jschroeder's blog

Our friends at the ACLU are collecting 50,000 signatures on a petition to Gov. Quinn that they'll deliver the last week of January.

Click here to sign the ACLU petition.

Gov. Pat Quinn hasn't made up his mind if he'll sign the death penalty repeal bill. But he's said he wants to hear from the people of Illinois.

Help us expand our reach so that Gov. Quinn hears that Illinois supports repeal. Click on attachment below to download and print a quarter-sheet PDF flyer you can bring to work, church and upcoming meetings, to encourage others to call.

We won repeal in the General Assembly on 1-11-11!

Yesterday, the Senate passed SB3539 and now the legislation heads to the Governor's desk for final approval.

It was a mammoth effort by volunteers, advocates and supporters who have given countless hours to see that Illinois becomes the 16th state to repeal the death penalty - the third in the past three years.

There are many news stories to share and people to thank but right now, the focus is on urging Gov. Quinn to sign the legislation. We're just one signature away from abolition!

Take a moment right now to call and email Gov. Quinn. Visit http://icadp.org/take_action for all the details.

This Sunday, September 12th, Laura Kunard will run an incredible 13.1 miles in the Banco Popular Chicago Half Marathon to benefit ICADP! Laura is the Vice Chair of ICADP's Board of Trustees and has worked for abolition for over a decade. Read Laura's message and make a $20 (20 is the number of wrongfully convicted men that were released from Illinois' death row) or more contribution to help her reach her goal of $3,000 by race day:

Dear Friends & Family,

If you have spent any time talking with me (and you have), you know that I am against the death penalty. You probably also know that I’ve spent a lot of time working with the Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty over the last 12 years. I first became involved when I was in graduate school and visited death row for the first time – something I continue to do.

It was on my first visit that the gravity of this issue struck me: that we are the only industrialized nation on the planet that still practices the death penalty, that we are not very good at it based on the 116 people who have been exonerated since the mid 1970s, and – most importantly in today’s fiscal crisis – that it costs roughly 8 times as much money to seek the death penalty as to seek an alternative like life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Click here to read more

If you're visiting our website from the ACLU Illinois, welcome! We're moving forward fast to pass repeal legislation. We count on members from our coalition partners like ACLU to carry the message to repeal our state's broken death penalty system to legislators. To join our campaign, please visit: http://www.icadp.org/jointhecampaign