The son of an Alabama death row inmate and the widow of the last person executed in the state took part in a rally at the Alabama State House on Thursday calling for the Legislature to pass a bill that would allow 33 condemned inmates to have their sentences changed to life in prison.

Robin LeAndrew Hood, son of Robin “Rocky” Myers, and Deanna Smith, widow of Kenneth Eugene Smith, spoke at the rally in support of the legislation and in support of clemency for Myers, who has been on death row for 30 years on his conviction for the fatal stabbing of Ludie Mae Tucker, 69, who was a neighbor.

After the rally, some in the group crossed the street to the Capitol went to Gov. Kay Ivey’s office to notify her staff about a petition asking her to commute Myers’ sentence to life without parole.

TJ Riggs of Birmingham, who works with Amnesty International USA, said there are more than 600,000 signatures on the petition, which he said was being sent to the governor’s office electronically.

No date has been set for Myers’ execution.

The Morgan County jury that convicted Myers in 1994 recommended a sentence of life without parole. But the judge overrode that and sentenced Myers to death. One of the jurors said last year she believes Myers is innocent.

Read more: Alabama could execute Robin ‘Rocky’ Myers soon. A juror says he’s innocent

In 2017, the Alabama Legislature eliminated the judicial override and gave juries the authority to decide whether those convicted of capital murder receive the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole, the only two options on a capital conviction. But the law did not apply retroactively, meaning that judicial override death sentences handed out before 2017 remain in place.

HB27, by Rep. Chris England, would require a judge to resentence those inmates to life without parole.

“Justice demands us to afford those individuals who are still on death row, who are there for a judicial override, the opportunity to be resentenced,” England told the crowd at the rally. “It only makes sense, and that’s in its purest sense what justice means.”

England’s bill is pending in the House Judiciary Committee. It has not come up for a vote this session.

England sponsored the same bill last year, but it did not advance.

Alison Mollman, interim legal director for the ACLU of Alabama, noted that Kenneth Eugene Smith, who was executed in January, was also on death row because of judicial override. She said that underscores the urgency of passing the bill.

“Oftentimes when we talk about legislation, we can say, ‘We’ll see what happens next year,’” Mollman said. “But while we were seeing what happened next year, Kenny Smith was executed, and he would not have been executed if that bill had passed last session.”

Smith was the first inmate ever executed by nitrogen hypoxia, an alternative to lethal injection. Smith was convicted for the murder-for-hire of Elizabeth Dorlene Sennett in Colbert County in 1988. Sennett was a pastor’s wife who was beaten and stabbed.

Mollman and death penalty opponents who spoke at the rally talked about the humanity of the people on death row.

“Mr. Smith was beloved by men on the row, by his family, by his friends, and although the state of Alabama has tried to define him by the worst thing he’d done, what we know is Kenny is much more than that,” Mollman said.

Smith’s widow, Deanna Smith, called on the Legislature to change the law and spare the lives of those sentenced by judicial override, including Myers.

“If seven years ago this was decided as unconstitutional, that we have a right to a jury by our peers, then it’s still unconstitutional today, and it was unconstitutional all the years before that,” Deanna Smith said. “We shouldn’t have to fight for them to do the right thing. If we leave it to the courts, well, you know where that will be. The Alabama Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court did not stand up for Kenny.

“But right now we have a chance and a choice to make it right for people like Rocky and the other men on death row. So please, please vote for House Bill 27. Please don’t let it slip by like it did last year. Because the truth is, people’s lives are at stake. This isn’t just something we can continue to push on and wait. Because once a person’s life is taken, it cannot be given back.”

Hood, who is Myers’ son and was 11 when Ludie Mae Tucker was killed, said he loves his father and believes he is innocent.

“He’s always in good spirits,” Hood said. “He tells me I’m his hero, or whatever, but he’s my hero. I don’t think I could be in there as long as he’s been in there and still have the mindset that he has. He told me he still sees the light at the end of the tunnel.”

Hood said his father still thinks he is coming home after 30 years on death row. Hood said he believes that could happen because of his faith in God.

“I believe God can do all things through Christ,” Hood said. “I know my father, if he don’t come home, he’s going to heaven. He’s going home. So if they don’t want to let him go in the world, he’s going home anyways.”