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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 that are far from the state’s urban centers — places like Martinsville,
Danville and Chatham, Floyd and Galax, Elkton and Shenandoah, Winchester, Lynchburg,
and southwestern Virginia.
During 2018 Dale gave public education programs on the death penalty to the following
groups: 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, Chesterfield County Libertarians, Fairfax Young Democrats,
Bon Air Interfaith Forum, & the Barter Theater Capital Punishment Forum.
In addition, Dale 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.
Dale 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.
Currently Dale 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 Repbulican Women’s
Clubs to sponsor & present the resolution at the conference.
Finance Office .
Phone- (631) 277-2660 (Ext. 11) * Fax: (631) 277-3274 * E-mail -eeckhardt@daughtersofwisdom.org
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VADP worked with the Virginia Catholic Conference, ACLU of Virginia, and mental health
organizations on a bill to ban the execution of people with severe mental illness
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!!!
Were there any unexpected results? How did you manage them?
Unfortunately, the SMI exemption bill was defeated in a subcommittee of the House of
Delegates Courts of Justice Committee. While disappointing, this was not unexpected. The
chair of this committee had made it abundantly clear that he opposed this reform legislation.
Last year he refused to allow the bill to even be considered.
This year he had to have a hearing since the bill had passed the state Senate. But he assigned it
to a subcommittee that has been dubbed by some as the “killing field’ for legislation that the
committee chairman opposed.
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.
Due: March 31, 2019
Signature:
Michael E Stone, VADP Executive Director
Finance Office .
Phone- (631) 277-2660 (Ext. 11) * Fax: (631) 277-3274 * E-mail -eeckhardt@daughtersofwisdom.org
