OHIOANS TO STOP EXECUTIONS
MEDIA ADVISORY
May 18, 2017
For Immediate Release
Contact: Emily Schutz, OTSE: 614-747-1036
Jennifer Greybeal, Lush: 360-261-0428
LUSH COSMETICS TEAMS WITH OHIOANS TO STOP EXECUTIONS
Exonerated Death Row Survivor Kwame Ajamu to Appear at Polaris Lush Store This Saturday
Columbus – The Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics shop at Polaris Fashion Place welcomes Ohioans to Stop Executions and exonerated Ohio death row survivor Kwame Ajamu at a “Charity Pot Awareness Event” this Saturday, May 20th from 12pm to 4pm. This event is part of a national campaign calling for the abolition of the death penalty launched this past Monday by the company in its 200 stores across the United States.
Kwame Ajamu and two co-defendants were exonerated in 2014 after surviving a wrongful death sentence and decades in Ohio prisons for a crime they had nothing to do with. Ajamu is featured in the ten-minute film titled ‘Exonerated’ which accompanies the Lush Cosmetics company’s national campaign materials on its web site at http://www.lushusa.com/. He will be at the Lush Polaris shop to share his experience and answer questions.
“We are thrilled that the Lush Polaris shop is turning its local store into an organizing hub to help educate our community about how the death penalty fails us as a public policy,” said Kevin Werner, executive director of Ohioans to Stop Executions. “We helped train the Lush employees to engage customers with Ohio information over the period of this campaign, and we look forward to providing Ohioans with the opportunity to learn more and take action this Saturday.”
Lyndi Grossman, a spokesperson at Lush Polaris, said “the more people learn about the death penalty, the less they like it, and we’re excited to be bringing this important issue to our customers for discussion.”
From May 15-25, Lush shops across the United Stares have been outfitted with special campaign lightboxes. Customers are being invited to sign petitions and take information with them. One hundred percent of the sale price of the campaign’s limited edition product – a bath bomb called 31 States – will benefit national organizations working to abolish the death penalty including the national partner the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. Ohioans to Stop Executions, an affiliate of the National Coalition, is the recipient of a grant from Lush’s Charity Pot charitable giving fund, to assist in its public education efforts.
Kevin Werner, Kwame Ajamu and his wife LaShawn Ajamu will be available for interviews at the event. LaShawn Ajamu also appears in the video, and she serves as co-chair of Ohioans to Stop Executions Murder Victims Families Outreach Project. LaShawn Ajamu’s brother James Nero was murdered in 1997 in Canton. She has testified at the Ohio Legislature about the unmet needs of homicide survivors.
For more information, visit lushusa.com