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
Challenge and Opportunity During 2018
Dear VADP Supporters,
As 2019 begins, those of us in the death penalty
abolition movement look ahead with optimism
and hope. We managed to overcome a significant
challenge in 2018 and take advantage of new
educational opportunities.
Our challenge was a serious
financial one. One major
funder had provided up to
$40,000 in grants to VADP
over four consecutive years.
Last fall we learned that
this organization could
not provide funding in 2018.
That decision left us with a huge $40,000 shortfall
in our modest $165,548 budget. In response,
VADP board members and staff redoubled efforts
to expand membership, develop financial support
from new donors, and seek new grant funds.
At the end of the year we turned to you and other
supporters for help. Your heart warming response
generated $35,612, and we began 2019 with
enough funds to meet our basic budget needs.
Opportunities
Fortunately, another year passed without a death
sentence in Virginia. This record was in jeopardy
due to a capital murder trial in Prince William
County with a prosecutor who has put more men
on death row in Virginia than anyone since 1976.
Despite the murder of his spouse and a police
officer, a jury rejected death for Ronald Hamilton
and sentenced him to life in prison without parole.
It has now been over seven years since a Virginia
jury voted for death. In November, the U.S.
Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the
most recent Virginia death sentence.
That left two men on death row. Each of their
death sentences could be overturned in 2019.
By the end of this year Virginia’s death row could
be empty without another execution taking place.
In 2018 VADP Field Director Dale Brumfield
took advantage of important opportunities to
educate more Virginians about the death penalty.
Dale met with hundreds of faith, social service,
business, media, and political leaders in Danville,
Martinsville, Lynchburg, Floyd, Winchester, and
other small Virginia towns. He spoke to Rotary
Clubs, Ruritan Groups, and other audiences of
Democrats, Libertarians, and Republicans.
One example: Dale staffed a VADP display table
at the convention of the Virginia Federation of
Republican Women. As a result, he was invited to
speak about our cause to five local women’s clubs.
He met a newly elected Republican prosecutor
who supports our work. Dale even won the
backing of a former Circuit Court Judge who
had sentenced an individual to death in Virginia.
It truly has been a successful, even remarkable
year for VADP, and we could not have done it
without your support.
— Michael Stone, VADP Executive Director
VADP Field Director Dale Brumfield staffed
an information table at the May 2018 convention
of the Virginia Federation of Republican Women.
3 VADP 2018 Annual Report
Why We Contribute to VADP
Chris Braunlich, Alexandria
I’m a conservative with a healthy skepticism about
government and an even healthier skepticism
about government mistakes. Y
When mistakes are made,
they can be reversed and
compensation offered —
except in the case of the
death penalty.
With the death penalty,
the mistake is final and
irreversible, and an innocent
life is lost. That is reason
enough to end the death penalty.
Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty is
the only broad-based coalition — with members
on the political Right and the political Left —
actively working to restrict and ultimately end
use of the death penalty in Virginia. It deserves
the support of every thinking Virginian.
Meghan Shapiro, Alexandria
The death penalty is an exorbitant expense of
public money, energy, and power. And for what?
Where one daughter has lost a
father, the death penalty only
makes it two.
It offends human dignity by
dehumanizing defendants,
enticing officials to lie and hide
information, and obscuring the
losses of victims’ families with
years-long legal proceedings
that don’t honor their loved ones.
I support VADP because it gives voice to reasoned
death penalty opposition in Virginia, where men
and women have been executed faster and with
fewer procedural protections than other states.
We can do better, and VADP is making it happen.
Carissa Phillips, Charlottesville
I grew up learning to follow Jesus and believed
that every human life was eternally precious. Only
recently did I see how inconsistently our society
ascribed value to people.
I was changed when I sat and listened to murder
victims’ family members tell their stories of pain
and loss. Rather than seek vengeance, they found
healing by advocating for the life of the person
who killed their loved one. This was more radical
forgiveness than I had ever seen.
Tread Jesus’ story with new
eyes, seeing that he was on
death row and executed by
the State. I believe that the
same violent nature which
killed Jesus kills the people
he taught us to love.
I see the evolution of lynching to executions in the
South and the judicial systems created to uphold
white supremacy. Who is executed and who is
exonerated uncovers both our racial prejudice and
our desire for vengeance above truth.
I want to end this cycle of violence shown by the
death penalty, and that’s why I support VADP.
Beverly Monroe, Williamsburg
lam glad that more people are
donating to VADP’s work. I
wish that I could do more.
But that's one of the losses that
goes with having your life
wiped out by a wrongful
conviction — the inability to
provide financial support to
the causes that matter most.
T appreciate VADP’s work and dedication!
NOTE: Beverly lost ten years of her life for a
suicide that was falsely claimed to be a murder.
VADP 2018 Annual Rep: 4
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:
|
|
°
— 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
