I am currently serving a lengthy sentence that cost me my life. But before I ended up in this disturbing place that halted my life, I owned and operated a nightclub and diner in Charlotte NC. I gradually built my repetition around the community of my great food and a place to come have a good time and secured jobs for people struggling for another chance due to their prior history. Amid me living my life I wanted more than what I was making and got entangled with being a drug dealer, making faster income than I expected. Dealing drugs is what led me here to this incarceration.  One day, it was a drug deal that went wrong. I never carried a gun nor used one, but the prosecutors deliberately accused me of the killing that took place that day of the misled drug transaction. I knew I was not involved in the killing of Mr. Platts and continued criminal enterprise the prosecutors presented against me in trial. Yes, I said it. I took it to trial because I knew what they were trying to charge me with I did not do at all, in fact, I am wrongfully and responsible for dealing drugs. I kept admitting that in my defense of being guilty of drug dealing but not killing an individual. Being honest and admitting cost me my whole life behind these prisons walls and because I would not cooperate with the government, I received life in prison.  In fact, the actual killer was not charged because he testified against me, which left me battling this case alone. The person that committed the crime turned on me, the government aggressively hounded me, turning me down for my admission of cooperation.   My attorney did not represent to the extent for me NOT to receive a life sentence, I often felt he was on the prosecutor side and not mine whom he was representing or supposed to represent.  I was cooperative as well as truthful under oath of my participation in this crime. of being truthful under oath of my participation of the crime. Finding my way through the prison system, I still used my skills of being independent and helping individuals make a way, helping them find themselves and who they would like to become, to continue to strive in life.  Since 2007 to 2013 at Hazelton Federal Prison, I maneuvered different tasks of jobs or duties, which kept me in the know of things I was already accustomed too. The jobs I have held while in prison has been a Recreation Clerk, Photographer in the Photography Department, and Commissary, which is considered a high-profile job at any institution (2011-2013).  Having a deep love for people, I also worked as a Suicide Companion, helping people to regroup themselves out of suicidal thoughts. Being transferred in 2013 to Aliceville Federal Prison, I immediately wanted to begin working again to keep myself from venturing off from becoming institutionalized, and immediately begin working in the l. Recreation and Photography Department from 2013 to 2017, Laundry from 2017 to 2018, and Commissary 2018 to 2019. As I kept working, I came across a program that helps you with enlightening your decision making, along with finding your inner self more deeply, which is the LCP Program, currently at Carswell Federal Prison where I am currently housed, with my job title being a Unit Clerk for the program unit. I have restored my way of thinking to think more about judgment, trusting certain people, and knowing. effectively that my actions can cause me and my family to lose a family member in the blink of an eye due to bad decision making.  When given a second chance I plan to find legal work from advocacy to help me in the process learning to take care of myself, my grandchildren, and my mother, who is 69 years of age.  I also would like to make use of my energy and knowledge Involving the real estate field and starting a janitorial service, which I will employ convicted felons to give them a second chance to give back to their communities.  If I can create a path to deter anyone from making the same mistakes I did, this will indeed be my proven second chance! My Second Chance is My Next Chance to show myself, peers, and family that it is another way to live life in this world and it is all based on decisions. Thank you for taking time to read my story and I pray that God blesses me through you to rejoin my family very soon! Sincerely, Latonya Davis

My name is Latonya Davis