The 2015 Statewide Texas Lobby Day to Abolish the Death Penalty starts at 9 AM on Tuesday March 3, 2015 in room E2.022 in the Texas Capitol. We are calling this the “Day of Innocence” at the capitol. Special guests include several people who were sentenced to death and later exonerated, including Ron Keine, Shujaa Graham, Clarence Brandley, and Sabrina Butler from Witness to Innocence. They and other death row exonerees will be honored with a resolution by the Texas House of Representatives. Come lobby side by side with several death row survivors.

Join the event Facebook page. 

Three ways you can participate in the Lobby day:

1) Come to Austin and attend the Lobby day in person.

2) If you can not come to Austin, you can still participate in the Statewide Call-in Day to Abolish the Death Penalty by calling your legislators March 3 and urging them to abolish the death penalty.

3) Or visit the local district office of your legislators and tell the district coordinator to deliver your message to the legislator.

People from across Texas will come to the Capitol in Austin to advocate for a bill to abolish the death penalty in Texas (HB 1032 filed by State Rep Harold Dutton), as well as a bill that would prohibit death sentences for people convicted under the Law of Parties even though they did not kill anyone (HB 341 by Rep Dutton). We will also lobby to build support to stop the scheduled execution of Rodney Reed now set for March 5.

In the past, our Lobby Day resulted in several legislators signing on to support the bills we lobbied for. We expect the same success in 2015.

This will be a day we will always remember, a day when we stand side by side with innocent people who were wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death.

Register for the Lobby Day to Abolish the Death Penalty. You can also just show up without registering, but if you register, then we know how many people are coming and we can plan appointments with legislators. Please be sure to dress professionally. Dress as if you’re heading to a job interview. Register Now!

If you can not attend the Lobby Day, you can still help by making a donation (not tax-deductible). Also on March 3, even if you are not in Austin at the Lobby Day, you can participate in the Statewide Call-in Day to Abolish the Death Penalty. Find out who represents you, then call your Texas legislators and let them know your position on the death penalty and urge them to support the bill to repeal the death penalty. Call the members of the Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence and urge them to schedule a hearing on the bill to repeal the death penalty. One of our goals of Lobby Day is to convince the committee to hold a hearing on the abolition bill.

Tentative Schedule of the 2015 Statewide Texas Lobby Day to Abolish the Death Penalty

9 AM  Check-in and meet for a short training session on how to lobby. Afterwards we will begin office visits to lobby legislators. Room E2.022 in the Capitol. Take the elevator down to level E2.

9:30 – 10 AM Visit legislative offices to lobby legislators to support abolishing the death penalty

10 AM Press Conference in the Speaker’s Committee Room (2W.6). Special guests include State Rep. Harold Dutton, author of a bill to abolish the death penalty in Texas, and several death row exonerees, including Ron Keine, Shujaa Graham, Clarence Brandley, and Sabrina Butler. Other guests to be announced.

11 AM to noon More lobbying

Noon  Lunch at your own expense in the Capitol cafeteria.

1 PM Tentative time Go to the viewing area above the House floor to watch the exonerees honored by the Texas House with a resolution sponsored by Rep. Dutton.1-5:00 More lobbying visits to legislative offices.

5:00 PM Meet in the Capitol cafeteria to share stories about what everyone learned during the legislative lobbying visits.

Parking is available in the Capitol Visitors Parking Garage at 1201 San Jacinto located between Trinity and San Jacinto Streets at 12th and 13th Streets. Parking is free for the first two hours and $1.00 for each half hour thereafter (maximum daily charge: $8.00); accessible parking is available with accessible routes to the Capitol.The Statewide Lobby Day to Abolish the Death Penalty has been organized since 2003 by several organizations working together, the same ones who also organize the annual “March to Abolish the Death Penalty” each October: Texas Moratorium Network, Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement, Campaign to End the Death Penalty, and Students Against the Death Penalty.

UPDATE: Feb 23: Rodney Reed’s execution has been stayed pending further review by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

From Justice4RodneyReed.org

Thanks to the efforts of the student chapter of Amnesty International at the University of Texas, Rodney Reed is the subject of an Amnesty International Urgent Action. We are thankful toAmnesty for recognizing the grave injustices in Rodney’s case and for sharing this information with its membership!

Their fact sheet is available in pdf or html for easy sharing, and includes information for those who wish to write a clemency letter to Texas Governor Greg Abbott and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, asking them to stop Rodney’s execution. Thanks to Amnesty for helping us take Rodney’s case truly international!

Amnesty International is one of the world’s largest human rights organizations with offices in over 80 countries.

Ron Keine and Rep Harold Dutton at 2011 Day of Innocence

The 2015 Statewide Texas Lobby Day to Abolish the Death Penalty is Tuesday, March 3, 2015. We are calling this the “Day of Innocence” at the capitol. Special guests include several people who were sentenced to death and later exonerated, including Ron Keine, Shujaa Graham, Clarence Brandley, and Sabrina Butler from Witness to Innocence. They and other death row exonerees will be honored with a resolution by the Texas House of Representatives.

Three ways you can participate in the Lobby day:

1) Come to Austin and attend the Lobby day in person.

