Parkland Jurors 'Voted Their Conscience' (Feat. Rev. Sharon Risher)
Just days apart from each other last week, two of the most high-profile death penalty cases in memory reached sharply different outcomes. The Supreme Court paved the way for the execution of Dylann Roof, the neo-Nazi behind the massacre at a historic Black church in Charleston. Then, two days later, a jury delivered a life sentence — rather than the capital punishment sought by the government — in the case of Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz. Several families of the Parkland victims expressed disgust at the latter verdict, saying that they were "devastated and shocked" that the jury gave Cruz life imprisonment rather than death. The three jurors who spared Cruz from capital punishment have a high-profile defender: the Rev. Sharon Risher, who lost her mother Ethel Lance and her cousins Tyzwana Sanders and Susie Jackson in the 2015 Charleston massacre at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. "They voted their conscience," Risher said of the jurors on the latest episode of the podcast. "They voted what they felt in their heart, and our legal system gives the jurors the power to take all the evidence in and to vote their conscience. And that's what they did. It took a lot for them to go against all of the others. It took courage to do that." The Rev. Risher explains how the profound loss of three of her family members in the Charleston church shooting led her on an unlikely patch toward anti-death penalty activism. She reflects on seeing her mother and cousins' murderer in court, moving beyond a desire for retribution, and shares sentiments in support for Parkland jurors as they increasingly come under criticism. GUEST: Rev. Sharon Risher SUBSCRIBE TO OUR OTHER PODCASTS: Court Junkie Sidebar They Walk Among America Coptales and Cocktails The Disturbing Truth Speaking Freely See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.