Petitions

If you would like to get involved against the death penalty, you will find current online petitions and letter campaigns here in which you can participate. Furthermore, there is the possibility to write petitions yourself. You can find instructions here.

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Petitions for prisoners with current execution dates in the USA can also be found in the table “Scheduled executions (USA)”!

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NEW included actions and petitions:

Abdullah al Howaiti was only 14 years old when he was arrested in Saudi Arabia in 2017. He was tortured until he ‘confessed’ to crimes he could not have committed. He has several alibis – he was at the seafront playing football with these friends at the time of the alleged ‘crime’, a high stakes jewellery robbery and murder. That ‘confession’ was used to sentence him to death in 2019. He was 17 years old – still a child.

Gerald Pizzuto, Jr. WAS scheduled for execution in Idaho on June 2, 2021 for the 1985 murder of Berta Herndon and her nephew Del Herndon. The Board of Pardon and Parole voted to grant a hearing. The June 2 execution date is stayed! Please continue to sign this petition in case Mr. Pizzuto has a new execution date sat.

The federal death penalty is being used as a political tool by the Trump Administration and the campaign to re-elect Donald Trump. The administration is ignoring the law, ignoring compelling issues which demand executive clemency, ignoring the danger of executing during the pandemic, and even ignoring the families of victims in several cases who adamantly oppose the execution of the person convicted of killing their loved ones.

Willie Smith’s scheduled execution has been called off. For now. Please continue to sign this petition. Willie Smith was scheduled to be killed for the 1991 murder of Sharma Ruth Johnson. The issue that stopped the execution was whether he could have his pastor in the room with him when they kill him.

On September 4, 2020, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine kicked the can down the road yet again by pushing back execution dates and saying he is doing so because Ohio doesn’t have a mechanism to carry out the law. It’s time for Governor DeWine to lead Ohio to repeal its death penalty once and for all! Sign this petition urging Governor Mike DeWine to lead the effort to end Ohio’s death penalty.

URGENT ACTIONS from Amnesty International:

20-year-old Iranian Hossein Shahbazi faces execution for a crime that occurred when he was just 17 years old. Also, 25-year-old Arman Abdolali has been sentenced to death for a crime that occurred when he was just 17 years old.

Twelve people sentenced to death face imminent execution after Egypt’s highest appeals court upheld their death sentences on June 14 following a grossly unfair mass trial. They were sentenced to death for their involvement in protests related to the overthrow of former President Mursi in July 2013.

MORE PETITIONS:

Petition for Innocent U.S. Federal Prisoner Billie Allen (06.09.20):
Billie Allen was wrongfully convicted of the 1997 armed robbery and murder of security guard Richard Heflin at Lindell Bank & Trust in St. Louis, Missouri. Although there was no physical, forensic or documentary evidence linking him to the crime, he was arrested the next day.

Online petition for James Dailey, Florida:
James Dailey was scheduled to be executed in Florida on Nov. 7, 2019. He was granted a stay to explore his claims of innocence, however on December 11th, U.S. District Court Judge William Jung ruled that the state’s case against Daley was “not strong, but it was sufficient.” Dailey has spent more than 30 years on death row for a murder he did not commit.

Online Petition for Gerald Marshall, Texas (05.09.20):
Gerald Marshall was wrongfully sentenced to death in Texas 16 years ago for capital murder in the course of an attempted robbery of a Whataburger restaurant. He is a victim of false accomplice testimony, prosecutorial, police and judicial misconduct, eyewitness misidentification and systemic racism in Harris County at the time of trial.

Online petition for Randy Halprin, Texas:
Randy Halprin is on death row in Texas and was scheduled for execution on October 10, 2019, even though he never killed anyone. Halprin was in a Texas prison and participated in an escape with six other prisoners which eventually resulted in the murder of a police officer by a different escapee. Texas is a state with a so-called “Law of Parties” which holds all participants in a crime equally culpable for the actions of an individual.
Online petition for Rodney Reed, Texas:
The State’s entire case against Rodney Reed has been demolished. The timeline is wrong, all the expert witnesses recanted their testimony, and some of the most respected forensic pathologists in the world concur that the prosecution’s theory is impossible. The State’s case doesn’t make sense because Rodney is innocent.

