Weekly Report from the Board Meeting at Holman Prison 8.19.26
Governor Ivey has set 9.17.26 as the execution date for Jeffery Lee. Talking Points are at https://www.phadp.org/execution-alert-11/ and also on our Facebook page. Please sign the petition: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/stop-the-execution-of-jeffery-lee-in-alabama/
Help 26 men get justice by clicking on this link https://wethejury-al.com/ and following instructions and let’s get rid of jury override and finally make it retroactive! We thank our friends at Alabama Arise for their ACTION ALERT on this issue! Robyn Hyden, executive director of Alabama Arise, says the coalition “We the jury” was founded to ask Governor Kay Ivey to grant clemency to the 25 men who are on death row due to judicial override of a jury, which the Alabama Legislature ruled to be unconstitutional in 2017. Thank you to our friends at Death Penalty Action for promoting “We the jury” !
“We The Jury—a new coalition of jurors, judges, attorneys, elected officials, community advocates and activists—is urging Governor Kay Ivey to grant clemency to death row inmates who were sentenced by judicial override, a now-illegal sentencing scheme that allowed judges to override a jury’s life sentence recommendation in favor of the death penalty.” Our supporter in Huntsville has made a great connection with the Unitarian Universalist church in that town and continues to contact churches and associates. We are grateful! The full length “Life for Jeffery Lee” film is now available on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSPK04QBFfw We are reaching out to contacts and on Tuesday, September 1 at 7:00 p.m. there will be a screening at 706 1st Ave Opelika. On August 30th at 12:30 there will be a screening at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, 1024 12th St S Birmingham. We continue to work on organizing more screenings of the film so we can reach more people to sign on to “We the jury” .
At Troy University our Advisory Board Member Dr. Retisha Warr is covering Jeffery Lee’s case with her online MSW class. She is also reaching out to Pike County Democrats and asked Doug Jones, who is running for Governor, about his stand on the death penalty.
The most important thing you can do right now for Jeffery Lee and the others is:
Call Governor Ivey. Tell her the jury said life.
Governor Ivey’s office: (334) 242-7100
The Alabama Supreme Court denied Michael Taylor’s request to vacate his warrant.
Tomorrow Thursday, August 20, 2026 at 6:00 PM CST -FLOCC’s National Advocacy Call The Faith Leaders of Color Coalition (FLOCC) is a multi faith national network of more than 800+ faith and community leaders dedicated to advancing justice, equity, and a critical examination of the American capital punishment system. https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/Akgdhi89SOCdG_eqDPoD8w#/registration
“Take Deep Breaths”: Medical Ethics and Visual Satire on Alabama’s Death Row, Our thanks to Katie Owens-Murphy and Kacey Keeton!
This paper approaches narrative criminology through the visual art produced by Carey Grayson prior to his execution by nitrogen gas in the state of Alabama in 2024. The art satirically represents Dr. Joseph Antognini, an anesthesiologist who testifies as an expert witness in favor of the safety of nitrogen gas as a method of execution. When studied through the lens of narrative sequencing and restorying, the satirical portraits by Grayson raise important ethical questions about the increasing involvement of medical professionals in executions, which undermines the Hippocratic oath these professionals take to “do no harm.” Grayson’s satire uses his own imminent execution as a window for exploring the absurdity of states’ experimentations with new methods as they attempt to establish compliance with the Eighth Amendment in the wake of botched executions related to lethal injection. We triangulate this art with transcripts of Antognini’s expert witness testimony in Grayson’s legal challenge to highlight the “medicalization” of executions in the U.S.
In a comment last Thursday when there were 3 executions in one day: “You look at the country as a whole, you’ve just got this little pocket of five or six states that are using the death penalty, executing people, and a small number of states that are still imposing new death sentences,” said Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. Unfortunately we are in that pocket!
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
www.phadp.org
