DENNIS FRITZ OPPOSES THE DEATH PENALTY

Missouri Western hosted the Road Trip for Justice, a series of speaking tours about the Death Penalty on Feb. 15.
Sponsored by Western’s Newman Club and co-sponsored by Missourians to Abolish the Death Penalty, Amnesty International and the AJ Muste Memorial Institute, the Road Trip for Justice was designed for the purpose of engaging others to think about the Death Penalty and its consequences.

The speakers included Dennis Fritz, who was wrongfully convicted of first-degree murder and spent 11 years behind bars before being exonerated by DNA evidence; Linda Taylor, whose son Michael has been on death row since 1991; and Bess Klassen-Landis, whose mother was brutally raped and murdered when she was 13 years old.

At the event, Fritz discussed the terror he and his co-defendant Ron Williamson experienced during 11 years of incarceration and his life mission to bring about a greater awareness of false convictions. Taylor shared the story of her son’s arrest and trial, and the events of Feb. 1, 2006, the day her son was to be executed before receiving a stay of execution. Klassen-Landis describes the fear she lived in and reminded the audience that no matter what they did, those on death row are still human beings, not monsters.

Taylor, who works with Missourians to Abolish the Death Penalty, believes that the event achieved its purpose.
“I hope it will give them an opportunity…to educate themselves concerning the Death Penalty,” Taylor said.
Kayla Kelder, a psychology-spanish major at Western, is the president of the Newman Club. Kelder argues that the event is not designed to abolish the Death Penalty nor talk down to those in favor of the Death Penalty, but rather to rationalize the worth of human life.
“How can we say that killing someone who’s killed someone shows that the killing is wrong?” Kelder said. “We should lead by example and that’s not doing it.”
Rachel Hansen, secretary of the Newman Club, was in attendance. Hansen feels the event has a very deep purpose.
“If we try to understand each other first, we’ll have a much better grasp on what another person believes,” Hansen said.
Regardless of whether or not the Death Penalty is abolished as a result of this speaking tour and the ones to follow, Kelder hopes that the Road Trip for Justice will succeed in showing people how the Death Penalty affects everyone.
“We’re all interconnected in this great big thing called human life,” Kelder said. “Life is worth so much. We all effect each other in one way or another.”
Source By jesse_west • February 19, 2009
Speakers oppose death penalty The Griffon News

New Jersey Senate Votes to Abolish the Death Penalty

The New York Times has, "New Jersey Nears Repeal of Death Penalty."

The New Jersey Senate voted Monday to make the state the first in the country to repeal the death penalty since 1976, when the United States Supreme Court set guidelines for the nation’s current system of capital punishment.

Approval in the Senate was seen as the biggest obstacle to the repeal, and in the end, it passed 21 to 16, receiving the bare minimum number of votes required in the 40-seat chamber. Three senators did not vote.

Legislators on both sides of the debate said they expected the measure to pass easily on Thursday in the General Assembly, where Democrats hold 50 of the 80 seats.

Gov. Jon S. Corzine, a Democrat and a staunch opponent of the death penalty, has said he would sign a measure ending executions.

“Today New Jersey can become a leader, an inspiration to other states,” Senator Robert Martin, a Republican from Morris Plains who voted for the bill, said during Monday’s debate.

For those opposed to capital punishment, New Jersey’s repeal would represent a victory that has eluded them in the modern history of the death penalty. Though legislatures across the country have tried to abolish capital punishment since 1976, none have succeeded. This year alone, the legislatures in Nebraska, Montana, Maryland and New Mexico have debated bills to repeal those states’ death penalties, but each measure failed, often by a slim margin.

Dennis Fritz Guest Speaker Missourians to Abolish the Death Penalty Kansas City Chapter

Dennis Fritz will be guest speaker at the Annual Meeting
for Missourians to Abolish the Death Penalty Kansas City Chapter
Date Nov. 15, 2007 - Location - First United Methodist Church on the Independence Square, 400 W. Maple, Independence, MO 64050.
Time 7:00 P.M.
Dennis Fritz, Exonerated after spending 12 years with a life sentence in Ada, Oklahoma. Thanks to help from the Innocence Project of New York, Fritz was granted a new trial, found innocent and freed from prison in 1999.
Mr Fritz is a Board member for the Kansas City Chapter of Missourians to Abolish the Death Penalty and author of Journey Toward Justice.
Dennis Fritz appeared on "Dateline," "Hannity and Colmes" and other national TV and radio shows.

A History of Missourians to Abolish the Death Penalty
From MADP website:

A loosely structured statewide abolition coalition has been active in Missouri since at least 1987 when Missouri passed legislation to permit lethal injection and prepared its first execution since re-instating the death penalty in 1977. Then, MADP was an umbrella coalition comprised of regional death penalty groups in St. Louis and Kansas City, secular organizations, faith-based groups and individuals.

As we grew over the following decades, we realized that the structure of MADP was too loose to work effectively to achieve our goals. Over several months, we engaged in a process that shaped the separate organizations and individuals already engaged into a cohesive group. MADP became incorporated and received 501 (c) 3 not-for profit status in late 2005. We have approved three chapter groups and eleven affiliate groups to be members of MADP. We have a working board, a clear process for decision-making, and an active committee structure to participate in the work. We invite you to join us as we work for abolition.