Today as the world celebrates the life of  Nelson Mandela, we at TADP join with so many to honor this great human being and to give thanks for his witness to the power of forgiveness and reconciliation.

After suffering from the oppression and brutality of apartheid in South Africa, enduring unspeakable suffering as his friends and fellow South Africans were murdered and as he himself was locked up for 27 years, Mandela chose another way. He saw the viciousness of the cycle of violence and retribution and understood that if he pursued such a course as President, his country would be awash in more blood.  Instead, he turned toward forgiveness and worked to bring together those who were once called “enemies,” in order that his nation could become a nation that treats all its citizens–no matter who they are–with dignity and equality.

Not long after Mandela’s election to the South African Presidency  in 1994, the nation’s courts abolished the death penalty on June 6, 1995.  In a nation where, during the apartheid regime, state violence and retribution were the norms, the nation followed their leader in choosing another way.

In 2005, I was honored to travel to South Africa and attend the 50th wedding anniversary celebration of Archbishop Desmond Tutu and his wife, Leah, after their daughter Naomi (a member of TADP ‘s Advisory Board) invited me. Nelson Mandela attended the celebration, and I had the opportunity to meet him very briefly. This moment was one of the highlights of my life as his witness continues to inspire me in my work today.

As we all remember and celebrate this great leader, let us also be inspired by his example and work even more diligently to end the death penalty system in the U.S., joining the nation of South Africa as a abolition nation.

Picture from NBC News

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“I just don’t like killing people.” With those words, singer/songwriter John Hiatt summed up his opposition to the death penalty during last night’s annual Generations Against the Death Penalty Show at 3rd and Lindsley in Nashville.  

In addition to John Hiatt and his daughter, Lilly Hiatt, other performers included parent and son duos Gail Davies and Chris Scruggs; Riders in the Sky’s Ranger Doug and James Green; and Marcus and Levi Hummon playing with their band The Hummons. Dr. Lee Camp of Lipscomb University in Nashville was the emcee for the evening and conducted interviews with Charles Strobel, TADP board member  and murder victim’s family member, as well as Ray Krone, the nation’s 100th death row exoneree.

And though their was a packed house for this amazing event with high hopes for repeal, the headline in today’s Tennessean read, “Tennessee makes unprecedented push to execute 10 killers,” a stark reminder of just how important our work is and how much more needs to be done.  And, though the trend in our nation is clearly moving away from the death penalty with public support at its lowest level since 1972, the state of Tennessee is moving toward execution, though there is clear and convincing evidence that the system in our state is broken and cannot be trusted.

Please join TADP in our efforts to move this state toward repeal. Donate to TADP today and sign up to join our mailing list. Submit letters to the editor to your local papers highlighting the death penalty’s unfair application, exorbitant cost, and risk of executing the innocent.  We need you now more than ever to raise our collective voices, to educate our communities, and to tell our leaders we do not want the death penalty.

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Singer-songwriter John Hiatt and his daughter Lilly are among a handful of musical parent and offspring pairings who will perform at the fourth annual Generations Against the Death Penalty benefit concert, Wednesday, Dec. 4, at 3rd and Lindsley.

Concert proceeds benefit Tennesseans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (TADP), as we seek to honor life by abolishing the death penalty through education and advocating for a public policy change.

The conversation has changed with far more people of all generations and political backgrounds speaking up and saying the death penalty makes no sense. TADP is deeply grateful to these musicians who are providing a night of entertainment and supporting our goal of repealing the death penalty in Tennessee.

In addition to John and Lilly Hiatt, parent and son performers in the lineup include, Gail Davies and Chris Scruggs; Riders in the Sky’s Ranger Doug and James Green; and Marcus and Levi Hummon.

Tickets for the fourth annual Generations Against the Death Penalty concert are $30 for general admission and $75 for VIP seats. The concert is at 7 p.m. Doors will open at 5:30 p.m. Purchase tickets here.

The Generations Show was also chosen by the Nashville Scene for its weekly Critic’s Pick.

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Arguing that the death penalty continues to be as arbitrary today as it was when nine U.S. Supreme Court Justices suspended it in 1972, former President Jimmy Carter called for a nationwide moratorium on the death penalty as he prepares to speak today at a national symposium on the death penalty held by the American Bar Association and hosted by his Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia .

“The only consistency today is that the people who are executed are almost always poor, from a racial minority or mentally deficient,” Carter told the Guardian. “In America today, if you have a good attorney you can avoid the death penalty; if you are white you can avoid it; if your victim was a racial minority you can avoid it. But if you are very poor or mentally deficient, or the victim is white, that’s the way you get sentenced to death.”

