(RALEIGH) -- One of the country's leading death penalty opponents is in North Carolina to meet with others who share his cause. Reverend Carroll Pickett witnessed 95 executions while serving as a prison chaplain in Texas. Pickett said that although the work was difficult, it was his calling.

"It was difficult at the beginning and then when started staying all day and all night with these people and finding out that some of them were innocent, it changed the whole concept of what we were doing," said Pickett.

Pickett became convinced that innocent men were being executed. He said he felt called to act.

Pickett is in North Carolina this week to serve on a panel at Wake Forest University. He will also meet with Darryl Hunt from Winston-Salem, who was wrongfully imprisoned for 19 years.