About Us

Marcus Jackson is the board chair of KCADP. Marcus is a Kentucky native and long-time advocate for criminal justice reform. His passion for justice reform stems from personal experiences with the criminal legal system and seeing firsthand the disparities within the current system. Marcus believes in a common-sense
approach to sentencing and programs to support people leaving incarceration so they can successfully rejoin their communities.

 Marcus Jackson is the founder and executive director of Advocacy Based on Lived Experience of Kentucky. 

Jackson was a scholarship football player at the University of Louisville before he was arrested and imprisoned at age 19 for assault and wanton endangerment, offenses that Jackson maintains he did not commit. Jackson said the prison experience changed the trajectory of his life, and he was in prison after being convicted for two non-violent drug offenses over the next three decades. 

After being released from prison in 2019, Jackson worked on restoring voting rights for people who were incarcerated as coordinator of the Smart Justice Advocates program at the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky and before that as a paralegal at the Louisville Urban League.

Marcus lives in Frankfort with his wife Christie and looks forward to a time when his reformation efforts are no longer needed in this world.

J is the Vice Chair at KCADP. They are an autistic, agender, Latine grassroots organizer and abolitionist specializing in building teams and coalitions of ordinary people who win "unwinnable" campaigns. To date, they've worked with grassroots communities in Kentucky and across the South to defeat over $5 billion in new prison construction. In 2015 they co-founded Fight Toxic Prisons, a national collective fighting at the intersections of abolition and environmental justice. J has worked with their best friend Richard Thomas on multiple campaigns to stop executions and do political education around abolition and death penalty abolition in Texas, including the recent effort that successfully stopped the execution of Melissa Lucio in 2022.

Haley Johnson is the Secretary of the KCADP board. Haley is a Kentucky native, a graduate of Eastern Kentucky University, and a graduate of the Howard University School of Law. Haley is committed to public defense with a special interest in capital litigation and client support as evidenced by her work and projects. She currently works with the Kentucky Innocence Project. She has previously worked for the Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy, the statewide public defender's office, in the Capital Trial Branch and interned with the Capital Habeas Unit for the Federal Public Defenders for the Middle District of Alabama.

Twenty-four years old, and seemingly invincible, I was blind-sided by the arrest and conviction
of a violent sexual assault. I served 11 years in prison and 16 years on parole before the
Kentucky Innocence Project uncovered a textbook example of mistaken identity. In 2010, and
after 27 years as a convicted sex-offender, I was full exonerated of the crime. Knowing how
imperfect the judicial system is I was compelled to protect the innocent from being executed and
began advocating to abolish the death penalty.

Aaron is a lawyer who litigates prisoners' rights and police misconduct cases. He is also a murder victim family member.

A native Kentuckian, Richard is currently an educator residing in Fort Worth, Texas. Richard has been involved in the abolition movement for almost a decade, co-founding Fight Toxic Prisons with J.E Martinez-Mazurek in 2015. Richard has been involved in campaigns around abolition and death penalty abolition, including organizing against the construction of a federal prison in Letcher County. Richard has expertise in building grassroots campaigns, coalition-building, and developing political education programs. 

Justin Stanley is the Treasurer of the KCADP board. Justin is a native of West Virginia and a longtime Kentucky resident. He is a graduate of the University of Kentucky College of Law and currently works as a policy analyst. He lives in Lexington with his wife Christine, their three dogs, and one cat.

Reverend Dr. “Danny” Anthony Everett (he, him, ours) is the founding president and CEO of Alpha Management LLC, a consulting firm rooted in prophetic activism that develops transformative action plans and tools for businesses, non-profits, and faith-based organizations.  He is president of The Centre for Prophetic Activism, an ecumenical, faith-based social enterprise.  He is also a coach/consultant with the SBC21 Coaching Network and an ordained elder of the United Methodist Church. In 2022, he assumed the director role for the Siloam Project at the Baptist Seminary of Kentucky.  He is also a life member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity.