The Coalition's web site is up and running at www.icadp.org. Take a moment to check it out and discover new ways to work for abolition.

The Pine Valley Cosmonauts and other artists, including Steve Earle and Tony Fitzpatrick, contributed to the new anti-death penalty CD, The Executioner s Last Sang, released by Bloodshot Records in March. Proceeds from the CD, dedicated to the life and work of Dick Cunningham, will benefit the Coalition.

Coalition membership has grown to over 40 organizations and over 400 individual members. We appreciate the support. The "Skip Lunch" pledge drive has already brought in over $10,000 in donations and pledges. If you have not responded to the drive, please do so today!

In December 2001, The Tides Foundation awarded the Coalition a grant of $35, 000, the maximum under its Death Penalty State Strategies funding initiative, and the Catholic Campaign for Human Development awarded the Coalition a grant of $50,000 to further our work. In January, we received the good news that the Crossroads Foundation awarded the Coalition $7,000.

With this increased funding, the Coalition has been able to hire a Program/Education Director. Rachael Dietkus joined the Coalition in April. She brings to her position a diverse mix of student and grassroots organizing, as well as an array of human and civil rights activism. As a founding member and two-year president of a student ACLU chapter at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Rachael helped pave the way for broadening the scope of civil liberties on a number of wide-ranging issues. A strong opponent of the death penalty, she was the lead organizer of the chapter's first - of what came to be many - anti-death penalty programs Rachael received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in Sociology in 2000.

The annual convention of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty will be held from October 24-27, 2002 in Chicago, This will be a great opportunity to meet with activists from around the country and hear from leading figures in the abolition movement. Please contact the Illinois Coalition for more information.

The Coalition has benefited from the work of Stephen Yarbrough, an intern working at the Coalition through the Seminary Consortium on Urban Pastoral Education. Stephen has engaged in extensive outreach work as well .is internal organizational development.

The Coalition and Amnesty International are working with the American Friends Service Committee on the "I Dream a World" organizing campaign. The program incorporates the teaching of Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr. into an anti-death penalty message for use in churches and schools. Please contact the Coalition office for more information on this exciting new program.

ICADP mourns the loss of ICADP Board member and attorney Jack Carey, who died in January. Jack served as President of the union that represents Cook County Public Defenders. He will be remembered with admiration for his commitment to the difficult work of representing capital murder defendents. Our condolences go to his wife, Alix Carey; and his entire family. On March 10, the first Cunningham-Carey Award, named for jack and Dick Cunningham, was awarded to Illinois Governor George Ryan.