Welcome from CADP
Coloradans Against the Death Penalty (CADP)
is a non-profit organization dedicated to abolishing
the death penalty in Colorado. We are concerned
citizens, religious leaders, political leaders,
criminal defense lawyers, and relatives of murder
victims.
The release of
the third death row inmate in six months in
North Carolina last week is raising fresh questions
about whether states are supplying capital-murder
defendants with adequate counsel, even as an
execution on Tuesday night in Georgia ended a
seven-month national suspension. ... John Holdridge,
director of the A.C.L.U. Capital Punishment Project,
which provided representation for Mr. Jones,
said the successful appeals showed that the problem
with the death penalty was not the method of
execution - the issue ruled on by the Supreme
Court last month - but
instead “poor
people getting lousy lawyers.” “All these states are gearing
up to start executing people again, and nobody
seems to be concerned about these systemic problems,” Mr. Holdridge
said. (5/7/08,
New York Times)
Roughly 15 death row prisoners are scheduled
to be put to death between now and October, according
to the Death Penalty Information Center. This flood
of executions is the result of the Supreme Court’s ruling that upheld the
constitutionality of a troubling form of lethal injection. The next
few months, as states put their machinery of death into overdrive,
are an ideal time for the nation to rethink its commitment to capital
punishment. (5/7/08, Editorial by the New York Times)
A Dallas man who spent more than 27 years in prison
for a murder he didn't commit was freed Tuesday, after being incarcerated
longer than any other wrongfully convicted U.S. inmate cleared by
DNA testing. (4/29/08, ABC News)
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Improve your wardrobe, or your bookshelf
- while helping CADP. Visit the new CADP
online store to
order t-shirts or Dead Man Walking:
An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty
in the United States. This is the
best selling book by Sister Helen Prejean,
the guest speaker at the 2005 CADP Dinner. |
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Justice John Paul Stevens, the Supreme Court's
most senior member, took aim at the entire system
of capital punishment Wednesday, writing in an
opinion that it was a "pointless and needless
extinction of life with only marginal contributions
to any discernible social or public purposes."...
In essence, Stevens has sent a signal that, while
he recognizes the court has, in the past, found
the death penalty to be constitutional, he thinks
it's now time for state legislatures, Congress
and the courts to reconsider. (4/16/08, ABC News.com)
A recent Colorado poll conducted by RBI Strategies
and Research found that 63% of citizens believe
that money spent on the death penalty would be
better used to close unsolved murder cases. ...
Forty-three percent were strongly in favor of
such a change in spending and another 20% somewhat
in favor. Only 27% opposed such a redirection
of funds. Interestingly, voters were generally
against cutting money from the law enforcement
budget to pursue cold cases, but were in favor
of cutting the money from death penalty prosecutions.
(4/14/08, DPIC Update)
"The Execution of Solomon Harris" recently screened at
the Sundance Film Festival, where it was very well received. The film
has also been accepted at the South by Southwest film festival in
Austin Texas, as well as AFI, Dallas and others.
The film is fiction, but was inspired by a true account. It concerns
the human dilemma that occurs when an electric
chair fails to deliver a lethal shock. It confronts
the viewer with questions like "Where
does responsibility for the life of the prisoner
fall when the system breaks down?" Most importantly, it causes
viewers to confront the ethical implications
of the death penalty, and hopefully stir discussion
over an issue that is either right or wrong to
so many. (2/14/08, CADP)
Download the film on iTunes
Take Action
Get involved
- see CADP's suggested actions against
the death penalty
Members of CADP are also available to speak
to your group about the death penalty, or its
effect on victims. To arrange for a free speaker, e-mail
info@coadp.or
Browse Other Recent Stories
Quote
"I think the system is so badly flawed
that all executions should be stopped. ... Let's start with the basic concept of a fair
trial. We are so far away from that in every
state in this country."
-- John Grisham, Author
CADP would like to ask for your financial assistance
and support of our efforts to educate the public
regarding the many inadequacies of the Colorado
death penalty system, to lobby the anticipated
bills, and to call for a statewide study of
the death penalty. You can now donate securely
online - just click the Donate to CADP button.
(CADP)
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