Episcopal Priest Joseph Shippen, Board Chair for Georgians For Alternatives to the Death Penalty (GFAPD), will host the Mary Ruth Weir Dinner, GFADP’s annual fundraiser, at Central Presbyterian Church.

“Working to end the death penalty is not easy and there are not always successes we can easily point to. It is good to get toget

her once a year to celebrate the many legislative and legal victories that are in fact there and the lawyers, activists, and other heroic people who are making them happen,” said Shippen.

This year’s Martina Correia Courage Award recipient and guest speaker is Dave Atwood. Mr. Atwood is the founder and first President of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (TCADP).  He is also the Past-President of the Houston Peace and Justice Center and a former board member of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. Currently he is Director of the Texas Catholic Campaign to End the Death Penalty (TCCEDP) and has developed the Beloved Community Project. He is the author of Detour to Death Row, a memoir of his decision to leave his engineering job to devote himself full-time to anti death-penalty and justice work.

Individuals and parishes can buy tickets for $25 each, or you can contribute by purchasing a ticket for someone else who cannot afford a ticket but who would like to come to the event. (If you do that, just please let Joseph know by emailing him at jshippen@gmail.com, so he can give your ticket to someone else.)

The Mary Ruth Weir Dinner is one of the primary ways that GFADP raises the resources needed to work for the elimination of the death penalty in favor of policies that will make Georgia a more just state.

For more information,click here.

If you would simply like to help as an individual or as a parish by joining and contributing to GFADP, you can do that at: gfadp.org/take-action.

GPADP is building their membership in order to build their power as an effective statewide organization. The church is a crucial component of this movement because it is a group of people who understand that the death penalty is unjust and immoral.