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Families of Murder Victims to Call on Lawmakers to End the Death Penalty

Family members of murder victims will gather for a press conference at the Colorado State Capitol Monday morning to call on lawmakers to end Colorado’s death penalty. Below is the letter they will be presenting, signed by more than 55 Coloradans who have lost loved ones to violence.

January 27, 2020

To the Members of the Colorado Legislature:

Each of us has had a loved one taken from us by senseless violence. At a moment none of us could have predicted or prepared for, tragedy robbed from us children, parents, spouses, siblings, and other family members. Our direct experiences with the criminal justice system and our struggles with grief have led us all to the same conclusion: Colorado’s death penalty fails victims’ families.

We never asked to be in this position and would do anything to change it. Nothing can erase the pain that a senseless act of violence brought into our lives, but we can honor the memory of our loved ones, and other families who may face tragedy, by working for effective responses to violence.

The reality of the death penalty is that it drags on for decades. In Colorado, only one person has been executed in more than fifty years. Victims’ families in capital cases go back to court for years on end where the press replays the details of the crime again and again. The result is that the defendant is turned into a celebrity while the victim’s family waits for justice that never comes. This system burdens the justice system, taking resources from both programs that are proven to improve public safety and also from solving the over 1,300 homicide cold cases in Colorado.

The death penalty is said to be reserved for “particularly heinous murders.” We have difficulty understanding this position. The implication is that other murders are “ordinary.” From experience, we can tell you that every murder is heinous to the family of the victim. As Colorado holds on to its broken death penalty system – cherry-picking cases to receive the disproportionate attention and resources of a capital trial – it wastes millions of dollars that could be spent on policies that benefit all victims.

As you consider whether to keep or end Colorado’s death penalty, we urge you to make the choice that best serves the interests of victims’ families. We hope you will conclude what we have: that the death penalty fails victims’ families. We urge you to repeal Colorado’s death penalty.

Respectfully,

Ezra Aldern of Denver
Son of Wendy Mae Aldern, murdered in AuroraBob Autobee of Pueblo
Father of Eric Jason Autobee, murdered in the Limon Correctional Facility

Victoria Baker-Willford
Daughter of Carolyn Jansen, murdered in Aurora

Dale Beck of Estes Park
Brother-in-law of Christine Ann Clark, murdered in Wisconsin

Margaret Beck of Estes Park
Sister of Christine Ann Clark, murdered in Wisconsin

Katie Benson Smith of Cotopaxi
Daughter of Sergeant Mary K. Ricard, murdered in the Arkansas Valley Correctional Facility in Crowley

Rachel Beutel-Hadley of Aurora
Daughter of Tammy Augustine, murdered in Iowa

Linda Burks-Brown of Denver
Sister of Willie Frazier, murdered in Denver

Brenda Carrasco of Denver
Cousin of a victim, murdered in Denver

Pastor Mike Pennington Devine of Denver
Father of Devon T Sutton, murdered in Florida

Barbara Scout Dunn of Fort Collins
Sister of John Kent Breckenridge, murdered in The Caribbean

Judith Elane
Sister of Ronald Eugene Schlatter, murdered in Denver

Frank C Evans of Denver
Uncle of Casson Xavier Evans, murdered in Denver

Mable Inez Evans of Aurora
Grandmother of Casson Xavier Evans, murdered in Denver

Sharletta Evans of Aurora
Mother of Casson Xavier Evans, murdered in Denver

Tilisha Evans of Denver
Cousin of Casson Xavier Evans, murdered in Denver

Robert M May of Denver
Brother-in-law of a victim, murdered in Oregon

William H Mayes Evans of Aurora
Uncle of Casson Xavier Evans, murdered in Denver

Rachel Jean Gaines of Aurora
Sister of Frederick Leon Martin, murdered in Missouri

