By Cly F. Evans

Five Spokane area death penalty abolition supporters, most involved with INDPAG and/or PJALS, loaded ourselves in a van and made their way to Olympia to participate in the February 12 Death Penalty Abolition lobby day organized by the statewide campaign Safe and Just Alternatives. Throughout the day, by my count, members of our group interacted with three Senators (Billig, Padden, and Carlyle) three Representatives (Riccelli, Crouse, and Parker), the staff of two Senators (Roach and Padden), and two Representatives (Ormsby and Shea). Read more »

by Lucia Vazquez

Our WA legislature received a D for its voting on racial equity bills for the 2011 and 2012 sessions. The grade came from Washington Community Action Network’s Facing Race: 2012 Legislative Report Card on Racial Equity, which assessed the Washington Legislature’s performance during the 2011 and 2012 regular sessions on issues that affect racial and economic equity. The report was endorsed by 52 organizations across the state, including PJALS. The goal of this report was to educate legislators about the impact their decisions have on communities of color that make up about 30% of Washington residents, but also to spread awareness of advancing racial equity within our state. Read more »

by Shar Lichty

PJALS’ Inland NW Death Penalty Abolition Group (INDPAG)has been working toward ending the death penalty for decades through raising awareness among the public. The statewide campaign Safe & Just Alternatives (SJA) could win legislation to end it soon!

The death penalty is an unjust, unfair, and irrational punishment that does not deter crime.  The death penalty costs tax-payers more than life imprisonment, with majority of these extra costs being incurred during the trial phase. The death penalty is arbitrary in small part due to geography, with smaller counties unable to incur the cost, and in large part due to race. Washington’s death row currently houses 8 individuals, 4 of which are African American males. Read more »

By Victoria Thorpe, co-chair of PJALS Inland Northwest Death Penalty Abolition Group

Honor Life: Abolish the Death Penalty was a very successful event presented to the Spokane community July 21^st, 2012.  Our special guest speaker was Jason Baldwin, of the West Memphis Three,  who echoed our goals beautifully in his own words, “There are those of us who will not give up until the death penalty has ended, until this country is about saving lives and not killing people and throwing them away for making mistakes.” Read more »

Learn more about the West Memphis Three and Jason’s case — join us on Monday July 9 at 6:30 at The Magic Lantern Lantern theater at 25 W. Main for the film “Paradise Lost,” the story of the West Memphis Three, from their 1993 murder convictions to 2011 release from prison. This showing is free of charge. All are welcome. 

Then, on Saturday, July 21, 4 pm, on the Saranac Rooftop, 25 W. Main:

Jason Baldwin, of the West Memphis Three, will be joining us to share his powerful story of being a wrongfully convicted young man. Join PJALS Inland Northwest Death Penalty Abolition Group (INDPAG) for an evening of music, food, and education as we put a little life into our abolition work.  Read more »

By Shar Lichty

The death penalty is the issue that stirs up the most emotional responses for me. It is also the issue I have actively worked on the longest. So I am very excited about current statewide efforts to abolish the death penalty in Washington State. This year brings a new and robust campaign called Safe and Just Alternatives. Along with it comes an experienced campaign manager staffed out of the ACLU-WA office. PJALS has recently endorsed the campaign. For more information on the campaign, visit www.sjawa.org.

While this year’s goal remains bringing the bill to a vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee, there is also a longer-term goal: to achieve abolition in 2013. Read more »

Rusty Nelson on Peace and War

By Rusty Nelson

The death penalty in the US looks a lot like it did in 1986. In fact it looks so similar that, for the 87^th time, I’m tempted to throw up my hands and give up any hope that capital punishment will be abolished in my lifetime. But, while the recent execution of Troy Davis in Georgia underscores grim similarities, it also gives us some reasons to work harder than ever.

It was amazing to have Juan Melendez in Spokane right after such a high-profile state killing, and I hope you were able to hear him speak.  Unsure about Juan’s dates on Florida’s famous death row, I had to ask him about Willie Jasper Darden, seldom mentioned these days as one of the likely-innocent men tortured and killed to make it safe for states to continue to kill their own citizens.

Willie was killed in 1987. It was painful for Juan to hear the name. He said, “He was a good friend, a mentor to all of us.” We exchanged memories about Willie: his trial in which the prosecutor told the jury he wished he had a shotgun so he could blow that nigger’s head off; the defense witnesses who were never called to testify; his five times on death watch where a window made the electric chair his constant companion; calls for clemency from Pope John Paul II, Jimmy Carter, and Mother Teresa; correspondence from all over the globe, often answered in calligraphy on lined, notebook paper. Willie was our friend and our inspiration for a quarter century of tilting against executions while most civilized countries were shoving lethal punishment as far as possible into the dark past. Read more »

By Alyssa Henderson, intern

For every person, there is a story meant to be told. And for some people, that story has the power to transform a life.

On September 26, I had the honor of meeting a man whose story impacted my life in a very meaningful way. I walked away with a new conviction and a fire burning under me. After hearing Juan Melendez’s speech at Gonzaga School of Law, I finally knew exactly where I stood on the issue of the death penalty: completely and utterly opposed to it.

Juan Melendez, convicted of murder in September of 1983, spent seventeen years, eight months, and one day on Florida’s death row for a crime he did not commit. Read more »