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Centurion Ministries Staff James C. McCloskey, Executive Director & Board President
Kate Hill Germond, Associate Director, Investigator & Advocate
Paul Henderson, Investigator
Is Centurion Ministries a Religious Organization? Although James C. McCloskey created Centurion Ministries out of a spiritual calling, Centurion Ministries is not a religious organization. We are investigators and advocates for the wrongfully convicted and our work focuses on reinvestigating cases with the goal of vindicating those factually innocent of the crime for which they were convicted. It is irrelevant to Centurion Ministries what religion, if any, that an inmate or beneficiary practices. This also applies to our staff and all those who work with us to help free the convicted innocent (i.e.: volunteers, attorneys, investigators, etc.). Our sole concern and focus is on an inmate's factual innocence. Thus, Centurion Ministries is a purely secular organization even though Mr. McCloskey feels spiritually called to do this work. He named the organization Centurion Ministries after the Roman Centurion who proclaimed while standing at the foot of the cross, "Surely, this one is innocent." Commentary by James C. McCloskey James C. McCloskey, John Jay College of Criminal Justice: Commentary: The Death Penalty: A Personal View. Spring/Fall 1996. James C. McCloskey, John Jay College of Criminal Justice: Commentary: Convicting the Innocent. Winter/Spring 1989. Reproduction permission must be requested prior to use of either article (whether in its entirety or selections only) and credit must be given to the author, James C. McCloskey. Contact us to obtain our mailing address. Selected Media Profiles on Centurion Ministries
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Jim McCloskey was raised in the suburbs of Philadelphia and is a 1964 graduate of Bucknell University. After three years as a naval officer in Japan & Vietnam, he spent 13 years in business, primarily as an executive for two different international management consulting firms, one in Tokyo & another in Philadelphia, The Hay Group. He left the business world for the ministry in 1979. Subsequent to earning a Masters of Divinity degree from Princeton Theological Seminary, he officially founded Centurion Ministries, Inc. in 1983. However, McCloskey actually began the work of Centurion Ministries in 1980 as a student Chaplain at Trenton State Prison.
Kate Germond joined Centurion Ministries in January of 1987. Prior to that she was a businesswoman and community activist in Mendocino, California where she lived with her family for close to 20 years. Kate co-manages Centurion Ministries with Mr. McCloskey. She plays an integral role in developing cases as well as selecting and investigating those cases that Centurion Ministries decides to take. She has a natural gift for this work and considers it to be her calling.
Paul Henderson, a former investigative reporter for the Seattle Times, won a Pulitzer Prize in 1982 for a series of articles that vindicated a man who had been falsely convicted of rape. In 1985, Paul became a private investigator and worked successfully since 1988 on a number of Centurion Ministries cases. In 1996, Paul became a full-time staff investigator for Centurion Ministries.