To meet Stafford Clarke now, you may not believe that the quiet, unassuming man spent 25 years in prison for murder.
Clarke, 58, said he used that time to turn his life around.
As a youth, Clarke admits that he fell in with the wrong crowd.
That wrong path eventually led to a murder conviction in 1985 for the shooting death of Leon Pratt a year earlier in what Clarke claimed was a drug deal gone sour.
Clarke was released from prison in March 2010 as a consequence of the landmark 2006 Privy Council decision in Forrester Bowe Jr. and Trono Davis that determined the death penalty was discretionary and not mandatory and should be reserved for exceptionally gruesome killings.
By that time, Clarke's mandatory death sentence had already been commuted to life in compliance with the Jamaican case of Pratt and Morgan that banned executions after five years on death row.
Clarke had to be resentenced because the decision in Bowe and Davis invalidated his original sentence of death.
The sentencing judge considered the circumstances of Clarke's crime and the progress he made while in prison before determining that he was a fit candidate for re-entry into society.
Now Clarke said he spends his time trying to convince wayward youth to avoid the same mistakes that he made.
Clarke said he often spoke to students when they visited the prison.
"Anytime I see wayward youth, I tell them they need to better their condition," he said.
"I tell them make sure get your education because you're not going to get far without it. Discover your purpose and walk in your anointing.
"You can't get sucked into the vacuum of lawlessness because those things are going to lead you to destruction and death."
Clarke said he delivered this message to group of young men who he encountered on the street recently.
One of them who dismissed his advice as "foolishness" is now in prison, Clarke said, adding that the young man's friends thanked him for reaching out to them and helping them avoid the same fate.
"If I can reach one," he said, "it isn't in vain. I feel that it's my calling to motivate wayward kids."
Born to a single parent, Clarke said his mom tried to steer him on the right path "but I was rebellious and followed Satan, instead of following my divine creator."
Clarke said he regretted not completing high school and getting a college degree.
However, he said he made up for the deficiencies in his education while in prison by taking classes and doing a lot of reading.
Clarke learned to do electrical work while in prison and he has used that trade to sustain himself. He said he was also taught sewing, plumbing and welding at the prison.
Clarke said he was devastated when he went to prison because he left behind three children and an unborn child.
He said reading the Bible sustained him because it gave him "the peace of mind to know there is life beyond prison".
"I had that feeling that one day I was going to emerge from prison and make a positive contribution to society and live a life that was pleasing to God," Clarke said.
He said he was scheduled to be hanged on April 11, 1989, but was granted a stay. He considers that reprieve as divine intervention.
Clarke recalls, "I had been praying a lot, reading my Bible, trying to get my mind spiritually inclined. It's as if God stepped in. I felt he was responding to me."
Clarke said he does not believe the death penalty is a deterrent to a potential killer. He said there were three murders shortly after his death warrant was read.
"A lot of guys don't think," he said. "They just react. And if that means killing someone, they do."
Clarke said that prior to his murder conviction, he served three years in prison for robbery.
"At that time I just did my time," he said. "I didn't use my time. I sat back and counted days on the calendar."
However, he said most inmates who serve sentences of 20 years or more lose the inclination to reoffend.
"After doing that amount of time, you don't allow anyone to suck you into a vacuum that's going to lead you back to prison," he said.
Clarke said that while attending a recent crime symposium he suggested that the government amend the laws to give longer prison terms for firearms to deter gun crimes.
"It looks as though I'm wrong. A lot of guys, if they're going to church they carry a gun because of their lifestyle," he said.
"I spoke to a guy and he said, 'I don't care how much time they give me. I'm going to have my gun with me wherever I go'."
Clarke said although he was "wayward", he never had a need to be armed constantly. He said his gun wasn't for protection "but a working tool".
"Our country on the whole has taken some dramatic turns for the worse," he said.
"Before witnesses made it to court. That doesn't happen anymore. Guys today, they're more bold. They don't care, where, who or why. They just do what they want to do. A lot of guys they just don't care what's going to happen.
"I consider myself a part of the problem. This mayhem and chaos began in the 80s. I'll do anything right now to be a small part of the solution. We're a country used to tranquility. I trust that before I go I can see our nation come back to that."

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