In 2002, EJUSA…

…Traveled to New Jersey, Nevada, Illinois, Georgia, Pennsylvania, New York, Tennessee, Connecticut, Virginia, Missouri, and Ohio to conduct workshops, planning meetings, and other grassroots organizing.

…Assisted 26 states with direct organizing, training, grant writing, mailings, media, needs assessments, message development, chapter development, polling, creating materials, phone banking, publicizing events, working with a study commission, and/or action alert mailings.

…Added over 600 new organizations and 18 new local governments to the National Tally of groups calling for a moratorium, bringing the total to over 2,600 groups and 80 municipalities that have called for a moratorium.

…Produced and distributed a Legislative Toolkit, a new brochure on wrongful convictions, and more.

Jane receiving award
Jane Henderson accepts the Abolitionist of the Year award from Steve Hawkins, the Executive Director of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, at the 2002 annual conference in Chicago.

…Developed action packets for groups to respond quickly and easily to national events in the news in their states, such as the release of the 100th innocent person from death row.

…Hosted quarterly conference calls for state organizers to share information and experience with each other straight from the trenches.

Jane Henderson, EJUSA Founder and Project Coordinator, received the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty’s Abolitionist of the Year Award.

By Shari Silberstein

Since 2000, Shari Silberstein has dedicated her career to transforming the justice system from one that harms to one that heals. Under her leadership, and using campaign strategies she helped develop, Equal Justice USA has helped end the death penalty in nine states, built first-of-its-kind conservative and evangelical coalitions for justice reform, secured millions in state funding for healing services to families of murder victims, launched an innovative model for training and dialogue between police and communities on trauma and race equity, and strengthened dozens of local organizations across the nation working for justice, violence reduction, and healing. Shari has been a national voice in helping to break down the silos between criminal justice reformers and crime survivor advocates. Her expertise has been a source in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, and Harper’s Magazine, and she has written op-eds for an array of media outlets, including Fox News, the Marshall Project, and U.S. News and World Report. Shari has a bachelor's degree in film from New York University and a master's degree in Middle Eastern studies from the University of Texas at Austin.