Eighth Amendment Project
Fall 2018 Requests for Proposals
Reduce Executions/Sentences: Litigation or advocacy strategies
to reduce use of the death penalty (new death sentences and/or
executions) or to “gum up the works.”
Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
August 9, 2018
PROPOSAL NARRATIVE
Summary Paragraph
a) By 2020 VADP will develop enough support for a legislative debate about
death penalty abolition. In the interim Republicans will introduce reform
bills recommended by the 2013 ABA Virginia Death Penalty Assessment
Team. 8AP funding will enable VADP to continue its work to reveal
flaws in the capital system and move legislators toward abolition.
We will support legislation to reverse the execution drug secrecy law
enacted under the previous Governor in 2016. Given that the final three
men on Virginia’s death row could receive execution dates in the next
eighteen months, this bill - if enacted - could render the Commonwealth
unable to carry out executions.
VADP will also continue its campaign to pass severe mental illness (SMI)
exclusion legislation in the state Senate. It is clear that our grasstops
educational work in key legislative districts is generating greater support
for death penalty reform bills.
Organization Background
b) History: On November 9, 1991, a steering committee of 13 committed
Cc.
citizens gathered and formed Virginians Against State Killing. In 1994
the organization’s name was changed to Virginians for Alternatives to
the Death Penalty (VADP).
In its early years VADP was an “outsider” group, focused on protest
against the frequent use of capital punishment. Then board chair Jon
Sheldon led a process that transformed VADP into an “insider”
organization with a more professional structure and expertise that has
earned bipartisan credibility with the media, legislators, and
administration officials.
Mission and Values: VADP is a citizens’ organization dedicated to
educating the public about alternatives to the death penalty. Our goal is
to end capital punishment in Virginia through education, organizing, and
advocacy. Our principal focus is developing supporters across the
Fall 2018 Grant Application Virginians for Alternatives to the
Death Penalty
political spectrum who align with us solely on the issue of capital
punishment.
Proposal
d) Description of Work:
Goal 1: Educate Virginians about the death penalty to build support for
reform & abolition.
Objective 1: Meet with local faith, business, and civic leaders in eight
key districts and identify conservative supporters for death
penalty reform legislation.
Thanks to a 2017 grant from the Bon Secours Sisters,
VADP hired a full-time Field Director in May 2017 to
work in eight key legislative districts. Thus far the Field
Director has spent multiple week each in each of these
eight target districts. He has met with over 150 local
leaders and identified new allies in each district willing
to work with VADP.
Our goal is to identify 5-10 leaders in each district to meet
with legislators after the November election and before
the 2019 General Assembly.
Objective 2: Give presentations on the death penalty, execution drug
secrecy, and the SMI exemption in each of the eight target
legislative districts
The VADP Field Director has already scheduled
educational sessions for Libertarian groups in
Rockingham & Chesterfield Counties and for a local
Republican Women's group in Spotsylvania County. He
has verbal commitments from four other Republican
Women’s groups that have not yet confirmed a speaking
date.
Objective 3: Present information on execution drug secrecy and the
SMI exemption at five regional VADP meetings
Five regional meetings will be held in Norfolk, Richmond,
Charlottesville, Roanoke, and northern Virginia between
October 22 and November 16, 2018. We will soon
schedule those meeting dates.
Objective 4: Circulate conservative sign-on letters in support of
execution drug secrecy repeal and open discovery in capital
cases during the appeals process.
Last year VADP got 18 conservatives and Libertarians to
endorse a sign-on letter that was written in collaboration
Fall 2018 Grant Application Virginians for Alternatives to the
Death Penalty
with the American Bar Association and Conservatives
Concerned About the Death Penalty.
VADP will create two similar letters this fall supporting
legislation to (a) repeal the execution drug secrecy law
enacted under Gov. Terry McAuliffe and (b) mandate
open discovery in capital cases during the appeals
process. We will collaborate with Conservatives
Concerned About the Death Penalty, Reprieve
International, and Virginia Capital Representation
Resource Center on the text of these sign-on letters.
