Truer Crime: "Facing Death: A Conversation with Keith LaMar"

Host: Celisia Stanton
Guest: Keith LaMar
Air Date: September 29, 2025

Episode Overview

In this deeply personal and powerful episode, host Celisia Stanton sits down with Keith LaMar, who has spent over 30 years on Ohio's death row for crimes he insists he did not commit. With his execution date looming and his final legal avenues nearly exhausted, Keith shares his story—reflecting on the criminal justice system, his ongoing fight for exoneration, the realities of life and growth on death row, and the legacy he hopes to leave behind. The conversation is unflinching, philosophical, and ultimately a meditation on humanity, resilience, and love.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

Keith’s Reaction to Hearing His Own Story

• Reflecting on the Podcast Series

  • Keith describes listening to his story as “recalling a difficult period that I was passing through” and is surprised at his own coherence despite turmoil at the time ([03:15]).
  • He praises the series for its humanizing approach:
    • “I was pleasantly surprised that I sounded coherent and that your approach was so direct and clear… they were able to understand a little more the severity of the circumstances that I've been moving through.” – Keith ([03:15])

• Shared Experience of Systemic Injustice

  • Keith emphasizes that his experience is not unique but part of a pattern, urging listeners to see the broader implications:
    • “What happened to me is not unique… It's quite a few individuals who had the exact same experience that I had, unbeknownst to me.” ([04:26])

Parallels Between Himself and the Justice Process

• Comparing His Experience to Journalist Michael San Giacomo ([06:55])
  • Keith draws an analogy between how journalists and suspects interact with the system:
    • “The system is like a machine, and it's like an assembly line. And so there's a real indifferent quality that comes along with your interaction with it. It's not personal. And that's the problem…”
  • He underscores the disconnect between public perceptions (e.g., TV shows) and the impersonal reality of legal proceedings for both observers and the accused.

Legal Failures and Systemic Obstacles

• Evidentiary Hearing and Withheld Evidence ([11:19])

  • Keith describes learning—long after the fact—that exculpatory evidence was withheld from him, while other similarly-situated defendants were able to capitalize on the prosecutor’s admissions due to more effective legal representation.
  • Notable quote:
    • “It was a bait and switch. Basically, when you are indicted and you insist on a trial, the prosecutor is duly bound to turn over all the evidence… So the state played this kind of game and said, unless they specifically exclude Keith Lamar by saying his name, we're not going to consider this exculpatory.” ([12:45])
  • He outlines how his court-appointed attorneys failed to object or follow through:
    • “I think they intentionally sabotaged my case, to put it bluntly… They let an intern in the office, someone who hasn't even taken the bar yet, to write my objections. You don't do that when you fighting for someone's life.” ([16:19])

• Financial Incentive for Attorneys

  • Keith exposes the monetary structure of death penalty defense, suggesting it incentivizes attorneys to move from case to case rather than fight vigorously: “That's a budget. They give you a budget… this is a very lucrative business.” ([18:20])

Pursuing a Final Legal Lifeline: Criminal Rule 33

• Post-Appeal Legal Strategy ([19:41])

  • Keith explains Ohio’s Criminal Rule 33, which allows for a new trial if new evidence is presented—even after appeals are exhausted.
    • “If you find any newly discovered evidence, you don't have to go back to the federal court… And if the state court finds that it's valid, they will give you a new trial.” ([20:18])
  • He draws hope from the precedent of fellow Hamilton County defendants (e.g., Lamont Hunter, Derrick Jameson, Elwood Jones) who won release or new trials under similar circumstances.

• Facing Imminent Execution ([22:30])

  • “The Death House is the place where you go prior to being executed… This man [Derrick Jameson] went through that five times… I haven't reached that point yet, but I'm right now in the antechamber basically to the death house. It's a real nerve wracking place to be.” ([22:30])

Public Support, Community, and Spiritual Survival

• Re-Trying His Case in the “Court of Public Opinion” ([24:52])

  • Keith describes how public awareness and support are critical, both spiritually and materially:
    • “When I speak in terms of retrying my case in the court of public opinion, I simply mean to bring to the witness of the peoples who should my execution go forward, they can understand what is being done in their name.”
    • “People who become aware of your situation, they start thinking about what's going on with Keith Lamar. They start praying for someone named Keith Lamar. That I believe is the principal thing…” ([24:52])
  • Small donations, advocacy, and raising awareness have allowed him to pay for independent legal counsel.

