I spent a day with DEATH ROW SURVIVORS

who are sentenced to execution after being found guilty of a capital crime. The first established laws on the

death

penalty date back to the 18th century BC. C. in the code of King Hammurabi of Babylon, which codified the

death

penalty for 25 different crimes, including cheating on a spouse and helping people escape from slavery. The use of the death penalty has spread throughout almost all parts of the world throughout history, but today a vast majority of countries have abolished or discontinued the practice. Despite the extreme controversy over this issue in the United States, which has led many states to abolish it entirely, capital punishment remains legal in 28 states, with more than 2,600 people currently sentenced to death.

In the last 50 years, nearly 9,000 people have been executed in the United States by order of the government. My name is Antonio Padilla. Today I will sit with people sentenced to death who have been exonerated or eliminated after being found innocent. Can these exonerated death row inmates live their free lives to the fullest after losing years of their lives in prison where they awaited execution for a crime they did not commit, or are they completely broken by the unjust accusation that sent them through years of sentencing? ? Physical and psychological torment at the hands of the justice system they once believed was built to protect them? - Hello Nick. - How are you, Antonio? - Drilling tower. - Hey, good night, brother.

How are you, Antonio? -Sunny and Peter. - Hello Antonio. - Thank you very much for coming here and teaching me about the world of death row

survivors

. - Man, it's a pleasure to be here, brother. - How do you describe yourself? A death row survivor? Someone who was found innocent while awaiting a death sentence? - Former prisoner sentenced to death. - I guess death row

survivors

would be my choice, I guess. - Death Row Survivor sounds great because... - I like it too. - Can you remember the events that led to your death sentence? -In 1984, in Cincinnati, Ohio, a young man named Gary Mitchell worked at his family's establishment.

It was a nightclub called Central Café in Cincinnati, Ohio. On August 1, 1984, two young men entered this establishment and attacked Gary. Eight days later, this young man passed away and passed away. On October 25, a year later, I was sent to die for this horrendous crime, this horrible crime that I had nothing to do with. - Why was this murder attributed to you? - We had a group of overzealous police officers who took on the case and it was a high profile case. They didn't care who they accused... - They just needed to identify someone for this crime? - Yes, they needed to find someone.

In my case, they caught the guy. They caught a guy with the victim's personal belongings and all this money and weapons. We didn't notice the top. They have sent me to die. They caught the guy and released him. - I was a 20-year-old drug addict living in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1981. I was arrested while intoxicated while driving a stolen car. I got into a fight with the police officer and the situation escalated to the point where his gun went off. He told a big lie about me and that lie was that I took his gun and tried to kill him.

While incarcerated on these initial charges, I made up a lie about an unsolved local crime being a murder in the area. The police realized he was lying, but they still used me to clear up an unanswered question about who did it. I told the police that a friend of mine had confessed to the crime, but I think that guy had died from a drug overdose, so I thought I was going to get out and run, but it didn't work. - Could they have charged him with that crime in addition to the lie that the officer told about what he did when he was in that fight with him? -It was all the fault of a prisoner who had robbed the prosecutor's house and who told them that I had confessed to the rape and murder of Linda May Craig, the woman in question.

I was then brought to trial for my initial charges of attempted murder in 1982 against the word of a police officer and was found not guilty. The police then sought the death penalty as revenge for being acquitted of those original charges, so I was put on a three-day capital murder trial and sentenced to die at the age of 21. I was so desperate to get out of this police officer's initial lie, I made up a lie of my own. In the mind of a 20-year-old, as soon as you walked out the door, everything would disappear. - In Ireland, on July 7, 1980, a bank robbery occurred in a town called Ballaghaderreen in County Roscommon.

According to police, three men robbed the bank and fled in a car. On a small country road, at an intersection, the getaway car collided with a police car. There was an exchange of gunfire and two police officers were killed. The three assailants escaped that same afternoon. A man was stopped on the side of the road with a gunshot wound to the chest. Another man was arrested the next morning and the third eluded them and they searched for him across the country. His claim was that this man was me. 12 days after the event of July 19, I was arrested at a house in Galway. -He was 27 years old.

