30 Years After His Death Sentence, Exoneree Derrick Jamison Fights for Those Still on Death Row

Derrick Jamison was exon­er­at­ed from death row in Ohio on October 25, 2005, 20 years to the day after he was sen­tenced to death in Hamilton County (Cincinnati). On the 30^th anniver­sary of his sen­tenc­ing and the 10^th anniver­sary of his release, a Salon pro­file describes the work Jamison now does to edu­cate peo­ple about the risks of wrongful conviction. 

Jamison (pic­tured in front of Chillicothe Correctional Institution, the home of Ohio’s death row) was sen­tenced to death dur­ing the peri­od in which Ohio cap­i­tal pros­e­cu­tions were at their peak. Between 1981 and 1992, Hamilton County hand­ed down 26 death sen­tences, more than 18 death penal­ty states did dur­ing the same period. 

Jamison did not fit the eye­wit­ness descrip­tions of the men who com­mit­ted the mur­der, and police with­held evi­dence that a key wit­ness had iden­ti­fied two oth­er men as the per­pe­tra­tors. In exchange for a reduced sen­tence, a man who had been charged as an accom­plice in the killing false­ly tes­ti­fied that Jamison had com­mit­ted the murder. 

Jamison faced six exe­cu­tion dates, and on one occa­sion came with­in 90 min­utes of exe­cu­tion before being grant­ed a stay. He has received no resti­tu­tion or finan­cial sup­port for his 20 years of wrong­ful impris­on­ment, 17 of which he spent on death row. 

In the decade since his exon­er­a­tion, Jamison has trav­eled the world telling his sto­ry, from his wrong­ful con­vic­tion to the six stays of exe­cu­tion. He says, ​“I’ll fight ​’til my knuck­les bleed for oth­ers on death row.”