The Oxnard and Ventura local chapter of Amnesty International will present a program on the death penalty and wrongful convictions, called Dead Wrong, on Friday, to raise the question: When convictions are wrong, is it too late for justice?

The moderator will be Erin Callahan, Amnesty International's Western regional director.

Amnesty International hopes to create a dialogue by presenting innocent people who were sentenced to death. Two of the three speakers will talk about the time they spent on death row before they were exonerated.

In 1985, Greg Wilhoit was sentenced to death in Oklahoma after being convicted of killing his wife, Kathy, who was brutally raped and murdered. Wilhoit, who is featured in John Grisham's new book, "Innocent Man," spent eight years in prison.

Gloria Killian spent almost 18 years on death row after being wrongly convicted of a 1981 robbery and murder in Sacramento.

"In my personal opinion the death penalty is barbaric," said Killian, 60. "Once you are in prison, it is hell for everybody, whether you or not committed the crime."

"It was the women who I met inside that saved my life, but that doesn't mean that there aren't monsters," she added.

"Amnesty International is opposed to the death penalty under all circumstance," Bob Gips, one of the event's organizers, said.

"We feel that by having this discussion it will change public attitude about the death penalty."

In 2006, about 53 people were executed in the United States, and about 3,350 prisoners were on death row as of January, according to Amnesty International.

"The United States is the only Western industrialized nation that uses the death penalty," Gips said.

According to data from Amnesty International, 89 countries in the world, including Canada and Mexico, have abolished the death penalty.

In 2005, at least 2,148 people were executed in 22 countries, and 94 percent of those executions were in China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United States, according to Amnesty International.

"More people are against the death penalty now than three years ago," Gips said. "We want to bring a change, to abolish the death penalty. That's one of the things that we are working on as members of Amnesty International."

The event will begin at 7:30 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Ventura, 5654 Ralston St.

For information, call 643-6605.