Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. shared these words in his 1963 book Strength to Love. Over the last week, I have been reading a lot of Dr. King’s words as I look for guidance to keep my head above the water. I am weary. Likely you are too. I am weary with all the confusion and chaos and clinging to the myth of redemptive violence that seems to be our culture’s default position.

I have been struck this week by the litanies from many in leadership who rightly affirm the failure of violence to solve our problems, while in their next breath, they call for the execution of those who perpetrate it. The maintenance of the death penalty in our nation when so many other nations have long since abandoned it is a telling indicator of our attachment to this form of state violence, an attachment that defies our own logic and belies our words.

In his 1964 Nobel Peace Prize lecture, Dr. King stated, “Violence is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all. It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding: it seeks to annihilate rather than convert. Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. It destroys community and makes brotherhood (sisterhood) impossible. It leaves society in monologue rather than dialogue. Violence ends up defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers.”

“It leaves society in a monologue rather than a dialogue.” And that is exactly what it feels like right now to me in our sound byte, siloed, social media world. How do we grow as human beings, how do we solve hard problems, how do we create opportunities for healing and hope if we are only talking to ourselves, only listening to the echo of our own voice or voices that sound just like our own?

One of the strengths of TADP is that we never shy away from hard conversations. If people are willing to sit down, share honestly, and listen respectfully, we are too. We may not agree at the end of the conversation, but we will have created a relationship that we can keep building on, step by step, conversation by conversation.

The truth is that there is no us and them…only us. And we must not give up on us. We must keep reaching out, keep sharing, keep listening, and keep believing that a way forward is possible.

I will close with more of Dr. King’s words from his Nobel Peace Prize lecture. His words are as true today as they were when he spoke them 61 years ago:

This call for a worldwide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond one’s tribe, race, class, and nation is in reality a call for an all-embracing and unconditional love for all men (people). This oft misunderstood and misinterpreted concept so readily dismissed by the Nietzsches of the world as a weak and cowardly force, has now become an absolute necessity for the survival of man (humanity). When I speak of love I am not speaking of some sentimental and weak response which is little more than emotional bosh. I am speaking of that force which all of the great religions have seen as the supreme unifying principle of life. Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality…Let us hope that this spirit will become the order of the day…We can no longer afford to worship the God of hate or bow before the altar of retaliation. The oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever-rising tides of hate. History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued this self-defeating path of hate. Love is the key to the solution of the problems of the world.

Peace and love,

Stacy

On August 5, 2025, Tennessee executed Byron Black in an execution that media witnesses described as causing Mr. Black pain and distress. He even raised his head multiple times during the execution process saying, “It hurts so bad.” Not only is such a torturous execution unconstitutional but so too is executing a man with undisputed intellectual disability. For a state that purports to be about law and order, this execution represents a flagrant violation of both.

Mr. Black’s attorney, Kelley Henry, made a powerful statement after the execution. We would like to share it with you now and invite you to join with us in this fight to end the death penalty.

Attorney Kelley Henry Statement on the Execution of Byron Black, a Person With Intellectual Disability

“What happened here was the result of pure, unbridled bloodlust and cowardice. It was the brutal and unchecked abuse of government power. It was the result of a failed criminal legal system that countenanced, even rewarded, attorneys who told half-truths and untruths.

Today, the State of Tennessee killed a gentle, kind, fragile, intellectually disabled man in violation of the laws of our country simply because they could. No one in a position of power, certainly not the courts, was willing to stop them.

And if you think that what happened is just about one man, you are wrong. We are witnessing the erosion of the rule of law and every principle of human decency on which this country was founded. Today, it is Byron. Tomorrow, it will be someone you care about.

The people who made this happen are not telling the public the truth. They should feel shame, but they seem incapable.

I represented Byron Black for 25 years. And for 25 years, every visit with Byron was filled with stories of family. He would fill me in on the milestones of his sisters, nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, and cousins. He was so proud of them. Every year since 1965 Byron’s huge extended family would come from all 50 states for family reunions. Each of the 37 years he was incarcerated, they would remember Byron at these reunions and his sisters would fill him in on the gatherings. Last night, Byron spoke of the family reunion he would have with his ancestors in Heaven. I asked him what he thought it would be like to see his mom. He said she will run to him and pull him into her arms and say, “Son, I have been waiting for you.”

Byron was a person who cared about other people. He was proud of the fact that he never missed a birthday. Each January, he would take out a makeshift calendar and write down everyone’s birthday so that he could be sure to send them a card. His friends in Unit 2 would help him with this task.

Last night, Byron spoke of the birthday cards and how people always appreciated them. “I touched so many people,” he said. Then he said, “you have a birthday coming up. I’m sorry that I won’t be able to send you a card, but I’ll be thinking about you.”

