WORLD DAY AGAINST THE DEATH PENALTY 2026
In the courtroom, there are sides.
There is the family of the person who was killed and the family of the person accused. There are people the system recognizes as victims and people it does not. There are people sentenced to death, including people later proven innocent. Grief, fear, loss, and injustice do not fit neatly within those lines, but the death penalty asks us to see people through them.
This World Day Against the Death Penalty, NCCADP invites you to Stories for Life, Across the Divide, a virtual conversation with four people whose lives have been changed by violence and capital punishment.
Lynda Simmons and Jean Parks are homicide victim family members. Brenda Hooks is the mother of a man formerly sentenced to death. Alfred Rivera spent nearly two years on North Carolina’s death row for a crime he did not commit before his exoneration.
Their experiences with the death penalty are different. Each knows what it means to encounter a system that assigns people roles and determines whose pain matters, often pushing people further apart in the aftermath of harm.
Lynda, Brenda, Alfred, and Jean will share their stories and talk about what they have learned from one another across the lines drawn by the death penalty. Their experiences ask us to consider a different response to harm, one that makes room for healing and accountability without more violence.
