In the Movement
By Sam Heath
In the MovementApr 24, 2024
In the Movement with Amanda Bass
Tremane Wood has been on death row in Oklahoma for 19 years, even though he did not kill anyone. The individual who confessed to the killing was sentenced to prison for life. Amanda Bass, one of his attorneys who was a law fellow with Equal Justice Initiative, is an Assistant Federal Public Defender in the Capital Habeas Unit for the District of Arizona. This means that her job for the past 7 years has been to advocate for death-sentenced people in their federal appeals. Amanda, Tremane, and the whole legal team are furiously working to stop a potential execution date next year.
In the Movement with flocc's Joia Erin Thornton
Joia Erin Thornton is the founder and executive director of the Faith Leaders of Color Coalition, or flocc. Her group is a multifaith organization of Black and Indigenous leaders working to end the death penalty. Since 2021 the group has pursued justice and equity across the country and works to rally people of faith to free individuals from death row and stop state and national executions.
In the Movement with Danielle Sered
What would a society look like if we responded to harm by asking not "Who did the crime and who should be punished?" but "Who was harmed and what does healing look like?" Danielle Sered founded and leads Common Justice, a program in New York that centers those harmed, racial equity, and a commitment to not relying on incarceration. Her efforts have helped divert scores from incarceration and brought a measure of healing to those who were harmed and those who brought harm. She is also the author of the stunning book Until We Reckon: Violence, Mass Incarceration, and a Road to Repair. Come hear a conversation that shows the possibility of a world where we do not center punishment, police, and prisons.
In the Movement with Katie Owens-Murphy
Dr. Katie Owens-Murphy edited a one-of-a-kind book – Ghosts Over the Boiler: Voices from Alabama’s Death Row. This work chronicles the story of Project Hope to Abolish the Death Penalty, the nation’s only non-profit led by people on death row. For over thirty years, on a donated typewriter, these men have produced a newsletter that covers executions, policy, and beauty in their lives. This book came out of Katie’s work as an associate professor at the University of North Alabama, where she also serves as the state coordinator for the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program. Come hear the story of Alabama’s death row, the state that sentences more people to death per capita than any other in our country.
In the Movement with Witness to Innocence's Herman Lindsey
In July 2009 the Florida Supreme Court issued a unanimous verdict to fully exonerate and release Herman Lindsey, who had been wrongfully convicted and placed on death row for 3 years. Herman is our nation's 135th exoneration and Florida's 23rd, the state with the highest exoneration rate. He now serves as the Executive Director of Witness to Innocence, an organization "composed of and led by exonerated death row survivors and their family members" working to end the death penalty and change our justice system.
In the Movement with Lynette Grace
Blessed are the peacemakers, the Bible tells us. Lynette Grace, a peacemaker with an extraordinary story, was stabbed in the face, chest, and leg by a 16-year-old who had just murdered his mother. 20 years later, Lynette forgave this man, believing that forgiveness sets us free. Lynette now speaks on, lobbies for, and calls people to restorative justice rather than settling for revenge and retribution. Come hear Lynette recount how this forgiveness has been a catalyst for healing that others have experienced around the world.
In the Movement with Christian Abolitionist Hannah Bowman
Hannah Bowman created the group Christians for the Abolition of Prisons. She is a scholar, literary agent, and restorative justice practitioner who speaks and writes on how and why Christians must support a complete end to incarceration. She says, "We believe that Jesus came to free all who are held captive and establish new forms of justice, free of retribution and within community. As followers of Jesus, we see the abolition of incarceration and the development of community-based restorative justice as a moral imperative and as our particular vocation as the Body of Christ." Come hear how Hannah's desire to end prisons flows from her love of Jesus, how her desire to dismantle the criminal legal system ends with the building up of something that brings healing.
In the Movement with Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
Join us for a discussion with two individuals working to end the death penalty in Florida and bring justice in a state at the forefront of the work to love our neighbors well.
Maria and Agustin work with Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, "a Florida-based, state-wide organization of individuals and groups working together to end the death penalty in Florida."
Their network includes "dozens of state and local groups and thousands of individual Floridians, including murder victims’ family members and other survivors of violent crime, law enforcement professionals, families of the incarcerated, and death row exonerations."
