Anti-Death Penalty Action Opportunities to Kick Off 2020!
It’s time to jump back into our work to create a more just world. Here, briefly, are a number of action opportunities!
#1 — Plan now to see Just Mercy!
The film based on Bryan Stevenson’s best selling and award winning book of the same name opened in selected cities last week and opens nationwide on January 10th.
- A toolkit is here.
- Death Penalty Action Advisory Board Chairman Shane Claiborne just published this article about the importance of the film.
- Some folks are organizing groups to go together. In Columbus, Ohio there is a special screening on Martin Luther King weekend.
#2 — Join Abe in Iowa — and/or help us get there!
Death Penalty Action is excited to be collaborating with a new organization — VOTE COMMON GOOD. Death Penalty Action Advisory Board Member Doug Pagitt serves as it’s executive director. Abe is presenting a workshop and otherwise helping out at the Faith, Politics & The Common Good conference in Des Moines, Iowa this week (Jan 9–11). Check it out here, and please consider joining us there! Get FREE REGISTRATION with the discount code DPA, or simply use this link.
For the record, we’ll be there officially in our non-partisan Death Penalty Action hat. Learn more about Death Penalty Action’s plans for the election, here.
#3 — Finally, our story is in print!
Last week, the on-line publication The Intercept published an extensive article about the federal death penalty that anchors on work Death Penalty Action has helped lead in Terre Haute, the site of federal death row and executions. Please help us push out this important story — OUR STORY — by sharing from our Facebook and Twitter pages, and/or by using this sample social media post:
The federal #DeathPenalty is on hold — for now https://t.co/MkzxPJCpIi by @lilianasegura & including @DeathPenaltyAct @abrahambonowitz @Journey0fHope #StopExecutions #EndTheDeathPenalty #NoFedExecutions
AND, we are so excited to share that the article leads off by interviewing lifelong abolitionist Zann Carter, who shares the story of how federal executions came to Terre Haute. Zann is one of Death Penalty Action’s greatest supporters, and one of our original sustainers. In fact, just a few weeks ago Zann *doubled* her monthly investment. Amazing! See below!
#4 — Sign the petitions
Sign petitions for the upcoming executions currently scheduled in January and February.
As 2019 winds down, we thank you for all that YOU do to help make our world a better place.
Yours in the Struggle,
— Abraham J. Bonowitz & Scott Langley
*****
PS: In case you missed it, here is a message from Death Penalty Action Advisory Board Member Frank Thompson:
I am a retired corrections official who has overseen executions, and now I work to stop them. You may have seen my recent op-ed in the New York Times.
When Abe and Scott asked me to join the Death Penalty Action Board of Advisors, I didn’t have to think twice. Of course, I said yes immediately because I know, trust and value their work. I’ve been an occasional donor to Death Penalty Action, and today I am taking it to the next level by making my investment in this vital work happen each month, automatically.
I invite you to click here now to join me as a monthly donor to Death Penalty Action. If each person who opens this e-mail committed just $5 or $10/month (or more), Death Penalty Action would create MASSIVE impact toward stopping executions.
I’ve worked with Abe since before he invited me to sign on to a letter from retired corrections officials when we were working to stop the execution of Troy Davis in 2011. We worked together in
Maryland in 2012, Oklahoma in 2016 (pictured, with Oklahoma leader Sara Bana), and after Death Penalty Action was created in 2017, in Arkansas.
I value Death Penalty Action because I don’t see anyone else in our movement filling the same space. Sometimes they are running the most highly visible protests you can imagine, and some of their most impactful work that has helped stop numerous executions will never be known because it is behind the scenes.
This is why I have become a Death Penalty Action Sustainer. I care about this issue and I want us to win. I put my money where my mouth is. I can’t give as much as I would like because I also have obligations in Oregon, where I sit on the board of directors of Oregonians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. However, I have decided that I can afford to chip in something every month, and that adds up to more than I might give all at once.
Please join me as one of the newest Death Penalty Action Sustainers. Simply check the box on the form after you click here and indicate whether you want your contribution to be made weekly, monthly or quarterly. Choose one of the suggested levels or set your own amount. It’s a simple and quick process to set it, forget it, and know you are making an impact!
We’ve set a goal to have 18 more supporters join the DPA Sustainers Network by the end of the year. I hope that will include you.
Many Thanks,
— Semon Frank Thompson
Retired Oregon Prisons Supervisor
Board of Advisors, Death Penalty Action
PS: Please join several dozen supporters who have already checked the box to commit a recurring donation of between $5 and $100 (or more) each month. This is how we will keep Death Penalty Action in leadership in the movement to end executions. Thank you.
OR, please consider a generous year-end investment in the amazing and vital work that Death Penalty Action will accomplish in 2020:
Donate using a credit card here.
Or send a check to Death Penalty Action, PO Box 89, Ghent, NY 12075.
Thank you in advance for supporting this vital work today!
