Death Penalty Alternatives for Arizona

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Giving on Tuesday Boomed, Early Estimates Show

December 10, 2015 by Dennis Seavers

e9ca1602-1167-4b90-b8e8-8b9d47d0ff39We are so grateful for your participation in #GivingTuesday!  It’s a great start into our year end fund raising effort – we hope to secure donations of $50,000 in December to launch us into the most active and ambitious year of our history.

We began an initiative and are collecting signatures to remove the death penalty from Arizona Revised Statutes replacing it with life in prison without the possibility of parole. As you can imagine securing 175,000 signatures – the amount we estimate necessary to have the required number of valid signatures – demands both work and substantial funding.  Volunteers are requested to assist in gathering signature, but we realize volunteers alone won’t be able to obtain all the signatures so we will employ paid petition gatherers.  We will also need money to hire an executive director and a field organizer to manage the campaign.  When we are successful, the initiative will be placed on the ballot and Arizona can join Nebraska, Maryland, Connecticut, Illinois, New Mexico, New Jersey & New York (7 states which have recently stopped executions) and the other 16 states which don’t execute! 23 states do not kill!

While gathering the necessary signatures is a huge task, it is certainly not all that is required. Getting the initiative on the ballot is just the start and will mean little if it is not passed by the voters.  The number of citizens favoring executions is at the lowest point in years. While it still hovers around 60%, the number drops below 50% when those polled are offered the option of life without the possibility of parole. It will be our task therefore not only to gather the signatures, but also to educate the public and explain why state executions are bad public policy and how they don’t serve society.

Those who advocate state sponsored killing claim it is a deterrent – there is no proof that this is true, in fact see the opposite – states which execute have a higher capital crime rate… violence begets violence. Some claim it is a closure for the victims friends and family members, yet many will acknowledge that there is no “closure” and peace comes with forgiveness, not with vengeance. Only 2% of the nations 3,143 counties account for the majority of the executions in our nation, unfortunately Maricopa and Pima counties are ranked among the leaders. Let us not forget the costs – not only financial (estimated to be 4 to 7 times more expensive than life incarceration) but also emotional as the pain that survivors experience in our broken system is heart-wrenching. Lastly, we risk killing the innocent – studies show an estimated 4% of the prisoners on death row are innocent and sadly we have killed innocent people.

As a youngster Mom always told me I would be known by the company I kept. As long as we practice state killing we are keeping company with China, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and North Korea. Have these nations not been identified as “The Axis of Evil”?

Please join with us – you have an opportunity to make a real difference in our society as you donate your time, talent and resources.

Many thanks,
Bob Hungerford, President

Filed Under: Donate, News and Events, Updates Tagged With: donate, news, updates

Giving Tuesday

November 30, 2015 by Dennis Seavers

Hopefully you saw the CBS 60 Minutes program Sunday November 29th which featured the July 23rd 2014 botched execution of Joseph Wood. It clearly illustrated the work that must be done in Arizona. When he was questioned about Arizona’s illegal purchase of drugs to kill Jeffery Ladrigan in 2010, Attorney General Mark Brnovich stated he wasn’t the AG at that time and assured us that during his tenure as AG Arizona would adhere to all state and federal laws relating to the procurement of drugs to be used in executions. After the interview was conducted it was learned that illegal drugs purchased in India were seized at Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix.

#GivingTuesday, now in its fourth year, is a global day of giving fueled by the power of social media and collaboration. Observed on the Tuesday following Thanksgiving (in the U.S.) and the widely recognized shopping events Black Friday and Cyber Monday, #GivingTuesday kicks off the charitable season, when many focus on their holiday and end-of-year giving. Since its inaugural year in 2012, #GivingTuesday has become a movement that celebrates and supports giving and philanthropy with events throughout the year. We hope our affiliation will launch a drive permitting us to hire staff and move forward with an ambitious plan to end capital punishment.

#GivingTuesday harnesses the potential of social media and the generosity of people around the world to bring about real change in their communities; it provides a platform for them to encourage the donation of time, resources and talents to address local challenges. It also brings together the collective power of a unique blend of partners— nonprofits, civic organizations, businesses and corporations, as well as families and individuals—to encourage and amplify small acts of kindness.

As a global movement, #GivingTuesday unites countries around the world by sharing our capacity to care for and empower one another.

Filed Under: Media, News and Events, Updates Tagged With: donate, media, news, updates

New way to help end the death penalty

December 4, 2014 by Dennis Seavers Leave a Comment

We are setting up a way Death Penalty Alternative for Arizona donors may donate stock knowing that when giving DPAA an appreciated stock, the donor is able to use the full value at time of donation as a tax deduction without paying tax on the appreciated value.

We invite you to consider this and invite your friends to do the same. We will soon have the account open at Schwab for you to make this kind of gift. Please contact your financial advisers before making your gift.

For more information, please contact us at info@azdeathpenalty.org.

Filed Under: Donate, Updates Tagged With: donate, updates

Easy Online Donation

Help end the death penalty in Arizona with a tax-exempt donation. Please go to our easy online donation form by clicking the button below.

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Phoenix Contact

3905 N 7th Ave Unit 33126
Phoenix, AZ 85067-3126
info@azdeathpenalty.org
(602) 357-4848

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