[CUADPUpdate] VA Journey Kicks Off!

Tue Oct 17 01:27:57 EDT 2006

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Greetings All!

I'm back in New Jersey after spending the weekend 
helping to kick off the Virginia Journey of Hope 
...From Violence to Healing.  I hope to re-join 
the Journey this coming weekend, and I'll be back 
in VA again the following weekend for the NCADP 
conference.  My focus in NJ this week and next is 
in pulling out abolitionists to be present at the 
final public hearing of the NJ Death Penalty 
Study Commission at 1pm on Oct. 25 in 
Trenton.  This will be a historic moment - if you 
are within a reasonable distance, please consider 
coming to Trenton!  More info is at www.NJADP.org 
or e-mail me at <abe at njadp.org>

As FLORIDA resumes executions this week and next, 
I send greetings and thanks to all of my brothers 
and sisters in the Struggle down there.  This 
week we kill a Viet Nam vet, and next week will 
be a struggle for many - especially the 
Gainesville abolitionist community - because they 
were among the many terrorized by Danny Rolling's 
murder spree...  See news items at http://www.fadp.org/news/newsindex.html

Below are a couple of news items on the VA 
Journey.  Also, check out the Journey blog at 
http://www.thejourneyofhope.blogspot.com/

Thanks to all who have supported the 
effort.... 
http://www.journeyofhope.org/pages/support.htm 
(And it is not too late to do so!)

Yours in the Struggle,

--abe

Board of Directors,
Journey of Hope ...From Violence to healing, Inc.

http://www.potomacnews.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WPN/MGArticle/WPN_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1149191173496&path=

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Rally against death penalty held
By KEITH WALKER
kwalker at potomacnews.com
Monday, October 16, 2006

Terri Steinberg stood in the middle of a circle 
of people gathered at the the corner of Grant and 
Lee avenues in Manassas on Saturday and tearfully 
begged for mercy for her son, Justin Michael Wolfe.

"Please Virginia, don't take the life of my son," 
Steinberg said. "We don't need to take another 
life. We don't need another senseless killing in 
order to prove that killing is wrong."

Wolfe, 25, of Centreville, received the death 
penalty in 2001 for hiring Owen Merton Barber to 
kill 21-year-old Daniel Petrole Jr. of Braemar. 
The three had been members of a marijuana ring 
that operated throughout Northern Virginia.

Steinberg and the 40 or so people in the circle 
were at the corner to demonstrate against the 
death penalty, hold hands and sing protest songs.

The event was part of the "2006 Virginia Journey 
of Hope ... From Violence to Healing," a 
statewide, 17-day event where family members of 
murder victims, exonerated death row inmates and 
anti-death penalty activists visit high schools, 
churches and colleges across the state to hold 
rallies and tell stories of how the death penalty has affected their lives.

People from across the country came to march from 
All Saints Catholic Church to the corner where 
abolitionists gather to demonstrate and plant 
flowers for those being put to death on nights 
when there is an execution in Virginia.

Bill Pelke's grandmother was murdered in 1985 by 
four ninth-grade girls. One of the girls received 
the death penalty for the murder, said Pelke, the 
co-founder of the "Journey of Hope" a national 
movement to raise awareness about the death penalty.

"The girl that was deemed to be the ring leader 
was sentenced to death by the state of Indiana," 
Pelke said. "She was 15 years old."

Pelke came from Anchorage, Alaska, to participate 
in the Virginia event and said he once supported 
the death penalty but became convinced that his 
grandmother would have been "appalled" that a 
15-year-old girl was on death row.

"I realized I didn't have to see someone else die 
in order to bring healing," Pelke said.

Pelke's efforts through the Journey of Hope, 
helped release the girl from death row in 1989, he said.

"She's still in prison, where she belongs," he said.

Jeff Haydon, 49, of Manassas said he marched and 
carried signs with the abolitionists to try and 
make people think about the death penalty. He 
said he didn't believe in the death penalty as a deterrent.

"I know there's some heinous crimes out there, 
but 'an eye-for-an-eye makes the whole world 
blind,' " Haydon said quoting one of the death penalty abolitionists' mottos.

Robert Hoelscher came from Austin, Texas, to 
march in Manassas. His father was murdered in Houston in 1969.

"I don't think the death penalty serves victims," 
the 53-year-old Hoelscher said.

Abe Bonowitz, an organizer for New Jerseyans for 
Alternatives to the Death Penalty, once supported 
the death penalty, but changed his mind after 
hearing a speaker at the Ohio State University.

The speaker didn't change his mind. His epiphany came later.

"I set out to prove the anti-death penalty people 
wrong and I found out that everything I believed 
about the death penalty -- the truth was the 
opposite," the 39-year-old Bonowitz said.

[Money,] Race, politics and geography determine 
who gets the death penalty more than anything else, Bonowitz said.

"What changed my mind was learning about the 
unfairness of the application of the death penalty," Bonowitz said.

Events such as the Journey of Hope might make 
people think about the death penalty. Thinking 
about it might lead to opposing it, Bonowitz said.

"For me it's about giving the people the 
opportunity to think about it. That's why I'm out 
here today holding this sign to the traffic," Bonowitz said.

Of the 23 people in Virginia who are on death row 
in Sussex I Sate Prison in Waverly, four received 
their death sentences in Prince William County.

• Larry "Bill" Elliott, 56, of Hanover, Md., was 
convicted in 2001 of killing Robert Finch, 30 and 
Dana Thrall, 25, a Woodbridge couple.

• John Allen Muhammad, 42, the D.C.-area sniper 
entered death row in March of 2004.

• Paul Warner Powell, 26, was convicted in 1999 
of the murder of two teenage sisters in their Yorkshire home.

The Virginia Supreme Court overturned Powell's 
capital conviction of murdering 16-year-old 
Stacie Reed and raping and stabbing 14-year-old 
Kristie Reed . The justices decided that Powell's 
actions were two separate crimes making Powell 
ineligible for the death penalty.

Powell later sent Commonwealth's Attorney Paul B. 
Ebert a letter that contained information Ebert used to convict him.

Powell was sentenced to death in 2003.

• Wolfe received a stay of execution in July 2005.

This story can be found at: 
<http://www.potomacnews.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WPN/MGArticle/WPN_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1149191173496&path=>http://www.potomacnews.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WPN/MGArticle/WPN_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1149191173496&path=

********

and

http://www.dailypress.com/news/local/briefs/dp-52726bf0oct14,0,7213506.story?coll=dp-briefs

Execution-moratorium advocates to visit area

FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
October 14, 2006
The "Virginia Journey of Hope ... From Violence 
to Healing" tour sponsored by Virginians for 
Alternatives to the Death Penalty has returned to the state.

The 2006 tour began Friday and ends Oct. 29. It 
will make stops in Smithfield, Williamsburg, 
Chesapeake, Norfolk and Virginia Beach between Oct. 22 and 24.

Organizers are canvassing the state to build 
support for a moratorium on executions, according 
to American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia.

The tour features family members who've lost 
loved ones to murder, innocent men sentenced to 
death row, people whose loved ones are death row 
inmates, and anti-death penalty activists.

All will share personal stories about how the 
death penalty has affected their lives, the ACLU of Virginia said.

Sister Helen Prejean, author of the best-seller 
"Dead Man Walking," will speak at some tour 
stops, including one Oct. 22 at the College of 
William and Mary in Williamsburg.

For more information about the tour, call Jack 
Payden-Travers at 1-888-567-8237.

***

Support the Journey!   http://www.journeyofhope.org/pages/support.htm

SENT BY Abe