Death Penalty Mobilization Fund State Strategies
Kentucky Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
2. Narrative
Goal: In December 2006 public polling research by the University of Kentucky determined that
67% of Kentuckians prefer prison sentences rather than executions in cases of aggravated
murder. In January 2008, the Board of Directors of the Kentucky Coalition to Abolish the Death
Penalty (KCADP) decided to direct more attention to this group of Kentuckians to engage them
the effort to persuade the Governor and the General Assembly to take actions that limit the use of
the death penalty, and ultimately to abolish it entirely. The Board approved a three-year plan,
called it the Next Big Step Campaign, and established a budget of $240,000 to cover the cost of
implementing and carrying it out.
Program & Activities:
KCADP began fundraising for NBS in April 2008 and by December 2008 had solicited
contributions and pledges of $160,000 to be received over a three-year period. The Board
approved the hiring of a full time person in January 2009 as the Director of Public Education,
Advocacy and Outreach.
Since January 2009, the Coalition has taken a multifaceted approach to achieving the project
goal. The cornerstone of this effort is organizing a diverse, statewide chorus of voices of those
who prefer a penal option other than the death penalty for a variety of reasons: moral, ethical,
religious, practical, financial and others related to public policy.
Since January the staff has been able to establish an officially recognized volunteer program at
two Kentucky law schools; started a project — still in process — to prepare an amicus brief for
filing with the Kentucky Supreme Court, thereby publishing current arguments against
executions; recruited several parties to make a formal request of the governor to stop executions
during a period when public defenders' budgets are stressed. These parties included the author of
Kentucky's penal code, a former Kentucky Supreme Court Justice, who supports the death
penalty, and a former Commonwealth Attorney from the district which has produced the highest
number of Kentucky’s death sentences. In addition, a volunteer has helped establish a state-of-
the-art online communications strategy with establishment of a YouTube channel, KCADP email
domain, Facebook Fan Page, Twitter account and related social media and an upgraded email
management service.
A student funded by Chase Law School of Northern Kentucky University completed a summer
internship, reaching out to college campuses and helping to organize a Journey of Hope event
scheduled for November. Throughout these eight months staff made or arranged for
presentations at numerous high schools, colleges, and faith communities. At each of these events
names of new supporters were collected and entered into the database and uploaded to the new
email management service.
In June 2009 the Board approved a strategic plan with four goals designed to build capacity of by
increasing grassroots support. These include: 1) Develop a system to identify and understand
what is occurring and has occurred in Kentucky and elsewhere, and use this system to our
advantage. 2) Develop and implement a system to garner volunteer and financial resources. 3)
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Create and implement a marketing and education campaign to engage supporters, educate the
undecided, influence public opinion, and counter myths. 4) Develop a statewide system to
organize supporters and move them to action.
Funding for the remainder of 2009 is secure and the various tasks associated with these goals
will continue. For the remainder of 2009 staff will carry out the first strategic goal by
* collecting data and facts about efforts in other states to abolish the death penalty,
e analyzing this material, and
¢ review the strategic plan with the Board to determine any necessary changes.
KCADP has applied for funding to conduct a public opinion poll this fall. If approved, results
will be available in December. The results will tell us if the trend in Kentucky against the use of
the death penalty has held since the last polling and can be used to craft messaging for the future.
In January and February of 2010 staff will consult with Coalition partners and others with a
vested interest in the outcomes about how best to use this polling data in campaign efforts.
The second strategic goal focuses on building sufficient resources — more volunteers, more active
individual and organizational members, and additional income — to carry out a successful
campaign. With these resources KCADP can pay ongoing operating expenses, develop new
programs and materials, and have in place an effective mobilization effort.
The strategic plan includes several strategies to increase the number of volunteers by providing a
diversity of volunteer opportunities to engage in campaign efforts:
e A speakers bureau of persons trained to address various aspects of the abolition
movement and describe their personal reasons for opposing the death penalty;
¢ Volunteers trained to promote the Campaign’s efforts at various public events: recruiting
new members, and asking attendees to sign postcards to send the Governor and their
legislators, with postage paid by KCADP;
e Faculty and student volunteers to organize their peers in taking action against the use of
the death penalty in Kentucky; and
e Task forces of volunteers chaired by Board members to work on specific strategies
established in the strategic plan.
