User:Bryanw3/sandbox

PSC-329

Human Rights Watch

Founded	1978
Type	Non-profit NGO
Focus	Human rights activism
Location	New York City, United States
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Kenneth Roth (Executive Director) James F. Hoge, Jr. (Chairman)
Website	hrw.org
Formerly called	Helsinki Watch

The Campaign to End the Death Penalty (CEDP) is a national anti-death penalty organization in the United States, built on the philosophy that death row inmates and their family members must be at the center of fighting to abolish the death penalty. CEDP uses the experiences of death row prisoners to shape the organization's strategies that are used in an effort to achieve their goal of the abolition of capital punishment in the United States. It is a grassroots organization with chapters in Austin and Denton, Texas; the Bay Area, in California; Chicago, Illinois; New York, New York; Delaware; and numerous university chapters throughout America. Annual conventions are held in which the board of directors is voted in. Regular meetings, petitioning drives, researching individual cases of death row inmates, and press conferences are among the organization's strategies. Citizens can get involved with the CEDP through volunteering, interning, and/or donating money to the organization. .

Organization

It is a grassroots organization with chapters in Austin and Denton, Texas; the Bay Area, in California; Chicago, Illinois; New York, New York; and Delaware. CEDP claims to focus more of its energy and resources in the state of Texas because Texas executes more prisoners than any other state in the U.S.

Board Members:

Crystal Bybee, Mark Clements, Martina Correia, Pat Foley, Lawrence Hayes, Lily Hughes, Ronnie Kitchen, Marlene Martin, Derrel Myers, Yusef Salaam, Jeannine Scott, Liliana Segura, Lee Wengraf, and Sandra Jones.

Honorary Board Members:

Darby Tillis and Sandra Reed

Campaign Staff:

Mark Clements, Randi Jones, Lily Hughes, Marlene Martin, and Pat Foley .

Membership

Citizens can get involved with the CEDP through volunteering, interning, and/or donating money to the organization .

Goals

CEDP seeks the abolition of capital punishment in the United States .

"With the per se constitutionality of the death penalty well-established by the U.S. Supreme Court, for more than twenty years public debate has centered on the moral and political ramifications of capital punishment, a debate dominated by groups seeking to persuade political leaders and the public-at-large of the righteousness of their respective positions. At one extreme, abolitionist groups such as Amnesty International and Campaign to End the Death Penalty have lamented the purported unfairness and immorality of the "ultimate sanction." At the other extreme, pro-death penalty groups such as the Washington Legal Foundation and Justice For All have vigorously defended the government's use of the death penalty, pointing to its purported retributive and deterrent value" .

Strategies

Regular meetings, petitioning drives, researching individual cases of death row inmates, and press conferences are among the organization's strategies .

Major Achievements

CEDP has published a newsletter, The New Abolitionist, since late in 1997 .

Cases

CEDP brought attention to the Troy Anthon Davis case. Davis was convicted of murdering an off duty police officer in Georgia . CEDP is also involved in Kevin Cooper's case in California, Mumbia Abu-Jamal's case in Pennsylvania, and Rob Will's case in Texas. .

News

It was reported in the Washington Post that the Pledge of Resistance-Baltimore, a peace group that is against the Iraq war, and The Campaign to End the Death Penalty were secretly monitored by undercover Maryland state Police for over a year in 2005 and 2006. The American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland brought attention to the monitoring by police and requested that they stop.

External links

• Campaign to End the Death Penalty website
• The New Abolitionist, newsletter published by the CEDP
• [1], UNC Chapter website
• [2], Facebook page