National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty

Our goal is to abolish the death penalty in the United States and to support efforts to abolish it worldwide.

The more people hear about the death penalty, the less they like it. NCADP seeks to influence the public discourse and direct attention to the abuses and flaws inherent in the use of the death penalty. Recent botched executions have made national news and turned more and more citizens against the process. Through broad-scale social media outreach and publicity efforts, NCADP aims to make contact with as many new supporters as possible to motivate them to lend their voice to the abolition cause. Time and experience have taught us that once people learn about the problems surrounding the death penalty, they are likely to take action against it even without further prompting.

NCADP has over 100 state-level affiliate organizations, to whom we provide communications advice, strategy coordination, and financial planning assistance. This network allows NCADP to exert influence wherever important cases arise, all across the U.S.

NCADP has also formed a grand coalition with 15 national organizations (including NAACP and Amnesty International) to magnify the volume of our advocacy efforts. This unity coalition cuts across religious and political lines, demonstrating that opposition to the death penalty is both broad and deep within our society.

NCADP relies on both foundational support and thousands of individual donors, all of whom make up crucial parts of our network. Our supporters are active members of the cause, who loudly speak out about their concerns with the death penalty and assist us in spreading the abolition message.

NCADP's signature accomplishment is the 90 Million Strong Campaign, begun in January 2014 and ongoing. Through this initiative, over 10,000 new supporters voiced their support for our cause during 2014. Through the Campaign we also convened our grand coalition of 15 national partner organizations in December 2014, magnifying the scope and reach of our advocacy.

NCADP has had great success in publicizing the recent string of botched executions through social media. These controversial executions have fostered great debate and interest in this issue among the general public. We have seen greater involvement from first-time supporters in the past year, and our state affiliates report the same.

In recent months, several states have either abolished the death penalty or are actively considering doing so. Connecticut (2012) and Maryland (2013) are the most recent states to become death penalty-free, and abolition bills are currently under debate in Kansas and Pennsylvania.

One area in which we have not yet seen great success is in securing stays of execution and clemency in key states such as Texas, Florida, Missouri and Oklahoma. These few states together are responsible for a high percentage of the total executions. We are working with our affiliates to create a groundswell of support for abolition, but we have not yet reached the critical tipping point in those states.