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Replace the Death Penalty with Life: Support SAFE California
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Join us for a March and Gathering entitled Replace the Death Penalty with Life: Support SAFE California, to be held at the Religious Ed Congress at the Anaheim Convention Center on Saturday, March 24th. The SAFE California Initiative seeks to replace the death penalty with a sentence of life imprisonment without possibility of parole. The measure accords with the Church’s pro-life teaching on capital punishment and restorative justice, and eliminates the grave risk of executing an innocent person. In the words of Bishop Gerald Wilkerson, the SAFE initiative is a "prudent, life-affirming, safety-enhancing, and cost-savings change in sentencing law."
In an historic moment for the state of California, the SAFE Campaign has far exceeded the number of signatures needed to qualify the initiative for the November 2012 ballot. So now our work begins in earnest! The March 24th event will highlight the Church’s teaching on the death penalty and the critical importance of educational and formational efforts around SAFE CA in our parishes, and academic institutions in the months to come.
The event is co-sponsored by
- The Archdiocese of Los Angeles Office of Restorative Justice
- Office of Justice and Peace, Archdiocese of Los Angeles
- SAFE California
- The Catholic Mobilizing Network
- Death Penalty Focus
- California People of Faith Working Against the Death Penalty
- The Diocese of Orange Office of Respect Life, Justice and Peace
- The Dead Man Walking School Theatre Project
- The California Province of the Society of Jesus
- Ignatian Volunteer Corps
- Pax Christi
- JustFaith Ministries
The March will commence at 11:30 a.m. immediately following Fr. Greg Boyle’s talk in the Convention Arena. We will proceed along a path to the Grassy Knoll. Students from Mater Dei High School will present a dramatic reading from the Dead Man Walking School Theatre Project. Newman Centers and Campus Ministers from Southern CA Colleges and Universities that send delegations to the Religious Ed Congress have been invited to get the word out through their students, so this event will create a groundswell of solidarity and prophetic witness for life.
This is our moment: we are closer than ever to replacing the broken and dysfunctional death penalty in California!
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Vigil at the Religious Ed Congress "Voice Infusing Life"
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Voice infusing life...Voz que infunde vida
SAFE CA INITIATIVE — Bishop Richard Garcia of Monterey addresses a March 24 noontime procession and vigil at Congress for the 2012 general election SAFE CA initiative to replace California’s death penalty with life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Los Angeles Tidings R. W. DELLINGER
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Writeups on past events
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Second Annual Bay Area Social Justice Forum: People of Hope Agents of Change
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Holy Names University
3500 Mountain Blvd.
Oakland, CA
Afternoon Workshop
Organizing to End the Death Penalty in California in 2012 -
Catherine Huston, Francisco Carrillo, Reginald Reese and Deldelp Medina
A growing number of Californians are opposed to the death penalty in favor of life without parole. What has led to this shift? How can our community safety be enhanced without squandering our valuable resources and risking the possibility of executing an innocent person?
Discover how People of Faith, Law Enforcement, Victims’ Family Members and the Innocent are working together to end the death penalty in California.
Presenter Info:
Catherine Huston is the Coordinator of the Catholic Campaign to End the Use of the Death Penalty in the Archdiocese of San Francisco Office of Public Policy and Social Concerns. In addition, she is facilitator of the East /West Chapter of the Interfaith group, California People of Faith Working Against the Death Penalty. Catherine also sits on the Steering Committee for the SAFE CA Act. The Savings, Accountability, and Full Enforcement for California (SAFE CA) Act is a ballot initiative intended to replace the death penalty in California with life without parole.
In March 2011, the Los Angeles County Superior Court reversed Francisco (Franky) Carrillo Jr.’s 1992 conviction for murder, and ordered his release after two decades behind bars.
At 16, Franky was wrongfully convicted of a 1991 murder based solely on identification testimony from six people. All six eventually admitted that they were unable to see the shooter, and were influenced to make their identifications of Franky by the police and by each other. Two other men have since confessed to the shooting and said that Franky was not involved.
Though innocence issues were raised early in his trial, and again during Franky’s failed appeals, it required the dedication and hard work of many lawyers and supporters, led by State Public Defender and Death Penalty Focus Board member Ellen Eggers, to finally win his release.
Franky now works as a Justice Advocate with DPF to tell his story and educate the public about the real danger of incarcerating and even executing the innocent.
Nowhere does the risk of wrongful conviction present a greater danger than in death penalty cases. Eyewitness misidentification is responsible for close to 50 innocent men and women being sentenced to death in the US, and has played a role in many more wrongful convictions. Franky’s case shows not only how easily mistakes can be made in California and elsewhere, but also how very difficult it is to right these terrible wrongs.
Reginald (Reggie) Reese is a Law Enforcement Liaison at Death Penalty Focus. Reggie worked for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) for 28 years, serving both in the Youth Authority and Adult Corrections. Prior to his retirement, he served as Associate Warden and as Program Administrator in the Condemned and Administrative Segregation Units at San Quentin State Prison. During his tenure, supervising those units, two inmates were executed at San Quentin. Reggie has worked at several institutions throughout the state, including North Kern State Prison (Reception Center), the California Medical Facility (Hospital and Psychiatric Facility) and the California Medical Facility-South. Reggie has also worked in CDCR Headquarters as a Classification Staff Representative. Reggie has long held strong concerns regarding the effectiveness of the death penalty. He finds that Death Penalty Focus allows him to involve himself productively in this issue which so significantly impacts the society as a whole. Reggie earned his Bachelors of Arts degree in Psychology with emphasis in Behavioral Science from the University of Laverne. He is married to Kathryn A. Reese, who also worked with CDCR as a Supervising Correctional Counselor. They have four adult children.
Deldelp Medina’s aunt was murdered by her own son, Deldelp’s cousin, who had suffered a psychotic break. In addition to the pain of losing her aunt, Deldelp and her family were informed that the District Attorney would be pursuing the death penalty against her mentally ill cousin. Her family worked tirelessly to stop the death penalty proceedings for her cousin, and ultimately they were able to convince the DA to drop the death penalty charge. Unfortunately, Deldelp's story is not unusual. The death penalty siphons away money that could be used for increasing mental health services and ultimately ends up creating even more victims.
As a bilingual and bicultural woman, Deldelp has spent the last ten years working with the Latino community in the arts, humanities, non-profit, and social justice issues. Deldelp is now the Northern California Outreach Coordinator for California Crime Victims for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, and is able to speak about her experience to diverse communities.
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