It is time to march and rally to abolish the death penalty. This Saturday at 2 PM in Austin at the Texas Capitol is the 10th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty.
Three innocent, exonerated former death row prisoners will be among the special guests at theTenth Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty October 24, 2009 on the South Steps of the Capitol at 11th and Congress. Also attending will be the friend of Todd Willingham, Elizabeth Gilbert, a Houston teacher and playwright who first investigated his innocence and is still fighting to exonerate him. Plus, Todd’s last lawyer Walter "Skip" Reaves.
Scott Cobb of Texas Moratorium Network said: “The last request of Todd Willingham to his parents was 'please don’t ever stop fighting to vindicate me.' Please attend the march to support the Willingham family as they continue to fight to prove that Todd Willingham was innocent."
10th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty October 24 in Austin
Panel Discussion: Friday, October 23, the night before the march, there will be a panel discussion on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin at 7 PM with Elizabeth Gilbert (the penpal of Todd Willingham who first investigated and then advocated for his innocence), Shujaa Graham and Curtis McCarty, who will both speak about what it is like to be innocent and sentenced to death. Shujaa spent three years on death row in California. Curtis spent 19 years on death row in Oklahoma before his exoneration and release in 2007. The panel is in the Sinclair Suite (room 3.128) of the Texas Student Union on Guadalupe Street.
Schedule for the 10th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty
Saturday Oct 24 in Austin
1 PM – 2 PM Press conference in the Speaker’s Committee Room (2.W6) inside the Capitol building. The purpose is to allow the media to ask questions and conduct interviews with the speakers listed above.
2 PM We start to gather at the Texas Capitol on the sidewalk by the South gate of the Capitol entrance on Congress Avenue at 11th Street (Map)
2:30 or 2:45 Start to march down Congress Ave to 6th Street and back to Capitol
3:00 or 3:15 Rally on the South Steps of the Texas Capitol with speakers.
Speakers at the march will include three innocent, now-exonerated death row prisoners (Shujaa Graham, Curtis McCarty and Ron Keine), Jeff Blackburn (Chief Counsel of the Innocence Project of Texas), Jeanette Popp (a mother whose daughter was murdered but who asked the DA not to seek the death penalty), Elizabeth Gilbert (the penpal of Todd Willingham mentioned in The New Yorker article who first investigated his innocence and helped his family find a fire expert to investigate), Walter Reaves (the last attorney for Todd Willingham, who fought for him through the execution and continues to fight to exonerate him), Terri Been whose brother Jeff Wood is on death row convicted under the Law of Parties even though he did not kill anyone, and Anna Terrell the mother of Reginald Blanton who is scheduled for execution in Texas on Oct 27 three days after the march, plus other family members of people currently on Texas death row.
Post-march Strategy Meeting: Immediately after the march on October 24, we plan to hold a networking and strategy meeting inside the capitol. Everyone is invited to attend the strategy session and help us plan how to move forward towards abolition in Texas. A major aspect of the session will be for family members of people on death row to share their stories and learn from each other and us how tThe strategy session will start about 30 minutes after the last speaker at the march and last about an hour and a half.
If you are in Houston and want to ride a bus to Austin for the march, e-mail abolition.movement@hotmail.com to confirm a seat on the bus from Houston to Austin for the march on Saturday. They will meet at S.H.A.P.E. Center, 3815 Live Oak, 9:30 Saturday morning in Houston, have a press conference at 10:00 where they will shout it from the rooftop that Todd Willingham was innocent. Then they will leave for the march in Austin. They will return to Houston after the march and rally.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in 2006 that in the modern judicial system there has not been “a single case–not one–in which it is clear that a person was executed for a crime he did not commit. If such an event had occurred in recent years, we would not have to hunt for it; the innocent’s name would be shouted from the rooftops.” On Saturday Oct 24 in Austin, people from across Texas will gather and shout out that Todd Willingham was innocent to show the world and Rick Perry that there are people in Texas who are convinced that Todd was innocent and that executions in Texas should be stopped before another innocent person is executed”.
The annual march is organized by several Texas anti-death penalty organizations, including the Austin chapter of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, Texas Moratorium Network, the Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement, Texas Students Against the Death Penalty and Kids Against the Death Penalty and sponsored by over 50 various organizations. For the full list of sponsors, click here.
Thank you to everyone who has already signed the petition to Governor Rick Perry and the State of Texas to acknowledge that the fire in the Cameron Todd Willingham case was not arson, therefore no crime was committed and on February 17, 2004, Texas executed an innocent man.
More than 3,260 people have signed. We are also working with another organization (CredoMobile) that collected 2,617 on their own similar petition. So together we are nearing 6,000 petition signatures to turn in to Rick Perry on October 24 during the 10th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty in Austin at the Texas Capitol.
Thank you also to the many people who have donated to help us organize the march. We have reached our goal of raising $1,000 for the march! Your contribution now will help us continue to fight the death penalty after the march.
You can make a tax-deductible donation by credit card or by sending a check to:
Texas Death Penalty Education and Resource Center
3616 Far West Blvd, Suite 117, Box 251
Austin, Texas 78731
Texas Death Penalty Education and Resource Center is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, so donations are tax-deductible.
We are making a difference! After ten years of organizing the Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty, we have convinced many people to change their minds from supporting to opposing the death penalty. Just this week, former Texas Governor Mark White announced he has changed his mind about the death penalty.
Former Gov. Mark White, who was involved in the executions of 20 condemned criminals, says it may be time for Texas to do away with the death penalty. The death penalty is no longer a deterrent to murder, and long stays for the condemned on death row shows justice is not swift, White said. More than anything, he said, he has grown concerned that the system is not administered fairly and that there are too many risks of executing innocent people. White said the state needs to take a serious look at replacing the death penalty with life without parole. “There is a very strong case to be made for a review of our death penalty statutes and even look at the possibility of having life without parole so we don't look up one day and determined that we as the state of Texas have executed someone who is in fact innocent,” said White.
If you live outside Texas and can not attend the march Saturday, please call Governor Perry and leave him a voice mail saying that you are participating by telephone in the 10th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty. Tell him to stop covering up the execution of an innocent man. Tell him to admit Todd Willingham was innocent. Tell him to Stop Executions before he executes another innocent man.
Gov. Rick Perry's Voice Mail - 512 463 1782.
Technorati Tags: texas, death penalty, death sentence, death row, capital punishment, execution, lethal injection, cameron todd willingham, texas moratorium, rick perry, governor, march, crime, law, prison
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