P R E S S   R E L E A S E
from
F L O R I D I A N S   FOR   A L T E R N A T I V E S
                    TO THE DEATH PENALTY   (FADP)

12 October 2004

CONTACT: Abe Bonowitz: 561-371-5204 (Cell phone)


ACTIVIST TO RECEIVE NATIONAL RECOGNITION

Gainesville based Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty director 
Abraham J. Bonowitz will be honored on October 16, 2004 with the "Death 
Penalty Abolitionist of the Year" award by the National Coalition to 
Abolish the Death Penalty (NCADP).  The award, to be presented at the 
NCADP's annual conference in Washington, DC, recognizes Bonowitz's more 
than seventeen years of activism for human rights, peace and justice - most 
notably for his work to educate the public about why the death penalty is a 
bad public policy and should be abolished.

In a letter to Bonowitz, NCADP executive director Diann Rust-Tierney wrote, 
"We [...] are appreciative of your relentless, around-the-clock advocacy on 
behalf of a vision and a future that does not include capital 
punishment.  Your travels throughout the country have focused public 
attention on the issue, and you have contributed significantly to the 
movement through your ability to articulate, without compromise, the 
abolitionist message."

While working as a photographer for AT&T Bell Laboratories in Columbus, 
Ohio in 1987, Bonowitz attended the noon-hour presentation of a refugee 
from Cambodia that was sponsored by an employee group.  It was there that 
Bonowitz learned about the worldwide human rights organization, Amnesty 
International.

"I joined Amnesty because I liked the idea of working to stop torture and 
freeing people who were imprisoned in different countries because of their 
religion or their skin color or other aspects of their identity or 
beliefs," said Bonowitz.  "I hadn't read the fine print when I joined 
Amnesty, so I was surprised when I went to a meeting of the OSU Amnesty 
group and they were talking about the death penalty.  I argued with the 
anti-death penalty people and I tried to prove them wrong.  I said 'an eye 
for an eye.'"

It was only after arguing FOR the death penalty for almost a year that 
Bonowitz was convinced that it was he who was wrong and changed his 
mind.  "It was the issue of fairness that changed my mind," said 
Bonowitz.  "When I learned that money, race, geography and politics make 
more of a difference than the severity of the crime when it comes to 
deciding which killers get a death sentence, I had to change my mind.  When 
I began to work more closely with murder victim family members and death 
row family members, I came to understand the collateral damage of the death 
penalty, and that is what changed my heart."

Since that time Bonowitz has become one of the leading anti-death penalty 
activists in the United States.  An adherent to principles of nonviolence 
espoused by Ghandi, King & Chavez, he has been arrested seven times for 
protesting the death penalty, including twice at the U.S. Supreme 
Court.  In fact, "United States vs. Bonowitz" is the prevailing law 
governing freedom of speech on the grounds of the US Supreme Court.

Bonowitz has worked in the death penalty section of the Ohio Public 
Defender Commission, served on the board of directors of the US section of 
Amnesty International, served as the interim executive director of the 
Cesar E. Chavez Foundation after several years on its staff, and helped 
start and/or lead a number of anti-death penalty organizations.  Currently 
Bonowitz is the executive director of the Florida-based Citizens United for 
Alternatives to the Death Penalty (CUADP) and its subsidiary, Floridians 
for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (FADP).  He also serves on the board 
of directors of the group "Journey of Hope ...From Violence to Healing," an 
organization led by murder victim's family members opposed to the death 
penalty, and he works closely with Sam Reese Sheppard whenever Sheppard 
engages in public action, and he manages Sheppard's web pages at 
http://www.samreesesheppard.org.

When he and Governor (his African Lion Hound mix) are not on the road 
educating and agitating for abolition, Bonowitz and his puppy dodge 
hurricanes in Gainesville, Florida.

Further information is available at http://www.cuadp.org/abe_bio.html and 
http://www.ncadp.org/press_release_10_05_2004.html.

***********




SENT BY:

Abraham J. Bonowitz
Director

           Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (FADP)

           800-973-6548    http://www.fadp.org    <fadp@fadp.org>
                 PMB 335, 2603 DR. Martin Luther King Jr. Hwy
	                      Gainesville, FL  32609

Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty works for restorative
justice in the form of effective alternatives to the death penalty.  It
does so by
     # supporting and coordinating the work of organizations and individuals
     # educating and energizing the general public and state legislators
     # supporting the many persons affected by capital crime and punishment
     # advocating specific legislative improvements