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The Daughters of Wisdom Mission Grant
Mid Term Report from Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
Please provide us with this information for the report and include any additional
supporting document such as pictures, etc.
How did you satisfy the criteria that you established for the project?
Please be specific and use measurable terms.
Our project goal was to build support from religious, civic, and business leaders in the districts of key
Delegates and Senators on Courts of Justice Committees for death penalty reform and abolition.
VADP Field Director Dale Brumfield continued to meet with local leaders in target
legislative districts. The focus of his work shifted in the past six months from rural and
small towns in western and southern Virginia to Tidewater and northern Virginia.
During 2019 the Field Director spoke to 27 public education events including:
— Clifton Republican Women and Chesterfield & Rockingham County Libertarians
— Seven local Democratic Party groups in Northern Virginia and Tidewater
— Greenspring and Westminster at Lake Ridge retirement communities in northern VA
— Virginia Beach Kiwanis Club
— Three regional prison ministry summits put on by the Catholic Diocese of Richmond
In addition, Dale had a VADP display table at the conferences of the Virginia Community
Criminal Justice Association and the Virginia Federation of Republican Women.
During 2019 he got 191 new people to join VADP.
VADP worked with mental health organizations on a bill to ban the execution of people with severe
mental illness. VADP also partnered with the Virginia Catholic Conference and ACLU of Virginia
on legislation to abolish capital punishment.
In January 2020 the state Senate passed a bill to exempt people with severe mental illness
(SMI) from the death penalty by overwhelming bipartisan 32-7 margin.
In the floor debate, Senator Bill Stanley (R - Moneta) said: “We do not have the power our
Creator has to take life. We do not have the ability, morally, legally or otherwise.” He
promised to vote for abolition, the first time any Republican state legislator voiced public
pposition to capital punish f
Thanks to Senator Stanley's powerful floor speech, five Republicans who opposed the SMI
exemption last year changed their vote and supported the 2020 bill. In fact, eleven of the
Senate's nineteen Republicans voted for this limit on Virginia's death penalty.
Finance Office .
Phone- (631) 277-2660 (Ext. 11) * Fax: (631) 277-3274 * E-mail -eeckhardt@daughtersofwisdom.org
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Were there any unexpected results? How did you manage them?
Despite vigorous advocacy work, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to defer consideration
of the death penalty abolition bill until the 2021 legislative session.
Leadership of the House Courts of Justice Committee then decided to defer both the SMI
exemption and death penalty abolition bills. Neither was granted a hearing.
Despite these disappointments, VADP learned much about the positions of key Senators. It
appears there is sufficient support in both legislative chambers for ending capital punishment.
Privately, we have been assured by leaders in the Senate and House of Delegates that death
penalty abolition will be debated and passed in 2021.
Other than this disappointing outcome, our grassroots education work has gone even better than
we had hoped. Our Field Director’s message of death penalty reform and abolition has had a
warm welcome at most of his public presentations and individual meetings across the state.
Please submit proof of disbursement of Grant funds.
See attached spreadsheet of grant disbursements.
Signature:
Due: March 31, 2020
Michael E Stone, VADP Executive Director
Finance Office .
Phone- (631) 277-2660 (Ext. 11) * Fax: (631) 277-3274 * E-mail -eeckhardt@daughtersofwisdom.org
