Stop the Secrecy Bills: Take Action Today!

 

Dear friend,

Last week was quite a flurry when it comes to the news and the death penalty! First, Ohioans to Stop Executions made headlines in Columbus, Wilmington and Springfield with our Voices of Experience Tour. Join us next week when we make more headlines in Bluffton and Toledo!

Also, Attorney General Mike DeWine let slip that no more executions would happen until proposed legislation is passed.

Wait! What legislation?

It turns out that the Attorney General has been working with county prosecutors on several bills to turn some public information around executions into state secrets. One big problem with this legislation is that they may try to pass it in the rush of the lame duck legislative session, when few people are paying close attention and no one is held accountable.

The other big problem? These bills promise secrecy and anonymity for medical professionals who violate their professional ethics in support of executions. Even while we were on the road last week, we were working with medical associations and open government groups who have joined with OTSE to stop the secrecy bills!

And you can help today!

 If you live in Ohio, click here to see the roster of county prosecutors. Find yours and call them, then e-mail them, and then put a letter in the postal mail. In each message make the following brief points, and be sure to give your contact information. End your communication by asking for a response in writing:

  • I live in [name of your county]
  • I want you to stop trying to pass secrecy bills to help medical professionals violate their code of ethics by participating in executions;
  • I want you to work to change the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association position so that the recommendations of the Supreme Court Joint Task Force on the Administration of Ohio’s Death Penalty get a full and fair hearing at the legislature. Everyone wants the death penalty to be fair and accurate.

Once again, OTSE is turning on a dime to deal with new and pressing opportunities and we need your dimes! Only with your support and involvement as a member of Ohioans to Stop Executions will OTSE be successful.

Everything you and I do this fall sets the stage for legislative action to stop the secrecy bills and implement the recommendations of the Supreme Court Task Force on the Administration of Ohio’s Death Penalty to make the capital punishment system in our state applied more fairly and used less often.

You can help bring speakers to your community. You can use copies of the Task Force flier to help educate, organize and mobilize your friends, family and colleagues to pressure your legislators to give the Task Force recommendations a fair hearing and then implement them. And you can help OTSE fund this work.

Two of your fellow members of Ohioans to Stop Executions feel so strongly about the importance of our work that they stepped forward to match every donation received by OTSE up to $10,000! We’re more than half way there, and your generous support today helps OTSE continue our work into next year’s legislative session. And we need it today. Whether you can give, $5 or $5,000 – or anything in between, remember that your donation will be matched until we raise $10,000.

If you have already donated recently, thank you. If you have not yet done so, please take a moment right now to donate at www.OTSE.org, or send your most generous donation to our new office in Columbus and help OTSE continue to fight. The new office is at 9 E. Long St, Suite 202, Columbus, Ohio 43215.

Thank You,



Kevin Werner
Executive Director

I can’t emphasize this point enough, so I will say it again. Two of your fellow OTSE members have pledged to match the next $10,000 we receive in donations. That means every dollar you give to OTSE actually means $2 to our cause. Double your dollars today!