Eighteen for­mer death row inmates from around the coun­try recent­ly toured North Carolina and called for a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions. The tour, one of the largest of its kind and orga­nized by People of Faith Against the Death Penalty and Witness to Innocence, includ­ed speak­ing engage­ments in church­es and pub­lic audi­to­ri­ums, as well as a ral­ly in front of North Carolina’s Legislative Building. Two leg­is­la­tors, Rep. Pricey Harrison and Sen. Eleanor Kinnaird, joined the exonerees to lend their sup­port to the group’s call for a halt to exe­cu­tions and a study of North Carolina’s cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment sys­tem.

Among the 18 exonerees who shared their sto­ries of wrong­ful con­vic­tion dur­ing the tour was Shujaa Graham, who was released from California’s death row in 1981. Graham said that those who have been wrong­ly con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to die must deal every day with the injus­tice they have endured, not­ing, ​“I’ve been out more than 20 years, and I still suf­fer today. I saw a lot of my friends exe­cut­ed. As I regained my human­i­ty … I learned to start for­giv­ing.” Gary Drinkard, who was freed from Alabama’s death row after he was acquit­ted in 2001, added, ​“I spent sev­en years, eight months and 21 days locked up.… A lot of ex-death row inmates say they don’t have a lot of ani­mos­i­ty. Well, I have a lot.” Drinkard added that he is seek­ing a halt to exe­cu­tions because the jus­tice sys­tem is inher­ent­ly polit­i­cal. He said that pros­e­cu­tors and dis­trict attor­neys often feel pres­sured to get mur­der con­vic­tions in order to be pro­mot­ed, and that this real­i­ty can lead to wrong­ful con­vic­tions.

Five wrong­ly con­vict­ed peo­ple have been freed from North Carolina’s death row. Nationwide, there have been 124 death row exon­er­a­tions.
(The News & Observer, November 3, 2007 & The Daily Tar Heel, November 5, 2007). See Innocence.

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