Shujaa Graham
Shujaa Graham
spent five years in prison, three years on death row for a crime he did not commit.
“It was hard for me to fully forgive. ‘Cause if I don’t fully forgive, I can never fully love. So the degree in which I forgive will determine the degree in which I can love again. I just sometimes wish everybody could really understand the depth of the pain. I wish I could turn back the hands of time, but I can't. All I can do is do the best I can in the final days that I have left. And that's to do good. I'm not a religious person, but I got one goal in mind, that's to do good. I'm not perfect, but that's my goal. It is a battle each and every day, but that's why they call it the struggle, you know?”
Shujaa now lives in Takoma Park, Maryland with his partner, Phyllis Prentice, and both are active members of Witness to Innocence. Shujaa serves as WTI's Peer Organizer, providing guidance and support to other exonerees, and was previously Vice Chair. He travels the country giving impassioned lectures on the death penalty, the criminal justice system, racism, and gang violence to people around the world.
“It was hard for me to fully forgive. ‘Cause if I don’t fully forgive, I can never fully love. So the degree in which I forgive will determine the degree in which I can love again. I just sometimes wish everybody could really understand the depth of the pain. I wish I could turn back the hands of time, but I can't. All I can do is do the best I can in the final days that I have left. And that's to do good. I'm not a religious person, but I got one goal in mind, that's to do good. I'm not perfect, but that's my goal. It is a battle each and every day, but that's why they call it the struggle, you know?”
Shujaa now lives in Takoma Park, Maryland with his partner, Phyllis Prentice, and both are active members of Witness to Innocence. Shujaa serves as WTI's Peer Organizer, providing guidance and support to other exonerees, and was previously Vice Chair. He travels the country giving impassioned lectures on the death penalty, the criminal justice system, racism, and gang violence to people around the world.