Four days ago, Tracy married her husband, Joseph,
inside a maximum security prison.
Joseph was sentenced to life behind bars
for an execution-style double murder
that he committed in 1997.
Most of us can't comprehend committing your life
to a man who's spending the rest of his life
in prison, much less a double murderer.
Our cameras were with Tracy the night before and on her prison
wedding day.
Let's take a look at that.
It's the night before my wedding,
and this is what I'm going to be wearing.
I think he's going to like it.
[LAUGHING] Yeah, I think so.
OPRAH (VOICEOVER): The prison has strict rules
for wedding ceremonies.
TRACY: His ring has to be under $100.
So I actually have to provide the prison with a receipt
for the ring because, you know, if it's too valuable somebody
might want to steal it.
[PHONE RINGING]
Hello?
OPRAH (VOICEOVER): Joseph can call Tracy from prison
up to two times a day.
She never knows when the call may come.
Hi.
It was great.
You're a little tired?
We're going to be married tomorrow.
Yeah.
Gosh, it's only hours away, babe.
I love you, babe.
OK.
I'll see you in the morning.
[GENTLE MUSIC]
Good morning.
Welcome to wedding day.
It's the big day.
Never been to a wedding, second time going to prison.
I'm feeling kind of excited and maybe a little nervous.
No, I didn't picture this would be the way I
would get ready for my wedding.
NICOLE: Oh!
What do you think?
You look beautiful.
Let's go.
I want to make sure I can get in with my pretty purple top
that's pretty tight.
They have very strict clothing rules
about things being too tight.
I'm about to marry Joseph Jackson.
Who would have thought?
Walking into a barbed wire prison, maximum security,
electric fence for my wedding day was never in my vision.
[LAUGHING]
Here we go.
Thank you.
See you on the outside.
[GENTLE MUSIC]
I'm a married woman.
Yay.
And I've got beautiful pictures, beautiful pictures.
We were both so emotional and we were just
looking into each other's eyes, and, you know,
tears were like coming down from both of our faces.
And we told each other we loved each other.
OPRAH: Your son was saying that this
is the second time he's been in prison, only the second time.
So he'd been before?
He went to visit Joseph before.
OPRAH: And how did your son--
how did you present this to your son
and how did he feel about it?
My son is perfectly fine with it.
He supports my decisions in life as I support his.
OPRAH: And what do your parents say?
My mother is not happy about this at all.
She wanted me to change my mind and not get married.
And why couldn't you just--
or was it not satisfactory to befriend him, you know,
love him, care for him, respect him as a human being?
All those things that you're saying that you do.
Why was marriage necessary?
The marriage to me represented more of our spiritual path
that we share together.
And you know, he feels like he's working on the inside
to carry that love placed within him.
And I feel like I'm working on the outside.
And we are working towards the same goal.
And our commitment was not only to each other in that marriage,
but to this path also.
OPRAH: You know, I've talked to lots of people over the years
on this show who've experienced the worst day of their lives.
They've done terrible things.
They make mistakes on the worst day of their lives.
However, he did, on the worst day of his life, one
of the worst days of his life, kill execution-style two
other people.
Have you talked to him about that and what that means?
Yes.
We've talked about that.
And he, you know, he almost doesn't relate to that person
just like I don't relate to that person.
You know, he's not that person anymore at all.
OPRAH: OK.
So Joseph is on the phone from California State Prison.
So Joseph, hello?
JOSEPH (ON PHONE): Hey, Oprah.
OPRAH: So is Tracy the first woman
you've had a relationship with since you've been in prison?
JOSEPH (ON PHONE): Yes.
OPRAH: And she was just explaining to us
how this happened and how you, on that first night,
put your hand above hers and said,
I'm giving you your heart.
What was it that you felt for her
when she first came to prison?
JOSEPH (ON PHONE): I felt so connected to her.
I couldn't help myself.
I just knew she was the one.
OPRAH: But you have a life sentence without parole.
So when you think in terms of the one,
were you thinking that you were going to be with her
for the rest of your life?
Or have her be with you for the rest of your life
outside of the prison walls?
JOSEPH (ON PHONE): That didn't even come into my mind.
That didn't, me being in prison wasn't even on my mind.
I just knew that I wanted to be with her.
OPRAH: You wanted to be with her.
And so then how long, Tracy, before you
actually connected after that?
TRACY: Well, I took a whole year to be able to come to terms
with giving it a possibility of seeing
what was going to happen.
OPRAH: Were you in communication?
Like, were you calling him or he calling you?
No, no, no.
No, no.
Not for a year.
And then after a year, I went in for another performance.
And we connected again and we started talking.
And I said I was ready to start writing him letters
and see what kind of a relationship.
I was going to treat it like any other relationship, but--
OPRAH: That sounds like the weirdest-ass thing to me,
That really does sound like--
I have to just say, that sounds so weird.
The guy is in prison.
Joseph, we're talking about you like you're
not here because you're not.
