Q&A with Sithy Bin

Q: You have an incredible testimony. Where should we even start?

Sithy: I love Jesus. I love people. I love to serve. I love to place other people first. However, that wasn't always the case.

I used to be heavily involved in gang activity. When I was a young man, I was involved in a gang shooting.

Because an innocent bystander was shot during a gang shooting, I was sentenced to a total of 40 years to life in prison.

Three years ago, my family and I accepted the fact that I was going to die in prison or be 65 years old. But only by the grace of God, new laws came into effect that send me back for resentencing in 2019.

I'll get to that in a little bit. I was incarcerated in 2005. I used to be a Buddhist, an active Buddhist. I spent summer in my teenage years in a Cambodian temple to learn about the principles of Buddhism and all that. And when I was incarcerated, I fell into a deep depression. One of the teachings is karma. What goes around, comes around. You do bad, bad things come to you. You do good, good things come to you.

If someone was falsely accused and had to do something a lengthy time in prison or, that means that you did something bad in your previous life. And you're facing the consequences of it now. So because of that teaching and that belief that held on to, I fell into a deep depression. I mean, I was being sentenced to life. My girlfriend at the time was being sent. They were trying to convict her for the same shooting. She was the first shooter and they were trying to give her life [in jail].

I lost 50 pounds in three months during my incarceration. I wasn't eating or anything and had a stress spot on the back of my head. It was bad. And then I came across a Christian prayer book. It was a pivotal point in my life. The Christian prayer book was talking about those who don't believe in God or don't pray to God, or don't talk about God. Yet when they're in a dire situation, when they run away from the police, all of a sudden they start praying to God,

And I was like, “man, that feels like me." That's when the author spoke about how our Lord appeared to one of the doubting disciples, Thomas. And our Lord says that "because you see me have believed, blessed are those who have not seen me, yet have believed."

I'm like, "wait a minute, I want to be blessed." Now I'm going to end this dark time right now, and it might be a dark, long life in prison. So that's when I said "all I need to do is believe in you and have faith in you." That's when I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. That was in 2005.

In my past, I was advancing the kingdom of darkness.

I was a terrible human being. I was very selfish, self-centered, and prideful. It was awful. I was trying to advertise that it was cool to be in that criminal gang lifestyle.

Now, I want to advance the kingdom of light and love, and just be used by the Lord. And now, ever since I gave my life to the Lord, I started whispering about my newfound faith. I was involved in this theological school in prison called the Urban Ministry Institute. I started a fellowship with brothers to understand doctrine. That was very important. And I would be active in the church. And that's when I grew spiritually. I was discipled by my wonderful brothers now who are serving in the church, who are preaching. And that's when I committed my life to just being used by the Lord.

A wise person learns from the mistakes of others, and I wanted to encourage others to do the same. So I started a program to mentor the at-risk youth.I started giving back to the community, to the prison community.

Then fast-forward almost 14 years later to 2019, and a new law came out. Now, the California prison secretary can recommend an individual to go back for resentencing. So by the grace of God, I don't know whom God placed in the heart to see my file, but they did.

Part of the new law is that the same judge can take into consideration post-conviction background, meaning that everything that happened after being convicted, everything that I did in prison, (the positive rehabilitative program, any type of achievement) can be taken into consideration to send me to a lower sentence.

And God is so awesome, brother.

The same trial judge that sent me two life sentences was so impressed by my transformation.

And he's older now, and he was so full of joy in his heart to see me. He even made the statement that normally when a prisoner or someone has been convicted for a lengthy time, they get tattooed on their face and just become corrupt, rebellious, and awful. With me, it was the opposite.

So when I got sent back to prison, now I qualified to see the parole board to see if I'm suitable for parole and the Parole Board, a commission, and deputy commissioner. They were impressed by my transformation because again, all this was taking place before I even knew that there was a change in law that would set me back for this opportunity.

So at first, I thought I might have been found unsuitable, because my past actually was awful.

The commissioner came in and shook my hand. He said, "I love your voice. You have influence right now. Go out there and make a huge difference." It was amazing and brought tears to my eyes. It was just an amazing feeling.

I had accepted the fact I was going to die in prison and all that.

And then this happened. However, even though I was released they put me in a separate cell and that's what I realized is going to be all bad. They picked me up for a detention center, and because I was born in another country, I wasn't allowed the same privilege as those who are born here when they get to be released, be with the family.

I was like "man, forget it. I'm going to get deported to a country I've never been to. I wasn't born in Cambodia. I was born in Thailand in a Cambodian refugee camp. Cambodia is willing to take people back because of the financial assistance they receive from going to the United States.

God is amazing. Because of COVID, there was no movement, no deportation. The ACLU had filed a lawsuit that said "it's dangerous during the pandemic to have detainees confined in a compact area like that. I was released in June 2020, and now I'm out here in Los Angeles.

I [ended up at Renew]. It's small, right? It was my first time attending a real church out in society. The people I came across were so friendly and so welcoming.

For example, I met up with Janet and started chatting and I had this rapport with the people there. Pastor Dihan spoke…it touched my heart right after the service. It was just amazing how the staff was so down to earth and related to their community members without even having to try. At the service, the crew stayed behind to pray for people to be able to engage with people.

I wanted to glorify the Lord. So that's why I wanted to learn more about Renew and be more involved.

Q: Just out of curiosity, you said you were born in a refugee camp in Thailand. How did you end up going from Thailand to ultimately the United States?

Sithy: During that time, Cambodia was in a civil war with the Khmer Rouge with the [dictator] Pol Pot. So it was a brutal massacre for those who were westernized. My parents escaped Pol Pot's regime and came to Thailand. And that's where I was born. We were there for almost two years. Then we got transferred to a transitional refugee camp in the Philippines where my brother was born.

We got accepted to the United States and then shipped to the United States, flew to the United States in 1984. I'm a legal resident alien, [which means you are deportable for crimes committed.]

Q: So you're making an appeal to the governor and making a video. What else is needed to convince them or show them that you deserve to stay?

Sithy: To combat deportation or exile is to get a governor's pardon. We have to do this process where I'm filing the pardon application. The application is separate from the petition. So the application is the whole package that goes to the governor. We have a goal of 5000 signatures for the petition.