I was a young mother of two small children. My husband at the time had asked a friend of his to take us because our car had broken down in Florida. We decided to stop at a rest area. The police came to carry out a routine check at the rest area. At that time I was sleeping in the back of the car with the two children. The police report says when they looked inside the car, they saw a gun between the driver's feet. They took him out of the car, asked for his identification and told him to step aside.

The man who had the gun confiscated was on parole, so that changed everything. Then the policeman pulled the gun on him. He said, "Okay, nobody move. The next person who moves is dead," and then there were shots. I just covered the kids. When there was silence, I determined that we were still alive and then looked up to see if Jesse was okay. He was just standing between the cars looking surprised. The driver was running around the car with a gun in his hand and ordering Jesse to put us in the police car. I asked him if he could leave me and the kids there, we would be fine, but Jesse explained.

He said, "Listen, this guy just shot two police officers and if we don't go to him, he can kill us as witnesses." -You had evidence that he was willing to shoot and kill. -Now, we become hostages of a man who just shot and then we discover that he killed the two police officers. There was a roadblock. He made this last-minute decision to try to avoid the blockade. While he did so, all the police officers at the checkpoint opened fire with their rifles at the car. - Oh Lord. - Again I covered the children and we crashed.

The only one who was really injured was the driver. They shot him in the leg and took him away. They took Jesse away and handcuffed him behind his back and then all the police officers pointed their guns at me. I tried to explain to them that we had nothing to do with what happened, but the only thing they knew was that two of his colleagues were murdered and that somehow everyone or one or whoever was responsible. - They got it into their heads that someone had to pay for this. - Oh yeah. In reality, what they did was take us to an unused section of the railroad track where they got off the car and argued among themselves whether they should take us in or just kill us right there and say that we had tried to escape. - You saw right there, the corruption of that power they felt they had over you to make decisions about whether you would live or die. - Fortunately, the one who argued to welcome us prevailed. - Before we continue learning about the world of death row survivors... - I survived a riot, multiple stabbings, being put in cages with another man and forced to fight that man for mere sport and entertainment. of the prison guards. - I was not afraid of death, but I was afraid of dying without dignity. - I want to shout out and thank Witness to Innocence, the organization that helped us contact some of the guests in this video as they work to empower exonerated death row survivors.

Witness to Innocence is the nation's only organization dedicated to empowering exonerated death row survivors to be the most powerful and effective voice in the fight to end the death penalty in the United States through public speaking, testifying in state legislatures, working with the media and active participation. in the cultural life of our nation. Its members are helping to end the death penalty by educating the public about innocence and wrongful convictions. For more information, I'll go ahead and include a link to the Witness to Innocence website in the description below. Now, let's return to the world of death row survivors.

What was the interrogation and trial process like for you? - It was horrible, man. By saying you have done something and you know nothing about what they say you did, you lost. - You can't really say anything except: "I didn't do it. I don't know what you're talking about." - Those are the only two things you could say: "I didn't do it. It wasn't me. It wasn't me." - I was very inclined. Everyone was waiting for the result. When I was sentenced to death, the jury took some time between sentencing and sentencing to go out to the Wagon Wheel restaurant and have dinner while they decided whether to sentence me to death or not. -During dinner, did they decide that a man that they didn't necessarily have adequate evidence for would receive death at the hands of the justice system that they led you to believe would protect you? - I saw all those people outside walking.

I couldn't believe everyone was laughing, joking and having a good time. There I was, 21 years old, I had just been sentenced to death plus 60 years, so I was already finished. - They took me to the police station, where they kept me in custody and interrogated me. Evidence was fabricated against me and I was brought before a special criminal court without a jury where I was tried, convicted and sentenced to death for capital murder and robbery. During the course of my trial, the police officer who had stopped the man they were chasing and spoke to him, although the man later escaped from him, when asked if he recognized the man, said yes. "Did you see him again?" He said, "Yes, he's in court." He pointed to the public gallery and said, "That's him standing there, his back to the wall." - Someone else. - Possibly the only person who would know for sure it wasn't you clearly said it wasn't you and then nothing happened? - That's right. - Why do you think they put it on you?

