Ambers address omitted

August 10, 2002

Governor Gray Davis
Governor's Office
State Capitol
Attention: Legal Affairs Secretary
Sacramento, CA 95814

Dear Governor Davis:

This letter is a request for you to pardon my father, Keith Henson.

He was convicted last year by a Scientology controlled DA and Court in, what I and many other people see, as a miscarriage of justice. As I understand it, the court would not even permit him to speak in his defense. After the trial my father left the country for fear he would be killed by Scientology agents in the Riverside jail and, eventually, was accepted as a refugee in Canada.

Since he left, my grandfather (his father) has died and my father was unable to attend the funeral. Just very recently, his mother died, and he was unable to go to her hospice bedside and say good-bye, or attend the funeral.

What sometimes keeps me up at night and makes me cry myself to sleep is when I worry that my dad won't be able to come to my wedding. I know that I'm not getting married anytime soon, but I don't know how long this is going to go on for. And I can't have my wedding in Canada, not that I don't like it there, because I made a promise to my friend that I would get married in her back yard. And I know she'll be living in Southern California for at least the next 15 years.

I don't think that my dad did anything wrong, and I think that if you look at the "evidence" (on the web) you'll see that, too. I have dreams, nightmares really, where my dad is back in the states and I'm scared that he's going to be caught and taken back. I have these nightmares a lot. There's only one way I can see to make that stop.

My dad used to be my dad. Be there for me to sit and have conversations with me in person. Be there when my car needed work. I know that I wouldn't be living with him all the time, as I'm in college. But it'd be nice to have a family to return to in the summer instead of having to make my way on my own.

My friends miss my dad. They miss his crazy stories. They think of him as a peer. My dad likes the group of guys I hang out with. With five daughters, my dad deserves to have some kind of "son he never had." My boyfriend of eight months has never even met my father. Also, I need my dad to be the engineer he's always been to me. I need him to fix my car, explain stuff to me, and help my mom out fixing the house appliances.

Wow, my mom. You don't know how much easier my life would be if I didn't have to worry about my mom.

These aren't things a 19-year-old girl in college ought to be worrying about: money, whether or not her parents are spending enough time with her, will her dad be arrested. Please, use your abilities to help out a fellow citizen. I'm not asking for much, just a simple pardon for a man who never did anything wrong so that he can be with his family again. Please.

Thank you for your time,

Amber Henson