sample letter to your senator

This is a sample letter for you to send to your State Senator encouraging him or her to support a moratorium on executions while a study is conducted to answer the many questions that surround the death penalty. Please try to add your own “personal touches” to the letter (changing the wording, adding information about who you are, putting it on your own stationery) in order to make clear that this is not a generic form letter. Elected officials will want to see that you are a resident of their district and that you have taking the time to approach them personally. A follow-up phone call and request for a meeting is definitely in order. So that we can track the amount of support for or opposition to a moratorium and study, please let Pa. Abolitionists know what kind of response you receive from your Senator, via phone call, email, fax, or U.S. mail.


Senator:

As your constituent, it is with great urgency that I ask your support for Senate Bill 25.

As you know, this legislation would establish a commission to undertake a two-year study the application of the death penalty in Pennsylvania. The study would ascertain whether defendants who are sentenced to death are in fact guilty of first degree murder, whether race plays a role in determining whether a defendant is sentenced to death, whether defendants in capital cases are provided adequate and experienced counsel, and whether the application of the death penalty is uniform throughout all Pennsylvania jurisdictions.

Executions would be temporarily suspended while the commission conducts the study.

Even those who support the concept of the death penalty cannot tolerate a system that is racially-biased and unfair, and there is plenty of evidence to suggest that a study is warranted. A 1998 study of the death penalty in Philadelphia found that black defendants were approximately four times more likely to be sentenced to death than other defendants convicted of virtually identical offenses. Of the 241 persons on Pennsylvania’s death row, 70 percent are black, Hispanic or Asian-American.

Nearly all of the inmates on death row are too poor to afford private counsel. Pennsylvania is one of the few states that has no state funding for attorneys defending death penalty cases or state competency standards for attorneys appointed by courts to represent poor defendants.

A majority of Pennsylvanians recognize that there are serious questions about the fairness of capital punishment here. A recent poll found that 72 percent are in favor of a temporary suspension of the death penalty while a study is conducted.

I respectfully request to know your position on Senate Bill 25, and how you would vote should the bill come before the full Senate.

Thank you very much for your consideration.

Sincerely,




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