Why were you brought in in the first place? - He had a political background. I was a political activist since I was 16 years old. As far as the State was concerned, I was considered a subversive. Until a broken man was arrested, the media could speculate about what happened. They had to close the situation and I was a political activist, so they arrested me and framed me. - Jesse's trial came first. He was tried, found guilty and sentenced to death within four days. There wasn't a shred of evidence against him except the killer's word, then came my trial and my trial lasted two weeks.

My lawyer said we didn't need to defend ourselves. - Did they tell you that being innocent was enough? - Yes, and that's what I thought. - Yes, that's what they make us believe: that the justice system will take care of the guilty and free the innocent. -He explained to me that by not defending himself he would give him a better position in the final argument. - All you had to do was be yourself and they would see that you were obviously innocent. - The judge had been a highway patrolman before becoming a judge. They had asked him to refrain from being a judge in our case because he could not be impartial having been part of that brotherhood, but he refused to do so. - Can you do that?

Can you refuse to withdraw from a case in which you will obviously be biased? -He did it, and that is why each jury has to stand up and say how he voted. When they said they had voted for life, the judge overruled them and sentenced me to death anyway. - That? Can you just override? You can make an executive decision and decide, "You know what? All this time we

spent

deliberating..." The system that we have in place to make sure this doesn't happen, can it just override all of that? -He was supposed to present in writing an adequate reason for having done it, a legal reason for having done it, but he didn't do it. - Everything we are taught to believe is not really there.

It is not there to protect us the way we are told it is. - The systems are there to protect you. - Did you have faith in the justice system before all this happened? - Minor things can go wrong, but not something as important as this. - It seems like it's rare for something to go wrong, right? - People used to say: "Well, yes, but you must have done something." I mean, the police don't just do that. - Good. People who want more power never abuse their power. - People just make a decision, they are going to do it and they believe they are doing the right thing. - Peter, did you have faith inthe justice system at that time? - No. - Well, you were an activist. -I had been an activist and had a critical and somewhat cynical view of the entire apparatus.

At some point before I was arrested, I was campaigning against the death penalty for two other people who had been sentenced to death. -The fact that he was so openly against death row is almost what, ironically, brought him to that point. - It could be, yes. -Did he ever feel compelled to say something that incriminated him? - They took me to an interrogation room and two detectives came in and were trying to get me to say something they wanted me to say. Every time I said, "You know, you're trying to make me say something that's not true," they would cut the tape and then start again. - Wow.

Clear manipulation again and again and again. - Cognitive bias. They have a name now, but in those days they didn't. We now know that this is called "cognitive bias." You try to try and find whatever proves what you believe. - Have you ever been presented with a plea agreement? - Yes, they offered me all kinds of deals, but I couldn't accept any deal because I didn't do it. If you sign these documents... Many exonerees would tell you that. If you sign these papers, you could get out of here unpunished because that prevents them from being trustworthy. - Would you sign these papers and basically say, "I am guilty and I admit these things," but in exchange you would get a reduced sentence and, in this case, be released from death row? - If I had signed the papers, they would have let me leave there unharmed. - Would you still have that conviction for the rest of your life if you signed that? - If you do. -Do you remember the moment you heard that... when you heard the judge say that he would face the death penalty? - Oh, I found out I was convicted the day before when they showed photographs of the victim and the jurors were crying.

Anthony, were rushing home for the Fourth of July holiday weekend. The judge told them: "I now know that each and every one of you share the grave concern that this trial will interfere with the July 4th holiday weekend, as it is only three days away. I promise you that this trial will end in Three days and we can all go home and celebrate. - They are almost encouraging the jury to rush this process, convict you and go home and celebrate regardless of the fact that they were trying a man and they did not have significant and sufficient evidence to prove that you were actually guilty. and worthy of receiving the death penalty. - I just turned 21 a few months before my trial.

I was a child. I was not a grown man. - Can you explain what death row was like and how your daily life unfolded in general? - 24 hours a day of confinement, knowing that you are going to die is hard. It was like being in hell. Many people have been in jail, but I was not in jail. I was in hell. They locked down the prison and walked me down this long hallway to death row. They opened the door and I remember when we walked into the death house, I could look around the corner and see Old Sparky.

