Collections

For more than three decades, Abraham J. Bonowitz has worked to educate the public about human rights problems, in particular the death penalty and the need for alternatives to the death penalty. During this time he served in numerous director, consultant, managerial, and activist roles with leading advocacy and death penalty abolitionist organizations.

This collection details records kept by the ACT UP organization committed to ending the AIDS crisis.

This collection contains records of the activities of Dr. Alice P. Green from her days as a student of criminal justice at the University at Albany, SUNY, through her career as founder and executive director of the Center for Law and Justice in Albany.

This collection documents the seventeen-year period (1974-1991) concerning the Florida capital punishment case of Alvin Ford. The collection primarily contains the court records and research material of Ford's attorney, Laurin A. Wollan, Jr., as well as other members of the Ford defense team who began work on the case in 1981. The legal records include official court proceedings from the initial trial in 1974, appeals, attempts at clemency, and several cases by Ford against the Florida Department of Corrections. Other legal records include psychological reports, background reports, biographies of Ford, as well as his prison and medical records.

The Bill Babbitt Collection documents nearly ten years of legal efforts to spare Manny Babbitt's life from execution, and two decades of advocacy activities to try to abolish the death penalty.

Bill Pelke is a leader in the national death penalty abolition movement. This collection documents Bill Pelke's involvement with Journey of Hope...from Violence to Healing, Murder Victims' Families for Reconciliation (MVFR), National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (NCADP), Amnesty International, and other organizations committed to ending capital punishment in the United States.

This collection documents the day-to-day activities of the Center for Law and Justice in Albany, New York, founded by its Executive Director Dr. Alice P. Green in 1985.

This collection contains materials from David Lee Powell's cell on Death Row in Texas at the time of his execution on June 15, 2010.

The David Von Drehle Papers contain information on the death penalty, primarily in Florida. Von Drehle compiled the materials while researching his 1995 book Among the Lowest of the Dead: Inside Death Row.

This collection documents the professional and personal life of Eliot H. Lumbard.

This collection documents Equal Justice USA's efforts to abolish capital punishment and reform the criminal justice system nationwide. It focuses in particular on the organization's campaign for a nationwide moratorium against the death penalty in 2000, as well as records leading up to and resulting from this campaign.

This collection is predominantly composed of Ernest van den Haag's publications from 1950-2000, including articles in published form, drafts, and related correspondence.

For over six decades, Eugene G. Wanger created or collected the materials about capital punishment that comprise the Eugene G. Wanger and Marilyn M. Wanger Death Penalty Collection. The collection includes a wide range of materials on the death penalty documenting its history, efforts to abolish or reinstate the practice, its psychological impact, compatibility on religious, moral or ethical grounds, and its operation.

The Henry Ehrmann Papers are focused on Ehrmann's scholarly career as a political scientist and a professor of law and his participation in the program of re-education of German prisoners-of-war in the 1940s. The material also documents Ehrmann's association with other universities and institutions in the United States and Europe. The correspondence from and to the former German prisoners-of-war who met Ehrmann during the reeducation program organized by the War Department include letters - in several cases written by the prisoners' family members as well - almost entirely dating from the period immediately subsequent to the POWs' release and their return to Germany. Therefore, they are a valuable source of information about the living conditions in occupied Germany, the country's political transformation, and the correspondents' adaptation to new circumstances. Letters in the general correspondence subseries are, for the most part, related to Ehrmann's contacts with his fellow scholars and with academic or political institutions. Also included are speeches, lectures, lecture notes, and newspaper articles, 1941–1984. Ehrmann was a professor of political science at the University of Colorado, the University of California at San Diego, and Dartmouth University, and worked on French politics, labor relations, and comparative government.

Hugo A. Bedau (Ph.D., Harvard, 1961) was a commentator, scholar, and activist for the abolition of capital punishment. He was a prominent spokesperson in the abolitionist movement and well-known for his scholarship and writing concerning the death penalty and the challenge to separate logical arguments from moral arguments.

The Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (ICADP) formed in 1976 as the Illinois Coalition Against the Death Penalty by Mary Alice Rankin and other activist groups and organizations to try to prevent passage of capital punishment legislation in Illinois. After the state adopted the death penalty in 1977, ICADP expanded its grassroots legislative, education, and communication activities to try to inform the public about flaws and injustices in the Illinois capital punishment system and promote humane alternatives to the death penalty.

The records of the Institute of Gerontology include materials from the Institute on Aging, the Institute of Gerontology and the Ringel Institute of Gerontology, all of which served the same function within the State University of New York at Albany. Records include materials about program creation, correspondence, day files, grant applications, budgets, publications, research materials and professional development.

This collection documents investigator Jeffrey Walsh's work on the Frank Lee Smith case. Smith was convicted of rape and murder and served 14 years on Death Row in Florida before dying of cancer. Less than a year after his death he was exonerated.

This collection contains material related to the dealth penalty abolitionist work of Judith "Jude" Filler in Texas.

The Leigh Bienen Papers include the records of the New Jersey Proportionality Review Project, the Illinois Capital Punishment Reform Study Commission, and the academic research papers of legal scholar Leigh Bienen. The New Jersey records contain material from New Jersey Public Defender Homicide Study directed by Bienen in the mid-1980s. The collection also includes the records from Bienen's involvement with the New Jersey Proportionality Review Project headed by Special Master David C. Baldus. Also present is material from Leigh Bienen's tenure on the Illinois Capital Punishment Reform Study Commission which resulted in the abolition of the death penalty in that state in 2011. Finally the collection contains Leigh Bienen's scholarly research material during her career teaching at both Princeton University and Northwestern University. Her research focused on proportionality review, the death penalty's monetary costs, and the role of prosecutor discretion.

This collection documents the death penalty abolitionist work of Marie McFadden Deans. A smaller amount of personal materials, such as Deans' poetry and writing, also is included.

Since 1976 the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty has been working to educate the public about the failings and inconsistencies of capital punishment in the United States. Founded after the Gregg v. Georgia Supreme Court decision in 1976, the NCADP has emerged as one of the more influential national anti-death penalty organizations. The collection contains the group's internal case files, administrative material, publications, petitions, photographic materials, video tapes, and audio cassettes.

The collection contains photocopied news clippings related to the death penalty, amassed by the New York State Defenders Association.

Death penalty abolitionist who worked with many anti-death penalty organizations, capital defense attorneys, representatives of various communities of faith, newspaper editorial boards, victims' rights groups, members of the families of the condemned, and many death row inmates throughout the country.

The Robert Corliss Papers contain reports and other publications pertaining to criminal justice.

Organized in 1974, the Southern Coalition on Jails and Prisons was formed to promote greater awareness of the problems of prisons and corrections, improve communication between the prison population and the outside world, and advocate for alternatives to the death penalty.

Records of Steven W. Hawkins's tenure as Executive Director of the National Coalition Against the Death Penalty. The papers include extensive minutes of board meetings, speeches, travel arrangements, fundraising and reception notes, and pamphlets and other papers relating to his attendance at various board and committee meetings with related organizations.

This collection documents the lifelong activism of Albany, N.Y. resident Vera Michelson, especially her work with the Capital District Coalition Against Apartheid and Racism.