He expressed gratitude to his legal team, all of his supporters, and to the prison staff who had been kind to him while he was on death watch.

Byron left this world with words of grace, mercy, and love.

I wish I could share these sentiments. I do not.

The State of Tennessee heartlessly and intentionally traumatized a second family today. A family that matters. A family that is devastated.

May God have mercy on their souls. I know that he has mercy for Byron.”

–Kelley Henry, Attorney for Byron Black

In a powerful press conference on July 24 in Nashville, Tennessee advocates and service providers for those with intellectual disability asked Governor Lee to stop the execution of Byron Black, a man with intellectual disability, who is scheduled for execution on August 5.

“Nothing about Mr. Black’s intellectual disability has changed; only the legal understanding of his condition based on sound science. If Mr. Black were on trial today, he would not be eligible for the death penalty.” –Zoe Jamail, advocate for people with disabilities

“Governor Lee, if there is ever a time for an executive to bestow mercy, it is to ensure Tennessee does not knowingly and intentionally violate the law by executing a man with intellectual disability.” –Donna DeStefano, service provider and advocate for those with intellectual disability for forty years

“We extend our deepest sympathies to the victims of his crimes and their friends and families, and we do not absolve him of this crime. We are here about the law that is in place today, and it is based on that that we are asking Gov. Lee to commute Byron Black’s sentence. We are asking Gov. Lee to reaffirm that Tennessee does not execute citizens with intellectual disabilities.” –Sarah Sampson, the executive director of the Tennessee Disability Coalition

Watch the story on WKRN and the full press conference.

TAKE ACTION: Send Governor Lee a letter asking him to grant clemency to Byron Black and call him at 615-741-2001.

TADP joins with people across the nation today to celebrate Juneteenth, commemorating that day in 1865 when enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas, were informed of their freedom, two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation.

Juneteenth is a day to remember just how far we have come in the work for racial equity, to acknowledge just how far we still have to go, and to work together to keep moving forward.

The death penalty is a vestige of our nation’s history of slavery and lynching, and race continues to deter­min­e how police, court sys­tems, and the gen­er­al pub­lic respond to crime.

In order to confront our nation’s past and create a future where life is more valued and healing is prioritized, we must persist in our work to prevent executions and eradicate capital punishment.

To that end, TADP invites you to commemorate Juneteenth by joining us as a monthly donor as we work to dismantle the racist death penalty system once and for all.

Because of your past support, TADP was able to partner with Tennessee Disability Coalition in 2021 to successfully advocate for a law to modernize the definition of intellectual disability and provide a path into court for those on death row with such claims. This law has resulted in the resentencing of two men, Pervis Payne and Michael Sample, from death to life. These men no longer live under the threat of a death sentence because of what we were able to do.

But others with intellectual disability still remain on death row and face execution.

On August 5, 2025, Tennessee plans to execute Byron Black, a man living with an intellectual disability. Both defense attorneys and prosecutors agree that Mr. Black has an intellectual disability and should be resentenced to life, but in a hearing in 2022, Judge Walter Kurtz refused to do so.  

If Byron Black is executed, it will be in violation of both the Tennessee and U.S. Constitutions.

We need your support as a monthly donor to fight against this unconstitutional execution and any others that may follow.

Thank you for your support, and Happy Juneteenth!

On Thursday, May 22, the State of Tennessee executed Oscar Smith, a man who had been on Tennessee’s death row for 35 years. This was Tennessee’s first execution in five years.

Governor Lee chose not to stop this execution, though no court had reviewed Tennessee’s secretive new lethal injection protocol.

Prior to the execution, Federal Defender Kelley Henry stated, “There is no principled reason to allow the State to resume executions before the court has an opportunity to hear all of the evidence about whether TDOC (Tennessee Department of Correction) is sourcing its lethal chemicals legally, whether those chemicals are uncontaminated, unexpired, and undiluted, and whether the execution team is capable of carrying out its duties competently and constitutionally. Tennessee can do better than this.” 

Read the full article.

Thanks to all of you who sent letters, made calls, shared actions, and attended events to prevent this execution.

Though we worked tirelessly for a different outcome, our efforts did raise awareness of just how broken the death penalty system is while putting pressure on state leaders to finally acknowledge the failure of the death penalty to meet the real needs of victims and to make our state safer.

Fifty-one victims of violence and surviving family members of murder victims signed and delivered a letter to Governor Lee, asking him to use the exorbitant amount of state dollars currently expended to pursue executions to instead fund victim services and solve unsolved murders.

Watch their press conference here.

These victims and their families were met at the door to the governor’s office by a Tennessee State Trooper who told them that no one from Governor Lee’s staff was available to receive the letter, though the office had been alerted to the timing of the letter delivery the day before. This was incredibly disappointing for these brave individuals whose voices have already been sidelined by the current legal system and in whose name some politicians continue to justify the death penalty.