But Joseph is in prison for committing double murder,
life without parole.
And you say, I'm going to treat it like all
of my other relationships.
What does that mean?
[LAUGHING]
It meant that I was going to get
to know him as a person who he was right
now in this time and this day.
I knew it was a maximum security prison.
I knew that he had committed a crime when he was a teenager.
The person that I saw that I met that day
at the dance, that was the person that I connected with.
OPRAH: So you're saying, I'm going to meet
you where you are right now. TRACY: Exactly.
As a human being. TRACY: Exactly.
Joseph, you say you're a changed
man now because of Tracy.
What do you mean by that?
JOSEPH (ON PHONE): Well, the faith
that she gives me, she just gives
me the faith to just be me.
I can be silly, I can be crazy.
She loves me.
I really didn't know what love was.
It scared the hell out of me because of the love
and just, her heart is so open.
I just, she gives me the strength to just grow.
OPRAH: Is this the first time you think you felt love before?
JOSEPH (ON PHONE): Yeah.
I'd never felt before.
Yeah.
I know all hearts respond to love in a way
that it makes you want to open your heart--
Right.
JOSEPH (ON PHONE): Yeah
--and love other people.
So you were convicted of double murder, that's two lives.
People want to know why do you deserve to be happy, actually?
JOSEPH (ON PHONE): For one, I'm still breathing.
I believe that I still have a mission on this earth.
If I wasn't supposed to be here, believe me,
I would not be alive right now.
By the things that I've done in my life,
I don't say that I deserve anything,
but I believe that God or spirit or wherever you want
to call it is very forgiving.
I know people don't understand that.
But I deserve it because I went through the process
of changing myself.
I went through the whole process of looking at everything
that I've done in my life and the things that happened to me,
and I decided that I want to be happy
and I'm going to be happy.
I don't care how much time I got.
I don't care what I've done in the past.
I've forgiven myself.
Did you own up to what you had done or who you had been
and the choices that you had made
that put you where you are?
JOSEPH (ON PHONE): Of course I did.
The first thing was that after all the pain that I've
seen in here, it's still so--
it's still so strong.
I was just tired of hurting myself and going through that.
So I began to read a lot of books and pray and meditate.
Went through all the different religious things.
Then I got into a different place but--
ROBOTIC VOICE: This recorded call
is from an inmate at a California
correctional facility.
JOSEPH (ON PHONE): Just the things
that I'm going through on the inside,
getting to the heart of the matter of it.
It was crazy, just unbelievable.
So you're saying that you had been
doing some work on yourself, because all work
comes from the inside.
JOSEPH (ON PHONE): Of course.
OPRAH: And-- yeah.
How do you feel now today about the crimes that you committed
and the lives that were lost because of you?
JOSEPH (ON PHONE): I mean, I've taken
responsibility for everything that I've done in my life.
I'm sorry I'm not in a guilt place.
I'm not in a bad place.
But I do have remorse.
I do have remorse for the things that I've done in life,
you know?
But I can't, I cannot live in guilt.
I can't live in that place because I was 19 years old.
I wasn't even living.
I was just walking around like a zombie.
So it's kind of, I didn't feel like I was living.
Yeah.
So do you expect Tracy to remain faithful to you?
JOSEPH (ON PHONE): I do.
I expect Tracy to do what she tells me she's going to do.
OPRAH: OK.
You did not answer the question, sir.
[LAUGHING]
JOSEPH (ON PHONE): OK.
I'm going to keep it real, Oprah.
I'm going to put my foot down and say, yes, I expect
her to be faithful to me. Yes, ma'am.
OPRAH: OK.
Thank you, sir.
So will you all ever get conjugal visits?
Will you ever have a conjugal visit?
JOSEPH (ON PHONE): Well, I'm not sure.
I'm hoping so. They talking about changing.
But as of right now, we cannot not have a family visit.
Well, I said the word "conjugal" on purpose, as
in conjugal visit, yeah.
They call them family visits now.
OPRAH: They call them family visits now?
Yes.
OPRAH: OK.
Family visits where you conjugate.
TRACY: Yes.
JOSEPH (ON PHONE): Yeah, we have to do that.
So you're saying you all will never have sex.
Well, we expect the system to change.
And you know--
OPRAH: Oh, what a night that's going to be, if that--
JOSEPH (ON PHONE): Indeed.
Can you imagine?
[LAUGHING]
Let's flash forward, though, five years from now.
You said traditional vows that you were going to love,
honor, and cherish this man.
That's five years of a marriage based on phone conversations
and prison visits.
How will you be able to sustain that, really?
I'll be able to sustain it because that's what I was doing
before I met Joseph, anyway.
And I have been in a situation where
I haven't had sex for a year, three years, five years.
You know, so it's not anything that's
dramatically life altering to not have sex for that long.
Well, I thank you.
Thank you, Tracy and Joseph.
Wish you the best.
Thank you.
OPRAH: The very best.