11/30 Day of Action for Tookie Williams; CEDP Conference

CAMPAIGN TO END THE DEATH PENALTY CIRCULAR
Campaign chapters, please distribute to all members

CONTENTS:
-- National Convention
-- Convention Registration
-- Saturday Night Dinner
-- Delegates and Chapter Dues
-- Chapter Reports
-- Housing
-- Save Room in the Suitcase
-- Chapter Displays
-- Helping with Convention Tasks
-- Day of Action for Stan Tookie Williams

NATIONAL CONVENTION
Our national convention is now just around the corner--less than two
weeks away! But it's not too late to register and book your flight.
This year's convention--our fifth annual one--will be an important one
for us. The success of our "Voices from Death Row" Tour will culminate at
the convention, but it has been so successful that we want to extend it into
the spring.
Convention weekend is sure to be filled with intense discussion about
how best to build our movement. We face serious challenges, and will until
we win. But how to build an effective fight, how to concentrate our energies
on the grassroots, how to create a groundswell of momentum, how to bring the
marginalized voices of family members and former death row prisoners into
the center of this fight--all of these things will be discussed this
weekend.
I'm sure that over the course of the weekend, we will be moved to tears,
feel inspired, be outraged, and--by the end of it--feel more determined than
ever to continue on with our fight for justice.
Here is a partial list of those who will be attending this year's
convention:

*Jewel Nelms, mother of Frances Newton, who was executed in Texas on Sept 14
*Darby Tillis, exonerated Illinois death row prisoner
*Alan Gell, exonerated North Carolina death row prisoner
*Shujaa Graham, exonerated California death row prisoner
*Madison Hobley, pardoned Illinois death row prisoner and victim of police
torture
*Billy Moore, former death row prisoner who admitted to the crime that sent
him to death row
*Adrian Lomax, spent 19 years in prison; writer and paralegal
*Monique Mathews, sister of exonerated Louisiana death row prisoner Ryan
Mathews
*Sandra Reed, mother of Texas death row prisoner Rodney Reed
*Jeanine Scott, wife of Texas prisoner Michael Scott
*Gloria Johnson, mother of Montel Johnson, formally on death row and now
incarcerated at Menard Prison
*Barbara Becnel, Stan Tookie Williams' advocate
*Bryan Stevenson, attorney and executive director of the Equal Justice
Initiative of Alabama


CONVENTION REGISTRATION
So far, we have 75 people confirmed to attend, but we still haven't
received all of those in paid registrations. It really helps on this end to
send in your registration prior to convention, especially so we can plan the
Saturday night dinner event.
And it's not too late to make a final push with any fence sitters--no
one should miss the convention!

SATURDAY NIGHT DINNER
I want to urge all of you to come to the dinner and informal Saturday
night event that we will be hosting at convention. This is offered at a low
rate of $10 dollars per person, and the food last year was yummy! But more
importantly, it will give us a chance to mingle and talk informally. At
around 8 pm, we will have some entertainment, including Darby Tillis
performing songs on his harmonica, hip hop from Kevin James, songs from
Phyllis Prentice, as well as some other talents brewing in the Campaign. So
please try to be a part of this.

DELEGATES AND CHAPTER DUES
If chapters haven't done this already, they need to elect two delegates
and one alternate to vote at the convention. Please let me know who the
delegates for your chapter are.
In order to seat your delegates, your chapter dues need to be paid up
for the year. If your chapter needs an extension for some reason, please
e-mail me.

CHAPTER REPORTS
Chapter reports are a one- or two-page summary of each chapter's
activities, to give people at the convention a sense of the size of your
chapter, some of your past successful events and some of the challenges
you've faced. Each chapter should send in a report by November 7. Attached
is a series of questions that you can answer for your report, if you prefer.
All of these reports will be sent out prior to convention, and available in
hard-copy form at convention.

HOUSING
We need to hear from chapters as soon as possible if they're in need of
housing with Campaign members. We have limited space, but we will do our
best to accommodate everyone who needs housing. Contact Noreen if your
chapter has housing needs: noreen [at] nodeathpenalty.org

SAVE ROOM IN THE SUITCASE
We have ordered a number of good books available for sale at a
discounted rate at convention. They include: Courtroom 302, Soledad Brother
and Stan Tookie William's book, Blue Rage, Black Redemption.
Also, we have printed new CEDP placards. We will have bundles available
for each chapter to take home. They are not heavy, but they are a bit
awkward to carry. Just wanted folks to be on the alert.

CHAPTER DISPLAYS
Chapters should feel free to bring along a display of your work. We will
try to showcase these just outside of our meeting room.

HELPING WITH CONVENTION TASKS
Noreen and others who are handling the logistics of the convention could
use help with various tasks, including registration, set up and clean up,
and other tasks. Please contact Noreen if you are able lend a helping hand
at convention: noreen [at] nodeathpenalty.org


DAY OF ACTION FOR STAN TOOKIE WILLIAMS: NOVEMBER 30
The urgency around the fight to halt the execution of Stan Tookie
Williams is clear. Stan, a co-founder of the Crips street gang and probably
the best known death row prisoner besides Mumia Abu Jamal, faces an
execution date of December 13. At our convention, we will be discussing how
to build the fight to save Tookie, as well as to expose the growing need to
halt ALL executions.
The Bay Area activists fighting around Tookie's case have called for a
day of action for Stan on November 30. Here is a note from Crystal Bybee,
the CEDP organizer in the Bay Area, with some ideas of how to build this day
of action:

We are calling November 30th as a Day of Action for Stan Tookie Williams.
This will probably fall shortly before his clemency hearing.
We are asking chapters (and other organizations, churches, etc.) to plan
an activity on that day. You'll have to scale it to your resources. If there
are other groups you can get to help plan it, maybe you can have a speakout
or rally on campus, or do a press conference. But you could also do
something more like what we do for Death Penalty Awareness Week: tabling
with big signs, getting people to write/call/fax Gov. Schwarzenegger,
gathering petitions. You can also hold a meeting or screen the movie
Redemption--whatever makes sense for your size, resources and the ideas you
come up with.
To coordinate the national events, we are adding a page to the Save
Tookie Web site (http://www.savetookie.org ) that will list "Save Tookie
Committees" in as many cities as possible. We are going to list all of the
CEDP chapters on that page--at first, we'll just list contact information
from the New Abolitionist. But you can also send me any upcoming Stan events
and/or your plans for the Day of Action. These "committees" can be your
chapter, although it's great if you can involve other groups!
So keep me posted on what your chapter is doing. Alice is also going to
help coordinate the national CEDP efforts around Tookie.

Crystal can be contacted at 510-333-7966 and e-mailed at:
crystal [at] nodeathpenalty.org.

Looking forward to seeing you all soon,
Marlene Martin