Campaign to End the Death Penalty

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The Campaign to End the Death Penalty (CEDP) is an anti-death penalty organization in the United States, built on the philosophy that death row inmates and their family members must be at the center of fighting to abolish the death penalty.

[edit] Overview

It gained prominence recently with its activity attempting to save Stan "Tookie" Williams, who was executed in California on December 13, 2005, after being denied clemency by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Previously, the CEDP was heavily involved in defending Kevin Cooper, a California inmate who was granted a new trial on the day he was scheduled to be executed, as well as Chicago's Death Row 10, death row inmates who the CEDP claims were sentenced on the basis of confessions extracted by police torture. Four of the Death Row 10 were pardoned in 2002 by then-Illinois Republican Governor George Ryan, who also emptied the state's death row in a mass commutation of sentences.

CEDP publishes a newsletter, The New Abolitionist.