November 25, 2017
Dear <First Name>,
The recent election was a game changer.
For the first time, Virginia voters elected a Governor who
said that he would sign a death penalty abolition bill. In the
House of Delegates, advocates of capital punishment were dealt a
significant setback.
Prospects for our first immediate priority -- a bill that
would exempt people with severe mental illness from the death
penalty -- have brightened considerably.
However, the news is not all good. Several Republican
friends of VADP were defeated by new legislators whose views on
the death penalty are not clear. And two of the four remaining
men on Virginia's death row will probably receive execution dates
in the first six months of 2018.
So, there is much work to be done.
Today, the execution of offenders with severe mental illness
is the cutting edge of the death penalty debate. Earlier this
year we had one such case received substantial media attention ..
At his trial for capital murder, an expert witness told the
jury that William Morva merely had “odd beliefs,” based on an
assessment at the time of his arrest. However, during the appeal
of his conviction, Morva was reevaluated as having a serious
mental illness -- a delusional disorder that caused him to kill.
Based on Morva’s true mental state, his attorneys asked
Governor McAuliffe to commute his sentence to life without parole.
This argument was supported by appeals from relatives of the
victims, 28 state legislators, the ACLU, Amnesty International,
the Virginia Council of Churches, dozens of mental health
organizations, and many hundreds of VADP members like you. But ..
On July 16, 2017, Morva was executed. He had no last words.
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I see McAuliffe’s failure to commute Morva as a last gasp of
a culture that has accepted the death penalty as somehow normal.
Today, Americans reject execution of the mentally ill by a
two to one margin. Legislation to outlaw this severe injustice is
overdue, and we can achieve it in Virginia soon with your help.
The injustice of Morva’s execution gained nation-wide
attention, and his death added urgency to our legislation to end
execution of the severely mentally ill — the “SMI Bill.”
Early this year, the SMI bill fell just one vote short of
success in the House Criminal Law Subcommittee. One vote stood in
the way of a full debate on the floor of the House of Delegates.
We need your financial support to push this over the line!
Today, I ask you to make a generous tax-deductible donation
to VADP to help us gain that vote and drive this SMI Bill through
the House of Delegates. We now have the best opportunity ever.
As we see it, the SMI exemption will be a significant
stepping stone toward outright abolition. Consider...
We fully expect Virginia’s death penalty to be effectively
non-operational in 2020 .. an ideal environment for repeal.
Virginia’s death row will almost certainly be emptied one way
or another in the next two years.
Local prosecutors very rarely seek the death penalty any
more. Virginia juries are refusing to sentence even the most
violent offenders to death. And now..
« Virginia has a “dream team” of defense attorneys and
investigators who specialize in capital cases, leading to a_
remarkable streak of no new death sentences .. over six years long.
We see no reason to doubt it will hold up through 2020.
No one on death row. No death sentences in eight years.
It’s time to eliminate a punishment that’s no longer
operative.
After many years of frustration, we may be on the brink of
abolition.
One decisive factor: more conservative political leaders are
outspoken supporters of VADP, like former Attorney General Mark
Earley and former U.S. Congressman Tom Bliley.
In fact, many legislators struggle with the death penalty,
especially those who claim to be “pro-life”.
Torn by conscience, they support capital punishment bills
only after intense pressure from party leaders.
To gain the votes we need to pass the SMI Bill, then abolish
the death penalty outright, we need to build support in more
localities, particularly in rural and small-town districts.
Fresh funding has now created a HUGE opportunity to gain the
votes we need, but we can’t take full advantage of this
without your financial support.
Thanks to this year’s $25,000 grant from the Catholic Sisters
of Bon Secours and matching support from people like you, we were
able to hire Dale Brumfield as VADP Field Director in late May.
Dale has spent time in places where VADP has had little, if
any, outreach — Martinsville, Danville, Chatham, Moneta, Galax,
Elkton, Shenandoah, Winchester, and Lebanon.
He has been meeting with civic, business, religious, and
political leaders .. educating, enlisting, and mobilizing them to
support the SMI Bill and, ultimately, abolition.
We will help these new allies to meet with their Delegate or
Senator before the 2018 General Assembly session, because ..
. each of these legislators will vote on the SMI Bill and
eventually on abolition, too.
We need your support to continue matching the $25,000 grant
from Sisters of Bon Secours. I ask you for extra generosity today
because we need at least one more field organizer like Dale.
To hire and support this next person. we must increase our
budget — and our fundraising -- by one third in 2018.
When we are successful, we will hire another field organizer
to join Dale in bringing our message to key areas .. enough to tip
the scale on the SMI Bill and on abolition of the death penalty.
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As you decide on your VADP donation today, consider that need
for “One-Third More.” I hope you’ll decide to be extra generous
today given our short-term and long-term objectives.
With your generous support, we will come closer to our most
immediate goal: Pushing the state legislature to create a death
penalty exception for those with severe mental illness. This alone
would be a spectacular breakthrough for our cause. But also...
With enough funding to spread our grassroots action
statewide, we expect to be the first southern state to
abolish the death penalty altogether.
The SMI Bill, a critical first step, could be achieved this
year. And the ultimate goal is reachable in just two years ..
. @liminating the death penalty at a time when our death row
is empty and death sentencing at a long-term standstill.
Please, right now, complete the enclosed personalized form
and return it in the envelope provided. As you do, consider
adding one-third. Whatever amount first came to mind, add a
third. Whatever you gave last year, add a third.
Every amount you give will be tax-deductible. If you
itemize, be sure to mail your VADP donation by December 31 ..
generous plus one third .. using the envelope provided. (You can
also give with your credit or debit card at our secure web site:
www.vadp.org “Donate”. )
With thanks,
Michael Stone
Executive Director
P.S. My letter explains the urgency of the “Severe Mental Illness
Bill” so sharply demonstrated in William Morva’s execution in
July. When you make a generous donation to VADP today, you will
help us break the one-vote barrier to advancing this bill in the
coming months. This first step is within reach!
Yet I ask you to consider giving “One Third More” to help us
achieve abolition. Please keep this in mind as you complete and
return the enclosed form in the envelope provided, with as
generous a donation as makes sense to you right now.
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