Eva authored this guest post on Jan. 11 for the SAFE California Campaign site.

My fiancé, Steve Henry, was murdered in Kingston, Jamaica, on November 25, 1997. As bizarre as this may sound, one of the thoughts I had as the initial shock wore off, was “Well, am I still against the death penalty?” My answer then and now is a resounding “YES”. The death penalty is wrong.

I will be thinking of Steve this weekend as Rev. Jesse Jackson, the California NAACP, and civil rights leaders throughout the state come together to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. We are all supporting the SAFE California campaign to end death sentences. Dr. King once said, “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: ‘What are you doing for others?’” I plan to honor Steve’s memory and Dr. King’s passionate commitment to justice.

Will you join us to honor justice and Dr. King?

The SAFE California campaign is sponsored by a broad coalition of justice organizations who are all joined in the commitment to replace the death penalty to protect the innocent, save our very limited state resources, and improve safety in our communities. SAFE is working hard to get the hundreds of thousands of signatures needed to qualify the “Savings, Accountability, and Full Enforcement for California Act” ballot initiative in time for the November 2012 election.

I am proud to say that my organization, Equal Justice Society, sits on the SAFE California Campaign Steering Committee. We at Equal Justice Society, like Dr. King and his wife Coretta Scott King, have always been opposed to the death penalty and advocated for an end to this risky and costly punishment. I am also proud to say that many of the dedicated members of Equal Justice Society will be joining the thousands of volunteers statewide who are ready to commemorate Dr. King’s leadership by joining this historic movement over MLK weekend.

Coretta Scott King declared, “As one whose husband and mother-in-law have died the victims of murder assassination, I stand firmly and unequivocally opposed to the death penalty for those convicted of capital offenses.” I know how difficult that statement is to make and I agree wholeheartedly.

Please join me to honor the King family and all victims of senseless violence by making a commitment to justice this coming weekend.

In peace,
Eva Paterson

- Written by Eva Paterson, President and Co-Founder of the Equal Justice Society and guest blogger for the SAFE California Campaign

“Troy’s execution, the exceptional unfairness of it, will only hasten the end of the death penalty in the United States,” wrote Ben Jealous of the NAACP last night. “The world will remember the name of Troy Anthony Davis. In death he will live on as a symbol of a broken justice system that kills an innocent man while a murderer walks free.”

The Equal Justice Society sees the death penalty as one of the most egregious manifestations of discrimination in our country. Eva Paterson last year wrote a personal and compelling post about how the death penalty disproportionately impacts Blacks and Latinos and we have continued to engage in anti-death penalty efforts.

Last month, the EJS legal team traveled to Montgomery, Alabama, the birthplace of the civil rights movement, where we met with death penalty litigators from around the country to identify strategies to overturn McCleskey v. Kemp, a 1987 Supreme Court case in which a habeas petitioner presented statistical evidence showing grave disparities in the imposition of the death penalty in Georgia.

EJS is ready to end California’s dysfunctional death penalty and we need your help!

The SAFE California Campaign was launched last month to replace the death penalty with life without the possibility of parole and create the SAFE CA Fund for local law enforcement to keep our families and communities safe.

We need your help to ensure that California voters see the SAFE CA Act on the ballot in 2012. On October 20, the SAFE CA Campaign will officially begin gathering signatures from across the state to place the initiative on the ballot in November 2012. We’ll need over half a million signatures – a tall order, but one our network of volunteers and activists is ready for. Please stand with us and lend a hand to end the death penalty.

Here are ways that you can help:

• Signature Gatherers comb their communities for people to sign the petition to put the SAFE CA Act on the ballot. They are the backbone of our community activist network and will ensure that Californians get a chance to vote for a SAFE California.
• Community Captains recruit, organize, and train Signature Gatherers. These are the fearless leaders for teams of Signature Gatherers in communities around the state, providing guidance and motivation for activists.
• Phone Bankers reach out to their fellow Californians by phone, recruiting volunteers and educating voters from the comfort of their own home or their local campaign HQ.

We’re ready to dump the death penalty in California in favor of real public safety solutions.

Sign up today to join the SAFE CA campaign to to end California’s dysfunctional death penalty.

