David Paul Hammer (October 9, 1958 – June 7, 2019) was an American federal prisoner serving life without possibility of parole.
Hammer's federal conviction was vacated in 2005 for the government's Brady violation (failure to disclose exculpatory or mitigating information it had).
In September 1996, the United States Attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania charged Hammer with the April 1996 death of his cellmate, 27-year-old Andrew Hunt Marti (BOP # 58008-065).
Sister Camille traveled from New York to USP Allenwood with a laicized priest to visit Hammer just 2 weeks from his scheduled execution.
With the support, encouragement and counseling of Sisters Camille and Rita Clare, Hammer found new meaning and devoted his time in prison to help others.
The Sisters ensured, at Hammer's request, that the money raised was donated to organizations that helped abused or at-risk youth, and poor and needy children in Haiti and Jamaica.
[17] Hammer credited the nine-year-old daughter of Juan Raul Garza, Brownsville drug boss and fellow death row inmate (executed in 2001), for his motivation to fight his conviction.
The daughter, Elizabeth Ann Garza, reportedly told Hammer that ‘his life could make a difference for others.’[18] Elizabeth Ann's letter to President Bill Clinton appealing against her own father's sentence was also reported to have motivated Hammer to appeal his own death sentence.
Hammer himself wrote to President Clinton, asking him to commute for Garza's sentence to life imprisonment, describing the death penalty as "plagued by systemic bias, disparity and arbitrariness.
"[18] Clinton Era documents released in 2014 showed "former President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, weighed in on behalf of Juan Raul Garza and David Paul Hammer, arguing that Mr. Clinton should spare them because of problems with the application of capital punishment in America.
They were in the first group of death-sentenced inmates to be housed in the newly refurbished death row at USP Terre Haute, eventually living in adjacent cells.
[20] In 2004, during Hammer's time on death row at USP Terre Haute, he published his autobiography, The Final Escape.
[25] Back in court, on July 17, 2014, U.S. District Judge Joel Slomsky resentenced Hammer to life imprisonment without possibility of parole.