Kids Against the Death Penalty’s 13 year old Secretary and Committee Chair, Carissa Bywater participated in Today’s Girl Beauty Pageant this morning in Lampasas Texas. (Pictured at left with other KADP members after the pageant.)

“Today’s Girl is a scholarship based, educational program which provides guidance for the development of tomorrow’s leaders through academic achievement and an awareness of the need to improve their social environment through community service. The mission of the program is to offer a positive environment that allows today’s girls to develop poise, self-confidence and character, while developing tomorrow’s leaders.”

Carissa is one of the 6 founding members of KADP, and is a highly active volunteer who helps educate not only the Texas community, but the entire world on the injustices of the Death Penalty.

In the interview portion of today’s contest Carissa spoke about her aspirations to become a senator, and her desire to abolish the “law of parties”, and the death penalty as a whole.

Today’s Girl Contestants are judged not only on a variety of skills but beauty as well. Carissa dominated the competition, taking home several awards! She was crowned Overall winner for her division and now holds the title of ‘Today’s Girl 2009 Lampasas Teen’. In addition she won the following categories: ‘Most Beautiful’, ‘Most Photogenic’, and ‘Best Casual Wear’.

Carissa will be attending the state competition in Dallas Texas in June 2009.

If you’d like to know more about KADP’s anti-death penalty movement, please visit their website @ http://www.freewebs.com/kadp .

George W. Bush could not resist having one more execution while he is in elected office to add to the more than 150 he signed off on as Governor of Texas, so the news is not surprising that he approved an execution by the U.S. Army for Dec 10. Theoretically, Bush could still commute the sentence to life in prison. See contact information below to urge Bush to stop this execution. Email Bush at comments@whitehouse.gov.

We can hope that the incoming Obama Administration will enact a moratorium on federal executions. To tell Obama to stop federal executions after he assumes office, you can sign a petition here. Obama has no authority to stop the execution scheduled before he assumes office on Jan 20.

From CNN:

A U.S. soldier convicted of rape and murder two decades ago will be executed December 10 in the nation’s first military execution since 1961, the Army said Thursday.

Pvt. Ronald Gray has been on the military’s death row at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, since 1988. A court-martial panel sitting at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, unanimously convicted him of committing two murders and other crimes in the Fayetteville, North Carolina, area, and sentenced him to death.

Gray’s execution by injection will be carried out by Fort Leavenworth soldiers at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana, the Army said in a news release.

Only the President, as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, can approve the execution of a death sentence [Article 71(a), Uniform Code of Military Justice]. On July 28, 2008, the President approved the death sentence in the case of the United States v Ronald A. Gray.

Contacting the White House

Mailing Address The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20500
Phone Numbers Comments: 202-456-1111 Switchboard: 202-456-1414 FAX: 202-456-2461	TTY/TDD Comments: 202-456-6213 Visitors Office: 202-456-2121

E-Mail

Please send your comments to comments@whitehouse.gov. Due to the large volume of e-mail received, the White House cannot respond to every message. For further up-to-date information on Presidential initiatives, current events, and topics of interest to you, please continue to use the White House website.

Note: Please submit messages in text format only. This inbox is unable to receive e-mails that contain graphics or attachments. After it arrives, you will receive an e-mail confirmation indicating successful delivery.

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Join the “Abolish the Death Penalty Project” on Amazee.com and help us win the Amazee Bucket membership contest. We could win up to $5,000 to use against the death penalty. The project with the most members by Jan 22 wins. If we win, we plan to use one-half of any prize money we win to help needy families of people on death row travel to visit their loved ones on death row. We will use the other half of the prize money to fight against the death penalty.

First go to the project page, then you have to click on “join project” on the right hand side, then click on “register”. Then to qualify as one of the members who count towards the contest, you have to upload a picture or avatar of yourself.

We were all moved by the family members who spoke at the 9th Annual March to Stop Executions in Houston, so we were thinking of how we could help them. We all know that the death penalty is reserved for the poor. There are no rich people on death row. We will use one half of any prize money we get through this contest to help family members visit their loved ones on death row. Many families have a hard time making ends meet and the extra cost of traveling long distances to visit their loved ones on death row is a great financial burden. Some of the people on death row have young children who rarely get to visit them. The other half would be used for activities during the upcoming Texas legislative session from Jan to May 2009, such as a big anti-death penalty rally at the capitol and other projects to persuade people to support abolishing the death penalty.

The AP reports that Texas executed Robert Jean Hudson tonight.

The 45-year-old was the 18th Texas inmate put to death this year in the nation’s busiest capital punishment state. He was the 423rd person executed in Texas since 1982.

He was pronounced dead at 6:24 p.m. CST Thursday.

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Join the “Abolish the Death Penalty Project” on Amazee.com and help us win the Amazee Bucket membership contest. We could win up to $5,000 to use against the death penalty. The project with the most members by Jan 22 wins. If we win, we plan to use one-half of any prize money we win to help needy families of people on death row travel to visit their loved ones on death row. We will use the other half of the prize money to fight against the death penalty.

First go to the project page, then you have to click on “join project” on the right hand side, then click on “register”. Then to qualify as one of the members who count towards the contest, you have to upload a picture or avatar of yourself.

