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Spiritual advisors of the dead parts nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize

Spiritual advisors of the dead parts nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize

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  • The Rev. Jeff Hood, a well-known anti-death criminal activist and the spiritual consultant based in Arkansas, has observed nine executions in various countries.
  • As part of his duties as a spiritual advisor, Hood can connect it to the facility in the Chamber of execution in her last moments on Earth.
  • The California religious professor, who has nominated hood, says that Hood's duties are a “suffering kind of work” that deserve recognition.

When Rev. Jeff Hood went to Oklahoma's execution chamber, he already found his friend Emmanuel Littlejohn strapped to a Gurney, just a few moments before death.

When Hood took out an ointment oil one last time to bless Littlejohn, the convicted man offered a short moment of lightness in the dark environment.

“Oh Jeff, did you bring me a blunt?” Littlejohn told the spiritual consultant – according to his mother Cily Mason, who was witness to the execution of her son. Littlejohn became serious and told his mother and daughter that he loved her and calmed her down: “I'm fine, everything is fine.”

Then Hood Littlejohn asked for forgiveness: “I'm so sorry that I couldn't stop it.”

Then the man condemned to the murder of the shop owner of Oklahoma City, Kenneth Meers – for the murder of Oklahoma City, for which he maintained innocence until the end – the priest who contributed to gaining hope of grace.

“Jeff, the only reason why we have made it so far, is,” said Littlejohn to Hood.

In Littlejohn's last moments, Hood said to him: “Go to love.”

Hood witnessed the execution of nine of “his boys”, including the first nitrogen gas execution carried out in the USA, which of Kenneth Smith in January 2024.

“My job is to come into your life if you still have six to three months to live and become your best friend,” Hood previously said to USA Today after David Hosier's execution in 2024. “I became her best friend to be your best friend when you die.”

For his work with Death Row inmates, Hood was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by David Lemley, a professor of religion at the Southern California's University.

“He is able to 'love the slightest of it,” said Lemley to USA Today. “It is peace about peace.

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According to the Nobel Foundation, 338 candidates were nominated for the 2025 award, although the list of candidates has not been published for 50 years.

Lemley told USA Today that his nomination asks the Nobel Committee to examine a more personal definition of peace than what is often associated with the award, such as the nuclear departure work of the winner Nihon Hidankyo 2024 or the efforts of the Colombian winner in 2016, Juan Manuel Santos, to end the country's civil war.

“I think Dr. Hood's person and work are worth examining the committee as an example of bringing both peace that affects the dignity of the disenfranchised people, as well as the peace that flows through the channel of a human mind to another,” wrote Lemley in the nomination letter, which was now acquired by the USA.

Hood said USA Today that he was confirmed by being there for “his boys” at the end of her life.

“The greater honor for me is the opportunity to see how God's love flows into the life of those and here in the country of living and suppressing and suppressing it,” said Hood.

The winner of the price will be announced in October.

The Nobel candidate becomes a “best friend” for death line

In 2022, the Supreme Court ruled that spiritual advisors had to be admitted in execution chambers if the inmates of the death line wanted to. Since then, the 41-year-old hood, who is based in Little Rock, Arkansas, with his wife and five children-has made one of his missions to comfort the convicts in their last weeks, hours and minutes.

Two of his boys are planned for the execution on June 10: Gregory Hunt in Alabama and Anthony Wainwright in Florida.

“These are people who serve Jeff until the end of their lives. He cannot offer them rehabilitation, he cannot offer them to restore society,” said Lemley. “But in your last moments you can be the presence of peace for you, which, as we saw, are often really terrifying moments.”

Noa Dubois, the wife of the former inmate in Texas Death Row, Steven Nelson, said that Hood's instructions were decisive on her husband's last days.

“If you know that you know your time and date (execution), ask all the questions you know in your head,” towards the USA today. “'Am I a good person? How can I achieve redemption? Is there hell? Is there heaven?' Jeff was really able to answer all of these questions or to lead Steven at least through these times of uncertainty.

At the beginning of this year, Nelson was executed for the murder of a beloved young pastor in 2011, Rev. Clint Dobson, for the murder of a loved one, although he maintained his innocence.

After the execution of Dubois and Hood, stayed nearby. She said that witnesses of his public relations have contributed to restoring her belief in humanity.

“It is a proof of understanding and humanity to have the connection with spirituality in order to put the actions of the people aside and still love them and to be present for them and to help them navigate one of the worst terrible things that this country does,” said Dubois.

Families say, Hood's presence button in healing

When she watched her son's execution in Oklahoma, Cily Mason saw how Littlejohn's loss lost to Hood.

“I watched Jeff and Jeff.” But I got like Jeff and Jeff Gast, he couldn't take it. “

Mason said that Jeff has become part of her family and led Littlejohn's life celebration.

“I tell him all the time: 'God gave you something you have to deal with, Jeff',” she said. “I don't know if I could do it, but every man gets a chance in Jeff's heart. It doesn't matter whether he is guilty or innocent, and he knows that you are (innocent) or he knows that you are guilty, he still loves her.”

Both Mason and Dubois spoke with Hood who remain in their lives according to the executions of their relatives.

“I think I needed as much help (after Nelson's execution) as he needed it, and we were both able to provide each other for each other,” said Dubois. “We had to process this together.”

The nomination asks to recognize “suffering”

Lemley said USA Today that Hood's willingness to work with the convicts should be recognized by the Nobel Committee as a starting point for the structure of true peace.

“If you can stand with someone who is clearly guilty in your last moments and can offer you peace, this really says something of us who hope that people see the human costs of war, the human costs of immigration policy, the human costs of economic policy and the human costs of rhetoric behind the things that point out that it is fewer people, and Lemley said.

Lemley noticed that some of the people considered for the peace price are selected after awareness and that Hood's nomination serves as a counterpoint for them.

“Jeff does not live a fabulous celebrity life because of the public work he does,” he said. “It is a work of suffering.”

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