The third strategic goal focuses on developing effective marketing and educational strategies to
engage supporters, educate the undecided, influence public opinion, and counter myths.
By the end of 2009 staff and Board will have a plan in place to tailor the message to particular
audiences, focusing on specific themes matched with appropriate messengers. Materials
developed as a result will be used in 2010 by volunteers and staff when making presentations to
potential supporters of KCADP.
In 2009 KCADP started the Case Against the Death Penalty video project, posting brief videos
of individuals expressing opposition to the death penalty on a YouTube channel; this project will
continue through December 2010.
To bring the newly tailored message to the broadest number of people, KCADP will continue
using speakers in traditional settings. Distribution of its message will expand to include the use
of the Internet, through various networking websites, enhanced email programs, blogs and other
electronic means. This offers an added opportunity to invite people to participate in KCADP’s
efforts to abolish the death penalty.
By the end of 2009 staff and Board will identify new groups to approach and invite their
membership to support KCADP’s efforts, e.g., organizations representing the medical
community, those serving in the field of law enforcement, and others. Organizing on campuses
will continue. Between April and November 2010 KCADP plans to bring the Innocence Project
to Kentucky for eight presentations of a day or two each.
The final strategic goal focuses on mobilization efforts to build a pool of supporters actively
engaged in the campaign
To achieve this goal KCADP will enhance it grassroots and other outreach efforts in several
ways throughout 2010:
e Adapt the Pledge 3 Mobilization program to develop grassroots leaders;
* Use of the Minute for Mission approach in faith communities where volunteers take
about15 minutes during regular church/temple/mosque services to speak about the death
penalty; and
¢ Reach out to “grasstop” leaders in each Senate legislative district, each of which includes
two or more House districts.
Building Blocks and Timeline
Pledge 3 Mobilization Model: Pledge 3 Mobilization is a program developed by a local leader,
Jan Arnow, who is willing to donate her training services. Originally used in a political
campaign, training materials will be adapted for use in KCADP’s efforts to develop grassroots
actions in the Next Big Step Campaign. A total of 50 persons, 10 in each of 5 locations, will be
trained. These 50 persons recruit an additional 3 persons each, who then recruit an additional 450
persons. In all, KCADP expects to develop a trained group of 600 committed persons in key
Kentucky areas to carry out activities that further the work of KCADP. These five trainings
would be spread over the calendar year. If successful, this could be a model of organizing for use
in other communities.
Minute for Mission: Trained volunteers, coordinated by staff and Board member Dawn Jenkins,
will present a program that includes information on Kentucky’s use of the death penalty, the
denomination’s official teaching and an invitation to become active in opposing the death
penalty. KCADP will offer a minimum of two presentations per month throughout the grant
period, January — December 2010. At each event KCADP will ask participants to fill out a form
expressing intent to help in the Campaign and sign postcards for delivery to their respective State
Representative and State Senator, as well as the Governor asking that they support legislation to
limit and/or abolish the death penalty (with postage paid by KCADP). This should produce 500 —
1000 new members and 3000 — 6000 postcards.
Exhibitions at Popular Kentucky Events: Public events like a state fair, with high attendance
rates, provide an opportunity to talk to people from all over the state and recruit them to act.
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KCADP will identify a minimum of ten popular events with high attendance rates. Trained
volunteers will staff a booth to distribute information about Kentucky’s death penalty, invite
persons to add their names to our membership list and sign postcards for delivery to their State
Representatives and State Senators (with postage paid by KCADP). When appropriate,
volunteers will also work the crowds soliciting membership and action. These events will be
scheduled between April and October, 2010. KCADP expects to sign up 2000 — 3000 new
members and send 5000 — 7000 postcards to elected officials.
