Pilgrims of Hope, Episode 10 Walking with Those on Death Row

Conversations about Finding and Sharing Hope: A video series for the Jubilee Year 2025

Hosted by Fr. Ron Will

Welcome to Episode 10 in a series titled, Traveling with Pilgrims of Hope. Pope Francis declared the year 2025 as a jubilee year with the theme, the Year of Hope. This series introduces us to individuals who have experienced hope and who are striving to share hope with others.

Often in our world, it’s easier to give in to despair than to rely on hope. Pope Francis said, “I cannot give you hope, but I can tell you that hope is where Jesus is. And Jesus is everywhere when our own hope is dim.”

Perhaps you have loved ones, Facebook friends, coworkers, or the server who fills your coffee cup, who are models hope and quiet joy. There are people working for justice and peace and a livable planet for coming generations who are trying to make people’s lives better in the face of overwhelming odds. If they can carry on in hope, might we not try to imitate them and their confidence that God’s presence is alive and well in our world?

Today we talk with Heidi Moore, the executive director of Missourian to Abolish the Death Penalty. Heidi will share with us her experiences of bringing hope to people on death row.

Following are highlights from the conversation between Fr. Ron and Heidi Moore, edited for clarity. Watch the video for the full interview.

Fr. Ron Will: Thank you, Heidi, for taking some time to visit with us about your ministry. To begin, give us an overview of your ministry, how you got started in it, and why do you keep doing it.

Heidi Moore: Thank you, Fr. Ron. I’ve been in this position almost four months as executive director of Missourians to abolish the death penalty. Previously though, I was the probation and parole officer at a prison where the men who live under a death sentence are house, and a lot of people felt like they were hopeless in that situation. Some of them were facing a thousand years. Wow. Seriously, a thousand years versus life without parole or a death sentence. I left there and did prisoner reentry work with a Catholic nonprofit group in St. Louis. Even as a state employee, though, I, I considered it a service to others. I considered the ability to be fair, to be consistent with people and to recognize that no one wants to be judged on the worst action they made in their life. My job is just to interact with these people and to remind them of the humanity that all of us were born with.

Fr. Ron Will: Reminding people of the humanity of somebody who’s done some terrible crime, that’s probably a challenge. Probably some people say “No, they deserve some severe punishment.”

Heidi Moore: There are people out there who say that. I try remind people that when someone is in kindergarten or first grade, no kid says that when they grow up they want to be a murderer or a child abuser or a drug addict or spend their life in and out of prison.

Everyone begins life in hope. Even at a young age, being raised in some of the horrible family lives that we know many people have lived in, they want to be firemen or policemen or teachers or truck drivers. They have something that they want to be. And when you’re talking to people who aren’t as sympathetic to those who have harmed others, sometimes that person needs to be reminded of what it was like to be a child and to have hope, but some were never given the same opportunities or chances as we were.

[Fr. Ron and Heidi talk about recent death row cases in which a prosecutor has asked for a death penalty to be reversed because of wrongful convictions or a judge has said a case should be reversed, but the Missouri attorney general and governor has said the penalty will be carried out.]

Fr. Ron Will: That must be very frustrating. How do you not get angry?

Heidi Moore: I get angry sometimes. To cope, I started working out in the past year, which has helped some. I journal, I pray, and I’ve recently, started meditate. I started putting together jigsaw puzzles again to have something concrete that I can put that energy into. What I have to remind myself is that anger is energy that serves no one. If I am staying in a place of anger, then I’m not able to help any of the guys under a death sentence. I’m not able to explain to anyone rationally why this is bad public policy.

If I react as upset and as filled with fury as I am, I have the potential with a sharp tongue and quick wit to isolate people that I will need. The issue is bigger than me. I don’t want say anything that will harm the future of the movement or the other men whom we are now going to have to ask the same governor to consider.

I also think about the Blessed Mother at the foot of the cross when Jesus was getting executed. The strength and hope that she continual to display as she sat there with him, knowing what was occurring. When I have been in struggles, I found hope and faith and comfort through her. I’m not comparing myself to the Blessed Mother, but the faith and the strength that she showed is what sometimes I have to try to remind myself that she could do it, so I know that I’m strong enough to do it too.

Fr. Ron Will: During this Jubilee year of hope, we are striving to bring hope to others. Can you think of an example of where you brought hope, you gave hope to someone?

Heidi Moore: Well, some of the men just want to know that people care and are fighting for them.

Fr. Ron Will: Where do you find hope in this work for yourself?

Heidi Moore: I’ve been surprised by the people who depend on us [Missorians to Abolish the Death Penalty] to speak out on this issue. I won’t go into detail because I don’t know how much I can, but there are large legal teams and many people who work in this system that we have. And when people who are government employees reach out and say “Thank you for saying that, we’re not allowed to” that gives me hope.

That gave me unexpected hope, realizing that some people lean on us to say some of the things that need to be said. Like, if you’re a pro-life governor, how do you justify this execution?

When I’m talking in a classroom or talking with people who haven’t thought about the death penalty before, and you see a light click, the aha moment, someone who’s thinking about the death penalty now who wasn’t before. That gives me hope.

We just can’t give up. We have Republicans and Democrats who support the legislation and that sliver of hope gives people a reason to keep fighting for this cause. Because these men and women [on death row] can’t, they can’t get out here and fight like they want to. They’re in prison. They’re in county jails waiting to be sentenced, waiting for a jury to come back and say life without or death or a judge to sentence them to die.

Fr. Ron Will: How do gospel values filter into your work to abolish the death penalty?

Heidi Moore: I wasn’t raised in church. I was raised where I was scared to be seen praying at night, so I wouldn’t get in trouble. But my dad was a good man. My dad had a business and he would hire men from the halfway house. He would tell me, “Heidi, everyone deserves a second chance.” I don’t know where that came from with him, but I watched my parents give people a second chance. I then became an adult and started working and then seeing these values come from a teaching of a man called Jesus and Christianity. I think it can be easy to forget.

I have met people who are evil. I have met serial killers and serial rapists, and I sleep better when they are not on the streets with us. That’s a fact. That doesn’t mean that we should murder them as a state, and that doesn’t mean they should be in inhumane conditions.

Not too long ago, I met a guy at a gas station who asked for some money. I gave him what I had, few bucks. The lady filling up next to me says, “You shouldn’t have done that.” I looked at her and said, “Me giving him money is between me and my God. And what he does with it is between him and his.

People want to automatically not give our neighbors the benefit of the doubt. They don’t want to think that people can change.

All of the videos in this series can be found here: Traveling with Pilgrims of Hope

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[Fr. Ron Will, a Precious Blood priest and spiritual director, is a graduate of Catholic Theological Union and Creighton University’s School of Christian Spirituality. He has a special interest in helping form intentional disciples of Jesus, encouraging others to go spiritually deep-sea diving to explore a deeper relationship with God, and walking with people as they dive into the ocean of God’s mystery actually experiencing God rather than simply dipping one’s toe into the water.]

Photo Credit: ID 321463961 | Anchor © Yulia Ryabokon | Dreamstime.com

Music Credit: “We Are Marching” (Siyahamba). Performed by First Christian Church of Tacoma. Text: South African. Tune: South African. © 1984, Utryck, Walton Music Corporation, agent. Used with permission under onelicense.net, #A-725830

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