Tickets are still available for our event next Sunday, September 23, in Los Angeles, when we will honor the Reverend James Lawson, a civil rights icon whom Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., called “The leading theorist and strategist of nonviolence in the world,” with the Death Penalty Focus Lifetime Achievement Award.
The Lifetime Achievement Award is in recognition of a person’s “lifelong dedication to civil rights, criminal and social justice, and the abolition of the death penalty.” In Rev. Lawson’s case, this award could not be more fitting, because Rev. Lawson has literally dedicated his life to righting the wrongs of our society. From the time he received his preacher’s license in 1947, the year he graduated from high school, to today, a week away from his 90th birthday, he has been tireless in his efforts to make this a better world than the one he was born into.
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We will also hear from Kevin Cooper, who has been on California’s death row for 33 years for a crime he didn’t commit, who will join us by phone from San Quentin. And Gary Tyler, who was sent to Angola Prison’s death row when he was just 17, and spent 41 years there before being released for a crime he didn’t commit, will join us in person. Each embodies the reason we have fought for so long to end this brutal system of punishment, each embodies the humanity that strengthens our resolve to never give up.
DPF President Mike Farrell will host the event, and we’ll introduce DPF’s new Executive Director, Magdaleno “Leno” Rose-Avila.
Political commentator, actor, comedian, and Twitter phenomenon John Fugelsang will return as Master of Ceremonies and perform a comedy set.