Nobel Peace Prize Nomination
What is notable about the following Nobel Peace Prize nomination–beyond the fact that someone completely held away from society for nearly four decades has managed to deeply impact people to a level that they would see fit to nominate him for a Peace Prize in the first place–is the fact that it was submitted by over 100 university professors in the humanities along with current and former students directly impacted by Keith LaMar (it only requires one person to nominate a candidate). Here is the official nomination that was submitted on behalf of Keith LaMar in January of 2026. It gives a clear indication about his dedication to non-violence and qualification and readiness to be reintegrated into society:
On January 13, 2027, the State of Ohio intends to execute Keith LaMar, a teacher, artist, musician, and mentor in the United States. He is innocent. Keith's insistence to stand on the truth landed him on Ohio’s Death Row in 1995 and for the past 30 years Keith has never once wavered. From the darkest of places, Keith LaMar is making sure his life is meaningful, and not just for himself. Keith has managed to grow an international movement of supporters who believe the truth will set him free, but it was not always this way.
In 2009, Keith LaMar was buried in total isolation at the Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown, Ohio. He spent 22-23 hours in a cell the size of a closet, unable to touch or communicate face-to- face with any other person. The other hour or two was spent in “outside exercise,” alone, in a concrete bunker covered by an expanded-metal roof. He had only irregular visits, taken while shackled in a small booth, behind a bullet-proof window, where he and his visitors had to shout at each other to be heard.
This all began to change in 2009 when, encouraged by his study of how Irish prisoners organized and reached out from their isolation in the 1970s and 1980s, Keith suggested to me that we teach a college course together at the Binghamton University – SUNY. The course, which was Keith LaMar’s idea from the start, put more than seventy students in communication with ten prisoners from around the United States who were kept in total isolation in so-called “supermax” prisons. The students and the prisoners read the same books and articles and then the prisoners responded to questions that the students asked about how their prison experiences corresponded to the things that the academic “experts” had written in their books and articles. The class gave the prisoners a sense of fellowship with other human beings, which they had been denied by the conditions of their imprisonment. It also gave them the opportunity to feel the very human impression that their thoughts and ideas mattered.
Encouraged that the state’s policy of isolating him did not mean that he had to remain silent, Keith and two other prisoners went on hunger strike in 2011 for the right to communicate with the world, including being granted the privilege of contact visits and better communication by telephone. Keith believed he could utilize his personal agency to help himself and others, and was affirmed in that belief when the prison administration recognized these rights acer twelve days on hunger strike; for the first time in eighteen years, Keith LaMar and his fellow prisoners would be allowed to touch another human being (with the exception of the violence of prison transport contact).
Not one to sit on his new opportunities, Keith LaMar began working to build a healthier and more peaceful world, from solitary confinement on death row. Coming from trauma and confusion, out of a depressed area on the East side of Cleveland, he began developing various activities that he describes as "reaching back to help those coming behind me to have a be_er chance.” Following our university course, he launched other Prison Experiences courses in universities around the United States and abroad. He founded the Native Sons Literacy Project, a vibrantly active program directed at healing and teaching at-risk high school youth better ways to understand themselves and the world around them. The project is deeply influenced by Keith’s widespread readings of people like Victor Frankl (Man’s Search for Meaning) and James Baldwin. Keith calls in weekly to interact with public school high school students and adolescents being held in juvenile detention. He provides them with materials that are engaging and culturally responsive, and together they read and discuss them. He has donated thousands of books to kids who remind him of his younger self, students in New York City, the state of Ohio cities of Akron, Cincinnati, Youngstown, and
Cleveland, and elsewhere. Keith has also engaged with high school students and scholars internationally, at the Collège Stendhal in Fosses, France, the American School in Tokyo, Japan; and the Atlanta International School, USA.Because of his deep connection to so many young people through his Native Sons book club and the inspiration they shared with their administrators, Keith was invited in 2024 to be the keynote speaker at the high school graduation of a public high school in New York City, The Institute for Collaborative Education. He received tremendously positive feedback from families and students alike for his deeply moving and motivating speech projected onto a screen. While he could not physically be in attendance, his spirit and voice, nonetheless, echoed through the hall. Through the power of technology (phone and video), Keith has become a very real presence in the world outside of the prison’s walls.
