Jeremy Schroeder giving an interview in Illinois upon the repeal of the state's death penalty.

February 16, 2012 – If you are reading this article, you are probably against the death penalty, and you probably know that the climate for abolishing the death penalty has drastically changed. Death sentences and executions are down, bills to repeal the death penalty have been introduced in most states with death penalty statutes, and a growing number of states have actually ended the use of capital punishment – my former state of Illinois most recently.

We can take great pride in knowing that in every state in which the death penalty has ended, lives that would otherwise be in jeopardy have been saved and resources that would have been used to kill might now be used to heal and make our communities safer.

What you may not know is how working against the death penalty in your state can help save lives even if you don’t have the death penalty or repeal legislation is not pending in your legislature immediately. After running the campaign in Illinois I can’t stress enough how important those early voices for abolition were. A lot of the attention goes to the states that are close to abolishing the death penalty and rightly so. But you can make just as big a difference saving lives in states that are further away from repealing the death penalty. Here, the work is setting the tone and the stage for repeal by building an ever-broadening base of support for our vision of a just society that values life and holds offenders accountable while enhancing support for victims of homicide.

NCADP State Affiliate Map

Although I am a lawyer by training, I am an organizer at heart, so I will make the ask here in bold letters: CALL YOUR STATE COALITION AND VOLUNTEER (and support their work financially)! I’ll make it easy: go to www.ncadp.org and click on the link for “State Affiliates” and click on your state.

In the end, this is a local grassroots community struggle. It is vitally important that you connect with the good work being done locally, but if need be, you can contact me directly and I’ll put you in touch with the people in your state who are working to repeal, stop and end the death penalty every day. I’m serious. If you need to stop reading this article and e-mail/phone, I will not be offended.

If you still need convincing, I want to share something I learned from Bob Gilligan, the executive director of the Catholic Conference of Illinois. Bob has a gift for cutting right to the heart of the issue. Bob’s message spoke to me. When he would speak, he would speak persuasively about the practical reasons for ending the death penalty and would move people to support our cause on that basis. But he would also remind everyone that the death penalty is morally wrong and that should be enough of a reason to abolish it.

I don’t fight to abolish the death penalty because it will save money (it will), or because of problems with the broken system (there are many). I fight the death penalty because the death penalty is morally wrong. Because of this simple truth, I believe that it is important that we work in our own communities to create a society that addresses violence through a system that is as morally just as possible, takes care of victims, and makes us all safer. There is a lot of work to do on that front, but I am starting by fighting to abolish the death penalty.

Back to my reasons I feel it is better to get involved with your state campaigns and not just focus on the states that are close to abolition:

First, the recent high-profile cases like Troy Davis and movement on numerous bills to abolish the death penalty have created a national climate where the death penalty is being questioned. The states near abolition, as well as states in the pipeline to enter abolition campaigns, are all helped tremendously by this climate change. The media in these states used to ask if abolition was a good idea, but now the climate has changed where the media knows many of the problems of the death penalty. However, in order to continue this change, people need to see movement everywhere and relatively small victories in states that are not close to abolition make a huge difference.

Folks always tell me that “my state is different and we are not close to abolishing the death penalty.” This sentiment is exactly why having unexpected “smaller” victories are so effective; they show that even in states where people do not expect opposition to the death penalty, people are standing up against it. Instead of waiting for the right time to repeal the death penalty, start organizing now so you have the broad coalition made up of faith and community groups, conservatives, murder victims’ family members, law enforcement, attorneys and others that are needed to ultimately win abolition.

Second, state campaigns take a lot longer than people realize. The culture change I talk about earlier is, unfortunately the easier part. It still takes time to build the relationships and bonds strong enough to push the belief that abolition is possible. And sometimes, without realizing it, we have to convince ourselves as well.

I learned this the hard way. Illinois had almost a decade-long moratorium on executions and we all truly hoped we could abolish the death penalty. But that is not the same thing as believing it is possible. I remember vividly standing in the Capitol after a string of smaller victories when I knew we would be successful in Illinois. I also remember the hard time I had after convincing our coalition it was possible. It took years of consistent, strategic work together for our coalition partners to see what we saw. Take my advice, get started early.

