November 18, 2019
Dear <first name>,
Abolishing the death penalty in Virginia is now within
reach! The recent election resulted in a new Virginia General
Assembly that we believe will be far friendlier to our mission.
The change in the party control of the House of Delegates
will bring new leadership to the key Courts of Justice
Committee. That shift eliminates our most frustrating _
obstacle to reform and repeal of the death penalty.
We have long targeted 2020 for an all-out campaign for
repeal. Everything is falling into place.
We now need YOUR support to make Virginia the first
Southern state to abolish capital punishment. Please consider ..
For the past four years VADP has built support for death
penalty reform and abolition across party lines - engaging
Democrats, Republicans, Independents, and Libertarians alike.
Earlier this year, the Senate voted to pass a bill exempting
people with severe mental illness from capital punishment. This
was the first time that either chamber of the Virginia General
Assembly voted to Limit the death penalty in any way.
Now we have a legislature willing to seriously debate major
death penalty reform and abolition. And we have a Governor who
has pledged to sign an abolition bill. So we have a once ina
lifetime opportunity to make history in 2020 or 2021.
We could not have made this extraordinary progress without
generous donations from supporters like YOU.
Last year we lost a $40,000 ongoing grant, the source of
one quarter of our modest $165,000 budget .. not just for last
year but for the foreseeable future.
When we alerted supporters a year ago, you rallied with
more and larger donations, enough so we did not need to limit
activities or cut our staff of two in 2019 — Field Director Dale
Brumfield and me, the Executive Director.
Your support makes our upcoming communications efforts
possible. You will soon see a series of articles and op-eds
generated by our media releases and press conferences.
In these, legislators will hear the voices of murder victim
family members and Conservatives calling for abolition of the
death penalty. We are also about to release some striking data
that clearly demonstrates that most counties throughout the
entire Commonwealth abandoned capital punishment decades ago.
Thanks to your support, repeal is in reach. We are
grateful for your generous support for our work to end capital
punishment here in Virginia.
It would be tragic to let a funding shortfall slow us down
when victory is so close. So help us close our budget gap!..
We need many good people like you to together donate an_
additional $15,000 by the end of this year so we can push into
2020 without worrying about slashing budget or staff.
Your last contribution to VADP was <MRC>, given on <MRC
date>.
If you are able, I ask you to return an additional end of
year tax-deductible contribution to VADP using the form and
envelope provided. (You can also give with your credit or debit
card at our secure web site: www.vadp.org “Donate”. )
With urgent thanks,
Michael E. Stone
Executive Director
P.S. As I explained, we need each of our individual donors to
increase their contribution by an average of 25% by the end of
2019 to help us overcome the loss of that $40,000 legacy grant.
Please return your VADP donation today, using the enclosed form
and envelope.
