#DeathIsNotJustice - Join Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, prominent Black faith leaders and more on August 28th at 12:00 PM at the Old STL Courthouse in St. Louis, Missouri for Death is Not Justice, a Rally for Marcellus (Kahlifa) Williams and Ernest Johnson.
-On August 22, 2017 Khalifa was granted a stay of execution by then Governor Greitins. A year later in 2018, a Board of Inquiry met and determined his wrongful conviction through DNA testing, and were then given a gag order. Khalifa continues to sit on Missouri Death Row due to MO Supreme Court and governmental inaction in his case.
The #FreeMarcellusWilliams campaign has garnered close to half a million signatures and continues to be a leading petition in the state of Missouri seeking freedom for Khalifa, a wrongfully convicted person in the state.
-Ernest Lee Johnson was convicted and sentenced to death for his involvement in the murders of Mary Bratcher, Mable Scruggs, and Fred Jones in Columbia, Missouri. While Johnson’s culpability in this act is not in question, he meets the state statutory and clinical standards to be diagnosed with an intellectual disability and, therefore, should be granted clemency from the death penalty, in accordance with his 8th Amendment rights per the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Atkins vs Virginia. Ernest is scheduled for execution in the state of Missouri on Oct. 5th. We need you to act now and join us as we call for Clemency for Ernest.
Wrongful conviction is not just about innocence.
While the legal definition of wrongful conviction typically only addresses cases of innocence, holistically, wrongful conviction encompasses ALL systemic issues within our criminal legal system. At the top of that system rests the death penalty. If a person is sentenced as a juvenile, if someone is racially stereotyped, if their case involved prosecutorial misconduct, if someone is over or harsh sentenced, if someone's constitutional rights are not being protected, or if someone receives the death penalty, those are all wrongful convictions.
People of color, especially Black people, are more likely to be prosecuted for capital murder, receive death sentences and be executed. For years, state and nationwide reports have found that a pervasive racial prejudice in the application of the death penalty exists. From evidence of prosecutorial misconduct, discriminatory jury practices, and disproportionate amounts of death sentences given to Black defendants, race plays a central role in capital punishment – it is a statistical reality in this country, one which requires immediate action.
Between the years of 1910 to 1950, despite making up only 22% of the South's population, Black people accounted for 75% of all those who were executed in the region. The same presumption of guilt, dangerousness and indifference that justified lynching continues to justify the treatment of Black people today, especially Black persons with disabilities.
The death penalty is a direct descendent of lynching and slavery. We need you to act and continue to tell the truth about our state and countries history of systemic racial terror, violence, and lynching in order to stop modern day manifestations of it.
#AbolishTheDeathPenalty
#NoosetoNeedle
#StopExecutions
Help #ErnestJohnson
*masks and distancing required*
Learn more and continue to take action for Ernest and Marcellus at www.madpmo.org