Weekly Report from the Board Meeting at Holman Prison 10.9.24
As you know Derrick Dearman will be executed 10.17.24. As you perhaps also know is that he dropped his appeals and so there will be no stay. What you may not know is that the Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood is his spiritual advisor and in touch with him on a daily basis. The Rev. Jeff Hood is also in touch with us and so we learned that Derrick Dearman completely rejects the thought of this being state assisted suicide or that he dropped his appeals because he can’t stand the conditions at Holman. Derrick Dearman wants to be executed because he believes that he should be punished.
As a death row organization we are in the unique position of respecting Derrick’s wishes by holding no protest vigils, not asking for a stay and not spreading misinformation about him. Our Chairman and the Board at Holman believe this is something we can do. Esther called Advisory Board Members who without hesitation all agreed that this is the way we can show our respect. At the same time we do not tell anyone how they should observe Derrick’s execution.
Governor Ivey set 11.21.24 as the execution date by nitrogen gas for Carey Dale Grayson. Talking Points : https://www.phadp.org/execution-alert-carey-dale-grayson-11-21-24/ and most importantly please sign the petition: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/stop-the-execution-of-carey-grayson-in-alabama Yesterday a federal judge heard testimonies about the nation's first two nitrogen gas executions after lawyers for death row inmate Carey Dale Grayson asked for an injunction to halt his execution.
“Christopher Barbour has spent more than 30 years on Alabama Death Row for the brutal slaying and rape of Thelma Roberts, a Montgomery woman, in 1992. A judge says that new DNA evidence points to someone else.” In an article in AL.com by Ivana Hrynkiw details are reported how that is possible and reminds us of our late chairman’s Darrell Grayson’s case who also confessed because of relentless abuse by the interrogators and who was denied DNA testing of evidence withheld by the jail. We hope that Chris Barbour will fare better!
October 10th is World Day Against the Death Penalty and will be honored in Montgomery, 400 Mobile St by the ACLU of AL and the Alabama Post Conviction Relief Project from 6:00 p.m-8:00 p.m. Advisory Board Member Tish Warr will be our representative.
We highly recommend the article by our friend Lauren Gill in Bolts about Alan Miller: “Agony” and “Suffering” as Alabama Experiments With Nitrogen Executions”.
We thank all who are working so hard and diligently to stop all killing in Alabama! And as always in closing, we thank all our generous donors who either gave by going to our website and using the “donate” button or who gave directly. Thank you also to all who took the time to read our notes, commented, liked and shared them on Facebook. Stay safe and be kind to each other!
Esther
