According to the nonprofit Humans Remain, 34 men and one woman on Mississippi’s death row are using the group’s online platform to share personal stories, academic work and creative writing with the public.
Co-founder Liz McCann, who is based outside London, said the project grew from years of phone calls, video chats and tablet messages with men at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman. McCann said the group celebrated its first anniversary this weekend and that a core group of about nine men actively help run the nonprofit.
Profiles on the site describe daily life and interests. McCann said entries include self-introductions from inmates such as Abdur Rahim Ambrose Sr., who writes that he enjoys fixing things; Kelvin Lashaun Jordan, who works on puzzles and writes poetry; and Tim Ronk, who says he likes fantasy fiction. “The guys have a platform to talk … and for people to try and understand that, perhaps, they’re not their worst 15 minutes,” McCann said.
Joesph Patri Brown, who according to Humans Remain has been on death row more than 30 years after a conviction in the shooting death of a convenience store clerk in Adams County, has published a book critiquing the death penalty. Brown, quoted in a message shared by McCann, said Humans Remain gives a voice to people he described as “no longer voiceless and faceless” in what he called an inhumane system.
McCann said the group’s website includes journal entries, case updates, educational material about the death penalty and videos the men help produce. She said some inmates have noted differences in housing and food at Parchman’s Unit 17, where a kitchen team and a garden supply fresh produce, while Lisa Jo Chamberlin — the only woman on Mississippi’s death row — remains in segregated housing with restricted phone and class access, a location the site lists as the Delta Correctional Facility. McCann also noted that Mississippi uses lethal injection and that the state in 2022 authorized additional methods, which she said have not been used.
Jon Ross Myers is the executive editor and publisher of the Mississippi News Network, Mississippi's largest digital only media company. He can be reached at editor@tippahnews.com