We will approach signatories of the SMI exemption letter
that include former Attorneys General Ken Cuccinelli and
Mark Earley and former Congressman Tom Bliley.
Objective 5: Explore the possibility of getting op-eds by conservative
authors supporting the repeal of execution drug secrecy in
key newspapers.
Several Republican legislators have told VADP and its
partner organizations that op-eds written by conservative
leaders Shaun Kenney and Kevin Walsh in 2016 strongly
influenced them to vote against the Governor’s execution
drug secrecy proposal. We want to pursue this strategy
once again with a new effort in 2019 to repeal that
policy.
Our coalition will approach possible authors for execution
drug secrecy op-eds for major Virginia newspapers like
the Washington Post, Richmond Times-Dispatch, and the
Roanoke Times.
We will also consider newspapers that serve our target
legislative districts: Martinsville Bulletin, Danville Bee,
Winchester Star, Daily News-Record (Harrisonburg),
Staunton News Leader, News & Advance (Lynchburg),
and Bristol Herald Courier.
Goal 2: Convene VADP supporters to provide opportunities for education
and advocacy
Objective 1: Host a VADP 27th anniversary awards luncheon
VADP has scheduled this event for Saturday, October 20,
2018 at St. John Neumann Catholic Church in Reston.
Actor & activist Mike Farrell, President of Death Penalty
Focus, will give the keynote address. VADP will honor
Joe Giarratano who was sentenced to death in 1979 fora
crime he did not commit, Unable to prove his innocence
in court, Virginia Gov. Douglas Wilder granted Joe a
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Fall 2018 Grant Application Virginians for Alternatives to the
Death Penalty
conditional pardon commuting his sentence to life. Given
parole last year, Joe now works for the Innocence Project
at UVA.
Objective 2: Organize a series of five VADP regional meetings in the
fall of 2018 and spring of 2019
VADP Executive Director Michael Stone initiated regional
meetings in 2015. The autumn sessions provide
education on priorities for the following year’s legislative
session and encourage VADP supporters to be involved in
advocacy with their state Delegates and Senators.
The spring meetings present the results of the legislative
session and encourage VADP supporters to be involved in
death penalty educational work in their localities. These
regional meetings also help identify new leaders for local
action and potential board membership.
Goal 3: Provide opportunities for VADP supporters to be involved in
legislative advocacy
Objective 1: Convene regular meetings of the death penalty
legislative coalition partners
VADP convenes meetings with its traditional partners -
the Virginia Catholic Conference, ACLU of Virginia, and
capital defense attorneys - to agree on a common
legislative agenda, plan strategy, coordinate actions, and
evaluate its joint efforts. In the past three years, NAMI
Virginia and other mental health organizations have
worked with the coalition on the SMI exemption.
Objective 2: Organize visits with eight legislators in their home
districts with constituents from VADP as well as our
coalition partners
Given our experience in past legislative sessions, the
Virginia death penalty coalition identified 8 key
legislators for meetings in their home districts to discuss
death penalty reform bills. The VADP Field Director is
identifying local leaders to participate in these eight
meetings before the 2019 General Assembly.
These target legislators are: Delegates Les Adams
(Chatham), Ben Cline (Amherst), Chris Collins
(Winchester), and Todd Gilbert (Woodstock) as well as
Senators Ben Chafin (Lebanon), Mark Peake
(Lynchburg), Bill Stanley (Moneta), and Glen Sturtevant
(Richmond).
Fall 2018 Grant Application Virginians for Alternatives to the
Death Penalty
Objective 3: Send action alerts to VADP supporters during the General
Assembly session and in response to execution dates.
During the 2019 session VADP will send e-mail action
alerts on execution drug secrecy repeal legislation,
discover in capital cases during the appeals process, the
SMI exemption bill, and any pro-death penalty legislation
at key times in the legislative process. The VADP
database has over 2,000 supporters with 1,867 e-mail
addresses.
