The Austin Chronicle has told us they want to be a sponsor of the 13th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty on Nov 3 at the Texas Capitol.
Thank you to the Austin Chronicle! http://
UPDATE Oct 18: Anthony Haynes received a stay of execution from the U.S. Supreme Court about three hours before his scheduled execution.
Anthony Haynes moved a step closer to execution on Tuesday when the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles unanimously rejected his request that it recommend his death sentence be commuted to life in prison.
Haynes alternately had asked the board to recommend to Gov. Rick Perry that his execution be stayed for 90 days to allow for a review of his case. The board also rejected that request.
Haynes is scheduled for execution on Thursday, Oct 18, in Huntsville.
Members of TMN will be in Huntsville on October 18 to protest the scheduled execution of Anthony Haynes. There will be a short five minute black and white 16 mm film shot on the 18th about what happens outside the prison on the day of an execution. It is being made for a UT film school class. The film will contain no dialogue, just images of what happens. We encourage anyone who can make it to Huntsville to attend the protest.
Rick Perry holds the record for most executions of any governor in U.S. history. The 250th execution in Texas since Rick Perry took office as governor is currently set to take place on Halloween, Wednesday October 31, when Donnie Roberts is scheduled for execution unless he receives a stay.
On October 31, we will protest the 250th execution at the Texas Capitol on the South side outside the gate facing Congress Avenue. TMN encourages people to come to the Texas Capitol from 5:30-6:30 on October 31 to protest the 250th execution of Rick Perry’s tenure.
Donnie Lee Roberts Jr., 41, is scheduled to die by lethal injection Wednesday evening at the Texas state prison in Huntsville for the 2003 murder of Vicki Bowen at her home on Lake Livingston.
If you are in Houston on the 31st, you can participate in a protest being organized by the Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement at The Old Hanging Oak Tree in downtown Houston at Capitol and Bagby Street from 4-6 PM.
You can call Rick Perry and leave a message for him at 512 463 2000.
The Campaign to End the Death Penalty’s 12th Annual Convention
Texas Abolition Weekend!
November 2-4 in Austin, Texas
Register now at nodeathpenalty.org
Once again this November, the Campaign to End the Death Penalty is headed straight to the belly of the beast – Texas – for a weekend of struggle and organizing!
This year’s convention will take place the same weekend as the 13th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty – an event that will be at the heart of the weekend on Saturday November 3, at 2PM at the Texas State Capitol.
And of course, we will be taking the time to talk about questions on how to build a movement that combats racism in the criminal justice system, supports resistance behind bars, aims to end mass incarceration and harsh punishment and makes the death penalty history.
Our convention is always a place for family members of prisoners, former prisoners, and activists to gather, share our stories and experiences, and strategize next steps forward for our organization and the cases we work on.
We hope you will join us November 2-4 in Austin, Texas for our 12th annual national convention!
REGISTRATION:
This year’s registration includes a special Saturday morning breakfast. Regular registration is $40 including the dinner, and $20 for family members, former prisoners and students. There will be a Friday evening event which is free to all convention attendees and others. Register now for the convention!
Or you can mail in your registration to: CEDP, P.O. Box 25730, Chicago, IL 60647, and make your check out to the CEDP.
BOOK YOUR HOTEL ROOM
We have reserved a block of rooms at the Clarion Inn at a special rate of $113.85 (includes tax). To make reservations, call 800-434-7378 and mention the Campaign to End the Death Penalty. The hotel offers a free breakfast and is within walking distance of the convention site.
Check out the Clarion website to view pictures or get more information.
For a map of the hotel and convention site click here.
CONVENTION SITE: VENTANA DEL SOUL
The Campaign to End the Death Penalty is excited to be hosting our annual convention in Austin at Ventana Del Soul. Ventana is a charitable organization that provides food service and culinary arts training to young people and adults who are undermployed – with a emphasis on reentry support for the formerly incarcerated.
The Ventana Del Soul facility hosts a kitchen and café that is open daily, as well as catering services. The folks working at the venue are part of Ventana’s various training programs, often through scholarships provided by the organization.
No outside food and drinks should be brought into Ventana Del Soul.
This is an exciting opportunity to collaborate with a charitable mission the meshes nicely with the CEDP’s commitment to fighting against the injustices in the system. We should do whatever we can over the weekend to talk with and support the folks at Ventana Del Soul.
For more information check out Ventana’s website.
DONATE TO THE COSTELLA CANNON FUND
Every year, because of contributions like yours, we are able to fly family members and former prisoners to this annual gathering where they are able to participate, speak, share their story their pain and their hope. The fund is named after Costella Cannon, our dear friend and a fellow Campaigner who died in 2003. Her son was wrongfully incarcerated and a victim of torture and died while incarcerated.