They call it Old Sparky because, like I said, people set themselves on fire in this chair. It's like bulletproof glass that is fixed with... You could see the electric chair there. - When you saw that electric chair, did you imagine yourself sitting there being executed in that chair? - I remember, man, looking at that chair, it was scary, man. I had just been sent to die and I was a mess. When the guards said, "Dead man walking," I said, "I'm not dead yet." I was being smart. - It's almost like they're mocking you by telling people, "Dead man walking," letting you see the electric chair sitting there, and all you can do is imagine being murdered at the hands of the justice system. - I remained in solitary confinement for five years.

I only had family visits four times a year during school holidays. They didn't allow me any phone calls. I only left my cell twice a week to take a short shower and then about 15 minutes outside with a guard. I was not allowed to communicate with any other prisoners and then return to my cell for another three or four days and return your white pajamas with your number on them. That is part of the dehumanization process: you no longer have a name, you are a number. - I would spend the next 12 years in the toughest block in the United States.

I survived a riot, multiple stabbings, being put in cages with another man and forced to fight that man for the mere sport and entertainment of the prison guards. - Wow. - I witnessed the suicide of people. I saw murders there. It was just complete. -They really made you go through the closest thing to hell that one can see in his life. - However, I grew up there and became one of the most dangerous men they ever had because I cared about other men. - Was it more the empathy you had that made you dangerous for these guards? - Imagine that you can't write nice letters to your mother, but I can.

Imagine that you are not good at reading the law, but I am very good at it. I got two guys' sentences reduced to life in prison. That made everyone turn their heads towards me. Suddenly, everyone wanted me to help them. If anyone did anything to me, especially staff, it would be a complete outburst of anger and actions from the men around me because I was so important to them. - What were the psychological effects of counting the days until his execution, knowing perfectly well that he was not guilty of the crime of which he was accused? - I was sentenced to death on November 27, 1980.

The death sentence was to be carried out on December 19 of that year, just three weeks later. One day, while sitting on my bed reading a newspaper, I overheard three jailers discussing what role they might play in my execution. - What role would they have to play? - They talked about me as if I wasn't there or as if I didn't exist or I wasn't a human being. Apparently their superiors had told them that two jailers would have to participate in my hanging. - As if being hanged wasn't enough. - This made me angry. - As it should. - I realized that while they had me physically imprisoned, they could not imprison my mind or my spirit or my heart.

I determined that those are the realms of myself that I would live in in that situation and that's what I did. I realized that I was not afraid of dying. I wasn't afraid of death- - Really? - - but I was afraid of dying without dignity and I decided I wouldn't let them do it. - In my cell there were only two books, a law book and a Bible. The law book was useless at the time and I used the Bible as a book of wisdom. It's the Bible that made me realize that they can't really tell when I die.

That's not really up to them, although they had it written down and they had all the power. Instead, I took back control of my life. I couldn't control my environment. I couldn't control where I was. From here on out, he could control it. - It was the only area you still had control over. - I used the only tools I had, which were yoga, meditation and prayer. That became my trinity. -While you were on death row, were you aware of any developments that were taking place in your case that could eventually lead to your exoneration? - I was the first man in the United States in 1988 to seek DNA evidence... - from prison? - Yes, I had no idea that for the next 15 years from that moment on, they would actively try to murder me.

They destroyed all the autopsy material. When I located him again, they escaped with him from a laboratory. They went on and on trying to kill me even though I was trying to use science to prove my innocence. I joined forces with Dr. Sir Alec Jeffreys, the inventor of DNA science. From England he guided me for 12 years, he educated me about DNA so that I learned everything possible to defend myself in court. - 11 days before my execution date, the State commuted my sentence to 40 years in prison without the possibility of parole. - Can you explain how that change occurred? - One day they called me to the governor's office: "Pringle, you are now serving 40 years.

You are no longer sentenced to death." I said, "By what authority?" He said, "Under my authority." I said, "You don't have the authority to do that." He said, "Get out of here and have your lawyer contact me." -Did they give you a reason why he changed from death to... -From death to 40 years without further ado. They locked me up in the general prison, which for a couple of days was huge. Then I realized that I couldn't face 40 years in that place. I decided that I was going to try to prove my innocence. - Can you explain what went through your mind when you realized that you were no longer going to face death by hanging in the coming weeks? - It was a mix.

