NATIONAL COALITION TO ABOLISH THE DEATH PENALTY
PRESS RELEASE
CONTACT:
David Elliot, NCADP Communications Director
202-543-9577, ext. 16
cell phone: 202-607-7036
[email protected]
www.ncadp.org
920 Pennsylvania Ave. SE
Washington, D.C. 20003
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CRIME VICTIMS' ADVOCATE ELECTED CHAIR OF NCADP BOARD OF DIRECTORS; BUD
WELCH ALSO ELECTED TO BOARD
Oct. 19, 2004 - Bill Pelke, who lost his 78-year-old grandmother
to murder yet has campaigned relentlessly against the death penalty,
will serve a one-year term as chairman of the NCADP Board of
Directors, the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
announced today.
Joining Pelke as newly elected Board officers are Renny Cushing
and Rich Curtner, each of whom were elected vice chairs. Cushing
is policy director of Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights and
Curtner is a member of Alaskans Against the Death Penalty in Anchorage.
Pelke, a resident of Alaska who formerly lived in Indiana, said he
believes it is the first time that family members of murder victims
have served as NCADP's chair and vice chair. Pelke's 78-year-old
grandmother, Ruth, was killed in 1985 by Paula Cooper. Cooper, who
was 15 years old at the time, received a death sentence. However,
the Indiana Supreme Court commuted her sentence after Pelke
engaged in an international campaign against her execution.
"We are confronting the stereotype that murder victims' family
members automatically support death for the people who took our
loved ones away," Pelke said. "In my case, I came to understand
that my grandmother would not have wanted death for Paula Cooper.
I could not be faithful to my grandmother's memory unless I worked
against death - unless I worked for healing and forgiveness."
Cushing, a former New Hampshire state legislator, experienced the
murder of his father, Robert Cushing Jr., in 1988. "Survivors of
crime want three things," Cushing said. "First, they want to know
exactly what happened to their loved one. Second, they want justice.
And third, they want to heal. For many of us, justice and healing
come not in the form of taking another life but rather in
reconciliation. We wish to reconcile the terrible thing that has
happened to us with our belief that no one, not even the least
among us, is beyond redemption."
Also winning election to the NCADP Board were Bud Welch, whose
daughter, Julie, died in the Oklahoma City bombing; Ajamu Baraka,
director of the new Human Rights Network and former regional
director of Amnesty International's southern regional office;
Abe Bonowitz, executive director of Citizens United for Alternatives
to the Death Penalty and Floridians for Alternatives to the Death
Penalty; Judy Caruso, a member of the steering committee of
the New Mexican Coalition to Repeal the Death Penalty; T.J. Geiger,
a Lamar University student in Beaumont, Texas and a member of the Texas
Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty; Ivan Held, a public relations
and marketing expert with Time Warner Books; Brian Henninger, a
lawyer and former NCADP program coordinator; Shani O'Neal, a Fulbright
Scholar, youth activist and New Voices Fellow; and Brian Roberts,
a lawyer with death penalty appellate experience who now works
for Washington, D.C.'s Public Defender Services.
Re-elected to the Board were Thomas Mariadason, secretary; and
Veronica White, treasurer. Mariadason works for the Vera Institute
of Justice in New York City and White works for New York City's
Food Bank. Also re-elected were Jane Bohman, executive director
of the Illinois Coalition Against the Death Penalty; Randy Tatel,
executive director, Tennessee Coalition Against State Killing;
and Claudia Whitman of Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants.