Jean Gregory of Denver
Mother of Steven Gregory, murdered in Aurora

Sean Gruno of Westminster
Nephew of Polly Elizabeth Sullivan, murdered in Denver

Senator Lucia Guzman of Denver
Daughter of Tom Guzman, murdered in Texas

Lieutenant Hollis of Denver
Uncle of Faye Johnson, murdered in Denver

Calvin Hurd of Aurora
Brother of Casson Xavier Evans, murdered in Denver

Lori Janssen of Bolder
Daughter of Helen and Richard Pelham, murdered in Golden

Arlis Keller of Greeley
Sister of Dwight Tobyne, murdered in Arizona

Brian Keller of Greeley
Brother-in-law of Dwight Tobyne, murdered in Arizona

Sherri Landrum of Denver
Mother of Kurt Lydell Levias Jr, murdered in Denver

Francey Kuizenga Liefert of Loveland
Daughter of Rev. Dr. Henry Kuizenga, murdered in California

Angela Lee of Denver
Mother of Gailen J Armstrong, murdered in Denver

Frank D Lytle of Colorado Springs
Son-in-law of Johnnie Banks Sr, murdered in Indiana

Rosemary Harris Lytle of Colorado Springs
Daughter of Johnnie Banks Sr, murdered in Indiana

Cathleen Maestas of Denver
Mother of Geranimo ‘Mo’ Maestas, murdered in Denver

Antoinette Martinez of Denver
Mother of David Martinez, murdered in Denver

Tom Mauser of Littleton
Father of Daniel Mauser, murdered at Columbine High School in Littleton

Bernard Mayes of Aurora
Nephew of Casson Xavier Evans, murdered in Denver

Michalla Mayes-Milliner of Aurora
Cousin of Casson Xavier Evans, murdered in Denver

Elvira Maxwell
Mother of Darron Dwayne Sneed and Charles Sneed Jr., murdered in Denver

Dr. Mary McNeil-Jones, PhD of Denver
Wife of Wayne McNeil, murdered in Kansas

Rebecca L Oakes of Denver
Daughter of Marge Kohnberg, murdered at Chuck-E-Cheese in Aurora

Sara Perez of Denver
Aunt of Deont’a McDonald, murdered in Denver

Angell Pérez of Denver
Cousin of Anthony Montoya Jr, murdered in Thornton

Michael Pinelli of Englewood
Brother of Anthony Martinez, murdered in Illinois

Amy Plapp of Colorado Springs
Sister of Steven F. Plapp, murdered in Texas

Lynn Porter of Aurora
Aunt of Casson Xavier Evans, murdered in Denver

Susanne D Price of Denver
Mother of André Price, murdered in Denver

Alice Randolph of Lakewood
Mother of Loren Anthony Collins, murdered in Aurora

Kristopher Randolf of Thornton
Brother of Loren Anthony Collins, murdered in Aurora

Tim Ricard of Crowley
Husband of Sergeant Mary K. Ricard, murdered at the Arkansas Valley Correctional Facility in Crowley

Gail VanderJagt Rice
Sister of Denver police officer Bruce VanderJagt, murdered in Denver

Dr. Robert Rice
Brother-in-law of Denver police officer Bruce VanderJagt, murdered in Denver

Gail Rogers of Aurora
Cousin of Casson Xavier Evans, murdered in Denver

Priss Sanders of Denver
Daughter-in-law of Stacey Coad, murdered in Denver

Marilyn Shelton of Denver
Mother of Tyrone Ivan Adair Jr “BossMan Goodie,” murdered in Denver

Christine Sykes of Denver
Aunt of Casson Xavier Evans, murdered in Denver

Carissa Tomlin of Aurora
Niece of Fredrick Leon Martin, murdered in Missouri

Barbara Otte Voss of Grand Junction
Sister of Thomas E. Otte, murdered in Connecticut

Charles Derrick Waits of Denver
Father of Dawan Derrick Childress, murdered in Denver

Monica Lynette Waits of Denver
Stepmother of Dawan Derrick Childress, murdered in Denver