In the Movement with Michelle Ferrigno Warren
Join us to hear from Michelle Ferrigno Warren, the President of Virago Strategies, a consulting group which provides strategic direction and project management community development support alongside communities impacted by racial and economic injustice.
She has lived out "faith-rooted activism" in her life, engaging in Christian community development work for three decades. She captures much of her theology and story in her two books The Power of Proximity and Join the Resistance. Michelle and I will talk about my favorite quote of hers -- "Advocacy is not mission drift for the church. It IS the work of the church" -- and how she has applied that especially to immigration and the work of racial reconciliation.
In the Movement with Central Virginia Community Justice
Central Virginia Community Justice is a restorative justice diversion program based out of Charlottesville, VA. They provide a "brave space for those involved in harm to lead their own accountability and healing." CVCJ acts as a restorative alternative to the standard, punitive path of the criminal legal system.
Hear from Tarek Maassarani, one of the program's co-directors, and Bianca Johnson, a facilitator with the program, about the program's origins, growth, and mission. Consider this a case study in the EJUSA Evangelical Network's overall hope to center healing and repair over prosecution, prisons, and police.
In the Movement with 8th Amendment Project's Laura Porter
Join us on June 20 for In the Movement with 8th Amendment Project's Laura Porter. The 8th Amendment Project works to "unite and lead the national movement to end the death penalty" and brings together dozens of organizations from local, state, and national spaces.
We discuss the national and state landscape for the death penalty and pay special attention to the limited number of states — fewer than 10 —actively executing people. Learn the history of the death penalty and ways to engage in repeal work.
Laura Porter joined the 8th Amendment Project after serving as Director of Campaigns for the Fair Punishment Project and nearly a decade as director of campaigns and strategy with Equal Justice USA (EJUSA). Over the last 10 years Laura was a chief strategist in the death penalty repeal campaigns in Connecticut, Maryland, and Nebraska. Prior to campaign work, Laura was a public defender for 12 years in New York and a legal analyst on television.
In the Movement with Fox & Rob
Join me for In the Movement, which featured a conversation with Fox and Rob Richardson, creators and authors of the film and book Time, which was an Oscar-nominated documentary about Rob's twenty years in Angola prison and the work to keep their family together. It is a story rife with tragedy, which ultimately points to the hope of love. Come hear about how their love survived decades of separation and how faith played the key role in their family's survival, despite prison's best efforts to bring it to an end.
In the Movement with Death Row Exoneree Ron Wright
(Apologies that the video does not capture the first third of the webinar.) Join us for a discussion with death row exoneree Ron Wright. Ron was exonerated by the Florida Supreme Court in 2017 for a 2007 instance of double murder. He spent three years on death row. He is a former Air Force sergeant and works now in the death penalty movement advocating for repeal.Show less
In the Movement with Dr. Jason Sexton
Come hear a conversation with UCLA professor Dr. Jason Sexton, a social-theorist, cultural historian, and formerly-incarcerated theologian. Dr. Sexton and EJUSA Evangelical Network manager Sam Heath discuss the Christian church's historical relationship with prisons, the unique ways evangelicalism built and sustains the prison system, and specific ways Christians can work toward responding to violence in alternative ways beyond incarceration.
In the Movement with EJUSA Staff Mona & Will
Come hear from EJUSA staff Mona Cadena and Will Simpson. We discuss what a community-centered public safety ecosystem is and how Christian churches can play a role in responding to violence without centering punishment, police, or prisons.
In the Movement with Restorative Justice Leader Eric Paul
Come hear the EJUSA Evangelical Network talk with Eric Paul. He is a Church of the Nazarene elder and serves with the Hawaii District Church of the Nazarene to provide Restorative Justice practices through their churches. He also heads a secular mediation center and a church congregational conflict program. Learn about what restorative justice is; how we as people can respond to harm and violence without centering punishment, police, or prisons; and why Christian have a unique role in acts of restoration.Show less
In the Movement with Death Penalty Photo's Scott Langley
The EJUSA Evangelical Network talks with Death Penalty Photography Project curator Scott Langley about the death penalty movement, its images, and the role faith plays in death penalty repeal.
