At the age of 18, Shujaa Graham was sent to Soledad Prison. While in prison, Graham taught himself to read, write, and even educated himself in history and world affairs. Graham became a leader of the growing movement within the California prison system just as the Black Panther movement was growing in the community. In 1973, Graham was framed for the death of a prison guard at the Deul Vocational Institute. In 1976, Graham was sent to death row only for the death conviction to be overturned three years later. A third trial ended in a hung jury and the fourth trial found him innocent of all charges. Graham is now an anti-death penalty advocate and motivational speaker. Curtis Edward McCarty was exonerated in 2007 after serving 21 years in prison. This included 19 years on death row for a 1982 murder that he didn’t commit. McCarty was convicted twice and sentenced to death three times based on misconduct and testimony from forensic analyst Joyce Gilchrist. Soon after the murder, in 1983, Gilchrist compared hairs from the crime scene with McCarty’s and found that they were not similar. Police interviewed McCarty several times over the next three years, but he was not arrested until 1985. At that time, Gilchrist secretly changed her notes and reversed her findings, saying now that the…show more content… He was sentenced to death in 1995 for the robbery and murder of a 65-year-old automotive junk dealer in Decatur, Alabama. Unable to afford an attorney, he was assigned two lawyers with no experience trying criminal cases. Despite being at home at the time of the murders and suffering from a crippling back injury, Drinkard was convicted and sentenced to death. In 2000, the Alabama Supreme Court ordered a new trial due to misconduct. With the help of the Southern Center for Human Rights, Drinkard won an acquittal in 2001. Since then, Gary has become an advocate for the abolishment of