There was relief, of course, but I couldn't study because my anger was such that even reading my own case documents, my eyes filled with tears and I just couldn't do it. I knew I had to try to relax. I asked a friend of mine to get me a book on yoga and I started trying to teach myself cell yoga. Little by little I learned to do yoga and, little by little, I began to meditate. Little by little my anger diminished to the point that I was able to study. That's what I

spent

most of my time doing while I was in prison.

Other prisoners came to me with their cases and asked me to check their papers, which I did because when you are asked to help someone, you do it almost automatically. The second reason was that by helping them, I was helping myself. In prison I gained a reputation as a prison lawyer. In the almost 15 years I spent in prison, I managed to help 13 men get out of prison. - In a way you became a hero. You let 13 other people be innocent because you took that time to educate yourself. - I must say that not all of them were innocent. - Ok I have it. - Yes, but none of them were imprisoned according to due process, which meant in my eyes that they were imprisoned illegally. -How long was he finally on death row before being declared innocent? - 8,057 days. - How many years does that translate just for my sake? - 23 years. - I was sent to die on October 25, 1985.

I left death row on October 25, 2005, the same day, the same day, Anthony. The worst day of my life turned into the best day of my life after... - 20 years later. - Exactly 20 years later. - After five years, my sentence was changed from death to life in prison because the judge had overturned the jury's ruling without giving a legal reason and because my court-appointed attorney was not prepared to discuss the death penalty. - By a strange coincidence did they change your sentence? - They put me in the prison population, which, like Peter, for me was like a celebration.

It's like, "Wow, I can talk to people and I can go eat with people." It was great. I could make phone calls home. I was able to call my children for the first time. - At the time, that felt like freedom although it obviously wasn't yet. - Oh God, it was so much better. Let's put it that way. It was much better. After they changed my sentence, my parents decided they would take a vacation that didn't involve bringing the kids to visit the prison because they didn't have to worry about me being executed anymore. - That stress was no longer with them.

They probably felt like they needed to be present to keep up with any changes that might be happening because they knew they were potentially going to be executed at any moment. - Unfortunately, the plane crashed and they died. - On your vacation to finally take that moment away, take that breath of fresh air knowing that your daughter was no longer going to be executed? - Yes, they killed them. Thank God they left the kids at home, so they weren't with them. It meant that now my children were orphaned again and so was I and there was no one out there to help me with my case, to send me maybe a little money so I could get something.

That was definitely the worst day of my entire life bar none. In the 15th year of our incarceration, Jesse received his third death sentence and that is normally more fatal than for him. In his case, the electric chair was not working properly. Instead of dying when they flipped the switch and sent electricity through his body, he caught fire. Witnesses said flames came from under his helmet and smoke came out of his head and they had to do this to him three times before he was finally pronounced dead. - One thing after another, that turned an already horrendous situation into something truly, truly, truly more devastating than anyone could imagine. - About two and a half years after Jesse was executed, with the help of friends who never believed I was guilty and pro bono lawyers, they were able to win my habeas corpus, which meant that my sentence and sentence were overturned at that moment.

Like Peter, I was threatened with a new trial. They weren't going to let me go. -How was it finally proven that he was innocent? - 35 tests... retained 35 tests. - Could they prove that they purposely hid evidence? - 35 tests. You only need one piece of new evidence to get a new trial. They retained 35 pieces. - I went to court in January 1992 representing myself because I had no lawyer and no money. He was taking action under the Constitution. In JulyI obtained a discovery order for state and police documents in the case. I had a job fighting for it, but I won it.

The basis on which I was sentenced to death was that after 34 hours of interrogation, a detective sergeant claimed that in one particular interrogation, he had uttered these words: "I know you know I was involved, but on the advice of my lawyer, "I'm not saying anything and you'll have to prove it to the end." Words I never said, but he swore an oath at the trial and had kept a record of the interrogation in which he had said these words. When I obtained the photocopy of the notebook from him, he showed that he had entered the words in the notebook before the interrogation in which he claimed that I said them. - Wow. - It was clear that they had decided...

