We often hear the death penalty is needed to punish a small handful of the “worst of the worst” criminals. However, research shows the death penalty in North Carolina is used broadly and indiscriminately, with little regard for the strength of the evidence against defendants — a practice that puts innocent people in danger of being executed. Watch Leslie Lincoln’s story of being wrongly tried for her mother’s murder. Learn more about wrongful capital prosecutions and read Leslie’s full story at OnTrialForTheirLives.org.
CDPL attorney wins national prize for defending the condemned
Longtime CDPL attorney Ken Rose has been awarded the National Legal Aid & Defender Association‘s 2015 Kutak-Dodds Prize for his extraordinary commitment to defending indigent clients facing the death penalty. The association says: “Kenneth Rose is honored for his life-time commitment to public defense work for nearly 35 years in Georgia, Mississippi, and North Carolina. Rose has spent his entire career representing low-income clients on death row, many of whom are mentally ill and intellectually disabled. He has played a key role in advocacy efforts to limit the death penalty, helping to enact a North Carolina statute barring the death penalty for persons with intellectual disabilities and another that allowed death row prisoners to present statistical disparities and other evidence to show that race played an impermissible role in their cases.” Rose has also helped to free several innocent men from death row, the most recent of which was Henry McCollum.
Henderson Hill: 2014 Osborn Award Winner
Henderson Hill
Henderson has been a passionate and effective advocate for indigent capital defendants in North Carolina and across the country. He was the director of the North Carolina Resource Center from 1990-1995 and founded the Center for Death Penalty Litigation. After stepping down to join a civil rights firm, he continued to play an important role in the capital defense community. Most recently, Henderson was named Executive Director of the Eighth Amendment Project, which will help coordinate litigation strategies as well as drive legislation and policy, communications, grassroots organizing, and electoral strategy around capital punishment.
Winning the “unwinnable” cases
Henderson is best known for prevailing in seemingly unwinnable cases. He won life sentences in several high-profile cases, including:
- Brian Nichols in Fulton County, Georgia, who was on trial for the murders of a sitting judge, court reporter, sheriff’s sergeant, and federal agent. Henderson led the Nichols defense through jury selection and a highly publicized five-month trial, which brought him national acclaim.
- Kenneth Junior French, who was charged with killing four people and wounding six at a Fayetteville restaurant.
- Rodriguez Ferguson, who was charged with killing five people in Hoke County.
- Tim Allen, who was charged with killing a state highway patrol officer during a traffic stop on I-95.
Post-conviction and the heartbreak of execution
Henderson has also represented numerous individuals on direct appeal and in post-conviction. Several people were removed from death row because of his work:
- He won clemency for Anson Maynard in 1992 after uncovering evidence that led Gov. Martin to question Maynard’s guilt.
- John Oliver had his death sentence reversed in 1994 after Henderson proved that the state withheld significant evidence.
- He presented compelling evidence of ineffective assistance at trial that led to Jay Hardy’s removal from death row in 2005.
Henderson also experienced the pain of clients who were executed:
- Despite national attention and Henderson’s work that helped uncover evidence of David Junior Brown’s innocence, as well as the prosecution’s racist tactics, Brown was executed for the killings of a Moore County woman and her daughter.
- Henderson represented Elias Syriani, who was executed for the murder of his wife despite a remarkable clemency effort. That effort brought about a reconciliation between Syriani and his children, who had been estranged for many years.
Leadership in capital defense
Henderson has been a leader and mentor for many in the capital defense community, including fellows from the Fair Trial Initiative, the organization that created the Osborn Award. He has served on North Carolina’s Indigent Defense Services Commission, as well as the the CDPL Board.
CDPL is proud to revive the Osborn Award and to bestow it on such a worthy recipient. Like Kirk Osborn, Henderson is a fierce advocate and defender of his clients who honors and respects every contribution made to the defense of the client. He has dedicated his life to the honorable and difficult work of capital defense—and has done it remarkably well.