Henderson Hill
Co-Director, RedressNC
Henderson Hill is the co-founder and co-director of Redress NC, a community-wide initiative to unwind decades of retributive policies and to refocus criminal justice administration to prioritise public safety, accountability, racial equity, and restoration of community. Redress NC is based in Charlotte where Henderson lives. But, this is only a very small part of Henderson’s decades-long work. As the Death Penalty Information Center wrote when he was recognized for ongoing contributions to the modern death penalty landscape, “Henderson Hill has dedicated his career to placing race and the death penalty on trial.”
Henderson’s past roles have included: Senior Counsel at the ACLU; director of the NC Death Penalty Resource Center (and its non-profit successor, the Center for Death Penalty Litigation); a partner at the civil rights law firm, Ferguson Stein Chambers; and director of the Federal Defenders of Western North Carolina. He also served as founding director of the 8th Amendment Project and now serves on the Advisory Council to the U.S. Campaign to End the Death Penalty. While at CDPL Henderson was instrumental in the passage of NC’s Racial Justice Act. He has represented clients on NC’s death row who were tragically executed.
Henderson is a graduate of Lehman College, CUNY, and Harvard Law. Henderson has taught courses on trial advocacy at UNC, Duke and Harvard law schools, and internationally. He has lectured widely on trial skills, death penalty jurisprudence and death penalty abolition. In 2007, he was inducted as a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers.
Henderson is a valuable participant in our Death Penalty Strategic Working Group and serves on NCCADP’s Advisory Circle. And increasingly, he enjoys his role as a grandfather.
Henderson’s past roles have included: Senior Counsel at the ACLU; director of the NC Death Penalty Resource Center (and its non-profit successor, the Center for Death Penalty Litigation); a partner at the civil rights law firm, Ferguson Stein Chambers; and director of the Federal Defenders of Western North Carolina. He also served as founding director of the 8th Amendment Project and now serves on the Advisory Council to the U.S. Campaign to End the Death Penalty. While at CDPL Henderson was instrumental in the passage of NC’s Racial Justice Act. He has represented clients on NC’s death row who were tragically executed.
Henderson is a graduate of Lehman College, CUNY, and Harvard Law. Henderson has taught courses on trial advocacy at UNC, Duke and Harvard law schools, and internationally. He has lectured widely on trial skills, death penalty jurisprudence and death penalty abolition. In 2007, he was inducted as a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers.
Henderson is a valuable participant in our Death Penalty Strategic Working Group and serves on NCCADP’s Advisory Circle. And increasingly, he enjoys his role as a grandfather.
Alfred Rivera
NC Death Row Exoneree, Homicide Survivor Family Member, Activist
Alfred Rivera short bio
Mr. Alfred Rivera was born in Brooklyn, New York, but he has deep roots in Puerto Rico where his family is from. Alfred lost his father to homicide when he was a child and his mother died only a few years later. As a young man, Alfred eventually moved to Winston-Salem and in 1997, at the age of 25, Alfred was wrongfully convicted for two murders and sentenced to death. He was acquitted and released from prison in 1999. While on death row four men were executed, each of whom Alfred knew.
Alfred’s re-entry from death row was difficult, and just a little over a year after his release from death row he was arrested on drug charges. He was finally released from federal prison in 2019 under the First Step Act.
Alfred was part of the first delegation of impacted people who met with Governor Cooper’s staff at the beginning of our commutation campaign which resulted in the governor commuting 15 death sentences. Alfred is also a powerful and frequent speaker for NCCADP, often serving as a panelist following a screening of the film Racist Roots. He is a member of our Survivor Family Engagement Group.
Alfred now lives in Winston-Salem and enjoys having contact with his three adult children.
Mr. Alfred Rivera was born in Brooklyn, New York, but he has deep roots in Puerto Rico where his family is from. Alfred lost his father to homicide when he was a child and his mother died only a few years later. As a young man, Alfred eventually moved to Winston-Salem and in 1997, at the age of 25, Alfred was wrongfully convicted for two murders and sentenced to death. He was acquitted and released from prison in 1999. While on death row four men were executed, each of whom Alfred knew.
Alfred’s re-entry from death row was difficult, and just a little over a year after his release from death row he was arrested on drug charges. He was finally released from federal prison in 2019 under the First Step Act.