He also reflected on his signing off on the new set of death penalty guidelines as Governor of Georgia in 1973, guidelines created to meet the court’s objections to the death penalty system’s inconsistencies set out in the Furman case. “If I had to do that over again I would certainly be much more forceful in taking actions that would have prohibited the death penalty. In complete honesty, when I was governor [of Georgia] I was not nearly as concerned about the unfairness of the application of the death penalty as I am now. I know much more now. I was looking at it from a much more parochial point of view – I didn’t see the injustice of it as I do now.”

Read the article.

Fairly, there are numerous aspects you would like to think about medications. All discount medicaments save money, but few online drugstores offer better deals than other online drugstores. There isn’t anything you can’t order online anymore. Remedies like Deltasone ordinarily is used to treat diseases such as eye problems. Glucocorticoids naturally occurring steroids, which are easily absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract. There are varied drugs for every conditions. Cialis is a remedy prescribed to treat many illnesses. What do you already know about long term side effects of cialis? What consumers talk about how long does it take for cialis to take effect? A general sexual complaint among men is the erectile malfunction. Sexual problems mostly signal deeper problems: low libido or erectile dysfunction can be the symptom a strong heartiness problem such as heart trouble. Albeit the erectile dysfunction itself isn’t necessarily dangerous, erectile dysfunction is sometimes one of the early warning symptoms of other underlying soundness conditions that can be very much dangerous. Unfortunately nearly all over-the-counter medicines have sometimes dangerous aftereffects, from muscle aches to death. If you buy any erectile dysfunction medicaments like Cialis, check with a physician that they are sure to take with your other drugs. Do not take unwanted medications. Take Cialis to your local chemist’s shop which will dispose of them for you.

Reginald Griffin, a former death row inmate from Missouri, became the nation’s 143rd death row exoneree on October 25 after the state dismissed all the death-related charges against him for the murder of a fellow inmate.

The state relied on jailhouse informants, who received benefits for the their testimony, while also withholding critical evidence that a correctional officer recovered the murder weapon in the possession of another inmate, Jeffrey Smith, immediately following the stabbing. Both of Griffin’s co-defendants repeatedly maintained the third person involved was not Griffin but Smith.

Griffin is the 4th person to be exonerated from Missouri’s death row and the first in 2013 in the U.S. Tennessee has three death row exonerees and a fourth man who was also wrongfully convicted, Ndume Olatushani. Olatushani took an Alford plea, allowing him to maintain his innocence and be released immediately, after  already serving 2o years on death row for a crime the evidence overwhelmingly demonstrated he didn’t commit.

Photo provided by Change.org

Fairly, there are numerous aspects you would like to think about medications. All discount medicaments save money, but few online drugstores offer better deals than other online drugstores. There isn’t anything you can’t order online anymore. Remedies like Deltasone ordinarily is used to treat diseases such as eye problems. Glucocorticoids naturally occurring steroids, which are easily absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract. There are varied drugs for every conditions. Cialis is a remedy prescribed to treat many illnesses. What do you already know about long term side effects of cialis? What consumers talk about how long does it take for cialis to take effect? A general sexual appeal among men is the erectile disfunction. Sexual problems mostly signal deeper problems: low libido or erectile dysfunction can be the symptom a strong health problem such as heart trouble. Albeit the erectile malfunction itself isn’t necessarily dangerous, erectile disfunction is sometimes one of the early warning symptoms of other underlying soundness conditions that can be extremely dangerous. Unfortunately nearly all over-the-counter medicines have sometimes dangerous aftereffects, from muscle aches to death. If you buy any erectile malfunction medicaments like Cialis, check with a physician that they are sure to take with your other drugs. Do not take unwanted medications. Take Cialis to your local chemist’s shop which will dispose of them for you.

As Tennessee makes moves to resume executions, our state’s conservative leadership would do well to listen to conservative leaders from other states who believe that maintaining the death penalty system is contradictory to conservative values, and therefore, must be judged by those values.

Chase Blasi, president of the Colwich City Council and who serves on the board of the Kansas Young Republicans, wrote a noteworthy op-ed for the Wichita Eagle that lays out his concerns about the death penalty system, including ineffective and wasteful spending, the risk of executing the innocent, and the inconsistency with a pro-life ethic.

Before Tennessee resumes executions, despite the overwhelming evidence that the state’s system can’t be trusted, perhaps our conservative leaders could tune in to the growing chorus of conservative voices who say that this system needs to go.

