NCADP is grateful for the support of Working Assets/CREDO as a 2009 grant recipient. Click here to learn more about Working Assets/CREDO and become a customer. Help us become a 2010 grant recipient by nominating us here.
Today in Capital Punishment History for October 10
In 2006 John Grisham’s legal thriller The Innocent Man was published and released. (view full calendar)
The above photo of a rooftop sign visible to vehicles on the Bruckner Expressway in the Bronx came to us via twitter and demonstrates the permanance and deep resonance of the case of Troy Davis. On The Huffington Post, NCADP's Executive Director reflects on how the execution of Troy Davis impacts efforts to abolish the death penalty.
Saturday, Oct 1 was the Day of Remembrance for Troy Davis. Click here to watch highlights from the funeral. It is not too late to Click for details on sending a card or flowers, and click here for what you can do to keep the momentum going.
Plans for NCADP's 2012 Annual Conference are in the works. The Movement to Abolish the Death Penalty will be gathering in Baltimore, MD either August 3-5 or August 10-12, 2012. Please hold both dates - this information will be updated shortly.
The National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty turned 35 on July 8, 2011! In conjunction with our 35th year, NCADP announces a special matching grant that will double the tax-deductible contribution of every first-time donor to NCADP made through September. Click here to double your support!
Also, Click here to see the document that started it all, here for the press release, and join our e-mail alert list to get the latest information about the death penalty and what you can do to help end it!
Death Penalty Information Center Releases New Report
The Death Penalty Information Center has released a new report, "Struck by Lightning: The Continuing Arbitrariness of the Death Penalty Thirty-Five Years After Its Reinstatement in 1976." The report shows that despite the changes to sentencing schemes approved by the U.S. Supreme Court on July 2, 1976, race, geography, money and other factors continue to make the implementation of the death penalty arbitrary and unfair. Click Here to read the report.
.
YOU can help stop the execution of Troy Anthony Davis
This compelling new video takes you to the scene of the crime and examines some of the eyewitness evidence used to convict Troy. Features CNN footage, one of Troy's jurors who now would find him "not guilty," and one of the original witnesses against Troy. Click here now - it's seven minutes well worth watching!
Read about and watch the video about artist Chaz Guest, who painted an official portrait of President Obama, as well as the portrait of Thurgood Marshall that hangs in the Oval Office, on why he had to paint and speak out about Troy Davis.
BACKGROUND: See more information about the case here. See a new video production about the case by clicking here. Click here to read a letter to the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles from death row exonerees representing Witness to Innocence. To read an interview about the case with Amnesty International's Laura Moye, click here. To read an interview with Troy Davis' sister Martina Correia about the case on radio talk show host Tom Joyner's website, Black America Web, click here. For more information about the religious leaders' sign-on letter for Davis, click here.
The national momentum to end capital punishment is building, as more states repeal, or consider repealing, the death penalty. To find out how the weakening legal underpinnings of capital punishment and other factors contributed to this development, read NCADP Executive Director Diann Rust-Tierney's article in Champion, the magazine of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
Northwestern University Law's Center for International Human Rights Launches International Death Penalty Information Website
Recently Northwestern University Law's Center for International Human Rights established its new website, Death Penalty Worldwide, a database comprised of research and statistics regarding laws and practices relating to the application of the death penalty around the world. The website is available as a principal source of information for attorneys, journalists, policymakers, activists and others seeking reliable information on the laws and practices of retentionist countries, and those which are abolitionist by default because they have not conducted any executions for years, although they retain capital punishment statutes.
New research compiled on the website indicates that many nations previously committed to state-sponsored executions are encouraging legislatures and other bodies to consider abolition, or narrowing the scope of the death penalty. However, the website also has information indicating that in nearly every nation that retains the death penalty and actively uses it, indigent capital defendants are denied access to quality legal representation.
The project has the support of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty and the European Union.
Lifelines
The Winter-Spring 2011 edition of Lifelines is now available. To read it, click here.
Update: Governor Quinn Signs Death Penalty Repeal Bill Into Law!
On Wednesday, March 9, 2011, at 1 p.m. Eastern Time, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed the death penalty repeal bill into law. You can read NCADP Executive Director Diann Rust-Tierney's statement by clicking here. To read an article by Diann Rust-Tierney and EJUSA Executive Director Shari Silberstein about the national implications of Illinois' death penalty repeal, click here. You can watch video of the bill signing by clicking here. To read Goveror Quinn's statement click here.Click here to thank Governor Quinn and the bill sponsors!
Former United States Senator Russell Feingold from Wisconsin, a three-term Senator who was the leading opponent of the death penalty in the Senate, had this to say about Illinois' death penalty repeal:
"The United States is in a shrinking minority of countries that allow state-sponsored executions. The death penalty is inconsistent with basic American principles of justice, liberty, and equality, and there is a growing consensus that only real reform of the death penalty is to end it altogether. The action taken by the Illinois Legislature and Governor Quinn to abolish the death penalty in that state builds on similar recent efforts in other states, and brings us closer to the day when we will end the death penalty across the entire nation.”
To hear a segment of a BBC radio program "Americana" regarding the Illinois death penalty repeal, which includes an interview with Governor Quinn, click here.
Illinois Death Penalty Repeal Background: On January 11, 2011, the State Senate passed SB 3539, the abolition bill, adding that body's voice to the State House, which took action the previous week.You can view photos and video of the final vote in the Senate and its aftermath by clicking here. Read details in the Chicago Tribune "Clout Street" politics blog by clicking here.
We have been working with the Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty for repeal for years. They should be extremely proud of their success, especially Executive Director Jeremy Schroeder and organizers Liz Moran, Beth Berendsen, Katie Holihen and Mara Forster-Smith.
Thank you to everyone who helped to make this day happen!
Successful NCADP Annual Conference in Chicago, Illinois!
Jeremy Schroeder (far left), ICADP Executive Director, and Illinois State Representative Karen Yarbrough (second from left) with ICADP staff and volunteers and Illinois State Senator Kwame Raoul (far right) at the NCADP 2011 Awards Dinner.
Encouraged by significant declines in death sentences and executions, as well as increasing popular support for alternatives to
The national momentum to end capital punishment is building, as more states repeal, or consider repealing, the death penalty. To find out how the weakening legal underpinnings of capital punishment and other factors contributed to this development, read NCADP Executive Director Diann Rust-Tierney's article in 
The Winter-Spring 2011 edition of Lifelines is now available. To read it, click 