Another example of Keith’s dedication to education for the marginalized is that he grants three Power and Potential Scholarships each year to college-bound students. He asks applicants to declare themselves to the universe in an essay and selects the winners from those submitted. They receive financial stipends that he pays for himself with his limited income and donations from supporters and he stays in touch with them encouraging them to stay in pursuit of themselves and their dreams. Many of the recipients don’t have a father figure in their lives, and in this way, Keith is able to fill an important guiding role.
Keith is developing world-changers. Several of the scholars who were a part of high school book clubs have gone on to organize for peace and justice at the collegiate level through literacy, art, poetry, music, political conversations, etc. College campuses where he has co-taught classes and/or performed have included, in Illinois: Northwestern University (Evanston/Chicago), Wheaton College, DePaul University (Chicago), and University of Illinois (Urbana); in Ohio: University of Akron, Cleveland State University, Kenyon College (Gambier), Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland), Youngstown State University, Antioch College, and Ohio University (Athens); in California: Chico State University, University of California at Los Angeles, and the 5C Colleges of Pomona, Harvey-Mudd, and Pitzer Colleges; in New York at The New School, New York University, and Binghamton University – SUNY; and several others, including Michigan State University, The University of Texas at El Paso, Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee, and Liverpool Hope University in the United Kingdom, among others. So many of these young people attribute their desire to make their lives more meaningful through service to the community to their friend and mentor, Keith LaMar.
Someone in Keith’s position is not supposed to be able to do the truly remarkable things he has done from death row (and all of it from solitary confinement, no less!). In 2020, Keith partnered with Catalonian jazz musician Albert Marquès to start Freedom First, in response to the state
murder of George Floyd in Minnesota. Freedom First is a band that in five years has collaborated with nearly 100 local jazz artists, performing sold-out shows on three different continents in venues in Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, London, Madrid, Paris, and Santiago de Chile, etc., and all across the United States. Together, they make music aimed at healing and creating a more loving world.
Keith performs live by phone during these concerts, wedged on his mattress between the toilet and the sink at Ohio State Penitentiary (so his phone tablet can catch a clearer signal). He has recorded two beautiful jazz albums in this way, making history as the first person ever to release an album created from solitary confinement on death row. The music is transformational. In fact, the French Embassy in Washington, D.C. in 2023 invited Freedom First to perform at an event hosted by Dr. MarCn Luther King III. Keith also performed a concert from his cell with the Los Angeles Youth Orchestra (2023); at the criminal court, The Old Bailey, in London for the Champions of Justice event put on by AMICUS (2024); and for the Ensemble Contre la Peine de Mort’s 25th anniversary celebration of the abolition of the death penalty in Paris (2025).
For the past nearly six years, Keith LaMar has been a collaborator in the acclaimed The Healing Project, which fights against structural violence to create artistic works, collective healing spaces, and advocacy initiatives. This has included performances at Carnegie Hall in NYC (2023); the historic Apollo Theater in Harlem (2025); and through performance and exhibit at The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco (2022); and at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City (2026).
Keith (from his prison cell!) has won the Award for Innovation in Activism from the 8th World Congress Against the Death Penalty in Berlin (2022) and was the Innovation Award Recipient from TimeOut Magazine (2023). He has won numerous international film awards for his artistic collaboration with artist Molly Crabapple for their animated short film, “The Injustice of Justice,” including Grand Prize, Social Justice Quality Award, Outstanding Documentary Short, and more.
On MLK Day in 2014, Keith released his powerful book, Condemned, which has been translated into three additional languages besides English (Spanish, French, and German). This was quite a feat, as he wrote in his cell over the course of eight months and had to dictate every word by phone to a friend in order to smuggle out his story. Condemned brought to the court of public opinion the truthful counter narrative to the lies and corruption he’d been forced to suffer at the hands of the State of Ohio. His autobiography is how a great deal of his public support was initially able to develop.
Keith is an avid painter, currently working on a series of stunning portraits of inspirational humans (Dr. MarCn Luther King, James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, etc.). The hours spent making art allow Keith to escape the madness of solitary confinement. Many of his paintings have been donated to organizations and people doing positive work. In this way, he lends his energy to good causes.
“Love is the only freedom,” is the theme of the campaign Keith launched to take his innocence case to the court of public opinion some 15 years ago, and it has been the guiding light for all the beautiful work he’s doing. In 2020, the organization “Justice for Keith LaMar” — inspired by Keith — became a 501(c)3 nonprofit dedicated to healing structural harm done to those who are wrongfully-convicted. Keith is integral to this restorative work; together, what began as the fight for Keith LaMar’s own freedom now expands to others.
