by Laura Moye of Georgia Moratorium Campaign (www.GeorgiaMoratorium.org) Late last year, a coalition of groups including Amnesty International, Georgians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, and the Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda launched the Georgia Moratorium Campaign. The campaign is Georgia’s first concerted legislative push for a moratorium, and resulted in the introduction of…
Illinois Governor Ryan’s Commission on Capital Punishment released the long-awaited results of its two-year review of the state’s death penalty system on April 15. News about the report’s findings is having a ripple effect around the country. The majority of the 14-member commission voted to abolish Illinois’ death penalty either on moral grounds, because no…
The Moratorium Now campaign hits a milestone What do the following places have in common? A church basement. A Democratic Club board meeting. City council chambers. A union hall. In places like these across the country, ordinary people debated the death penalty, examined the issues, and decided collectively to add their group’s name to the…
May 9, 2002. The state of Maryland is set to execute Wesley Baker in less than a week. Thousands of calls have been pouring in to the Governor from around the country calling for him to halt executions. Whatever the Governor’s decision, we know it will have to come sometime in the next two days….
developed and mailed an action alert to 25,000 Marylanders. published an ad in a Sunday edition of The Sun in Baltimore with a readership of nearly a half million people; over 400 Marylanders signed the ad’s call for a moratorium, including three U.S. Congressional Representatives, the current and former Mayors of Baltimore, two county executives,…
Moratorium bills passed the Nevada Senate and the Maryland House of Delegates. A moratorium amendment lost by only 3 votes in the Connecticut House, while Texas bills passed committees in both legislative houses. Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, Missouri, and North Carolina enacted legislation banning the execution of the mentally retarded. 17 states improved access to post-conviction…
In March, we deepened our long-term commitment to state capacity building by establishing our first Field Office and hiring Celeste Fitzgerald to run it. She is a talented organizer who emerged from the moratorium movement in New Jersey. Celeste provides technical assistance in organizing, strategic planning, message development, lobbying, and organizational capacity building to a…
The near victory in Maryland demonstrated a new political strength for the moratorium movement. Grassroots support, which in Maryland included moratorium resolutions adopted by local governments representing the state’s three most populous jurisdictions, can indeed be translated into political change! Our Maryland campaign provided us intensive on-the-ground training which has enriched our organizing staff’s capacity…
Since Equal Justice USA launched MORATORIUM NOW! in 1997, we’ve played a unique national role by forging strong ties to state organizations. States are the frontline of our movement. They are where the vast majority of prisoners are sentenced to death and executed and where grassroots pressure for a moratorium can have the most impact….
Nationwide, 63 local governments and nearly 2,000 national, state, and local organizations and faith communities have adopted resolutions urging a moratorium. Equal Justice USA maintains this national listing on its National Tally. Momentum continued after September 11 with the Lincoln, Nebraska City Council; West Hollywood and Santa Clara County, California; and Cincinnati, Ohio all adopting…