Alfred was part of the first delegation of impacted people who met with Governor Cooper’s staff at the beginning of our commutation campaign which resulted in the governor commuting 15 death sentences. Alfred is also a powerful and frequent speaker for NCCADP, often serving as a panelist following a screening of the film Racist Roots. He is a member of our Survivor Family Engagement Group.
Alfred now lives in Winston-Salem and enjoys having contact with his three adult children.
Dr. Seth Kotch
Associate Professor of American Studies at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, Author of Lethal State: A History of the Death Penalty in North Carolina
Seth Kotch is an Associate Professor in the Department of American Studies at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. He conducts research in modern American history (specially the social history of criminal justice). His book, Lethal State: A History of the Death Penalty in North Carolina, was published by UNC Press in 2019. The Center for Death Penalty’s landmark film, Racist Roots, which NCCADP has shared widely across the state, is based on Seth’s research and published work. His new project is Leviathan: A History of the Death Penalty in the American South.
Seth’s digital projects include “A Red Record,” a student-driven project exploring lynching and its victims in the American South, and he is the Lead Principal Investigator of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Inc., Oral History Project, a partnership with the NAACP LDF, Inc., to document that organization’s history of civil rights advocacy.
Seth’s digital projects include “A Red Record,” a student-driven project exploring lynching and its victims in the American South, and he is the Lead Principal Investigator of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Inc., Oral History Project, a partnership with the NAACP LDF, Inc., to document that organization’s history of civil rights advocacy.
Rep. Vernetta Alston
NC House Democratic Conference Chair
Vernetta was born in Durham, NC and has spent her entire life in the Triangle. She and her wife, Courtney, are raising their children, Reese and Davis, in southwest Durham.
In 2004, Vernetta received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from North Carolina State University. Five years later, she completed her law degree at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Vernetta’s first job out of law school was as a staff attorney for the Racial Justice Act Study following the passage of the Racial Justice Act in the fall of 2009. Vernetta spent the next several years of her practice working at the Center for Death Penalty Litigation. There she represented people sentenced to death in a variety of appellate court cases and educated North Carolinians across the state about flaws in our criminal justice system. In 2014, through the work of the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission, one of Vernetta’s clients, Henry McCollum, was exonerated and released from Death Row.
In 2017, Vernetta continued her public service on the Durham City Council, where she served for two years. In 2020, Governor Roy Cooper appointed Vernetta to the North Carolina House of Representatives. She was elected to her first full term in the same year.
As a member of the House, Rep. Alston has advocated for well-funded schools, safe communities, health care, and a strong environment for economic growth. She has fought for more resources for educators and for law enforcement. She has become a leader in housing policy. Vernetta also continues to be a death penalty abolition champion and introduced a bill to repeal the death penalty in 2021. In 2025, she spoke passionately against both house bill 270 which sought to add execution methods in NC and house bill 307 which passed and tragically made the resumption of executions more likely in our state.
Vernetta serves on NCCADP’s Advisory Circle. Prior to that she was on NCCADP’s Board of Directors.
In 2004, Vernetta received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from North Carolina State University. Five years later, she completed her law degree at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Vernetta’s first job out of law school was as a staff attorney for the Racial Justice Act Study following the passage of the Racial Justice Act in the fall of 2009. Vernetta spent the next several years of her practice working at the Center for Death Penalty Litigation. There she represented people sentenced to death in a variety of appellate court cases and educated North Carolinians across the state about flaws in our criminal justice system. In 2014, through the work of the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission, one of Vernetta’s clients, Henry McCollum, was exonerated and released from Death Row.
In 2017, Vernetta continued her public service on the Durham City Council, where she served for two years. In 2020, Governor Roy Cooper appointed Vernetta to the North Carolina House of Representatives. She was elected to her first full term in the same year.
As a member of the House, Rep. Alston has advocated for well-funded schools, safe communities, health care, and a strong environment for economic growth. She has fought for more resources for educators and for law enforcement. She has become a leader in housing policy. Vernetta also continues to be a death penalty abolition champion and introduced a bill to repeal the death penalty in 2021. In 2025, she spoke passionately against both house bill 270 which sought to add execution methods in NC and house bill 307 which passed and tragically made the resumption of executions more likely in our state.
Vernetta serves on NCCADP’s Advisory Circle. Prior to that she was on NCCADP’s Board of Directors.
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