Zoe Rivka Panagopoulos
Change.org
Published in
4 min readOct 5, 2017

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There are currently 138 people on Ohio’s death row, most of whom don’t yet have scheduled executions. Twenty-five of those men will be executed over the next several years, according to a new schedule laid out by the state’s governor, John Kasich.

While some make the case that the death penalty puts innocent people at risk of execution in the face of deadly criminal justice system mistakes, others argue that the death sentence is wrong even for those who have been proven guilty.

Among them are Jane Quantrill, a woman engaged to Ohio death row inmate Robert Van Hook, who is scheduled to be executed next summer. Another is Darryl Ward, a pen pal and close friend of another inmate on Ohio’s death row who he refers to as “Mark” for the sake of anonymity. Both Quantrill and Ward are death penalty opponents; Quantrill worked for a group that provided aid to inmates on Alabama’s death row, and Ward is the New Zealand coordinator of Voices for Death Row Inmates as well as the founder of Dismas International.

How did you begin advocating for people on death row?

JQ: My mother was anti death penalty — that’s who I first learned about the death penalty from at a very young age.

I remember Australia’s last execution, on February 3rd, 1967: death by hanging. It took place in Melbourne, Australia, where I was born and grew up. I was only five years old, but remember feeling very sad. My mother’s friend, Nessie, knew the condemned man, Ronald Ryan’s mother.

In 1983, while living in Montgomery Alabama, my friend Eva asked if I would come work with her at the Alabama Prison Project, which provides aid — legal and other — to death row inmates. I jumped at the chance. I ended up visiting death row many times, meeting with inmates and their families.

DW: Voices for Death Row Inmates was founded in September 2009 as a UK based non-profit anti death penalty organization. We aim to educate the public on the death penalty and the harsh realities many men and women face on death row. We also provide penpals for death row inmates and full ongoing support for penpals and families of death row inmates. We strive to give every death row inmate a voice, so their voices can be heard.

I had been one of the administrators of Voices for Death Row Inmates for several years when I formed Dismas International in 2014. Dismas International is a death row ministry initiative named after St Dismas, who was the penitent thief crucified next to Jesus, and is the patron saint of condemned criminals.

The vision of Dismas International is establishing a network of people willing to pray for inmates on death row, and providing them with names of inmates to pray for, especially those whose executions are imminent, those who are especially suffering, and those who have requested prayer.

How did you come to know someone on Ohio’s death row?

JQ: My friendship with Robert Van Hook began in 2015. We would email each other, make phone calls, and send snail mail. We fell in love and on March 22nd, 2016, became engaged. We plan to marry in 2018. Presently, his execution date is July 18th, 2018. I pray this execution is stayed, but if not, I’ll be there so I am one of the last people he sees. He wants that.

DW: I have been writing to Mark for five and a half years. I had read how some death row inmates were in need of pen pals, and I felt called to become involved. So I contacted Linda, a friend with Voices for Death Row Inmates, and she put me in touch with Mark.

What would be the impact of the person you care about on Ohio’s death row being executed? Why is it important for you to fight to keep them alive?

JQ: Robert is my soul mate — killing him is killing half of me. He is not the same man as the one who killed back in 1985; He has been baptized Catholic, and 32 years on death row is more than enough punishment and torture. [Executing him] won’t bring back his victim, and his victim’s family isn’t going to feel closure after 33 years! He should not lose his life in a vain attempt at justice.

Robert doesn’t fear his execution, but I do. All the death penalty creates is more victims, like Robert’s family and me.

DW: It will be upsetting for this happen to someone who has become a friend, and even more frustrating to know it will have achieved no good whatsoever.

The death penalty creates new victims. Every person who is executed is somebody’s son or daughter, maybe somebody’s father or mother, and almost certainly somebody’s friend. Those close to them have done nothing to deserve the grief they will endure. We rightly sympathize with the grieving families of the original victims. So why should we turn a blind eye to the plight of the families of those executed?

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