Our EveryAction database enables VADP to send e-mail
blasts to all Virginia supporters or to individuals in
specific legislative districts. VADP’s web site hosts
action alerts that generate customizable messages to
Virginia legislators.
e) Local Opportunities: Several important trends in Virginia present
opportunities for VADP and its partner organizations to make significant
progress toward abolition in coming years.
First, there have been no death sentences in Virginia since September
2011. There have been nearly 2,100 murders since then and no jury has
returned a death sentence, not even for John Ragin and Jesse Mathews
who were convicted of multiple highly publicized crimes. In the summer
2017 Russell Brown III received a life sentence for killing a state trooper.
Second, death penalty supporters have ceased efforts to expand the
death penalty after VADP and its partners successfully blocked proposals
to repeal the “triggerman rule” in four consecutive legislative sessions.
No expansion legislation has been introduced in five years.
Third, votes in the last three legislative sessions on the electric chair and
execution drug secrecy measures revealed a core group of Republican
legislators who have consistently voted against death penalty bills. A
much larger group of Republican Delegates and Senators have mixed
voting records on similar execution method bills. Individual meetings
with these legislators by VADP and its partner organizations have shown
deep ambivalence about the death penalty with serious concern
expressed about executing an innocent person.
Fourth, Republican leaders are increasingly willing to express public
opposition to the state’s capital punishment system. Last year eighteen
prominent conservatives and Libertarians supported legislation to
exempt people with severe mental illness from the death penalty -
including two former Republican Attorney Generals, a former Executive
Director of the Republican Party of Virginia, and a former member of
Congress. VADP had planned to launch a Virginia chapter of
Fall 2018 Grant Application Virginians for Alternatives to the
Death Penalty
Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty in May 2018, but had
to delay those plans due to CCADP staff turnover.
Finally, Republican Del Greg Habeeb recently announced that he is
resigning his seat at the end of August. Given that Republican narrowly
control the House of Delegates by a 51-49 margin, this special election
could deadlock the House, force a power-sharing agreement, and result
in a new chair for the House Courts of Justice Committee. If that
happens, VADP and its partners will have a strong opportunity to pass
both the execution drug secrecy repeal and SMI exemption bills.
f) Implementation: The results of the 2018 legislative session illustrate
the opportunities and challenges as well as the political landscape for the
abolition movement in Virginia.
i. Legislation:
This was the third year of our coalition’s campaign to pass SMI
exclusion legislation.
Delegate Jay Leftwich - a conservative Republican from Chesapeake -
again agreed to be the House patron of the SMI bill. He personally
lobbied members of the House Criminal Law Subcommittee, identified
subcommittee members on the fence about the bill, and asked the
coalition to organize grassroots support in their legislative districts.
Last year Del. David Albo, chair of the House Courts of Justice
Committee, supported the bill. Despite his endorsement, we fell just
one vote short in the Criminal Law Subcommittee.
Given the significant gain in House Democratic seats from the
November 2017 election, we were cautiously optimistic that we could
pass the SMI exemption in the House. We had not anticipated the
raw antipathy of the new Courts of Justice Committee chairman, Del.
Rob Bell. In the 2018 legislative session, Del. Bell refused to allow the
SMI exemption to be heard. He even told a NAMI Virginia lobbyist
that the bill would not go anywhere as long as he was committee
chair.
VADP and its partners were unsuccessful in recruiting a Republican to
sponsor the SMI bill in the Senate. The grasstops education work of
the VADP Field Director had resulted in constituent support for the
SMI exemption in several Republican Senate districts. We thought we
would fall one vote short in the Senate Courts of Justice Committee.
We made a strong presentation on behalf of the SMI exemption to the
Courts of Justice Committee. But it was referred to the Crime
Commission for study by the Senate Majority Leader, a positive sign.
In the prior year the bill was defeated on a party-line vote in
committee.
Fall 2018 Grant Application Virginians for Alternatives to the
Death Penalty
ii.
Given the hostility of committee chair Del. Bell, VADP and its partners
have decided not to run the SMI exemption in the House in 2019.
This assessment may change if Democrats win the vacated seat of
Republican Del. Greg Habeeb this fall and a power-sharing
arrangement produces new leadership in the House Courts of Justice
Committee.