They had no evidence against me. They decided to fabricate evidence and overturned my conviction. The state had requested a new trial and I was taken into custody to appear before the special criminal court the next day to face the same charge I had already revoked. They took me to the witness stand and asked me for bail if I would show up for my trial. I said, "Of course I would." If the states are foolish enough to try to persist again, I said, "I've already proven my innocence once and I can do it a second time," and then they gave me bail and released me.

A week later, the state dropped the case against me. - We also asked that anything we had not seen be discovered. At that point, they delivered 10 boxes of material to my lawyers who... I mean, how to make a living on top of my case. There was no way they could go through those boxes, but my friends Mickey and Christy took those boxes to a hotel room and started going through them. First, they found a report that the killer had passed the polygraph test he was required to take to prove that they were not making the deal with the real killer.

My friend said, "Why would we believe that report? They've lied about so many things. Let's hire a polygraph expert to examine the chart that actually came out of the machine." They hired a former police officer. He discovered that he had failed the lie detector test. Now, I thought that should have been the end, but it wasn't. They kept going until my friends discovered that one of the prison guards had heard the guy bragging, confessing, and had filed a written report about it. That had been hidden from us all those years. That stopped the hearings and I was eventually released. - It wasn't until I got hepatitis from the beating I received that I asked to be executed. - Were you really at such a low point and so sick that you requested your own execution? - At that point, the federal courts stepped in and required that all remaining DNA evidence be located in February 2003.

They obtained DNA from gloves the killer left inside the car belonging to the victim. It was the first scientific evidence in the case indicating that DNA from unknown man number one was present. I would consume the remaining DNA in additional testing, but I would be consumptive and if all the remaining evidence turned up no evidence, they would go ahead and grant me my wish to be executed. - It was almost as if because you wanted death, they were willing to investigate it to prove that your death was not justified. - I thought I was next, so I asked for my execution to be accelerated and I was granted the second DNA test in July 2003, proving my innocence and I was taken off death row. - Do you remember the moment when they told you that you would be freed and that you would be a free man again? - Man, how the heavens opened on a cloudy day and the sun just came out.

It felt like that day before Christmas, when you know you have all the toys available. Your mom would tell you, "Go up and go to bed." -He had the happiest face you've ever seen. -Despite everything you went through, were you still able to find that moment to really experience and assimilate that joy? - There's a picture of me in the paper right after they said it and they were taking the handcuffs off and I was like, "Oh, my face was so happy." Sometimes when I'm not feeling very well, I look at that photo and I can't help but feel happy.

That is the best. -What was the first thing you did once you were released? - I went to eat at the Waffle House. - That is a cruel celebration. - It was the best food I have ever had in my life. That food tasted so good. I was used to eating junk for 20 years. - I had no idea a waffle could taste so good. - One of the first things I did was go to the sea because I felt that only the sea could be powerful enough to wash me away, almost like a baptism. Only to wash it off and come out a completely new, clean person. - I went and stayed with my friend who had paid bail for me.

I got up in the morning. I was the first to go up. I went down to the kitchen. Everyone else in the house was still sleeping. I went out to the back garden. It was a beautiful long backyard. It was a beautiful day. Sun shining. There are no walls around me, no barbed wire, no birdsong. I walked through that garden and at the back of that garden there was a big apple tree. A big old apple tree. I went to this big old apple tree and put my hand on the trunk of the tree. While I was there, I began to think: "During all the time I was in prison and all the things that had happened to me, this tree grew silently in this garden each year producing its fruit, losing its leaves, hibernating during the winter, returning to grow in the spring and follow the path of nature regardless of the big city around her and the greed and the avarice and that whole rat race that was going on and the justice and the injustice." I wrapped my arms around the trunk of the tree and cried.

That was the first moment I knew I was free. - How has your life changed the most since death row? - It has changed for the better because now I am like a teacher. I'm teaching the world about abolition. I am teaching the world about injustice and the death that is coming. I also teach them about love and compassion. I tell you the reason why I am not angry and I am always happy because I watched with anger, God is angry when they took my friends out of his cell and murdered them. I would never want to act like that.

