Various Mediums

In 2020, RBIJ asked justice-impacted artists within our network to create a reinterpretation of our logo. Although we planned to display the winning designs at our Annual Summit, the ongoing pandemic has delayed the event until September 13-14 2021. With the holiday season upon us, we wanted to share some of their amazing submissions with you here.

Kerel Martinez designed his piece to represent justice for young people, and the need for a balanced, fair, and open minded approach.

Ndume Olatushani spent 28 years in a Tennessee prison - 20 years on death row - for a crime he did not commit. While inside he was saved by his discovery of drawing and painting - and by his family and friends. After being released in 2012, he demonstrates his commitment to the fight against the death penalty through his work with young people.

Tyrone Thompson spent more than half a decade waiting for trial, facing a death sentence in an overcrowded Alabama jail. RBIJ’s CEO Celia Ouellette is a capital defense lawyer and she has worked on his case since 2012. It took nearly seven years for the Alabama courts to finally accept something that had been true since Tyrone was in elementary school - that he is intellectually disabled. Although the execution of intellectually disabled people is prohibited in the U.S., it took many years to convince the local elected prosecutor to drop the death penalty in his case.

Denise Wearing was incarcerated for five years, during which she attended college and sees that as being a key turning point. After her release, she joined Hope House, a Ladies of Hope Ministries program, and she sees the love and support she received there as playing a major part in her moving forward as a productive member of society - a love and support she reflects in her design.