Sent to the 2,450 members of CUADPUpdate
and the 450 members of FADPUpdate
Please excuse doubles if you are on both lists.
Please feel free to forward

*******
4/4/2001

Greetings all,

I want to say that I am very proud to be a member of the board of
directors of an organization called the Journey of Hope ...From Violence to
Healing, Inc. <http://www.journeyofhope.org>. I want to congratulate the
members of the various organizations in Missouri, who just completed more
than a week of actions and events featuring speakers from the Journey -
murder victim's family members, death row family members, death row
survivors, activists.... Below is an article that was printed in today's
(4/4/2001) Columbia Tribune. 500+ plus people in the capital of Missouri
is no small feat! The Missouri Journey has been described as one of the
most effective Journey events ever! Mazel Tov!

Bill Pelke and George White are now driving in Abolition Movin'
(see the photo of our 1965 GMC Coach at
<http://www.fadp.org/flm_bios.html>) from Missouri to Pensacola, Florida,
where on Friday they will join me, Bud Welch, Johnny Zokovitch (Pax
Christi/Gainesville Citizens & Floridians for Alternatives to the Death
Penalty), Marisa Gwaltney (Amnesty DP Abolition Coordinator for Florida and
coordinator of the AI group at UF), and Sara Klemm (Moratorium Now!
municipal resolutions coordinator), for what we are calling the Florida
Moratorium Tour. Learn more about the tour by visiting the
<http://www.FADP.org> web page.

To be clear, we could not be doing this tour without the help of a
LOT of individuals in a lot of places. I thank them all. I thank the
Journey. But I especially want to thank the all-volunteer Special
Initiatives Fund Committee of Amnesty International USA, which made a grant
of $4,000 to this event - thereby making this event possible.
A number of other individuals have also made a financial investment in the
success of this event. They are listed on the tour web page. If you would
like to join them on that list (or anonymously), there is a button to click
on the Tour page that will take you to the "how to give" page. Or just see
the info at the very end of this message.

After the Florida Moratorium Tour, we hope to see many friends at
the Annual General Meeting of Amnesty in Nashville. See
<http://www.aiusa.org> for details about that. The Journey takes a few
weeks off after that, and then Bill, George, myself and others will be in
Terre Haute for the killing of McVeigh <http://www.abolition.org>, and then
the Journey is off to New Jersey for Moratorium Week. See one of the best
web pages in the movement <http://njmoratorium.org/> for details on that
latter event.

So yes, friends, the movement is moving, and I am very glad to
know that as of Friday morning, I'll be riding around in a bus called
"Abolition Movin' " for a couple of weeks, or until it breaks down -
whichever comes first. (Contribute to the bus repair fund by sending a
check to the Journey at P.O. Box 210390, Anchorage, AK 99521.)

OK. That's enough plugging. Now back to packing!

paz!

--abe



http://www.columbiatribune.com/News/20010404News002.asp


Execution opponent spreads word

By TIM HIGGINS of the Tribune's staff
Story ran on Wednesday, April 4, 2001

Scum. Monsters.

The words roll easily off the tongues of some death-penalty advocates when
describing the murderers they are so willing to execute.

But Sister Helen Prejean says the moral battle over capital punishment
involves concepts far more complex than simple rage. Tomorrow, she said,
will mark exactly 16 years since the issue - and her mission - became so
clear to her.

After watching the execution of a man convicted of killing two teenagers in
Louisiana, Prejean knew what she had to do, she told a packed house at the
University of Missouri-Columbia's Middlebush Auditorium.

"I got to tell the story. I am a witness," she said. "My mission was born
there that night."

Many members of the audience clutched Prejean's book - "Dead Man Walking" -
as the Pulitzer and Nobel prize nominee spoke passionately about her cause
for nearly two hours, capping a weeklong Journey of Hope organized by
Missouri opponents of the death penalty.

Tears dripped from Michelle Mirzoian's eyes as she listened to the nun,
whose story was also captured in an Academy Award-winning movie based on
her book. "There are real people on both sides of this issue," Mirzoian said.

Prejean's story began nearly 20 years ago when she was working in a housing
project in New Orleans. She was matched with a lonely pen pal, a prisoner
named Patrick Sonnier at Louisiana's Angola State Prison.

She wrote a letter. He responded. It turned out he was on death row. She
became his spiritual adviser, and so began her foray into the world of
"scripted death."
Sonnier didn't look like the terrible killer Prejean had imagined. He
looked like any man, she remembered. But she had read about his terrible
crimes: A 17-year-old boy and an 18-year-old woman dead. The girl was
raped; both were shot in the head.

She met the victims' families. She met the murderer's mother. All had
tormented souls, Prejean remembered.

In 1984, Prejean watched Sonnier put to death in the electric chair. She
remembers the ceiling fans that sucked the smell of sizzling flesh from the
room. And she remembers the emptiness she felt afterward.
"I couldn't believe it," she said.

Soon thereafter, her mission to abolish the death penalty began small. "I
would talk to any group that would have taken me," she said.

There were no crowds early on. She once spoke to three people at a nursing
home, and two of them fell asleep. She began participating in marches to
garner attention for her cause.

Then she wrote her book, which fell into the hands of actress Susan
Sarandon. "Let's make a movie," Sarandon said in a phone call.

Jeff Stack, an organizer of the Journey of Hope and an ardent local
opponent of the death penalty, said he was proud to have Prejean in
Columbia this week. Yesterday, his group went to the Statehouse for a rally
that attracted about 500 people.

Many of the speakers featured on the Journey of Hope tour lost loved ones
to murderers but still fight the death penalty. Stack admires their
commitment.
But if his loved ones were murdered?

"I hope I never have to cross that painful bridge," said the man who has
protested dozens of executions. "I don't know what I would want."

Reach Tim Higgins at (573) 815-1704 or thiggins@....

*****

SENT BY:




Abraham J. Bonowitz
Director

Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (FADP)

800-973-6548 http://www.fadp.org <fadp@...>
PMB 297, 177 U.S. Highway #1, Tequesta, FL 33469

Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty works for restorative
justice in the form of effective alternatives to the death penalty. It
does so by
# supporting and coordinating the work of organizations and individuals
# educating and energizing the general public and state legislators
# supporting the many persons affected by capital crime and punishment
# advocating specific legislative improvements

PS: For fiscal & legal purposes, FADP is a project of CUADP
<http://www.cuadp.org> until FADP is incorporated as it's own
entity. We need your help to make this happen soon. Please
call 800-973-6548 or e-mail <fadp@...> to get involved.
Checkbook activism helps too! Make checks to CUADP and send to:

FADP
c/o CUADP
PMB 297
177 U.S. Highway #1
Tequesta, FL 33469

CONTRIBUTIONS TO CUADP ARE NOT TAX DEDUCTIBLE

A COPY OF THE OFFICIAL REGISTRATION AND FINANCIAL
INFORMATION MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE [FL] DIVISION
OF CONSUMER SERVICES BY CALLING TOLL FREE 800-435-7352
(FL only) OR 850-413-0840. REGISTRATION DOES NOT
IMPLY ENDORSEMENT, APPROVAL, OR RECOMMENDATION
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