Finally, I started this article by mentioning your work can save lives. Obviously, if you help abolish the death penalty in a state, no one else will be executed. But what about those states that are further away from abolition? Your help is even more critical. In many of those states, executions are still happening. Your work can stop an execution. Simply being a voice against the death penalty in the community can change how the media in your area reports on the death penalty, how your district attorney decides to seek the death penalty, and even how often your Governor grants clemency.

Below is a rundown of what’s happening in your state. This list is not exhaustive or can’t cover all the major campaigns that are happening; some states are working on a behind-the-scenes strategy that shouldn’t be talked about in a public newsletter. So please, as a first step to getting involved, I’ll say again: Contact your state organization and volunteer!

Repeal legislation being considered in 2012-2013:
Connecticut and Maryland have bills pending. California will have a ballot initiative to repeal the death penalty in the 2012 election. Colorado, Kansas and Montana will hopefully have legislation in next session.

Steam may be building to repeal the death penalty in these states in the near term:

Delaware, Kentucky, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Washington.

States to watch (and why to watch them):

Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber declared on moratorium on the death penalty in the state until the end of his term.

Missouri: Opposition is mounting to the death sentence of Reggie Clemmons.

North Carolina: A bill that would have repealed the state’s Racial Justice Act was recently defeated.

Ohio: There are bills to abolish the death penalty in both chambers, and a study commission is looking at the death penalty.

Oregon: Governor John Kitzhaber (pictured) declared a moratorium on all executions for remainder of his term.

Pennsylvania: A study commission on the death penalty passed in the Senate and the study will be done in 2012.

Opposition to the death penalty in states that use the death penalty aggressively is mounting:

Florida: There are currently bills to require unanimous juries in sentencing as well as bills to abolish the death penalty. Litigators and communities of color are particulary active in county organizing at the moment.

Georgia: Georgians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty have been actively engaging supporters across the state to keep the momentum going since the massive, global outcry over the execution of Troy Davis last September.

Texas: Assist the Texas Coaltion to Abolish the Death Penalty in collecting clergy signatures on an Interfaith Statement of Opposition to the Death Penalty. Click here for details.

Conclusion:

If you take away nothing else from this article, know that you are not alone in your desire to get rid of this broken, morally wrong system we call the death penalty. You only need to look around to see that our numbers are increasing every day. Stand up and change the way people talk about the death penalty in your community. Seize this moment right now to make a difference in people’s lives.

Jeremy Schroeder is the National Strategy Council for the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. The National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty is the oldest and largest organization dedicated exclusively to ending capital punishment in the United States and supporting efforts worldwide. Previously, Jeremy was the Executive Director of the Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and led their successful campaign last year. The bill abolishing the death penalty was signed into law in March 2011.

This article first appeared in CMN’s February 2012 Newsletter.

Louisiana Catholics Committed to Repeal of the Death Penalty and the Jesuit Social Research Institute have collaborated on a study that addresses the death penalty through a Roman Catholic theological lens – aiming to “demonstrate the ineffectiveness and arbitrariness of our death penalty system as a public policy, including the ways it is unfairly administered across racial, social and economic lines.” The study – co-authored by Alex Mikulich of Louisiana Catholics Committed to Repeal of the Death Penalty and Sophie Cull of the Louisiana Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty – gathers the results of all qualitative and quantitative Louisiana-focused studies related to the administration of the death penalty into a single collection.

Download the Full Study

Download a Condensed Version of the Study

O Jesus, you forgave the Good Thief from your cross,
at your own execution.
You exonerated the woman caught in adultery,
because no one was without guilt.
You wept with his sisters at the loss of Lazarus.
You wept over Jerusalem, over the blindness of the people

O Jesus, you taught us to transcend racism,
like the Good Samaritan.
You showed us the unconditional love and forgiveness
of the Father to his Prodigal Son;
and the heavenly way of extreme benevolence as
the sun shines equally on the good and the bad,
and when the last and least were rewarded
as the first and the best.

Help us to learn your ways, O Jesus, of ceaseless forgiving
and boundless mercy and trust
of our brothers and sisters,
especially those convicted of capital crimes.
Help us to take up the cross of unconditional love
each day, with you, O Jesus, along the hallways
and streets and rows of our lives. Amen.