Online petition for Rodney Reed, Texas:
Thanks to massive pressure, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ordered an indefinite stay of execution for Rodney. But he is still in jail, and there will still be a trial. Mountains of evidence exonerates Rodney Reed. All of that evidence was kept from the all white jury that convicted him.

Online petition for Rodney Reed, Texas:
The State of Texas wants to execute an innocent man on November 20, 2019. Rodney Reed was wrongfully convicted in 1998 of the rape and murder of Stacey Stites. He has sat on Texas’ Death Row for 2 decades.

Online petition for Marcellus Williams, Missouri:
Marcellus Williams is scheduled to be executed on Tuesday, August 22, 2017. He was convicted of the August 11, 1998 robbery and murder of 42-year-old Felicia Gayle in her St. Louis home. There is no physical evidence linking him to the crime – none of the DNA evidence matches Marcellus.

Say NO to the Death Penalty in Belarus:
Belarus is the last country in Europe and former Soviet Union that is still carrying out the death penalty. Amnesty International, Human Rights Centre “Viasna”, Belarusian Helsinki Committee and other human rights defenders in Belarus oppose the death penalty in all cases without exception. We call on the President and Parliament of Belarus to immediately declare a moratorium on death sentences and executions as a first step towards full abolition of the death penalty.

Youth faces death sentence in Saudi Arabia (13.10.20):
Mohammed Essam al-Faraj was 15 years old when he was arrested. Because of a loophole in the law, Mohammed faces the death penalty. Mohammed’s trial is imminent. Together, we can stand up for Mohammed and remind Saudi Arabian authorities that the world is watching. Add your name to help ensure Mohammed does not face the death penalty.

Threatened Execution of Hussein Abo al-Kheir, Saudi Arabia (07.09.20):
Hussein Abo al-Kheir is a Jordanian father of eight who was tortured by Saudi authorities in 2014 and forced to “confess” to a drug smuggling operation. Hussein could be killed any day for what he confessed to under torture.

Petition for Three Protesters Sentenced to Death in Iran (30.08.20):
Amirhossein Moradi, Mohammad Rajabi, and Saeed Tamjidi face execution. They were sentenced to death by Branch 15 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court on charges of “enmity to God” and other charges.

Stop Executions in Sri Lanka!
After 43 years without using death penalty, the President of Sri Lanka, Maithripala Sirisena, is reportedly planning to execute prisoners on death row. If this happens, it will mean that President Sirisena will single-handedly undo Sri Lanka’s enviable record of shunning this irreversible punishment in the region.

Notes on the petitions listed with us:

The petitions presented on this page reach the Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty from a variety of sources, both other organizations and private individuals.

The German Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty supports these petions insofar as it publishes them here. The German Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty assumes that the initiators of the presented petitions generally pursue goals that correspond to their own concerns or the statutory purpose of the German Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty – for example, the worldwide abolition of the death penalty, the improvement of prison conditions, the publication of individual cases, etc.

The German Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty refrains from an in-depth examination of the content of the petitions presented here and explicitly points out at this point that the statements contained in the petitions are solely the responsibility of the respective author and cannot necessarily be confirmed by the German Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.

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Sources and organizations with further petitions:

Online petitions of the American organization DEATH PENALTY ACTION, in which you can participate – the petitions concern death row inmates of the USA with execution date or despite postponement running actions.

Online petitions of the American organization CATHOLIC MOBILIZING NETWORK, in which you can participate; the petitions are formulated from the point of view of Catholic Christians, but most of them can be edited individually.

Online petitions of the Catholic organization SANT’EGIDIO: The petitions are written from the point of view of Catholic Christians. Sant’Egidio has its origins in Italy, but is spread all over the world.

Online petitions of the English organization REPRIEVE: The petitions often concern death penalty cases worldwide. Reprieve is a human rights organization based in the United Kingdom.

A comprehensive Collection of petitions you will find on the German website “Todesstrafe-Nachrichten”!

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