Witness to Innocence: In each of the months between April and November of 2010 KCADP
plans to bring a person who was exonerated and freed from death row to spend one to two days
each in different Kentucky communities speaking with students, members of faith communities,
members of civic organizations, and the media. KCADP will invite local elected officials to
these presentations. Newspapers, radio and TV stations will be pressed to cover these
appearances. Coverage by at least one media outlet will be obtained. KCADP subscribes to the
Public News Service which is almost certain to cover these events. KCADP hopes to place 6 of
the 8 speakers on a radio talk show in two major markets. Volunteers will be present at each
event to collect names of new members and ask these members to sign the postcards to State
Representatives and Senators (with postage paid by KCADP).
External Assessment: The political landscape in Kentucky is one that talks tough on capital
punishment, but seldom uses it. There have been three executions in 47 years and two of those
dropped their appeals and asked to be executed. The last study on the death penalty completed in
1966 recommended abolition and while not adopted by the General Assembly, there were no
executions for the next 31 years. Prosecutors seldom use the death penalty, juries don't seem to
like it and public officials seldom carry it out. While there is insufficient legislative support for
either outright repeal or an official moratorium on executions, this appears to be a ripe moment
to send the death penalty into remission where it once comfortably resided for 35 years (1963-
1997) and save five lives in the process.
The immediate political climate in Kentucky involves a sitting governor running for re-election
and an incumbent attorney general running for the U. S. Senate. Under Kentucky law, the
attorney general’s job is to request that the governor sign death warrants when warranted by law.
The governor schedules executions when requested by the attorney general unless clemency is
granted. Candidates for high office may believe executions are in the public and political interest.
This is especially urgent in a legal/political climate where as many as five death row inmates are
reaching the end of their appeals road.
At the same time, there is a groundswell in grassroots opposition to the death penalty. Recent
focus on issues such as innocence, the cost of death penalty cases to states in financial crisis, and
fairness present an important opportunity to address death penalty issues, correct misinformation,
and emphasize alternatives; generating support for abolition in Kentucky.
A chorus of Kentucky voices expressing an emerging consensus in Kentucky for punishment
other than death when available would be an important pillar of KCADP’s amicus brief now in.
It would also be used in a clemency petition asking the governor to recognize Kentucky’s new
standard of decency and grant an alternative to the death sentence when it is clear that the
penological interest of the state can be accomplished by other reasonable means.
The legislative body of 100 House members and 38 Senators is not yet ready to abolish the death
penalty. But this body did pass bills that ended it for mentally retarded persons in 1990 and a
Racial Justice Act in 1998. It considered abolishing the death penalty for juveniles, but the U.S.
Supreme Court made the matter moot. For more than 20 years, it has not passed legislation to
expand its use although bills were introduced to do so on many occasions, and adopted lethal
injection as a more humane means to kill.
A bill to preclude the execution of severely mentally ill persons has been pre-filed and past
history indicates it has a better than 75% chance of passage in 2010 or 2011.
Also, KCADP is aware that the American Bar Association has approved and funded an
assessment of Kentucky’s death penalty system by a team of experts and should be reporting its
findings at the end of 2010.
Internal Assessment: KCADP is a membership organization of individuals and other
organizations. Our mailing list contains just fewer than 800 members, nearly 200 of whom send
in dues annually. KCADP lists nearly 40 supporting organizations who have formally committed
to support the organization. Of these the most active are the Kentucky Council of Churches, the
ACLU of Kentucky, the Fellowship of Reconciliation, Murder Victims Families for
Reconciliation, the Quaker Fellowship, the Catholic Conference of Kentucky. During the Next
Big Step Campaign, KCADP plans to strengthen its relationship with member organizations.
KCADP is stronger now than in the past as evidenced by the willingness of all Board members
to commit financially to the organization; by the contributions and pledges of $160,000 in a short
amount of time which includes grants from various religious orders and others. With the addition
of a full time staff person, time dedicated to this effort has significantly multiplied. Events
scheduled, new members added, and the willingness of others to participate in helping us
develop a strategic plan all indicate that abolition of the death penalty is anew priority for many.
The strategic plan recently adopted by the Board seeks to do a lot in a short amount of time.
Added staff will be needed to carry it out in a timely fashion.
KCADP incorporated in 1988. It has a Board that meets quarterly and at various times has had
paid staff. Its legislative achievements include stopping the passage of bills that expand the use
of the death penalty, and ending it for mentally retarded persons in 1990. The Kentucky Racial
Justice Act became law in 1998.
