2021 speakers:
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China/Tibet
Dhondup Wangchen is a Tibetan filmmaker who was imprisoned by the Chinese government in 2008 on charges related to his documentary Leaving Fear Behind. Dhondup Wangchen was sentenced to six years' imprisonment for subversion. Numerous international human rights organizations protested his detention, including Amnesty International, which named him a prisoner of conscience. In 2012, he was awarded the International Press Freedom Award of the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists. Get on the Bus activists rallied in front of the Chinese Mission to the United Nations at each GOTB from 2009 until 2014, calling for Dhondup Wangchen's immediate and unconditional release, and organized other actions year-round during his imprisonment, which ended in June 2014. Several of his family members have joined us as past GOTB speakers, including his wife Lhamo Tso, his son Tenzin Norbu, and his daughter Lhamo Dolma. We are thrilled to be hosting Dhondup Wangchen at Get on the Bus 2021! |
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China/Tibet
Tenzin Yangzom, Grassroots Coordinator for Students for a Free Tibet. Bio coming soon. |
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Sri Lanka
Babu Ram Pant of Amnesty International. Bio coming soon |
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U.S. Death Penalty
Derrick Jamison: 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. The death penalty didn't kill me. But it killed my mom and my dad, my two aunts, my biggest support…because our family was really close, you know… Jesus was executed at the age of 33- why are we still executing human beings? Derrick was in his apartment complex with 5 of his friends during the time of the murder for which he was wrongfully convicted, yet these friends who could attest to his alibi were not brought in to testify on his behalf. When an eyewitness to the killing of the Cincinnati bartender was shown photos of suspects by police, he identified two men. Neither of them was Derrick Jamison. This information, along with 35 pieces of evidence, was withheld from Derrick’s trial, and his co-defendant was promised a reduced sentence in exchange for implicating Derrick. Based on this false testimony, Derrick was 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 his exoneration. 20 years of missed milestones, celebrations, loves and losses. Both his parents and other loved ones died while he was there, unable to comfort his family members or grieve alongside them. "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." Derrick was raised to see the good inside all people. He sees the humanity in everyone and believes we are all capable of change, and that extended to the people he grew to know in prison. In describing his fellow inmates when was first taken to death row, Derrick says some of them looked like babies…that's how young we were. I guess I would look the real young too- I was 23 then, you know. I looked at it as they were some young people that made some really awful mistakes and they shouldn't have had to pay for them with their lives. The mistake they made when they were young cost them their lives. |
Like other death row inmates, Derrick experienced profound isolation, the fear of impending execution and the grief of watching those he grew to know be taken to their executions. In the process of being on death row, waiting for my freedom, I watched 18 of my friends get executed.... The day they planned for my release from death row, they were planning to execute my friend in a cell right across from me. He was executed in the late morning hours. Even knowing some were guilty of horrible crimes, it still hurt to see your friends that you grow up with on death row be executed. Cause you ain't got nobody but them…all y'all got is one another. Then they killed them, so you don't have nobody.
Despite his own suffering Derrick looked upon his fellow inmates with compassion, as he does to this day with his fellow exonerated death row survivors at Witness to Innocence. He worried about those who had no friends or family visiting. Looking out for one another often meant talking through the walls and vents, because as on most death rows, they were isolated. Never be able to hug. Never be the able to hug your mom and brothers and sisters again, before you get executed. 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. (Source: https://www.witnesstoinnocence.org/single-post/derrick-jamison) |