Isaiah Ward of Denver
Cousin of Kerrick Summers, murdered in Denver

Thomas G Ward Jr of Colorado Springs
Brother-in-law of Steven F. Plapp, murdered in Texas

Dominae Ware of Aurora
Niece of Fredrick Leon Martin, murdered in Missouri

Roy Wayne Watley of Aurora
Cousin of Casson Xavier Evans, murdered in Denver

David Works of Denver
Father of Stephanie & Rachel Works, murdered at the New Life Church in Colorado Springs

Marie Works of Denver
Mother of Stephanie & Rachel Works, murdered at the New Life Church in Colorado Springs

Davida Young of Denver
Family member of a murder victim

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Another Year in Impact: Read the Report

Looking back on 2019 reminds me of what an incredible experience it is to do our work. Reflecting also confirms how 2019 set us up for yet another decade of monumental change. I am so grateful for our team, board, partners, and supporters like you because you all make the work successful. And I’m excited to share some of the greatest moments from this year with you, through our 2019 Impact Report.

EJUSA's 2019 Impact Report

In May, we saw the end of a long battle when we sat with our partners in the New Hampshire legislature and watched lawmakers end the state’s death penalty — one more sign that the death penalty is on its way out.

Four years ago, we launched Trauma to Trust, a training program that brings police and community members together to foster empathy and understanding of trauma. Since then, we’ve trained over 500 officers and community members in Newark, NJ, and are continuing to expand our reach.

Within that same amount of time, we’ve raised more than $4 million for community organizations across the nation that are serving survivors of violence and trauma.

Please take a few minutes to read about the other milestones and key moments of 2019. Everything we do is driven by our vision for justice reimagined.

READ THE REPORT HERE  

We’ve achieved so much this year and will continue to bring the change we wish to see with you by our side. Make your own impact by giving a gift to EJUSA today.

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Highs and Lows

Each December, the team at the Death Penalty Information Center provides an enormous and essential service to justice reform when it releases its annual year-end report. The report tells the comprehensive story—in statistics and graphics, in narrative, and in expert analysis—of the death penalty in the U.S. for the previous 12 months.

The reports of recent years document an undeniably positive trend. Capital punishment is on the way out. Some highlights:

  • 2019 is the fifth straight year of fewer than 30 executions. In fact, the 22 executions this year marks the second lowest number in the past 30 years.
  • The number of death sentences also continues to plunge. There have been less than 50 new sentences for each of the last five years.
  • With full repeal of the death penalty in New Hampshire plus the moratorium imposed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in California, half of all states do not have a functioning death penalty system.

But the report makes clear the horrifying truth about the death penalty—our most vulnerable people are those most likely to suffer the injustice of an execution. Of the 22 men executed in 2019, 19 of them suffered from serious mental illness, some type of brain impairment, substantial childhood trauma, or some combination of the three. We failed each of those men over and over by not recognizing and treating their trauma before it led to violence.

Problematic Executions in 2019

Two of the men — one in Alabama and one in Texas — had significant claims of innocence but were executed anyway. And several other of the 22 had “demonstrably faulty legal processes” that ultimately led to their executions.

As a nation, we should be ashamed.

Actions by the Trump Administration also complicate the positive developments. This past summer, the Department of Justice announced plans to resume federal executions after a 16-year hiatus. While we expected this to happen, the reality of it doesn’t change the fact that it is completely out of step with the way the country is moving.

For proof, look at the work that we have done through Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty. Over six years, that project has revealed that repealing the death penalty is a bipartisan issue. The nearly 1,000 media stories in the last year alone about growing conservative resistance to capital punishment demonstrates that this isn’t about a small constituency.

The latest national poll about the death penalty serves as further proof: about 60 percent of Americans do not believe the death penalty is an appropriate response to a murder.

Our work continues. We’re working in several states that have the ingredients to take big steps toward ending the death penalty in the next few years. Make no mistake — someday there won’t be the need for a year-end report on the death penalty.

