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Voices: Rev. Samuel Rodriguez

“I will advocate for the death penalty to be abolished before the Lord calls me home. We can do better. We’re evolving on the issue of crime and punishment and we need a more restorative justice system. It behooves me, as a pro-life Bible conservative, to advance a whole life ethos.”

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Voices: Pope Francis

“The Golden Rule … reminds us of our responsibility to protect and defend human life at every stage of its development. This conviction has led me, from the beginning of my ministry, to advocate at different levels for the global abolition of the death penalty.”

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Voices: Jimmy Carter

“It is clear that there are overwhelming ethical, financial, and religious reasons to abolish the death penalty,” former president Jimmy Carter wrote in a 2012 op-ed titled “Show Death Penalty the Door”

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Voices: Nancy Vollertsen

“I’m doing the best I can through letters,” Nancy remembers. “I just kept thinking that they’re going to figure out they’ve got the wrong guy. And Mom wrote that everything was going to be fine.”

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25th Annual DPF Awards Dinner pays tribute to exonerees; honors Sir Richard Branson, Dolores Huerta and Jackson Browne

“Enough of a flawed system that disproportionately targets minorities; that cannot prevent the killing of innocents; that doesn’t have any impact on crime rates, that is a colossal waste of taxpayer money, and most of all a system that delivers neither justice nor closure,” said Sir Richard Branson, in a speech at the Death Penalty Focus 25th Annual Awards Dinner last week. DPF awarded Sir Richard its Abolition Award for

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Voices: Darryl Stallworth

“When I got called into the office and was told I was going to try this case I was fired up. I was excited to be recognized . . . It was a promotion,”

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Voices: Dale and Susan Recinella

“In Florida, there is no witness room for the family and friends of the condemned. They have to leave after they say goodbye in the morning, and never see that person again. As the spiritual advisor, I remain in the death house until it’s time to prepare [the inmate] for the gurney. I’m present in the witness room, and I sit in the front row, where he can see me. He knows he can look at me when the time comes.”

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Voices: Dee Hibbert-Jones and Nomi Talisman

“We chose Bill’s story because we wanted to crack open the failures of the criminal justice system, systemically. The racism, the lack of care for veterans and the mentally ill . . . . The only time the government takes control is in punishment.”

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Voices: Bethany Webb

“We know from the grand jury report that my sister pleaded for her life, saying ‘Please don’t shoot me, you don’t have to do this. Please.’ And then he fired multiple gun shots. He heard my sister take her last breaths.” Bethany Webb is describing the worst mass murder in the history of Orange County. Eight people were killed in the Seal Beach Salon Meritage, including her 46-year-old  sister, Laura

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Voices: Frank Thompson

“No one can speak personally about conducting and being personally responsible for killing people in the name of society better than I can.”

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Dr. King Opposed Capital Punishment

As we celebrate the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., let’s recognize his denunciation of capital punishment. Share this picture by clicking here and show your support for an end to the death penalty.

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The Arbitrary Execution of Tom Thompson

I knew if I wanted to see Tom one last time I had to leave for the prison soon. It was already late in the afternoon and at 6:00 pm, he would be taken from the visiting area to the death watch cell for his last meal. There he would remain until 25 minutes before midnight when he would be led to the execution chamber next door. There wasn’t anything

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