Home » Former death row inmate to be guest speaker at Gateway Community and Technical College

Former death row inmate to be guest speaker at Gateway Community and Technical College

Gary Drinkard was exonerated six years after conviction

Gary Drinkard
Gary Drinkard

EDGEWOOD, Ky. (Sept. 17, 2014) — A man who spent nearly six years on death row before being exonerated in a retrial, will be the featured speaker at 7 p.m. on Sept. 24 at Gateway Community and Technical College.

Gary Drinkard was sentenced to death in 1995 for the robbery and murder of a 65-year-old automobile junk dealer in Decatur, Ala. Unable to afford an attorney, Drinkard was assigned two lawyers with no experience trying criminal cases. Despite saying he was at home at the time of the murder and that he was suffering from a debilitating back injury, Drinkard was convicted and sentenced to death.

In 2000, the Alabama Supreme Court ordered a new trial because of prosecutorial misconduct, and with the help of the Southern Center for Human Rights, Drinkard won an acquittal in 2001.

Drinkard’s appearance is part of an outreach program of Witness to Innocence, a national organization made up of and led by exonerated death row survivors and their family members.

Drinkard’s presentation, which is open to the public, will take place in Room E101 at the Student Services Center on the Edgewood Campus, 790 Thomas More Parkway, Edgewood.