The voices of family members and former prisoners are so important to the movement for justice. Politicians want us to think that the men and women behind bars are monsters. We know that this is not true. Family members and former prisoners put a human face on the criminal justice system. Their contributions to the movement are invaluable. As Lawrence Foster, grandfather of former death row prisoner Kenneth Foster once said, convention is a place where activists become family members and family members become activists.
Please donate what you are able to make sure that we have funds to get these important voices to our convention. We are so grateful for any support folks can give. Make a donation online here.
Checks made out to the CEDP can be mailed to P.O. Box 25730 Chicago, IL 60625
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Featured Speakers will include:
FORMER PRISONERS:
Lawrence Hayes – Former New York death row prisoner
Mark Clements – Former Illinois juvenile life without parole prisoner and police torture victim
Darby Tillis – Former death row prisoner in Illinois
*Also invited to call in from prison are California death row prisoner Kevin Cooper
FAMILY MEMBERS:
Sandra Reed – mother of Texas death row prisoner Rodney Reed
Jack Bryson – Whose son was on the platform with Oscar Grant when Oscar was shot and killed by Oakland transit police
Barbara Lewis – Mother of Delaware death row prisoner Robert Gattis
Delia Perez Meyer – Sister of Texas death row prisoner Louis Castro Perez
Terri Been – Sister of Texas death row prisoner Jeff Wood who was convicted under the Texas Law of Parties
Jeannine Scott – Wife of Michael Scott who was freed in the Yogurt Shop case in Austin, Texas
Derrel Myers – a member of Murder Victims Families for Human Rights and a long-time civil rights and antiwar activist
Lawrence Foster, Sr. – Grandfather of former Texas death row prisoner Kenneth Foster, Jr. whose sentence was commuted to life in 2007
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Among the sessions:
The shameful record of the Texas death penalty: From Shaka Sankofa to Rodney Reed
Abolition breakfast: Why we march!
One struggle: The Campaign to End the Death Penalty and the new movement for racial justice.
Our vision for winning abolition: How we fight matters!
Register now for the convention!
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UPDATE 11:19 PM: Jonathan Green has been executed.
Tonight’s scheduled execution, which was stayed on Monday, has been reset after the stay was lifted upon appeal by the State of Texas. If the execution is not stayed again, Jonathan Green would become the 248th person executed under Rick Perry and the 487th person executed by Texas since 1982.
A Texas man convicted in the slaying of a 12-year-old girl is scheduled to be executed Wednesday evening after a federal appeals court overturned a reprieve granted earlier this week.
Jonathan Green was sentenced to death in 2010 for the abduction, rape and strangling of Christina Neal, whose body was found at his home in June 2000. Neal’s family lived across a highway from Green in Dobbin, about 45 miles northwest of Houston.
Green’s attorneys argued that he was mentally incompetent for the death penalty, saying he suffered from hallucinations, and on Monday a federal district judge in Houston granted a reprieve.
But the Texas attorney general’s office convinced the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn that ruling and lift the stay of execution late Tuesday, less than 24 hours before Green could be taken to the death chamber.
Green’s lethal injection would be the 10th this year in Texas and the first of four scheduled for this month in the nation’s most active death penalty state.
The appeals court said it found the procedures at Green’s competency hearing were not improper, that no Supreme Court precedents were violated and that it was reasonable to find Green competent for the death penalty.
“We conclude that the state court applied the correct standard and the (federal) district court abused its discretion in finding otherwise,” the three-judge panel ruled.
Green’s lawyer, James Rytting, said his client hallucinated about the “ongoing spiritual warfare between two sets of voices representing good and evil.”
But Green told a psychiatrist who examined him before the hearing that he didn’t and couldn’t have killed Neal, that false evidence was used against him, and that he understood a murder conviction could result in him receiving an injection that would kill him.
Supreme Court guidance says mental illness can’t disqualify someone from execution if they understand the sentence and reasons for the punishment, the state lawyers argued.
Green has declined to speak with reporters as his execution date neared.
- Texas Moratorium Network (TMN) is a non-profit organization with the primary goal of mobilizing statewide support for a moratorium on executions in Texas. Significant death penalty reform in Texas, including a moratorium on executions, is a viable goal if the public is educated on the death penalty system and is encouraged to contact their elected representatives to urge passage of moratorium legislation.
We hope that you will join us in this fight for fairness and social justice.Please join our email list and become one of the more than 20,000 people receiving information through our network.
