TOP TEN OZ CHARACTERS | INMATES | 02. KAREEM SAID
How do I feel? I feel joyless. My brothers remain behind, imprisoned, suppressed. I don’t just mean my Muslim brothers. I mean every single man that will sleep here tonight, that was cut off from everything that he loves, cut off from his own self. You know, as the word went around that the Governor was gonna give somebody clemency, I saw a rift develop, as each inmate wished himself to be the chosen one. The longing to be free became as palpable as the food that we eat. But it is a meal that I am being served right now. And I am Muslim. And Allah does not allow me to — swallow certain things. Allah does not allow me to take scraps from the hands of a man such as this, a man who is corrupt and immoral, a man who denigrates the gift of clemency just as he violates the principles of justice, a man that gave the order that caused the death of eight people. And so, Governor Devlin, because even the cost of freedom can be too high, I refuse your pardon.
