French Embassy Hosts Exhibit Featuring Former Death Row Prisoners’ Artwork to Raise Awareness

On October 10, 2023, the Embassy of France in Washington, D.C. will host opening night of ‘C’est la vie? Restoring Awareness on Capital Punishment through Art,’ in conjunction with several other members of the European Union. The event “will feature the work of death row inmates, and some of whose sentences have been overturned, and a discussion on the influence that art has had on their lives.” With the European Union Delegation, Witness to Innocence, and Ensemble Contre la Peine de Mort, the French Embassy, along with the embassies of Spain, Portugal, Italy, Austria, and the Netherlands will publicly display reproductions of artwork created by prisoners on death row in streetside exhibitions.

Artwork from Ndume Olatushani, a former Tennessee death row prisoner “who found peace and freedom in painting during his two decades on death row,” will be featured at the event. There will also be performances from musical groups as well as a live reading from Marc Asniri’s Final Words, an exploration of a Texas prisoner’s last words before his execution.