Innocent On Death Row: A Discussion With Two Death Row Exonerees

Injustice Anywhere Radio recently discussed the death penalty with death row exonerees Sabrina Porter and Derrick Jamison.

Sabrina Butler Porter was a Mississippi teenager who was convicted of murder and child abuse in the death of her nine-month-old son, Walter. She was sentenced to death in 1990. She was later exonerated of all wrongdoing and was released in 1995 after spending more than five years in prison and 33 months on death row. She is the only woman in the United States exonerated from death row.

Derrick Jamison was an innocent man who spent nearly 20 years on Ohio’s death row for a murder and robbery he did not commit. An eyewitness to the killing identified two men and neither of them was Derrick Jamison. This information was withheld from the defense, and his co-defendant was promised a reduced sentence in exchange for implicating Derrick. Misconduct and false testimony landed Derrick on death Row in 1985. Derrick spent 20 years on death row before his case was corrected in 2005.

Sabrina and Derrick are 2 of 144 people that have been exonerated from death row in the United States. According to Witness to Innocence, for every nine prisoners executed since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, one innocent person was condemned to die and later exonerated. These statistics are completely unacceptable and make a strong argument for abolishing the death penalty.

Sabrina Porter wrote a book on her ordeal that can be purchased here.