The Sant'Egidio Community to offer a seminar on "Cities for Life"

Billy Moore will give a conference entitled “No Justice Without Life”, in which he will explain his personal story of being sentenced to death for the murder of Fred Stapleton and how he spent 17 years on death row in a prison in Georgia.

22/11/2017

The Sant’Egidio Community will be offering a seminar entitled “Cities for Life, Cities Against the Death Penalty” which will take place on 27 November at 12 noon at the conference hall of the Faculty of Law. The event will include a speech by Billy Moore entitled “No Justice Without Life”.

Billy Moore was sentenced to death on 4 April 1974 for the muder of Fred Stapleton. After a three-hour trial in which he plead guilty to the murder, he was sentenced to death by electric chair by a single judge and with no jury. Once he was on death row, he decided to contact the family of the man he had murdered and ask for their forgiveness. Stapleton's family was Christian and not only did they forgive him, they also maintained contact with him and petitioned the courts to set Billy Moore free.

In 1991 Moore was set free thanks to the support of the victim's family and renowned figures such as Reverend Jesse Jackson and Mother Teresa of Calcutta. In 2005 he published his autobiography I Shall Not Die: Seventy-two Hours on Death Watch (AuthorHouse 2005). Billy Moore currently travels the world speaking about the power of peace and trying to convince political leaders to intervene in urban areas in which crime too often is the only alternative for young people.