For all the above-menConed reasons, Keith is a shining example of how a human being who has had everything taken from him—nearly half of his life robbed stolen!—a man who lives an unfathomable nightmare and faces the worst fears, can yet become a brilliant light to others from the depths of solitary hell. Keith LaMar is growing peace where there is pain and is making a way for the disposed to be included. He’s become a change agent by being generous with his time, wisdom, truth, love, and humor. Keith LaMar is a most worthy and deserving human being, someone who insists on truth and believes in radical love to fight hate. His nomination, submitted shortly after the
celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day from the United States, demonstrates the many ways that Keith LaMar’s legacy is inspiring those whose lives he touches to promote peace in the world. Keith LaMar is fighting injustice with love and truth. It is therefore my profound pleasure to nominate Keith LaMar for the Nobel Peace Prize and ask that you give him your earnest consideration and support.
Sincerely,
Denis O’Hearn, Ph.D.
Professor of Sociology and Anthropology; Former Dean of the College of Liberal Arts
The University of Texas at El Paso
The following members of the academy of higher education and organizational leaders promoting peace through restorative/healing practices, as well as some of the participants of the Native Sons Literacy Project turned student-leaders, wish to lend their support to the nomination of Keith LaMar by Dr. Denis O’Hearn for the Nobel Peace Prize:
Kwame Akoto-Bamfo, M.F.A.
Educator, Visual artist, and Co-Director of The Ancestor Project
Nkinkyim Museum in Ghana
James Anderson, Ph.D.
Journalist and Lecturer: Media and Cultural Studies Department, Labor Studies
University of California, Riverside
Ali Aslam, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Political Science
Mount Holyoke College
Anna Aydinyan, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Russian
Kenyon College
Kye Barker, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Government
Smith College
Dan Berger, Ph.D.
Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Scholarship
University of Washington Bothell
Abraham Bonowitz
Executive Director
Death Penalty Action
Rachel Brown, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Co-Director of Graduate Studies
Washington University in St. Louis
Kevin Bruyneel, Ph.D.
Professor of Politics
Babson College
Nandi Crosby, Ph.D.
Professor of Sociology
Chicago State University
Adam Dahl, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of PoliCcal Science
Graduate Program Director
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Rosemary D’Apolito, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus of Sociology
Youngstown State University
Caroline Davis, Ph.D.
Faculty Saxophonist, Composer
The New School and Manhattan School of Music
Nathan DuFord, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Government
Smith College
Zelda Edmunds, M.S.
Creative Director of Anemoia Projects
Director and Producer, Imprisoning a Generation
Bilge Firat, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Faculty
Associate at Center for Inter-American and Border Studies
University of Texas at El Paso
Visiting Research Fellow at Institute on Comparative Regional Integration Studies
United Nations University
Abbe Futterman, M.S.Ed.
Director of the Progressive Leadership Program
Bank Street College of Education, New York City
Mar Golub, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Politics (Law and Humanities)
Scripps College
Amy Gordiejew, Ed.D. (in progress)
Youngstown City School District
Director, Native Sons Literacy Project
Campaign Manager, Justice for Keith LaMar, a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization
Paul Gordiejew, Ph.D
Associate Professor Emeritus – Cultural Anthropology
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Youngstown State University
Andrej Grubacic, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair of Anthropology
California Institute of Integral Studies
Conor Hall
Producer, Wrongful Conviction Podcast
Lava For Good
Ayesha Bell Hardaway, J.D.
Professor of Law
Director of Social Justice Law Center, Social Justice Institute, Criminal Defense Clinic
Case Western Reserve University
Jeff Hood, Ph.D.
Theologian and Death Penalty Abolitionist Pastor
Former Nobel Peace Prize Nominee
Siddhant Issar, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Political Science
University of Louisville
Maryse Jayasuriya, Ph.D.
Professor of English
St. Louis University
Isaac Kamola, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of PoliCcal Science
Trinity College
Peter Karp, M.S.
Principal
Institute for Collaborative Education
Jennifer Lackey, Ph.D.
Wayne and Elizabeth Jones Professor of Philosophy
Professor of Law (courtesy)
Northwestern University
Director of the Northwestern Prison Education Program
Lauren Leydon-Hardy, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Philosophy
Amherst College
Joe Lowndes, Ph.D.
Professor of Political Science
City University New York, Hunter College
Naveed Mansoori, Ph.D.