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The Gibbons Fund — Our First Three Years

2019 Gibbons ReportEJUSA launched the John J. Gibbons Fund in 2016 to honor the life and legacy of Judge John J. Gibbons, former Chief Judge of the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Judge Gibbons was a tireless advocate who used his position to protect and expand civil rights, civil liberties, and human rights in our nation. Throughout his career, he represented several individuals serving sentences on death row, and played a critical role in the historic 2007 repeal of New Jersey’s death penalty. His compassion and deep commitment and contributions to justice have inspired us all, and we are honored to have worked alongside him to end our nation’s death penalty. 

Over the past three years, generous donors to the Gibbons Fund have made investments that have allowed EJUSA to further our work to end the death penalty nationwide. We are happy to be joined by passionate individuals and advocates in the legal field who are committed to creating the justice system that our nation needs and deserves. 

Learn more about the work made possible by the Gibbons Fund by reading the report here [PDF]. 

EJUSA thrives due to the support of donors to the Gibbons Fund, and people like you. Click here to give, and to support us in creating approaches to justice rooted in fairness, equity, and humanity. 

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The world has lost a giant

It is with a broken heart that I’m writing to share the news that one of our founding board members, Jonathan E. Gradess, passed away last week.

I met Jonathan 15 years ago, on the eve of the nation’s first successful death penalty abolition campaign. The courts had just thrown out New York’s death penalty and the legislature promised to meet in six weeks to “fix” the law and get capital punishment back up and running in no time. But EJUSA and our state partners, New Yorkers for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, believed the people were ready for change. We were right. Ten months later, New York became the first state legislature to dismantle its machinery of death. Since then, eight more states have followed suit.

Jonathan and I worked side by side during the campaign. He was wise, brilliant, and loving. He imagined a bold future of healing, restoration, and safety for all. Jonathan held the people harmed by violence and the justice system close in his heart, driven every day to fight for a better day.

Soon after the historic repeal, we founded EJUSA. For more than a decade since, Jonathan was my rock, my mentor, and my friend. He believed in EJUSA’s vision of transformation – a vision he helped to shape – with his full heart. He marshalled every resource to shepherd EJUSA from a fledgling organization to a force for justice and healing.

He did all this while running his own organization, the New York State Defenders Association, for 39 years, serving on countless boards, writing poetry, making art, and enjoying a wonderful family. He had the unique power to hold a big picture vision of justice while also making time for the small moments of kindness and love that drive the world.

Jonathan’s generous heart and soul wrapped around the world and touched more lives than anyone knows. In the darkest moments of unchecked power, cruelty, injustice, and defeat, Jonathan could find the source of light and point us all towards it.

It seems fitting that in the darkness of his passing, I turn to his own words to find the light.

Being here for each other is the miracle of living.
Even when you know this, you forget it, or it evades you, or you lose it, or you
let things get in the way, or you doubt it, or stuff pushes it back, or you get so
overwhelmed you cease to believe. Don’t let it get away from you.

Goodbye to a hero and a friend.

In memory of Jonathan, we continue to fight for justice, together.

You can read more about Jonathan’s rich life of service and share words of support with his family.

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A Movement Matures

In September, Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty (CCATDP) hosted its first national gathering for staff, supporters, and volunteers from across the country. We converged on New Orleans and spent two thrilling days talking about our numerous recent victories and strategizing for future campaigns.

The past year has been amazing. Conservatives were the deciding votes in New Hampshire’s successful repeal campaign. And in ten other states, Republicans introduced similar pieces of legislation, one of which fell only four votes shy of success in Wyoming. All of this happened while the downward trend for executions and new death sentences in the country continues, and support for the death penalty is at an all-time low.

States like Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado are anticipating big repeal movements in 2020 where our affiliates are certain to be a part of the conversation. In other states, like Louisiana and Ohio, the many problems with capital punishment are becoming more prominent. And people are voicing their concern, including Republican leaders. Given all of this, we had a lot to discuss.