Download a sheet of 4 prayer cards with facts about the death penalty

This brochure – suitable for printing and distribution – offers reflections on the death penalty for Good Friday, an update on progress to end the use of the death penalty around the world, and prayer and other resources that will inform and enrich Catholics who want to learn more about the call to restorative justice.

Download the Brochure

In 2011, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit upheld the bar to re-prosecution. (D’Ambrosio v. Bagley, No. 10-3247, Aug. 29, 2011). Even the dissent referred to the state’s “remarkable inability to competently prosecute D’Ambrosio.” The state appealed this decision to the U.S. Supreme Court mainly on jurisdictional grounds, but was denied certiorari on Jan. 23. (Bagley v. D’Ambrosio, No. 11-672, denying cert.). developments biased D’Ambrosio’s chances for a fair trial, and hence the state was barred from retrying him. District Court Judge Kathleen O’Malley wrote: “For 20 years, the State held D’Ambrosio on death row, despite wrongfully withholding evidence that ‘would have substantially increased a reasonable juror’s doubt of D’Ambrosio’s guilt.’ Despite being ordered to do so by this Court … the State still failed to turn over all relevant and material evidence relating to the crime of which D’Ambrosio was convicted. Then, once it was ordered to provide D’Ambrosio a constitutional trial or release him within 180 days, the State did neither. During those 180 days, the State engaged in substantial inequitable conduct, wrongfully retaining and delaying the production of yet more potentially exculpatory evidence… To fail to bar retrial in such extraordinary circumstances surely would fail to serve the interests of justice.”

Ohio Supreme Court Justice Paul Pfeifer, who also helped write the state’s death penalty law, has likewise changed his views and urged its repeal. Justice Pfeifer, a Republican, recently told the state House of Representatives, “The death sentence makes no sense to me at this point when you can have life without possibility of parole. I don’t see what society gains from that.”

As chaplain for the state of Florida’s death row Dale Recinella draws from a wealth of experiences to share his personal story of vocation as he responded to a call from God to move from Wall Street to prison, and from business to ministry. Dr. Susan Recinella shares about her own call to assist in this ministry by working, praying, and journeying with the families of those condemned to death. Their stories invite everyone who hears them to consider their own discipleship call, recognize their perspectives on the death penalty, and invite a deeper relationship of prayer and action in the light of the Gospel and the power of God.

Listen to a version of Dale’s “Now I Walk on Death Row” talk on his speaker page.

Listen to Susan’s presentation on her ministry to the families of death row inmates on her speaker page.

Here is a sample of Dale and Susan responding to questions after making a presentation at Mount Saint Mary University in 2011:

The Kentucky Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty has created a video project that seeks to put the death penalty on trial and calls forth as witnesses Kentuckians from all walks of life. Included in the set of 70 videos (a number that will continue to grow) are family members of those who have been murdered, family members of inmates condemned to death, pastors, teachers, students, authors and a host of other Kentuckians.

As the moving words of testimony poured out, it became clear that not only are these witnesses talking about the death penalty, but about a way of living that teaches us about how we are to care for one another.

Their intended use goes far beyond what was originally envisioned. Within a Catholic context, teachers of children preparing for the Sacrament of Reconciliation might chose to kick off a discussion about forgiveness by showing themForgiveness is Very Healing by Teresa Hoffman, a teacher at a Lexington Catholic High School or one of the other video statements of those who have lost loved ones to murder.

In another setting, a group of adults considering the church’s teaching on capital punishment will find food for thought in video statements of death row inmates’ family members. The use of the death penalty creates other victims and they speak eloquently about that: Got a Son in the Death House and others make for good discussion.

Working on college campuses can be a challenge. But students do listen to each other, and so videos of other college studentshave a special appeal and could jumpstart a discussion on the use of the death penalty.

One of Kentucky’s finest writers provided KCADP a text and this was incorporated into a video that is very Catholic in tone, though he is not. As pictures of those we plan to kill appear on the screen the words of Wendell Berry challenge all of us to choose life.

Though these are Kentuckians speaking, their message is universal and KCADP would love to hear how others use these videos in their effort to teach the value of human life.