[CUADPUpdate] (10 years later) March 1 - International Death Penalty Abolition Day

[Abraham J. Bonowitz]

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Greetings All,

It's hard to believe it has been ten years since Citizens United for 
Alternatives to the Death Penalty was founded.  Ten years ago on 
March 1st, we hosted in Detroit, Michigan an "Emergency Summit to 
Strategize for the Abolition of the Death Penalty - In Our 
Time!"  You can read a bit about that event in the posting you will 
find here:  http://venus.soci.niu.edu/~archives/ABOLISH/spring97/0192.html

The results of that gathering informed the creation of CUADP's 
mission:  http://www.cuadp.org/about.html - Citizens United for 
Alternatives to the Death Penalty (CUADP) works to end the death 
penalty in the United States through aggressive campaigns of public 
education and the promotion of tactical grassroots activism.

I'd like to think that CUADP has had some positive impact on our 
movement.  We certainly accomplished a lot.  Have a look at the 
action reports at http://www.cuadp.org/action.html and 
http://www.fadp.org/action.html and see also 
http://www.abolition.org/ and http://www.samreesesheppard.org/

And so, as we approach the 160th anniversary of the first Abolition 
in the English-speaking world, I invite you to reflect on what you 
have done in the past and what you will do in the future to help us 
see total abolition in the US within the next ten years.  We must 
dream the impossible, and then we must do it.  We CAN do it!  And we will....

This Abolition Day, do something to help further the cause, and do 
something to celebrate your own vision of a world without executions.

If you are anywhere near Brooklyn, NY, please join me tonight (Feb. 
28) at the Brooklyn Law School, where I will be presenting the 
keynote address for the Student Day Against the Death Penalty 
event.  Details are 
here:  http://www.brooklaw.edu/news/calendars/?evtID=4517&calID=

I thank everyone who had anything to do with the founding and success 
of CUADP over the years, and today I invite you to help celebrate 
CUADP's 10th anniversary by making a special contribution to help 
cover the basic and ongoing needs of the organization.

Use a credit card or paypal at https://www.compar.com/donation/donateform.html

Or send a check payable to CUADP (make it tax deductible to FCPJ) to

CUADP
PMB 335
2603 NW 13th St.
Gainesville, FL  32609

Thank you.

Yours in the Struggle,

--abe

Director (on Sabbatical)
CUADP


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MEDIA ADVISORY

FROM: Citizens United for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (CUADP)

27 February 2007

Contact: Bill Pelke: 305-775-5823


MARCH 1st is INTERNATIONAL DEATH PENALTY ABOLITION DAY
"DEATH PENALTY FOUNDATIONS CRUMBLING"
Celebrating 160 Years Without Death Penalty

With judicial, legislative or executive moratoriums on executions in 
place in at least eight states, March 1st, 2007, International Death 
Penalty Abolition Day, brings with it not only a celebration of the 
past but an indicator of the future.  The death penalty in the United 
States is on its way out.

Executions have been suspended, literally, from coast to coast, as 
Florida and California grapple with the question of how to prevent 
botched lethal injection executions. Other states have joined them in 
suspending executions: Arkansas, Delaware, Maryland, Missouri, North 
Carolina and Tennessee. Indeed, more than one third of the nation's 
approximately 3,350 people on death rows across the U.S. are in 
states where a moratorium exists on carrying out the death penalty.

Abolition Day 2007 is the 160th anniversary of the date in 1847 when 
the State of Michigan officially became the first English-speaking 
territory in the world to abolish the death penalty.

FOR A LISTING OF SOME OF THE EVENTS SCHEDULED ACROSS THE UNITED 
STATES, as well as background information on Abolition Day, please 
visit <<http://www.cuadp.org>http://www.cuadp.org> and click on the 
Abolition Day Banner.

"People in the United States are beginning to take a hard look at how 
our criminal justice system is failing," said Bill Pelke, Chairman of 
the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and Founder of 
The Journey of Hope ...From Violence to Healing.  "As a former 
supporter of the death penalty who has lost a loved one to murder, I 
know that anyone who examines the system from a non-emotional 
standpoint will find that economically, socially and morally, the 
practice of the death penalty is bad public policy. Billions of 
dollars have been spent on the death
penalty in this country since 1972, for a net result of 1063 
executions. This is hardly a good return on that investment. 
Alternatives to the death penalty exist that punish severely while 
protecting society, without more killing."

Organizers of "Abolition Day" events point to the State of Michigan 
as an example that viable alternatives to the death penalty exist. 
"They got rid of the death penalty because they found that they could 
not trust themselves to use it fairly, and they learned too late that 
they had killed an innocent man," said Pelke. Michigan has been 
without the death penalty for 160 years. The first act of their new 
legislature when
Michigan became a state was to abolish the death penalty.

"Politicians owe it to the people of this country to take a serious 
look at the alternatives to the death penalty already in use across 
this country," said Pelke. "Violent criminals can be punished, and 
society protected, through the use of long-term prison sentences 
before a convicted person can be considered for parole. It works in 
Michigan and in other states like California, which has the oldest 
'Life Without Parole' (LWOP) statute in the country.  Except for 
those who have been exonerated, not one of the people sentenced to 
LWOP has been released. We are saying to the people of our country, 
'Don't make us become that which we deplore. Don't kill in our names. 
We can do better.'"

FOR DETAILS ON THE HISTORY OF INTERNATIONAL DEATH PENALTY ABOLITION 
DAY, PLEASE VISIT <<http://www.cuadp.org>http://www.cuadp.org> and 
click on "Abolition Day."

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ON THE WEB: www.CUADP.org and www.NCADP.org and www.journeyofhope.org 
and www.deathpenaltyinfo.org

Free information is available to the public from Citizens United for 
Alternatives to the Death Penalty (CUADP), a Florida-based national 
organization working to increase the level of informed dialogue about 
viable alternatives to the death penalty. CUADP may be reached 
toll-free at 800-973-6548 or on the internet at 
<<http://www.cuadp.org>http://www.cuadp.org>.

SENT BY:

Abraham J. Bonowitz
Director (on Sabbatical), CUADP
<<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cuadpmedia/post?postID=7nE60hFvtR3b6Y-qvH6m1piazpjLHP5My2FoXCwoYqLhnQNnXaxQ72VUwhBJDH8GKlKHbPKj>abe at cuadp.org>

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YES FRIENDS!
There is an Alternative to the Death Penalty

Citizens United for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
(CUADP) works to end the death penalty in the United
States through aggressive campaigns of public education
and the promotion of tactical grassroots activism.

Visit <<http://www.cuadp.org>http://www.cuadp.org> or call 800-973-6548
PMB 335, 2603 NW 13th St (AKA Dr. MLK Jr. Hwy)
Gainesville, FL 32609

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