Gary Tyler is an artist and a spokesperson for justice. As a teenager, he was framed for shooting a white teen in Louisiana and sentenced to death by an all-white jury. He spent more than four decades at Angola Prison, where he galvanized a movement that grew to have national and international support. In prison, Gary became a freedom fighter, a mentor, head of the Drama Club, a hospice volunteer and a quilt artist. Upon his release, he got involved in the fight to end the death penalty. A quilt he worked on is in the National Museum of African-American History and Culture in D.C. Last year, Gary was awarded a Right of Return Fellowship and the 2024 Frieze LA Impact Prize, recognizing artists who use their talents to address social justice issues. He holds an honorary doctorate of fine arts from MassArt. Stitching Freedom is his first book.

George Kendall directs Squire Sanders’ Public Service Initiative, (PSI), a pro bono working group specializing in cases involving capital charges and innocence. He regularly assists colleagues with cases before the Supreme Court and appellate courts. After representing capital clients in private practice in Washington, D.C., George worked as a staff attorney for the ACLU’s Capital Representation Project and later at the NAACP LDF. His successes include helping to free Gary Tyler in 2016, as well as prison journalist Wilbert Rideau (2005), Herman Wallace (2013) and Albert Woodfox (2016). George has taught courses at Yale and elsewhere on the administration of capital punishment; currently he teaches an externship at Columbia. Among his numerous awards is the 2012 John Paul Stevens Guiding Hands of Counsel Award, presented by the American Bar Association Death Penalty Representation Project. George serves on the boards of the Equal Justice Initiative and Death Penalty Information Center.