A Death Row Exoneree Speaks out Against the Death Penalty

Anthony Graves, who served 18 years on Texas’s death row for a murder he didn’t commit, recently spoke to the Huffington Post about his life post-exoneration and his work to abolish the death penalty. Graves says that he is no longer naïve about the state of criminal justice in America, and he has devoted his life to reforming the system that nearly took his life.

“We are the only nation, the only democratic nation, acting like a third world country when it comes to our criminal justice system. We are supposed to be the nation that leads the world. Yet, we have created a system that threatens the life of innocent people. As of today, 139 people have been exonerated from death in the United States. And, yet, we are still killing. How many did we get wrong?”

Since his 2010 release, he has become the Director of Community Outreach at the Texas Defender Service and an outspoken criminal justice reform advocate.



Read the full story here.

Read more about Graves case.

Read about the 17 DNA exonerees who served time on death row.