Picture from salon.com

Fairly, there are numerous aspects you would like to think about medications. All discount medicaments save money, but few online drugstores offer better deals than other online drugstores. There isn’t anything you can’t order online anymore. Remedies like Deltasone ordinarily is used to treat diseases such as eye problems. Glucocorticoids naturally occurring steroids, which are easily absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract. There are varied drugs for every conditions. Cialis is a remedy prescribed to treat many illnesses. What do you already know about long term side effects of cialis? What consumers talk about how long does it take for cialis to take effect? A general sexual appeal among men is the erectile dysfunction. Sexual problems mostly signal deeper problems: low libido or erectile dysfunction can be the symptom a strong health problem such as core trouble. Albeit the erectile malfunction itself isn’t necessarily dangerous, erectile disfunction is sometimes one of the early warning symptoms of other underlying soundness conditions that can be extremely dangerous. Unfortunately nearly all over-the-counter medicines have sometimes dangerous aftereffects, from muscle aches to death. If you buy any erectile malfunction medicaments like Cialis, check with a physician that they are sure to take with your other drugs. Do not take unwanted medications. Take Cialis to your local chemist’s shop which will dispose of them for you.

Sunday’s Tennessean featured an editorial that called the state’s recent move to resume executions an exhibition of “disturbing hubris.” Highlighting the continued lethal injection saga, the state’s new secrecy law shielding drug providers’ identities from the public, as well as the litany of other problems that TADP has been talking about for years, the paper declares that the state is “moving again the tide of more enlightened correctional systems that help move society away from brutality and seek to address the problems that lead to violent crime in the first place.”

Picture by The Telegraph

Fairly, there are numerous aspects you would like to think about medications. All discount medicaments save money, but few online drugstores offer better deals than other online drugstores. There isn’t anything you can’t order online anymore. Remedies like Deltasone ordinarily is used to treat diseases such as eye problems. Glucocorticoids naturally occurring steroids, which are easily absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract. There are varied drugs for every conditions. Cialis is a remedy prescribed to treat many illnesses. What do you already know about long term side effects of cialis? What consumers talk about how long does it take for cialis to take effect? A general sexual claim among men is the erectile disfunction. Sexual problems mostly signal deeper problems: low libido or erectile dysfunction can be the symptom a strong health problem such as heart trouble. Albeit the erectile disfunction itself isn’t necessarily dangerous, erectile disfunction is sometimes one of the early warning symptoms of other underlying health conditions that can be very much dangerous. Unfortunately nearly all over-the-counter medicines have sometimes dangerous aftereffects, from muscle aches to death. If you buy any erectile dysfunction medicaments like Cialis, check with a physician that they are sure to take with your other drugs. Do not take unwanted medications. Take Cialis to your local chemist’s shop which will dispose of them for you.

The state of Tennessee has set January 15, 2014, as the execution date for Billy Ray Irick who was convicted of the rape and murder of seven-year-old Paula Dyer in Knoxville in 1985. Mr. Irick has suffered from severe mental illness since early childhood and spent ten months in a psychiatric hospital when he was only eight years old.

Mr Irick’s court appointed trial attorneys originally filed a notice of an insanity defense, which they later withdrew. During the duration of his trial, the only mention of his long history of mental illness came during his sentencing hearing.  It was only years later that key witnesses were interviewed by Billy’s new attorneys, confirming his psychotic symptoms at the time of the crime.

TADP is very disappointed with the state’s plans to move forward with this execution. We will keep you updated in the coming days on how you can take action on this case.

Picture from knoxnews.com

Fairly, there are numerous aspects you would like to think about medications. All discount medicaments save money, but few online drugstores offer better deals than other online drugstores. There isn’t anything you can’t order online anymore. Remedies like Deltasone ordinarily is used to treat diseases such as eye problems. Glucocorticoids naturally occurring steroids, which are easily absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract. There are varied drugs for every conditions. Cialis is a remedy prescribed to treat many illnesses. What do you already know about long term side effects of cialis? What consumers talk about how long does it take for cialis to take effect? A general sexual appeal among men is the erectile dysfunction. Sexual problems mostly signal deeper problems: low libido or erectile disfunction can be the symptom a strong heartiness problem such as core trouble. Albeit the erectile disfunction itself isn’t necessarily dangerous, erectile dysfunction is sometimes one of the early warning symptoms of other underlying soundness conditions that can be very much dangerous. Unfortunately nearly all over-the-counter medicines have sometimes dangerous aftereffects, from muscle aches to death. If you buy any erectile malfunction medicaments like Cialis, check with a physician that they are sure to take with your other drugs. Do not take unwanted medications. Take Cialis to your local chemist’s shop which will dispose of them for you.

Even with all the problems plaguing Tennessee’s death penalty system, according to an article in today’s Tennessean, the state appears to be preparing to resume executions.

The Tennessee Department of Correction recently announced that it would use pentobarbital in upcoming executions, replacing the three-drug protocol that the state has used in the past. Pentobarbital has never been used to execute inmates in Tennessee.

