Sabrina Butler was 17 years old when she found her infant son, Walter, had stopped breathing. She tried to revive him, but by the time Walter reached the emergency room it was too late. The medics who tried to save Walter found bruises on his body and called the police. Those bruises led to Sabrina’s arrest the very next day.
Butler complained her state appointed attorney in Mississippi was often drunk and failed to interview her or engage in any part of her defense. She was still a teenager when she was convicted of her son’s murder, and sentenced to die in 1990. She spent nearly three years on death row, and five years in prison before her murder and child abuse convictions were remanded and reversed.
Through closer inspection of the evidence, investigators found Walter’s bruises were the result of Sabrina performing CPR to revive him. Ultimately, it was determined Walter’s death was the result of a kidney illness Butler’s daughter also suffers.
Butler is now committed to killing the thing that almost killed her. She has written a book about her experience and is active in Witness to Innocence, an organization dedicated to empowering exonerated death row survivors to be the most powerful and effective voice in the struggle to end the death penalty in the United States.
As part of our work with The Kentucky Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (KCADP), we brought Butler to Kentucky to share her story in late November 2013. Here's where the tour stopped:
Monday, November 18, 2013: Campbellsville University, Administration Building (AD 15)
Tuesday, November 19, 2013: Murray Satellite Campus-Hopkinsville, Multipurpose Room
Tuesday, November 19, 2013: St. Catharine College, Pettus Auditorium-Hamilton Health & Human Sciences Bldg.
Wednesday, November 20, 2013: Union College, Patridge Campus Cntr.-Patridge Conference Room
Thursday, November 21, 2013: Morehead State University, Breck 002
Monday, November 25, 2013: Georgetown College, Ward Room in the Library
Monday, November 25, 2013: BCTC-Cooper Campus, Oswald Auditorium
