Press

his fight to end life without parole (and second degree murder) is not just a matter of Justice, Reform and Redemption. It’s a matter of affording those men and women who have truly done the work to repurpose their lives an opportunity to effect real change in their families and communities; and have a personal impact in the lives of youths who are in desperate need of mentorship and guidance.”

“Prison terms that exceed a person’s life expectancy are a form of torture. When I was sentenced at age 24 to die in prison, the state deprived me of the right to hope, and it was only through the extremely rare granting of clemency by our state’s governor that I was able to rejoin the community and attend the United Nations convening and advocate for the countless honorable women, men, and non-binary people I left behind.”

“It shows me the other guys who were just as deserving as I was couldn’t make it not because they are not worthy but because the process is super arbitrary. The system doesn’t allow room for a person to seek redemption.”

“Life without the possibility of parole is a death sentence,” said Joanne Scheer of the DROP LWOP Coalition. “It is a concrete box with death as the only exit. California currently has over 5,100 individuals surviving this death sentence.”

"The United States should be ashamed of themselves because we are the only country that talks about disposable people," Bellamy said. "On an international level, we must pressure the United States and get the United States to understand that people change. We are human beings, and we need to be recognized as human beings," he continued. "We have rights, and one of them is not to be tortured because that is a torture sentence."

“The U.S. should abolish death by incarceration sentences and ensure that the disproportionately Black and aging individuals serving these sentences are afforded the right to dignity, hope and redemption.”

“As advocates and organizers, it’s our responsibility to hold the state and its institutions accountable to complying with the UN recommendations. We do this by unrelenting pressure on the U.S. to live up to its international and domestic obligations to protect and respect the civil rights, and more importantly, the human rights of people trapped within the carceral state.”

“I always believed I would eventually go home. I couldn’t see it all the time, and that belief was under constant assault because there was this other thought in the back that I had to fight every conscious moment that I was in prison—there was this thought that said to me, Terrell, what are you fighting for—you’re going to die in prison.”

“I have had time to reflect on my decisions and the circumstances that led to my incarceration,” the great-grandmother reflected. “I’ve learned a great deal about myself and grown tremendously. I believe laws should be passed to abolish DBI sentences because it implies people are not capable of change. These sentences provide no relief for reformed individuals.”