Resources

Get further informed about the death penalty by checking out these resources and links. Additional links to organizations at the International, National, and State levels are listed in Links in our Take Action area.

Sister Helen Prejean’s books and website

• DEAD MAN WALKING: Published in 1994 and made into a major motion picture by Tim Robbins, starring Susan Sarandon, the book chronicles Helen’s eye-opening journey with two men on Death Row to the execution chamber, and her awakening to the realities of our criminal justice system and use of capital punishment. To purchase the book, visit http://www.deathofinnocents.net and choose "Buy the Book" in the bottom menu.

• THE DEATH OF INNOCENTS: In her most recent book, published in 2004, Helen introduces us to Dobie Gillis Williams and Joseph O’Dell, whom she accompanied to their executions and believes were innocent, examining a system which could permit such a thing to happen. To purchase the book, visit http://www.deathofinnocents.net and choose "Buy the Book" in the bottom menu.

Sister Helen Prejean: A website containing biographical material, news clippings, activities, letters, and other information on and about Helen.

Witness to Innocence: Witness to Innocence is spearheaded by former death row prisoners who have been exonerated and released from death rows across the United States and who are now actively engaged in the struggle to end the death penalty.

Death of Innocents: The DEATH OF INNOCENTS book site

Questioning Capital Punishment with Sr. Helen Prejean is a five-session DVD study. Session Titles: Crossing the Breach; What in God’s Name?; A Change of Heart; Radical Forgiveness; Next Steps. Visit http://www.livingthequestions.com to purchase the program.

Organizations focused on the death penalty

Below are organizations (both for and against the death penalty) you may contact for additional information about the issues surrounding the death penalty.

Broadening the Death Penalty Dialogue Workspace - (http://www.omidyar.net/group/deathpenalty) A discussion and workspace for those already committed to ending the death penalty who are interested in brainstorming ways to use online networks to spread the word and engage others.

You’ll need to join Omidyar.net (http://www.omidyar.net/home/), a network for positive social change, to gain access to the workspace.

Death Penalty Information Center: A database of articles and information, including state-by-state statistics, on all aspects of the death penalty in the United States.

Death Penalty Discourse Network: An umbrella organization dedicated to deepening and broadening the dialogue around the death penalty in the United States. It is the home of the DEAD MAN WALKING Theatre Project, the Moratorium Campaign, Witness to Innocence, and Sister Helen Prejean.

Equal Justice USA: A grassroots project that mobilizes and educates citizens about crime and punishment in the U.S., focusing on the racial, economic, and political biases that permeate our legal system.

Amnesty International USA: U.S. arm of action-oriented human rights organization, offering in-depth information about executions in the U.S. and abroad and efforts to abolish the death penalty.

Pro-Death Penalty: A comprehensive website with state-by-state information on Death Row inmates, including articles and links to other sources in favor of capital punishment.

Yes Death Penalty: A European website featuring the contents, translated into English, of a book published in Sweden in 1998 by David Anderson, focused on making the case for capital punishment.

The Moratorium Campaign: The campaign is working to deepen the discourse around the death penalty and to bring about moratoria across the USA.

Justice Center, Univ of Alaska, Anchorage: Death Penalty Organizations & Sites, Pro & Con

Death Penalty Discourse Project: Boalt Hall, Berkely, CA


Catholics Against Capital Punishment:
Catholic-Oriented Resources on the Death Penalty

Religious Organizing Against the Death Penalty: Statements of Opposition to Capital Punishment from Faith Groups

Organizations focused on assisting the families of murder victims

Murder Victims’ Families for Human Rights: An international, non-governmental organization of family members of victims of criminal murder, terrorist killings, state executions, extrajudicial assassinations, and “disappearances” working to oppose the death penalty from a human rights perspective.

Murder Victims Families for Reconciliation: A non-religious death-penalty abolition organization that includes people of a wide variety of faiths and belief systems. “Reconciliation means accepting you can’t undo the murder but you can decide how you want to live afterwards.”

Office for Victims of Crime: The website of the U.S. government office established by the 1984 Victims of Crime Act to oversee diverse programs that benefit victims of crime. The “Resource Center” of the website, “an information clearinghouse of resources for emerging victim issues,” offers a list of national resources providing support and encouragement to homicide survivors and co-victims.

 

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news article from the North Denver Tribune, March 2006, reviewing the production by the College of Law, University of Denver