Marita and Krisha Maharaj

Krishna is a British national who has spent 20 years in a Florida Prison, 15 of those on death row.

www.krishnamaharaj.org

Claire with Marita and Kris at the
 Martin Correctional Institute, Florida

Shareef Cousin

Shareef was sentenced to death in 1995 at the age of 16. He was on death row for four years being cleared.

Now 27, he works for the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta

www.schr.org

Claire with Shareef outside the
 SCHR offices in Atlanta

Howard Neal

Howard has been on death row at the Mississippi State Penitentiary (more commonly referred to as Parchman) for the past 25 years.

Howard Neal

Don Cabana

Don is currently the Warden of the Harrison County Adult Detention Center in Gulfport. During his time as Warden of Parchman he supervised two executions.

He has written a book, Death at Midnight, about his time at Parchman.

Don during his meeting with Claire

Kathleen Hawk Norman & Dan Bright

Kathleen was the foreman of the jury during Dan's trial for murder in 1996. Dan was convicted and the jury passed the death sentence.

After the trial, Kathleen became aware of evidence not presented at the trial that proved Dan's innocence. She then began a long campaign to have him freed.

Dan was eventually exonerated and freed in 2004.

Very sadly Kathleen died unexpectedly on April 16th, 2009.

Kathleen and Dan during Claire's
meeting with them in New Orleans

Ryan & Pauline Matthews

Ryan was seventeen when he was charged with capital murder. He was convicted and sent to death row at Angola prison in Louisiana.

Pauline, his mother, was unable to touch him for 5 years until his release as a result of new DNA evidence linking a ski mask used in the murder to another man.

Ryan and Pauline Matthews

Robert & Jackie Elliott

Robert's brother, Jackie, was executed by lethal injection in 2003 at Huntsville, Texas.

Jackie, a British national, was born in Felixstowe, Suffolk in 1960. He was convicted of a rape and murder in 1986.

The Texas courts refused to allow DNA testing of critical physical evidence, despite a unanimous petition from the jurors who had sentenced Jackie to death requesting that his execution be stayed until such testing could be conducted.

Jackie Elliott

Linda Carty

Linda was sentenced to death in Texas in 2002. Her case has now passed through both stages of the appeals process in Texas. She must now seek relief in the federal courts, the final stage in the U.S.

 

Linda Carty

Bill Wiseman

Nearly 30 years ago, as a young state legislator, Bill Wiseman wrote the bill that made Oklahoma the first jurisdiction in the world to adopt lethal injection as a means of execution.

He became a Episcopal priest in Tulsa but sadly was killed in a place crash shortly after meeting with Claire.

Bill in his study at home in Tulsa

Marietta Jaeger-Lane

Marietta's daughter, Susie, was abducted at the age of seven during a family camping trip in Montana. A year after the abduction, she received a call from the murderer who taunted her. Her immediate response to the young man was to ask how he was feeling, since his actions must have placed a heavy burden on his soul. Her words disarmed him, and he broke down in tears on the phone. He subsequently spoke with Marietta for over an hour, revealing details about himself and the crime that ultimately allowed the FBI to solve the case.

Marietta was to learn that Susie had been killed on a remote Montana ranch a week after she disappeared. Despite her family's tragedy, she remains committed to forgiveness and has been an ardent opponent of the death penalty for the over 25 years since Susie's death. She was a founder member of Journey of Hope in 1997 (see www.journeyofhope.org).

Marietta at her home in Montana
during her meeting with Claire