A group of death row exonerees, including Kwame Ajamu (pictured), held a press conference in Cleveland on October 9 in which they called for the end of the death penalty. Ajamu - the nation’s 150th death-row exoneree - was freed from Ohio’s death row in 2014 along with his brother, Wiley Bridgeman, and another man, Ricky Jackson. The three had been convicted 39 years earlier on the testimony of a 12-year-old boy who later recanted, saying he had been pressured by police. “We hope that we can end this atrocity today. We hope that tomorrow’s newspapers would say that there’s no more death penalty…. If there’s anything that I would beg for this country, for this world to listen to is the heartfelt cries and pleas of myself and fellow comrades who have been exonerated from death,” Ajamu said. He was one of about 20 exonerees who appeared at the event, which was organized by Witness to Innocence, a national organization of death row exonerees. State Representative Nickie Antonio, who has introduced a bill to abolish the death penalty, said, “The best reform is to abolish capital punishment and replace it with a sentence of life without parole. It is time to execute justice, not to execute people.”

(B. Blackwell, “Death row exonerees come to Cleveland to promote abolishing executions,” Northwest Ohio Media Group, October 9, 2015.) See Innocence and Recent Legislation.

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