Ron Keine was just 10 days away from execution on death row, convicted of murder and rape, but was exonerated after the real murderer confessed to the crime.
No Death Penalty WI sponsored an event featuring Keine at CafAc Montmartre, 127 E. Mifflin St., Monday where Keine spoke out against the death penalty referendum up for vote on Nov. 7.
In 1974, Keine and four others were convicted of vicious crimes in Albuquerque. Keine spent two years on death row in state prison until he was absolved.
Keine and four friends were members of a motorcycle gang in California. The group rented a van and took a road trip to Michigan.
""We left with ... five cases of beer,"" Keine said and admitted the rowdy group was partial to bar fights, but were ""not murders.""
According to Keine, his group could not have committed the crime because it took place a week before the group arrived in Albuquerque. Keine said he was targeted because ""in a state like New Mexico if you had long hair, and were an ultra-liberal minority like bikers, there were problems.""
Keine said the sheriff in charge of his case put the blame on Keine and his friends because they stood out.
""We weren't cowboys driving a pick-up truck filled with shot guns,"" he said.
After another man confessed to the crime, police searched the sheriff's office, and found the murder weapon in his safe. No charges have been filed against the sheriff.
NDPW's campaign director, Sachin Chheda, said the issue is being brought to the public attention by legislators with political agendas, though Wisconsin was the first state to abolish the death penalty in 1853.
""We need to stop playing politics with people's lives,"" Chheda said. ""The reason the death penalty is on the ballot, according to Chheda, is because members of the legislature ""thought that talking about the death penalty would help their candidates in office."" Chheda explained there is ""no public outcry and no need for [the death penalty], it's all politics,"" and expressed the ""need to have a public discussion"" about the moral and political controversy surrounding this hot button issue in Wisconsin.
