In our focus on the high profile cases, we do often admit to forgetting the unrepresented, the inmate often without the means, the family or company to be able to even send a letter...Hello, here is a simple suggestion for some other states to follow...or perhaps each one could find one to support? (However, never assume this will be easy to sustain nor uncomplicated. May we recommend prayer, mindfulness and practical wisdom for any commitment or relationship. This can be rewarding yet is often difficult for many reasons. Working with such a group as this may be one way to circumvent loneliness in such an endeavor to be of some comfort and help to the most powerless among us.)
Unrepresented Death Row Prisoner Project (UDRPP)
California provides all people sentenced to death in the state with an automatic appeal to ensure against the execution of possible innocents or otherwise less culpable defendants due to errors at the trial level.
Because death sentences have been handed down more quickly than attorneys can be appointed, it currently takes between four and six years for most death row prisoners to have appellate counsel appointed.
The purpose of the UDRPP is to provide indigent prisoners on California’s death row with access to items such as postage stamps, paper, and toiletries during this long period of waiting.
Volunteers assemble packages of donated stamps and holiday cards to send to unrepresented death row prisoners to facilitate communication with their family and friends.
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(In California, there is also a Clergy Mobilization Project. See the link Lower Right for Death Penalty Focus (Visionary of this group: Mike Farrell, formerly star of the classic Vietnam dark Comedy, "Mash")
Perhaps your state has a unique Death Row project, seed idea or challenge you'd like to share?
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