Wishing Merry Christmas to Kerry Lyn !!!

I could not be with my dear sister this Christmas, (we had the last three together, locked in the small attorney room at CCWF, and it was a privilege to spend the holiday with Kerry!)  Many of us sent her cards and prayers this year. Thank you to all of you who love Kerry Lyn and sent her your good wishes this Christmas, you have helped make her time on Death Row a little cheery and easier to endure. She sends huge thank yous to each of you and sends her blessings upon you & your families.
We all look forward to the day Kerry comes home and can share Christmas and all other days with us!! 

 Kerry Lyn has pen pals (friends) in several other countries, these dear friends sent this e-card : 

http://www.jacquielawson.com/viewcard.asp?code=4543430452230&source=jl999&utm_medium=internal_email&utm_source=pickup&utm_campaign=receivercontent

 Kerry sent us this card

Our family sends our prayers to all the women on the Row at CCWF, we send you our love and will continue the work to restore human dignity to each of you through reform of the justice system and by acknowledging that
every human being is a gift who deserves compassion, 
and working to end the practice of the Death Penalty.
Merry Christmas to you all:
Rosie, Dora, Socorro (special condolences to your family for their recent lose of a family member), Celeste, Cynthia, Kerry Lyn, Susan, Veronica, Maureen, Michelle, Valerie, Tanya, Sandi, Angelina, Brook, Mary, Cathy, Janeen, Catherine, Manling

Here's a beautiful song for all of us :
Diana Ross, We Shall Overcome
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnzmPrsLXn8

Conservatives join the work to end the death penalty

Drew Johnson: Capital punishment inconsistent with conservative views

Drew Johnson…”cited the many exonerations (142 since 1972) from death row as another reason to challenge capital punishment: "Life is too precious to rely on mistake-prone processes like the death penalty." He noted that the Tennessee Comptroller's Office's found capital trials to be 48% more expensive than life-without-parole trials….

"My view of limited government is not giving the state the power to kill American citizens. There is nothing limited about that authority....

t's time that conservative Tennesseans begin to look at the death penalty to consider whether it's consistent with our view of the role of government and decide if retribution and revenge is worth sacrificing our principles, freedoms and liberties."
read complete article by clicking this link:

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/new-voices-another-conservative-leader-challenges-death-penalty




Info from Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty :

Innocent Lives in the Balance:

The real risk of executing the innocent

Since 1973, over 140 people have been freed from death row after evidence of innocence revealed that they had been wrongfully convicted. That’s almost one person exonerated for every ten who’ve been executed. Wrongful convictions rob innocent people of decades of their lives, waste tax dollars, and re-traumatize the victim’s family, while the people responsible remain unaccountable.

Cameron Todd Willingham was executed in Texas in 2004 for setting fire to his home, killing his three children. Experts now say that the arson theories used in the investigation are scientifically invalid. Willingham may very well have been executed for an accidental fire.

Gary Gauger was sentenced to die in Illinois for the murder of his parents. Police questioned him for 18 hours, depriving him of sleep, food, or drink. They convinced him that he had blacked out and that’s why he didn’t remember killing his parents. He was sentenced to die on the basis of this “confession.” An unrelated investigation later uncovered the people who actually committed the crime, and Gauger was exonerated.

We’ve learned a lot about the death penalty in the last 30 years. We now know that innocent people are sentenced to die. When a life is on the line, one mistake is one too many. Can we afford the risk?

more info:

http://conservativesconcerned.org/why-were-concerned/innocence/

The Death Penalty in 2013: Year End Review from Death Penalty Info Center

click the link below to watch the 2 minute video 
summarizing their report:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6eHXJLBt68

State-by-state data illustrate the decline in death penalty use this year:

• Two states, Texas and Florida, were responsible for the majority (59%) of executions nationwide. Texas had 16 executions and Florida had 7.
• For the sixth year in a row, Texas had less than 10 death sentences, a stark contrast from 1999, when it recorded 48.
• Prominent death penalty states, including South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, and Louisiana, had no death sentences in 2013.
• California had about 30% of the country’s death sentences, though the state has not carried out an execution in seven years.