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.