We were all moved by the family members who spoke at the 9th Annual March to Stop Executions in Houston, so we were thinking of how we could help them. We all know that the death penalty is reserved for the poor. There are no rich people on death row. We will use one half of any prize money we get through this contest to help family members visit their loved ones on death row. Many families have a hard time making ends meet and the extra cost of traveling long distances to visit their loved ones on death row is a great financial burden. Some of the people on death row have young children who rarely get to visit them. The other half would be used for activities during the upcoming Texas legislative session from Jan to May 2009, such as a big anti-death penalty rally at the capitol and other projects to persuade people to support abolishing the death penalty.

The Houston Chronicle:

Attorneys for Texas death row inmate Robert Jean Hudson don’t deny he killed ex-girlfriend Edith Kendrick in a rage nearly a decade ago at her Dallas-area apartment but questioned whether he should be put to death Thursday evening for what they said was not a deliberate act.

“While Ms. Kendrick’s murder was brutal, it was a crime of passion,” Maurie Levin, a University of Texas law professor, wrote in an appeal asking the U.S. Supreme Court to halt the punishment. “Mr. Hudson did not attempt to flee, did not resist arrest, immediately confessed to the crime, and expressed his remorse and sorrow in that statement and during the months that followed.”

Hudson, 45, would be the 18th Texas inmate executed this year in the nation’s most active death penalty state. Two other executions scheduled for this week in Texas were stopped by the courts.

“Something came over me and I lost control which caused this,” Hudson, who declined to speak with reporters as his scheduled execution in Huntsville neared, told police after his arrest. “I loved Edith… I am sorry for what has happened and have told the truth about the incident.”

Sign a petition for Robert Hudson

Facebook Group for Hudson

To send the Governor of Texas an email denouncing this execution, go to:
http://governor.state.tx.us/contact

You can also call and leave him a voice message:

Telephone numbers for Governor Rick Perry of Texas

* Citizen’s Opinion Hotline [for Texas callers] :
(800) 252-9600
* Information and Referral and Opinion Hotline [for Austin, Texas and out-of-state callers] :
(512) 463-1782
* Office of the Governor Main Switchboard [office hours are 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. CST] :
(512) 463-2000
* Citizen’s Assistance Telecommunications Device
If you are using a telecommunication device for the deaf (TDD),
call 711 to reach Relay Texas

* Office of the Governor Fax:
(512) 463-1849

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Join the “Abolish the Death Penalty Project” on Amazee.com and help us win the Amazee Bucket membership contest. We could win up to $5,000 to use against the death penalty. The project with the most members by Jan 22 wins. If we win, we plan to use one-half of any prize money we win to help needy families of people on death row travel to visit their loved ones on death row. We will use the other half of the prize money to fight against the death penalty.

You have to click on “join project” on the right hand side, then click on “register”. Then to qualify as one of the members who count towards the contest, you have to upload a picture or avatar of yourself.

We were all moved by the family members who spoke at the 9th Annual March to Stop Executions in Houston, so we were thinking of how we could help them. We all know that the death penalty is reserved for the poor. There are no rich people on death row. We will use one half of any prize money we get through this contest to help family members visit their loved ones on death row. Many families have a hard time making ends meet and the extra cost of traveling long distances to visit their loved ones on death row is a great financial burden. Some of the people on death row have young children who rarely get to visit them. The other half would be used for activities during the upcoming Texas legislative session from Jan to May 2009, such as a big anti-death penalty rally at the capitol and other projects to persuade people to support abolishing the death penalty.

President-elect Obama today chose Eric Holder as his pick for U.S. Attorney General. He would become the first African-American to head the Justice Department, according to Newsweek.

In an interview with the New York Times in 1997, Holder separated his personal opposition to the death penalty from his professional responsibilities:

Mr Hatch questioned Mr. Holder about his views on the death penalty in general and in particular about a case in which Mr. Holder initially did not seek the death penalty for someone who was accused of killing a District of Columbia police officer.

”I am not a proponent of the death penalty, but I will enforce the law as this Congress gives it to us,” Mr. Holder said.

Mr. Holder said that at first he had not thought the crime met the legal conditions for the death penalty. But he said he changed his mind after a conversation with Attorney General Janet Reno. ”I hope that the committee would feel very assured that even with those statutes that have death penalty provisions will be fully enforced by me,” he said.

Holder also said in 2000 that he was “personally and professionally disturbed by the [racial] disparity,” which showed that “minorities are overrepresented” on federal death rows.

Janet Reno, Attorney General for 8 years under Bill Clinton, was also personally opposed to the death penalty, although she sought the death penalty in some prosecutions.

In an interview with Jim Leherer, Reno explained her position:

JANET RENO: I was personally opposed to the death penalty, and yet I think I have probably asked for the death penalty more than most people in the United States.

JIM LEHRER: Was that difficult for you to do?

JANET RENO: I had concluded when I was the prosecutor that I would vote against the death penalty if I were in the legislature but that I could ask for it when I was satisfied as to guilt and to the proper application of the penalty.

Given that there is more recognition today about the problems with the death penalty and the risk of executing innocent people, we expect that any attorney general under Obama would support significant reform of the federal death penalty and increased support for states that need federal support for reforms at the state-level, such as increased funding for innocence programs.