• Resisting Dehumanization

  • “Part of what I've been trying to do in terms of my practice is to hold on to my humanity… Because if and when I am unfortunate enough to be lying on the gurney someday, I want to make sure that they are killing the human being.” ([27:52])

On the Roots of His Incarceration and Systemic Racism

• Why Was Keith Targeted?
  • Keith reflects on the role of race, circumstance, and political convenience, noting the overwhelmingly white jury and the pattern of targeting Black defendants from urban areas ([31:39]):
    • “Why them? I think it has something to do with the fact that they were black and poor. And we live in a country whose history is shrouded in this kind of racist hatred and brutality that is uniquely directed at poor black people. We can't forget that.”
    • He pushes back on the notion that his targeting is “unbelievable” by outlining the well-worn history of racialized prosecutions.

Human Growth, Self-Knowledge, and Artistic Output While Imprisoned

• On Imprisonment Before and After Prison ([40:44])

  • Keith reflects on internal vs. external prisons, and the realization that self-worth is intrinsic, not defined by possessions or social status:
    • “I got somehow the misunderstanding that what I had was more important than who I was. That was the prison… I was primarily focused on acquiring stuff. But you can't bring Mercedes Benz to prison with you. And all those things that I had… it's only because I didn't know the value of my life.” ([40:44])

• Creativity as Resistance and Self-Definition

  • Keith defies the narrative of total deprivation by using writing, music, and painting as forms of survival and testament:
    • “They are the same thing, just different mediums… you are not giving up anything unless you give up yourself. So my whole goal is just really to hold on to myself and all these things, these forms of expression.” ([44:55])

• Advice to Youth and The Value of Earned Wisdom

  • On counseling his nephew and younger people:
    • “I said, come back 10 years from now and ask me that… do something. You wasting your time. It's hard to get a young person to understand that.” ([46:14])
  • Keith recommends The Cross of Redemption by James Baldwin as the one book he would have Celisia read before turning 40 ([50:44]).

Facing Death and Legacy

• What Does He Want to Be Remembered For? ([54:03])
  • Keith draws from Martin Luther King’s wish, centering love as the ultimate legacy:
    • “At the end of the day, if you haven't loved anybody, I mean really loved somebody, then what have you done? What have you achieved?”
    • “After all I did… what was that? To be for love. To say that I would be loved on this earth? I think I've come a long way… I have a lot of people in my life who love me, and that means quite an accomplishment.”

Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• On systemic indifference:
  “It's not personal. And that's the problem that I had from the beginning… But my experience was, was something of indifference, like, don't be mad. We do this to everybody.” – Keith ([07:54])

• On being sabotaged by attorneys:
  “They let an intern in the office, someone who hasn't even taken the bar yet, to write my objections. You don't do that when you're fighting for someone's life.” – Keith ([16:19])

• On racialized prosecution:
  “Why out of a jury pool of 100 people, there was only two black people. And those two black people were summarily dismissed. Why do you think that is?” – Keith ([31:39])

• On the meaning of living, not just surviving:
  “I'm not talking about dying. I'm talking about living. That's the thing that I'm primarily focused on… It's not what these people do to you, it's what you do about what happens to you that represents your life…” – Keith ([34:47])

• On creativity as survival:
  “You are not giving up anything unless you give up yourself. So my whole goal is just really to hold on to myself and all these things, these forms of expression.” – Keith ([44:55])

• On legacy and love:
  “At the end of the day, if you haven't loved anybody, I mean really love somebody, then what have you done?... To be for love. To say that I would be loved on this earth?” – Keith ([54:03])

Important Timestamps

• 03:15 – Keith’s reflections on hearing his own story
• 06:55 – Parallels between himself and a journalist; systemic indifference
• 11:19–16:19 – The evidentiary hearing fiasco; the sabotaged appeal
• 19:41–22:30 – Explanation of Rule 33 and inspiration from other exonerated Hamilton County defendants
• 24:52 – The importance and purpose of retrying the case in the public eye
• 31:39 – Direct discussion of why he was singled out, and the historical/racial context
• 40:44 – Discussion of internal and external prison; finding true freedom
• 44:55 – Art, creativity, expression, and holding on to self
• 50:44 – Book recommendation: The Cross of Redemption by James Baldwin
• 54:03 – Keith’s thoughts on legacy, love, and what he most wants to be remembered for

Additional Resources

• Legal Defense Fund: keithlamar.org/donate
• Keith’s Book Recommendation: The Cross of Redemption by James Baldwin
• Follow the Show: Instagram @truecrimepod
• Host's Newsletter: SincerelyCelecia.substack.com

Closing Sentiment

The episode closes with a Raymond Carver poem, echoing Keith’s lifelong striving for dignity:

And did you get what you wanted from this life?
Even so, I did.
And what did you want?
To call myself beloved,
To feel myself beloved on the earth. ([55:57])

This candid and introspective episode provides not merely a look at one man’s fight against injustice, but a broader meditation on the nature of the American criminal justice system, the meaning of humanity, and the possibility for transformation and love, even under the most dire of conditions.