TADP will continue to organize those who are directly impacted by this failed policy, including victims of violence, surviving family members of murder victims, and death row exonerees. These impacted people will keep speaking out about why the death penalty system does not meet the needs of the vast majority of victims of violence and surviving families in our state and how it continues to risk the execution of the innocent.

The governor can expect more letters to be delivered to his office.

Currently in Tennessee, Byron Black has an execution date of August 5, and Harold Nichols has a date of December 11.

TADP will keep you updated on actions you can take to make your voice heard to prevent these executions and to center policies that support those who are most harmed by violence instead of policies that do more harm.

Tennessee victims of violence and surviving families of murder victims gathered for a press conference on May 8th to urge Governor Lee to continue the pause on executions and instead invest state resources into real solutions that support healing for crime survivors as well as violence prevention. Following the press conference, the group delivered a letter to the governor’s office signed by 51Tennesseans who are victims of violence or surviving families of murder victims.

Quotes from the Press Conference:

As a mother of a murdered son, I am pleading with Governor Lee not to create any more grieving families and to maintain the current pause on executions. What truly helps victims is access to trauma recovery services, financial and funeral assistance, counseling, safe housing, and violence prevention programs. The death penalty drains resources from programs that could provide real and immediate relief to all victims and their families. TADP Community Outreach Director Rafiah Muhammad-McCormick

Tennessee spends millions of tax dollars to pursue executions for a handful of people who have already been incarcerated for decades while hundreds of Tennessee families continue to wait for their loved ones’ cases to be solved and to access help for their recovery. Chapter Leader of the Greater Memphis Parents of Murdered Children and surviving family member C.L. “Tim” Williams

Some in my family supported his execution, and others did not. The added trauma and pain that this division caused is still there today and has broken relationships within our family. At a time when we needed one another the most, the death penalty tore us apart. I urge Governor Lee to reinvest resources currently used on the death penalty, to support grieving families like mine, to bring them together and help them heal. As someone who has lived through this experience, I can tell you that the death penalty did not foster healing for my family, only division. Reverend Timothy Holton whose young cousins Stephen, Brent, Eric, and Kayla Holton, who were murdered by their father, Daryl in 1997. Daryl was later executed by the State of Tennessee.

Kennetha Patterson, whose brother’s life was taken by murder, read the letter in its entirety before the group proceeded to walk to Governor Lee’s office.

Watch this powerful press conference on Facebook Live and share widely to amplify the voices of these impacted people who need to be heard.

I recently had a detached retina. Not something I would recommend. I had emergency surgery in February and then laser surgery in March. Despite weeks of having to sleep sitting up, along with no yoga, I am almost 100%. Almost.

The detached retina and the ensuing surgery caused the vision in my left eye to deteriorate. My current glasses’ prescription doesn’t touch the blurring in that eye now. I have made an appointment to get a new prescription but can’t get in to see the doctor until the end of next month. In the meantime, the vision in my right eye is practically 20/20. Nothing but a blur in my left. Still as the days pass, I am becoming accustomed to seeing in this wobbly way.

As I sat in a dimly lit church today for the Good Friday service, I squinted to make out faces. The flames from the candles appeared in multiples, and I held my hymn book close to my face to see the words. As the ministers read John’s account of Jesus arrest and execution, I could almost recite it.

It’s that familiar to most Christians. The story of Jesus’ crucifixion, an act of unconditional love and sacrifice, is central to our faith story. And we can clearly see that truth in the story. To be honest, we have seen it this way for so long that it is the only way many of us can see this story.

But there are layers, as with most stories. It is also a story about an execution, specifically Jesus’ execution, along with at least two other people. And the parallels in the gospel account to the capital punishment system today are everywhere, including guilt or innocence being beside the point.

The Good Friday story, whether we like it or not, is a story of the State’s use of violence to control a population and punctuate its own power. It’s the story of politicians who are more concerned with the optics of an execution and its impact on their positions than on justice and truth. It’s the story about the need for the powers that be to make an example of someone, anyone, and most often society’s “no one.”

I wonder how many Christians read this story today in Tennessee and how many know that the state plans to resume executions? I wonder how many of our state leaders read this story today and made that connection themselves? With which character in the story do they identify? With whom do we identify? When a dying Jesus says, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do?”, what is he asking forgiveness for?

These are questions that I have, questions about our vision for those of us who identify as Christians. Have we developed tunnel vision in our understanding of Good Friday? Is this just a beloved story about personal salvation or does the story have implications for who we are and how we live together every day? What does Good Friday ask of us and how might it be calling us in this moment and in this time to check our vision, to see other human beings in all their brokenness as God sees them?