Instead the coalition will focus its SMI exemption efforts in the Senate
where we may have a chance to pass the bill. Two Republican
Senators, Glen Sturtevant (Richmond) and Bill Stanley (Moneta), have
expressed a willingness to consider being the bill’s patron in the next
session.
In the House, we will work with a bipartisan group of open-
government legislators to repeal the execution drug secrecy law
enacted in 2016. We will also introduce a bill supported by capital
defense attorneys that would mandate open discovery in capital cases
during the appeals process. We are currently seeking a Republican
patron for these two legislative measures.
Executions in 2019:
The final three men on Virginia’s death row are near the end of their
mandatory appeals process. Anthony Juniper (Norfolk) won his U.S.
Court of Appeals hearing last fall. His case was remanded to District
Court for a hearing on a Brady violation (hidden witness statement)
that could result in a new trial. This case is the “poster child” for the
proposed bill to mandate open discovery during the appeals process of
all capital convictions.
Thomas Porter (Norfolk) is still awaiting a decision from the Fourth
Circuit Court on his case. If his appeal is denied, the Attorney
General can seek an execution date. It is possible that this could take
place as early as November.
Mark Lawlor (Fairfax) will have his Fourth Circuit Court appeal heard
in the fall. If the decision goes against him, he could receive an
execution date in the winter of 2019.
Given the very real threat of executions, VADP and its partners will
work to enact legislation to reverse the execution drug secrecy law
enacted in 2016. If successful, the Commonwealth would likely have
no constitutional method to carry out death sentences.
VADP will continue to work with attorneys from the Virginia Capital
Representation Resource Center on clemency campaigns for anyone
given an execution date. In 2017, this collaboration resulted in Gov.
Terry McAuliffe reducing the death sentences of Ivan Teleguz and
William Burns to life in prison without parole.
Fall 2018 Grant Application
Death Penalty
g) Benchmarks: Below are the primary benchmarks that VADP will use to
evaluate the progress of the work on this grant.
Virginians for Alternatives to the
Benchmark
Desired Outcome
Timing
Education
Meet local faith, business, and
civic leaders in eight key
legislative districts
August to
December 2018
Give talks on the DP and SMI
exemption in the eight target
districts
September to
December 2018
Arrange the publication of
conservative op-eds supporting
repeal of execution drug
secrecy in major newspapers
November &
December 2018
Legislation
Identify a Republican patron for
the Senate SMI bill as well as
House bills on execution drug
secrecy & open discovery
during capital appeals
November 2018
Organize constituent meetings
with legislators in eight target
districts
November 2018
to January 2019
Circulate conservative sign-on
letters in support of execution
drug secrecy repeal and open
discovery during capital case
appeals
September to
December 2018
Work on execution drug secrecy
repeal, open discovery in
capital cases, & SMI
exemption in House and
Senate Courts of Justice
Committees
January to March
2019
Relationships
Meet with VADP supporters at
five regional meetings
Fall 2018 &
Spring 2019
Recruit 20 new supporters each
month via personal meetings,
social media, web site, and
educational programs
Ongoing
Fall 2018 Grant Application Virginians for Alternatives to the
Death Penalty
h)
Identify at least five new Ongoing
“unlikely” allies to work with
VADP
Fundraising Meet individually with at least At least one each
12 potential major donors month
Organize at least four “friend- Two in the fall &
raising” events hosted by two in the spring
VADP supporters
Encourage at least three new Meet at least
faith communities to provide one faith
financial support to VADP community
leader each
month
VADP’s board of directors will evaluate these benchmarks at board
meetings. Programmatic adjustments will be made to keep the
organization on track with these goals.
National Strategy: VADP seeks to move Virginia further toward de
facto abolition, as measured by the three indicators outlined in the
national abolition strategy:
* No executions in the last 10 years (Virginia has 15, but only 4 in the
past three years);
“ No more than 15 new death sentences in the last 10 years (Virginia
has issued 3 death sentences in that time, but none in nearly seven
years); and
“> Fewer than 15 people on death row (Virginia currently has only 3 on
death row).
