Weekly Report from the Board Meeting at Holman Prison 12.10.25
“Anti-death penalty coalition talks surge in executions, dwindling public support”
The new US Campaign to End the Death Penalty argued the surge in executions, especially in the South, was disconnected from current public opinion.” Out of the 10 additional states that have conducted executions in 2025, Alabama, Texas and South Carolina tie for the second most prisoners executed, with each putting five inmates to death. Alabama also led the nation in executions last year, conducting six, a fact that was publicly celebrated by state Attorney General Steve Marshall.” We appreciate all who work to abolish the death penalty and are especially grateful to Death Penalty Action for standing with us.
Another step in the right direction happened last Tuesday “Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, filed a bill Tuesday seeking to amend the Constitution of Alabama of 2022 to prevent any crime from being punishable by death.
“Under existing law, the death penalty is authorized as a form of capital punishment for the crime of murder when certain aggravating circumstances are found by the trier of fact,” a synopsis of the bill read. “This bill would propose an amendment to the Constitution of Alabama of 2022, to provide that no crime may be punishable by death.”
From The Intercept a detailed discussion “Lethal Illusion: Understanding the Death Penalty Apparatus – The Intercept “If you have decided that people condemned to die in this country are less than human, and that their suffering doesn’t matter, then there’s no limits on what you are willing to tolerate in upholding this death protocol that we’ve invented in this country.’
The Death Penalty is certainly in the news these days and Alabama Wants to Lower the Bar for Executing Disabled People—If SCOTUS Lets It , Mother Jones, and this is being argued before the U.S. Supreme Court today. Definitely not good news!
We participated in the monthly Execution Intervention Project meeting. It is always uplifting as EIP is always working and planning how to end the death penalty. We are honored to be a member!
And yes, if you have been wondering we have been working on the Christmas edition of Wings of Hope for a while and it is now on its way from Holman and we hope it will be up on line before all too long.
We appreciated receiving THE DESERVING What the Lives of the Condemned Reveal about American Justice by Elizabeth Vartkessian, founder and director of Advancing Real Change Inc., a national nonprofit dedicated to conducting life history investigations in criminal cases.
The 2025 Christmas card list is up on our website: https://www.phadp.org/christmas-card-list-2025/. We thank you!
We thank all who are working so hard and diligently to stop all killing in Alabama! And as always in closing, we thank all our generous donors who either gave by going to our website and using the “donate” button or who gave directly. Thank you also to all who took the time to read our notes, commented, liked and shared them on Facebook. Stay safe and be kind to each other!
Esther
