April 10, 2019
Rev. John D. Kelly
Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church
1427 West Braddock Road
Alexandria, VA 22302
Dear Fr. Kelly,
I wanted to reach out to you and ask if Blessed Sacrament could renew its
financial support this year for VADP and its work.
Your faith community contributed $1,900 or more to VADP in the past
three years. Renewal of this support will help us to keep our death
penalty abolition work moving forward.
For the past four years VADP has worked with mental health groups to
support a bill to ban the execution of people with severe mental illness.
In January this legislation passed the Senate Courts of Justice
Committee, then the full Senate with bipartisan support.
While the bill ultimately was defeated in a House of Delegates
subcommittee, this was an enormous step forward. It was the first time
ever that a Virginia legislative chamber voted to reduce the scope of
capital punishment!
VADP had long targeted 2020 for death penalty abolition. Our
grassroots organizing work over the past two years has built credible
bipartisan support for this step. We are now scheduling meetings with
individual legislators across the Commonwealth to identify bipartisan co-
patrons for an abolition bill for the 2020 Virginia legislative session.
I have meetings with the Virginia Council of Churches, Virginia Interfaith
Center for Public Policy, and Virginia Catholic Conference to discuss how
the faith community will be involved in our coalition’s strategy of
engaging legislators for abolition in 2020.
Donations from Blessed Sacrament and other faith communities are the
third most important source of income that makes our work possible.
Please let me know if you have any questions about VADP or its work.
Best wishes,
Michael E. Stone
Executive Director
