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Organizing in Troy Davis’s Name

After mourning, fight back by helping these four groups redouble their efforts to abolish capital punishment in the US.

Peter Rothberg

September 22, 2011

It’s hard not to mourn, but when you’re ready to start organizing, here are four groups redoubling their efforts to abolish capital punishment in the US in Troy Davis’s name. Each organization was deeply involved in the fight to save Davis, and each group requires volunteers and financial support to survive.

Amnesty International is asking people to sign on to its Not in My Name pledge demanding that the United States join the rest of the civilized world in barring capital punishment.

The NAACP, America’s most venerable civil rights organization, was in the forefront of the fight to save Davis. The group’s formal mission is to ensure the political, educational, social and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate race-based discrimination, but, under the leadership of Ben Jealous, the NAACP has also thrown itself into the thick of the fight to abolish the death penalty.

The Innocence Project is a highly effective litigation and public policy organization dedicated to exonerating wrongfully convicted through both DNA testing and through reform of the criminal justice system. With the generous support of individuals like you, the Innocence Project has been able to free scores of innocent people by offering free representation to indigent inmates.

The Campaign to End the Death Penalty (CEDP) is a national grassroots organization dedicated to the abolition of capital punishment. With active chapters in cities and campuses across the United States—including California, Texas, Chicago, New York and Washington, DC—the CEDP functions as a national clearinghouse, and organizer, for death penalty activism.

As Davis eloquently said in his astonishing final statement to supporters: “The struggle for justice doesn’t end with me. This struggle is for all the Troy Davises who came before me and all the ones who will come after me. I’m in good spirits and I’m prayerful and at peace.”

In Tribute: I Am Troy Davis (T.R.O.Y.)

Peter RothbergTwitterPeter Rothberg is the The Nation’s associate publisher.


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