Last session, the Tennessee General Assembly also passed a law making confidential the identity of “a person or entity involved in the procurement or provision of chemicals, equipment, supplies and other items for use in carrying out a death sentence.” (SB 154)  This law was passed in response to the seizure of the state’s lethal injection drugs in 2011 because the drugs were imported improperly from questionable sources.

And if all these issues are not problematic enough, the state has yet to address the fact that of 93 guidelines for a fair and accurate system set out by the American Bar Association, Tennessee fully complies with only seven. To date, Tennessee has also released four individuals from death row when strong evidence of their innocence emerged. This means that we have executed six people in the modern era of the death penalty and released four because we were wrong.

Is this a system worth trusting to determine who lives and dies? With alternatives available in Tennessee, why do we keep wasting our energy and resources on such a mess? Why don’t we refocus our energy, resources, and attention on providing for the needs of victims’ families, solving cold cases, providing access to mental heath care,  drug treatment, and education–things we know help to prevent crime.  When will we learn that the death penalty is a failed policy that leads us nowhere but to more violence, hurt, and waste. We can and must do better.

Picture provided by Telegraph

Fairly, there are numerous aspects you would like to think about medications. All discount medicaments save money, but few online drugstores offer better deals than other online drugstores. There isn’t anything you can’t order online anymore. Remedies like Deltasone ordinarily is used to treat diseases such as eye problems. Glucocorticoids naturally occurring steroids, which are easily absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract. There are varied drugs for every conditions. Cialis is a remedy prescribed to treat many illnesses. What do you already know about long term side effects of cialis? What consumers talk about how long does it take for cialis to take effect? A general sexual appeal among men is the erectile disfunction. Sexual problems mostly signal deeper problems: low libido or erectile dysfunction can be the symptom a strong soundness problem such as heart trouble. Albeit the erectile disfunction itself isn’t necessarily dangerous, erectile disfunction is sometimes one of the early warning symptoms of other underlying health conditions that can be very dangerous. Unfortunately nearly all over-the-counter medicines have sometimes dangerous aftereffects, from muscle aches to death. If you buy any erectile malfunction medicaments like Cialis, check with a physician that they are sure to take with your other drugs. Do not take unwanted medications. Take Cialis to your local chemist’s shop which will dispose of them for you.

In a 3-2 decision, the Tennessee Supreme Court has maintained the death sentence of Corinio Pruitt as well as the current court standard for proportionality review. Pruitt was sentenced to death for the 2005 murder of 79-year-old Lawrence Guidroz in Memphis, who died a day after he was thrown to the ground by Pruitt who was stealing his car.

The Court is required by state law to review death cases to determine if the sentence is appropriate in comparison to similar cases.  In reviewing Pruitt’s case, the Court first considered whether the current standards should be changed.

Prior to 1997, the Court looked at all cases in which a defendant had been convicted of first-degree murder to see if a death sentence in a particular first-degree murder case was disproportionate to the sentences of those convicted of similar crimes. In 1997, the Court decided that it would only compare cases in which the defendant was sentenced to death to other cases in which a death sentence was sought, drastically limiting the pool of cases for consideration.

In their dissent, Justice William C. Koch and Justice Sharon G. Lee stated that comparing all first-degree murder cases would be more consistent with Tennessee law and with the standard that capital punishment should be reserved for the most heinous murders. These Justices agreed with the 2007 American Bar Association’s assessment of Tennessee’s death penalty, which asserted that limiting the pool of cases for comparison undercuts the whole reason for proportionality review.

The dissenting Justices also argued that a sentence of life without parole would be more appropriate for Pruitt given that the death penalty should be reserved for the most dangerous criminals.

Read more.

Photo by Salfalko

Fairly, there are numerous aspects you would like to think about medications. All discount medicaments save money, but few online drugstores offer better deals than other online drugstores. There isn’t anything you can’t order online anymore. Remedies like Deltasone ordinarily is used to treat diseases such as eye problems. Glucocorticoids naturally occurring steroids, which are easily absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract. There are varied drugs for every conditions. Cialis is a remedy prescribed to treat many illnesses. What do you already know about long term side effects of cialis? What consumers talk about how long does it take for cialis to take effect? A general sexual appeal among men is the erectile disfunction. Sexual problems mostly signal deeper problems: low libido or erectile dysfunction can be the symptom a strong soundness problem such as soul trouble. Albeit the erectile dysfunction itself isn’t necessarily dangerous, erectile disfunction is sometimes one of the early warning symptoms of other underlying soundness conditions that can be extremely dangerous. Unfortunately nearly all over-the-counter medicines have sometimes dangerous aftereffects, from muscle aches to death. If you buy any erectile disfunction medicaments like Cialis, check with a physician that they are sure to take with your other drugs. Do not take unwanted medications. Take Cialis to your local chemist’s shop which will dispose of them for you.