EJUSA’s Mona Cadena (left) and Hannah Cox facilitate discussion on the conservative movement toward repeal.

I was so impressed by the wealth of knowledge in the room. From attorneys to GOP executive committee members, Young Americans for Liberty campus presidents to former jurors, those in the room were tried and true Republicans with a deep knowledge of their states, political parties, and justice system.

This all started as an organic grassroots movement in Montana where a few principled conservatives who felt strongly in their pro-life views and wanted to fight for change around the broken death penalty organized and began elevating the issues with capital punishment. Today, we are a national organization influencing policy across the country and bringing together conservative leaders from every corner of the nation. This event showed just how far CCATDP has come, and I couldn’t be prouder to be a part of this movement.

We left the weekend energized and excited to head back into battle in the coming months on an issue that is truly bipartisan and uniting people on both sides of the aisle. Keep an eye on us because you’re going to see more successful state campaigns and soon.

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Centering Trauma, Healing Communities

For generations, communities of color have experienced deep mistrust of police, resulting from years of institutional racism and violence. Only after the 2014 police murders of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Ezell Ford, all within a month of each other, did discussions of police violence and accountability become a part of the larger national conscience.

Over the years, public attention to police violence and the associated lack of accountability has mounted, revealing both a dire need and ample opportunity for a new form of justice. In January 2018, the Federal Office of Victims of Crime (OVC) launched a three-year initiative to explore these needs and opportunities.

The initiative, formally called “Law Enforcement and the Communities they Serve: Supporting Collective Healing in the Wake of Harm,” is a federal collaboration between the OVC, the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) and the Department of Justice. IACP identified five cities to house the program: Baton Rouge, Houston, Minneapolis, Oakland, and Rapid City, South Dakota.

For the past year, EJUSA has partnered with activists, community-based organizations, institutional service providers, and law enforcement agencies in these cities to tackle a critical question: What do trauma-informed approaches to harm and violence look like? The work has gained a powerful momentum as the collective group addresses the prevalence and impact of police-community tensions and establishes new means of interaction and understanding.

In this role, EJUSA supports organizations that work with survivors of violence coping with trauma, while meeting with local police departments to build their understanding of trauma, the ways that communities have been harmed and traumatized at the hands of police, and the ways that law enforcement themselves have experienced and internalized the trauma involved in their jobs.

“The goal is to really help cities center trauma within all aspects of their work, and collectively create public healing strategies that acknowledge harm and foster healing on both sides” says Latrina Kelly-James, EJUSA’s director of training and capacity building.

“It broadens the definition of healing,” says Christine Henderson, EJUSA’s senior collective healing strategist. “It shows intersections between policing, community organizing, and victim service providers, and allows each to understand how trauma-informed strategies can be a foundation for so much justice work.”

While police-community relationships still have a way to go across all sites, some of the most pivotal changes within the initiative’s first year occurred in Baton Rouge. Like all of the cities selected for the project, Baton Rouge has been deeply affected by racism, poverty, state violence and significantly traumatic events — most notably the 2016 murder of Alton Sterling by Baton Rouge police, the killing of Baton Rouge police officers and a major flood; all of these occurring within weeks of each other.

As EJUSA’s Collective Healing team met with the Baton Rouge Police Department (BRPD) and local organizations to advocate for cultural shifts within the department, several grassroots groups came together to form the Baton Rouge Healing Coalition. This network of 15 like-minded organizations support one another to create strategies rooted in community healing, while receiving capacity-building support — in the form of fundraising, organizational support, marketing, and more — from EJUSA staff.

In August, this coordinated activism and community support yielded a historic public apology from BRPD Chief Murphy Paul, not only for Alton Sterling’s murder but for the toxic culture of policing that has haunted the city for generations. In this apology, Paul explicitly named the department’s commitment to healing from the trauma that police have experienced and created in the city.

