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Defender of Jailed Innocent Chosen for Salem Award
- The Salem News (March 25, 2003)
- By Tom Dalton, Staff Writer
SALEM – During the search for this year's recipient of the Salem Award, Kate Murray typed the word "heroes" into a computer.
It took a lengthy Internet search, and jumps from one computer link to another, but eventually that word led her to Jim McCloskey.
"The more we looked at him, and the more information we got on him, we said, 'Boy, this could be wonderful if he accepted this award,'" said Murray, Chairwoman of the Salem Award Committee.
McCloskey has agreed to come to Salem on June 12 to accept the 12th annual Salem Award for Human Rights and Social Justice, which has been presented in past years to a hero from the Los Angeles riots, a Chinese dissident and political prisoner, the inspirational owner of the fire-ravaged Malden Mills factory, and the founder of a North Shore group that fosters understanding among Protestant and Catholic teenagers from Ireland.
McCloskey is the founder of Centurion Ministries, a nonprofit organization based in Princeton, N.J. Since its inception in 1983, it has freed 26 men and women from prison in the United States and Canada.
Centurion's success has helped spur other "innocents" projects across the country, according to Murray.
After this year's committee reviewed a number of nominees, McCloskey seemed a perfect fit. The award not only commemorates the tragedy of the Salem witch trials, but shines a light on individuals or groups who serve as living lessons in tolerance, courage and justice.
"There is something that has gripped them in their lives," said Murray. "For some reason they have—I don't know if sacrifice is the right word—but they have really focused time and energy on a particular project.
"These people have taken all their resources…and just decided to do something for others, and to try to bring justice to a situation where there obviously was a lack of justice."
McCloskey, who left an international management consulting business in 1979 to attend Princeton Theological Seminary, founded an organization that often spends years researching a case before taking on a client. Once convinced a man or woman has been wrongly convicted, Centurion works with lawyers, investigators and forensic experts to prove his or her innocence.
"The people Jim works with are completely and absolutely innocent of the crimes, and they end up proving that," said Murray.
Centurion has freed death row inmates, a former Black Panther leader and numerous individuals sentenced to life in prison. Its cases have been featured on "60 Minutes" and in news stories in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times and Washington Post.
"What seems uncanny to us," Murray said, "is the connection (between Centurion Ministries) and the whole episode in our history."
Reprinted with permission from The Salem News.