My former death penalty client, Chad, who is serving Life Without Parole, lost his mother Juanita on April 13, 2026, and I am raising money to pay for her cremation.

My client’s mother, Juanita Bogue, was born and raised in Jim Jones’s People’s Temple cult. On November 18, 1978, when over 900 members were murdered and committed suicide in Jonestown, Guyana, Juanita survived by hiding in the jungle for days. Her son Chad was born within the year. Juanita did her best, but like so many traumatized disaster survivors, she was never able to adequately care for her children. You are likely not surprised to learn, because you know about intergenerational trauma, that quite a few children of Jonestown victims are imprisoned today.

I met Chad and became his legal investigator in 1990 when he was 19 and was facing capital punishment for a tragic unintended killing. Chad, now close to 50, is a kind man with a near-perfect prison record, who has been a good friend to me over these decades. I know that no one in Juanita’s family has this amount of money. And somehow, 35 years of doing legal investigations for indigent criminal defendants did not make me rich. The cremation has been kindly paid with the credit card of a family friend, but she must be paid back. Any contribution, no matter the amount, will help to ease at least this burden on my client.

Gratefully, Melody Ermachild Chavis