SISTERS OF BON SECOURS, USA ©
Sisters of Bon Secours Ministry Grant Fund
1525 Marriottsville Road
Marriottsville, MD 21104
Accountability Report for the VADP Grassroots Education Project
Due Semiannually on: March 22, 2019
Grantee: Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (VADP)
Title: Michael Stone, Executive Director
Address: P.O. Box 12222
City, State, Zip: Richmond, VA 23241
. Please give a brief explanation of how the goal(s) and objective(s) for the project, as
described in the proposal, were achieved.
Thanks to the second-year grant of $15,000 from the Bon Secours Sisters, VADP has been able
to continue employment of Dale Brumfield, our full-time Field Director. He has continued to
meet local civic, business, and religious leaders in eight target legislative districts.
Over this past year the Field Director has spent significant time in the following Virginia areas
— Martinsville, Danville and Chatham, Floyd and Galax, Elkton and Shenandoah, Winchester,
Lynchburg, and southwestern Virginia. These communities are located in less populated and
more rural areas of the state, mostly on the southside and the west.
These districts were chosen because their legislators hold key positions in either the House or
Senate Courts of Justice Committees which will consider legislation to ban the execution of
people with severe mental illness and/or end execution drug secrecy.
During 2018 the Field Director has spoken about the death penalty to a wide range of
audiences, mostly within the eight target legislative districts — including:
“Three Chopt Rotary near Zion Crossroads, VA
Chatham Rotary in Chatham, VA
Smith Mt. Lake Rotary, near Moneta, VA
Capital punishment forum at the Barter Theater in Abingdon, VA
Monticello Republican Women’s Club in Springfield, VA
St. Michael’s Parish Knights of Columbus in suburban Richmond, VA
Rocktown Libertarians in Harrisonburg, VA
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Spotsylvania Republican Women's Club in Fredericksburg
Roanoke Valley Libertarians in Roanoke
Liberty University Libertarians in Lynchburg
Patrick Henry Libertarians in Richmond
Chesterfield County Libertarians
Fairfax Young Democrats
Bon Air Interfaith Forum in suburban Richmond
The Barter Theater Capital Punishment Forum in Bristol
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In addition, the Field Director staffed VADP information table at the following events:
“Conservative Political Action Conference
Virginia Federation of Republican Women annual convention
Candidates Forum sponsored by the Patrick County Young Professionals
Young Americans for Liberty conference
Sr. Helen Prejean presentation at Lynchburg College
Sr. Helen Prejean presentation at the Keane Institute in Hampton.
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The Field Director also assisted interfaith leaders in Chesterfield County on a petition drive
supporting this legislation to exempt people with severe mental illness from the death penalty.
A delegation of those leaders delivered over 800 petition signatures to Sen. Glen Sturtevant,
one our target legislators, at the start of the 2019 General Assembly.
2. How have you achieved your measurements?
The Field Director maintains a Google spreadsheet of all contacts in each of the eight target
legislative districts. In addition, he submits a weekly report on his meetings and activities. The
Executive Director also meets with him every other week to delve into the contacts made and to
plan follow-up actions for each target legislative district.
What impact did you have?
Over the past year the Field Director has met with over 150 local leaders across the
Commonwealth who are involved in the faith community, social services, business, media, and
politics. Thirty-five of these local activists have become VADP members.
A number of these local leaders assisted VADP with organizing public education events on
SMI and the death penalty. A few met with their local Delegate or Senator to seek support for
the SMI bill. Many others were in contact with their legislators via phone or e-mail.
All of this grassroots education work paid off in a significant way during the 2019 session of
the Virginia General Assembly.
In January 2019 the Senate Courts of Justice Committee passed SB 1137, a bill to exempt
people with severe mental illness (SMI) from the death penalty on an 8-6 bipartisan vote.
The bill received support from three Senators where Field Director Dale Brumfield has been
organizing grassroots support. We are certain that this constituent support for the bill was
crucial in getting the votes of these two Republican and one Democratic Senators.
Weeks later the Virginia Senate approved this same SMI exemption bill on an 23-17 bipartisan
vote. Four Republicans joined all nineteen Democrats in the Senate in supporting this
important criminal justice reform legislation.
This vote was notable because it was the first time in Virginia history that one chamber of the
state legislature had approved a measure to limit capital punishment in any way!!!
3. What changes, barriers, or modifications, if any, to the original project were made as it
progressed? If there were barriers, what barriers were there, and how did you overcome
them?
We have identified no major barriers to the original project. Our biggest challenge is getting
meetings scheduled with key people in the target legislative districts.
4. Give a detailed explanation of use of funds. List cost elements of the project and expenses
for each (salaries and benefits, supplies, printing, etc.).
All of the funds from the Bon Secours Sisters Mission Fund are used to pay the salary of the
VADP Field Director.
Do you expect to expend the full amount of the award?
We have spent the entire $15,000 award.
5. What are the future goals and objectives for this project (e.g., further program
develop it, obtai. inable funding, etc.)?
Currently the Field Director is working on a resolution supporting death penalty abolition that
we hope to introduce for debate at the April 2019 annual convention of the Virginia Federation
of Republican Women. He is working with leaders of several local Republican Women’s
Clubs to sponsor & present the resolution at this conference in Norfolk.
He will also staff a death penalty information & display table at the April 2019 National Young
Republican conference in Richmond.
The Field Director has been working with Live Arts in Charlottesville in planning for their
upcoming play, “The Exoneration.” He will participate in post-performance discussions of the
death penalty as well as staff a VADP information table after the four performances.
He continues to seek public education sessions on the death penalty in target legislative
districts. Confirmed audiences for these sessions include the Warren County Democrats and
Aging People in Prison Human Rights Campaign.
VADP continues to seek funding from other sources to support this grassroots education
project. We will soon submit a second-year grant request to the Daughters of Wisdom who
awarded $15,000 in funding to this project last year. VADP has submitted a $10,000 grant to
the Bama Works Fund of the Dave Matthews Band which is administered by the Charlottesville
Area Community Foundation. We have approached several family foundations in Virginia
seeking funds for this project, but have yet to receive a favorable response.
Our organization continues its fund development work with direct mail appeals, major donor
cultivation, and special events.
For example, later this month VADP will host a dinner for major donors in northern Virginia
on the evening prior to our awards luncheon. Our special guests for that dinner include Mike
Farrell (a long-time abolition leader & actor who portrayed “B.J. Hunnicutt” in the historic
television series M*A*S*H) and Joe Giarratano (a man sentenced to death in 1979 for a crime
he did not commit who now works for the Innocence Project at the University of Virginia).
We hope to raise significant funds at this special dinner.
6. Please sign, date and return to:
Patrick Schmidt
Project Coordinator, Mission
1505 Marriottsville Road
Marriottsville, MD 21104
Signed:
Michael E. Stone, VADP Executive Director Date
