VIRGINIANS FOR
f ALTERNATIVES
TO THE DEATH PENALTY
2018 Annual Report
Sr. Helen Prejean, prominent death penalty abolition advocate, with
VADP Field Director Dale Brumfield after her October 2018
presentation to the Bishop Keane Institute in Hampton.
Sr. Helen encouraged participants to support the work of VADP.
Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
P.O. Box 12222
Richmond, VA 23241
(434) 960-7779
office@vadp.org
www.vadp.org
The Irreversible Decline of the Death Penalty
Dear Abolition Colleague,
Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
plays an important role in the effort to eliminate
state-sponsored killing in this country. When we
add Virginia to the abolition roster, it will provide
an important boost to the national
movement. What we accomplish
benefits the rest of the country as
it also deals with this issue.
On the next page Michael Stone
reports how VADP performed
in 2018. I review the national
movement and point to the steady
progress we are making across the country.
One more state rejected capital punishment, bring-
ing the total to 20 that are death-penalty free. The
Washington State Supreme Court struck down that
state’s statute, finding that the death penalty was
arbitrary and racially discriminatory. Washington
was the eighth state to legislatively or judicially
abolish the death penalty since 2007. Ten more
states have not executed anyone in a decade.
While there were no executions in Virginia, there
were twenty-five inmates executed in eight states.
As The Washington Post said, “That was 25 too
many.” Forty-two people were sentenced to
death, up slightly from the prior year, but still at
an historically low level.
There have been fewer than 30 people executed
and fewer than 50 sentenced to death in each of
the last four years. Before this four-year period,
neither had happened in the last twenty-five years.
This is a decline of a third and a half since 2013.
Two death row inmates were exonerated in 2018,
bringing that total to 164 men and women found
innocent and released from death row since 1973.
There are now 2,738 people facing execution.
At least four percent of these are likely innocent,
according to a National Academy of Sciences
study. If that study is correct, there may be over
100 people on death row who are innocent of the
crime for which they were convicted.
Public opinion polls showed support for capital
punishment remained near historic lows. Fifty-six
percent of Americans said they were in favor of
the death penalty (down from 80 per cent in the
1990s). For the first time since 2001, when Gallup
began asking about death penalty fairness, fewer
than half of Americans (49 per cent) said that they
believe it is fairly applied.
Late last year six former state governors called on
California’s governor to grant clemency to the 740
inmates on that state’s death row in a New York
Times op-ed: “We were compelled to act because
we have come to believe the death penalty is an
expensive, error-prone and racist system, and also
because our morality and our sense of decency
demanded it.” During their time in office each
signed legislation halting executions.
Buoyed by your support and encouraged by the
progress we make each year, we are confident that
Virginia will soon become the first southern state
to abolish the death penalty.
— Paul O’Shea, VADP Vice-President
Field Director Dale Brumfield speaks to the
Chatham Rotary Club in March 2018.
2 VADP 2018 Annual Report
Accomplishments in 2018
Public Education
@ Presentations by the VADP Field Director:
— Three Chopt Ruritan Club
— Chatham Rotary Club
— Smith Mountain Lake Rotary Club
— Monticello Council of Republican Women
— Spotsylvania Republican Women's Club
— Rocktown Libertarians
Roanoke Valley Libertarians
— Liberty University Libertarians
— Patrick Henry Libertarians of Richmond
Chesterfield County Libertarians
Fairfax Young Democrats
— Bon Air Interfaith Forum
— Barter Theater Capital Punishment Forum
Event display tables staffed by the VADP Field
Director:
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|
°
— 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 at Lynchburg College
— Sr. Helen Prejean at Keane Institute in Hampton
Provided death penalty information on VADP
website with a monthly average of 747 visitors
°
Public Policy Advocacy
@ Worked with mental health organizations to
support legislation that would ban executions
of people with severe mental illness.
Assisted interfaith leaders in Chesterfield
County on a petition drive supporting
legislation to exempt people with severe
mental illness from the death penalty.
— Over 800 petition signatures delivered by these
faith leaders to Sen. Glen Sturtevant
°
Media
@ Article about severe mental illness and the
death penalty in the online publication, Blue
View.
ol
Washington Post letter to the editor published
about the Washington State Supreme Court
decision overturning the death penalty and
ending capital punishment in Virginia.
Background interviews on the Ronald Hamilton
capital murder trial in Prince William County
for the Richmond Times-Dispatch and The
Washington Post.
a2
a2
Assisted media outlets with a range of projects:
Virginia Mercury, the National Geographic
Channel, Oklahoma Watch, The Guardian
(London), The Sun (London), Reef TV
(London), and Agence France-Presse (Paris).
Organizing
@ Met with VADP supporters at five regional
meetings in northern Virginia, Richmond,
Norfolk, Charlottesville, and Roanoke in
both the spring and autumn.
Worked with the Young Americans for Liberty
President on a VADP “friend-raising” event in
northern Virginia that produced new donors
and identified potential board members.
. 2
VADP supporters meet with Executive Director
Michael Stone at the May 2018
VADP regional meeting in Norfolk.
VADP 2018 Annual Rep:
How VADP Funds Its Work
2017 2018 Income: $134,251
Income
Individuals $ 81,522.03 $ 89,129.17
Faith communities 10,247.00 15,122.16
Grants 70,000.00 30,000.00
TOTAL $ 161,769.03 | $ 134,251.33
Expenses
Staff $ 86,637.40 | $ 111,086.53
Travel 11,146.62 9,770.56
Telephone 747.00 896.40 Expenses: $165,548
Postage and printing 1,504.30 759.10
Fundraising 7,505.12 8,541.57
Technology 7,251.47 13,863.61
Contract services 20,447.50 16,876.35
Miscellaneous 2,868.59 3,754.31
TOTAL $ 138,108.00 | $ 165,548.43
Net Income
$ 23,661.03 | - $ 31,297.10
VADP Board of Directors
President
Virginia Podboy | At Large Members
Richmond RJ Bee Washington
Vice President Chris Braunlich — Alexandria
Paul O’Shea Nicholas Cote Alexandria
Fairfax Theresa Dunleavy Norfolk
Secretary Kristina Leslie Annandale
Mary Atwell Carissa Phillips Charlottesville
Roanoke Nancy Ritter Richmond
Treasurer Kent Willis Mathews VADP board members at a September
Adam Northup Gerald Zenlan Richmond 2018 meeting in Ashland.
Richmond
6 VADP 2018 Annual Report
