World Day Against the Death Penalty - Hear Their Stories

Observed on the 10th of October every year, the World Day Against the Death Penalty unifies the global abolitionist movement and mobilizes civil society, political leaders, lawyers, public opinion and more to support the call for universal abolition of capital punishment. The day encourages and consolidates the political and general awareness of the world-wide movement against the death penalty.

According to Amnesty International;

• 112 Nation States have abolished the death penalty for all crimes
• 9 Nation States have abolished the death penalty for common law crimes
• 23 Nation States are abolitionists in practice
• 55 Nation States are retentionists
• The Nation 5 States that executed the most in the world in 2022 are, in order: China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and USA.

You read that right. The United States, land of the free and home of the brave, sits atop the list of State-Sanctioned Executioners alongside authoritarian regimes in China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

The death penalty is an inhuman and degrading punishment, representing the ultimate denial of human dignity. It fails to act as a deterrent to crime and capital punishment makes miscarriages of justice irreversible.

Don't take our word for it.

Howard Guidry was only 18 years old when he was wrongfully convicted due to police misconduct and false confession. He's remained on Texas' death row since 1997.

"My name is Howard Guidry. This year will be my 26th confined to Texas' notorious death row. I have been fighting to prove my innocence since the day I was charged with capital murder. I have spent my adult life fighting and trying to maintain my sanity inside this God forsaken place. It was not until a few years ago the evidence of my innocence would surface that could finally free me. Prior to that I had endured two trials in which I was convicted because the prosecutor had not turned over the evidence of my innocence. I was initially convicted as a result of a false confession. 10 years later a federal judge would reverse my conviction after finding that the confession had been coerced by the Harris County Police Department. At my retrial the false confession evidence was repackaged and used against me again. Also a gun said to be found on me 4 months after the crime was presented as the murder weapon. With that evidence I was reconvicted. While my new appeal was pending my new attorneys discovered a box of evidence that included: - Fingerprints from the crime scene that matched another suspect -Ballistics test that stated the bullets from the murder were not fired from allegedly found on me. -Another suspect who confessed to being the driver was never charged with a crime and stated that he did not know who I was. -The suspect who's fingerprints matched the crime scene prints also had a car that matched the description the eyewitnesses gave of the getaway car did to a burnt out headlight. He was never charged. -The eyewitnesses were both put under hypnosis to change there testimony. The prosecutor in my case was Kelly Sieglar, WHO IS famous for false convictions and for sending men to prison on circumstantial evidence. It has been 26 years since I hugged my mother. I can not bear the thought of going another day without being with my family. I'm asking anyone And everyone to fight on behalf of what's right. To fight on behalf of my freedom."

You can read more about Howard Guidry's fight for freedom on his contributor's page at The Death Row Soul Collective, as well as hearing from several other death row contributors. The Death Row Soul Collective aims to illustrate through art, words, and activism the HUMANITY on Death Row and through the long time incarcerated.