That's why I'm so kind and always smiling. - What do you think was the most difficult part of assimilating normality again? - 16 years of freedom have been harder than death row. - Why is that? - Well, look at my life right now. I spent the last 16 years trying to free all these other men and help them. I dedicated all my freedom to all these other things and didn't give myself much time to heal. In June of this year, I traveled across the United States with my family and freed Walter Ogrod from prison after 28 years. I met him in 1999 and I promised him then that I would release it and I released it this year. - Have you dedicated your free time to putting all your effort and energy into helping others who were falsely accused escape? - Yes, and it took a toll on my life. - What do you think about the United States being one of the 35 countries that still practice the death penalty? - I think that if the death penalty could be abolished in the United States, it would encourage the abolition of the death penalty in other countries. - At one point I went to Sweden and there was a man named Hans Göran Franck, who started the amnesty in Sweden.

I asked him, "What do you think would help end the death penalty?" He said: "When America ends the death penalty, the rest will follow." - Why do you think the United States sets the precedent for the rest of the world? - I still think that the United States is a leader in that sense and can continue to be so. I think when the new president eliminates federal executions, the other states will follow and I think it will be a big step. -If there is someone watching who is currently facing unjust accusations for a crime they did not commit, is there anything you would like to say to them? - Innocent people make noise.

If you are truly innocent, that is what an innocent person wants. You want to tell someone the truth. A guilty person just wants the system to be wrong or to tell stories about his innocence, but the facts don't really add up. - Testify for yourself because both Peter and I were told that we don't need to present a defense, you don't need to take the stand. There's nothing against you so there's no point in going through that and it was a mistake. - It's painted backwards, where it's like if you try to defend yourself, then you're going to look like you have a reason to defend yourself when, in reality, it gives you a moment to express your emotions and for people to see you.

That soul behind your eyes. - As Sonny says: "If you come to trial and you're there and it doesn't matter what your lawyers tell you, go on the witness stand under oath and tell the truth." - What do you think is the biggest misconception about people who have served time on death row? - Do you know that of all the people released from death row, none have gone out to commit murder? They are all sweet, loving, wonderful people because we take what we have now so precious that we don't want to mess it up. - Alright, you have five seconds to shout or promote whatever you want directly into the camera, go ahead. - I love you all, man.

God bless you all and let's end the death penalty in America. - It's called sunnycenter.org and then you can contact us, read about it and buy our books. - Sunny Center Foundation, which is the foundation we established, which is there to help people who have been wrongfully convicted after being released from prison. - Hello, I want you to share this as much as you can. That's all I want. - Follow my grandson's advice and subscribe. - Thank you very much, Sunny and Peter. I feel like I understand the world of death row survivors a little more. - Thank you. - OK thanks. - After spending the day with these death row survivors, I have come to understand that while we want to believe in the efficiency of our justice system, we should never assume that an accusation or sentence is accurate or even true without considering all possibilities .

We can only wait and vote routinely to ensure that our system continues to become more fair and equitable throughout our lifetime. See you later. Bye. - Press like. - Press like. - Did you two meet in your work advocating so that others do not experience the same things as you two? - Yes, I was marching against the death penalty in Texas. Some people from Ireland who were part of Amnesty International were there. They listened to my talk and invited me to come. Steve Earle told me, "When you go to Ireland, you're going to have to meet Peter Pringle." - With a name like Peter Pringle, you have to go to Ireland and meet Peter Pringle. - Yeah, okay, but he didn't tell me anything about Peter.

When I arrived, someone else said the same thing and gave me his number. I called him and invited him to come to my talk. - The door opened on the other side and a little lady entered. I walked up to her and said, "You must be Sunny Jacobs." - I said, "You must be Peter Pringle." -The sheer amount of strength it took to get through... and the hope it took to get through all of these extremely devastating events somehow ended up with this match made in heaven, this perfect, fortuitous moment in which They both met. They realize that both lived very similar lives.

Now, despite everything they went through, they can now live their life together with all that strength coming together to form this bond and this family together. - It's our gift. - It is our gift and we are blessed.