National Anti-Death Penalty Conference Attracts Diverse Perspectives

In an extraordinary gathering of voices, murder victims’ family members, family members of those on death row, and death row exonerees came together in San Jose Jan. 17-20 for the preeminent national meeting of anti-death penalty advocates. The conference, “NCADP 2008: Reaching for the Dream,” brought together victims’ family members opposed to the death penalty with the New Jersey legislator who helped replace  the death penalty in his state with sentencing people to die in prison. 

The conference, co-hosted this year by the California-based Death Penalty Focus, comes at a time when legislators, policy-makers, and survivors of murder victims themselves are rethinking their support for capital punishment. Family members of victims oppose the death penalty for many reasons. Some feel the long, drawn-out process keeps them from reaching closure. Others would like the millions currently spent on the death penalty redirected towards programs aimed at apprehending perpetrators and helping the families of victims heal.

“History is on our side” proclaimed Lance Lindsay, Executive Director of Death Penalty Focus, at the opening session of the annual conference.

These are historic times: Not only did New Jersey recently replace the death penalty with sentencing people to die in prison, but California is also in the midst of the first official probe of the largest death row in the country.  Just a week before the conference, where activists and attorneys gathered from all over the country to celebrate New Jersey's success and develop strategies for more change, the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice began a serious inquiry into the state’s broken death penalty system.