Death Penalty Focus, a Message from Mike Farrell, Death Penalty’s Declining Support, Jeff Wood, Lucy Wilke (Kerr County District Attorney), Ulysses Jones, Jr., Hidalgo v. Arizona, Richard Stack & the Death Penalty Focus End Of The Year Message!

Welcome to the December issue of The Focus. As the year draws to a close, a new report looks back at the significant trends of 2017, and we look at the notable developments happening right now.

By the way, we know that you appreciate the coverage and analysis provided in The Focus, and we're happy that we can provide it free of charge. But it is not free to produce, so if you'd like to go the extra mile, please consider making a tax-deductible gift to Death Penalty Focus so that we can continue publishing The Focus in 2018 and beyond. Please click here if you'd like to donate. Thank you!
Here are the highlights this month:

DPF is Hiring an Executive Director

Since 1988, Death Penalty Focus has been committed to the abolition of the death penalty through public education, grassroots organizing and political advocacy, media outreach, and domestic and international coalition building. We are now seeking an Executive Director with the vision and commitment to lead the organization in this fight, here in California and throughout the country. If you believe you have the skills, experience and, above all, the passion, to help end the death penalty, we encourage you to apply.
Read More »

DPIC's Annual Report Looks at the Death Penalty’s Declining Support

The Death Penalty Information Center released its annual report yesterday, focusing on the decreasing support for capital punishment, the problems that plagued this year’s executions, and the four prisoners who were exonerated.
Read More »

Prosecutor Who Put Jeff Wood on Texas’ Death Row Asks for Clemency

Kerr County District Attorney Lucy Wilke, who sought the death penalty against Jeff Wood, even though he never killed anyone, now says the sentence “appears to be excessive.”

Could Hidalgo v. Arizona Give SCOTUS the Impetus to End the Death Penalty?

Lawyers for Abel Hidalgo are arguing the state’s death penalty is unconstitutional because its aggravating factors make 99 percent of all defendants charged with first degree murder eligible for the death penalty. And, they further argue that the death penalty itself is unconstitutional because it constitutes cruel and unusual punishment, giving justices the opportunity to finally abolish capital punishment in the U.S.

Missouri Jurors Reject the Death Penalty in a Federal Case

U.S. prosecutors tried for 11 years to get Ulysses Jones, Jr. sentenced to death only to finally fail late last month.

In Brief: December 2017

States around the country are finding it’s becoming more difficult to execute prisoners because of many factors, including lethal injection drug shortages, botched executions, and legal challenges. But that doesn’t mean states like Texas, Florida, and Ohio won’t keep trying. And California Supreme Court Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye is predicting that at least two legal challenges will be filed against Proposition 66.
Read More »

While We’re on the Subject . . .

Death penalty attorney Richard Burr remembers his close friend, and co-counsel on the Timothy McVeigh trial, Rob Nigh.
Read More »

Voices: Richard Stack and “In The Executioner’s Shadow”

A former public defender and a current communications professor at American University, Richard Stack has put his experience and skills into the making of a documentary about the death penalty, focusing on an executioner, a victim, and a victim’s family members.
Read More »
The past year has been tough for everyone. From natural disasters taxing our resources and resilience, to an administration seeking to roll back decades of progress - at times it can seem like all hope is lost.

But you know that when the going gets tough, the tough get going.
Here at Death Penalty Focus, we dusted ourselves off and got right back to work. We’ve made incredible progress over the last year in spite of the challenges our movement faces.

Here is a small sample of our work in 2017:
  • We kept the momentum of 2016 alive by holding a spectacular event with Sen. Bernie Sanders, who spoke forcefully in opposition to state executions and in support of our work.
  • We partnered with LUSH Cosmetics to bring the message that “Death ≠ Justice” to their 200 storefronts across the United States, reaching countless people who had never been confronted with the issue.
  • We rejoiced as our coalition defeated a lethal injection protocol that threatened to end a decade-long moratorium on executions, and steeled ourselves for the fight ahead as another proposal to bring back the death penalty was accepted by the California Supreme Court.
  • We held a series of events to raise awareness, and community meetings to strengthen our coalition, in places like Orange County, San Diego, Los Angeles, San Jose, and more.
  • We commemorated the life of hero of the movement with a memorial event in San Francisco.
  • We published 11 more issues of our celebrated newsletter, The Focus, featuring original journalistic and editorial content about the death penalty and the people it harms (the twelfth issue arrives this Friday).
  • We laid the groundwork for 2018 and beyond by designing new educational projects and resistance campaigns.
We’re ready for what’s next, and we want to know if you're still with us.

A Message from Mike Farrell:
We all know that the death penalty degrades and dehumanizes the incarcerated. From racist trials and poor defense for the indigent, to prolonged solitary confinement and “botched” executions - the list is as brutalizing as it is familiar.

But you might be surprised that the harm inflicted by the death penalty extends far beyond the accused and the condemned...
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Beth Webb’s sister, Laura, was killed, and her mother wounded, in a mass shooting in 2011. Over Beth’s objections, prosecutors insisted on seeking the death penalty, and for six years the case dragged on, forcing family members to relive their trauma again and again. At one point, Beth was so distraught that she cried out to the judge, “The district attorney says he’s doing this for my family, but he’s doing it to my family.”

Frank Thompson was a prison warden during a period when two men were executed. After supervising the second execution he said, “I stood over that person, watching him breathe, and realized it was my job to stop him from breathing. Society shouldn’t put men and women in the position of taking a human life in a process that has not been proven to work.”

Gary Tyler was sent to death row at the age of 16 for a crime he didn’t commit. He was freed from prison after 41 years. With more than half his life stolen by the state, he returned to a world he had left as a teenager with one goal: to help others that had been wrongly convicted. “I can’t turn my back on them because I strongly believe that if I got out, they can too. I never came to the point of despair because I always knew there were people in my corner, and I want them to know there are people in theirs.”
When the government executes someone, the barbarity of the act reverberates far beyond the death house. At Death Penalty Focus, we work every day to put a stop to this. We lift up the voices of victims’ family members like Beth, public officials like Frank, and the wrongfully convicted like Gary, to make known the toll the death penalty takes on everyone it touches.

Your support makes it possible for us to continue to lead the fight against capital punishment by mobilizing our allies, expanding our outreach, and demanding a justice system that is more just, less racist, less costly, and less violent. Your support will help us abolish the death penalty and end a barbaric practice that impacts every member of our society. 

Sincerely,


Mike Farrell
President