TADP Abolition Update

TADP and Rhodes College present: Voices on the Death Penalty: A Dialogue from the Front Lines

Thursday, October 22, 2009, at Rhodes College, Blount Auditorium in Buckman Hall

6:30 Reception with a 7:00 Panel discussion featuring Ron McAndrew, former Florida prison warden; Kathy Kent, sister of a federal agent killed in the Oklahoma City bombing; Paul and Joyce House, Tennessee death row exoneree and his mother who is a TADP board member; Reverend Stacy Rector, Director of TADP and spiritual advisor to Steve Henley, the last man executed in Tennessee.

Please join us to hear from people who have experienced the death penalty in very personal ways and who believe that the capital punishment system is a public policy failure.


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Save the Date: TADP and Amnesty International Student Conference on the Death Penalty, February 6, 2010, at MTSU

The 2010 Student Conference on the Death Penalty will be held at Middle Tennessee State University on Saturday, February 6 from 10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. This conference provides an opportunity to learn about the death penalty system and how to effect change. High school and college students are invited to attend this free conference which will include national speakers and organizers, as well as Tennessee activists. If you would like to bring guests (such as parents or professors), you are welcome to do so. This year's keynote speaker will be Diann Rust-Tierney, an expert in the movement to eliminate the death penalty in the U.S. As the director of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, Ms. Rust-Tierney manages and directs the program for the national organization and 100 affiliates seeking to change public policy on the death penalty. Ms. Rust-Tierney holds a JD from the University Of Maryland School Of Law and a BA from the College of Wooster, Wooster, Ohio. Lunch and free t-shirts are provided.

For more information, contact Diana Stapp, volunteer organizer, at 615-256-3906 or by email.

On-line registration will soon be available on the TADP website.


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National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty Annual Conference

Kentucky is famous for its bluegrass music, the Kentucky Derby, Louisville Slugger baseball bats, and as the birthplace of heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali.

The conference theme, Training for the Long Run -- Building Bridges to Wider Audiences, reflects an effort to broaden the base of support for ending capital punishment. The conference will explore this theme through speeches from internationally renowned figures in the areas of religion, civil rights and civil liberties, including: Sister Helen Prejean, Sisters of St.Joseph of Carondelet; Barry W. Lynn, Executive Director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State; Dr. Charles J. Ogletree, Jr. (invited) and the staff of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School; and Professor Howard Zehr, Center for Justice & Peacebuilding, Eastern Mennonite University. A Praise and Healing Ceremony with Terence Cozad Taylor of the Interfaith Paths to Peace Center, and other Louisville leaders will conclude the conference.

The crown jewel of the NCADP conference is the annual awards dinner, held to recognize the successes of noteworthy leaders in the field. Each year, hundreds gather to celebrate those who have been at the vanguard of the important and necessary movement to abolish capital punishment. During the 2010 dinner, NCADP will honor two Kentucky leaders. Carl Wedekind, member of the Kentucky Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty’s Board of Directors, will be presented with the Special Recognition Award, and the Kentucky Office of Public Advocacy, represented by Edward Monahan, will be presented with the Legal Service Award. Other award recipients will include: New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson and New Mexico Representative Gail Chasey, Abolitionists of the Year; New Mexico Coalition to Repeal the Death Penalty, Lighting the Torch of Conscience Award winners; Anthony Amsterdam, New York University Professor of Law; Lifetime Achievement Award winner; and country music artist Steve Earle, who will be presented with the Shining Star of Abolition Award.

The advance conference registration fee (prior to Nov. 20) is $175 and $100 for students and seniors. Special rates are available for NCADP Affiliates (such as TADP) who register 8 or more individuals together. If you are interested in attending this powerful conference with other TADP participants, please contact Stacy Rector by November 20 in order to participate in a group registration with TADP. Call Stacy at 615-256-3906 or email her. If you need to register after that date, you can register through Janury 15, 2010 at the NCADP website.

Clarksville Chapter Meeting, Tuesday, October 27 at 6:30 p.m.

TADP celebrated the creation of a Clarksville chapter last year and will be gathering with that chapter on Tuesday, October 27 at the Wesley House (510 College Street, Clarksville) at 6:30. Come join other TADP supporters in Clarksville to learn more about what is happening in the work of abolition and how you can get involved. Contact volunteer organizer Diana Stapp with questions at 615-256-3906 or by email.

Name Change Update

On October 6th, TCASK members gathered in Nashville and voted to change TCASK's name to Tennesseans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (TADP) as well as to update the organization's charter. Currently, the state office is in the process of submitting all the necessary legal documents, updating the website and print materials, and making all the other changes, both big and small, that accompany such a decision. We ask for your patience through this process. Our hope is that by January 2010, we will be fully transitioned to the name TADP. Thank you for your patience and support.

"The death penalty is a public policy that fails victims, the accused, and our core constitutional value of fairness. The best solution is to use alternatives and simply abolish the death penalty."

TCASK
PO Box 120552
Nashville, TN 37212
United States
615-256-3906