LAWRENCE, Kansas – Herman Lindsey knows firsthand how “bad actors” can lead to wrongful convictions in capital murder cases.

After two witnesses who were threatened and promised compensation if they lied testified against him, Lindsey was convicted and sentenced to death. Lindsey, now acquitted, spoke at the University of Kansas on Saturday as part of the annual meeting of the Kansas Coalition Against the Death Penalty.

“So thanks to a lot of good people like you getting involved in this, innocent people are actually starting to be freed from this captivity,” Lindsey said.

Kansas hasn’t executed a single prisoner since 1965, but there are nine inmates on death row. The U.S. Supreme Court halted the death penalty in 1972, then paved the way for new death penalty laws in 1976. Kansas reinstated the death penalty in 1994.

Lindsey said one of the witnesses in his case was his ex-wife. Detectives threatened to take her children away and offered to pay $10,000 in damages if she testified as they instructed.

Mark Simms testified in exchange for a shorter sentence that Lindsey confessed to the murder when they shared a cell.

Promised a shorter sentence if he lied, prisoner Simms told Lindsey, “You have to do what you have to do to save yourself.” according to court documents.

12 year break

Lindsey was sentenced to death in 2006 for robbing and murdering a pawnshop owner in 1994. Lindsey had gone to the pawn shop four months before the murder and detectives had interviewed her because they believed Lindsey’s godbrother was connected to the crime. After Lindsey left the interview, she heard nothing from detectives for 12 years.

In 2006, Lindsey was told that she sounded “suspicious” in her first interview. Lindsey laughed as she was arrested because she knew she was innocent. He was offered a three-year prison sentence but he refused.

Lindsey’s pawn shop receipt was presented as evidence that she had planned the murder days in advance – which Lindsey said she found funny because the receipt was dated four months earlier. Lindsey accuses the indifferent jury of ignoring this detail.

Lindsey was exonerated in 2009 by an anonymous ruling by the Florida Supreme Court. The court ruled that there was no evidence to prove he was guilty of a crime.

Lindsey is currently executive director Witness to InnocenceA group of death row survivors who aim to abolish the death penalty. Lindsey travels the country to share her story and Works closely with the American Civil Liberties Union. ACLU wants Lindsey to be face of petition to President Joe Biden “Commute all federal death sentences” Before President-elect Donald Trump was inaugurated.

Followed by the annual meeting of the Kansas Coalition Against the Death Penalty ACLU asks state court to repeal death penalty in Kansas.

Robert Sanders, a member of the coalition’s board of directors, said the ACLU’s challenge to the Kansas law could eventually be heard in the U.S. Supreme Court. Sanders said he became less optimistic after the election results about “the direction things could go once they get to this level.”

Trump said this wants to restart federal executions and make more crimes eligible for the death penalty. Trump’s first term saw the highest number of federal executions since the late 1800s.

two party coalition

Sanders said Kansas has come close to abolishing the death penalty in the past. Members of the coalition include both Republicans and Democrats, and Sanders said it was a matter of timing.

“This year we’re talking about going all-in, and that’s what we’re asking people to be, all-in,” Sanders said.

The conference held breakout sessions where members would talk about the legality of the death penalty and the new structure of the Kansas Legislature.

The 2023 Gallup Crime Survey revealed for the first time: A majority of Americans believe the death penalty is unfairly applied.

“The one thing I remember about that time when I was sentenced to death was when it got emotional for me,” Lindsey said. “When I heard the words, ‘We, the people of the state of Florida, sentence you to death by lethal injection,’ it was a moment I will never forget.

“Because those particular words have stuck with me so much, I feel like it’s my job, my obligation, to educate people.”

This story was first published in the Kansas Reflector, a Phoenix affiliate of the nonprofit State Newsroom.