Death Penalty Action
Who We Are: Death Penalty Action (DPA) works with allies and partners nationwide to stop executions. We are:
exonerated death row survivors*
families of murder victims who oppose executions*
families of the executed and prisoners on death row*
former executioners and other members of the law enforcement community*
students & educators
medical professionals
legislators
policy advocates
journalists
faith leaders & people of faith
thought leaders
philanthropists
and regular people bringing healing to the world by reforming the most broken part of the criminal legal system in Ohio and nationwide. (* indicates our Voices of Experience primary speakers, referenced above and below.)
What We Do: Death Penalty Action provides leadership, training, educational and direct-action events; assisting local, state and national groups working to stop executions. For example, DPA helps people explore the issue through the eyes of those who have experienced it first-hand*. Our Voices of Experience on the Death Penalty speaker program combines experiential story-telling with faith, racial, economic and other perspectives, helping communities understand how capital punishment fails our society. We also provide concrete action opportunities like petitions and letter writing campaigns for those wishing to create lasting policy change.
Why We're Important: Death Penalty Action is the only national single-issue anti-death penalty advocacy group currently functioning in the United States. Lifting up the voices of those most impacted*, working collaboratively with allies, DPA creates impactful change. Our staff helped stop executions in Ohio and repeal capital punishment laws in NJ, NM, IL, CT, MD, NH & CO. DPA’s newest project is working with congressional leaders to ensure that ending federal executions is part of the racial justice and criminal legal system reforms that must be addressed in early 2021. DPA also supports such efforts at the state level.
How We Impact The Community: We uplift the community by working for nonviolent and equitable responses to the worst crimes. Death Penalty Action supports citizens standing for safety, fairness, integrity, and more impactful use of tax dollars to prevent violent crime while advocating for better services for all murder victims’ families. In the vast majority of cases, society holds dangerous offenders accountable and keeps everyone safe from them without executions. The criminal legal system makes mistakes, is costly, and unequal; treating the accused differently based on race, economics, and social status. Therefore, we believe government can’t be trusted with the power to kill.
How You Can Help: Death Penalty Action seeks inviters, investors and champions to support our work in the following ways:
Invite others to join you in supporting our work.
Invest charitable dollars to enable our success and boost our impact.
Champion DPA in your networks to educate, inspire and empower citizens to engage policy makers and create the change we wish to see happen. Schedule an on-line educational program in your community to allow our Voices of Experience story tellers* to help others understand this issue.
Death Penalty Action has very low overhead, so your financial investment goes directly to creating the change we all want to see happen.
Connect with Death Penalty Action
PO Box 89 Ghent, NY 12075 800-973-6548 DeathPenaltyAction.org
Donate: deathpenaltyaction.org/donate
Executive Director: Columbus resident/native Abraham J. Bonowitz
Email: Abe@DeathPenaltyAction.org