In the Movement with Rev. Anne Dunlap
Hear from Rev. Anne Dunlap, Showing Up for Racial Justice's Faith Organizing Coordinator, about activism, why SURJ organizes only white people, and the importance of interfaith work in the justice movement.
In the Movement with State Death Penalty Leaders
Hear from three state death penalty repeal organization leaders: Stacy Rector from Tennessee, Kat Jutras from Arizona, and Branden Cunningham from Nevada. They gave a sense for the national death penalty movement and the nuances of how individual states fit into this work. Each leader brought their experience, wisdom, and stories to this conversation and helped us see how we all can fit into the national, state, or local movement to repeal the death penalty.Show less
In the Movement with Jemar Tisby
Come hear author and historian Dr. Jemar Tisby (https://jemartisby.com/) talk about justice, race, and the church. Jemar's articles, talks, and books -- especially The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church's Complicity in Racism -- have changed the landscape of the discussion of race, racism, Christian nationalism, loving the church in a new civil rights movement, and the importance of story.
In the Movement with Rev. Claude Atcho
Hear from pastor and teacher Claude Atcho (https://www.resurrectioncville.com/) talk about literature, race, theology, and justice. His book -- Reading Black Books: How African American Literature Can Make Our Faith More Whole and Just -- came out in May and trumpets the necessity of engaging the Black experience in Black literature so that all of the church can live faithfully. Read an excerpt: http://bakerpublishinggroup.com/books...
In the Movement with Aaron Griffith
Hear from Dr. Aaron Griffith (https://aaronlgriffith.com/) talk about evangelicals, prisons, and a theology of punishment versus restoration. Aaron's book God's Law & Order: The Politics of Punishment in Evangelical America won the 2022 Best Book Award for History from Christianity Today and looks at the overlap between evangelicals and prisons. He graciously yet piercingly asks questions about the Christian church's engagement and complicity with America's criminal legal system.
In the Movement with Dr. Jalane Schmidt
On this Evangelical Network In the Movement webinar, we talk with Dr. Jalane Schmidt, Associate Professor in the Religious Studies Department at the University of Virginia. She is part of a group in Charlottesville, VA that will be melting down the Robert E. Lee statue (around which white supremacists gathered in 2017 and ultimately murdered a local woman) to make it into a new work of public, restorative art. The group is called Swords into Plowshares (https://sipcville.com/), and this was a dynamic conversation about one local group's effort to bring healing to its city.
In the Movement with Truth's Table
Hear from the hosts of the podcast Truth's Table (https://truthstable.com/). Their book Truth's Table: Black Women's Musings on Life, Love, and Liberation is out in April. Come hear Ekemini Uwan, Christina Edmondson, and Michelle Higgins talk about their work and how it all began when "once upon a time, an activist, a theologian, and a psychologist walked into a group chat."
In the Movement with Lynden Harris
Hear from Lynden Harris, founder and director of the arts collective Hidden Voices (https://www.hiddenvoices.org/). Her book Right Here, Right Now: Life Stories from America's Death Row (https://www.hiddenvoices.org/right-he...) is a collection of 99 moments from individuals who have been sentenced to execution. Hidden Voices gathered these stories into a haunting presentation of the childhood and adulthood of these incarcerated individuals. Hear from her about this process, the impact on Lynden herself, and the effect this work has on its readers.
In the Movement with Lisa Sharon Harper
Hear from author and activist Lisa Sharon Harper, talking about her new book Fortune: How Race Broke the World and My Family and How to Repair It All.
In the Movement with Equal Justice USA's Jami Hodge
Jamila Hodge is the executive director at Equal Justice USA, a national organization working to repeal the death penalty and to help communities respond to harm while centering healing and restoration over prosecution, police, or prisons. A former prosecutor herself, Jami's movement into her role now came from a dissatisfaction with a criminal legal system that had limited tools and a cornerstone of punishment. Tragedy also struck and shaped her family, enabling her to see society's limited and inadequate responses to harm. Now she works to empower healers on the ground by leading EJUSA since 2021.