The Virtual Book Club

Maurice Chammah is the author of "Let the Lord Sort Them: The Rise and Fall of the Death Penalty." A staff writer for the Marshall Project, he writes about the American criminal justice system, the Middle East, and other subjects. His reporting has been published by The Atlantic, The New Yorker, The New York Times, and others. You can find more about him at www.mauricechammah.com.

Rev. Sharon Washington Risher was born in Charleston, South where she attended the public schools and graduated from Charles A. Brown High School and graduated from Johnson C. Smith University, in Charlotte, North Carolina. Sharon heard the call to ministry in 2002 while attending St. Paul Presbyterian Church and left North Carolina to attend Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Austin, Texas in the spring 2003. Sharon graduated from of Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Austin, TX, in 2007. She became a Staff Chaplain, Trauma Specialist, with Parkland Hospital of Dallas, TX, On June 17th, 2015, a horrific tragedy happened; Sharon learned her dear mother, Mrs. Ethel Lee Lance, was killed in Charleston, SC, at the Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, along with 8 other people, which also included two cousins and a childhood friend. Since that time, Sharon has been very outspoken about the nation’s gun laws and is one of the spokespersons for the grassroots advocacy group Everytown Survivor Network and Moms Demand Gun Sense In America. Sharon is also a leading spokesperson calling for an end to the federal death penalty with DeathPenaltyAction.org, even in the case of the white supremacist terrorist who killed her aunt, cousins, friend and five others. That killer is now on the federal death row at Terre Haute. Sharon supports the Federal Death Penalty Prohibition Act of 2021. She has appeared on CNN , Good morning America, Roland Martin's News One, CBS and other national news outlet. Sharon had been interviewed and by Time Magazine, Marie-Claire , Essence, Texas Monthly magazine, written articles for a number of print media, such as Vogue and VOX. She has appeared on radio shows, such as, Guardian- BBC radio, PBS, NPR among others. She also has visited the White House and has witnessed President Barack Obama sign executive orders that pertained to new gun laws. Find out more about her at https://www.sharonrisherspeaks.com.