Register for Lobby Day!

Every Texas legislative session since 2003, the anti-death penalty community in Texas has rallied at the Texas capitol to lobby legislators to end the death penalty. the picture above is from Lobby Day 2007. In 2009, there have already been several bills filed that we support, including a bill to end the death penalty under the Law of Parties, an abolition bill, a death penalty study commission and moratorium on executions bill, and others.

Please make plans to be in Austin on Tuesday, March 24, so that we can all raise our voices together against the injustice of the Texas death penalty.

Sponsored by Texas Moratorium Network, Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement, Campaign to End the Death Penalty - Austin Chapter, Texas Death Penalty Education and Resource Center, Texas Students Against the Death Penalty, Texas CURE, the Student Prison Caucus, the Abolish the Death Penalty Caucus of the Texas Democratic Party and People Organized in Defense of Earth and Her Resources (PODER), the Eye & Tooth Project: Forum Theatre on the Death Penalty, Kids Against the Death Penalty. (If your organization would like to participate or be one of the Lobby Day sponsors, contact us at 512 961 6389 or by email to admin@texasmoratorium.org)

Below is the tentative schedule. We will announce more details and the rooms for all events later.

10 AM - Noon Lobbying Training Workshop
Location: University of Texas at Austin, Sanchez Building (College of Education) in the Cissy McDaniel Parker Dean's Conference Room
located near Congress Ave and MLK, between University Avenue and the Blanton Museum of Art (just north of the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum).
(We can also meet with your group before Lobby Day and train you earlier, then you can meet your legislators in the morning. Contact us if you would like us to come brief you before Lobby Day)

12:00 Break for Lunch on your own

1 PM Press Conference in the Speaker's Committee Room (2W.6) at the Capitol

Afternoon: Visiting legislative offices and attending committee hearings (If the committees will be hearing any death penalty related bills, we will know five days before the event.)

5:30 PM Rally on the South Steps of the Capitol (Musical Guest: Aaron Blount)

Parking is available in the Capitol Visitors Parking Garage located between Trinity and San Jacinto Streets at 12th and 13th streets. Parking is free for the first two hours and $.75 for each half-hour thereafter (maximum daily charge: $6.00). Metered spaces are available throughout the area.

State Reps Harold Dutton and Jessica Farrar will have their aides conduct a Death Penalty Lobby Day Training in Houston for anyone who is interested in going to Austin on March 24 for the Lobby Day Against the Death Penalty.

The Houston training session will take place on Saturday, March 14, at S.H.A.P.E. Center, at 3903 Almeda, from 2:00 until 4:00 pm.

Both Dutton and Farrar have filed bills to abolish the DP and Dutton has filed numerous bills related to the death penalty, including a bill to end the death penalty under the Law of Parties.

This Houston training is in addition to the one we will have in Austin on the morning of the Lobby Day. If you attend the training in Houston, then you don't need to attend the one in Austin. You can just arrive early on March 24 and start lobbying. You may find that some legislators are more available in the mornings then the afternoons when many of them are in committee meetings.

The Houston workshop is being organized by the Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement.

If you want to track a list of bills filed dealing with capital punishment, you can click here to go to the Texas Legislature's website list of bills on capital punishment.

The 81st Texas legislative session runs from Jan to May, 2009.

HB 913 would create a commission to study capital punishment in Texas and to enact a moratorium on executions. It was filed by Rep Harold Dutton. Another bill (HB 938) by Dutton would require electronic recordings of confessions in capital cases obtained a a result of custodial interrogations.

Ever since Kenneth Foster's commutation in 2007, we have been looking for a state legislator to file a bill ending the death penalty as a sentencing option for people convicted under the Law of Parties. Several state legislators wrote clemency letters on behalf of Foster and later again on behalf of Jeff Wood. Those letters criticized Texas' use of the death penalty against people who did not kill anyone but who were sentenced to death under the Law of Parties. Now, State Rep. Harold Dutton of Houston has filed HB 304, which would disallow prosecutors from seeking the death penalty in the future using the Law of Parties.

HB 111, is another bill that grew out of the case of Kenneth Foster, Jr., who was tried together with a co-defendant. When Gov Perry commuted Foster's sentence in 1987, he said he was concerned that Foster had not had a separate trial. HB 111 says, "the court may not join two or more defendants in the same criminal trial if any defendant to be tried is indicted or complained against for a capital felony, and the court shall order a severance as to any two or more defendants who are jointly indicted or complained against for a capital felony".

On March 24, 2009, there will be a lobby day at the Capitol Building for the anti-death penalty community to speak to their elected representatives.

If you are coming to Lobby Day, you can call the offices of your state senator and state representative and tell them you are coming to Austin on March 24 and would like to meet with someone in their office.

You can find out who your legislators are by going to the link below and entering your address.

http://www.fyi.legis.state.tx.us

Enter your home address.

After you click on the “Submit” button, you will see a screen with information for several elected officials. You only need to contact your State Senator and State Representative. Do not contact your U.S. Senators, U.S. Representative or your Board of Education member.

Texas U.S. Senators (DO NOT CONTACT) U.S. Senators represent the entire state. Texas' current U.S. Senators are Senator John Cornyn and Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. See their websites for current contact information.

Texas U.S. Representative (DO NOT CONTACT)

Texas State Senator (THIS IS THE ONE YOU WANT TO CONTACT)

Texas State Representative (THIS IS THE ONE YOU WANT TO CONTACT)

Texas State Board of Education Member (DO NOT CONTACT)

Please only contact your STATE Senator and STATE representative.

Do NOT contact your U.S. Representative or your U.S. Senator (Cornyn and Huthcison).

Only call 512 area code phone numbers followed by a 463 prefix. Again, make sure you are calling a 512-463-xxxx number.

Senator Eliot Shapleigh Speaking at 2077 Lobby Day (He starts speaking at second 44 in video)

Kerry Cook speaking at 2007 Lobby Day. Kerry is an innocent person who spent 20 years on Texas Death Row.