VADP coordinates its work with the Eighth Amendment Project, the
major national organization devoted to death penalty abolition. We
hosted Henderson Hill, Executive Director, to give the keynote address
at our 25th anniversary awards luncheon in 2016. Currently, we invite
Laura Porter & Stefanie Faucher to participate in our Virginia legislative
coalition meetings via conference call.
VADP and its partners had worked closely with the Serious Mental
Illness Initiative of the American Bar Association. Aurélie Tabuteau
Mangels (ABA Mental Illness Initiative Fellow) and Misty Thomas
(Director of the ABA Death Penalty Due Process Review Project) played
key roles in the Virginia SMI campaign. They participated in all of our
legislative coalition meetings and provided invaluable assistance in
drafting SMI op-eds and other public statements on the issue.
VADP has been working more in the past year with Conservatives
Concerned About the Death Penalty (CCATDP). Field Director Dale
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Fall 2018 Grant Application Virginians for Alternatives to the
Death Penalty
Brumfield has participated in the regular conference calls of
conservative state organizers. He also helped staff CCATDP tables at
CPAC in February and at a Young Americans for Liberty conference in
July. Contacts made at these events have resulted in multiple speaking
invitations to conservative groups.
Our state coalition includes VADP, the Virginia Catholic Conference,
ACLU of Virginia, capital defense attorneys, and NAMI Virginia. Leaders
from other mental health organizations also participate in our work on
the SMI bill - Mental Health America of Virginia, National Association of
Social Workers, DisAbility Law Center, and Virginia Counselors
Association.
Fundraising: VADP participated in the first cohort of the Tides
Foundation 2016 Capacity Building Grant Program, and will continued in
its program in 2017 and 2018. The Suddes Group provided coaching as
well as a training session for VADP board members. The VADP Executive
Director participated in national fundraising training in September 2017.
For many years VADP has sent a fundraising appeal to its supporters
twice each year. The proceeds have generated most individual giving to
the organization.
For the past three years VADP has mailed a copy of our annual report to
major donors. This was intended as a “thank you” to our best
supporters, and we included a donation envelope. This “soft ask”
generated $3,900 in donations in 2016, $2,750 in 2017, and $1,072 in
2018.
In the past three years VADP has held nine “friend-raisers” in Herndon,
Richmond, Roanoke, Washington (DC), Norfolk, Charlottesville, and
Arlington. Three of these were held in the first half of 2018. These
events have not generated significant funds, except for one which
resulted in a first-time $5,000 donation. We have signed up 40-45 new
people with the capacity to be major donors. Five new board members
were identified at these events.
Plans for other “friend-raisers” are underway for Charlottesville (October
1st), northern Virginia, and Richmond, but dates for the latter two have
not yet been scheduled.
Contributions from Virginia’s faith community to VADP so far this year
has already exceeded the total that we received from this source in 2017.
Finally, the VADP Treasurer challenged each of our 13 board members to
develop a plan to raise $1,000 in new funding by the ne of the 2018 year
and to share it at our September board meeting. I know that at least six
of these board members have started working on their fundraising plans.
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Fall 2018 Grant Application Virginians for Alternatives to the
Death Penalty
j) Likelihood of Success: VADP has strong legislative coalition partners
in the Virginia Catholic Conference, ACLU of Virginia, and NAMI
Virginia. In addition, we have beneficial relationships with national
partners as well as Virginia’s death penalty defense attorneys and
litigators.
We have a superb Republican champion in the House of Delegates for
the SMI bill (Del. Jay Leftwich). We have also identified several potential
Republican Senate patrons. Many Democrats in the House and Senate
are opposed to the death penalty, and we have excellent champions in
Del. Marcus Simon, Del. Mike Mullen, and Sen. Scott Surovell. We also
have a strong relationship with the Black Caucus.
Our coalition’s influence in the General Assembly has grown steadily.
We are well positioned to become even more effective as we join with a
growing number of Republican allies in the coming years.
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