The Federal Death Penalty Abolition Act of 2009 comes just after New Mexico governor Bill Richardson banned capital punishment in his state.

Scott Langley was scheduled to speak about his death penalty photo exhibit on Thursday evening at FSU’s Moore Auditorium at 7 p.m.  Unfortunately, the FSU Amnesty International Chapter had some difficulties booking a flight for Mr. Langley and he will not be in Tallahassee.  They plan to bring him to speak in the Fall.  In the meantime, his exhibit will be shown on Thursday and Friday of this week and Monday through Wednesday of next week at 3 locations around town.

Thursday, 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the Union Courtyard in front of Moore Auditorium
Friday, 621 Gallery at Railroad Square
Monday through Wednesday - International Center’s Gallery on FSU Campus
We are sorry for the inconvenience and hope you will make plans to attend the exhibit.
The Ku Klux Klan rallying in support of a black man’s execution in Texas. The North Carolina death row warden wheeling a gurney into the execution chamber. Weeping family members at the moment of a loved one’s execution.

These are just a few of the images captured in Scott Langley’s chilling death penalty documentary photography project, which is the most comprehensive collection of original death penalty photographs on the internet.

The photographs include execution vigils, inside an execution chamber, the hours leading up to an execution, portraits of exonerated death row prisoners, celebrities opposed to the death penalty, marches, demonstrations and candid emotional and prayerful moments.

The Death Penalty Photography Documentary Project is an eight-year product of exploring capital punishment through the photographer’s lens. It was birthed from a college art project to creatively address a human rights issue, and started with a few photos from an execution vigil in Huntsville, Texas.

The original project has since grown into an internationally shown exhibit consisting of over 800 images - making it the largest, most varied known collection of photos about the death penalty in the United States’ modern era.

This work-in-progress highlights Scott Langley’s efforts as a photojournalist and a human rights activist - bringing together the unique combination of art, journalism and education into one powerful project. The exhibit has been exhibited by Amnesty International in Boston, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Raleigh, Germany, Denmark, at Harvard and Cornell Universities, and in print and video media across the world.
Artist’s Biography:

Scott Langley is a free-lance photojournalist based in Boston. From 1996-2000, Scott was a Texas press photographer in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. His documentary work has been widespread throughout the world in recent years - appearing in newspapers, magazines, books, encyclopedias, theater productions, calendars, films, on television, t-shirts and even in a European music video. In addition to work as a photographer, Scott has been an active grassroots organizer against the death penalty since 1999. In 2004, he and his wife co-founded the Raleigh Catholic Worker Hospitality House where families of North Carolina death row prisoners may find free shelter, food and support.

Since 2004 Scott has served as an Amnesty International USA State Death Penalty Coordinator, first in North Carolina and now in Massachuetts. He now works on an international level to end executions and to educate people about the death penalty, traveling within and outside the U.S. to speak about capital punishment, his work against executions, his work with death row families, and about his photography documentary project.
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We will send a notice out soon about the program sponsored by TCADP to be held on Tuesday evening, April 14th, “Can Florida Afford the Death Penalty?”

Thank you.

Sheila Meehan
Chair, TCADP

Check out the Public Defenders Assoc. site and look for our Program on Tuesday, April 14th at 7:00 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church on Adams Street downtown.  http://sensiblesolutionsforflorida.com/index.html

As of this evening there is no clear sign of a stay of execution for Wayne Tompkins who is scheduled to be killed at 6 p.m. tomorrow, Wednesday, February 11th.  We will gather for a vigil at 5:45 p.m. on Wednesday in front of the Governor’s Mansion.

We will also meet at the Capitol Rotunda at noon on the following day, Thursday, for a Service of Remembrance for Wayne Tompkins and his alleged victim, Lisa DeCarr.

Please read the press release below which was issued today by the Innocence Project of Florida.  Their statement discusses the inconclusive testing done in the Tompkins case and asks Governor Crist to issue a stay until further DNA testing can be done.

Thank you.

Sheila Meehan
Chair, TCADP

The Innocence Project of Florida (IPF), in a letter signed by their Executive Director Seth Miller, today urged Florida Governor Charlie Crist to stay the execution of Wayne Tompkins, who is scheduled to be killed on Wednesday by lethal injection. Serious doubts persist about the identity of the victim, and IPF believes a new round of DNA testing is likely to answer these important questions.

“We still harbor grave concerns about the legitimacy of Mr. Tompkins’ guilty verdict,” said Miller in his letter. “We feel strongly that more time is necessary to look into this case.”

Mr. Tompkins was found guilty of murdering Lisa DeCarr in 1983. The evidence against him was circumstantial and consisted of three witnesses, including one jailhouse snitch. The nature of this case is also uncommon because the identity of the victim herself is also in doubt.

The victim’s alleged identity was supported at trial by a comparison with dental records which Miller says was “wholly unpersuasive.” Since then, several individuals have signed affidavits claiming to have seen her alive since the murder.

“Because the dead body’s identity is an issue, [late last year] you ordered DNA testing on bones from that dead body as well as a robe and sash found with the dead body,” Miller wrote to Crist. “We presume you did so in order to remove any remaining questions about whether the State of Florida was about to execute an innocent man.” That round of testing came back inconclusive, says Miller. But he adds that, “the facts of the case have not changed. The uncertainty surrounding the identity of the alleged victim that led to the last round of DNA testing still exists. There should be clarity about the identity of the alleged victim before we execute a potentially innocent man. That clarity is obtainable in Mr. Tompkins’ case.”

IPF believes that a new round of DNA testing, involving  methods that have not yet been tried in this case, would likely yield results.

Miller pledged to work with Governor Crist to “answer these remaining questions and finally obtain closure in this case,” urging patience in order to avoid executing a potentially innocent man on Wednesday.

The Innocence Project of Florida is a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to finding and freeing innocent people in Florida prisons. IPF consulted on the DNA issues in the case of Wayne Tompkins.

Gov. Charlie Crist scheduled the execution of Wayne Tompkins at 6 p.m. on Feb. 11 at Florida State Prison near Starke. Attorney General Bill McCollum certified to Crist on Monday that all stays had been lifted and the governor is required to set a new execution date within 10 days.   

Martin McClain, an attorney representing Tompkins, said the scheduling is very upsetting, because Tompkins is innocent.