In 2008, California voters passed Proposition 11, creating California’s first-ever citizens redistricting commission. The 14-member commission is responsible for drawing the state Senate, Assembly and Board of Equalization districts. The legislative lines drawn by the commission will determine political representation in California for the next decade.

Online applications are due on February 12, 2010. Please join us to discuss the role of the California Citizens Redistricting Commission and how to apply to serve on it. For more information, visit http://WeDrawTheLines.ca.gov or http://RedistrictingCA.org.

Here’s details of the forums in San Francisco and Sacramento:

SAN FRANCISCO
Monday, January 25, 2010
5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
Bingham McCutchen LLP
3 Embarcadero Center Promenade, 28th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94111
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=253282782559

Panelists include:
Thomas A. Saenz, President & General Counsel, MALDEF
Janis Hirohama, President, League of Women Voters of California
Nancy Ramirez, Western Regional Counsel, MALDEF
Sharon Reilly, Chief Legal Counsel, California Bureau of State Audits
Eva Paterson, President, Equal Justice Society (Moderator)

SACRAMENTO
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
Auditorium
1500 Capitol Mall
Sacramento, CA 95814
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=409474785243

Panelists include:
Thomas A. Saenz, President & General Counsel, MALDEF
Elaine Howle, California State Auditor
Nancy Ramirez, Western Regional Counsel, MALDEF
Trudy Schafer, Senior Program Director, League of Women Voters of CA
Samuel E. Walton, Redistricting Consultant, California NAACP (Moderator)

For more information, please contact Nancy Ramirez at 213-629-2512 x121 or at nramirez@maldef.org.

Space is limited. Please confirm your attendance for these events to Martin Muñoz at 213-629-2512 x143 or at mmunoz@maldef.org by Friday, January 22, 2010.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) recently released new regulations on its lethal injection process – a first step towards resuming executions in our state.

No one has been executed in California for more than three years. Unfortunately, the new CDCR regulations will not only re-engage the machinery of death, but they also contain several provisions that fail to preserve the dignity of prisoners and their families. For instance:

• The regulations do not provide non-Christian inmates equal access to their spiritual advisors or permission to conduct the end-of-life rituals necessary to obtain peace of mind before their deaths;
• The regulations do not provide adequate resources for non-Native English speaking inmates and their families that would guarantee full understanding of the process by which the inmate’s life will be taken;
• The regulations unduly limit the media’s access to information about executions, and do not provide for notice to ethnic or non-mainstream media outlets;
• Finally, the CDCR has refused to disclose how much the implementation of its new regulations will cost the state (despite that this information is required by law). In this time of fiscal crisis, the public has a right to know how many millions of dollars these executions will cost.

The new regulations are currently open for public comment and the CDCR is required to satisfactorily respond to each and every relevant comment prior to implementation. Click here for a summary of the regulations and information about how to submit comments.

Additionally, on Tuesday, June 30, a public hearing on the new CDCR regulations will take place as part of a Day of Action to End the Death Penalty.

JOIN EJS IN THE FIGHT TO END THE DEATH PENALTY
http://deathpenalty.org/article.php?id=362

The Court concluded that the District’s plan “does not show partiality, prejudice or preference to any student on the basis of that student’s race,” and that “the particular policy challenged here…is not discriminatory.” Therefore, the plan does not violate Proposition 209, California’s anti-affirmative action initiative passed in 1996.

In arriving at its decision, the court invoked the continuing legacy of Brown v. Board of Education, and affirmed the ability of school districts to develop and implement affirmative policies that foster social diversity and inclusion in their schools.

EJS lauds the Court’s decision, and we offer our congratulations and gratitude to the allies whose skillful and tireless advocacy contributed to this momentous victory – in particular, the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, the NAACP Legal Defense & Education Fund, and the ACLU of Northern & Southern California. This collaboration is an important testament to the value and continued pursuit of racial diversity and educational equality in our schools.

To read the full court decision:
http://www.naacpldf.org/content/pdf/berkley_district/berkeley_decision.pdf

For additional information and coverage:

http://www.naacpldf.org/content.aspx?article=1382

http://www.aclunc.org/news/press_releases/appellate_court_upholds_berkeley_unified_school_districts_voluntary_desegregation_plan.shtml

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/03/18/BAO716I7H4.DTL