2) If you can not come to Austin, you can still participate in the Statewide Call-in Day to Abolish the Death Penalty by calling your legislators March 3 and urging them to abolish the death penalty.

3) Or visit the local district office of your legislators and tell the district coordinator to deliver your message to the legislator.

People from across Texas will come to the Capitol in Austin to advocate for a bill to abolish the death penalty in Texas (HB 1032 filed by State Rep Harold Dutton), as well as a bill that would prohibit death sentences for people convicted under the Law of Parties even though they did not kill anyone (HB 341 by Rep Dutton). We will also lobby to build support to stop the scheduled execution of Rodney Reed now set for March 5.

In the past, our Lobby Day resulted in several legislators signing on to support the bills we lobbied for. We expect the same success in 2015.

This will be a day we will always remember, a day when we stand side by side with innocent people who were wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death.

Register for the Lobby Day to Abolish the Death Penalty. You can also just show up without registering, but if you register, then we know how many people are coming and we can plan appointments with legislators. Please be sure to dress professionally. Dress as if you’re heading to a job interview. Register Now!

If you can not attend the Lobby Day, you can still help by making a donation (not tax-deductible). Also on March 3, even if you are not in Austin at the Lobby Day, you can participate in the Statewide Call-in Day to Abolish the Death Penalty. Find out who represents you, then call your Texas legislators and let them know your position on the death penalty and urge them to support the bill to repeal the death penalty. Call the members of the Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence and urge them to schedule a hearing on the bill to repeal the death penalty. One of our goals of Lobby Day is to convince the committee to hold a hearing on the abolition bill.

Tentative Schedule of the 2015 Statewide Texas Lobby Day to Abolish the Death Penalty

9-11 AM  Check-in and meet for a training session on how to lobby. Afterwards begin office visits to lobby legislators. Room E2.022 in the Capitol. Take the elevator down to level E2.

11 AM Go to the viewing area above the House floor to watch the exonerees honored by the Texas House with a resolution sponsored by Rep. Dutton.

Noon  Press Conference in the Speaker’s Committee Room (2W.6). Special guests include State Rep. Harold Dutton, author of a bill to abolish the death penalty in Texas, and several death row exonerees, including Ron Keine, Shujaa Graham, Clarence Brandley, and Sabrina Butler. Other guests to be announced.

1 PM   Lunch at your own expense in the Capitol cafeteria.

2-5:00 More lobbying visits to legislative offices.

5:00 PM Meet in the Capitol cafeteria to share stories about what everyone learned during the legislative lobbying visits.

Parking is available in the Capitol Visitors Parking Garage at 1201 San Jacinto located between Trinity and San Jacinto Streets at 12th and 13th Streets. Parking is free for the first two hours and $1.00 for each half hour thereafter (maximum daily charge: $8.00); accessible parking is available with accessible routes to the Capitol.The Statewide Lobby Day to Abolish the Death Penalty has been organized since 2003 by several organizations working together, the same ones who also organize the annual “March to Abolish the Death Penalty” each October: Texas Moratorium Network, Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement, Campaign to End the Death Penalty, and Students Against the Death Penalty.

Rep. Harold Dutton of Houston today filed HB 1032, a bill to abolish the death penalty in Texas.

Rep Dutton first filed a bill to abolish the death penalty in 2003, which was the first abolition bill filed in the Texas Legislature in a long time up to that year. When no one else was willing to file a bill to abolish the death penalty, Rep Dutton stepped up in 2003 and filed an abolition bill. Everyone opposed to the death penalty should thank Rep Dutton for his leading role in the effort in the Texas Legislature to end the death penalty.

It was an exciting day back in 2003 when Dutton’s abolition bill was heard in the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee. That was the first time an abolition bill was heard in a Texas legislative Committee in the modern era, and maybe ever.

Rep Harold Dutton is pictured speaking at one of our Day of Innocence Lobby Days to Repeal the Death Penalty.

Below Rep Dutton speaks at the 2011 Day of Innocence. Behind him are six death row exonerees who spent years on death row for crimes they did not commit.

Arnold Prieto, 41, is scheduled today to be the first person executed under Governor Greg Abbott. Arnold is a frequent contributor to the blog minutesbeforesix.blogspot.com, where you can learn about him in his own words. He is deserving of a commutation to life in prison, so call Gov Abbott and urge him to stop today’s execution:
(512) 463-2000.

by Arnold Prieto
September 10th, 2014 12:48am

Normally I would be fast asleep during these wee hours of the morning, but instead I find myself typing out my following thoughts to you. My night lamp is my only source of light, beaming down from its perch over my head on my shelf, while the silence is booming its loudness throughout this tomb all around me. I can hear someone’s radio so softly that it gets lost in the silence and making it sound so small compared to it …..

Count time will be called out within the next couple of seconds and the locking mechanism of the crash gate leading into the death watch section will break the silence with its loud metal on metal clanging sound. Soon, there will be a flash of light piercing our dark cages. Well, semi-dark in my case, as if a lightening bolt struck within our walls. The loud silence will once again reclaim its rightful place as the thundering of closing doors echoes out with the guards passing through the tomb with their infernal light.

Within that silence, I can hear the whooshing sound of Father Time’s heavy pendulum swinging with every passing second ….. tick.tick.tick.tick.tick.