Events & Action

This is where you can take action, learn more and really get involved to assist the worldwide campaign to end the death penalty. Please email me or contact me on Twitter (@theoptimismclub) if you have notice of an event, petition or campaign which needs more promotion.

Voices for Death Row Inmates – London UK – April 30th 2010

Please see the <a href=”http://bit.ly/bvtoH6″>Facebook Event Page</a>.

On the 30th April Voices for Death Row Inmates have organized a day of action. This involves London, Ohio, Australia and Texas all confirmed with other locations awaiting location confirmation.

At the London event we will have several guest speakers and hopefully an exonerated former death row inmate. We are proud and honoured to announce that Gilles Denizot has confirmed that he will be there to speak about his life working to end the death penalty.

We are holding this peaceful event to show that the world have not forgotten the inmates who sit awaiting their state sanctioned murder. We urge the U.S to abolish the death penalty. They need to be heard and we are their voice.

So make the 30th April available in your diary and get yourself to London, we all fight for the same thing and so join us in solidarity.

This WILL be a day of success and will be the first of many events held by ”VOICES FOR DEATH ROW INMATES”

Venue: Outside US Embassy, London (tbc)

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Past events and campaigns

Demand an End to Executions in California!

This campaign now closed (January 20th 2010). The CDCR received over 12000 comments on the proposed execution protocols for California. Now awaiting a response.

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Tell Kentucky’s Department of Corrections what you think about its lethal injection and electrocution protocols

This campaign now closed (1st February 2010). More news will be posted on this website as it becomes available.

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Unite for Human Rights in Iran on February 11th

Unite for Human Rights in Iran : Feb 11th

February 11^th is known as Victory of the Revolution Day marking the 31st anniversary of the fall of the Iranian monarchy and the return of Ayatollah Khomeini from exile in France in 1979; it is equivalent to the Fourth of July in the United States; it is meant to symbolize liberty, independence and freedom. Authorities in Iran fear that February 11^th will spark a wave of massive protests and unite Iranians in their calls for change and accountability. Given the importance of February 11th for Iranians, we are calling on our members and the public to unite in the blogosphere to show support and solidarity for those suppressed voices in Iran. During our “Unite for Human Rights in Iran” bloggers day, we are encouraging everyone to publicize the ongoing dire human rights situation in Iran and call for the protection of those arrested or detained from torture or other ill-treatment. Moreover, we urge you to highlight the need to release prisoners of conscience and those convicted after unfair trials. 

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 4th World Congress Against the Death Penalty

Geneva, Switzerland, February 24th-26th 2010

The 4th World Congress against the Death Penalty, will take place from February 24th to 26th, 2010, in Geneva’s International Conference Center : and within two of the cities’ cultural landmarks; La Comédie and the Bâtiment des forces motrices. The World Congress against the death penalty gathers hundreds of participants who unite to elaborate national, regional and international strategies towards universal abolition. It is free to attend, but registration in advance is essential. Full details and agenda available here 

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Amnesty USA Death Penalty Education Tour

Education is our proven strategy to ensuring that support for the death penalty in the U.S. continues its steady decline.

Join us for Death Penalty Awareness Week!

We’re turning up the volume February 26 – March 7 on serious discussions about our fatally flawed death penalty system! Scores of groups and individuals from across the country will flood campuses, communities and towns near you – hosting speakers, screening films, tabling – all in efforts to expose the senseless logic behind capital punishment. 

Our philosophy, based on over 30 years of experience, is simple: the more people know about the death penalty, the less they support it. Communities armed with the facts and exposed to the ugly realities of the death penalty will rise up and organize for abolition, as they did in New Jersey in 2007, and in New Mexico last year. 

In 2009, death sentences in the U.S. were at a historic low again, and 9 more people were exonerated from death row due to evidence of their innocence. More states than ever are seriously considering legislation to repeal the death penalty!