Chief Paul’s apology was one of the most exciting highlights of this year but it was far from the only one. Several cities saw remarkable developments, including Rapid City. In a city known mostly as the site of Mount Rushmore and much less for its mistreatment of its sizeable Lakota Native American population, commitments by police illustrated transformations in law enforcement’s empathy to community trauma and healing that hadn’t been seen before.

Initial meetings with the community surrounded issues of disconnection from police, rampant violence, and corruption. Over the year, the Rapid City Police Department (RCPD) listened and devised a plan for proactively shifting their department culture. Presented over 300 PowerPoint slides, the plan described the history of the U.S. government’s genocide against Native American people, and how this violent legacy dictates the way that law enforcement engages with the community today.

Before presenting the plan externally, RCPD met with Lakota elders to ensure that the plan was acceptable. One elder was brought to tears, naming that this was the first time they’d felt hope that true change could take place.

The Collective Healing initiative will continue for an additional year. Given the progress and clarity that has come from this first year’s work, our team noted the continued need for deeper investment from police in order to achieve the initiative’s goal of transforming historically over-policed communities.

For EJUSA’s Senior Strategist, Will Simpson, intentionality and communicating how change is happening is key.

“We learned a lot this year,” he says. “We need to send the message that huge changes are possible, and that healing is happening. We need to show people that growth is happening on a daily basis.”

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Fall 2019, From Trauma to Trust: Police and Community Collaborative Training

This fall, Equal Justice USA is continuing to lead an effort to facilitate healing and build trust between the community and police with a goal of better responses to trauma in the wake of violence. A team of facilitators will be leading trainings on trauma-informed responses to violence with the Newark Police Department and Newark community members: “From Trauma to Trust: Police and Community Collaborative Training”

The training has several goals:

  • To understand the symptoms of community, historical, and vicarious trauma
  • To understand how modern policing furthers trauma and violence
  • To build the necessary skills to address trauma and problem-solve when it arises
  • To establish new approaches to community-driven public safety.

We believe that by creating empathy and a shared understanding of present-day and historical trauma, communities can build a shared vision with law enforcement for safety that centers racial equity and violence prevention.These trainings will focus on the development and maintenance of trust between police and community members/partnerships. Trainings specifics are as follows:

Scheduling:

  • GROUP V: Monday, September 16, and Monday, September 23, from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. at Broadway House (298 Broadway, Newark, NJ)
  • GROUP W: Friday, September 20, and Friday, September 27, from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. at Broadway House (298 Broadway, Newark, NJ)
  • GROUP X: Wednesday, October 16, and Wednesday, October 23, from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. at Broadway House (298 Broadway, Newark, NJ)
  • GROUP Y: Thursday, October 17, and Thursday, October 24, from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. (Location to be determined)
  • GROUP Z: Wednesday, November 13, and Wednesday, November 20, from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. (Location to be determined)
  • GROUP AA: Monday, November 18, and Monday, November 25, from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. (Location to be determined)

Additional Details

  • Participants will include 15 police officers and 15-20 community members
  • Training will include opportunities to learn about trauma symptoms, ACES (the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study), historical trauma, and the cycle of violence
  • Hands-on skills-building and problem-solving activities will be customized for trainees on the front lines addressing violence and trauma
  • Attention will be given to special populations, including boys and men of color, LGBTQ+ communities, girls and women, and more.

Community leaders from all sectors are invited to participate in these trainings.

REGISTER NOW 

If you have any questions, please contact Lionel Latouche at LIONELL@ejusa.org.

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Federal Government Makes Terrible Decision to Resume Executions

Statement by Shari Silberstein, Executive Director of Equal Justice USA:

“Despite substantial evidence that the death penalty is overrun by racism and the process preys upon the poor and those struggling with trauma, the federal government has made a choice to begin executing again. Executions and death sentences are at historic lows because, as a country, we have seen all that is wrong with equating justice to killing. Given that trend, the federal government’s decision today is all the more confounding.”

Contact:   Patrick Egan, 718-801-8948, patricke@ejusa.org

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