VisiCng Assistant Professor of Government
Smith College
Albert Marquès, M.A. (in progress)
Music Director
Institute for Collaborative Education
Gwendolyn Mason
Scioto (Ohio) Peace and Justice, Fellowship of Reconciliation
Fred Moten, Ph.D.
Professor of Performance Studies and Comparative Literature and Poet
New York University
Roy Nathanson, M.F.A.
Faculty Poet, Saxophonist, Composer
New York University
Arturo O’Farrill, Ph.D.
6-time GRAMMY winner, 2-time Latin GRAMMY winner
Bill Evans Fellow and Professor of Music at The New School
Artistic Director and Founder of Belongo and the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra
Eric O’Neill
Scioto (Ohio) Peace and Justice, Fellowship of Reconciliation
Julie Park, Ph.D.
Professor of Education
University of Maryland, College Park
Mia Pearlman
Artist/sculptor (environmental, justice themes)
Howard Pinderhughes, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair, Social Behavioral Sciences
University of California, San Francisco
Raquel Pinderhughes, Ph.D.
Professor of Urban Studies and Planning
San Francisco State University
Executive Director of Roots of Success
Samora Abayomi Pinderhughes, Ph.D. (in progress)
Composer/Filmmaker/Interdisciplinary Artist
Director of The Healing Project
Andrew S. Pollis, J.D.
Professor of Law
Milton and Charlo_e Kramer Law Clinic
Case Western Reserve University
Sadie Ridgeway, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Sociology
Goucher College
David Riker, M.F.A.
Educator and Award-Winning Film Writer and Director: La Cuidad (The City); Dirty Wars
Rockefeller, Guggenheim, and Annenberg Fellow
Will Clare Roberts, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of PoliCcal Science
McGill University
Dylan Rodríguez, Ph.D.
Distinguished Professor, Department of Black Study, Department of Media and Cultural Studies
University of California, Riverside
Leah Rothman
Journalist, Producer
The Real Killer Podcast (Season 2 about Keith LaMar)
Hanneline G. Røgeberg, MFA
Professor of Art & Design
Rutgers University
C. Heike Schotten, Ph.D.
Professor of Political Science
University of Massachusetts in Boston
Althea Sircar, Ph.D.
Professor of Political Science / Political Theorist
University of Redlands
Lorry Swain
Scioto (Ohio) Peace and Justice, Fellowship of Reconciliation
Anna Terwiel, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Political Science
Trinity College
Salim Washington, Ph.D.
Professor of Music, Chair of Global Jazz Studies
University of California Los Angeles
Bozena Welborne, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Government
Smith College
Justin (Wali) White, M.S.
Humanities Teacher and Native Sons Literacy Book Club Cooperating Teacher
Institute for Collaborative Education
Steven Ybarrola, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus of Cultural Anthropology
Asbury Theological Seminary
Mary Yeboah, Ph.D.
Co-Director of The Ancestor Project
Nkinkyim Museum in Ghana
Former Director for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion/Restorative Justice Trainer
Atlanta International School
Brian Yothers, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair of English
St. Louis University
Queen Meccasia Zabriskie, Ph.D.
Director of the Coretta Scott King Center for Cultural and Intellectual Freedom
Antioch College
Students
• Anya Biggs
• Kelvin Bruno-Robles
• Violet Canton
• Theo Casper
• Talya Karmen Chan
• Helen Chiragos
• Frances Currie
• Coral Dawley
• Ella Endo
• Kira Evans
• Elsabet Franklin
• Mirette Franklin
• Lola Gordiejew
• Noah Hammerschmidt
• Ivan Henwood
• Rakaya Hodges
• Sidney Ishee
• Amani Kennibrew
• Simone Lilavois
• Harper Liller
• Alondra Mota-Roman
• Naoimi Mota-Roman
• Julian Moten
• Mosi Nathan
• Zachary Odunski
• Arielle Seidman Parra
• Ana Patterson
• Mia Fields Peña
• Salvador Nissenblatt Pena
• Sophia Powers
• Elan Rabiner
• Leila Riker
• Maria Riker
• Enna Sherwin
• Oliver Squires
• Lucy Steigman
• Ike Vaughn-Swier
• Maxine Wanderer
• Caroline Weil
• Lucy Waggoner Wu
• Ezra Yeboah
• Olivia Sarang Yoo
• Isaac Platt Zolov
Read the other documents supporting Keith for a pardon delivered to the governor at the Riffe Center in Columbus: