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The Bay

He Designed a Garden at UC Santa Cruz from Death Row. Now Students Want Him Free

Ericka Cruz GuevarraChloe VeltmanMaria EsquincaAlan Montecillo
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A vertical glare indicates this is a picture of a photograph. A Black man with locs past his shoulders wearing a light-blue prison tunic stands shoulder-to-shoulder with a young, smiling white woman with brown bangs and a peach-colored T-shirt. They are both smiling happily.
Timothy James Young (left), on death row at San Quentin, and UC Santa Cruz undergrad Allison Dean are working together to try to get Young exonerated for the 1995 murders he is accused of committing. (Courtesy of Timothy James Young)

In California, the death penalty is in limbo. On the one hand, the state hasn’t executed anyone since 2006. On the other, the death penalty in still legal. In practice, this means that hundreds of incarcerated people have been languishing on death for row years, even decades.

Timothy James Young, who’s on death row at San Quentin State Prison, believes he was wrongfully convicted of murder and still hopes that someday he will be freed. And he has reason to hope: over the last few years, a garden project with UC Santa Cruz has snowballed into a full-blown campaign by students and faculty to exonerate him.

Guest: Chloe Veltman, KQED arts and culture reporter

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