—TADP Executive Director Reverend Stacy Rector

P.S. Please consider reaching out to Governor Lee, if you haven’t already, and ask him not to resume executions. There are too many unanswered questions and too much tunnel vision. Take action today.

After five years with no executions in our state, the Tennessee Supreme Court has set execution dates for four men on Tennessee’s death row.

The dates set by the court are:

Oscar Smith, May 22

Byron Black, August 5

Donald Middlebrooks, September 24

Harold Nichols, December 11

Now is the time to ask Governor Lee to stop these executions.

The new lethal injection protocol recently announced by the Tennessee Department of Correction is more secretive than the previous protocol, despite the governor’s insistence that the process be transparent. The new protocol also relies on pentobarbital, a drug that has been shown to cause unconstitutional suffering in those who are executed.

TAKE ACTION NOW and let Governor Lee know that resuming executions does not make us safer. The resources Tennessee spends on executions should instead go to support those harmed by violence and on violence prevention initiatives.

BACKGROUND: In 2022, prior to the release of the findings of an independent review of Tennessee’s problematic lethal injection protocol, Governor Bill Lee stated, “To ensure continued transparency for Tennesseans, we will publicly share the report and any additional action when our internal assessment is complete.” In a press statement about the release of the report, the governor went on to say, “I have thoroughly reviewed the findings in the independent investigator’s report and am directing several actions to ensure the Tennessee Department of Correction adheres to the proper protocol.”

On January 9, 2025, after initially refusing to release the new execution protocol to the media, the Tennessee Department of Correction released a redacted version. The new protocol is noticeably shorter than the previous one and includes only a single page on the lethal injection chemicals with no specific directions for testing of the drugs. The new protocol also removes a requirement that the drug, pentobarbital, come from a licensed pharmacist and authorizes the state to deviate from the protocol whenever the commissioner deems it necessary. The protocol is supposed to act as Tennessee’s own official set of rules governing its execution process, so by its very nature it cannot be open to deviation on a whim.  

Then on January 16, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it was withdrawing the federal government’s lethal injection protocol based on concerns that execution by pentobarbital may cause unconstitutional pain and suffering. The DOJ’s review of the use of this drug for lethal injection confirms what medical experts have said for years: pentobarbital causes excruciating pain when used to carry out executions and violates the Eighth Amendment. The use of pentobarbital in executions also creates a serious risk of trauma to the correctional staff who are charged with carrying out executions. The greater the secrecy around this protocol, the greater the risk of harm to TDOC employees.

On December 23, 2024, President Joe Biden commuted 37 federal death sentences to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, representing the largest number of death sentences commuted by any President in the modern era.

YOUR ACTIONS mattered in achieving this result. Thank you!

Calls for President Biden to act had been growing as letters from hundreds of individuals and groups, including TADP and other state advocates, business leaders, Black pastors, Catholics, innocence organizations, prosecutors, former judges, mental health and intellectual disability advocates, victim family members, were made public, stressing concerns about the federal death penalty system that warranted commutations.

This decision means that no federal prisoner will be at imminent risk of execution under the incoming administration. During President-elect Trump’s first term, the federal government carried out 13 executions in a seven-month period, an unprecedented number and pace.

A majority of those executed during this execution spree were people of color, while several had claims of intellectual disability, severe mental illness, racial bias, prosecutorial misconduct, and other serious problems in their cases.

The cases of those whose sentences were commuted reflect many of these same problems, and much like the cases of those executed, the courts have been unable or unwilling to address those problems.

“This is a historic day,” said Martin Luther King, III, who publicly urged the President to commute the federal death row. “By commuting these sentences, President Biden has done what no President before him was willing to do: take meaningful and lasting action not just to acknowledge the death penalty’s racist roots but also to remedy its persistent unfairness.”

Today is another historic day as we celebrate Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and inaugurate a new president. But it is also a day that raises concerns for many of us. We are concerned about the future of our democracy, the growing divide between the haves and the have nots, the climate crisis, and the epidemic of gun violence, among many other things. We may feel disillusioned and powerless as we take stock of all that we face. The challenges seem too great.

Celebrating Dr. King today is a antidote to that disillusionment and powerlessness. This day we celebrate knowing that our nation has faced hard times before. Dr. King’s own life and death remind us of the risk we take when we follow his example to stand for justice as well as what we can achieve.

Because we did not give up or give in, President Biden commuted the death sentences of 37 men. They will live because our collective action mattered. It happened because we made it happen. And, we will keep acting and speaking and marching and voting and praying and singing and whatever we must to ensure that Dr. King’s legacy endures–with justice rolling down like water and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream–no matter how long it takes or how hard the journey is.

Friends, never underestimate what we can do together.

Photo: Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929 – 1968) holds a press conference at the Savoy Hotel in London, UK, September 1964. (Photo by Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)