Derrick Jamison spent 20 years on Ohio's death row for a crime he did not commit. He now works for Witness to Innocence as a Peer Specialist, supporting his fellow exonerated death row survivors as they navigate life after exoneration and continue their fight for abolition. Derrick is devoted to the work of ending the death penalty, not only for the wrongfully incarcerated, but because he believes it is wrong to kill any human being. He understands the torture of existence on death row, and he knows first-hand of the impact of the death penalty on families and on society. Derrick was wrongfully-convicted in 1985 and sentenced to death. He always knew he was innocent and believed he would eventually be freed, but he endured 20 years on death row as an innocent man before he was exonerated. Derrick was scheduled to be executed six times but received a stay from the Governor each time. The last stay came just 90 minutes before he was set to be executed. A federal judge ordered a new trial for Derick in 2000 because prosecutors withheld key evidence. Even then, he remained wrongfully incarcerated on death row for another five years. Finally, in February 2005, Ohio Common Pleas Judge Richard Niehaus dismissed all charges against Derrick, three years after his conviction was overturned.
"I got sentenced to die October the 25th of 1985 and that became the worst day of my life. I walked out death row October 25th, 2005. So, the worst day of my life also became the best day of my life."
The above description of Derrick's story is an excerpt taken from a more detailed account of his story, found at the following link on the website of Witness to Innocence: https://www.witnesstoinnocence.org/single-post/derrick-jamison
During the two decades that Derrick sat on Ohio's death row, he watched approximately 18 of his friends walk to the death chamber, including a close friend who was executed on the same day that he was released from prison. Over the nearly two decades that have passed since his release from death row, Derrick has been futher traumatized by the news of many of his other friends on Ohio's death row being executed. On December 15, 2022, Derrick sat down with me at his home in Tampa, Florida to talk about the trauma that he has endured over the decades that have passed since he was sent to death row in Ohio.
Read more about Derrick's story in the link below: