Five years ago, we set out to build a movement to halt executions, resolution by resolution, church by church, and school by school. We dreamed that our strategy would shatter the political inertia of the anti-death penalty struggle and build the people’s movement that is now sweeping the nation. Capturing the imagination of local and…
The National Tally of Moratorium Endorsers has surpassed 2,500 groups calling for a halt to executions. The list includes faith communities, civil rights groups, businesses, unions, professional associations, 78 city, county, and town councils, and more. Some of the more recent additions include the New Jersey chapter of the National Organization of Women, 75 Texas…
The Quixote Center’s Equal Justice USA program made history this year when we won the nation’s second state moratorium in the country in our home state of Maryland. On October 26 in Chicago, the national movement honored that achievement when the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty named Equal Justice USA project coordinator and…
The New Jersey legislature is poised to move moratorium legislation to victory early next year. The Equal Justice USA Northeast field office has been working side by side with our state partner, New Jerseyans for a Death Penalty Moratorium (NJDPM), throughout the year to help make the dream a reality. The groups upped the ante…
As Illinois Governor’s term ends, those on death row may find a ray of hope Illinois Governor George Ryan made history in January 2000 when he made Illinois the first state in the country to halt executions while questions of fairness were studied. The study commission the Governor established completed its report earlier this year,…
“You know, they’d come back from war, it might be three months, it might be two years, it might be five years, all of a sudden they relive it again, and all that has to come out.” – Fred Allen, Witness to an Execution radio documentary Before police finally caught sniper suspect John Allen Muhammad,…
A personal face on the death penalty’s deadly mistakes Pennsylvania is home to three exonerated former death row inmates with a powerful message to share. Thanks to Pennsylvania Abolitionists United Against the Death Penalty (PA Abolitionists), the message of those wrongly convicted was heard loud and clear across the state this fall. The “Voices of…
EJUSA seeks donors to support the launching of a new Partnership dedicated to underwriting state capacity building activities. The Partnership provides participants (State by State Partners) with a means to closely monitor and support the development of local grassroots groups working for state legislative moratoriums. The objective of the State by State Partnership is twofold:…
Covering campaigns in NJ, PA, MD, NY, and DE The Field Office’s second year started off strong with a multi-state tour of the Journey of Hope…from Violence to Healing, which came through Delaware, New Jersey, and New York in April. To share ideas and get a jump-start planning the tour, Field Organizer Celeste Fitzgerald facilitated…
from Petra Wendeler of Amnesty International, Group 513, Mobile When it comes to the death penalty, Alabama has never produced the big headlines that Texas has. However, with the fastest growing death row population per capita in the United States, this might soon change. Alabama’s capital punishment system is one of the worst in the…