KCADP board and other community members recently drafted the new strategic plan, the
director of education and advocacy is carrying out the activities described above, the video
productions are being added to YouTube weekly, a regular emailing is going to a list of nearly
400 persons, with names added as we receive them, keeping them informed about Kentucky and
national developments.
KCADP is working with the National Alliance on Mental Illness and NAMI-KY, Murder
Victims Families for Human Rights, and the Kentucky Mental Health Coalition and others to
bring about passage of legislation to end the death penalty for severely mentally ill patients.
In January 2010 the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty is meeting in Louisville
Kentucky. KCADP is using this meeting to urge its current members to attend and bring others
with them. This is a shot in the arm for working on legislation (the KY General Assembly is in
session from January to mid-April of 2010) and to build up the Coalition.
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Relationship to other criminal justice reform efforts: Engaging students studying law to take
a closer look at the system educates them in an experiential way not possible in a classroom. One
result might be their determination to fix a system and not let remain broken. It could lead to
their selecting to be public defenders or prosecutors interested in the truth and not so much in the
number of convictions. The former director of the Department for Public Advocacy has said that
the education KCADP has conducted in its 20 years has created a situation where potential jurors
in death cases are more difficult to find. Because the death penalty is so expensive, its abolition
will free up resources in the criminal justice system that can be dedicated to meet other needs.
Evaluation: The Board meets quarterly and includes on its agenda a continual evaluation of
progress toward achieving strategic goals, adding additional strategies if needed to achieve
objectives, and adding new objectives necessary to accomplish goals. In addition, measurable
outcomes — the number of members recruited, the number actively engaged with the organization
at some level, the number of educational and marketing activities completed and the results of
these — will be used to determine whether the campaign is having the expected effect, which
types of activities are most effective, and what adjustments might be required to increase the
impact of the campaign.
In addition to looking at tangible outcomes resulting from campaign activities, evaluation will
include looking at how the increased grassroots support might be influencing decision makers:
whether any executions occur, whether the Kentucky Supreme Court accepts the amicus brief,
whether the governor grants a clemency request in response to the evolving standard of decency
argument, and whether any formal proposals are offered in the legislature that restrict, constrict
or erode eligibility for death sentences.
Death Penalty Mobilization Fund State Strategies
Kentucky Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
3. Bios of key individuals in the organization or campaign:
Kaye Gallagher has been KCADP Coordinator for a decade. Working in a full- or part-time
capacity, duties involve organizing community events that include state Capitol visits and
execution vigils, preparing newsletters, bookkeeping and fundraising. She also serves as KCADP
Board Treasurer. A print journalism graduate of Western Kentucky University, she has worked
at several Kentucky newspapers. She is active in her faith community and, as a mother of two,
dedicated to her children’s education demonstrated by involvement in their school.
Don Vish is a retired attorney, photographer and writer. He was named Director of Public
Education, Advocacy and Outreach in January 2009. His former firm, Middleton Reutlinger
LLC, is donating a free office and free meeting space for KCADP work sessions. Over the last
eight months, his work has included supervising students at three Kentucky law schools to
research how the death penalty’s been used in the Commonwealth. He also assembled a diverse
group of judges and professionals to urge Gov. Steve Beshear to declare a moratorium on the
death penalty due to the underfunding the of the KY Department of Public Advocacy, which
represents all of those now under death sentences. He is a graduate of the University of
Louisville Brandeis School of Law.
The Rev. Pat Delahanty chairs the Coalition and was involved in its incorporation. His work
began at St. Mary’s College and University in Baltimore when a priest who was opening a
halfway house for ex-offenders asked seminarians to visit neighbors to calm fears and assure
them property values weren’t going downhill. They eventually won the zoning issue. For his
work with the Racial Justice Act, Delahanty was named Abolitionist of the Year in 1998 by the
National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. He has also received the Rights Enforcer
Award by the KY Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the Rosa Parks Award from the
KY Department of Public Advocacy. He is the producer of the Case Against the Death Penalty
video project.
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