[PAA-Discuss] Saturday: 10th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty

Wed Oct 21 00:55:21 EDT 2009

Excerpt from http://marchforabolition.org

Tenth Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty
October 24, 2009 at 2 PM
Austin, Texas
Texas State Capitol Building South Side (11th and Congress)
Four innocent, exonerated former death row prisoners will be among 
the special guests at the Tenth Annual March to Abolish the Death 
Penalty
October 24, 2009 at 2 PM in Austin, Texas at the Texas Capitol on the 
South Steps at 11th and Congress.
Also attending will be the penpal of Todd Willingham, Elizabeth 
Gilbert, who first investigated his innocence. Plus, Todd's last 
lawyer Walter Reaves. Please attend the march to support the 
Willingham family as they fight to prove that Todd Willingham was 
innocent.

Also see the note below, regarding a bus from Houston to Austin for 
this march, and more.

Bill

>From: Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement <abolition.movement at hotmail.com>
>Date: Mon, 19 Oct 2009 00:03:38 -0500
>Subject: [friends_of_kpft] Six Days 'Til the 10th Annual March to 
>Abolish the DP
>
>
>
>Those of us in Houston are all too familiar with the
>injustices in the Harris County criminal justice system:
>Shaka Sankofa (Gary Graham), Joseph Nichols,
>Frances Newton, Nanon Williams, Calvin Burdine . . .
>the list goes on and on. 
>
>But now, in the state of Texas, we have a case that
>is about to change history---Todd Willingham.
>
>We are aproaching the first pothumous exoneration in
>the United States.
>
>Make plans now to join Todd Wilingham's mother, his attorney,
>his pen pal and advocate Liz Gilbert, and many more in Austin
>this Saturday for the 10th Annual March to Abolish the Death
>Penalty.
>
>If you are in Houston, e-mail now to confirm a seat on the bus.
>We will meet at S.H.A.P.E. Center, 3815 Live Oak, 9:30 Saturday
>morning, have a press conference at 10:00 where we will shout
>it from the rooftop that Todd Willingham was innocent.  Then we'll
>leave for Austin.  We will return to Houston after the march and
>rally.  We urgently need donations to help fill the bus.
>
>
>
>
><http://marchforabolition.org/>10th Annual March to Abolish the 
>Death Penalty October 24 in Austin
>
>The national media is closely following developments in the Todd 
>Willingham case and Rick Perry's attempts to stall and cover up the 
>investigation for his own political advantage. October 24 in Austin 
>is the <http://marchforabolition.org/>10th Annual March to Abolish 
>the Death Penalty when we will show the world and Rick Perry that 
>there are people in Texas who are convinced that Todd Willingham was 
>innocent and that the death penalty should be abolished. We plan to 
>shout it out that Todd Willingham was innocent!
>
>Visit the special march website at 
><http://www.marchforabolition.org/>www.marchforabolition.org.
>
>
>We need support for the march from abolitionists across the country 
>and around the world. Please forward information about the march to 
>your membership lists in every state. If people can not attend in 
>person, then <http://camerontoddwillingham.com/?page_id=6>they can 
>sign a petition to Rick Perry that we plan to deliver at the march 
>with help from members of Todd Willingham's family. (See photo 
>below of Eugenia Willingham at the 2006 march.) We will also display 
>all the names and comments from the petition at the march.
>
>You can also call Rick Perry's office on October 24 and leave a 
>voice mail telling him to look out his office at the people urging 
>him to admit that Todd Willingham was innocent and to listen to 
>them. His phone number is 512 463 1782.
>
>We have heard from media from around the world who plan to be at the 
>march on October 24 to cover the the Todd Willingham story. CNN is 
>also planning to be there. Here are links to four videos from CNN 
>AC360 about the case from 
><http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uz8HTojMYk>Oct 2, 
><http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-P-wreUK0k>Oct 13, 
><http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgyv4EmPCYk>Oct 14 and 
><http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5cFKpjRnXE>Oct 15.  We need people 
>in Texas to show up, so we can show the world that many of us in 
>Texas oppose the death penalty. 
>
>Speakers at the march will include two innocent, now-exonerated 
>death row prisoners (Shujaa Graham and Curtis McCarty), 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 who first pushed his innocence and helped his 
>family find a fire expert to investigate), a family member of Todd 
>Willingham and several other families of people on death row, 
>including the mother of Reginald Blanton who is scheduled for 
>execution in Texas on Oct 27 three days after the march. 
>
>The march starts at 2 PM on October 24 at the Texas Capitol.  We 
>will gather at the Texas Capitol, march down Congress Avenue to 6th 
>street, then back to the Capitol for a rally to abolish the death 
>penalty.
>
>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 Shujaa 
>Graham and Curtis McCarty. (Thank you to Bill Pelke and the Journey 
>of Hope for helping bring them to Austin for the march.) Shujaa and 
>Curtis will speak about what it is like to be innocent and sentenced 
>to death. The panel is in the Sinclair Suite (room 3.128) of the 
>Texas Student Union on Guadalupe. Call if you need more directions 
>512-552-4743.
>
>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. The strategy session will start 
>about 30 minutes after the last speaker at the march.
>
><http://et.ratepoint.com/1059df9080ec9224dec7be9f4a6833bd/d8c59b20cc255572f1e73b7138212965>If 
>you as an individual or your organization would like to sign on as a 
>sponsor of the march, click here to fill out the sponsorship 
>form. It is free to be a sponsor. We just ask that you spread the 
>word so that we get a good crowd at the march. Sponsors include 
>Sister Helen Prejean, Bill Pelke and the Journey of Hope, the Texas 
>Civil Rights Project, Reprieve, Iranians for Peace and Justice, UT 
>Campus Progress, Democrats for Life of Texas,  S.H.A.P.E Community 
>Center in Houston, the Dallas Peace Center, ALIVE Against the Death 
>Penalty in Germany, Ensemble Contre la Peine de Mort (France), 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, Texas Death Penalty 
>Education and Resource Center, Kids Against the Death Penalty and 
>many 
>others. <http://et.ratepoint.com/0db36b6bde00feb87f9f6fcddad5a1a1/d8c59b20cc255572f1e73b7138212965>See 
>others on the still growing list of sponsors here. Please add your 
>group to the sponsors list.
>
>Thank you for helping!
>
>Hooman Hedayati
>(210)601-7231
>
>
>willinghams.jpg

-- 
Bill Crosier
paa at crosierbiomed.com      713-641-4941
Progressive Action Alliance   http://progressiveactionalliance.org/
KPFT - Radio for Peace - 90.1 FM Houston   http://kpft.org
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