Death Penalty Abolition Strategy Summit
Kentucky Home of the Innocents, Louisville KY
June 14-15
| Purpose: Development of a plan of action, in light of recent events in Kentucky and nationwide,
to garner support for abolition in Kentucky by 2016. The external environment is changing
rapidly and new tools and allies should be developed so that we may thrive and get to abolition.
Outcome of Summit:
1. 4+-—Development of long-term (3 year) strategy toward abolition
2. 2-—Development of tools to use in the near-term to assess viability of abolition,
including assessment of
a. @-——Legislative and other key decision-makers
b. &-——Grassroots support
c. €—New Allies
| June 14 - 9am-5pm.
9-9:30am: Welcome, Introductions, and Review of Agenda, Purpose of Meeting, and
Overall Goal (Repeal)
9:30-9:50: Presentation on National Strategy Toward Abolition (Jeremy)
9:50- 10:15: | Q&A on National Strategy
10:15-10:30: Break
10:30 — 11:45: State of Play in Kentucky — Developments relative to the death penalty and
having an impact on getting to abolition
e New Data, New Voices: ABA Assessment Report; Results of KY and Nationwide
Polling (Sarah
¢ Building Support: Legislative Developments and KCADP activities (Pat)
e Inthe Ether: Judicial and Executive Branch developments relative to the death penalty
DPA - Ed
e Additional thoughts (All
ri New-Data_New-Veiees: ABA A + Report: Results of KY and
: Besai }
| 11:45-12:30 LUNCH
| Strategic Planning Session
12:30- 1:30: | Where We Are: Opportunities and Challenges:—
What are our opportunities, i.e., what/who works in our favor? (e.g., the national climate,
a strong legislative champion, the lethal injection moratorium, the ABA study etc)
What are the biggest challenges, i.e., what/who are our obstacles that must be overcome?
(e=e.g., CA’s Association, a victims’ family that is very vocally opposed to repeal,
timing of elections, etc )
Note: Sometimes obstacles can also be challenges, e.g., the economy puts pressure on the
DP system and may lead to fewer capital prosecutions but it also makes it harder to
fundraise.
1:30 - 2:15: How Do We Get There? Identifying Targets
Now that we’ve identified opportunities and challenges, who are the prime targets, i.e.,
who do we need to move in order to get to repeal? (targets are people who can give us
what we need; they can be lawmakers, community leaders, media sources, staff persons,
community leaders, etc.)
2:15-2:30: Break
2:30-4:00: Identifying Targets Cont’d: Review and prioritize list of targets; identify what we
know (and don’t know) about them
Assign priority rating to each target (low, medium, and high)
What do they need to hear?
Who do they need to hear it from? (other legislators, newspapers, community leaders
(grasstops), constituents (grassroots), donors, polls, etc. In other words this is where you
brainstorm who or what moves the target?)
When do they need to hear it? (this basic timeline info will be used later in the meeting
when the timeline will be completed)
Which targets need further analysis?
4:00 — 5:00 Determining Strategy for Repeal: Now that we have a clear sense of our targets,
and of opportunities and challenges, consider: what do we need to do to achieve repeal in KY?
Discuss broad strategy options
© Consider: Given what we know about the landscape of opportunities and
challenges, what is the best strategy at this time — a straight to repeal strategy or a
strategy that includes an interim legislative step as a means to achieve repeal?
= Ifa straight to repeal strategy, can/should other legislative or executive
focused objectives such as reforms or clemencies be leveraged to drive
repeal? If yes, how?
= If an interim legislative step to repeal strategy is required, e.g., advancing
a mental illness bill or a study as a step toward repeal, what is the interim
step and how specifically will it lead to repeal?
5:00-5:30pm: Review plan for tomorrow’s development of Plan of Action: Develop
prioritized list of objectives that are most urgent and using that list determine what kinds of tools
are needed in order to accomplish them.
| Friday, June 15: 9am - NOON
| 9am: —————Welcome Back.
9:15-10:30: Development of Plan of Action Cont’d.: Determining and Prioritizing
Objectives:
¢ Develop and then prioritize a list of strategic objectives, e.g., move Senate President to
support repeal, spark higher level engagement of the Council of Churches, expand
membership to 3,000 Kentuckians, engage twenty new murder victims’ family members,
etc
10:30-11:15 Capacity Assessment:
Planned outcome: Identification of needed tools to achieve short and long term objectives; in
some cases, development of these tools may be an outcome of this discussion.
¢ What do we already have in our campaign toolbox? (staff, research, reports, connections/
| relationships, draft epedsop-eds, state or national colleagues who are ready to help,
lobbyists, communications professionals, etc.
¢ What’s missing in terms of what we need to achieve our objectives?
¢ When do we need these by?
11:15-11:30: Break
11:30-Noon: Timeline, Responsibilities, and Roles: Identify Responsibilities and Roles of
meeting participants in achieving set out objectives and timelines for each; Identify next steps
following this meeting.
| Targets to Think About (non-exhaustive list):
Legislature
Exonerees
‘Victims
‘Law Enforcement
‘Commonwealth’s Attorneys
Religious organizations
Conservatives
‘Communities of Color
Former Judges, Legislators, Governors
Grassroot
Possible Tools that Need to be Developed:
.
¢ — Interview instrument for Legislators
e — Interview instrument for Commonwealth Attorneys
| —Development of outline for a good media plan
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