The lost art of letter writing
Old school? Yes.
Effective when trying to communicate with legislators? YES!
One of the most effective ways to communicate with lawmakers about the death penalty is to reach them via good old fashioned snail mail, and, wait for it, in your own hand writing. So, blow the dust off of that note pad in your desk and jot down a few sentences to your Representative and Senator. It may seem cumbersome, but it works.
Oh, and by the way, use unique stamps and personalize the mail piece as much as possible.
Talking Points:
Innocent people on death row!
- * The Pa Bar Association reported that we are at risk of executing an innocent person – this is not a risk that we should be willing to take.
- * Six people have been released from Pa™s death row due to innocence and an astounding 143 have been exonerated nation wide.
- * Cameron Todd Willingham was executed in Texas in 2004 despite the overwhelming amount of evidence that leads to his innocence. Click here for a link to view the full story.
The cost of capital punishment is too high!
- * New Jersey found that it is as much as three times more expensive to execute someone than to keep them in prison for life.
- * We have alternatives to executions in Pennsylvania; we can keep our communities safe by handing out strict sentencing.
- * All the money we save can go toward policing, safety measures for our prison guards and a host of other preventative services.
- * At this time of national economic crisis and a statewide budget freeze – now is a good a time as ever to halt this wasteful system and look for ways to make our society a better place. Click here for a link to a New York Times editorial about the cost of capital punishment.
Racial, geographic and economic disparities!
- * African-American defendants in Philadelphia are four times more likely to be given a death sentence than white defendants.
- * Although Philadelphia™s murder rate is only 3 times great than that of Harrisburg, the proportion of those condemned to death is 11 times greater in Philadelphia.
- * Pennsylvania provides no funding for indigent defense services, opting instead to rely on county-funded indigent defense systems. As a result, the quality of Pennsylvania™s capital indigent defense system varies widely among counties and fails to afford uniform, quality representation to many capital defendants.
Click on the Activist Tool Box for some letter examples….
