, even though they weren't manufactured for the marketplace. They are raw truth; which is what I try to make this blog about as well.

"Are you afraid to die?" - wilde flower

Honestly, no. I “look forward to my release/execution”. But, that does not mean I look forward to or fear my “death”. I do not believe in death, I believe only in life. This is why I refer to my execution as my “release day”. I do not think I will continue to exist in some “better place” after that; at least not “me” as the limitted being I am today (or will be on my “release day”). Joseph E. Duncan III will “cease to exist” in time and space beyond that moment; but life itself will never cease to exist. And, I identify with “life” more than I do with “Joseph E. Duncan III”. “What” I am changes from one moment to the next. And, “what” I am has “died” (ceased to exist) an infinite number of times, and will continue --- does continue --- to do so infinitely. But, “who” I am is life itself. And who I am does not change, or ever “cease to exist”. I don't just “believe” this; it is a vital part of my everyday experience! Thus, I couldn't “fear death” if I tried.

"Have you ever considered suicide?" - wilde flower

Once or twice, yes. But, I have never attempted suicide. I like to think that if I ever decide to kill myself, I would do it without hesitation or regret. I know at least a few different ways to do it, even in the most restrictive, so-called “suicide watch”, circumstances. I've been placed on “suicide watch” three times since my arrest, but all three times were for “stupid” reasons that had nothing to do with any thoughts on my part about suicide (for example, I wrote two Christian friends and asked them not to write me anymore because I felt our friendship had stagnated because of their Christian motives for writing; and I was placed on “suicide watch” because someone thought I was telling them “goodbye” for other reasons.