On December 11th, Andre Smith and I delivered NCCADP’s commutation petition to the governor’s office. It felt like a full circle moment since Andre was among those who first issued the call for Governor Cooper to commute all death sentences to prison terms when we launched our Commutation Campaign almost exactly two years earlier. Andre, who lost his son Daniel to murder in Raleigh in 2007, was among 19 homicide survivor family members who sent a letter to the governor marking the start of the campaign.
The petition, which we circulated for only 6 weeks, expanded our outreach beyond North Carolina. Among the more than 5,500 signatures were individuals from every state in the US and numerous countries around the world, many of whom live in places where the death penalty has already been discarded as a racist relic. In addition to racism, the signatories asked the governor to consider the fact that innocent people are sentenced to death in our state and that the death penalty is expensive and does not keep us safe. The petition also acknowledged that the governor has the authority to literally save lives by ensuring that executions do not resume.
This month, we also wrapped up our postcard campaign with a total of nearly 6,000 postcards mailed to the governor’s office asking him to commute death sentences. If you attended any of our 20 in-person events this year, you likely wrote at least one postcard! Hundreds of others supported the postcard campaign by distributing blank postcards to friends, family, book groups, faith communities, sororities and even at the NC State Fair!
For some activists and advocates, writing a postcard became a weekly ritual, reminding Governor Cooper of this important action only he had the power to take. Several people reached out to us and shared that they couldn’t participate in our 136-mile walk or attend an in-person meeting, but writing postcards and encouraging their friends to join them was a great way to participate in our movement.
As we reach the end of our campaign, we thank you for using your name, voice, time, and energy to call on Governor Cooper to commute death sentences. We believe he has heard us, and we remain hopeful that he will take bold, brave action in the next two weeks.
